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[jonaz.dk]

Another Spilbar!

[jonaz.dk]

Keyboard warrior from DK Set Snail is now available in early access (Not Steam).

Playable in your browser with your keyboard here!
https://www.keyboardwarrior.io

[jonaz.dk]

In relation to the ongoing Copenhagen Games Week in Bellacenter there is a Copenhagen Games Week sale on Steam with various DK related titles.

Dropped by the event on Friday. Always fun to say hi so some known faces and some new ones as well.




https://store.steampowered.com/sale/copenhagengamesweek

Adding some of the newly spotted DK games

Monolith Dominion - Anders Vang Pedersen - Chuckle Warriors


Escapen't - Kaffeklubben Games


Reboot Heroes - Chop Chop Games


KobberParty - Castle_Explorer - MightyCodeDragon (2020 release.. but missed)

[jonaz.dk]

Co-creator of Fallout, Timothy Cain - Development Caution
"I talk about game development caution and how it seems to be affecting newer games."

[jonaz.dk]

Mage and Monsters made it to XBOX release!

[jonaz.dk]

Global Game Jam 2024
"Friday, January 26, 2024 - 18:00 and we run until: Sunday, January 28, 2024 - 18:00"




Global Game Jam in Copenhagen more info
https://globalgamejam.org/jam-sites/202 ... lego-group

[jonaz.dk]

DK project 'Break, Enter, Repeat' from Rhombico Games has gotten a Steam page and a proposed release year in 2025.

[jonaz.dk]

Graven from Slipgate Ironwoks is finally out in a 1.0 version!

I recall actually enjoying the demo back in late 2020.

Best of luck to the team and grats on the release! I hope this is a title that will allow Slipgate and 3D Realms to carry on.

[jonaz.dk]

Copenhagen Matchup happening soonish!
Get them pitches ready!



COPENHAGEN MATCHUP 2024, April 29. - 30.
https://copenhagenmatchup.dk

[jonaz.dk]

Pixel.tv dykker ned i den danske spilscene under årets Copenhagen Gaming Week.

Udover alverdens andre aktiviteter under Copenhagen Gaming Week, havde masser af danske spiludviklere sat bås op på messegulvet, hvor man kunne få lov at prøve kræfter med hvad fremtiden bringer for den danse spilscene. Thomas har grebet mikrofonen og kigger nærmere på et udpluk af disse, og stiller spørgsmål ind til hvad man kan forvente sig af spillene, og hvordan oplevelsen hos udviklerne har været under messen, hvor de kommende spil bliver testet og netværker bliver skabt.

https://pixel.tv/underholdning/intervie ... e-paa-cgw/

[jonaz.dk]

Mass layoffs at Microsoft
Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees. (8% of their staff)
Blizzard president Mike Ybarra has also decided to leave, and Blizzard’s survival game has been canceled.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/2404 ... rd-layoffs


And sad news from Bolverk Games, the developers of a bunch of VR titles including Glyph, Dick Wilde 1+2, Kittypocalypse and recently Genotype.

From various linkedin posts popping up, it seems a round of layoffs has hit Bolverk Games. At least 6 people has been affected from a crew of approx. 12.

Unknown how much is relating to their sister company Bolverk XR.

All the best to the former employees! I hope you will all find somewhere good and Bolverk will continue to sail on.
Though we all know, we are in dire times in the local (and also international) job market as well.

One place to start is here!
viewforum.php?f=8

[jonaz.dk]

Free for a limited time on GOG

Mordheim: City of the Damned
https://www.gog.com/en/game/mordheim_city_of_the_damned

[jonaz.dk]

Holy moly! Airhead from (DK) Octato has a release date on XBOX and beyond!
And it's soon! 12th February this year!

The project has been taking it's due time. (Not an uncommon occurrence in the Danish games industry). But glad to see there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel.

Airhead - Release Date Announcement Trailer



Updating with links to platforms
GOG
https://www.gog.com/en/game/airhead

XBOX
https://www.xbox.com/da-dk/games/store/ ... 9g4pfq6868

PlayStation
https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10004203

Epic
https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/airhead-945e54

Nintendo Switch (Should be coming out but I have not spotted a link just yet) (Update: Not completely sure about Switch support though)

Amazon Luna (Should also come out there but no link yet)

Steam

[jonaz.dk]

There is also a recent gameplay overview of Airhead

Personally I have very moderate expectations on how the title will perform. There just doesn't seem to be a lot of audience craving this particular title when looking as estimated wishlists, youtube views/interactions, SOME. The current wishlist is fairly decent for a small indie title, but far away from the big leagues. At #1314 on the current global wishlist according to steamdb.

