No doubt about it, Unreal Engine is probably the world's most popula?r video game development toolkits. It's also free to use, with Epic Games taking a cut whenever games earn above a certain threshold. However, if you're a non-game company, you will need to pay for the software soon enough.

In a recent news post over on the Unreal Engine website,? a new pricing scheme is being introduced with the release of version 5.4 in April. This will only affect those who are working on non-gaming projects, but there are at least a few additional criteria to go with that.

The post goes on to s?ay that non-game outfits will need to pay a "seat based" fee on an annual basis,? but only if they meet the following:

• You are a company that generates over $1 million in annual gross revenue
• You do not create games
• And you do not create applications licensed to third-party end users and rely on Unreal Engine code at runtime

Fear not, video game studios

The price "per seat" will be $1,850 and �just to reiterate �is only intended for companies that are using Unreal for something that's not a game. Examples given include linear content for film and TV, "?immersive experiences" that aren't sold to the public, such as theme park rides, and products that "incorporate Unreal Engine code at runtime and are not licensed to third parties."

However, if you're a games company, the new pricing structure will not affect ??you. In the past, Epic Games has charged a 5% fee for any titles powered by UE that earn over $1 million in "lifetime gross revenue". T?his is not being changed.

Unreal Engine will also continue to be free for "students, educators, hobbyists, and companies generating less than $1 million in annual gross revenue." Are you hearing this, Unity?

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Oh, it's been a trying time for developers, especially those who've been hurt by Unity's recent new controversial fees. As a result, many have been hightailing it outta there, look??ing for alternatives. In the midst of all this, one company has decided to engage in so??me savvy business acumen.

GameMaker has decided to go in the opposite direction and make itself free. A recent post on the company's website is celebrating Thanksgiving by offering a free-to-use license for non-commercial purposes. On top of thi?s, there's also a new "one-time fee" for a commercial license, replacing its Creator/Indie subscriptions, while Enterprise remains the same.

While it can't be assumed that this is in direct response to Unity's "Runtime Fee," GameMaker head Russell Kay says the team has seen "other platforms making awkward moves with their pricing and terms," so saw fit to go in the other direction. Mum's the word??, Kay. Mum's the word.

If you haven't heard of it, you soon will

Offering support for all kinds of platforms, including Android, iOS, Amazon TV, Raspberry ??Pi, as well as Windows and modern consoles, GameMaker is ??one more alternative for developers to use.

If you've ever played Hotline Miami or Undertale (or both), then you've played a GameMaker title before. And with free u??sage for non-commercial endeavors being offered, there's probably going to be a few more people eager to jump ship.

As for what's going on with Unity at the moment, alongside the carnage it's created, the company may also be laying off staff. You know, that thing that's been a plague on the industry this year and is almost certainly going to make people dislike Unity even ?more? Yeah, that thing.

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Possibly next-gen?

We're already painfully aware that Bethesda is taking its sweet time with The Elder Scrolls 6. However, there may be longer to wait still, as even the Head of Xbox Gaming, Phil Spencer, admits he doesn't even know what platform it's going to be on. There may be a few more years to go until the anticipate??d sequel ever sees the light of day.

And exactly how long are we talking? Well, according to journalist Stephen Totilo, (reporting on the Microsoft/Activision court case), Spencer npted that Elder Scrolls 6 could be "five-plus years away." If true, this would put the elusive Skyrim follow-up on track for a 2028 release at the earliest. As such, it could mean that the long-awaited Bethesda RPG is actually on deck for gaming's next generation.

//twitter.??com/stephentotilo/status/16723145489953669?35

According to a recent report from The Verge, Spencer did say in a 2021 interview that it will be exclusive to Xbox, though it doesn't necessarily mean it will be this generation's Xbox. When questioned about this today, the executive doesn't recall ever making such a statement. And so, it stands, we're not really any closer to understanding what's happening with the next Elder Scrolls installment. A couple of years ago, Todd ??Howard said the game was still in early? development.

