Keywords acquires Canadian developer Snowed in Studios International game service provider Keywords has acquired Ottawa-based developer Snowed In Studios for an undisclosed fee. 

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  Understanding the human cost of creating No Man's Sky "I remember getting a death threat about the fact that there were butterflies in our original trailer, but there weren't any butterflies in the launch game."

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  Blog: Kickstarter and tabletop games in 2018 - A mid-year update Market intelligence expert Thomas Bidaux offers a mid-year update on the state of tabletop games on Kickstarter.

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Blog: The anatomy of a stealth encounter The following breaks down some of the lessons I learned working on three games that encourage stealth gameplay and keep it feeling fresh and exciting.

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  Microsoft ends fiscal year with $10 billion in games revenue, more Xbox Live users According to an investor report released today by Microsoft, the company's games business is continuing to grow, with a large increase in games-related revenue and more Xbox Live users year over year.

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Video: How to build a remote team for better happiness In this GDC 2016 session, Fox Cub's Ian Wang shares lessons learned from building a remote 30 person team that spans 12 countries.

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  Epic releases postmortem for Fortnite's playground mode Epic Games' released a postmortem yesterday detailing Fortnite's playground LTM (limited time) mode after it was shut down due to errors with its matchmaking system.

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  Weekly Jobs Roundup: Schell Games, Telltale, and more are hiring now! Whether you're just starting out, looking for something new, or just seeing what's out there, the Gamasutra Job Board is the place where game developers move ahead in their careers.

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  Niantic introduces three-strike policy for cheaters in Pokémon Go Niantic has clarified its disciplinary policy for cheating in Pokémon Go with the introduction of a new three-strike policy which focuses on giving cheaters a chance to reform their ways.

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2 Bethesda's growth makes it 'less likely' it'll let external devs tackle its IP Todd Howard says he won’t rule it out completely, but notes that Bethesda’s growth makes it unlikely it’ll look to external developers like it did for Fallout: New Vegas back in the day.

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  Don't Miss: Why being trapped in a loop makes Reigns: Her Majesty so satisfying "Everything in the game helps the player define the pace," explains Reigns creator Francois Alliot. "In the game you can swipe very quickly or you can take your time, and we adapted everything around that."

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1 Blog: 10 things we learned developing Shadowhand We recently did a detailed postmortem of our RPG card game Shadowhand to review what we got right, what we got wrong, and how we could improve.

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  NetEase picks up minority stake in Somerville dev Jumpship The Chinese internet tech company NetEase has picked up a minority stake in Jumpship, the indie studio co-founded by former Playdead CEO Dino Patti and film animator Chris Olsen.

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  At XRDC, see how the Brass Tactics devs reinvented the RTS for VR! At XRDC in October, Hidden Path Entertainment' Patrick Lipo will give you a rare look at the design process behind several of the interactions which are core to the immersive virtual reality RTS.

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3 Blog: How to take 7 years to ship a beta How can you take 7 years to make your game? Here are some important tips and tricks for taking your sweet time.

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  Chinese media platform iQIYI acquires mobile dev Skymoons for $190M Skymoons has developed and published a range of titles on iOS and Android, including Seer Superheroes, My Own Swordsman, and Legend of Three Kingdoms.

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  Jurassic World Evolution has sold over 1 million copies That figure includes digital and physical sales across PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, with developer Frontier explaining digital sales in particular have been 'strong.'

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  Guerrilla Games planning office expansion to ramp up development Horizon Zero Dawn developer Guerrilla Games is moving to a new office and expanding its team from 250 members to 400 permanent employees. 

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3 Blog: The warning of the World of Warcraft effect Today's post looks at the phenomenon dubbed the "World of Warcraft effect," and the warning that comes with trying to chase after another game's design.

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  How jams become levels in the co-op bullet hell musical Just Shapes & Beats "My point is basically to share my love of music," explains dev Simon Lachance in this dive into how he came up with and designed the hellishly rhythmic levels of Just Shapes & Beats.

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  Amazon claims to be spiking listings for pirated games Amazon is now saying it's taking down listings for pirated copies of Frostpunk and Surviving Mars.

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  Video: How to thrive and grow as an indie studio In this 2018 GDC session, Weather Factory's Alexis Kennedy discusses the lessons learned while building Failbetter Games, and how those lessons were taken into account when founding a second studio.

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3 Credit card thieves reportedly using Clash of Clans to launder money Credit card thieves are allegedly using the mobile games Clash of Clans, Clash Royale and Marvel Contest of Champions to launder hundreds and thousands of dollars via account selling.

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  Encouraging collaboration among players in Sea of Thieves In a recent interview with The Guardian, lead designer on Sea of Thieves Mike Chapman discusses the evolution of how players went from competing against each other to collaborating.   

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  Get a job: Slime Rancher dev Monomi Park is hiring a 3D Environment Artist San Mateo-based Monomi Park is looking for a 3D Environment Artist well-versed in 3D modeling, texturing, shader creation to contribute to the development of Slime Rancher and its future titles.

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