So estimating lower sales than Eg. the fairly recent (tiny bit DK related title) and 'somewhat' comparable Somerville.
And just adding the data from Steamdb:
Somerville had amassed around 7700 followers on release. 8800 currently.
Airhead is currently at around 1100 followers on Steam.
COCOON was around 6000 followers on release, but has increased to 20,756, current date.

Adding: All the mentioned projects has super long development cycles of 6-7 years. While the game is 'on a good day' played through once. This is not the best for the Steam algorithms. COCOON is certainly the most well received. But even the absolute top brass in quality game standing the best chance in the category could find it challenging to recoup 6-7 years of development for a sizeable team. Making good partner business deals will be an important part of the process. By the way I am sure the game will do more than nicely.
Somerville certainly looks like more than a challenge to turn into a healthy business just from outside observations. Airhead will be facing an even harder challenge. Repeating the success of Limbo/INSIDE is tricky business.
(Well Dino made good business in selling Jumpship at a strategically sound moment.. so he is good I'm sure!)

Adding more: Also the good news is that Octato is 'pretty much' down to solo-development (besides a smaller publisher studio helping out) at the moment hence the burn rate is low and that makes survival of the studio more likely post release.

But let's see what happens and hoping for the best!

It's been a long difficult ride! I have been following the project fairly close at my time in the Gothersgade basement with the team working there. Super great and talented guys by the way! And amazing the game has finally made it to release after all these years. <3

[jonaz.dk]

IO interactive also recently released the old (but good!) Hitman: Blood Money on Nintendo Switch.
I think this is the first time we see the Hitman franchise release on a Nintendo platform.

[jonaz.dk]

Oh maaaaan! Bummer!
The Embracer restructuring just hit Eidos Montreal working on a new Deus Ex game.

A statement from Eidos Montreal has confirmed 97 jobs have been lost at the studio, following the previously-reported news that its Deus Ex project has been cancelled. The studio employed 481 people, as of 2022.

https://www.eurogamer.net/embracer-canc ... -two-years

[jonaz.dk]

An interview with Frederik Schreiber from Slipgate/3D Realms. (In Danish from arkaden.dk)

Some details emerge. 20 people was let go at the studio. I thought it was more! But should account for around 50% of the workforce, which is still a deep cut.

The new big unannounced title they were working on has been cancelled.

But overall it seems like the studio is licking their wounds and soldiering on with Tempest Rising as their main focus.

https://arkaden.dk/vi-arbejder-kun-paa- ... ironworks/

[jonaz.dk]

So two Danish games will be launching on the 12th of February!

The first game from Guidelight Games and first published title from Ghost Ship Publishing. SpellRogue!

SpellRouge will be launching into Early Access.

And super happy to see a game with a good prognosis! I have an almost hard time seeing this one not having some level of success!

- Game genre is (potentially really) good for Steam!
- Short development cycle. I first spotted the project back in June 2022. Not exactly sure how long they have been working on the project but maybe 2'ish years in total?!
- TINY super talented two man team = low burn rate and recoup of development costs. Not sure how they pulled this level of visuals and flair off.. crazy for such a small team.
- Ghost Ship Publishing (It is their first published title so they are certainly new in the game! But I have confidence they know their ways regardless)
- Good indicators on Steam stats (Not crazy good though. Or should I say more than descent for small indie title) currently at 2,249 followers, #706 in wishlists (SteamDB)

Overall I have a really good feeling about it!

Also the game reminds me of DiceWiz from @Chrono Which was a super great Flash game!

Best of luck to Tim and Thorbjørn the 12th of February and beyond!

[jonaz.dk]

Big DK news! Makes perfectly good sense with the new Danish game institute in the works. Grats to us all and thanks to @Producentforeningen for carrying the torch for all these years.

PRODUCENTFORENINGEN OG SPILBRANCHEN GÅR HVER TIL SIT
I mange år har spilbranchen været en del af Producentforeningen sammen med film- og tv-branchen. Producentforeningens bestyrelse og foreningens spilproducenter er nu enige om at skilles.
https://pro-f.dk/aktuelt/producentforen ... er-til-sit

[jonaz.dk]

Last chance for Nordic Game 2024 spring passes at half price!
https://nordicgame.com/welcome-to-ng24- ... niversary/

[jonaz.dk]

Nordic Game Jam 2024

[jonaz.dk]

Oh! The new Danish game institute will be given a proper name. The Danish Ministry of Culture has announced a naming competition!