All we can really hope is that once Starfield is released this September, ??then Bethesda will be w?illing to spill a few more beans. We can assume that, for now, the studio is just keeping its cards close to its chest.

The post The Elder Scrolls 6 could still be ‘five-plus’ years away appeared first on Destructoid.

Blizzard is happy with where the game is

Overwatch 2's launch has been nothing short of tumultuous, which game-breaking bugs and supposed DDoS attacks abound. There's still a lot left to b??e cleaned up, and while Blizzard has been clear that they're working to improve the game and fix the bugs as fast as they can, the company has made it clear that they won't be tweaking character stats or abilities for a couple of months.

A blog post from Blizzard's website (via Eurogamer) let players in on how the devs are feeling about the current state of the game -- when it comes to hero balancing, "[they] have been happy to see that no hero’s overall power level is far out of line with [their] goals." The post goes on to say that the team is planning rebalancing changes for Overwatch 2's upcoming Season Two (with the ?exception of some changes made to Zarya for the Total Mayhem mode that will be dropping on October 25). The only thing is, though, that's not coming until D??ecember of this year, so we'll have a while to wait.

According to Blizzard, all of the heroes are currently in a good spot, with every character on the roster currently sitting with ??a win rate that falls between 45% and 55%. We don't know for sure all of the heroes that are going to get changes come Season Two, but they'll be "keeping a close eye on" heroes like Genji, Sombra, Symmetra, and Torbjorn for now.

Having played Overwatch 2 consistently since it dropped, I kind of wish Blizzard was planning to implement some rebalancing changes sooner. Due to the nature of how the heroes work in the first place, Overwatch is one of those games where one character or another is super overpowered. Reaper and Sigma, for example, are two characters that I feel are pretty OP right now, but they were barely mentioned in the blog post. Here's hoping Blizzard gets it all sorted out in the coming months, because despite myself (and the free-to-play cash-grabiness of it all), I'm actually having a lot of fun playing Overwatch again.

The post Blizzard isn’t rebalancing Overwatch 2 until December appeared first on Destructoid.

It's a waiting game

Anyone who's been into games for more than like a day knows how long the wait can be for our favorite titles to release. Game delays are a dime a dozen these days, but for some fans, the wait is so long, you start to wonder if you'll ever get to see the Promised Land. While the development cycle can be anywhere from a year or two to six or seven years at most, there are some games out there that we've been waiting much, much longer for. One of those games is Beyond Good & Evil 2, a long-awaited sequel to Ubisoft's beloved classic. It's been so long since the game was initially teased at Ubidays 2008, in fact, that the title is considered the longest-awaited AAA game of all time.

The previous record-holder in this regard was Duke Nukem Forever �players had to wait over 14 years from its announcement in 1997 to its release in 2011 (or 5,156 days, to be exact). We've now been waiting 5,236 days for Beyond Good & Evil 2 as of the writing of this post, an??d it doesn't look like we'll be getting any updates any time soon.

Ubisoft did release a full trailer for the game at E3 back in 2017 that looked pretty good, but I guess it would have been a pretty bad omen if it didn't considering they had supposedly been?? working on it for nine years at that point.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsoIUHDrPcg

Some Reddit users have pointed out that we wait so long for some games that they become something of an urban legend. Beyond Good & Evil 2 certainly fits the bill there, along with Half-Life 3 and whatever project Ken Levine is supp??osedly working on.

Part of me wants to respect whatever difficulties are likely going on behind the scenes to draw development out this much, but another part of me is so beyond curious to hear about any development drama. Oh well, if it's anything interesting, Jason Schreier will prob??ably write a book about it eventually.

The post Beyond Good & Evil 2 is now the most delayed AAA game of all time appeared first on Destructoid.

The studio has big fixes incoming for Modern Warfare II

Getting to play a game's beta before its release is definitely exciting, but it's not without its downsides �because said game isn't out yet, it can come with a whole slew of bugs that still need working out, which can range from minor inconveniences to game-breaking issues. While the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II beta was a blast to play, of course, a few problems have stood out to players more than others. Specifically, players complained about im??balanced footsteps audio, as well as issues with enemy visibility.

