#if you look at certain triple a studios or franchises through the years some of them have gone downhill

[foxstens]

old man yelling at cloud again

but whenever people lament about how bad games/anime are now

i'm just like 'play/watch better stuff'

[maggyoutthere]

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FNaF Security Breach wasn't worth the wait and here's why

(analysis - spoiler free)

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[looks to the left]

[looks to the right]

Hi hello

I don't usually do this shit, but as I'm finally learning how to manage projects and have actual education on projects of this caliber, I feel confident enough to put my thoughts out there.

Again please remember this is someone's opinion on the internet and you don't need to go at eachother's throats on my notes 💕 so let us begin

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So I suppose after the massive success that was FNaF VR: Help Wanted, Scott kept his eye on this little indie studio that'd made it come true for later projects. After God knows how many books and little to no developments on an +5 year old movie announcement, and the cliffhanger of the Curse of Dreadbear DLC, the drop of a teaser image was the thing needed to get the fandom hyped again.

And oh boy did that work too well for its own good.

As per usual, the fnaf fandom torn apart everything they could get their hands on; from leaks coming from questionable accounts, to the source code inside now dead sites made to release teaser images. From the game growing out of proportion, passing through Scott getting canceled on Twitter.com and a literal global pandemic, the game had its announcements on Playstation Lives and reputable gaming networks, gathering more attention as it became more mainstream, more ambitious, more in general.

Two years of hype, too high expectations and poor leak control led to too much being known about the game. I will not blame this on the studios or Scott himself since almost 90% of the leaked content was done almost exclusively by Funko and their employees. Scott had been working with them for years at that point and nothing of this size had happened before. Thing is; he'd never done something of this size before either, and neither had Steel Wool Studios. A quick look at their gaming catalog reveals how SW had only worked on small indie titles that hadn't had as much coverage or fandom support as FNaF had. I suspect the success that was their first game with the franchise (FNaF VR) was an absolute ego -and possibly monetary- boost for the company. The pressure to outdo themselves was enormous, but I suspect so was the will of the staff to build upon what they'd created.

So, after 2 years of delays, the game was released

The first thing art teachers will tell you is to not bite more than you can chew when it comes to your work. Not to disregard your passion and drive for creating stories, but to measure what you're capable of regarding your assigned work.

Apparently people at Steel Wool had either forgot about this or were forced working more than what was planned. Was it the studio itself trying to outdo expectations, or Scott pushing the game too far? Probably a mix of both, but we won't be sure unless someone comes forward.

Like previously mentioned by Scott and the team themselves, the game turned out almost 10× bigger than what it was supposed to be. Presuming they're not talking about lines of code for the brand new systems and Nvidia's Ray Tracing technology, Security Breach went from an indie game to a Triple A project. That is incredibly concerning, as it does not only ramp up the studio itself, but every other facet of the big conglomerate of companies involved in the making of a single game. You'll have certain patrons and funders who did not agree to be part of such a big project dropping out, immense new standards being dropped on the marketing team, somany changes outside of the casual "only on Steam" passion project.

For the marketing side, I believe it went surprisingly well. Some veteran fans of the franchise might say that it was painful in the first year of production since so little was shown of the game. Truth be told, it was painful, but that's only because this game was still being treated as a FNaF game back then. While previously we had almost a game coming out every year with a single web page for teasers, FNAF SB was now a massive project, so it was treated as one. This was no longer a FNaF game; it was a BIG game. Marketing for both games and movies is usually started in the 3-4 months previous to the release date, even if one isn't available to the public yet. It gives time for merchandise to be sent out and displayed in stores preferably without being leaked first, for stores both online and physical to set up everything they need and list said games, etc. This would be the normal for a game made for a much bigger audience than just the fnaf fandom.

Unfortunately the game falls incredibly flat on its most important aspect: the gameplay itself. If you played or saw playthroughs of the game, I'm sure I don't need to tell you how incredibly broken this game is. These issues include but are not limited to: textures and lighting not loading, subtitles not matching with voice lines, characters and objects clipping or straight up disappearing through walls or other objects in the map, unfair AI, broken game mechanics, unfair and badly put together hitboxes, the game crashing out of nowhere, loopholes to get save files when you're not supposed to, etc. Of course, this falls back on the issue of Steel Wool biting more than what they could chew. And yes, they're cuttently working on patching it up with multiple updates fixing said bugs. However, I believe that if you're paying 30$ for a game, you're expecting it to work without having to wait for 5 patch updates in the next 2 months.

Funnily enough for those who are up with ⭐the lore,⭐ this game appears to not have been beta-tested at all.

TL;DR: FNaF Security Breach was clearly supposed to be smaller, was pushed to be 10 times bigger than what it was meant to be and because of that, it came out as an half-baked experience that wasn't worth 2 years of delays and 30 bucks

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[xb-squaredx]

B-Squared’s Top 10 Games of 2020

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that having something to distract me from the genuine horrors unleashed during 2020 was vital to staying alive, and for me that means a lot of video games! I played…a lot of games last year, but I spent a lot of time playing older games, so I didn’t get a chance to check out a lot of high-profile games that launched this year. Still, I do want to shine a light on the games that managed to resonate with me even a little bit, that somehow managed to launch this year. So let’s get to it!

#10 – No Straight Roads

Rarely have I been struck by a single trailer for a game like I was for No Straight Roads. Produced by industry veterans under a new studio, this is a rare game that’s not quite an indie game from a studio full of newbies, but it’s also not produced with the same kind of budget and resources of a Triple-A project. What do we call this? A Double-A game? Single-A? Regardless, I have to give the team at Metronomik some props for delivering a super stylish game in the midst of a very challenging year. No Straight Roads is a rhythm-based action game where two up-and-coming musicians fight to bring back Rock and Roll to the people of Vinyl City. I absolutely adore this game’s presentation, with each major boss being visually unique and having their own feel that compliments the music they bring to battle. There’s some real energy in these animations with character designs that ooze personality, and being a game about music the soundtrack is great! All that being said though, I have to admit I wasn’t a huge fan of the gameplay when all was said and done. It leans way more on the rhythm side of the equation than I was hoping for, and the action felt very shallow. The fixed camera made some phases of some fights a real problem, and the Switch verison, which I played, is plagued with a lot of issues that really brought the game down for me. If the game interests you at all, give it a shot on PC or PS4; I hear those versions are a lot better. Still, I liked the potential I saw in this game and in this studio, so I can only hope they did well enough to continue on. This definitely feels like the kind of passion project that deserves more recognition.

#9 – Streets of Rage 4

OK, so full disclosure: I didn’t grow up with 2D beat-em-ups. I missed out on all of the greats of the genre back in the day. No Final Fight, no River City Ransom, no Double Dragon, and definitely no Streets of Rage. In more recent years I have tried to dip my toe in the genre, as I did in 2019 with River City Girls. However, I came away from that game a bit disappointed by the overall gameplay and wondered if 2D beat-em-ups were for me. Seeing so much praise heaped onto Streets of Rage 4 had me curious, so I knew I had to try it, if only to broaden my experience in the genre. In many ways, this game is the perfect sequel to a franchise that hasn’t seen any signs of new life in years. It retains what made the series beloved with satisfying combat and challenge, but with a modern touch. The overall art style of the game and music work out pretty well, and I found the act of comboing enemies to be really satisfying. It really doesn’t overstay its welcome either, which is very appreciated in an age of endless timesinks. I also struggled a fair bit with the game, even on Normal, and well after some patches that seemed designed for more casual fans like me. Had this game not had online co-op as an option, I don’t know if I could have beaten the final levels. So my time with this game was pretty rough but despite that I can still see this was a game made with care, and if this game DOES do something for you, there’s plenty of reasons to keep playing on higher difficulties, unlocking more characters and even playing online with friends. Let me put it this way; I’m not all that sure I like the genre and I still liked this game, so I think that counts for something!

#8 – The Wonderful 101: Remastered

…this one is kind of cheating, I’ll admit! I had a lot of trouble thinking up ten games that really stood out to me this year, honestly. That said, I’ll definitely use loopholes to plug one of my favorite games from years ago. Seven years ago, PlatinumGames launched The Wonderful 101 on the ill-fated Wii U, where it bombed harder than just about anything on the system. For those that gave the game a shot, however, they were quick to discover a deep, complex, and charming action game that plays like nothing else out there. Controlling a team of 100 heroes at once, players form weapons out of the various Wonderful One’s bodies, smacking around giant robots and aliens far larger than them with the power of teamwork! How could you not love that, right?! Now, years later, PlatinumGames is aiming to become more independent and their first act was launching a Kickstarter as a way to get this game on newer platforms. While we may never know why Nintendo gave Platinum their blessing to release this game on non-Nintendo platforms (being as this is still, as far as I know, a Nintendo-owned IP), I’m just glad more people can have access to one of the most unique action games I’ve ever touched.

To sell it another way, this game combines the overall aesthetic of Viewtiful Joe with the shape-drawing action of Okami but with a bit of Bayonetta flair on the side. Basically, this is the culmination of everything director Hideki Kamiya has ever worked on. The Remastered version fixes some issues present from the game’s original release, and while I do think they could have gone a bit further with some changes, it is likely the best way to play the game for many. All those sections that made heavy use of the Wii U GamePad are a tad awkward though, but that held true even back on the Wii U anyway…d-don’t worry so much about that, though! I’d still recommend this game to anyone looking for the type of over-the-top action that only Platinum (and occasionally Capcom) can provide! So please consider joining the Wonderful Ones and Unite Up!

#7 – Paper Mario: The Origami King

Discourse around the Paper Mario series is…more than a little rough, honestly! Many fans have been quite vocal about not liking the direction the series has been heading with the last few games, but I went into The Origami King with an open mind and ended up really enjoying the game for the most part! What the game lacked in a developed storyline, it made up for with some really strong character moments and memorable setpieces. Bobby and Olivia are among my favorite partners in ANY of the Mario RPGs, easily, and the entirety of the Great Sea section of the game was a really fun adventure. I love the highly-detailed paper-crafted enemies and locales, and the soundtrack really didn’t have to go as hard as it did. While the battles against common enemies didn’t quite click with me, the boss battles throughout the game constantly surprised me with interesting twists on the ring-based combat and are a real highlight for me. I know this game is pretty divisive amongst Paper Mario fans, but I think the franchise has a pretty bright future ahead of it!

#6 – DOOM Eternal

Fair warning here, but I haven’t quite managed to beat DOOM Eternal at the time of writing this, but what I’ve played so far tells me it definitely belongs here. I think Eternal is hands-down the most intense game I’ve played in a long time. It gets my blood pumping as I dash about, shooting and slicing through demons that are extremely eager to rip and tear me to pieces. I don’t play many shooters in general, so I knew I was going to be in for a rough time, but DOOM Eternal brings it to another level right away. In some respects, I don’t quite agree with various aspects of the core game design that makes the game harder than I think it needs to be at times. The scarcity of ammo, and thus the constant need to use the Chainsaw weapon in order to gain more ammo gets tiring, though that somewhat levels off as more weapons are acquired and players learn of more efficient ways to take out the hordes of Hell. The game’s fantastic soundtrack by Mick Gordon definitely elevates the experience, so it is a huge bummer knowing that he and ID Software had a falling out and he won’t be coming back. I really dig the game’s expansive levels and more focus being put on exploring every nook and cranny for secrets, and certain old-school touches like finding extra lives or cheat codes definitely makes the game feel like it was ripped out of a bygone era and given a modern paintjob at times. Doom is eternal, and with it, so is pulse-pounding shooting action!

