Archangel’s dives into the RPG genre with ‘Bleak Faith’

The RPG market is growing each year by leaps and bounds with the rise of players’ interests and diverse availability of the RPGs.

With the rapid inflow of revenue towards the RPG market, developers are making a beeline in a bid to explore this genre by creating a variety of new games. Bleak Faith is an upcoming third-person open-world survival horror action RPG whose developers recently revealed the sneak-peek of the game for the kick-starter campaign.In conversation with Animationxpress, Archangel Studio lead developer and CEO, Miso Vukcevic shared insight as to how they have developed the game. “We spend very little money in our lives, everything goes towards the game, but we work without a budget from the start so not having money doesn’t stop us,” said Vukcevic.

According to them, the studio is fairly new and right now in its initial stages with two people in the studio. The game is close to action RPG which implies that its a game for gamers made by gamers with an aim to create a great story”

The game will be initially available on PC  and the PS4 and Xbox after that. Bleak Faith aims to provide an emergent narrative method coupled with more structured traditional moments. The world of it is labyrinthine, tapping into an innate curious instinct with many defined branching choices – where the developers focused on creating a strong sense of curiosity about their path which has not been taken by offering unique and compelling content in every area of the world where the world employs both vast open areas, and more linear openness in Metroidvania fashion.

Opening the world in Bleak Faith is a crucial aspect to show players the reality of the Forsaken. In this world, there are few havens for the Forsaken, and these are generally outposts which serve as bases (of various complexities and utility) to recover from journeys and prepare for more – however, nowhere is truly safe!

Disagreeing with the notion that playing brutal combat games results in poor mental conditions, he said “reading a violent book, and watching a violent film won’t make you violent – why would a game? It’s not super brutal in terms of visuals, it’s brutal in terms of difficulty and challenge.”

The biggest challenge in reaching the global audience remains to be the language.  At the Kickstarter page, the studio has also said, “The great thing about our studio and project is that it’s very small, and that means we don’t need too many resources to keep up the work we’ve been doing so far. The challenge is to reach the quality level of the best in the industry while maintaining a pace while we move forward. Having a financial resource from you guys will allow us to completely move into only developing this game, giving us a tremendous boost both logistically and in motivation. You can tell we have a lot to offer from what we’ve shown, but what’s to come is especially going to be impressive – we’ve laid the foundations of systems and gameplay already, and as a result progressive is going to be much more rapidly moving forward.”

It’s been two years since they began the ideation of the storyline however it’s been only four odd months of the game development process and things are already starting to piece together like a charm.

“The prototype is releasing in a few days but people loved what we showed so far. The game will launch in Q4 of 2019,” added he.

Explaining the reason why there is a huge rush of action combat games, he shared that ‘action distracts people from their lives.’ That’s what attracts and engrosses people in action combat games.

With the game, the studio aims in “finishing early access and integrating RTX into the game.”According to them, the audience can expect 50 hours of fun where there isn’t any specific target as the game is meant for everyone who enjoys games of a similar genre. The key areas that they focus on while designing a game on Unreal engine ,3d development software are the emotion and the atmosphere. They are not very fond of studio collaboration as they believe studio collaborations risk ruining a game. However, on outsourcing of project worldwide, he shared“outsourcing work is pretty simple if you have followers and if people are watching your work. Vendors are a little harder to get, but again, quality is the best way to convince anyone.”

With the RPG title the studio shared an inspiring mantra for the budding game developers”Work hard and don’t give up. Even underdogs can end up victorious !”

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SonyLIV crosses 100 million app download on Play Store

India’s first premium VOD platform, SonyLIV has crossed the 100 MN app download on Play store.

Launched in 2013, SonyLIV has been one of the pioneers in India’s digital ecosystem catering to a plethora of digital viewers with content across languages like English, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Gujarati.

With a 3X increase in monthly active users in 2019, SonyLIV records around 100 downloads per minute with a rise of 7X in total time spent on the platform. In May, the platform extended its services in Tamil and Telugu launching over 4000 hours of content across both languages. SonyLIV also announced its new Hindi original Gullak last month adding up to its extensive repertoire of over 150 titles.

