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- What if your game was a MEGA HIT? Next Fest is crowded and Xbox handheld incoming?
What if your game was a MEGA HIT? Next Fest is crowded and Xbox handheld incoming?
Also Rasperry Pi going public and lots of games to play!
Code Monkey
June 17, 2024
Hello and Welcome, I’m your Code Monkey!
I hope you’re having a great June, it’s nice and sunny here!
Today’s story about Outersloth is really awesome, it’s definitely something I would love to do if one day I find such massive success.
Game Dev: Next Fest crowded, Outersloth, Xbox handheld
Tech: Raspberry Pi IPO
Gaming: not-E3
Fun: Wrong Axis
Game Dev
Steam Next Fest is more crowded
It's the nature of the world, when an opportunity appears it slowly becomes harder and harder as more people learn about it.
Next Fest used to be the best way to get thousands of wishlists, and while it is still great nowadays (you should definitely participate) it is also more and more a case of winner takes all. More and more games are joining every Next Fest and the big ones are getting more and more of all the visibility.
Nowadays if you get to the top you can get 100k+ wishlists, but if you're on the bottom 90% you probably only get a couple hundred.
Kyle Banks (developer of the upcoming Farewell North) posted some interesting stats. He was able to participate in a Next Fest in 2022 and another one now in 2024 and it clearly shows a huge difference in results.
 | I still think you should participate, it will help you but it is definitely harder than before. My advice is start doing some serious marketing work on the week before Next Fest so your wishlist amount and wishlist velocity increases which will help you get more visibility during Next Fest. Also if you're interested in learning about marketing, watch my video and stay tuned for some videos this week that I'm doing in collaboration with a Steam Marketing Expert. |
Game Dev
Indies funding indies!
What do you do if your game is a MASSIVE MEGA HIT? Well, if you're Innersloth (makers of Among Us) you start a publisher to give back to the community by funding interesting games!
Since they are indies themselves they have a very indie friendly publishing agreement. They take no IP, no ownership in your company or anything. They give you money and you make interesting games, simple.
Alongside the announcement they mention many games they have already signed. Mars First Logistics, a physics simulation game about shipping oddly shaped cargo; One Btn Bosses, rythm boss fight game; Battle Suit Aces which is a mecha card-battling RPG, and 6 more projects.
Also turning to game publishing is Ludwig with Offbrand Games. It's being directed by Thor (Pirate Software) which you may recognize from his shorts that get millions of views (and his excellent voice)
Another content creator turned publisher is Dunkey with BIGMODE which seems to have found quite a lot of success with their first published game Animal Well.
| I think this is an awesome move by the Among Us team. They could have used the millions of dollars they got and just bought Yachts and Private Jets but instead they are funding interesting indie games. If one day I ever find massive success I would love to do something like this as well. |
Game Dev
Microsoft CEO: "We should have a handheld"
Phil Spencer was recently talking to IGN Live where he said "I think we should have a handheld".
There have been rumors of some kind of Xbox handheld for a while now, no official announcement, but this comment certainly confirms they at least are doing some research around that area. He specifically mentioned "work the team is doing around different form factors".
The Switch is the most successful console of this generation, and the Steam Deck has also been extremely successful. However, Sony, who used to be in the handheld business, quit due to low sales on the PS Vita. Can Xbox do what PlayStation couldn't?
| I think handhelds are fun. I'm always at home or on my laptop so I don't necessarily have much use for gaming on the go, but still I like handhelds, it reminds me of being a kid playing on my GameBoy Color. There's something special about them, last year I released Dinky Guardians and this was the first game I made playable on a handheld (Steam Deck). Playing my own game like that felt like a truly magical experience, despite the fact that it was my 9th Steam game. |
Tech
Raspberry Pi is BIG BUSINESS!
The awesome mini-computer known as the Raspberry Pi recently did an IPO and is now listed on the London Stock Exchange with a valuation of nearly $700 million.
When it first came out in 2012 it was pretty revolutionary. You could buy a fully working computer for just $30, and beyond just being a working computer it also had exposed pins which enabled it to make some really awesome electronics projects. Later on they even launched the Pi Zero which was another fully working computer with GPIO for just $5.
Since then it has sold over 60 million units of all the various versions. The latest, Raspberry Pi 5, has a quad-core 2.4GHz CPU, GPU, Wi-Fi, BLE, USB 3.0 and tons more awesome specs, all for just $80.
| I love electronics and it's an area I wish I could explore more, I've got tons of Raspberry Pis and Arduinos lying around just waiting for me to find some time to do some cool projects. I haven't kept up with that area in some time so I was amazed to see how much the Pi has grown since the early days. |
Gaming
Games, games, games!
The week of not-E3 has just ended with a mountain of games announced and shown.
Steam made a bunch of dedicated pages for some events, great way to quickly see many of the games announced (and add them to your wishlist!)
There is an insane amount of variety, so regardless of what is your favorite genre I'm sure you'll find something awesome just for you.
Steam Next Fest is also currently ongoing if you want games to play right now. It technically ends tomorrow but most devs will likely keep their demos up for a while longer.
| I'm really sad that E3 died, as a kid I always dreamed of one day going when I could finally afford it, sadly now I'll never get the chance. But not-E3 has also been awesome, so many awesome games to play! Personally I'm looking forward to Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, Space Marine 2, Mars Tactics, Tactical Breach Wizards, No More Room in Hell 2, and Assassin's Creed: Shadows which has the Japan setting that I've wanted for ages. |
Fun
No! Not that axis!
Here's a fun Twitter thread on a mistake that I'm sure everyone has experienced, rotating something on the wrong axis.
Whether it be trains doing flips, wheels going side to side, or combined with scaling for an interesting squish.
| I know I've done this many times, I always have to stop and think for a bit, use my fingers to remember which rotation is which. |
Game Design Documents - A Comprehensive Guide
Possibly the best video on GDDs I've ever seen, excellent super detailed guide!
Why Even Learn Things Anymore?
Interesting question, with all the knowledge at your fingertips why would you learn anything? Personally I love learning so I will continue learning until the day I die.
Why it's a Good Deal to pay $550k to Get a Trailer Into Summer Game Fest
The price for Summer Game Fest trailers was leaked, most people's reaction was "that's so much money!" but my reaction was "that sounds cheap", Derek Lieu (who is a legendary trailer maker) explains why that is.
Get Rewards by Sending the Game Dev Report to a friend!
Thanks for reading!
Code Monkey
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