#5 – Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition

Compared to the other re-release of an old game on this list, I think this particular title had a lot more time and care put into it…and it also happens to enhance one of my favorite games on Wii as a bonus! Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii was a game that almost passed me by but even years later, I still adored the characters and world it introduced, and I’ve been happy to see what started as game that was almost stuck in Japan eventually grow into a full franchise. I consider the first game to the best in the series, though it was held back by a few issues later games would iron out. Chief among the problems was the visuals, particularly the character models and…wow does ten years make a world of difference. The Definitive Edition does more than just clean up everyone’s faces, it also cleaned up the game’s cluttered UI, made it easier to track quests and materials for said quests, and added some fun optional challenge missions for veterans to tackle. The bow that adorns the top of this package, however, is the epilogue story Future Connected that serves to tie up some loose ends and gives a particular character some great closure. If you love massive worlds to explore, a compelling, at times over-the-top story, and a deep, rewarding combat system, I can’t recommend THIS version of THIS game enough. If you’re going to give the Xenoblade series a try, there’s no better place to start.

#4 – Ghost of Tsushima

When Ghost of Tsushima was first unveiled years ago, I didn’t exactly have a high opinion of it. It seemed like a game that put more emphasis on visuals over gameplay, and I was almost certain it would launch as a PS5 exclusive so why bother getting excited when I probably wasn’t going to be an early adopter of the system? To my great surprise, not only was this game confirmed for PS4, it wound up being one of the prettiest games on the platform and well-optimized to boot, even on my old slim PS4. Playing as lone samurai Jin Sakai, players try to repel the Mongel invasion of Japan, but are forced to adopt less-than-honorable tactics to take on this ruthless enemy. Usually when I play stealth games, I find myself frustrated. I feel weak, or limited, and often the games feel overly harsh. If you get caught once, game over and there’s little salvaging being seen. In Ghost of Tsushima however, there’s a great deal more care put into stealth, and at times I’d argue it’s almost too fun to pass up over the sword play. Very few missions in the game force you to go completely unseen, so stealth just because yet another tool rather than a limitation imposed on you.

Swordplay felt a bit less engaging against common enemies (typically just being Simon Says, switching to the appropriate stance for a given enemy), but the one-on-one duels throughout the game were fantastic and I almost wish the game was all about them instead. I can’t overstate how gorgeous this game is either, with a world that feels like it is breathing, as the wind whips through the tall grass, the moon penetrates fog overtaking a creepy forest, or seeing the smoke from an enemy camp wafting over the distance. Hands-down one of the best-looking games on the PS4, and I’m particularly happy that developer Sucker Punch managed to land a hit with a new IP, as those generally feel more risky as times go on. While I’d argue that Ghost of Tsushima doesn’t really redefine how open-world games should be designed, it is an extremely polished experience and manages to do it well, with plenty of opportunities to grow in a potential sequel.

#3 – Animal Crossing: New Horizons

If there’s any one game that people absolutely needed in 2020, it was Animal Crossing: New Horizons. While there are other games of this type, like Stardew Valley or the Harvest Moon (and later, Story of Seasons games), Animal Crossing is one of the few games that gets mainstream attention while simultaneously running counter to most mainstream gaming trends. No conflict, no combat, no overarching story really…just a game that lets you live your live, day by day on your own terms. I tried getting into the series before with New Leaf but just didn’t stick with it, but New Horizons launched at the perfect time in an imperfect world. Being able to escape the uncertainty and dread that enveloped the world as the pandemic spread for even a little while was a necessity, and thankfully New Horizons had plenty to do to keep idle hands busy. Changes like item crafting and eventually limited terraforming of your island paradise give players so much more agency in decorating their homes and building up something they can be proud of.

We all start as nothing but a small tent on a mostly-empty island, but seeing what people were able to do even in the first few weeks or so was nothing short of amazing. We need more unflinchingly wholesome games in the world, and I’m thankful for Animal Crossing for being there when we needed it, and considering how well it sold and how much post-launch content is expected to be added with time, it remains a sanctuary to return to even now. Just…please let us craft in bulk? Pretty please, Nintendo?

#2 – Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Last year, Nintendo released Astral Chain, a game that no one knew about before release, which was revealed and released with very little gaps between them. It was a game I didn’t know I wanted until it was presented to me, and that trend continues this year with Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. The first Hyrule Warriors was a fun, surprising spin-off of the main Legend of Zelda series, and Breath of the Wild was a fantastic game that shook up the core of the Zelda franchise, so in hindsight it really does seem like a no-brainer to combine the two into one package. Age of Calamity, for my tastes at least, cuts down on the repetition and overall stressful atmosphere of the first Hyrule Warriors and instead focused on fleshing out it’s core combat and crafting more creative main storyline missions. It helps that the game reimagines iconic locales from Breath of the Wild from before their destruction, and really makes you feel like you’re fighting through actual places rather than just a collection of random keeps that most Warriors games use.

Bringing in aspects like the Sheikiah Slate and Elemental Rods allows players to control the flow of combat more directly on top of letting them be more creative. Freeze enemies standing over water with the Cryonis rune or burn some grass with the Fire Rod to distract certain enemies, among many other things. Each playable character is also very distinct, even in cases where I could have forgiven the developers for reusing some attacks or traits. For one, Link has different movesets for his Sword and Shield, Spear, and Two-Handed weapons, but none of his attack overlap with the other Champions who use similar weapons. Some people might be put off with certain aspects of this game’s story and ultimately not everyone likes the overall structure of the Warriors spinoffs anyway, but for my part, Age of Calamity was one of the best surprises of the year, unveiled right at the end of the year in the nick of time. Of course, there was one game this year that surprised me more than any other.

#1 – Hades

I’ve known of Supergiant Games for quite a while and very recently began looking through their catalogue of games. They’re known for well-crafted narratives and satisfying combat, and yet when I first saw Hades when it was released in Early Access I was tepid on it. It didn’t look bad or anything, but it didn’t exactly blow me away and even now, I think a random screenshot or quick clip of the game might not do the game justice in explaining the appeal. I already wrote about the game at-length (as my only real non-retrospective blog post of the year, oops!), which you can read here if you want more in-depth praise, but to summarize…Hades is the total package for me.

Playing as Prince Zagreus your end-goal is to escape the puts of Hell, and more specifically get away from your overbearing father, Hades. It’s a rogue-lite, meaning you’re expected to finish the game in one shot and if you die you lose any upgrades you picked up along the way and have to start from scratch…to a point. Hades does allow you to keep a fair amount of items you pick up which can towards small, permanent upgrades or even gifts for various NPCs that can deepen your bond with them. Unlike most other games of this type too, the story constantly moves forward, even after death. The game is about dying over and over and then dusting yourself off to try again, all the while other characters remark on your progress or lack thereof. I grew to really enjoy this cast of characters, a fun spin on the Greek pantheon, paired with excellent voice acting for the entire cast. From the imposing, if somewhat sultry Megaera, to the nervous wreck that is the maid, Dusa, to the pompous ass Theseus, I looked forward to each new run just to learn more about this world and those within it. For once, death wasn’t really a punishment, but a reward, and just part of the process.

Of course, incredibly satisfying combat is ALSO part of the process and it just gets…addicting; muttering “one more run” over and over as you try out different weapons and boons, discovering what works well together and what doesn’t. While at first beating the game felt like it would never happen, I grew from my failures, adapted and eventually overcame. Multiple times. If you want the “full” Hades experience, this game can really demand a lot of time out of you but at the same time it stays fresh, so I can’t really complain. With new gameplay mechanics unlocking as time goes on, to the Pacts of Punishment players can trigger if they want a bit more challenge (or a lot more), Hades is that rare game that just keeps giving and giving. Before I knew it, I had dumped well over 50 hours into it, and I STILL need to get back to the game if I want that epilogue.

Compared to every other game that came out this year, Hades is the one game that grabbed me from moment one and would not let go until I hit credits. When I wasn’t playing this game, I was counting down the minutes until I could play it again, and let me tell you that is rare for me these days. At this point, Hades is clearly the breakthrough hit for Supergiant and I couldn’t be happier. The fact that this game got to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with industry titans at The Game Awards is kind of surreal, but I can’t think of many who deserve that recognition more. It helps that Supergiant is a studio that actually takes care of its employees, which is way rarer than it should be. I don’t mean to hype this game up like it’s the cure for COVID or anything, but I mean it with all my heart that this was the best game I played this year, and I’d recommend it in a heartbeat. I couldn’t stop talking about it for months after playing it, just ask my friends! So yeah, it’s pretty OK I guess.

CONCLUSION

I’m sure my Top 10 List looks a lot different from most out there, but that’s what’s great about games! So much variety and so much quality no matter where you look! Every year, without fail, there’s always at least a small handful of games that come out that I don’t get to, and try as I might I’ll never trim that backlog down. I want to keep playing games for as long as I can, trying out so many different experiences and seeing what this wonderful pastime can offer. For a good chunk of 2020 I was more than a little down, not just because of…you know, but a lot of games that were coming out weren’t appealing to me. That said, seeing as this was the year of shadow drops and announcing things at the last minute, I ended up loving a bunch of games I hadn’t already spend months hyping myself up for, which definitely helped to lift me up this year. Already, 2021 has a lot of titles I’m anticipating though, so it’s sure to be an exciting year.

Happy Gaming.

-B

[prorevenge]

But I Don’t Even Have a Contract!

When I was 16, I had a stint as a small-time social media star on Twitter — not because I’m particularly interesting or anything, but for two reasons: a) I got on Twitter really early in 2007 when it was way easier to get followers and engagement due to the site being less noisy and more ‘stupid’ in terms of algorithms and b) I stood out from a lot of other minor Twitter stars because I didn’t let it get to my head; while a lot of them were egotistical and haughty, I followed everyone back, turned ‘haters’ into friends instead of retaliating, etc.

Through this fleeting fame, my former boss found me. He said he was setting up a regional media studio to help small- and medium-sized local businesses with their social media marketing, and he planned to eventually franchise the business into other cities. He hired me on the basis of my large social following (81,000 followers at the time). Obviously, having a large social following doesn’t automatically mean you know how to market businesses on social media, but I adapted and studiously researched how to do my job properly.

My boss didn’t come from a creative background or a marketing role — he came from a property background, and was just sort of winging it in finding an alternative source of income after the housing crash. Being as young as I was at the time, I didn’t really think about any of this stuff. The outcome was that I never received any training, had no real guidance in what I was doing, and was generally left to my own devices. Younger me thought it was great! I saw it as ‘freedom’, but looking back, I realize it was far too much freedom.

The side effects of this disparity between my social media skills and his inability to communicate creative ideas manifested themselves as people trying to cut past the business and come straight to me, asking me directly as an individual whether I’d do work for them rather than give my boss the money. I was respectful (or naïve) enough to open up to my boss about this, and that’s when things started getting a little bit manipulative. He told me I could go my own way or remain part of a business that’d soon be growing across the country.

Fair enough, I thought. So I stayed, and one year in (I was 17/18 at this time) I realized that managing brands via social media had naturally morphed me into something of a graphic designer. A lot of my time was spent creating eye-catching visuals in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign etc. and so I suggested to my boss that we expand our media offering to include logo, graphic, and print design, and visual branding consultancy. Again, I received no training — I worked all day and self-studied late into the night.

  This pattern snowballed over the years. By the time I was 21, I was a social media manager, visual branding designer, copywriter, photographer, video editor, and web developer — all skills I developed independently with no input or guidance from my boss. The business was still operating in just one city, and my boss had started spending less and less time in the office. I still didn’t realize this wasn’t particularly normal, until clients who came to the office to meet me constantly asked where he was.

One day, a client went as far as to say: “You’re basically running the business at this point!” It was a huge ‘glass shatter’ moment for me, and I suddenly realized that, yeah, although I wasn’t actually managing the business and its admin work etc., without me, there wouldn’t be a service or product to sell. What’s more, my wages hadn’t gone up, even though my ‘this is great, I have so much freedom!’ mind-set had motivated me to continue working on stuff related to the business when I got home.