No need to fret, though, because Infinity Ward has announced that they're already on the case to fix these bugs, and more, before Modern Warfare II's full launch. "While sentiment around footstep audio was more positive in Beta Weekend Two, we have seen your continued feedback on the volume of footsteps and will continue to balance enemy/friendly footstep audio ahead of launch," the studio said in a press release addressed to players.

"Enemy visibility is something that came up throughout both weekends of our Beta. While many of you remarked on the improv??ement in Weekend Two, we’ll look to tweak increased enemy visibility to allow for better visual tracking of opponents that is not solely the traditional nameplate."

//tw??itter.com/InfinityWard/status/15734?96739645911040

Players were also having difficulty with their lobbies disbanding, and that's yet another detail that Infinity Ward has promised to iron out. Other improvements include continued weapon tuning, tweaks to the camera in the new third-person mode, and fixes to the AI navig??ation in Invasion mode.

Even with all the bugs, Modern Warfare II so far captures the feeling of some of the best the franchise has to offer, and I am absolutely stoked to play more of it. If anyone needs me, I'll be playing the Shiphaus 24/7 playlist in Vanguard until full release next month.

The post Infinity Ward says fixes for Modern Warfare II are coming in wake of the open bet?a appeared first on Destructoid.

Developers aren't hiding things from you, I promise

In the wake of the GTA VI leaks last week, a lot of people online made it very clear that they don’t know anything about how video games are?? made and embarrassed themselv??es online. One particularly egregious comment stated that visuals are the first thing finished in game development �which is just laughably false. Look, I’m as ?privy to making false assumptions as the next person, but "fans" going out of their way to harass game developers because they refuse to use Google’s most basic functionality is no one’s fault but their own.

I don’t mean to be harsh, and it is true that game development ca?n be exclusive and gate-keepy �especially to those of marginalized back??grounds. But when it comes to situations where player expectations clash with the reality of what it’s like to make games, players often seem to revert to the argument that game developers are too secretive about what goes on behind the scenes.

There’s an endless list of reasons why leaks suck, but players seeing early footage of a highly anticipated title before the devs are ready to show something is up there. It’s like having someone walk in on you while you’re changing. That's why all these takes about the game looking "unfinished" are so mindbogglingly silly �it literally is unfinished.

Then there’s the issue with social media making everyone feel like an expert, and feel like they need to share their unwarranted opinions �which is something none of us are immune to. Seeking out game?? devs online with some entitled crybaby comments about something they know absolutely nothing about, though, is when gamers really cross the line.

Just like how working in food service or retail helps you have a lot more empathy for the people working in toug??h situations, educating ourselves about how games are actually made can help players u?nderstand what's really going on and will save everyone a headache in the long run.

What's with the secrecy?

I will say that larger studios working on high?ly anticipated projects can be particularly withholding �not only is the content of their games confidential, but a lot of proprietary tools like engines or assets are trade secrets they don’t want anyone passing around. If your whole brand is built on prestige, you don’t want anyone seeing broken builds of your game, you know? However, once a game comes out, a lot of stuff becomes fair game in a retrospective “this is how we made our masterpiece�kind of way.

But what really gets my goat is that while gamers are whining about cults of devs deliberately hiding secrets from them, there have been a wealth of resources?? detailing every aspect of how development works right under their noses �and none of it is all that hard to find.

//twitter.com/bacon_sanwic??????????????????????????h/status/1572329874915721219

Let’s start with the fact that a lot of developers took to Twitter in response to the leaks (and the reaction to the leaks) to assure the belligerent players that having incomplete visuals is indeed the hallmark of a game that they are still working on. While this kind of thing is less common with larger studios because of all the corporate bureaucracy, indie devs do that shit for fun all the time.

If you join any kind of indie game community, whether it’s on Twitter, Reddit, Discord, Tumblr, and so on, small devs and teams are constantly releasing up-to-date footage of how they’re progressing through making their games. This includes anything from art and animation, lighting, implementi??ng new gameplay features, and more.

