Owlchemy Lab's Vacation Simulator features robust avatar customization Owlchemy Labs is committed to ensuring that Vacation Simulator is equipped with a system that allows for players to create authentic versions of themselves using the game's avatar customizer. 

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  Get a job: Playful Corp is looking for a UI Designer As a UI Designer, you will work closely with the Directors to conceptualize, mock-up, and execute the visual interface designs to support Playful Corp's games.

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  Balancing challenge and collaboration in Final Fantasy XIV's raid battles Combat Designer Yoshito Nabeshima explores the process of designing (and later overhauling) a Final Fantasy XIV raid boss.

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  Senators ask FTC to investigate malicious ads in apps geared for kids Several Senators have urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the practice of monetizing kids' mobile games and apps.

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1 Don't Miss: Exploring color theory and production design in the classic Spyro the Dragon John Fiorito and Craig Stitt share some of the ways they used color to focus player emotion and create a vibrant 3D world during the PS1 era for original Spyro the Dragon.

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  God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2 lead nominees for The Game Awards The Game Awards has listed the games nominated for honors in the event's coming 2018 award show, with both God of War and Red Dead Redemption leading the pack with a total of 8 nominations each.

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  Rob Dyer hired as COO of Capcom USA Dyer's resume includes leadership positions at companies like Sony Computer Entertainment America, Zynga, Eidos Interactive, and more spread across the last 25 years.

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  Apply the science of desirability to game design at GDC 2019 To help you better understand desire and how it relates to your work, Harvard Desirability Lab director Dr. Beth Altringer will present an intriguing talk on the science of desirability at GDC 2019!

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  Blog: How I managed to ship 6000 copies and stay in business One year ago I was struggling to stay in business after failing to sell 700 copies of my game. Now, I'm working on my next project after releasing a major update to the original. Here's what happened.

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2 Hacker gets $20K from Valve for unearthing bug that generates free Steam keys Valve has paid a $20,000 'bug bounty' to security researcher Artem Moskowsky after he discovered a bug that would've let people generate Steam game codes for free.

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  Nintendo wins out in legal battle against ROM sites Nintendo's legal battle against the owners of ROM websites LoveROMS and LoveRetro is coming to an end, and the Japanese console maker has come out on top.

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  Blog: Adaptive music with Elias - Part 1 Adaptive music has come a long way in the past several years with custom middleware solutions like Elias Studio. This article provides a step by step guide to re-creating an adaptive project in Elias.

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  Designing for survival in Steam Early Access hit Green Hell Gamasutra spoke with Michal Stawicki, lead game designer and Krzysztof Kwiatek, art director, to learn about surviving in the Amazonian wilderness in Green Hell.

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  Video: Designing the strategic card game Race for the Galaxy In this GDC 2018 talk, game designer Tom Lehmann discusses the design behind his acclaimed card game Race for the Galaxy. 

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1 The audio design behind the original Xbox startup sound Sound designer and composer Brian Schmidt discusses the audio design challenges behind the original Xbox startup sound.

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2 Xbox chief Phil Spencer taking on a 'bigger role' in fixing the Microsoft Store Xbox chief Phil Spencer discussed how he would like to fix the Microsoft Store to make game content more discoverable and easy to find.

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  Physical copies of Hollow Knight cancelled Skybound games announced last week that it would no longer be partnering with Team Cherry to bring physical versions of Hollow Knight to retail shelves after the deal reportedly fell through.

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  Get a job: Velan Studios is hiring a Lead Producer The Lead Producer will work closely with the project’s game director, art director, engineering lead and other key project leaders to successfully execute on an original IP.

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10 Don't Miss: How Undertale's soundtrack shapes its narrative "My goal with this article is to show the different ways leitmotifs are used in Undertale, how they affect one's experience with the game, and how a game soundtrack can do much, much more than just provide catchy background music."

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  Obituary: Marvel Comics co-creator Stan Lee passes away at 95 Stan Lee, an influential player in the rise of Marvel Comics and one of the minds behind many iconic superhero series like Spider-Man and the X-Men, has passed away at the age of 95.

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  Mobile publisher Flaregames lays off 45 staff Flaregames has laid off a portion of its staff during a restructure that has also resulted in the departure of its CEO.

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1 Designing CrossCode to stand out in the retro RPG market CrossCode's lead developer and composer talk to us about making and selling a retro-flavored RPG in the crowded markets of 2018.

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2 Blog: Invigorating our local game developer community It can be difficult to invigorate a local community of game developers, but the benefits to a dynamic and tight-knit community are too numerous to pass on.

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  Apply now to be a GDC 2019 Conference Associate! GDC is now accepting applications for the GDC 2019 Conference Associate program from now until December 22nd! Associates receive a pass to the show in exchange for about 25 hours of (paid) work. Apply today!

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2 Blog: Designing a data model In this post I wanted to take a look at the rationale and design goals behind the data model we use at The Machinery.

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