As I was nearing 22, the owner of the building where the business’ office was located asked me if I’d help him fix his computer (it was just running really slowly because he hadn’t managed his files very well). Not really thinking of it as work, I agreed, and headed into his office after work to help him out. As luck would have it, my boss walked in to hand over that month‘s rent, so he saw me there. He looked surprised, but didn’t comment — he just gave the dude the rent and left the building.

The next day, my boss wasted no time in probing me about what I was doing. He was speaking to me like a cop would speak to a suspect, asking me how long I’d been doing work for the landlord, what kind of work I was doing, why I hadn’t folded the work into the business, etc. I explained I was just fixing up his computer, and he leapt into a lecture about how we needed to keep all work inside the business, or else we would never be able to grow into other cities.

  I turned 22. I’d been there for five years, my wages hadn’t gone up, I wasn’t allowed to do any work outside of the business, I hadn’t witnessed any of the growth I’d initially been promised, my boss was only in the office 25% of the time, and I saw him uploading Instagram Stories from him lunching, working out at the gym, walking his dogs, taking day trips etc. while I was in the office managing everything. A lot of the time he didn’t even warn me he’d not be in the office. It became the norm that if he didn’t turn up, I’d be running everything for the day. Because I’d grown with the business from my youngest working age, I didn’t know any different, so all of this felt completely normal to me. And because I worked all day and all night and had no firm social life, I never got any outside perspective, until one day, on a whim, I opened up to the landlord about it. He hadn’t even realized I was the one doing all the work — he figured it was split fairly 50/50. He said the amount of work I was producing was on the same level as an agency with three or four employees.

I started managing all of the branding, social media, and website maintenance for the landlord’s business, but didn’t broadcast that news to anyone. As I was nearing the age of 23, I met my now-fiancée, a perfectly feisty woman who, as soon as I told her about my situation, passionately advised I start my own media studio. This is where I entered the ‘long breakup’ period of my job, where I got increasingly depressed at work and physically felt my productivity slow to a near-halt. My boss noticed, but never talked to me about it face-to-face. He started sending me irritated emails full of swear words demanding explanations for why I hadn’t delivered certain work by certain times and dates, while he was off sunning at the beach. It was like someone had pulled out his cork and let all the toxicity out in one torrent. My girlfriend hated him, and gently pushed me to the point where I felt like I was ready to confront him about the dead end we’d wound up in.

I asked a few of my friends about it, just to get a wider set of viewpoints on how I should go about it. They asked me things like, what does your contact say about you leaving the company and working with other businesses independently? Legal stuff, y’know. And that’s when I realized my lack of training over the past six years had also left me ignorant of the formalities of employment — I never had a contract! The real kicker was, I never had employee liability coverage either. My boss wasn’t even doing the admin stuff properly.

Obviously, that meant he also had no control over me when it came to contracts, so I literally just walked in (without my laptop — I’m now just realizing he never provided equipment either, yikes) and sat there waiting for him to arrive. Thankfully, it was one of the days he decided to turn up. He went and sat down in his chair, asked me where my laptop was and why I wasn’t working etc., and so I just straight-up told him that I was leaving the company to start my own media venture.

He laughed a patronizing laugh and simply said, “Alright, good luck then.” Part of me felt like this was normal, because he was usually quite cold like that, but another part of me knew that there should have been some sort of emotion and deeper discussion in that moment. I wanted to say, “so that’s it, then?” to try to flesh the talk out, but that really was it. He just turned to his computer and began typing away as if I wasn‘t there. So I just turned around and left, went home, and that was it.

He did WhatsApp me a message later that day (all his caring and considerate communication came through digital means — perhaps he hired someone on a zero-hour contract to inject emotion into his texts?) asking if we could meet at the pub for a proper goodbye. And we did. It was a nice gesture, but it felt very awkward and forced, as if he’d spoken to someone about it and they’d coaxed him into doing it. He shook my hand, wished me good luck (much more genuinely this time), and we parted ways.

  Three months later, I’d tripled my income as a freelancer. All of those clients who’d try to come to me directly over the years — it was like a floodgate had opened, and they all came rushing to me. I hadn’t told them I’d left, but obviously, they realized it themselves when they went to the office and I was never there. I felt bad about ‘stealing’ clients away from my former boss, but what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t just abandon the people I’d been working with just because of morals. That‘d be immoral, if anything. I continued working with the landlord and even travelled with him a few times to build my solo filmmaking portfolio by documenting his brand’s work across the UK, including his talks at business seminars. We developed a very close working relationship, to the point where just my work for his company was earning me more than all the work I did for my former boss. He started sharing a few bits of gossip with me about how my old boss had begun paying rent later and later. I figure perhaps his cash flow had something to do with it, but the landlord also showed me an email my old boss had written in which he’d expressed his anger at the landlord for ‘colluding’ with me and pushing me to leave his company.

The further I distanced myself from the company, the more I realized how toxic he behaved towards everyone he came into contact with. I could never see it from the inside. Every time I checked the old company’s website, a new service had been removed, because it wasn’t something he could offer anyone anymore.

Back in November 2018, the landlord told me that he was kicking my old boss out of the office after he failed to pay rent for three months. A few weeks after that, the landlord proposed that we go into business together to create a separate media studio solely focused on the industry his business operates within. He said that we’d take the old company’s office once my former boss had moved out, and that I could also use that office for my own freelance venture, free of charge.

One year after leaving, I’ve taken 25% of my old boss’ clients, occupied his office, and quadrupled my income.

There’s a part of me that feels guilty about all of this — he’s a guy who didn’t quite know what to do after the housing market crashed and tried something out which didn’t go too well. But at the same time, I can’t feel too bad for someone who I believe took advantage of me for half a decade. If you treat someone with disrespect, you end up with very little. If you treat someone with respect, they give you a free office and offer to start a new business with you.

  TL;DR: Boss never did anything properly — no training, no contracts, no insurance, very little respect, not much guidance, empty promises about business growth, etc. Everything I learned independently resulted in me quadrupling my income and taking over his office within a year of leaving his company.

(source) story by (/u/Adingding90)

[karmatechfiction]

Witch Talent Precure!

So, years ago before Maho Tsukai Precure, I had an idea for a witch magical girl series. At first, it was going to be a original series that didn’t tie with precure, but...yeah a lot of my ideas for it, well, let’s just say there’s a lot of similarities between my series and precure and other magical girls, including Shugo Chara. Put it short, it just doesn’t stand out much as it’s own thing, but I still like these ideas and thought, well since it’s like a Precure series already, let’s just make it a Precure fan series. Than it’d be okay to use the different ideas from different magical girls.

 I really like the ideas Maho Tsukai had but of course, the development of the plot was a bit messy and the characters in Maho Tsukai, I like them, don’t get me wrong, (well except the idiot trio) but they all are under developed. So I thought, I need some baddies and few side characters too. So this will be, what if Maho Tsukai was written better. I had plan this series for years in my head, so the plot itself will be mostly it’s own thing. The only thing I really took was some concepts such as designs. Again, I will use maybe some characters from Maho Tsukai including a certain green horn guy, so at least they will be written better.

My main precure team are from my head though. So don’t worry, I’m not just using the Maho Tsukai Cures. This is gonna be completely different. In fact, one is based more on me and the other are based on two good friends of mine. 

I may write full “episodes” once in a while but it’s mainly gonna be done using pictures and explanation to give an idea of it. This is due to me having so many projects already. This is just something I wanna come back to sometimes just for the fun of it, since again. I’ve had this idea for years and I just can’t ever seem to abandon it so, I’ll just use it as a part time, fun project.

So without further a due, this is my precure team and their story. The theme is witches, magic, talents, music and a little romance/love.

 Celina, Nerissa and Lin are in a band together known as Magic Melody Lively. They are the top of their class at Balboa Academy for Arts and Athletics being not only are they good singers, but each has their own unique talent. Celina loves to dance and is good in sports, she’s in charge of choreography in their band. Nerissa is a great painter and musician, she’s also good at writing and is usually in charge of song writing and scheduling. She’s also the lead singer. Lin is great at tailoring sweets and clothes. She’s in charge in making costumes and outfits for concerts. She’ll also make some snacks for the team.

Celina and Nerissa are sisters but Celina was adopted. Years ago, as a child, a fire broke out and killed her family. Being Nerissa’s family and Celina’s family were good friends, Nerissa family adopted Celina in. Since then though, Celina is terrified of fire but soon, she needs to face her fear for when a monster attacks her favorite dance studio that she went to when she was younger. Not wanting so many people lose their talent, she must stand up and shout ��Precure, Awaken My Talent!” and rises as Cure Dancer! Together with Cure Painter and Cure Tailor, they form Witch Talent Precure! 

So, the question is, Witch Talent are you?

Name: Celina Hinami

Name Origin: Celina is French for “Sky or Heaven” Hinami; Japanese “Hi” meaning “fire” “nami” comes from “Minami” which means “Beautiful Wave” so “Fire Wave” or “Fire South”.

Age: 15 (Yes these are high school age. Something different.)

Favorite Treat: Cinnamon Roles

Personality: Celina is sweet, shy and soft spoken at times, but when she gets on the dance floor or on the concert, there is no one passionate as her! She lets herself known to the world. She’s also pretty good at sports but she mainly prefers gymnastics and dancing. She likes to teach others how to dance. Makes her feel just as special as doing it.

(Yes her design is slightly based on Mirai. I really liked Mirai’s hair style. It’s cute and perfect for a character that loves to dance! Her outfit is based on 80s/90s style clothing.)

Name: Cure Dancer

Catchphrase: “Passionate and Courageous as a Dancing Flame! Witch Talent? Cure Dancer!”

Transformation Device: A gold bell (seen on the side of her.)

Weapon: Fire Ribbons

Finishing Attack: Precure Ribbon Salsa! (Wraps ribbons around enemy until they explode into flames.)

Healing Technique: (This is used to restore damages from fights) Elegant Flame!

(Note: As Cure Dancer, she’s kinda iffy on using fire attacks due to her past. She basically needs to get use to using fire base spells.)

Name: Nerissa Hinami

Name Origin: “Nerissa” Spanish/Greek for “Water Nymph” and the Goddess of the Sea , Hinami see above. 

Age: 16 (She’s the oldest.)

Favorite Treat: Triple Fudge Brownies

Personality: Nerissa is a bit boyish. Despite having long hair, she dresses like a man most of the time and almost never is seen in dresses or skirts. She’s not someone to mess with. Despite she hates sports, she does work out and acts “ the man of the house” because their parents are divorced. When she’s not singing, working on a song, writing or drawing, you’ll often find her on the waves surfing. “Siren of the Sea”, she’s sometimes called due to this. The ocean is her inspiration. Don’t let this tough chick fool you. She does suffer anxiety issues that cause her to fall ill sometimes and actually does have a weak body, she covers up with her boyish side. Singing and being on stage, one would think would make this worse, but actually it keeps her mind clear and she’s too busy putting effort into a good performance to let it get to her. This shows her true beauty and strength.

(Note, this is the character based more on me.)

Name: Cure Painter

Catchphrase: “Beautiful and Strong as the Shimmering Sea! Witch Talent? Cure Painter!”

Transformation Device: Conk Shell Ocarina

Weapon: Shimmering Radiant Brush 

Finishing Attack: Precure Watercolor Whirlpool! (Sends massive and colorful whirlpools that surround enemy, causing them to explode.)

Healing Technique: Aqua Aurora Antidote! 

(Yes this is the character that’s a little based on Chara Spade from Shugo Chara.)

Name: Lin Shuang

Name Origin: Chinese “Lin” means “Fine Jade” “Shuang” means “Jolly”.

Age: 15

Favorite Treat: Hard to pick but loves mooncakes most of all!

Personality: Lin is full of energy! She’s always working on a costume or a something sweet! Her family owns a restaurant thus learned to cook from them. She’s also got a good vocal range but didn’t pick up on singing until meeting Sirena and Celina. Despite being the most outgoing, she does have a few insecurities. She tends to break under pressure the most but thanks to her friends, she stands back up on her feet and ready to go!

