How Steam works and Microsoft knows what you did

Also Cinemachine 3.0, Hellblade 2, and can you guess the game from the box art?

Author

Code Monkey
May 26, 2024

Hello and Welcome, I’m your Code Monkey!

Here’s the FIRST Game Dev Report newsletter! I hope you find it very useful in helping you stay up to date with everything going on in this industry in a quick and easy way.

  • Game Dev: Steam Algorithm Explained; Cinemachine 3.0

  • Tech: Microsoft Recall

  • Gaming: Hellblade II

  • Fun: Guess Boxart

Game Dev

Your burning Steam Questions Answered

Steam has published an EXCELLENT blog post containing a mountain of information for how the algorithm works. If you want to find success on Steam you NEED to read through this whole page.

They answer questions on visibility, what is the right way to market, how refunds impact the algorithm, how Next Fests and Theme Fests work, etc.

There's a mountain of information both in text and several videos. Steam is usually the most important platform for indie developers so it is crucial you know the best practices to help you increase your odds of finding success with your games.

I've seen one of these videos before, I made my own video sharing my thoughts on top of what they said about how the algorithm works, but I hadn't seen the other ones, really useful information.

Always keep in mind what exactly is your goal with your games. If your goal is just making games for fun then you don't necessarily need to learn all of this. But if your goal is some level of financial success (or getting tons of people to play your games) then it is crucial you know how the platform works.

Also watch my video on general marketing tips and several tips for how to make the best of a Steam festival.

Game Dev

Cinemachine 3.0

Unity has made a pretty massive overhaul to their Cinemachine package. This is a super useful package to handle anything related to cameras, it's what I use all the time.

Version 3.0 is essentially a completely new system rebuilt from scratch, there are a lot of changes and many things have been completely rewritten. There is a Cinemachine Upgrader tool although it's a complex process so they also recommend you ask yourself if you really need to upgrade or not. If you're in the middle of a project it might be better to just stick with the 2.0 version.

I knew Cinemachine 3 was coming but I didn't know it was fully out already. I've been doing research on my upcoming Unity DOTS course where I'm using Unity 6 and when I installed the Cinemachine package it installed version 3 instead of 2.

I haven't yet used it myself, I just read the upgrade guide in the documentation, and it does look pretty straightforward. The main difference is how components now work like regular components instead of special Cinemachine components. This is probably a good thing since I had to make a tutorial on specifically Cinemachine components.

Tech

Microsoft wants to know what you did...

Microsoft has unveiled yet more stuff under their "Copilot" brand, this time it's Copilot+ PCs.

Naturally the selling point is all about "AI", and in this case these PCs have a CPU and GPU but also a NPU (Neural Processing Unit) which is a chip focused entirely on AI processing.

They mention how the NPU is used to boost AI features in many programs like Photoshop, Davinci Resolve, and even Paint. The PCs themselves have a dedicated Copilot AI physical key that opens a window where you can chat with AI.

Launching on June 18th starting at $999 from Microsoft and other OEMs.

These Copilot+ PCs also come with Recall. This gives your PC photographic memory where it records everything you do all the time and then allows you to search those memories for anything you have done or seen previously. In theory this helps you remember things you might have forgotten, but at a huge privacy cost.

I think this feature actually has some interesting potential, there are many times when at the end of the day I look at my to-do list and I can't remember exactly everything I did that day.

But this is also a privacy nightmare. First you have to trust Microsoft to not do anything nefarious. Technically it's all local but in theory that could all change with a quick Windows update.

And secondly, even if it is completely local you might not want your PC to have that kind of memory. Let's say you are using private browsing while shopping for gifts for your wife, you might not want that to be recorded, just like your browser history.

I don't think I've seen a single positive reaction to this Recall tool, the potential negatives grossly outweigh the potential positives, so I wonder if they will release or cancel it.

Gaming

Hellblade II is out!

One of the most awaited games of the past few years, Hellblade II, is out! It was originally announced all the way back in December 2019 at The Game Awards.

This is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice which featured excellent visuals and an interesting depiction of psychosis in a videogame.

Critic reception to the sequel seems pretty positive with a score of 81 at Open Critic. The consensus is if you liked the original you will probably like this one.

In terms of gameplay it is very much the same. Lots of walking, listening to a story and observing some gorgeous environment and facial capture tech while doing some simple combat and puzzles.

If you have Game Pass then definitely give it a try, it's pretty short and a unique experience.

Personally I prefer games more focused on gameplay than visuals/experiences, so I didn't necessarily love the original as much as many people but I did think was an interesting game that tried new things, which I can appreciate.

As a developer I am amazed at the tech behind it, the visuals are absolutely excellent and the facial capture tech is near perfect!

Fun

Guess the Game from the box art!

Here's a fun game, how well do you know game box art?

It picks a game at semi-random and shows only part of the box art, you have a few tries to guess what game it is.

There's a bunch of customization options like from only year 2000 onwards or no Sports titles. And it has separate modes with multiple ways to play. Give it a try!

My max streak is 24!

I think it's an ingenious game idea, really fun and simple while also quite addicting. First time I found the website I played non-stop for 30 minutes before I remembered I needed to get back to work.

This also makes me want to learn more about Web dev in general, there's lots of fun stuff you can make with just a simple website.

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Thanks for reading!

Code Monkey

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