 SonyLIV is also the first OTT service in India to announce the launch of 100 plus games on its platform spanning Multiplayer Video Quiz, Augmented Reality formats and games on SPN’s most popular shows ever. As India’s first OTT gaming destination, the platform aims to capture 50 MN new consumers in the months ahead.

 SonyLIV will be bringing the 11th edition of Kaun Banega Crorepati this August with the Play Along feature for its viewers along with the string of web originals like Heartbreak Hotel, Holycross and 16 on SonyLIV this month. 

Highly rated English shows like The Discovery of Witches, LA’s Finest, Sweetbitter S2, Brittania and Riviera will also be launched scaling up SonyLIV’s comprehensive English content line-up. In addition to this, subscribers will also get to binge on the upcoming India-West Indies series along with tournaments like the NBA, Ashes and more.

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Veteran independent game developer Parker Park joins FLETA to lead the blockchain game development

Parker Park, a Korean independent game developer famous for indie games including Donquixote Online and Nekopocha, joins the FLETA as a new CTO of the team. Park will lead all game planning and development projects and drive the development of use cases in the game industry.

Parker Park is an independent game developer well-known in the Korean game scene. He started game development in 1998 and has built his expertise as an individual game developer who takes care of all game planning and development process by himself. His most-featured games include Horus Cannon, Donquixote Online, Observer Online and Nekopocha. There are also more than 10 unpublicised games in which he completed the development. In Korea’s computer/mobile game community, Park’s games are known for unique features and high qualities.

“Mobile game industry did not receive much attention at the early stage of the mobile gaming industry. But after one mobile game hit the overall gaming industry, the mobile gaming market has grown remarkably forming a big market as it is today. I think the same thing will happen in the blockchain game market; a single successful game will be a game-changer. I believe FLETA’s technology will create ‘the one’,” said Parker Park

FLETA has highly evaluated the possibility and potential of blockchain game considering the technological advantages of using blockchain for gaming. In last May, FLETA has planned and developed its own blockchain game; with the main net launch in the second half of the year, the company has accelerated creating game-related uses cases based on the FLETA technology. It is expected that CTO Parker Park’s experience and expertise, whose goal is to create a high-quality blockchain game, will create great synergies with the FLETA’s technological benefits, fast speed and unlimited scalability in particular.

(Photo provided by FLETA) FLETA CTO Parker Park

FLETA CEO Paul Park, said: “With our new member Parker Park, FLETA will focus on developing a blockchain game that can lead the scene and be recognized in the market.FLETA’s new blockchain game will be a huge leap that will bring blockchain commercialization forward.”

FLETA is a blockchain platform whose goal is the commercialisation of blockchain. FLETA has developed advanced blockchain technologies like Independent multi-chain structure, Block Redesign, and its own consensus algorithm PoF (Proof-of-Formulation). With its technologies, it aims to solve problems that existing platforms have such as slow speeds, scalability limitation, and excessive fees. Moreover, to enhance its interoperability and offer FLETA service to more projects, FLETA developed Gateway technology which allows projects issuing their tokens through other mainnets to maintain their original mainnet while using FLETA service chain. FLETA successfully opened beta testnet in March 2018, and in the upcoming August, it plans to launch its mainnet. Use cases utilizing FLETA’s technology including blockchain games will also be publicised this year.

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Esports for everyone: MegaFans targets female gamers

Female gamers are the most loyal and highest-spending block of gamers in egaming, yet for years they’ve gone mostly ignored in the industry. MegaFans, a mobile gaming startup and esports engine, aims to correct this disparity and bring more inclusivity to esports.

In a recent blog article on the topic of female gamers, MegaFans’ co-founder, Jeff Donnelley broke down some astonishing numbers about female representation and purchasing power. Despite some common assumptions, statistics show that female gamers make up 55 per cent of the global gaming market and in 2018 this demographic spent over $50 billion on eGames. Donnelley goes on to say, “In general, female gamers have a higher retention rate, make more in-app purchases and have a higher customer lifetime value than their male counterparts.”

Since the beginning of electronic gaming, video games have been predominantly marketed as a male-oriented past time. As gaming has developed into a high-profit market and more recently, a serious sporting event, female gamers have continued to find themselves excluded from fully being embraced or acknowledged by the industry.