Name: Cure Tailor!

Catchphrase: “Creative and Free like a Playful Breeze! Witch Talent? Cure Tailor!”

Transformation Device: Playful Mini Ruan! (It does become slightly bigger to play properly. Just becomes small for compact size. Sorry I wanted to keep in theme and drum is taken from my special cure which I will reveal later.)

Weapon: Honey Needle (A sewing needle about the size of a cooking spoon)

Finishing Attack: Precure Sweet Sewing! (Sends out a thread of honey from the loop end, that winds around the enemy until they explode)

Healing Technique: Silk Honey

(Was a challenge making her. I wanted to of course make her more Chinese base and not just be a typical maid look.)

Some questions/accusations you probably will have.

“But Tech, they don’t look anything like witches! Least MTP had witch hats!” 

Fear not! They do have witch forms and other forms to change into. In fact, they do transform into their Witch Forms first and then the outfit unravels into their element before their cure clothes pop on. It’s a neat idea in my head and like their hair becomes their element (fire, water, wind) as it makes its transaction to the cure colors. I just haven’t design the Witch Forms yet.

“You know, you could just add original characters instead of just adding the MTP characters as side characters? Don’t be lazy!” 

Again, I have other projects that I want to finish. This is just something I wanna do for fun once in a while. Also, no matter what. Fan anything is just that. Stuff dedicated to a franchise. Even if you do make completely original characters for it, in the end, it’s something you can’t completely call your own because it’s for a universe that already exists. It doesn’t mean you can’t be creative or put effort in. It just can’t be completely, 100% be original. 

I say this because most of the projects I’m doing are original stories and stuff I want to make successful one day. So I speak as someone that does create their own content. That’s why I’m not as harsh towards people who make things for fandom. Fandom is just for fun at the end. It’s just creative ideas made for something you enjoy and you’re free to be creative or lazy as you want. It’s the real original stuff you best know how to put 100% effort in. That’s when it really counts. 

Plus, hey, some of the the MTP characters deserve to be better written. Just think of this as an alternate reality kinda thing, where instead of Maho Tsukai, you have more mature team saving the day.

“Your characters are mary-sues/too talented!”

First off, Mary-Sue is a character that is perfect. No flaws or been through anything bad. (And if they have, it’s overly unrealistically depressing.) They’re also tend to be happy all the time and everyone loves them. All my characters have flaws, they’re not happy all the time and not everyone likes them. Celina is shy and soft spoken. She has a hard time speaking out what she wants. She also withdraws when she’s scared or nervous That’s why she must learn courage. 

Nerissa is independent and tends to push others away, including loved ones. She dresses like a boy to hide her insecurities, weaknesses and to get guys to back off on her, since she kinda hates men in some ways. She doesn’t think all men are bad, but she has a negative view on them, due to having so many negative experiences with them, including a break up and well hate issues with her father. 

And then you have Lin, she’s insecure as hell. She tends to act over excited when she’s nervous and tends to annoy people like that, but she’s also conscious about that. She's afraid of pushing others away and being left alone in the world. When she’s nervous or feeling insecure, she tends to really not think straight thus cause more problems around her.

So yeah, they maybe multi-talented but people are multi-talented in a lot of things. Look at the Go Princess Precure team. They’re talented in almost everything under the sun, yet they still have flaws to keep them grounded and real. It’s all about adding the right and realistic kinda flaws. 

“What’s their Mascot?”

A black fox name Stella, that does talk and she likes to use her own magic to take care of flowers. (Hmm...Could she be a cure?)

They also get their own familiars once they grow in magic.

What are the things they need to collect?

Magic stones. I dunno what to call them. I guess Mythic Change Stones, since they’re like the Linkle Stones. They change the cures into different forms, but I’m having a twist to them and having each transformation using the Mythic Change Stones be based on a mythical creature such as a mermaid, kirin and tengu. These stones fit into the heart gems of their transformation items.

[ladystylestores]

Glu reloads its war chest for mobile game acquisitions

Glu Mobile has grown into a big mobile gaming publisher through both acquisitions and home-grown titles. But as the world changes around the company, Glu is changing with the times.

Back in June, the San Francisco-based company raised $151.8 million in a secondary public offering. That gave it a war chest to pursue new acquisitions. Making good use of that money will be the job of Chris Akhavan, senior vice president for business development, corporate development, and advertising at Glu.

Other rivals such as Scopely have been busy buying other companies. In fact, in the second quarter, the value of game acquisitions and investments topped $7.8 billion, according to data collected by game investment specialist Sergei Evdokimov. During the quarter, Zynga bought Peak Games for $1.85 billion.

But Glu also has its own studios working on titles such as MLB Tap Sports Baseball, Deer Hunter, Covet Fashion, Design Home, and others. It recently published Disney Sorcerer’s Arena, and more games are coming. I talked to Akhavan about the overall strategy.

Here’s an edited transcript of our interview.

Above: Glu Mobile’s Chris Akhavan.

Image Credit: Glu

Chris Akhavan: We issued a secondary, and the total amount was $151.8 million, back in June. That was a great milestone for the company. A big part of that was to give us the flexibility to pursue M&A, something that we’ve kicked off the year with a greater focus on. People don’t realize that Glu has been built on — a lot of our successful titles and studios that we have today, at one point they originated through an acquisition.

Going back to 2011, we acquired Blammo Games. They went on to create the Kim Kardashian game. In 2012 we acquired the Deer Hunter IP from Atari and went on to have a very successful franchise with that IP. We have the next version of Deer Hunter currently in development. In 2013 we acquired a small studio that’s now become our sports studio, with the MLB Tap Sports Baseball franchise, one of our top games. In 2014 we acquired PlayFirst, which made the Diner Dash franchise. Tom Hall was part of that. And then obviously in 2016 we had the CrowdStar acquisition, which brought us a phenomenal studio with Covet Fashion and Design Home.

If you look at the company today, it’s composed of a lot of great teams and IP that originally came to the company through an acquisition. We set out this year thinking that the company was in a good place foundationally. The company had restructured over a number of years to focus on what we call “growth games,” games we operate over the course of a long period of time. We felt like we’re now in a good place where we can bring on another great studio and team into the picture and support their growth. The capital raise was to give us the flexibility to pursue acquisitions if we find a good fit.

Above: Disney Sorcerer’s Apprentice has debuted on iOS and Android.

Image Credit: Glu

GamesBeat: With that amount of capital, are you looking to catch studios in a certain stage of their growth, before they’ve hit the big time?

Akhavan: We look across the spectrum. If you look at our prior deals, like the team that ultimately became our Tap Sports Baseball studio, that was an acqui-hire. At the time, when we met them, it was a three-person team that was passionate about making mobile sports games. They had a cool prototype of a football game that was very mobile friendly, social, and easy to play. We saw a great team we could build with, so we brought them on board and gave them the resources to build out a full studio, and also help them get licenses with MLB and the MLBPA. Over the years that franchise has grown phenomenally. Through the end of Q1 that studio has done $278 million in bookings as part of Glu. That originated from a small three-person acqui-hire.

On the other end of the spectrum, CrowdStar was a more mature studio when we acquired them. They had Covet Fashion live and running for multiple years at the time. They had Design Home in beta. That was a more mature studio that had a great live title and an impending launch. Glu was able to help invest in the studio and grow that studio through scaling up the team even further, investing heavily in user acquisition, and everything else that’s fueled the growth of the studio.

We’re open to the full spectrum, from earlier stage opportunities where we see a good DNA fit that we can help accelerate, through to mature and even potentially more mature than we’ve done in the past. The funding we raised was more to give us the flexibility to pursue anything within the range I talked about. If we do find a good fit, we’re ready to go from a funding perspective to be able to pursue an acquisition.

GamesBeat: How did your role change here, your responsibilities?

Akhavan: I’ve always been involved in corp dev during my seven-plus years at Glu. I’ve worked on our prior deals. But I also used to oversee other parts of the business, including things like marketing and UA. At the beginning of this year, I handed that off to focus more on corp dev. My role now is very corp dev-heavy, but I also still handle biz dev and our advertising revenue business, which continues to be a meaningful business for us. My role change was really letting go of some of the prior parts of the business to focus more on corp dev and our pursuits in that area.

GamesBeat: How does the game industry look for this kind of opportunity now, the M&A opportunity?

Akhavan: We’ve seen continued consolidation. Our peers at companies like Scopely and Zynga and Stillfront have all been active. We think there are still a lot of opportunities out there, and we think that consolidation trend is likely to continue. As the mobile gaming ecosystem evolves, things become more competitive, and scale becomes an increasing advantage. We’re seeing a lot of studios that might be doing well today — they’re starting to see the benefit of becoming a part of a larger player, where they can tap into shared infrastructure, or even just the capital to fuel investment in things like UA. It can give studios more opportunities to focus on making and operating amazing games, while they let the parent company help them with a lot of that central infrastructure and support, so they don’t have to reinvent the wheel on a lot of these building blocks that are more scalable.

GamesBeat: That strategy has almost become a necessity. If everyone else is doing this in the market, then it’s a forcing function. You have to eat or be eaten.

Akhavan: The market is definitely requiring another tier of capability to be successful today. You have to be great in so many areas, from analytics to UA to, in many cases, ad monetization. Product marketing, PR. When you start to add it up, it becomes a sizable effort for even a 50-person or 100-person studio, to build a great game and also be great at all of those additional functions. Whereas plugging into a bigger publisher like Glu, you get access to phenomenal talent that can support you in those areas and allow that core studio to focus on making great products, which is ultimately what studios want to focus their energy on.

GamesBeat: How do you look at the key advantages of Glu? What do you see as something that helps Glu in this strategy?

Akhavan: We’re strong in UA and marketing, for sure. That’s a core strength. But what’s unique about Glu is our focus on growth games. We’re not a high-volume business where we’re cranking out title after title. We’re very selective in investing in titles that we think have that very long growth potential. “Products that can last for decades” is what we always try to create and nurture. Our advantage is having experience in building these growth games and accelerating them and showing that track record of year after year of improvement and growth, going deeper on these properties. Whether it’s Design Home or Tap Sports Baseball, we’re always finding ways to evolve these experiences and deliver more to the audience, as well as finding innovative ways to tap into new audiences.

When we approach a studio, that’s something they find attractive about Glu. When we place a bet on a title or franchise, they know that we’re going to take it seriously and invest deeply, as opposed to other publishers that might dabble in placing many different bets to see which ones work out. We’re more intentional in where we apply our resources and focus. Where we see that potential, we lean in very heavily, and across the spectrum — marketing, UA, and everything else in terms of supporting the studio. For example, things like user research teams that can support them in understanding their audience at a deeper level. That’s important when you’re trying to create that multi-year relationship with your players.

Above: Covet Fashion has introduced more than 50 different female body types.

Image Credit: CrowdStar/Glu

GamesBeat: The example you brought up of the small sports team growing up and being matched with a license, that’s a clear way to unlock the value of that team.

Akhavan: It was similar with our Toronto studio, the one that was acquired in 2011. They had initially created a game called Stardom Hollywood when they joined Glu. Later on, Glu helped them get the partnership with Kim Kardashian, which obviously led to phenomenal success. It’s another example where our expertise in working with IP was something we were able to bring to the table to help a studio succeed.

GamesBeat: What do you think about the potential of mobile games? I spend a lot of time across the whole spectrum, and I recently spent a lot of time with The Last of Us Part II. It’s a very interesting, very satisfying thing to play and write about. I wonder if mobile games can or should have the same kind of ambitions as triple-A games. And if not, what is the opportunity, the thing that could be driven for?

