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Important unnecessary game features, and PS6 specs?
Also how much for Pokémon? And Killed by Google
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Game Dev: Important Unnecessary Features
Tech: PS6 Tech
Gaming: Pokémon Leaks
Fun: Killed by Google
Game Dev
Unnecessary game features that are actually pretty important

Games have lots of features, systems and mechanics. There's a lot of work that goes into making a fully fledged game.
But there's also some things that are not strictly 100% necessary, however some players will miss them deeply if you don't include them. If you want your game to stand out, which nowadays given how much competition there is is definitely a very important thing, then perhaps you should implement some of these supposedly "unnecessary" features.
There's a great thread on Reddit where lots of people talked about their personally unnecessary but really necessary features, here are some:
Shift Clicking to move items between inventories: This is likely completely unnecessary for casual players, and absolutely necessary to more hardcore players. Lots of games have inventories, and they could certainly benefit from this. Also inventory auto-sort.
Pause and Skip cutscenes: Personally I find this a must have, I'm always scared to press buttons during a cutscene because I never want to skip them but I never know if the game has implemented a pause button or not. Also allow for skipping any intro cinematics/studio videos.
Simultaneous Keyboard and Gamepad input: Allow your player to easily switch between one and the other flawlessly based on the last touched input type. I made sure to add this in my game Dinky Guardians
Moving HUD elements: This is definitely a rare one but for some hardcore players it's a must-have. Lots of MMOs especially have this because those hardcore players that play for thousands of hours really want this.
Pet the dog/cat: Personally I find this a MUST-HAVE! Any game that has cats or dogs (or even cute small alien animals) then it HAS to have a "Pet" action. It might sound silly but there's a giant Twitter account all about this.
Third Person Shooter allow left/right shoulder: This can be a fun addition but even more than that it can be a mechanically useful feature since some games have strange blind spots.
These are great things and if possible you should implement them to make as many players happy as possible. But at the same time they are not free, all of these have a time cost. So it's your job as a developer to figure out which features to prioritize given your main very limited resource, time.
![]() | I always find it funny how players are so different, things that are must-haves for one player are completely useless to another player. If possible you should definitely implement all of these tiny things, but like I mentioned you have limited time so pick and choose which are the must-haves for most players in your game. |
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Tech
PS6 Chipset Project Amethyst

It's crazy to think how it's already been five years since the PS5 has come out, it feels like just yesterday. But since it has been so long it means there's already some chatter on what's coming next, PlayStation published a video with Mark Cerny (lead architect PS5) and Jack Huynh (AMD).
They highlight how the new console will take advantage of machine learning to enhance games rather than pushing for raw power alone. Meaning ML-enabled upscaling, AMD calls it FSR which is their answer to NVIDIA’s DLSS. Using something they are calling Neural Arrays they allow the GPU to share data across compute units, in theory this leads to more efficiency in using bigger ML models. Of course this will also have improved Ray tracing, the new chipset has dedicated Radiance Cores to handle path tracing.
The main limitation to all this tech is memory. 4k textures require a massive amount of data, as does all the other game data. So this new chipset has some better memory compression to help speed up every part of the rendering workflow.
It sounds like impressive tech, but a lot of people don't really notice much difference between PS4 and PS5 games, we have already very much achieved diminishing returns. Will any of this tech help the PS6 stand out?
At the end Mark talks about bringing these technologies "to a future console in a few years time", so 2027?
![]() | I always enjoy when a new console generation is coming out because we get these sorts of interesting looks at the tech behind it. However of course tech is just one part, games are all about experiences so it remains to be seen how games on PS6 will be different. |
Gaming
How much does Pokémon cost?

There's been a massive leak of data from GameFreak, developers behind the Pokémon series. It includes future games, concept art, excel spreadsheets and more. If you love Pokémon and don't want any spoilers then don't check the links. Although a lot of the links have been removed already. Here are supposedly all the titles coming until 2030.
One of the more interesting parts of the leak is the budget for how much Pokémon games cost to make. Game budgets are usually very secretive and there's barely any public data, it is only known through either leaks like these or court documents.
According to the leak these are the costs:
Pokémon Sword and Shield: 2.498 billion yen ($16.4 million)
Pokémon Legends: Arceus: 2.175 billion yen ($14.4 million)
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: 3.298 billion yen ($21.8 million)
Which honestly sounds insanely low! Major AAA games usually cost close to $100 Million, and games like GTA6 supposedly go up to almost $1 Billion (including marketing). But I guess this is why the visuals for Pokémon games are usually very sub-par.
Clearly they know there is a massive amount of people who will buy every Pokémon game and there's no need to spend millions making it look gorgeous. Just make it decent and it will be extremely profitable.
![]() | I was very surprised to see these amounts. Honestly it makes me relate to the Pokémon developers heh. I'm a huge fan of keeping your costs as low as possible in order to lower risk and to increase your odds of making profitable games. That's why I'm a huge fan of Make Small Games, since they allow you to keep costs low which improves your odds of making a living from your games. Chris recommends the same thing. |
Fun
Killed By Google

It's been a few years since I've seen this website, Killed by Google, and since then it has increased quite a bit!
This is a fun library of all the various things that Google started and then killed, there's hundreds of them. Personally I hated when they killed Google Reader, then I swapped to Feedly. And it sucked when they killed Google Finance, I swapped to Yahoo Finance.
There are two ways to look at this, one how it sucks that apparently they kill lots of stuff, but there's also the more positive look which is how they start lots of ideas without fear of later on killing them.
This is actually something you yourself should apply to your own games. You should build lots of prototypes and try lots of ideas, but don't be afraid to kill an idea if it's just not working out. That's better than sinking more time and effort into something that likely won't work in the end.
![]() | I would love to see this website for other companies. How many things has Microsoft killed? What about Apple? |

This Game is Perfection, Please Don't Buy It
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnSpTyRuapk
I haven't played the game, but I love the design explanation in this video
The Power of Font In Video Games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIvLywqLCW0
Choosing a Font is a choice you have to make, and it can make your game better or worse
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Thanks for reading!
Code Monkey
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