Sharing is caring

Take Squirrel with a Gun, for example �the idea for the ridiculous indie title started as a joke because someone thought it would be funny to give a photorealistic squirrel a gun (it is very funny, by the way). Dan DeEntremont kept developing the idea into a full-blown game, and every step along the way, he showed his followers updates of new features he was adding. When the game is finished and out, the developer’s Twitter feed will serve as a cool kind of time capsule where you can see the progress of the i?dea from inception to full implementation and releas?e.

//twitter.com/QuiteDan/status/1525631771387338757

Then there’s the wealth of talks and presentations given by the developers themselves. There’s a huge industry conference every year in the spring called the Game Developers Conference, or GDC, where devs from all kinds of studios, backgrounds, and even countrie?s come together to talk about how they make games. This isn’t an E3-style thing where they’re putting on a show to entertain prospective players �it’s an industry-centric event for professionals to present their findings in one of the mos??t academic settings you can get with games.

The talks cover every topic under the sun, from in-depth discussions of how a programming team implemented state-of-the-art enemy AI, to lighting artists talking about innovations in their field, to narrative writers presenting possible new frameworks to revolutionize interactive storytelli??ng techniques.

GDC talks are full of the brightest minds in games laying all of their work out on the table for everyone to see, and while the full archive of pretty mu?ch every GDC talk ever given is unfortunately locked behind a hefty paywall (something that I understand, but should be entirely free in my opinion), there are still hundreds of them available for anyone to watch for free on YouTube right now.

If you haven't heard of Noclip Documentaries, those are also an absolute must to watch. Along with games journalists like Jason Schreier, they're doing some of the most important investigative work in the industry right now. They have some of the content we'd expect, like making-of interviews with devs and coverage of fun news, like a player demaking Bloodborne to look like a PS1 game.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-2nNksMBpg

But what they're best known for are some of their more hard-hitting pieces, like a documentary-style investigation as to what happened in Telltale's final hours that led to its closure, or an exposé about abuse at some of Annapurna's smaller indie studios?. Noclip always does amazing research and has interviews with those actually involved in what they're covering -- overall, it's just good journalism.

Full disclosure

Some studios just outright make documentaries about how they make their games. A favorite of mine is Grounded: The Making of The Last of Us, w??hich includes interviews with designers from ??pretty much every discipline who detail how they brought their own passion to make the game what it is.

I’m also a huge fan of the developer commentary Valve added to Portal 2, which allows you to hear stories about the game’s creation while you’re actually playing through the game. Studio MDHR has also released some in-depth footage of their process in making Cuphead, my favorite of wh??ich is a look?? into a recording session for the game’s soundtrack.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6h1vM9W2NM

Think that’s more than enough to get players started? Wrong. We haven’t even touched on the print stuff yet. There are so, so many great books about game development out there. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell is a great read for anyone interested in getting into the fundamentals of game desig??n.

Jason Schreier’s Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories of How Video Games Are Made and Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry are some of the most approachable resources for play?ers to understand?? how game studios actually operate.

Former Naughty Dog developers came together to publish an entire book about how they created the AI for The Last of Us, which goes into a ton of detail �including some scary-looking math. There are books from the creators of classics like Tomb Raider and Doom, and games writers compiled a series of writings about the team that made the SEGA Dreamcast.

There are some awesome podcasts out there that interview developers as well, like Game Maker’s Notebook or Game Dev Advice: The Game Developer’s Podcast â€?GDC even has its own podcast as well. Point i??s, if you’re interested in learning more about how any given ??studio made any given game, there is something on the internet for you.

??//twitter.com/mrsambarlow/status/1572293165201387524

Long story short: do your research and don't harass people

Nothing will compare to actual??ly being at a studio working with other developers, but gamers don’t have a right to complain that studios are keeping them in the dark when it comes to the development process. If a studio isn’t telling us something, it’s usually because they want to make sure all of their ducks are in a row before going public. Making games is so volatile and things change really fast, that if you’re too premature in releasing your in??fo, it can easily backfire. We see this all the time with delays or games that promise more than they can actually deliver.