Akhavan: There are definitely opportunities for mobile games to expand beyond what people historically associate with them. It could look different compared to what you might expect from a triple-A PC or console experience. Maybe that’s not exactly what you get on mobile. But as a general theme, offering gamers and consumers much deeper, more meaningful experiences is something that I see developing and evolving in mobile.

Design Home and Covet Fashion are good examples for us, where those are — you could call them games, but they’re really beyond just a game. They’re adding value to the lives of people that interact with those products, giving them an outlet for creativity, an outlet to learn more about design or fashion that impacts their real lives. Ultimately it gives them a connection to other people that have shared interests, where they can collaborate and bounce ideas off each other. Through that I think you’re seeing much deeper connections and experiences developing through mobile games.

Certainly there’s an opportunity, though — a game like Last of Us is a great example of compelling narrative and depth of character development. We haven’t seen a lot of that yet in mobile, but it’s not something that can’t be viable on the platform. You just need to rethink how you deliver it in a way that makes sense on a small phone versus a PC monitor.

GamesBeat: Games for diverse audiences seems to be an area where you’ve excelled. That’s another more fertile direction, maybe.

Akhavan: Those products serve an underserved market. Largely women make up the audience for both of those titles. Traditionally the mobile game industry just says, “Well, we’ll make another farming game, or a match-three game.” Instead, these products offer meaningful connections to the real lives of the people that interact with them. Beyond that, they give a true creative outlet, where they can express and develop their creativity. They operate in spaces that weren’t overly saturated, and where there was this big demand from consumers to have a different kind of interactive entertainment experience that just wasn’t being offered previously.

GamesBeat: As far as the footprint you have, how much interest is there in international markets, like China? Because of where we are with COVID, is there any particular geographic interest in where you want to expand?

Akhavan: Glu is pretty heavily concentrated in North America. We’ve talked in the past about how we have a desire to expand internationally. In particular we’ve been focused on expansion efforts in Europe. It’s something we’re looking for. Should any acquisition fit with an opportunity to expand internationally, that would be a plus.

Touching on what you hinted at with COVID, one of the challenges a lot of people are facing in corp dev, obviously you can no longer travel to studio and do what you typically do, have these multi-day visits where you spend all day on site meeting people and getting a feel for the culture. Those dinners you have after a long day together, where you get more of that personal connection, that’s challenging to do now when we’re on video calls all day.

Fortunately a lot of the relationships we had prior to this all happening, so we can build on those. We’re not letting the current situation slow us down. We’re working on video and doing what we can to maintain the same ability to build those relationships in this new environment we all have to work with. But we’re open to a broad range of geographies in the studios that we talk to.

Above: Glu Mobile’s Design Home.

Image Credit: Glu Mobile

GamesBeat: Looking at the opportunity that you found to raise money this year during the pandemic, games seem better off than many other industries right now.

Akhavan: The game industry has been fortunate. People have turned to gaming more broadly in this time, where other forms of entertainment aren’t available. My personal point of view is it’s also introducing a lot of people that weren’t engaged with games into the gaming world. For the whole industry, we’re going to see this as something that drove an acceleration, more people becoming gamers and finding that games are not just simple entertainment anymore. You can find meaningful friendships and create meaningful relationships through games.

I always tell my wife — I’m a big PC gamer myself, but for me it’s how I go and hang out with my friends. We’re on Discord voice chat with each other while we play a game like Valorant or Counter-Strike. This moment, for a lot of people, has introduced them to the fact that while we can’t connect with each other in person, games provide an outlet to maintain relationships and create new relationships. That’s been one of the positives, if there is one, to come out of the difficult situation we’re going through this year.

GamesBeat: What are you thinking about as far as moving forward with your workforce during this time? We have the pandemic, we have Black Lives Matter, we have sexual harassment crises. All these things are weighing very heavily on the workforce.

Akhavan: Personally I’ve been inspired by how Glu has responded to what’s happened with the Black Lives Matter movement in particular. We’ve addressed that in a big way internally. We’re having a lot of conversations here, and we’ve rolled out training programs for all of our employees on unconscious bias, allyship, power and privilege. This morning I was working on unconscious bias training. It’s nice to see that Glu is stepping up within our organization and working directly to support the cause. In addition, we’ve made a donation to the NAACP and the Equal Justice Initiative. I’ve seen similar from a lot of other gaming companies. I’ve been inspired to see the industry step up and play an important role there.

In terms of the working from home environment that we’re dealing with, Glu has been listening closely to our talent and understanding what’s working, what’s not working. People have mixed challenges. Everyone is very productive from home, so it’s been a great moment where we as an organization have learned that people can be incredibly productive in this remote format. But that comes with some challenges. There’s been burnout in being on Zoom video all day, not having that real-life personal connection. Not everyone has a nice dedicated office space at home. Maybe they don’t have the right equipment they need. They have to deal with those challenges.

We’re working with our talent in the short term to make this as comfortable as possible, including giving mandatory company days off. People aren’t taking vacations now, and we want to make sure they’re taking time to rest. It’s hard to do that when everyone’s plugged into their computers, so we have full company shutdown days we add on top of normal holidays.

Beyond that, in the long term we’re looking at how to evolve, potentially, the work structure between working at home and being in an office. We’re seeing big benefits to working at home. The future of work, even well beyond COVID, could be very different than it was pre-COVID. We could have a world where people work from their homes part of the week, and then come to the office for a couple of days a week with more of an intention to spend that time meeting with other people. You could see more of this hybrid office and home model being more prevalent coming out of the pandemic.

Above: Chris Akhavan (left) and Nick Earl (CEO of Glu) stand at the entrance to Glu’s new headquarters.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

GamesBeat: One thing I’ve been thinking about a bit is stories that have to do with the evolution of the game industry. I look at something like EA in 2008, when they had 60 games in development, and now they launch maybe six or eight games a year, but the revenue and profit are far bigger than they used to be.

Akhavan: We have a miniature version of that. Back when I joined in early 2013, the company was cranking out games all the time. I feel like the month I joined, that month alone, the company put out three games. It was a very different model. There were a lot of sequels, Frontline Commando 2 and so on. That rinse and repeat cycle — put out a game, monetize it for six to nine months, and then you have the next game coming out. Certainly we’ve also made that evolution toward the growth game philosophy of investing in fewer properties, but in a much more meaningful, long-term way.

GamesBeat: I wonder about changes in the whole industry, like the rise of hypercasual games. How might that affect Glu?

Akhavan: Hypercasual has been interesting. We’ve obviously been keeping an eye on that market, given how significant a share of downloads have gone toward hypercasual games. It’s a net positive for the whole market, because hypercasual is a great way to introduce people that are not even casual gamers — maybe you get them into these snack-sized 20-second session games, and then that’s a pathway for them to get into more meaningful and long-term engagement games.

We know that’s happening, because if you play those hypercasual games — play a level, die in 10 seconds — the ads you typically get are for more long-term live ops-oriented, free-to-play games that are designed for longer sessions. We’re seeing hypercasual as this interesting funnel that maybe brings in a very casual consumer, gets them familiar with games, and then potentially, through the ads they see in those hypercasual games, they ultimately move into deeper gaming experiences.

GamesBeat: On the M&A side, how much might you consider that market?

Akhavan: We’re genre agnostic in general when it comes to M&A, but if you look at our prior track record, we do a lot of analysis to understand where the opportunities are in the market. I talked about the sports studio. Back then we saw a big opportunity for mobile free-to-play sports that was wide open. Baseball in particular did not have a top-grossing game. That was one where we thought there was a huge opportunity to invest. We also talked about Design Home and Covet Fashion as being products that were sitting in their own categories.

What I’ll say about that, we’re genre agnostic. We’re willing to look at studios across a wide variety of genres. But we ultimately want to invest in opportunities where we think there’s a differentiated market to go after, or a significantly growing market where we can grab a meaningful share. We tend to shy away from hyper-competitive, hyper-saturated markets, like the social casino market. That’s one we’ve historically avoided, where you have these massive players in a hyper-competitive situation.

GamesBeat: How do you look at some of these long-time franchises, like Diner Dash? How often do you need to refresh that or change its direction or otherwise keep it generating revenue?

Akhavan: I want to say that PlayFirst started in the early 2000s on PC. We acquired the studio in 2014. Since joining Glu, they’ve launched a total of four versions of Diner Dash. The first was the initial Diner Dash when they joined, which was the first smartphone, truly free-to-play Diner Dash. They took the learnings from that and launched Cooking Dash, which was very successful, along with the Gordon Ramsay Restaurant Dash game. Then Diner Dash Adventures is the most recent installment in that franchise, launching last year. While there’s been new SKUs launched in that franchise, it’s really been an evolution of the franchise itself, that team learning what their audience is looking for and refining their approach. It’s been a multi-year investment in the Dash franchise.

GamesBeat: What do you consider to be some of the biggest areas of investment for you internally right now?

Akhavan: We’re very focused on our growth games. We’ll continue to invest heavily in Design Home and Covet Fashion, as well as our baseball title. In terms of pipeline, we have a new Deer Hunter in development, and then a couple of games beyond that. We’re also continuing to invest in the Disney Sorcerer’s Arena game that we recently launched. The internal focus is continuing to refine and evolve experiences across those titles. We’re always looking to up-level our central infrastructure and be able to offer even more compelling tool sets over time to the studios we work with.

GamesBeat: How do you decide that you need to let go of a game, give it a break, or otherwise feel like you can’t be the most competitive in a particular space?

Akhavan: If I look back to the past couple of years, there have been titles that we ended up walking away from, or de-emphasizing. We had a WWE game that we created and launched, and it just didn’t hit the mark. The KPIs weren’t where we needed them to be. We gave it a good effort and tried to continue to refine, and after a while of doing that we concluded that the gap we’d need to fill to make that a viable business in the long term was just too great. We redeployed that team’s resources to other titles.

We try to be very data-driven, and also consumer insights-driven. Look at the data and understand it, but also layer on the more subjective pieces that you can get through consumer insights, get that holistic view of how users are experiencing a game. Whenever we decide to not invest in a product, it’s because the signals coming from across that spectrum of data and insights are telling us that we’re too far off the mark to create a long-term successful growth game.

GamesBeat: When it comes to leadership from women in game companies, and Glu in particular, how are you thinking about that, making that possible?

Akhavan: It’s been a big priority for us, part of our effort to improve in terms of diversity and inclusion. We’ve added two women to our board recently. We’ve taken direct action there. It’s an area where we need to continue to address and improve diversity across the spectrum of our talent.

GamesBeat: How big do you think mobile is going to get, and how fast is it going to grow toward the kind of numbers people are talking about? Newzoo was talking about 3 billion gamers by 2024. How should we think about that? How much do you think companies should try to grow as a result?

Akhavan: We’re obviously very bullish on the prospects for mobile in the long term. We’re still in the early days. Mobile games are evolving quickly. There’s so much room to improve and develop more meaningful experiences. When you look at things we’ve talked about in this conversation, whether it’s hypercasual or games like what CrowdStar brought to market, games that brought in new audiences that were not previously gamers, that trend will continue. We’ll continue to see interesting, compelling new experiences offered in the mobile gaming world that will bring in the next wave of consumers that don’t necessarily interact with any games today. There’s a lot of reason to believe that this market has plenty of room left to grow.

GamesBeat: How do you work with Nick Earl?

Akhavan: I work with him every day. He’s hugely supportive. He’s always willing to get involved. We have conversations with the studios. He’s passionate about our culture and how we operate at Glu. He does a great job of walking new teams through what that looks like, so they know that if they do become a part of Glu, they’re walking into a culture that we’ve built with a lot of care and intention. Nick has been critical in that process, being that voice for the company. He’s there all the time to collaborate and bounce ideas off him. He’s always willing to directly engage with new teams.

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[jkshasha]

The History of Pokémon

1996

On Feb. 26, 1996, Nintendo releases the first two Pocket Monster, or Pokémon, games in Japan, introducing the classic gameplay and first generation of collectible monsters. (The Green version remains Japan-only.)

