20 Don't Miss: Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator's philosophy of game design Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog came out 26 years ago today, and you should mark the occasion by reading this classic interview with co-creator (and veteran game designer) Hirokazu Yasuhara!

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2 What it's like to follow your hit indie game (2M+ sold!) with a 6K sales 'bomb' In a new YouTube video, Introversion devs Mark Morris and Chris DeLay speak very frankly about being surprised to find Scanner Sombre has sold roughly 6,000 copies in the two months since launch.

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  Video: Understanding the nature (and future) of board game design Get fresh insight into game design by watching this GDC 2017 tabletop game "state of the industry" discussion with game designers Rob Daviau, Geoffrey Engelstein, and Eric Lang.

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  Get a job: Sanzaru Games is hiring a VFX Artist Sanzaru Games is looking for a talented VFX Artist to join its California-based development team in crafting visually stunning and immersive worlds for consoles, PC, and VR.

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1 Learn about some of the tough decisions behind making Nex Machina We quizzed one of the developers behind Nex Machina about surviving in the modern indie market and working with industry legend Eugene Jarvis.

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  Rockstar clarifies Grand Theft Auto V modding policy Update Grand Theft Auto V publisher Take-Two Interactive came down on a number of mod makers and hack purveyors lately, and now a policy change clarifies what mods it will allow.

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2 Final Fantasy XIV devs recall the issues that led to the game's ill-fated debut Noclip spoke with a number of Square Enix developers to pinpoint some of the development issues that contributed to troubled first version of the online game.

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  Chat with the developer of twin-stick shooter Nex Machina today at 1PM EDT We're chatting with one of the minds behind Resogun and now Nex Machina on the Gamasutra Twitch channel today at 1PM EDT.

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  VRDC Q&A: Tilt Brush's Patrick Hackett Patrick Hackett, co-creator of the VR art application Tilt Brush, will be at VRDC Fall 2017. Here, he explains how he crossed over from Double Fine to a VR startup, and shares thoughts on future of VR.

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4 Blog: Game cities - The urbanism of Thimbleweed Park With a little help from Thimbleweed Park, I look at the novel approaches to open-world city design (and planning) for 2D adventure games.

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  Why Microsoft says devs shouldn't write off the Xbox One X "From the get-go we knew that we wanted devs to be able to take the existing engines that they were working on on Xbox One and get those engines up and running in 4K."

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  How Overwatch communicates character from a first-person perspective "In terms of game animation, Overwatch is a master class in character appeal. This game is all about its characters. Every single member of this cast is unique and just loaded with personality."

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1 Blog: Crowdfunding tips from Kickstarter's video game expert I talk to a ton of people who are planning to launch game projects on Kickstarter. Here's what I tell them.

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  Corona 2D game engine is now 'completely free' Starting today anyone who downloads the toolkit through the daily builds page will get a combined package that includes the standard simulator and native-based products.

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2 With Sony's indie support in question, developers at E3 weigh in "The bottom line is they need to do what’s best for their business. And unfortunately maybe doing indies is not that right now. And that’s unfortunate, but there’s not much we can do."

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1 Blizzard announces major changes to loot systems in Overwatch & Hearthstone In one day, Blizzard announced notable changes to the IAP-based loot systems to both Overwatch and Hearthstone.

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  3 months after launch, Playerunknown's Battlegrounds sells 4M copies Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, a game which is still in Early Access, has now sold over four million copies, according to lead developer Brendan Greene.

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  Paradox undoes global price increase in the name of transparency Game publisher Paradox Interactive recently implemented a global price change on its games and DLC without much warning to players, now its CEO says it's rolling back those changes.

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  Video: Peek at the programming that made the personalities in The Sims 3 Take a look at the design and programming that built the character personalities behind The Sims 3.

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  Get a job: Naughty Dog is hiring a Character Shading TD Naughty Dog is looking for a Character Shading TD to take charge and make sure the surface materials of its characters look fantastic.

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  Improving a game on the Xbox One X helps boost its One S performance, says Xbox exec Microsoft's Albert Penello addresses concerns that developing Xbox One games with both the Xbox One X and Xbox One S in mind could result in one console variant holding the other back.

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  It's a me, M-AR-io recreated in AR Developer Abhishek Singh recreated a life-size Super Mario Bros. level for Microsoft’s Hololens, and took to New York’s Central Park dressed as the plumber himself in order to test out how the 2D platformer fared in AR.

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3 Valve details SteamVR Knuckles controllers in new setup guide Initially displayed during the company's Steam Dev Days conference last October, Valve has released a guide detailing the specs of the new SteamVR Knuckles motion controllers.

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  How Naughty Dog broke Sony's hardware rules to create Crash Bandicoot 'They were very worried that if they shipped this game, all the PlayStations in the world would break because their CD drives would melt.'

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  New VRDC VR/AR Innovation Report reveals the HTC Vive is devs' top target This data-rich survey of VR/AR/MR professionals suggests that the HTC Vive is still the most popular headset to develop for, and that interest in platform-exclusive experiences is rising.

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