Want to see one of the creators of Mortal Kombat discussing the huge new fighting game hitting store shelves next week? Of course you do! Check out our video coverage of Toronto’s Injustice 2 event last night with Ajay Fry hosting an interview with Ed Boon himself! I even got to ask the first audience question! How awesome is that?!
We got to join in for some gameplay too, but the real highlight of the evening was meeting the man himself! In the interview Ed discusses what makes Injustice 2 different, and what will surely be a reason that many keep playing. That reason is the new Gear system! Check out the interview below!
Long since a staple of the ready-made game engine marketplace, YoYo Games’ GameMaker has reinvented itself in recent years after coming under its new ownership. Their recent GameMaker Studio suite got attention by overhauling nearly every piece of the software, turning it from a designer’s prototype plaything into a game engine that could stand on its own. Now, after building up its community and figuring out its development strategy going forward, YoYo Games has announced the second iteration of the remade Studio. We at Broken Joysticks had the chance to sit down with some representatives from YoYo during the Game Developers’ Conference to take a look at an early build of Studio 2 and ask some questions about its new feature set.
We were shown a general overview of the new suite, and ran through some of the additions made since the last revision. The most notable shift was in the supported programming languages, with traditional languages such as C++ and Javascript now being supported alongside the proprietary GML language that the engine originally used. Yoyo Games stated that their intent with this was to distance themselves from the perception of being a walled garden environment and a prototype-only engine. Asked about whether older (Pre-Studio) versions of GML would still be supported in Studio 2, and was told that they would be supported, but are not under active development, and are considered to be legacy code.
However, GML has been given a facelift in modern times, and it seems to be paying dividends – the new optional graphical interface introduced in the prior revision has received some major additions in Studio 2. For one, code now supports live editing previews, allowing for feature changes without having to recompile the game. We asked about their approach in creating the graphical language, particularly with regards to how they intend to differentiate themselves from competitors such as Unreal Engine 4’s Blueprint language. The representative we spoke with stated that he believed Blueprint to hide too much from the user, and that it tried to be a full scripting replacement, whereas Game Maker’s new system was created with the intention of being a bridge between learning to code and text-based scripting.
The graphical code editor that accompanies GML now includes a full in-engine sprite editor/animator, as well as integration with the Spine sprite animator. The live preview feature also made it over here, allowing users to “draw” over the sprite as it is playing through its animation to allow for easier changes to a whole animation set.
GameMaker’s structural changes include a new page tab system, similar to the layout of most modern IDEs, but the unified function approach of Game Maker allows for better organizing things that would require multiple different programs otherwise, keeping the graphical editor, level editor, and code windows all in the same tabbed interface. YoYo Games also boasted of several technical upgrades, such as GML’s apparent 50% decrease in compile times, DirectX11 support, native Box2D physics integration (As well as a custom solution for water physics), a custom pre-built networking system, archetypal level inheritance, as well as support for in-app purchases and advertisements. While this may not sound exciting to the uninitiated, these are indeed some welcome additions to developers.
One of the most surprising additions to the original Studio was the variety of platforms that games could be exported to, including several niche platforms, making it an attractive option for independent developers who want to support lots of platforms. While Studio 2 does support a few new platforms such as Microsoft’s new Universal Windows Platform and Android TV, several of said niche platforms such as the PlayStation Vita, Samsung’s Tizen OS, and Windows Phone 8 have been removed. When asked about this, YoYo Games stated it was primarily due to developer inactivity, and that said platforms will still be supported in Studio 1.x, but not in any new versions. They did state that MacOS was now a supported platform on which to run the editor itself, however, where it was Windows-exclusive in the past.
Finally, when asked about potential changes to their monetization model for GameMaker, YoYo Games stated that they have no immediate plans to change the current model for the engine which requires a purchase up front for the engine and once again for exporting the final game. They did state that they are toying with the idea of adding certain high-level features as extras in a subscription service later down the line, but that there are no plans underway as of now. As for said initial purchase, Studio 2 will be a separate purchase from the prior version, although existing users will be offered a 40-50% discount on the new version.
These look to be exciting times for the GameMaker faithful as the engine continues to blossom far beyond its roots as a simple experiment program into something that can be a legitimate rival to industry titans such as Unity and Unreal Engine.
I recently got the chance to interview Clickteam’s Chris Carson about the company’s upcoming “Weirder Stuff” game jam and month long contest. As I previously covered late last week the Weirder Stuff game jam + month long contest is aimed around providing developers and aspiring developers a chance to show off their creative talents using Clickteam’s range of “visual programming” techniques or as Chris so aptly put it when I interviewed him last March at GDC “programming for the rest of us”.
Alongside showcasing some of the communities best creative minds Clickteam is also giving away some prizes for the best entries including licenses for the professional version of Clickteam Fusion 2.5, an Xbox One console and Android Tablets from ACER. On October 1st the company will also be giving its community their first extended look at Clickteam Fusion 3.0 – which is not an incremental update but rather a complete re-write using the company’s innovative Event Editor philosophy.
What follows is our discussion of the Weirder Stuff campaign, Fusion 3 and the future of Documentation & Tutorials for Clickteam’s products!