1998

Nintendo debuts its Pokémon franchise in the U.S. with the slightly revamped Red and Blue versions. They quickly become a cultural phenomenon as people of all ages team up to try to catch ‘em all.

1998 sees the release of the first in what becomes a long line of Pokémon spinoffs. This original Pokémon Stadium come pretty limited, however, and stays put in Japan.

1999

U.S. gamers get their first look at Pokémon in 3D. The coolest part of this one-of-a-kind Pokémon game is that players can bring in their cartridges to Blockbuster to print out real copies of their Pokémon photos.

Nintendo adds a twist to Pokémon Red and Blue in this “third version” of the mainline RPG series: Trainers travel across the Kanto region with a Pikachu following along behind them on-screen. The popular Pokémon anime is an obvious influence over this game.

2000

Pokémon has established itself among three major pillars: cartoon, games and trading cards. This release combines those latter two categories for a more portable experience of the best-selling card game.

A beefier version of Stadium makes its way stateside and is a commercial hit. Players come for the 3D Pokémon battles — using their own collected monsters — but stay for the party-style minigames.

Nintendo launches the second generation of Pokémon characters with Gold and Silver. These games have an increased color palette, even more collectibles and the most gyms of any other Pokémon game. The original eight gyms are unlocked after clearing Gold and Silver’s set of eight new ones, nearly doubling the playtime.

Pokémonfans get their first chance to talk directly to the popular Pokémon in this console game, which shipped with a microphone. At least, they get to talk to Pikachu when the game recognizes their commands, which it rarely does.

Nintendo releases this Pokémon-style Tetris Attack in the fall of 2000. It launches first in the U.S. and uses characters directly from the popular cartoon.

The Game Boy Color companion to Puzzle League takes a more typical approach, using Pokémon and gym leaders from the recent Gold and Silver games.

2001

The sequel to Pokémon Stadium has even more Pokémon to battle, even better minigames to play and even lets you play your Game Boy games on your TV with the N64’s Transfer Pack.

For the first time ever, a Pokémon RPG offers players a choice of selectable character: a boy or a girl. This later becomes a default option in the mainline games.

2003

The Game Boy Advance’s improved graphics makes for a brighter, bolder Pokémon game. Some fans, however, decry these third generation games' insistence on water-related quests, despite all of the other added features.

Pinball and Pokémon make for a great pairing, especially in this third generation take for the GBA. Too bad this is the second and last time the two games mix.

The Pokémon Company realizes that, if fans like watching Pokémon and playing Pokémon, why not combine the two? Thus this TV watching simulator is born, quickly earning its place as one of the stranger games in the canon.

2004

This darkly tinged console RPG introduces Shadow Pokémon, which players can steal from other trainers and restore back to normal. This marks the first game by the studio Genius Sonority, which will go on to develop other Pokémon titles. Many buyers pick up the game to grab the included legendary Pokémon Jirachi download.

The original games are remade for the current generation. Nostalgic players appreciate the return of the original Pokémon while newer ones are into the graphics and new modes, like the Vs. Seeker. These games see the return of a female playable character, too.

2005

The first Pokémon DS game is a top-down racing game starring Pikachu. It’s more of an early showcase for the touchscreen than an in-depth, entertaining game in its own right.

Pokémon Emerald arrives two years after its predecessors. This third generation game adds the Battle Frontier to the game, throwing in tons of extra battles for players to take part in.

Genius Sonority crafts a follow-up to Pokémon Colosseum, bringing back the Shadow Pokémon and snagging mechanic of the earlier game.

2006

Genius Sonority’s next Pokémon release is this stylish puzzler, in which players must match up lines of Pokémon heads to clear the game board. It’s an addicting model that won’t see a sequel for several years.

The Pokémon franchise meets the Japanese Mystery Dungeon series for a pair of dungeon crawlers. This time, the playable characters are a selection of Pokémon themselves. Which Pokémon you’ll play as is decided by an in-game quiz.

In 2006, Pokémon Ranger iterates on the classic Pokémon collecting model: The game employs the DS stylus to capture Pokémon. Instead of Pokeballs, players must draw circles around the monsters to collect them.

2007

The Pokémon Company brings the RPGs to the DS with this fourth generation pair of games. The wait of four years between generations is the longest fans have ever had to sit through.

The Wii receives this battle-centric spinoff in 2007. It’s like Pokémon Stadium without the charming bonus features.

2008

Pokémon Ranger gets an update starring a new cast of characters but keeping the unique gameplay.

New generation of Pokémon, new Mystery Dungeon.

2009

Pokémon Platinum takes trainers back to the world of Pearl and Diamond — and, in a unique twist, to an alternate dimension, too. Certain legendary Pokémon also receive new forms for their Platinum appearance too.

Explorers of Sky is a slight tweak on Explorers of Time and Darkness, bringing the added "third version" concept to the Mystery Dungeon series.

In this WiiWare exclusive, Pokémon are transformed into tiny toy-like characters. It’s a simplistic, button mashing-heavy game that sees later iterations, including a free-to-start version on 3DS.

2010

The Pokémon Company remade its biggest pair of games for the DS and added even more new great stuff, like the option to let any Pokémon follow behind its trainer. The amount of content available in these games is staggering, especially thanks to the DS’ modern online capabilities.

Pikachu goes on one of its lighthearted solo adventures, although there are other Pokémon accompanying it along the way.

The DS gets its last Ranger game — and the latest release of that spinoff series, which hasn't been heard from since.

2011

Generation five adds more Pokémon, of course, but also new battle styles: Rotation and Triple battles. These are quickly abandoned. The Pokémon Global Link, allowing players to interact with their Pokémon on their computers, is an interesting online feature, at least.

Pokémon Rumble brings its toy-like monsters to Nintendo's handheld.

2012

Pikachu returns to the PokéPark, this time with friends from the fifth generation of monsters.

Tecmo Koei develops 2012’s most curious Pokémon release, which is a crossover with historical strategy RPG series Nobunaga’s Ambition.

The Pokémon Company eschews the traditional third version to instead give Black and White full sequels. These games offer a totally new story set in the earlier games’ region.

2013

Mystery Dungeon's 3DS debut.

Wii U eShop gets a downloadable Pokémon game with a new iteration of Rumble.

The 3DS finally receives its mainline games in 2013. Generation six has a deeper online component than ever before, as well as a bevy of trainer customization options from haircut to skin color.

2014

Genius Sonority brings Trozei back after an eight-year break.

Pokémon fanart comes to the 3DS.

Eleven years after their initial release, Ruby and Sapphire get a new coat of paint plus X and Y’s modern amenities.

2015

The Pokémon Company sends the franchise to mobile with this free-to-play take on Pokémon Battle Trozei. It still receives frequent updates in the form of new legendaries to hunt down for a limited time.

The 3DS gets another version of Rumble — this time with microtransactions.

This newest Mystery Dungeon features all 720 currently available Pokémon. Only 20 of them are available to play as, however.

At the tail end of 2015, the franchise gets another free-to-start title with this remixed version of unique puzzle game Picross.

2016

Japan gets the first new Pokémon game of 2016 as a 3DS eShop exclusive. It’s got a talking Pikachu, quick-time events and a lot of quirky charm — but no Western release date as of yet.

Bandai Namco first sends this game out to arcades in 2015, but launches it worldwide this spring. It’s a Tekken-inspired fighting game, the first arcade fighter the franchise has ever starred in.

Niantic, the developers of augmented reality game Ingress, team up with Nintendo for a new take on its popular real world exploration app. This is as close as Pokémon has come to being a reality — for now, anyway.

In its most recent Nintendo Direct, the company announces that the next games in the franchise are Sun and Moon. Are they the first titles in generation seven? More will be revealed before their holiday release.

[infotainmentplus-blog]