I understand that waiting for games patiently can be a difficult thing to do, but part of the reality of being in this industry, whether it’s as a professional or a fan, is tempering exp??ectations in an understanding that making games takes a really, really long time, and that developers don’t owe us anything during the development cycle.

I know I’m only yelling at a small, loud min?ority here, but if nothing else, looking through resources like these can be a lot of fun for any hobbyists who are just interested in learning more about what goes into the games we love playing.

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The streaming giant is officially working on its own games

After years of sitting atop the throne of online streaming services, Netflix has been in somewhat of a decline recently, despite the popularity of shows like Stranger Things. Netflix told us a while ago that it was going to be entering the games space, but now it's doubling down �the company just announced that it will be opening its very own internal games studios to create its own projects.

The studio is set to be established in Helsinki, Finland, which "is home to some of the best game talent in the world," and Marko Lastikka will be serving as the studio director. Netflix is building this new studio "from scratch," and will be its second studio in Helinski along with Next Games. Night School Studio and Boss Fight Entertainment round out the lineup of studios that are now? under the Netflix umbrella.

We can't expect anything to come out in the next year or two, because Netflix is still "building the foundation" of the games studio right now. Looks like w?e're gonna have to con?tinue to be patient to see what Netflix is planning on the interactive front.

This is a huge step for Netflix considering it's a realm that other streaming platforms haven't really tried yet. Amazon has had its fair share of interactive projects, including New World, but they have struggled to get off the ground. After the success of titles like Bandersnatch or the newly-released indie interactive narrative series We Are OFK, there's a precedent of?? fans really ??enjoying media that falls squarely between TV and games.

It's a whole landscape that not many ??have vent??ured into, but I could see it as a whole new way to open up interactive storytelling to audiences who have never tried them before. My dad couldn't get the hang of a Telltale game to save his life, but he could handle something with simple choices no problem. It sounds like Netflix is also gearing its development toward more traditionally interactive games as well, but if anyone is going to fill that gap in the market, it's them.

The post Netflix announces new internal games studio appeared first on Destructoid.

What could have been...

Of all the Marvel heroes, Iron Man has to be one of the most well-loved, thanks to Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of the genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist Tony Stark. There have been a few Iron Man games over the years, including a 2008 release from SEGA in conjunction with the film (and a sequel in 2010), as well as a well-received VR game in 2020. Even with those titles, it still feels like Iron Man needs a big, bombastic game a la Insomniac's Spider-Man. Well, the dream of an open-world Iron Man game almost became reality, according to a MinnMax interview with Christofer Sundberg, founder of Avalanche Studios (who are best known for the Just Cause series).

/??/twitter.com/MinnMaxShow/status/1559927528264966146?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1559927528264966146%7Ctwgr%5E6bdc544bcc18c07e394f3f5d29d6bb34d5f6737f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gamespot.com%2Farticles%2Fopen-world-iron-man-game-was-in-the-works-for-years-at-just-cause-studio%2F1100-6506572%2F

Sundberg left the studio in 2019, but in the interview, he confirmed that Avalanche had been making an open-world Iron Man game for "a couple of years," news of which had circulated as rumors and hadn't been officially confirmed until now. Apparently play??ers would have been able to fly anywhere they wanted on the map, and even punch enemies through walls with Iron? Man's rocket-powered gloves. The game was ultimately cancelled in 2012, and whatever caused the game to fizzle out remains a mystery.

Just Cause's gameplay feels pretty similar to what an open-world Iron Man game might feel like, so in theory, it wasn't a huge leap for Avalanche to make given?? their track record.

In the time since, it feels like Insomniac has taken up the mantle of AAA, single-player superhero games, first with Spider-Man, and now with the highly-anticipated Wolverine. Adding Iron Man to ?that ?list is small potatoes at this point, so there's always the possibility that Avalanche's concept could live on.

It's a sh?ame that projects get scrapped all the time in the games industry, but with an idea this cool, someone has to pick it up... right?

