Boyfriend Dungeon dev examines why game fashion sucks, and what to do about it “I’m not here to talk about what good fashion is,” said Kitfox Games' Victoria Tran at GDC today. “I want to talk more about how we’ve ignored it as a serious mechanic."

---

  Overwatch saw 40% less disruptive behavior with the endorsement system Research developer at Blizzard Natasha Miller shared how the studio implemented social features into Overwatch to promote positive behavior among players.  

---

14 Opinion: After Christchurch - What we owe our game communities Katherine Cross takes a look at the recent white supremacist terrorist attack in New Zealand, and unpacks what game developers must do to keep extremist views from taking hold in their games' communities.

---

  Valve is pushing new social features for Steam later this year Valve's Tom Giardino outlined a handful of new and upgraded features coming to Steam in the future during GDC 2019 this afternoon.

---

  Slime Rancher dev: To sell your game, give it a pulse and make it feel like home “The idea that friction exists in the game creates friction in the mind of anyone playing your game,” dev Nick Popovich said at GDC today. “The solution...is to give your game a place to call home.”

---

  Report: Walmart is looking to enter the game streaming business Google stole the show at GDC earlier this week when it unveiled a new game streaming platform called Stadia, and fresh rumors suggest another big name might soon follow suit.

---

  WarDucks raises $3.8 million to expand studio and create location-based AR game In a notable move, the Irish studio has brought in Doom co-creator John Romero to help shape its mystery project.

---

  Blog: Shape theory in level design Shape Theory is something we're all aware of subconsciously. Here I break down how it can be used for level design, and how it might encourage players to act in certain ways.

---

  Report: Microsoft's disc-less Xbox One S gets name and launch date Microsoft's long-rumored disc-less Xbox One S now has a name and launch date, according to fresh leaks from Windows Central.

---

God of War wins Game of the Year at the 2019 Game Developers Choice Awards Game dev veterans Amy Hennig and Rieko Kodama were also honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award and Pioneer Award (respectively) during the Game Developers Choice Awards tonight at GDC 2019!

---

Return of the Obra Dinn takes Grand Prize at the 21st IGF Awards! Announced tonight, the 2019 IGF Awards featured an eclectic and impressive group of winners, from Lucas Pope's Return of the Obra Dinn to Cassie McQuater's Black Room and Zachtronics' Opus Magnum!

---

  How Arkane built a roguelike atop an immersive sim with Prey's Mooncrash DLC Today at GDC, lead level designer Richard Wilson took the stage to explain how (and why) Arkane took a roguelike approach when developing its innovative Prey DLC Mooncrash.

---

  Building an inclusive studio culture begins with retention Several developers discuss how game studios can shift their culture to be more welcoming and supportive of underrepresented employees.

---

  Google Stadia supports the Xbox Adaptive Controller Google unveiled a controller alongside its cloud-based game streaming service Stadia this week, but players aren't locked into using Google-made hardware to play games on the service.

---

  Cuphead is heading to the Nintendo Switch with Xbox Live support StudioMDHR announced this morning during the Nintendo Indie Showcase that Cuphead will be heading to the Nintendo Switch on April 18th.

---

  The next Crypt of the Necrodancer game is set in The Legend of Zelda's Hyrule The indie developer behind Crypt of the Necrodancer is taking a crack at making its own Legend of Zelda game—with Nintendo’s blessing.

---

  Opinion: Chez Stadia - Google's new cloud platform The announcement for Google Stadia was absolutely perfect and flawless. It also told us exactly nothing about the relevant aspects for content creators or consumers.

---

1 After a worrisome start, Slay the Spire has sold more than 1.5 million copies MegaCrit’s roguelike Slay the Spire has sold more than 1.5 million copies since it first popped up as an early access title in late 2017.

---

  Remedy, Quantic Dream, and other devs sign on for Epic Games Store exclusives This is a big deal because Epic seems to be ramping up its efforts to compete with Steam and other storefronts by wooing developers to the Epic Games Store. 

---

  Epic lays plans for Unreal Engine ray tracing and physics revamps Epic hosted its usual 'State of Unreal' briefing at GDC today, and the big news for Unreal devs seems to be a new online services SDK, ray tracing support, and a big upcoming "Chaos" physics system.

---

  Devs can now sell Epic Game Store keys on the Humble Store Today at GDC the team at Epic announced they've partnered with Humble to allow for Epic Games Store game keys to be sold on Humble's storefront, even if said games are Epic Store exclusives.

---

  Epic expands its dev grants program with $100M in Epic MegaGrants Roughly four years after announcing its inaugural $5 million Unreal Dev Grants program, the team at Epic has announced a new $100 million successor: the Epic MegaGrants initiative.

---

2 Stadia's biz dev director talks challenges, opportunities in new age of cloud games Gamasutra speaks with Jack Buser, director for games business development at Google, about the boxless future that Stadia is promising.

---

2 The Oculus Rift S is a new PC VR headset with built-in tracking The Oculus Rift S makes use of Oculus Insight tracking technology to remove the need for bothersome external sensors, meaning it can deliver out-of-the-box room scale with minimum fuss.

---

7 Update: Lucasfilm Games job postings apparently not linked to studio revival Updated A new sub-division of Disney does appear to share the name of LucasArts precursor Lucasfilm Games, but a representative has confirmed no new company with that name is being formed.

---

[Read More]