Link:
https://kum.dk/aktuelt/nyheder/hvad-ska ... ling-hedde

Direct link to the competition
https://www.survey-xact.dk/servlet/com. ... kAnonymous

[jonaz.dk]

The COCOON soundtrack is out!

[jonaz.dk]

Funday Factory in Aarhus will be releasing their Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor into Steam Early Access February 14.

Said this before, but expecting it to do really (if not amazingly) well!

Also in the news! After teaming up with Kitfox Games, developers of Dwarf Fortress. Ghost Ship Games and their respective communities, have actually managed to convince Steam to specifically add a 'Dwarf' tag to Steam. Well done!

The Dwarf tag on Steam
https://store.steampowered.com/tags/en/Dwarf/

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor release date trailer


Fun little troll by Steam btw!

[jonaz.dk]

And the first Danish title launching on the Apple Vision Pro is of cause something Triband related with What the Golf. As they have enjoyed a very good relationship with Apple it comes as no surprise. This time in new business dealings with Team 17 USA.

I would expect Apple to be paying handsomely for the port as a 'curiosity app' for the very new platform. So no worries there.
Grats to Triband on the release!

But not marketed as a gaming device it is interesting to see where the platform will land years from now.
The first gen product is clearly aimed at the early adopters with ample money to spare for the device. And will not see any kind of main steam adoption. Though it should be be expected potential newer iterations of the hardware will land on a lower price tag.. very possibly just as 'Apple Vision (Air?)' Or Apple Glasses. But let's see where it goes.

Reviewers has been mentioning issues like the front heavy build that will strain your neck, low battery life with limited use cases and software and the exorbitant price point as problems. All these things can and will likely improve over time. We will see how they choose to push and refine it the future. Indicating that the AR/VR revolution is not coming exactly tomorrow but will have to wait some years.

The Magic Leap AR headset failed miserably with the consumers in 2018. If anybody could have a chance to make a breakthrough here it would be a company like Apple. Buuuut let's see the jury is out on this one!
Magic Leap 2 seems to be sharply focused on usage within enterprise and medicine after burning all the investor money on a pipedream first gen product to a market that wasn't ready with a device that wasn't there. Same goes for Hololens, the focus is on enterprise.

At the end of the day I think Apple will be struggling with finding a good market fit for the Vision Pro. Wisely they are not focusing on games.. as they would be absolutely crushed by Facebook/meta and the Quest platform in this current day and age.
If they were truly wise they would have been trying to crush Meta years ago before it was too late. But inherently without dedicated VR controllers there are certain limitations to gaming on the device anyways. But some gametypes could certainly work.

Enterprise focus is just not sexy enough for Apple I guess to warrant the supposedly massive investment in the R&D.

That leaves the Vision Pro in a flimsy space between two chairs. 'Watching movies (but no apps for Netflix and Youtube), 'AR experiences' and big screen for your laptop. Apple Persona chat with them zero friends that actually owns the hardware.
I have a bit of a hard time seeing that would be enough for a base to truly go somewhere in the foreseeable future.
They can try to rely on the early adopters coming up with brilliant use cases. And I'm sure something cool will happen there. But will it ever be enough? It will certainly take massive future investments in building the backbone over many years to see it actually going somewhere. Well.. let's see where it all goes! My current prognosis is no the most optimistic, in the short term, for a luxury device that also doesn't really solve any problems. And only does some things pretty cool but to great cost in convenience and price.

For mobile computing on the go you can say that is solves a problem. Having an 'almost' desktop experience with you on the go. But also creates other problems. Wearing such an expensive devices could get land you in trouble with the wrong people.
And the current form factor is certainly not for everyone to wear on the go in this current day and age. Over time we might see a shift in public perception as the devices shrink.

Adding: Oh yeah and locally I could see some things happening on the device beyond Triband things. But it will probably be more of XR client projects for companies who are willing to pay and perhaps some ports for it to make sense for the specific developer. While Apple is figuring out the ins and outs of their first gen device using it as a test bed of things to come. There is a long road ahead of them to hit mass adoption. But one step at the time. And it will certainly be a long time before developers can develop at the system and make a proper living from selling apps directly to consumers.

More thoughts regarding privacy and ethics..
Devices like this this is probably the worst technological platform we can imagine for lack of privacy. There is basically ZERO privacy you can truly count on. 3D scanning your environment and following your every tiny eye movement constantly. The golden goose for analytics really!
But I guess only very few people would actually care. Our world of abundant mass surveillance doesn't seem to bother people the least. So I guess there might actually not be a whole lot of fuss to about it for XR headsets even though it represents the most extreme level of voluntary of privacy invasion. Interesting really!