1 Blog: The risks of making safe games Today's post looks at how the bar continues to be raised for design and aesthetics, and what that means for working on the next "big hit."

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  Two years on, Overwatch's producers talk toxicity, crunch, and live game dev Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny and producer Nicole Gillet discuss the Blizzard philosophy when developing a live game that remains a runaway success.

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  Video: How Bound creates emotion through ballet In this GDC 2017 session, Plastic's Michal Staniszewski discusses Bound, a game that features a contemporary dancer in a procedural world inspired by demoscene and modern art movements. 

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  Watch Question's Jordan Thomas and Michael Kelly discuss The Blackout Club Jordan Thomas and Michael Kelly, two triple-A industry veterans, drop by the GDC Twitch channel to discuss the production and design of The Blackout Club.

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  EA brings in original Command & Conquer devs to help with remasters Electronic Arts confirmed it will be remastering the original Command & Conquer and its sequel Red Alert in 4K, with all expansions to be included as well. 

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  Get a job: Choices dev Pixelberry Studios is hiring a Senior Software Engineer The Pixelberry Studios team in Mountain View, California is looking for an experienced Software Engineer to play a part in architecting new features, troubleshooting issues, and more.

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2 Don't Miss: Greater accessibility through audio in Killer Instinct "A main directive was to make sure each character/game mode was identifiable enough that someone would be able to tell what was going on even if they weren't in the same room that the game was being played in."

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  China's ongoing game license freeze prompts decline in market forecast The market analysis firm Niko Partners has adjusted its 2018 forecast for PC and mobile game revenue in China, dropping those predictions by 3.8 percent and 2.4 percent respectively.

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1 The unusual story behind Space Harrier's vibrant color palette Space Harrier designer Yu Suzuki recalls the story of the intentionally-triggered bug that ultimately gave birth to the colorful skies in the 1985 fantasy arcade game.

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  Chat with the developers of The Blackout Club at 3PM ET The makers of The Blackout Club will be answering your questions starting at 3PM ET.

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  Alt.Ctrl.GDC Inspirations: First-ever Alt.Ctrl.GDC award winner Fear Sphere! Submissions for the popular Alt.Ctrl.GDC showcase at GDC 2019 close a week from next Friday, so now's the time to submit your weird, offbeat controller prototypes! To inspire you, here we profile

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  Koch Media acquisition driving record sales at THQ Nordic The company attributed a sizable upswing in net sales to the recent acquisitions of Koch Media and Deep Silver, along with a positive showing from its own game roster. 

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  Jam City signs multi-year game dev partnership with Disney The deal means Jam City now has the rights to create mobile games based on characters and stories from both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. 

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  Blog: Creating audio for VR platforms Game composer Winifred Phillips looks at developments with VR platforms and their SDKs, this time honing in on audio issues.

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  THQ Nordic acquires Coffee Stain and Bugbear Entertainment THQ Nordic has agreed to acquire Coffee Stain Studios and Bugbear Entertainment in two separate deals. 

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  Q&A: Designing the beautifully surreal time puzzles of The Gardens Between Gamasutra spoke with Simon Joslin and Matt Clark about designing the surreal time-manipulation puzzles of The Gardens Between.

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  Video: The art of developing audio soundscapes In this GDC 2018 session, Guerrilla Games' Anton Woldhek presents some practical tips from his years of experience in game development on the art of developing audio soundscapes for video games.

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  Owlchemy Lab devs include a variety of representation in 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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