PUBG vs PUBG mobile: the ten biggest differences Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) took the gaming world by storm in 2017. Since then it has lost some ground to other battle royale games like Fortnite. In an attempt to reinvigorate this initial steam, Brendan Greene’s PUBG franchise has a new trick up its sleeve — PUBG Mobile. Although PUBG clones have been around for a while now (some are now subject to litigation), the international version of PUBG Mobile hit Android devices well ahead of Fortnite Mobile, which is still only on iOS. Editor's Pick 15 best free Android games of 2018! We all know that free Android games aren't always free these days, but many of them are very close if you have a little patience. Most Freemium bottlenecks occur when players get impatient and waiting … For those who have played the PC version, PUBG Mobile will feel familiar in many ways. Obvious design limitations mean the journey to your first chicken dinner might not follow the same path. Here are the ten biggest differences when it comes to PUBG vs PUBG mobile. Free-to-play model and loot changes This is probably one of the biggest differences you’ll find in this PUBG vs PUBG mobile comparison. Learning from the success of Fortnite’s free-to-play (F2P) model, PUBG Mobile can be downloaded and played completely free of charge. It features what you would expect from any F2P title, like daily login rewards, experience, level ups, missions, free crates, and all that. Most missions entail killing a certain number of players or other simple in-game actions, and give both experience points and Activity points as a reward. As players gain Activity points and reach certain thresholds, they are rewarded with up to 5 free crates every day. Experience points level up player accounts, which unlocks new avatars. Like the PC version, Battle Points (BP) is used to open crates, starting at 700 BP and increasing for each additional crate opened each week. Purchases have no effect on gameplay Some players might be turned off by the F2P model, but in this case purchases have no effect whatsoever on gameplay. Plus, the PC version now has paid crates with unique clothing options and weapon skins too, and it still costs 30 bucks. F2P doesn’t sound so bad now, does it? Different game modes and no FPP Although the original PUBG Russian island map Erangel has been faithfully adapted for the mobile version, none of the other maps are currently available. The first person perspective mode that’s completely taken over the competitive scene is also notably absent, although it still features Solo, Duo, and Squad mode gameplay. The most recent update added a new training mode to sharpen your aim and practice driving, as well as the mobile-only Arcade Mode with just 24 players on a smaller map. It’s a similar concept to the new Savage map on the PC version, and it does wonders to bring matches down to a more mobile-friendly duration. It’s unlocked at level 10, so you’ll have to play several games first. The Chinese version of PUBG Mobile just got access to the Central America-inspired Miramar map, so it should hit the international version soon. Range indicators on the minimap One of the first things PC PUBG veterans will notice as they parachute down to the battlefield for the thousandth time is that this version features range indicators for both squad members and markers. There is also a dotted line showing the exact path the plane will follow, making it even easier to make the perfect landing. In many ways, this is actually an improvement over the PC version. The indicators mean you don’t need to open up the map to see how far away squad members are or gauge distance between you and an objective. Vehicles that you’ve recently used are also marked on the mini map, and a small indicator at the top of the screen points you toward the safe zone. All of these features make it much easier to stay oriented on the battlefield. Completely redesigned controls and HUD Of all the changes you’ll find in this PUBG vs PUBG mobile comparison, this is probably one of the most crucial. In the past, the FPS genre has really suffered from the lack of a mouse and keyboard on mobile devices. Virtual buttons and control pads are how most games attempt to solve this problem, and PUBG mobile continues this trend. All of the actions you can take on the PC version — strafing, crouching, jumping, vaulting, going prone, using meds, and more — have a button right on the heads up display. This can feel a bit overwhelming at first, but after a few minutes everything feels completely natural. It's definitely one of the best FPS experiences on Android Although I found the default most comfortable, there are three different pre-set control schemes to choose from, with additional options to customize the heads-up display (HUD) entirely. Sprinting and peeking are also in the game, but the latter needs to be enabled in the settings, first. It’s not mouse-and-keyboard smooth, but it’s definitely one of the best FPS experiences available on Android. Related Articles 10 best FPS games for Android FPS games (first person shooters) are among the most exciting game genres out there. It is one of the most popular genres ever. Additionally, a variety of high-value games have come from it, including Halo, … 15 best Android games of 2018! Gaming on mobile has been improving at a far greater rate than any technology that came before it. Android games seems to hit new heights every year. With the release of Android Nougat and Vulkan … Glass-less windows and interior remodeling While Erangel is largely left intact, some of the more difficult to navigate buildings have been simplified for the mobile port. This means no more maze buildings, redesigned open-plan interiors, and most importantly, windows without glass. It might seem like a small change, but open-air windows have a significant effect on gameplay. Shooting or vaulting through windows will no longer tip off all players in the vicinity, which gives an advantage to those who play more creatively. Editor's Pick Best budget phones ($500 and under) There are a lot of great phones out there, but the reality is many of them cost well over $500. In 2017 we even saw flagships reach the $1,000 mark. So what if you want … These changes might make the game a bit less beautiful, but they are critical to getting the game to run smoothly on budget devices. In fact, it looks and works better than the Xbox version in many ways — so well some PC players might wonder what PUBG would be like if developed by one of Tencent Games’ triple-A studios (which include Riot Games, Supercell, and to a lesser extent, Fortnite’s Epic Games). Direction indicators on the HUD and minimap To make up for the fact that most players won’t be playing with high-end headphones (or muted in the back of the classroom), PUBG Mobile adds several indicators to help orient players in the heat of battle. In a world where fewer and fewer devices have headphone jacks, this feature is more than just a luxury. When shots ring out in the distance, a small icon on the minimap shows the general direction of the sound. Similarly, when you are shot by another player, a flashing damage indicator points toward the culprit. Footsteps (which are much louder) will also trigger a directional indicator on the minimap. Learning how to quickly react to this information could be the difference between a chicken dinner and cold leftover pizza. Related Articles LG G7 ThinQ may have a notch, but new renders show a headphone jack too @evleaks The official LG G7 ThinQ unveiling is around the corner, but when has that ever stopped leaks? The latest renders, published by notable leaker Evan Blass, show a few more details about the upcoming flagship … Finally! High quality wireless headphones for under $80 Get your kicks from AAPicks today with a deal which we think you’re going to enjoy: 69% off TREBLAB Z2 Wireless Noise-Cancelling Headphones. If you’re in the market for some high-quality Wireless headphones, but you don't … Simplified scavenging with auto-loot The game’s Auto Pick-Up feature greatly simplifies looting, picking up weapons if you have empty slots, or replacing pistols with something more powerful. Any attachments or ammo for the weapons you’re carrying are picked up as well. It even switches out lower-level armor, helmets, and backpacks for any higher-level ones you encounter. Auto Pick-Up is absolutely an improvement over the PC (and Xbox, for that matter) version. While you can still open up your inventory and customize your kit however you see fit, this feature lets players focus on what’s really fun about the game: gunning down opponents. Auto-loot can be turned off in the game’s settings for a more PC-like experience, but it works so well that there’s really no reason to. To make things even easier, there’s also a setting to automatically open doors when you walk into them. Reduced recoil and auto-aim Accounting for weapon recoil is often what separates the pros from the scrubs in PUBG for PC. On mobile devices it’s virtually impossible to control such tiny micro-movements. To combat this, PUBG Mobile gives players a little help with reduced recoil and auto-aim. Auto-aim does not equal auto-win, and it can be disabled in the settings for an even greater challenge. Essentially it guides your reticle ever so slightly to help you hit the target. There is also an option to use your phone’s gyroscope to make tiny adjustments in your aim while shooting from the hip or aiming down a scope. Auto-aim does not equal auto-win Reduced recoil, however, has a much bigger impact on gameplay. Combined with auto-aim, it makes any automatic weapon much more powerful, so don’t pass up any opportunity to snag an AR. The game will also conveniently switch it to automatic when you pick it up. Sniper rifles in PUBG Mobile are powerful too, and you can still ADS to take advantage of that 8x scope you looted off your last victim. Plus, since it’s much more difficult to move and shoot at the same time, lots of players stand still in firefights. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Vehicles much easier to control Vehicles also make an appearance in PUBG mobile, and are still the best way to cover long distances when the safe zone spawns halfway across the map. You still need to gas them up when their tank runs empty, but fortunately they are much easier to control. The “realistic vehicle physics” of the PC version take the backseat to usability in PUBG Mobile. There are three different control schemes to choose from, and it’s more difficult to lose control and start rolling until the car explodes. In fact, driving head-first into a tree doesn’t seem to do any damage to the player at all in most cases. Related Articles 15 best racing games for Android Racing games are among the most popular in all of mobile gaming. It was the first genre to overcome the lack of physical buttons on smartphones well enough that it made the games worth playing. … Bots populate lower level games Right after the game was released, countless PUBG veterans took to the web to brag about winning a chicken dinner in their very first game. As The Verge and others noted, most of the opponents in a player’s first few matches are bots. It’s easy to tell the difference between bots and real players. They often pop up out of nowhere, take a few shots at you from an open field, then flail around helplessly as you gun them down. It’s possible some are just truly terrible players, but either way it makes for a better first experience with the game. Most of the opponents in a player's first few matches are bots Developer and mobile gaming powerhouse Tencent hasn’t commented on the use of bots in the game, but it’s probably to ensure quick matchmaking and easy transitions for new players. Fortunately, you’ll see a greatly reduced number of bots (and win rates) at higher levels. If you aren’t able to take home a chicken dinner against bots, check out this list of tips and tricks for PUBG Mobile. PUBG vs PUBG mobile: Conclusion So that’s it for our PUBG vs PUBG mobile comparison. For both newbies and experienced players alike, PUBG Mobile is a great way to experience the best multiplayer game of 2017. Although there have been a few changes, it definitely still feels like PUBG. And that’s good news for mobile gaming. How to you think PUBG vs PUBG mobile compare? Does the mobile version live up to the standards set by the PC version? Let us know in the comments! , via Android Authority http://bit.ly/2Fmx7XG

[symbianosgames]

Street Fighter 2 is one of the only games that truly deserve to be called "genre-defining" -- today, 25 years after SF2's release, we can see that practically every fighting game out there has adopted its core game design principles as industry-standard gospel, with only a few tweaks here and there to stand out from the crowd.

If you're the average consumer or dev, or even if you're an experienced fighting game competitor, you probably aren't all that familiar with all the games that have tried to make major changes to the fighting game template.

So, in celebration of SF2's 25th anniversary, I'm going to walk through some of the fascinating deviations and beautiful experiments that fighting game devs took to try and change SF2's fighting game formula. Studying these games may inspire you in your own designs, or may suggest ways to tinker with the paradigm you're currently wokring within.

I'm going to try to avoid the other well-known franchises (if you know Street Fighter, you probably also know Mortal Kombat and Tekken) and focus on the weird stuff... for education's sake!

A quick note about me: I've written a (free) book that teaches fighting game fundamentals using Street Fighter, as well as educational fighting game streams and videos, and I'm the community manager for a free-to-play PC fighting game currently in public technical alpha called Rising Thunder. You might also like my previous Gamasutra article, Street Fighter for Designers: Top 8 Lessons from Evo 2015.

Asuka 120% Burning Fest (Fill-in Cafe, 1994): Clash system and simplified inputs

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SF2 may have set the foundations for the 2D fighter genre, but there are several notable games that have poked and prodded at some of the genre's conventions while keeping a similar format.

Shoutouts to ex-Game Developer magazine editor-in-chief Brandon Sheffield for introducing me to Asuka 120% Burning Fest, a Japanese 2D fighter from the post-SF2 boom. Not only did it swap the standard martial-artists-from-around-the-world fighter cast with high school girls representing their various club activities (including the chemistry and biology clubs), but it also made two notable system changes. 

One was the "clash system": in SF2, if two attacks collide simultaneously, both players take damage and go into hitstun, but in Asuka 120%, both characters will just go on into the next hit-phase of the move. The second was a significantly simplified input system -- pretty much everyone has the same special move codes, meaning that if you could perform one character's moves, you could perform all of them.

Combined, both systems made for a fascinating permutation of the SF2 standard. With the clash system, the number of hits in a move are relevant for determining who wins a clash -- and since the window to cancel a move into another move is fairly lax, players can clash across entire combo routes before one of them wins out and takes damage. All told, Asuka 120% does a lot with these relatively simple system tweaks to make a traditional 2D fighting game more accessible and less intimidating without feeling like a lesser SF2. The developers of Asuka 120% Burning Fest eventually went to Treasure, where they reused some of the core concepts in their fighting games.

Weaponlord (Visual Concepts, 1995): An online fighting game in '95

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Others have done good work unearthing Weaponlord's history as an interesting-but-ill-timed attempt by early American fighting game devs to challenge SF2's success, so if you want to know the whole story, check out the GameSpy interview with James Goddard and Dave Winstead, GameSpot's Forging Weaponlord, and the Hardcore Gaming 101 writeup.

From a modern game design perspective, the most notable contribution Weaponlord made to fighting games the active defense system called the "thrust block" -- a versatile parry that served as a high-risk, high-reward defensive option. This a relatively new innovation for the time, but more interesting to contemporary devs is this tidbit from the GameSpot interview with James Goddard, where he mentions that the thrust block was designed with zero-frame startup specifically as a concession to online play via the XBAND dialup peripheral.

That's right: A Super Nintendo game in 1995 was designed around internet play. Personally, as someone currently working on a fighting game built around online multiplayer over broadband, I can't imagine designing a 2D fighting game for ~250ms travel times, yet there they were, handling sync timing and tweaking frame data to make the game playable over a modem. Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that Goddard is currently design director on Killer Instinct for Microsoft, a game which has been lauded in core fighting game circles for having better-than-average netcode.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (Capcom, 2000): The best team fighter

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Capcom had found plenty of success doing crossover fighting games during the late '90s, as their concurrent work on Street Fighter Alpha, Darkstalkers, and various licensed Marvel fighting games gave them plenty of readily reusable assets to keep the games coming. This peaked with Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, a three-on-three tag match slugfest so chaotic that even genre veterans could barely parse what is happening on screen at any given time.

Capcom's earlier crossover games (X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, and Marvel vs. Capcom) had treated tag-team two-on-twos much like a similar pro wrestling match: You had one character on the field responding to your controls, and certain moves would allow you to tag them in, summon them for a brief assist attack, or perform a joint hyper combo together. MvC2 largely kept the same basic structure, but the addition of a third team member shifted the emphasis toward developing teams that synergized effectively between the three.

The ideal MvC2 team must take into account how well any given character can use the other two assists; how much super meter the team needs to build for each character to do its job, and how long it'll take to generate that meter before the opponent does; how well the team can recover from opponent-inflicted forced tag-outs (called "snapbacks"); and several other factors before even considering how effective the player is at controlling any of their characters individually.

It's a strange testament to MvC2's design that even though competitive play revolves around roughly 1/5th of the 56-character cast, the dozens of permutations available with just those characters are enough to have kept the game interesting for over a decade. The net effect is that MvC2, by virtue of its three-on-three format, has gotten the closest out of any fighting game to a compelling competitive 'build-your-own-character' mode.

Guilty Gear (Arc System Works, 1998): The 2D fighter for people who love 2D fighters

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As Guilty Gear is still very much alive and kicking, I'll keep this brief. With GG and its sister series BlazBlue, Arc System Works has forgotten more about traditional 2D fighting games than most studios will ever begin to explore. Each GG character is practically its own fighting game at this point, often with resources and mechanics that exist only for that specific character -- and they're bound together by a set of core shared systems and mechanics that would be enough to populate five Street Fighters. If you're ever trying to design a character for pretty much anything, it's worth your time to dig through the GG library, because ASW probably did something like that way before you did.