With 75 per cent of the global population projected to own a mobile device by 2020, more women and girls than ever are becoming avid gamers. As a principle part of its mission, MegaFans embraces the inborn diversity represented by the mobile platform and the company aims to use it as a vehicle to give a larger pool of gamers full access to the esports experience. With “esports for everyone” as a core mission, Megafans also focuses on tapping Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets in underserved regions where mobile devices are the principle mean of communication and economic transaction, but mostly go ignored by larger game publishers.

Mobile presents a huge opportunity for those willing to stop wooing the same Western and male-dominated demographics and instead acknowledge that avid gamers exist in other markets.

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HyperX to distribute gaming supplies at the upcoming Red Bull Rise Till Dawn esports tournament

HyperX, has announced their partnership with Red Bull esports tournaments and events in 2019, beginning with the Red Bull Rise Till Dawn event, being held in Chicago on 13 July. HyperX will be the exclusive supplier of headsets, keyboards, mice, mouse pads, DRAM and SSD for the 2019 Red Bull esports tournaments and events. HyperX will also be providing products for the Red Bull Esports Arena in Santa Monica and providing products to Red Bull athletes and key players.

“HyperX is excited to continue our relationship with Red Bull for their esports events and tournaments in 2019. Working with a global leader like Red Bull makes perfect sense for both brands. Our premier gaming gear ensures the elite competitors at these top events can perform at their highest levels, and Red Bull’s audience allows us to showcase our products to their vast, diverse audience of customers and gamers,” said HyperX Marketing events lead Sandra Jurgens.

HyperX is supplying quality gaming equipment for the Red Bull tournaments and events including; HyperX Cloud and Cloud Stinger Wireless gaming headsets, HyperX Quadcast USB microphones, and Chargeplay Duo PS4 and XB1 as charging devices for console controllers.

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History revisited and recreated through stunning animation in Bengali film ‘Durgeshgorer Guptodhon’

Animation has created a stir all over the country and the sector is growing with every passing day and by 2021, the sector is expected to reach a size of Rs. 24.4 billion. This medium is also becoming quite prominent in the regional space.

Recently, Bengali feature film Durgeshgorer Guptodhon depicted the rich history of Bengal through beautiful animation at the beginning, to set the tone of the film. The animated clip narrates the times before and after the Battle of Plassey (1757) where Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah lost to Robert Clive and his army, after being betrayed by the commander of his army, Mir Jafar. The clip focuses on the role of Raja Krishnachandra Roy, (the zamindar of Krishnanagar, Nadia, West Bengal from 1728 to 1782) who supported his friend Jagat Seth to gang up against the Nawab and got a lot of wealth in return, around which the treasure hunt is based upon. 

Talking to AnimationXpress about the ideation process to blend history and fiction through animation, director Dhrubo Banerjee mentioned, “As a child my father used to buy me Amar Chitra Katha. I grew up with those illustrations. That was the beginning of my love with history and illustrations. When I decided to create the first ever treasure hunt franchise in Bengal – Guptodhoner Sandhane and then Durgeshgorer Guptodhon, with a focussed approach of combining history of Bengal with its culture and heritage, an acceptable narrative was necessary to address a eight to 80 audience base. Animation was a natural choice in that respect. My six years of experience as the creative director at Reliance Animation also had a role to play. To create an engrossing title narrative where we explain the history as the premise of the story without getting into the cost and production nitigrities of shooting it in live action was also a key factor.”

Character Sketches

Durgeshgorer Guptodhon in its quest for real treasure also unearths hidden treasures of Bengal related to its history, culture and heritage. For the team, it was a conscious decision to use the 2D format of illustration style which naturally lends its form into 2D animation. The style lends an old age charm and transports us into the era. 

Banerjee added, “An in-depth research on the historic episode of Bengal we were going to depict had to be in place first. A good script was a must. It had to be simple yet informative enough to engross a large audience spectrum. In regional format, time and cost are two very important considerations. So we had to consider an animation format that will be extremely simplified yet impactful. Minimalism was the key that we wanted to adopt as a basic animation technique.”

Bengal is blessed with a rich canvas of art and art forms. For narrating the historic event, the team adapted the unique art form of ‘Kalighat Pot’ or ‘Kalighat Potochitro’ that belongs to the 18th century. It uses the very common global technique of 2D animation – ‘Thick and Thin’ lines. 