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Whatever's coming from Cardboard Computer, it'll be worth the wait

Kentucky Route Zero is probably in my top five favorite games of all time. The game's whole feel, its subject matter, the process that went into making it �I'm fascinated by the whole thing, which is why I'm so thrilled to get absolutely any news from the development team behind it, otherwise known as Cardboard Computer. While it hasn't been all that long since the release of Kentucky Route Zero's final act back in 2020, the team has been hard at work on their new project, as they showed during the Annapurna Interactive Showcase.

While we have almost no information about what type of game it will be, where it will be set, any story points, etc., we did get a brief look at Cardboard Computer's new workflow, and wh??????????????????????????at little we saw already has me giddy to learn more. Developers Jake Elliot, Tamas Kemenczy, and Ben Babbitt showed off their new animation software, which utilized some kind of face-mapping tech rigged up to a character model.

//youtu.be/UeQYiKQoH_g?t=1312

They stated that this is the first project where they will be focusing more on performance, and while Kentucky Route Zero was a fairly slow, static game, this new project will be more "lively" with fully-animated characters. The story will also be more upbeat this time, they said after reminding themselves that while Kentucky Route Zero had comedic moments, it was ultimately a tragedy. Apparently they started working on the new game right away after Kentucky Route Zero wrapped up, and they've had ?this idea kickin??g around for as long as their debut title.

I'm thrilled to even get an update, and will ??be awaiting any more with bated breath. Although the details are sparse right now, Cardboard Computer is one of those developers that I have faith will deliver something amazing every time.

The post Kentucky Route Zero devs tease ??their mys??terious new project appeared first on Destructoid.

Bruce Straley returns to the game industry with a new studio, Wildflower Interactive

For long-time fans of Naughty Dog, seeing industry vet Bruce Straley step away from game development in 2017 was a pretty devastating loss �he played a huge role in making Uncharted 2, Uncharted 4, and The Last of Us, after all. Now, five years later, Straley has just announced that he will be jumping back into the world of game development by forming his very own studio known as Wildflower Interactive.

"Wildflower starts with everything I created, pushed and learned about gamep??lay, characters and story, and directing teams while at Naughty Dog �but applied to a smaller studio to keep communication easy and creatively fluid," Straley says.

"I’ve surrounded myself with an amazing group �some new faces, some old colleagues �that are pushing our concepts of what kind of game we want to create, the process we use to make it, the kind of team and culture we all want to be a part of, and what giving back to our industry ultimately l?ooks like."

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMEgkVZTLIM

Straley even created a video to give us a little? insight into his process of creating the studio, which all started with an idea that he and some colleagues were bouncing around. When they realized that that game was somethi??ng they had to make, well, that's how Wildflower was born.

As someone who really admires Straley's work, it's really cool to not only see him return, but to see him looking genuinely happy to do so. Based on ideas he's shared in the past for the kinds of games he wants to make, I'll be interested to see how Wildflower s??hake?s things up in the future.

Straley said that the studio is going to "go silent for a bit" to "focus on building the team and game," but I know we'll have a ton to?? look forward to from them in the future.

The post Former Naughty D??og co-director announces new studio, Wildflow??er appeared first on Destructoid.

Out with the old, in with the new

There's been some confusion surrounding the state of the Overwatch franchise recently, especially when it comes to what will happen to the original after Overwatch 2 is released. Well, it looks like we finally have our confirmation, thanks to a Reddit AMA response from Overwatch 2's director Aaron Keller. Yesterday, when a player asked Keller if the first Overwatch will be shut down after the sequel leaves early access, he responded that "When OW2 launches on Oct 4th it will be a replacement ??for the current Live Service??."

If Twitter is any indication, players are still pretty confused about what's supposed to happen to the first Overwatch game after OW2 is officially out.

Back when Overwatch 2 was announced, former game director Jeff Kaplan had promised that cross-play between the two games would be possible, stating that it would be a "shared multiplayer environment where no one gets left behind." But the transition was never going to be that easy, with the clearest reason being that Overwatch 2 marks a t??ransition for the series to 5v5 rather than 6v6.

