Expedition 33 has already won the GOTYs even before they arrive | MyWeek #3

There’s less than a week left until the GOTY ceremony, and personally I can’t think about anything else. It’s by far my favorite event of the year for quite some time now.

And of course the ceremony has a hyper-commercial focus. The categories could be improved, winners could be given more time, and many other things could be improved as well.

But above all the possible improvements stands everything good it brings. And the best part is that it has the entire industry’s eyes on it, which is why the big announcements happen there. That’s what I’m really there for, even though the awards themselves are great.

GOG Patrons

I got an email from GOG about their Patrons program to support the maintenance of classic games, and I’ve signed up as a subscriber.

Sony Awards.

Voting is open until Tuesday the 9th on Sony’s official blog for their awards, with no fewer than 19 categories. The image shows my votes.

Helldivers is joining the trend of getting its own movie.

The movie project using the Helldivers IP has been confirmed. I imagine we probably won’t be able to see it until around 2028, but if it captures even a bit of the spirit of the iconic Starship Troopers, I’m sure I’ll like it.

Dispatch takes the weight off a key decision.

The executive producer said in an interview that everyone told him he was crazy for releasing the game episodically instead of launching it all at once.

In reality, there are successes and failures in any format, but for me these kinds of games will always benefit from releasing in parts, the same way good TV series do. Because if the product is good, people will talk about it on social media and generate word of mouth.

When everything is released all at once, the surprise is gone. There can be no cliffhangers, and you won’t be able to avoid spoilers. Lots of people will just jump straight to the endings and ignore the journey.

Personally, I hope we get many more episodes in narrative-driven games.

Steam and Epic ban a game amid controversy.

The game studio santaragione.com is niche-known for releasing very creative games that are often controversial for crossing lines or playing with taboo themes.

The thing is, their new project was banned by Steam a long time ago, and the platform never tells you the reason or reasons why, nor do they re-review your submission even if you make changes.

Without getting into the possible reasons for the ban… it’s true that the lack of transparency in giving exact explanations seems wrong to me, even though they probably do it to avoid bad PR.

On the other hand, I think it’s going to work out well for them, because a lot of people are buying the game on other platforms after finding out about the bans on the main ones.

I saw on Reddit

This thread caught my attention about an educational game disguised as a basic shooter. It has a solid foundation to build something interesting on.

Unity 6.3

The new version of Unity is already out. I’ve updated my projects with no issues at all and very quickly. I didn’t have to change anything whatsoever.

Of all the new features, the one that affects me the most is the increased capabilities across the entire UI Toolkit framework, which I use as the main core of my manager game.