“Bengal has amazing artistic talents. So adopting the ‘Kalighat Potochitro’ style was not very difficult. In fact, the true genesis of this technique is attributed to this art form only. So, we decided to keep it for the film. But to put it together as a coherent flow with its detailing needed a specialised studio. Especially where it was pre-decided that every film of this treasure hunt franchise will have a title and end credit animation, it was imperative that a competent studio like Fourth Dimension had to be involved to ensure the quality parameters on a long term basis,” commented Banerjee.

Fourth Dimension is one of the leading studios in Kolkata with a commendable talent pool of both 2D and 3D artists. With their impressive work over the years, they handled the criticality of the animation process flow brilliantly. Led by Rajat Dalui, the founder, Fourth Dimension Studios has a trained workforce of artists who are trained to handle any level of production complexity within strict deadlines. 

Dalui informed, “The end to end process flow took about two months. The artworks needed in-depth research of the style of the art form, the characters, their costumes, art direction and also the locations. Everything had to look correct. As a studio, we’re prepared to handle the challenges and deliver the finest both at the national and regional level.” 

Animation as a medium is gaining momentum with every passing day and might also become mainstream very soon. Both Dalui and Banerjee have high hopes for that. 

“Well at a national level, the talent pool is enormous. The sky is the limit, if we are to comprehend the scope in animation and visual effects in Bengal. We have just started to create films with content that demands specialised expertise. With age new directors and writers coming into the fray, the opportunity is just going to explode in the coming years. We as a studio should be ready with our skill sets to use the opportunity in our favour. 

Also, we are getting very good feedback from the national market too as we have a studio in Mumbai as well. Looking forward, we are entering into the golden period of the content generation where animation and visual effects will be naturally integrated.”

Banerjee concluded in the similar line, “I see a huge possibility. Bengal is so rich with its culture, heritage and literature that almost every Bengali is drawn towards the artistic exploration of some kind or other. The Bengal renaissance has seen phenomenal artistic exploration of every possible form. With this lineage and the present generation of kids growing up on animation and visual effects content as their new form of grandparent storytelling, we are truly entering the most promising phase for animation in regional markets. Especially in Bengal, the ready availability and connect with fantasies and folktales in literature is second to none. If any regional market in India is truly ready for mainstream animated content in films, its Bengal. I am already considering to put together a full length animated feature film in Bengali, considering that I have belonged to the fraternity for a pretty long time, I guess it’s a natural extension for me.”

Well, we’re keeping our fingers crossed and hope good animation films get all the attention they deserve!

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Look at clouds. You’re 12.

Digital card game ‘Gods Unchained’ opens up blockchain beta

Gods Unchained, one of the most anticipated blockchain competitive card games, opened up its balancing beta to the general public. Already, the game has sold more than four million cards and has generated about $4 million in revenue. Now, with the beta launch, Gods Unchained will open doors for new players to join the fray, collect cards, mint cards to the blockchain, and battle with others around the world.

“Gaming is a $140 billion per year market that has capitalized on leasing premium features to select individuals based on their purchasing power. In almost every game, players are buying items, cards, skins and upgrades which they don’t truly own. Blockchain actually gives players digital-asset ownership, with the same property rights you can find in the real world. With Gods Unchained, we’ve captured the allure of traditional print card collectables like Magic, married them with appealing visuals of digital games like Hearthstone, and added true ownership through the Ethereum blockchain,” said  Gods Unchained co-founder  Robbie Ferguson .

The game is free to play and comes with a starter deck for new players, with booster packs available for players who want to expand their collection. In its presale Gods Unchained has released a limited-edition Genesis Set which includes 380 unique cards. After the close of the balancing beta and launch of version 1 gameplay, the developers will discontinue production of Genesis Sets and start to issue a new season of cards. Ten per cent of pack sales goes directly to a prize pool for the first Gods Unchained World Championship. Currently, the tournament already has $430,000 allocated funds.

The balancing beta will take place through the month of July. During this time, cards can be collected from packs but not traded. Developers will monitor the performance of cards and measure the fairness of different deck combinations. This is to ensure that the game remains balanced, fun and competitive. After the balancing beta, the development team will solidify card stats and activate peer-to-peer trading functions.