//twitter.com/PlayOverwatch/st?atus/1537489293241118??722

In that same Reddit post, Keller promised a whole host of new content for the new game during Seasons One and Two, including "new heroes, maps, and features," as well as the launch of the highly anticipated PvE campaign next yea??r.

The ques??tion is though, is this flood of content coming too late?

Fans have felt neglected over the past few years since the announcement of Overwatch 2 �/em> while it was still exciting to think about the upcoming sequel, players kind of felt like they had been left out to dry with no significant updates, no new seasonal events, and very few new hero reveals. It's still incredibly impressive that the Overwatch team was able to juggle developing both of the games at the same time, but it's pretty obvious that the dual-development stretched the team way too thin.

Solar Ash and Hyper Light Drifter devs are on board

Annapurna is well-known for publishing some of the most imaginative, polished, and moving indie games out there, so we're pretty excited for them to venture into developing their own stuff -- they announced their own internal studio back in 2020. Of course, a pu?blisher with that much prestige is pulling some pretty impress?ive talent, including some names you might recognize if you keep up with the indie crowd.

Chelsea Hash (who was the technical art lead of What Remains of Edith Finch) will be heading up the studio's project as game director, along with technical director Brett Lajzer (Solar Ash), senior producer Evan Hembacher (Solar Ash), art director Cosimo Galluzzi (Solar Ash, Hyper Light Drifter), and environment artist Nate Grove (Solar Ash).

Hash expressed her excitement for the new project in a press release: "We've worked closely with the people at Annapurna Interactive for years and this was an exciting next step for us to be abl?e to integrate with the team. We are working toward a special new experience and look forward to revealing more details."

Annapurna's  name has been synonymous with quality for years, so hearing that they're starting their own dev team, especially with such seasoned industry veterans, is some pretty exciting stuff. Apparently the teams will be pulling inspirations from previous games they've worked on, although we don't know quite yet exactly what kind of game they're planning on making. The studio's website currently has job postings up for 3D artists, a technical designer, and ?a VFX artist, so it seems like they're growing th?e team at a pretty healthy pace.

As something of an Annapurna fangirl, I'm interested to check out what the team has in store for us down the road. We've definitely got a bit of a wait ahead of us, but hopefully Stray's upcoming release can keep me satiated for now? (and I have the feeling it will).

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The feature we've all been waiting for

Once we got video games looking realistic in VR, the natural next step was to try and get them to start feeling realistic too. Enter mouth haptics, a project helmed by researchers Vivian Shen, Craig Shultz, and Chris Harrison at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University. In short, the team created a ??mouth hapt??ics prototype that connects directly to a VR headset so that users don't need to wear an extra peripheral.

So how exactly does it work? Well, the team mounted a "thin, compact, beam-forming array of ultrasonic transducers which focuses acoustic energy onto the mouth" on a Quest 2 VR headset. Basically, they're using vibrations through the air to make you feel it on your lips, teeth, and tongue with pulses, swipes, and persistent v?ibrations.

The study had players?? go through three different simulated scenarios to test out the new tech. The first was a fantasy scene where players walked through a forest infested wi?th spiders, where they felt both webs and, you guessed it, spiders touching their mouths. If that's not the ultimate gamer fantasy, I don't know what is.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q6dZQfV1x8

The next scenario was a school simulation, where playtesters could engage in more pleasant activities like drinking from a water fountain, having a cup of coffee, or brushing their teeth. The third and final simulation is a motorcycle racing game, becaus??e everyone knows the best way to experience the thrill of riding a motorcycle is to... feel the wind on your lips? Okay, I know it's a bit silly, but they're just looking for creative ways to test out the different types of mouth haptics sensations the prototype can provide.

"Why the mouth??" you might ask �I know I certainly did. According to research, the mouth is second only to the fingertips in terms of which body part is sensitive to haptic feedback for VR, so it was the next body part to target for implementing this feature.

