Blizzard announced this morning that they are partnering with Scholastic to create a new series of children’s books based on World of Warcraft. The series, titled World of Warcraft: Traveler, will follow Aramar Thorne, the 12 year old son of the great explorer, Captain Greydon Thorne. Due to a series of unfortunate events, Aram finds himself far from home, only equipped with his father’s magical compass and his sketchbook to help him on his way. His unlikely companion...
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Consider Who Could Be There: Harassment in VR
Today marks the official launch of the Oculus Rift, a high quality virtual reality headset with dozens of games to enjoy. As an avid fan and enthusiast for the medium, I am beyond excited for today. However, I am not going to gush about my love of VR in this article, I am writing it to talk about a rather unpleasant experience: I was harassed in virtual reality.
Continue reading...Neko Atsume Update: Four new cats, a new location & tons of new items!
Today a big update for Neko Atsume landed, bring joy to cat lovers everywhere! The overall theme of this update seems to be somewhere between English high tea and candyland, with a new “sugary style” house remodel and many accompanying items!
Continue reading...Newly Released Overwatch Short: “Recall”
Xbox just released on their channel a never before seen short film of the upcoming team-based shooter from Blizzard, Overwatch. The short stars two of the playable heroes, Winston and Reaver. The short animated film is set in Winston’s lab and delves into his past, showing where he got his start as a young ape. It also brings a bit more clarity to why the heroes of Overwatch are active again. This is the first of four...
Continue reading...GDC Preview: Manus VR
This week at GDC, I was able to test several virtual reality peripherals that I was excited about. One of those was Manus VR’s glove set, gloved-based controls intended for virtual reality use. The gloves themselves are lightweight with a battery-pack on the back of the hand. It works by taking advantage of the Vive controllers tracking and using custom flex sensor within the glove. The sensors have two bend areas per finger, allowing for tracking of precise...
Continue reading...GDC Vive Review: Universe Sandbox ² VR
Valve took over a large section of the Game Developers Conference to show off the Vive and virtual reality games coming soon for the device. Universe Sandbox ²’s VR mode was one of the stars of the demos. Universe Sandbox ², by Giant Army, has previously impressed me with its gorgeous space simulations, but seeing and interacting with them in virtual reality brought the experience to a completely new level. Planets zipped by my head, I threw...
Continue reading...Oculus Shows Their Hand: Launch Title Prices
Oculus revealed the prices of their release titles at the Oculus Game Day event. The event was held in San Francisco, just outside of the popular Game Developers Convention, dozens of games intended for launch were being shown. There is a huge range of prices for the launch content, Adventure Time: Magic Man’s Head Games listed as $4.99 while there are several $49.99 and $59.00 titles. Below is a list of the launch games, their “comfort” rating,...
Continue reading...Pre-GDC Bootcamp Prepares the Next Generation of Public Figures in Games
This last Sunday, the Games Diversity Alliance hosted a bootcamp called “Amplifying New Voices” at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The event was hosted to help prepare diverse developers that are rising in the game industry for the challenges that await them. Oculus was the main sponsor of the event and also provided a number of the mentors who worked with the small teams of developers. Other sponsors included Intel, who has been working extensively to...
Continue reading...Preview: Dead & Buried Multiplayer on Oculus Rift with Touch
A few blocks away from the ongoing Game Developers Conference, Oculus hosted an exclusive preview event for their launch titles and other games coming to the Oculus Rift shortly after launch. One of the games being shown was Dead & Buried, a gunslinger game that makes use of the Oculus’ Touch controllers. Dead & Buried is being developed internally by Oculus Studios and the noticeable intent of the game is to highlight the Touch controllers. While Oculus has...
Continue reading...GDC Survival Guide
The Game Developer Conference (GDC) held in San Francisco is fast approaching. This will be the 30th year of the event, which is the largest game industry conference in the world. While E3 is intended for press to connect with game companies and developers and the PAX conventions are for game companies to connect with their audiences, GDC is an event for developers to connect with each other, share their knowledge and expand their skills. There are...
Continue reading...Colin Johanson, Game Director of Guild Wars 2, Leaves ArenaNet
Mike O’Brien of ArenaNet just announced on Reddit that Colin Johanson is leaving the studio. Johanson is the game director of Guild Wars 2 and has been at ArenaNet since 2005.
Continue reading...Singing Games, Thrust Parties and Game Design – Hyper RPG! Twitch Channel Launches with Crazy 48 Hour Charity Drive
If you aren’t currently tuned into Hyper RPG!’s Twitch channel, then you’re missing out on great entertainment and all for a good cause. Hyper Rabbit Power Go! (Hyper RPG!) is a brand new Twitch channel that launched yesterday and is in the middle of a 48-hour charity stream for the HALO Foundation.
Continue reading...A Food Far, Far Away: Official Star Wars Recipes
Find yourself craving a snack from a galaxy far, far away? Or looking for some themed food for a party? We’ve got you covered!
Continue reading...A Small Dev in a Big Industry: My Trip to D.I.C.E.
Last week I crawled out of the cave that is my home office and traveled to Las Vegas to attend the D.I.C.E. Summit, an elite game industry conference where the biggest and most influential players in the game industry meet to network, receive awards, and enjoy some time away from work for a few days. A ticket at the door will set you back $3700, which is far outside of my modest indie developer budget. Thankfully, I was one of five...
Continue reading...My Path to Game Dev (Impostor Syndrome) – Talk for Women in Gaming
Renee presents a talk she prepared for a luncheon for women in the game industry. The talk is about her path to being a game developer and the struggles she faced.
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