News

Dying Light 2’s Lead Developer Discusses Upcoming Title

Published

5 years ago

July 9, 2018

Anthony DiMoro

Dying Light 2’s lead designer, Tymon Smektała, recently took part in an interview with Digital Foundry to discuss the sequel to the 2015 open-world zombie game, including the game’s brand new engine.

“It’s called C Engine. We changed the name on purpose because some time ago at Techland we decided we wanted [to make] first-person, open-world games. We wanted to create games that deliver high fidelity graphics so that you can really be immersed in that world,” explains Smektała.

“So for that we knew that we needed to create a new engine – new technology – so we took all of the smart minds from our company, all of the people that worked on Chrome Engine, and we told them, ‘hey guys, we will be making these kinds of games in the future. So we need that kind of engine to be able to create those worlds,’ and the they gave us just this with C Engine.”

The AI has also been improved from the first game, making the sequel that much more exciting for fans of the popular title.

“So the AI algorithms for humans got way more complex, and we also introduced something called the moral system which tries to simulate how a person will behave, and they can pull off something quite unexpected when they fight you.

“So for example, you fight a guy, you’re pressing on him, he’s really down on his knees, and then he understands that it’s his last moment – perhaps his last chance to save his life – so he gathers his strength and then answers you with a flurry of furious attacks.

“And to give you another example of the moral system, sometimes a person who’s pressed by you can just grab his weapon, throw that weapon at you, and start escaping, hoping that you will take interest in that weapon and pick it up, and this will give him [the chance to escape].

“So there are a lot of those things that make the combat emergent and unexpected.”

Along with other changes, and the goal of the console version of the game to reach the PC version of the game running at 60 fps, the animation system has been reworked.

“The new animation system allows us to create a lot of custom looking animations with ease, because all of the animations of characters are combined, from small moves, small emotions, small reactions, and our level designers [and] story designers can now put those things together to create a quite realistic-looking animation and behaviour on the NPC side.”

You can see the interview below:

Console

Microsoft Unveils Xbox Developer Sustainability Toolkit

Published

2 months ago

March 22, 2023

Anthony DiMoro

Xbox has officially unveiled the Xbox Developer Sustainability Toolkit which is aimed to help creators reduce energy consumption and measure carbon emissions during game development processes.

The Xbox Developer Sustainability ToolKit includes resources that include:

Power Monitor tools
Certification reports
Power consumption dashboards
Best practices

Ubisoft and 343 Industries were named as early users of the Xbox Developer Sustainability ToolKit with 343 Industries able to reduce energy use by 15% without impacting the player experience at all.

Ubisoft and Xbox are co-developing an energy-efficient eco-mode for users.

You can check out the full report right here.

Business

Epic Games Store Hits $820 Million in Player Spending During 2022

Published

2 months ago

March 22, 2023

Anthony DiMoro

Epic Games has officially released financial data related to it’s growing marketplace on PC, showing that $820 million was spent on the Epic Games Store during the 2022 year, and promised support for third-party subscription services and new ‘content hubs’ to help companies promote their titles.

According to the data:

The numbers

Total users of Epic Games Store PC: 230 million (up 19% year-on-year)
Epic cross-platform accounts: 732 million
Daily active users peak: 34.3 million
Monthly active users: 68 million (up 10%)

Total spending, incl. Epic’s games: $820 million (down 2%)
Spending on third-party games: $355 million (up 18%)
Free games claimed: 700 million
Number of new PC releases: 626
Total library of PC games: 1,548 (up 68%)

Epic Games stated on it’s blog that more PC games launched during the 2022 year than in any year prior.

Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto 5, Rocket League, Genshin Impact, and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands were among the most popular titles related to player engagement and player spending, and Epic Games looks to deepen their focus in 2023 as they aim to improve the store launcher’s performance.

Epic Games also aims to add support for subscription services from third-party publishers and live service products by the end of the 2023 year, adding that they are also working on ‘content hubs’ which will be separate from product pages and will enable publishers to “share information with users in a robust editorial format.”

Business

California Judge Dismisses Gamers Lawsuit Filed Against Microsoft

Published

2 months ago

March 22, 2023

Anthony DiMoro

A federal judge in San Francisco has ruled that the group of 10 plaintiffs “[lacked] allegations” in their lawsuit filed last year that claimed Microsoft’s ownerships of Activision Blizzard would harm consumers and competition in the video games market, according to a filing shared by Reuters.

While US District Judge Jacqueline Corley dismissed the case, she also gave the plaintiffs 20 days to refine their lawsuit and resubmit it, and the group’s lawyer, Joseph Saveri, said that there are plans to officially submit an amended lawsuit with “additional factual detail” that will address the judge’s concerns.

It marks a victory for Microsoft, but their battles are far from over as they still face a hearing over the Federal Trade Commission’s legal complaint, which is currently slated to take place in August of this year.

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard originally expected the transaction to be complete by June 30, 2023.