The mouth als?o makes sense as the next area of immersion to target because they can add it right onto the underside of the headset, keeping the scale of the project smaller for now. I can imagine in the future that they'd be able to implement the fundamentals of this smaller ??project on a larger scale.

Then there's the question on everybody's mind: when can I use this to kiss video game characters? Hubba hubba, I gotta kiss those sweet sweet pixelated hotties. Settle down kids, we're not quite there yet. While none of the demos have to do with kissing, it's only a matter of time before it's used for exactly that purpose. It'??s gotta be players' number-one request when it comes to mouth haptics for VR, I just know it �mostly because I'm included in that group.

//www.tiktok.com/@destructoid/video/7098430922361441542?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=70527881640677063??73

The post This prototype adds mouth haptics to VR headset??s, because why not appeared first on Destructoid.

A train station that looks more real than real life

It feels like every few years, we all marvel at the new game graphics that are coming out and wondering to ourselves, "how could it get any better than this?" Somehow game devs still manage to one-up themselves every time, because I find myself yet again speaking those same words in awe and a little bit of existential dread. You see, I am quite afraid of the uncanny valley, and we have crossed so far into it that game graphics are indistinguishable from reality, thanks to Unreal Engine 5. We've seen some seriously convincing faces, but this is the first env?ironment I've seen that has my jaw on the floor.

A short video surfaced yesterday on the r/gamin??g subreddit that featured an abandoned train station �it looks inconspicuous at first, which made me wonder what the big deal could be about this train station. The shaky camera pans around toward the tracks, and then suddenly everything switches to nighttime, and you realize that this entire thing is a digital rendering of a train station in Unreal Engine 5. I'm sorry, what now?

//www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comme??nts/ulvnuo/the_generation_of_games_aft??er_current_one_is/

The way the light streams down the stairs, the way ?the fluorescent lights sh?ine in the puddles on the ground, the way the flashlight bounces off the rusted metal walls, it's all just a little bit too convincing for me. I've seen some really great graphics over the years, but this is the first time I've truly seen a video of something rendered in a game engine that I truly could not distinguish from real life or not.

So this train station is really impressive, but what does it mean for games using Unreal Engine 5 moving forward? These are easily the m?ost impressive photorealistic graphi?cs I've ever seen, but this was just a short, most likely pre-rendered video.

Would our consoles and PCs really be able to run something this advanced without melting t??hrough our furniture? Time will only tell, but one certainty still remains �I'm gonna stick to my stylized art styles, because this stuff gives me the heebie-jeebies.

The post Th??is video of Unreal Engine 5 has crosse??d into the uncanny valley appeared first on Destructoid.

You Know What That Means

Publisher AEW Games has dropped some new development footage for its upcoming All Elite Wrestling video game, which has been officially titled AEW Fight Forever. The new ring rocker is currently in development at Yuke's, though platforms and a release window are yet to be ?confirmed.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwO6CsnS0SI

T??he two new videos focus on AEW wrestlers Nyla Rose and Kris Statlander, (not forgetting referee Aubrey Edwards) as the two warriors battle it out in squared-circle action. While the footage obviously reflects a title still in?? its developmental stages, and is thus is a little janky, Yuke's recognizable wrasslin' game style peeks through.

From the chunkier, "action-figure" look of the character models to the exaggerated, thunderous impact created by the moves themselves, AEW Fight Forever wants to recall the glory days of Yuke's earlier work, such as the Toukon Retsuden series, and the formative releases in the WWE SmackDown! line. While AEW Fight Forever isn't quite Shut Your Mouth just yet, this early footage shows promise.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=egU5k2_lYbo

There is a lot riding on AEW Fight Forever, at least in the hopes of wrestling game fans. A lot of players have found themselves severely disfranchised with pro-wrestling games for many years, as 2K Games' WWE 2K moved from stagnation to abomination. While the excellent Fire Pro Wrestling World can be held up as a shining light in regards to a dedicated sandbox wrestling game, some players are still looking for that semi-casual, fun, party feel of classics such as WWF No Mercy and WWE Here Comes the Pain �/em> both of w??h?ich push two decades old.