Broken Joysticks: The ‘Weirder Stuff’ Month Long Contest & Game Jam are going to give developers the chance to create some really spooktastic fun just in time for Halloween. Do you think that this will be the perfect time for developers to connect with one another?
Chris: As you know Rae, Clickteam is lucky to have a pretty awesome community. We just hope that Weirder Stuff and future events like it which we hope to host more often will help continue to foster that community and grow it. At least for my personal part being included in the community for 16 years now has been one of my greatest joys!
Broken Joysticks: We’ve seen a example game built with Clickteam Fusion 3.0 that will demonstrate features like sprite scaling and a dynamic 2D camera system. How will these features enable creators to bring new technical magic to their titles?
Chris: Fusion 3 is still a 2D game creation software but we are constantly pushing the boundaries. We always try to remove limitation while keeping things simple. With that philosophy we have added some features that allow you to control more things. We are still focusing on 2D games gameplay-wise – but visually we can now push some things into the third dimension. As we begin to show more of what Fusion 3 will be capable of the one thing we want to make sure we drive home is it will all still at its core be based in the “Event Editor” methodology of coding that we are famous for. So an existing user will have no problem wielding all the new power we will be providing in Fusion 3 to you!
Broken Joysticks: The in-person game jam portion of the ‘Weirder Stuff’ campaign has some awesome prizes – Exporters & dev software from Clickteam, An Xbox console from Microsoft and even tablets from Acer. Do you hope that these prizes may result in some fantastic software produced with Fusion? Had these sponsor worked with Clickteam’s before you approached them for this particular campaign?
Chris: As we have grown as a tool and as our users have grown into professional developers who are still deploying Fusion in their projects we have been able to reach out to some of the larger companies and make connections. The UWP exporter is a direct result of that. It was natural to invite our new friends to participate in the upcoming events in October.
Broken Joysticks: Any huge revelations or surprises you’d like to tease as we approach the September 27th kick off?
Chris: We have a lot of exciting announcements coming up but one thing I can drop on you is that Documentation issues will soon be a thing of the past! We will be launching a new library system to bring together documents and tutorials all in one place. Finding what you need when you are learning or problem solving can be difficult, we’re confident with this new resource that users will be able to accelerate through the learning curve even faster than ever!
At PAX East 2016 we got the chance to ask Jesse Rapczak from Studio Wildcard some questions from the ARK: Survival Evolved community. Topics varied from: Will we ever see popular community mods in the console version of the game? Will we ever get Greek Fire throwables? And most importantly – Why are canons so OP?
Surprisingly Studio Wildcard had a major announcement that happened to coincide with our interview – that Primitive+ and The Center will both becoming to the Xbox One version of ARK: Survival Evolved. The Center, a fantasy themed map that more than doubles the playable space within ARK will become an official map in both the Xbox One and PC versions of the game later this month. PlayStation 4 players will get access to both mods when that version of the game goes live later this year.
Regarding Primitive+ Cedric Burke, Community Mod Manager at Studio Wildcard wrote on the Xbox News Wire:
When I first opened the development kit and began creating Primitive+, I only had one goal in mind: Provide people with a more immersive experience by expanding upon the primitive nature of the game. Little did I know it would present an opportunity of a lifetime – to have my work seen and played by millions of people. A lot of my childhood dreams were realized simply by opening up the development kit.
Studio Wildcard, the minds behind last year’s smash Steam hit ARK: Survival Evolved have taken the concepts from their first prehistoric title and fashioned what they call a M.O.S.A or Multiplayer Online Survival Arena. Ark Survival of the Fittest pits a number of different players in Survival Evolves‘ world map and gives them a limited number of time to craft weapons, tame dinosaurs all in a bid to be the last one standing.
We got a chance to sit down and talk with Studio Wildcard co-founder Jesse Rapczak about the challenges of adapting the ARK world to this new game type, how tamable dinosaurs change the pace of the game in relation to other Battle Royale style games and just why did Studio Wildcard release Survival of the Fittest with no monetary model?
Our latest episode of BrokenCast our semi-regular podcast about the world of gaming is here for your listening enjoyment.
This week I and managing editor Fionna Fox sit down with Potions: A Curious Tale developer Renee Gittins, the founder of indie developer Stumbling Cat. We chat about what it is like to enter the world of indie development fulltime as well as what it’s like to show off your game to thousands of potential players at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle.
Geometry Wars 3 is great! Lucid Games not only made a fantastic next chapter but even added to it recently with a free upgrade that made the game more accessible and added 40 new adventure mode levels. FORTY NEW LEVELS! FOR FREE! The best part about that is, as basic as that may sound, each level in Geometry Wars 3 plays like it’s own gameplay mode. Giving you a stage, main theme, and unique general setup to each. That’s on top of all the levels already included in the game. Craig Howard of Lucid Games joined Darkain Arts Gamers for an interview. Here’s what we discussed.Read More
Here is a look back at my interview with the Senior Producer on Injustice, Adam Urbano! Recorded at a press event in Toronto for BrokenJoysticks.net it was great getting to talk to someone not only with so much information about the game, but who is also part of NetherRealm itself. Injustice: Gods Among Us was released today for the Wii U, Xbox 360, and PS3. Read on for the video interview!Read More