Traditionally, items in games are owned outright by the companies that create them. When players buy in-game items, like a favourite skin for their character, the player doesn’t own it – the game company licenses it to the player. By using blockchain technology, Gods Unchained gives players real ownership over the items they purchase or earn in games, which can later be sold for digital currency or traded with other players.

Fuel Games, the creators behind Gods Unchained, previously raised $2.4 million in funds from Coinbase Ventures, Continue Capital, Nirvana Capital and Sora Ventures to support the game creation.

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AppLovin acquires SafeDK to bring developers tools to automate app security and brand safety

AppLovin, a comprehensive mobile gaming platform, has announced that it has acquired SafeDK, a software development kit (SDK) management platform that ensures ad quality, performance and stability in mobile apps, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition will further AppLovin’s mission to help mobile game developers grow and protect their businesses.

SafeDK allows mobile app publishers to build faster and safer apps by analysing, monitoring and optimising third-party SDKs in their apps. SafeDK’s Ad Intelligence solution helps publishers get a clear view of their ad inventory and campaign performance. Its In-App Protection solution helps monitor and control SDKs in real-time. SafeDK will help publishers on AppLovin’s platform secure and control third-party SDKs to ensure brand safety.

“We’re excited to have SafeDK as an integrated offering in AppLovin’s developer tools. We aim to bring developers the tools they need to grow a successful business. We started working with SafeDK because it is the best and only tool out there for protecting brand safety in apps,” said  AppLovin director, platform product at Idil Canal.

“We are delighted to be working with the AppLovin team to help mobile game publishers grow their businesses. AppLovin has been a trusted partner for the biggest mobile game studios around the world and SafeDK’s technology will strengthen that trust,” says SafeDK co-founder and CEO Orly Shoavi.

AppLovin is headquartered in Palo Alto with offices in San Francisco, Dublin, Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, Toronto and Berlin. SafeDK is headquartered in Herzliya, Israel, and will become AppLovin’s first office in Israel. SafeDK co-founders Orly Shoavi and Ronnie Sternberg will remain heads of SafeDK and will become co-general managers of AppLovin Israel.

SafeDK employees will work with the AppLovin team to continue to provide a tool that protects brand safety in mobile apps and integrates with AppLovin’s tools for mobile game developers. SafeDK will continue supporting existing customers

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ZOTAC CUP expands with new features including leader boards and a loyalty program

ZOTAC Technology, a global manufacturer of innovation, is pleased to expand the ZOTAC CUP tournament experience with an all-new ZOTAC CUP Loyalty Program launching today. The premise is simple, play, earn, and get rewarded.

ZOTAC CUP established in 2007, has been the platform for casual and professional gamers to connect and compete across the globe. With free-to-play CUPs hosted for major titles every week, the CUP is a ripe ground for players from around the world to hone their skills. The ZOTAC CUP has also been the official platform for online qualifiers in the internationally recognised ZOTAC CUP MASTERS tournaments, a professional stage for professional players from all around the world.

With over 3,000 CUPs played and available in over 150 different countries, winners from both the weekly CUPs and monthly finals win prize money and are also recognised through our social media platforms, CUP news and monthly subscriber newsletter.
Players will now be recognized on the new ZOTAC CUP leaderboards for all to see their achievements. As players participate in the ZOTAC CUP tournaments, they earn points for playing and if they place in the top 3, they’ll earn additional points. As players continue to play and earn points, they’ll start climbing the leaderboards for all to see. Players will be able to see the overall points leader and the per game title points leader for other players to aspire to beat.

 Rewards
Not only will players earn points for playing, prize money for winning in top three, the points players accrue are also transferred 1:1 into ZOTAC CUP Coins in which they can redeem for prizing. Prizing include ZOTAC branded swag to ZBOX Mini PCs, and even ZOTAC gaming GeForce graphics cards.

“This newest update to the ZOTAC CUP platform is one of our most exciting addition for the players around the world. With the 12+ years of ZOTAC CUP tournaments, we wanted to expand on the great community enthusiasm for the ZOTAC CUP tournaments with something more than just new tournaments,” said ZOTAC global marketing director Chinny Chuang.

ZOTAC CUP is an integral component to ZOTAC as it allows a full circle commitment to drive great design, amazing engineering, powerful performance in hardware, and a free-to-play platform for gamers to utilize it all to push their limits further.

 

 

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