Highlights include: Bridget, a young boy dressed as a nun who fights with a yo-yo that must be carefully placed and moved across the screen; Zato-1, a blind assassin who fights by summoning his shadow (which responds to the player's joystick inputs and button releases, meaning the player must simultaneously handle two characters with one controller, and time their button presses and releases appropriately); Venom, another assassin who lays pool balls across the screen to create intricate setups off their chain collisions; and most recently, Jack-O, whose minion-summoning mechanics draw more from a MOBA than a fighting game.

Bushido Blade (Light Weight, 1997): Real-enough samurai duels

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One frequent criticism of traditional fighting games is that they don't look or feel like a real fight does, leading a handful of developers to build games aiming for a more realistic experience without getting into the sporty nature of a Fight Night or UFC game.

When I put the call out on Twitter for suggestions for this list, Bushido Blade was hands-down the most frequent response. Instead of street fighting, Bushido Blade aimed to recreate the thrill of a samurai duel by breaking out from the 2D plane into free-roaming 3D environments and designing a realistic damage system; you could block or parry, but if you ate a clean hit it was either going to injure a limb or kill you outright.

When most fighting games were going for more systems, more characters, more stylized graphics, more combos, and generally digging itself deeper in a hole of genre esoterica, Bushido Blade felt simple and clean. Interestingly enough, its legacy is best felt not in any major triple-A fighting game, but in indie games Nidhogg and Divekick.

Fighters Destiny (Genki, 1998): Point-sparring in a fighting game

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Of all the core design elements to mess with, Fighters Destiny arguably picked the most-core element to change. Rather than determine a victor using health bars, Fighters Destiny implemented a point system inspired somewhat by competitive karate, where players would fight until one scored a point by inflicting a ring out, knockdown, or other specific conditions, at which point the action would reset and the fight would resume.

Fighters Destiny certainly didn't leave any lasting impacts on the genre overall, but it's certainly an experiment worth considering further. Contemporary fighting games built around life meters and the best-two-of-three rounds system make it easy to snowball early advantages into a victory, because players have to earn a mid-round reset by doing something to get the opponent off their back and into a neutral state, at which point the defending player is forced to play aggressively and make bigger bets to win the round from a life deficit. With the point sparring model, you get to emphasize the players' jousting for superiority from a neutral state over their ability to snowball a small advantage into a bigger one, leading to more exciting matches for competitors and spectators alike.

Buriki One: World Grapple Tournament '99 in Tokyo (SNK, 1999): 2D MMA

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Buriki One is a curious one. Where SNK's core lay in their 2D fighter pantheon (King of Fighters and Fatal Fury, among others), Buriki One was an attempt to tie the outlandish characters of a typical fighting game into a game that felt more like Pride, the Japanese mixed martial arts event promotion that swept the country in the late '90s and early 2000s. (Ryo Sakazaki from Art of Fighting actually shows up as a playable character!)

What we end up with in Buriki One is a game that looks like a sports-fighting game, like any pro wrestling, boxing, or MMA game, but plays on a 2D plane. Part of this change entailed swapping the attack controls to the joystick (up for a heavy, slow attack, down for a quick, light attack, and toward for a medium attack) and the movement controls to two buttons that move your fighter left or right.

Given the realistic setting, this actually makes a certain amount of sense, especially if you think of Buriki One as an attempt to convert Pride fans to fighting games. If your goal is to simplify a core fighting game experience, it makes sense to try focusing less on the importance of positioning in a 2D plane, which is often hard for new players to learn and understand, and more on interactions between the different attacks.

Virtua Fighter (Sega, 1993): Welcome to the third dimension...kind of    

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Bringing fighting games to the third dimension is not a trivial task, particularly because the established genre conventions call for the arcade-standard eight-way joystick and buttons to be used for both inputting move codes and navigating space. Once you've solved those problems, though, you still kind of need to figure out how to use the third dimension to, well, add depth to the actual fighting experience.

Sega's Virtua Fighter was the first fighting game to try 3D -- though when it comes to the actual gameplay, the devs kept it to fighting in a 2D plane until Virtua Fighter 3 introduced the sidestep mechanic to the series. VF's biggest contribution to the genre was arguably designing movesets around three buttons (punch, kick, and block) and a simpler set of motions -- usually combinations of single-direction inputs and button presses, often used in preset chains.

This made learning a character's moveset less about complicated joystick execution and more about memorizing a wider set of context-specific moves, which later turned out to be useful for freeing up the joystick so players could use it to more easily navigate a 3D space. Also, Virtua Fighter added ring-outs as another win condition; knocking your opponent off the platform immediately wins you the round.

Battle Arena Toshinden (Tamsoft, 1995): Sidestepping

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Battle Arena Toshinden was another one of the early 3D fighting games -- and that's usually the main thing people remember it for. However, it is generally recognized as the first fighting game to work in all three dimensions via the sidestep mechanic, where players can use the L and R shoulder buttons to dodge projectiles without sacrificing position. Most 3D fighting games now use different permutations of a sidestep, though DreamFactory's Tobal No. 1 was notable for using more of a free-roam style navigation system.

Soul Calibur (Namco, 1999): Full movement with eight-way run

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Namco had made a splash in 3D fighting games with both Tekken and Soul Edge, but the difference between the two games was mostly thematic (contemporary martial arts vs. fantasy weapon fighting) until its sequel Soul Calibur. Soul Calibur was arguably one of the first games to truly embrace all three dimensions; in addition to the simple sidestep, many attacks often included Z-axis movement as part of the animation, and players could actually shift into an eight-way-run movement stance that gave you access to a different subset of moves. The end result was that Soul Calibur felt like an excellent compromise between the samurai fantasy of Bushido Blade's free-roaming duels and a traditional fighting game.

Cyber Troopers Virtual-On (Sega, 1995): Mobility in sustained projectile fights

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When we look back at the fighting game canon, one thing stands out about SF2 and its numerous sequels: Projectile attacks are very, very important. Indeed, most of the subsequent Street Fighter series are largely defined by the systems they implement in order to avoid non-stop douken-fests. However, many later games decided to double down on projectiles, space control, and precision movement as the focal point of a one-on-one duel while feeling closer in spirit to a classic fighting game than, say, a first-person shooter.

At first glance, Virtual-On doesn't look like it has much in common with a classic fighting game; yes, it is one-on-one and uses health meters, but it's about robots dashing around in an arena blowing each other up, not people punching each other in the face. Spend some time with any of the Virtual-On games, though, and you'll find that it fits in far better with fighting games than any other genre. It doesn't emphasize aiming or weapon selection enough to feel like a shooter, nor is it about tactical positioning and attrition like a typical mech or tank sim.

Instead, the game is about attacking to force your opponent to dodge by dashing or jumping, then punishing your opponent for dashing or jumping while they're trying to counter attack and force you to move. When it comes down to it, Virtual-On is basically the Ryu fireball/Dragon Punch trap expanded into a 3D robot dueling game.

Touhou Suimusou: Immaterial and Missing Power (Tasogare Frontier / Team Shanghai Alice, 2004): Bullet hell 2D fighter

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In 2004, Japanese doujin devs took bullet hell series Touhou into 2D fighter-land with Touhou Suimusou: Immaterial and Missing Power (commonly abbreviated as IaMP). While the game appears to resemble any other anime-styled fighting game, it's actually built largely around projectile attacks (hence the bullet hell roots) and the "graze" mechanic, where most projectiles can be dashed through -- meaning that the traditional attack-block-throw triangle in fighting games is instead largely replaced by ranged attacks, mobility, and physical attacks.

Senko no Ronde (G.rev, 2005): Even more bullet-hell than IaMP

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If IaMP and Virtual-On gently push projectile combat to the center of the game, Senko no Ronde goes full-on bullet hell, complete with a change in perspective to a flat top-down 2D plane and the ability to temporarily transform your robot fighter into a giant boss form. The combat mechanics draw from a similar pool as Virtual-On, as well -- it's largely about using projectiles to force movement to open up more opportunities for damage.

It's worth noting that lots of other games have played in this space, to varying degrees: Taito's Psychic Force, Sunsoft's Astra Superstars, the Dragon Ball Z games by Dimps, and the Naruto: Clash of Ninja games by Eighting are some of the more notable examples.

Yuu Yuu Hakusho: Makyou Touitsusen (Treasure, 1994): Four players, two layers

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One-on-one is great, but what happens when we try to add more players to the party? These games open up the action to more players, which introduces control challenges, since you no longer can rely on the opponent-relative movement scheme that traditional fighting games use.

Yuu Yuu Hakusho: Makyou Touitsusen was another one of those Treasure games that was way better than anyone ever expects from licensed anime games -- unfortunately, since Yuu Yuu Hakusho didn't have a whole lot of clout in the U.S. at the time, we never got it here. The game was built around two-to-four-player combat, which they pulled off by borrowing Fatal Fury's two-layer stage design -- players can hop between a foreground plane and a background plane. Of course, this gets a bit tricky if you're working in the SF2 template.

Since Yuu Yuu Hakusho was designed for the Genesis, Treasure had to build a compelling fighting game around a three-button controller (which was more than Capcom was able to do; the Street Fighter II: Championship Edition release on the Genesis was meant to use a special six-button controller, and if you had a three-button controller you had to press the Start button to alternate between punches and kicks). They started by opening up the movement system so you could freely look in either direction, and simplified the input codes to only use down and forward in special moves, meaning that players didn't have to worry about facing the wrong direction in the process of executing a special move. Also, the three buttons were mapped to Light Attack, Heavy Attack, and Guard -- after all, SF2's hold-back-to-block system doesn't really make sense if you have an opponent on both sides of you.

The end result is a game that feels much better than you'd expect a four-player SF2 to feel. Fortunately, it wasn't just a one-off; the core design work was later recalled in Treasure's Bleach DS games, which are also excellent and worth checking out.

Super Smash Brothers (HAL Laboratory, 1999): A platforming fighting game

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In 2016, Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U tournaments are routinely topping the Twitch stream charts, so it can be easy to forget that Smash's status as a fighting game was contested for a long, long time. After all, changing the static 2D box arena out for levels that feel more like the original Mario Bros. and losing the health bars for the damage percentage mechanic essentially pull out two design elements so core to fighting games most players never even thought to question them.

It's fair to say that the standard four-player party mode, with items aplenty and stages that kill you rather often, don't really feel consistent or rigorous enough to encourage players to play it competitively. That's why the truly defining innovation in Smash isn't the levels, or the movement, or the simplified controls -- it's the way the team created a play space that is rich enough to sustain both party play and serious competition, and made the options available for the players to determine for themselves what they want out of it. Honestly, Smash wasn't a fighting game until the players made it a fighting game.

Power Stone (Capcom, 1999): Like Smash in 3D

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I'd be remiss in including Smash in this list and not also giving Capcom's Power Stone a shoutout; it was another party fighting game with items, engaging levels, and simplified inputs, but unlike Smash, it featured a free-roaming 3D arena. While it's certainly fun to hop around the various levels beating up your buddies, the tradeoff to free-roaming 3D in a party fighter is that the devs relied on a rather high level of auto-targeting in the attacks, which kind of diluted the player's feeling of mastery after a certain point.

Rakugaki Showtime (Treasure, 1999): If dodgeball was a fighting game

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Shoutouts to Ian Adams for pointing me in the direction of an interesting, obscure contender for the party fighter throne: Rakugaki Showtime, by Treasure. Like Power Stone, it takes place in an open 3D arena, but the combat is built more around projectiles, leading to a game that feels like dodgeball without the center dividing line. Play it to admire the scribbly, sketchy aesthetic and see how Treasure used targeting lines to visualize aiming projectiles in a 3D space.

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Patrick Miller is a writer, fighter, and community manager for Rising Thunder. You can find him on Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube. Or just sign up for his monthly mailing list.

Special thanks to Brandon Sheffield, Ian Adams, Andres Velasco y Coll, Bellreisa, Chris Pruett, Luis Garcia, and everyone else who suggested not-SF2 fighting games. Also, shoutouts to the poverty FGC for keeping this knowledge alive and kicking.