The challenge of maintaining class balance in Hearthstone's Arena mode “One of the most important things is finding the core identity for a class and sticking to it,” says Blizzard designer Peter Whalen. "It’s also more fun if all of the classes are very powerful."

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  Take a close look at the level design of some exceptional Zelda games The two Zelda games released on the Game Boy Color have some seminal lessons for level designers---at least, that's what YouTube critic Mark Brown argues in his latest episode of Boss Keys.

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  Campo Santo goes Hollywood with plans for a Firewatch film adaptation Firewatch is heading for the silver screen thanks to a new deal between Campo Santo and film production company Good Universe.

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1 Ubisoft aims to foster Canadian indie scene via dev contest series Ubisoft intends to make a show of supporting Canadian indies via a series of competitions to which devs can submit games -- and potentially win prizes that include money, support & uPlay distribution.

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  Get a job: Demiurge Studios seeks a UI Artist If you're a passionate, skilled user interface artist, the makers of Marvel Puzzle Quest are looking for someone like you to join the rest of the team at Demiurge's Boston-based studio.

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1 Video: Why devs don't need a f@#$ing publisher At GDC Devolver Digital's Nigel Lowrie argues that you as a game dev don't really need a publisher to ship video games -- until you really do, that is, at which point he has some suggestions for you.

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1 Blog: A dev pipeline for large 2D backgrounds We give some insights into how we get a finished drawing of a scene into our the game engine of Unforeseen Incidents.

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24 Don't Miss: Why are so many devs employing a retro '90s aesthetic? In this timeless feature we talk to developers of Back in 1995, MacBat 64, Racing Apex, morphê, and Else Heart.Break(), games designed to look as if they were made for the PS1 or the Sega Saturn.

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2 Game industry welcomes more women composers, still pays them less than men "The difference in total income is equivalent to approximately 2.1 years of experience," reads an analysis of a recent game audio industry survey. "That is, the ‘cost’ of being female in game audio."

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3 Blog: Real-time narratives in story-focused games "In this post I cover what a real-time story is, talk about our main influences -- The Last Express and Sleep No More -- and discuss the design constraints we've chosen for the game."

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  Google's Daydream-ready VR SDK exits beta with native Unity, UE4 support Quick note for VR devs: Last Thursday Google published a blog post celebrating the 1.0 debut of its Google VR SDK, which includes support for Google's new mobile VR platform Daydream.

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4 Blog: A very long post about how to become a creator "Advice for young people who want to become creators of video games based on over 20 years in the industry. It's advice in a blog post, and therefore to be considered dubious until proven otherwise."

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  Come to VRDC and learn to use sound more effectively in your VR game Attend the standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference in November to see a VR audio expert share lessons learned from working on remarkable mixed-reality, full-body experiences for "The Void."

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  Philadelphia 76ers make eSports move to harness industry's 'incredible' potential The Philadelphia 76ers have become the first North American sports franchise to break into the world of eSports after acquiring controlling stakes in Team Dignitas and Team Apex.

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  Ubisoft claws back more shares as Vivendi fight continues Ubisoft has won another small victory in its fight against media conglomerate Vivendi by buying back 3.625 million of its own shares for $137.9 million (€122.5 million).

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10 More Steam changes inbound as Valve targets discoverability "This change should result in your title appearing to a smaller, but better targeted group of potential customers based on their preferences and tastes."

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3 Sponsored: Game devs! Did you know you can now register the .games domain? The .games extension launched on Sept. 21, and already has the potential to become one of the most popular new domains on the market.

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  Blog: Memories from BioShock lead programmer Christopher Kline After BioShock lead programmer Christopher Kline had to pull out of our recent Twitch stream, he was kind enough to share a few memories of his work on the game

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  Blog: What Badland tells us about mobile-to-console ports Ubisoft game designer Stanislav Costiuc examines the mobile-to-console port of one-touch puzzler, Badlands.

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11 7 games with entertaining fail states that every dev should study Death where is thy sting? Many games have such clever and entertaining fail states that you practically look forward to your next untimely demise. We spoke to several devs about their favorites.

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  Video Game Deep Cuts: Prague, Rogue, & FiveRP This Video Game Deep Cuts selection, picking top longform video game articles and videos of the week, looks at everything from Prague in the latest Deus Ex to Roguelike Celebration & GTA V mods.

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67 Insomniac, other devs condemn Palmer Luckey's support of pro-Trump troll group Updated: Palmer Luckey's support for a pro-Trump political organization has drawn fire from VR developers and promises to cancel their games if he does not step down from Oculus.

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  Get a job: Cryptic Studios is hiring a Character Artist The Star Trek Online dev is hiring an artist to work closely with the rest of the team at its Los Gatos, CA studio and contribute to creating creatures, weapons, armor and costumes in its games.

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10 Don't Miss: 20 Atari games every designer should play Check out this classic 2008 feature from Gamasutra about 20 timeless Atari games showcasing intriguing mechanics or design decisions that modern game developers should study and learn from.

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  Blog: How to show your indie game at any expo A general and practical guide guide on how to show your indie game at any expo, including tips on how to prepare your booth, but also your build.

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