Blog: Developing procedural dialog in a game about tech support Indie game Tech Support: Error Unknown uses procedurally-generated conversations to make dialogue flow naturally over the course of the game. Developer Kevin Giguere explains how it all works.

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  Designing highly replayable stealth levels for Payday 2 Jason Mojica, former level designer Payday 2, explains how his team built highly-replayable stealth levels for the popular online first-person shooter.

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4 Valve's Steam Link app blocked by Apple due to 'business conflicts' This is significant because it locks down Valve's ability to reach iOS users, and according to Valve it was done retroactively after the Steam Link app had been approved by Apple.

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  Video: What game designers really want out of AI In this GDC 2018 talk, a panel of game designers go over what problems they wish artificial intelligence could solve for them when making games.

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  Honesty contributed to Subsurface Circular's 2 percent refund rate Developer on Subsurface Circular Mike Bithell explains why the game has a two percent refund rate on Steam.

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  Wolfenstein 2 accounted for speedrunners in its design Speaking at a panel during Digital Dragons this past weekend, designers and artists from studios discussed their opinion on speedrunners discovering ways to skip past certain parts of their games.

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1 Mixer rolls out MixPlay, a tool for creating interactive stream overlays Microsoft has rolled out a series of updates for its streaming service Mixer as part of the platform’s birthday celebrations, one of which allows developers to build interactive stream overlays.

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  Get a job: ZeniMax Online Studios is hiring an ESO Monetization Designer The team at ZeniMax Online Studios is looking for someone to develop, analyze, and manage economy and monetization components for Elder Scrolls: Online and the company's other games.

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  Caffeine rolls out stream monetization program, complete with payouts for devs The social streaming platform Caffeine has launched a pre-release version of a monetization program that will ultimately funnel cash to both live streamers and the developers of the games being played.

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2 Opinion: So, you want to talk about porn on Steam "There is simply no cure that isn’t worse than the disease," writes Katherine Cross of Steam's attempted porn crackdown. "Valve is condemning itself to learn this age-old truism the hard way."

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1 Don't Miss: How Maxis avoided sequel-itis on The Sims 2 The Sims 2 developers share what went right and wrong during development of the 2004 sequel to The Sims, exploring how the team struck a balance between fan expectations and innovation.

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2 GDPR changes prompt Torn Banner Studios to shut down Mirage: Arcane Warfare Mirage: Arcane Warfare, an online game released by Torn Banner Studios last year, has been removed from sale as its developer readies to shut the game’s servers down for good.

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  YoYo Games opens publishing division to elevate GameMaker Studio 2 projects GameMaker Studio 2 creator YoYo Games has opened up a new publishing branch completely devoted to supporting indie games created using its development tool.

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  Josh Sawyer shares a boatload of design insight from Pillars of Eternity II Watch Obsidian Entertainment's design director discuss the decisions that drove development on Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire.

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  H1Z1 gains early F2P traction on PlayStation 4 Daybreak Games, the studio behind free-to-play battle royale game H1Z1, said the game hit 1.5 million players and 200,000 concurrent players just after its open beta launch on PlayStation 4.

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2 Blog: Group pathfinding and movement in RTS games A practical approach to problems making group movement feel good and co-ordinated in an RTS style game.

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  How the BattleTech devs built an engrossing tactics game on a budget BattleTech game director Mike McCain and Harebrained manager Mitch Gitelman discuss the trade-offs and dev techniques that helped them ship a game that matched promises made on Kickstarter.

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  Video: A practical guide to porting your indie game to consoles At GDC 2018 PlayEveryWare's Thomas O'Connor shines a light on the technical and administrative work that goes into getting a console game out the door.

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2 The future of PlayStation may be portable, says Sony exec According to PlayStation boss John Kodera, the possibility of PlayStation embracing portable games may again be a part of the company's future.

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1 Sony takes a page from Microsoft by licensing customizable PS4 gamepad While Sony previously tried licensed 'pro' PS4 controllers in Europe, the upcoming Scuf controller is the first licensed PS4 gamepad to do away with the DualShock 4's trademark parallel analog sticks.

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6 Wargaming Seattle is shutting down Update This is a big deal given that Wargaming Seattle is the Redmond-based studio formerly known as Gas Powered Games, which was founded in 1998 by Chris Taylor and other former Cavedog devs.

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  Weekly Jobs Roundup: Rovio, Saber Interactive Spain, and more are hiring now! Here are just some of the many, many positions being advertised right now on the Gamasutra Job Board.

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  Blog: Producing tangibly minatory creatures in games Monsters make for daunting foes whose demeanor stands out from standard baddies, but there's more to a creature than just the level of fear they elicit.

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  Don't Miss: How RuneScape maintains its prolific update schedule In this 2016 GDC session, Jagex's Conor Crowley covers how the development team for RuneScape moved from an established development process to multiple agile cross-disciplined teams without missing an update.

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2 Jagex shutting down RuneScape Classic after 17 years RuneScape developer Jagex has announced that it will shut down RuneScape Classic on August 6, 2018, ending support for the early online game 17 years after its first launch.

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