The challenge of making BattleTech's first two hours matter Two of BattleTech's lead developers tell us about introducing players to complicated game systems while trying to make their first 2 hours as memorable as possible.

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  Video: The qualities that make for a good producer In this 2016 GDC session, Gearbox Software's Aaron Thibault discusses the qualities that make for a good producer.

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  CCP chief: EVE dev's move to leave VR due to risk, not loss of faith In an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, Hilmar Veigar Pétursson discusses why CCP Games pulled out of VR development.

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  Get a job: Sucker Punch Productions is hiring a Lead Lighting Artist The Seattle-based studio is looking for a talented Lead Lighting artist with a solid understanding of current run-time rendering technologies to illuminate the world of Ghost of Tsushima.

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  The infamous FMV game Night Trap is headed to the Nintendo Switch after all Courtesy of Limited Run Games, the once-controversial FMV game is launching on the Switch nearly 25 years after Nintendo’s then-SVP said it’d never appear on any of its platforms.

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  Hearthstone game director Ben Brode departs Blizzard Brode, who has worked on Hearthstone for 10 of his 15 years at Blizzard, has announced that he is leaving Blizzard to 'take a crazy risk' and help start a game development company of his own.

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  Blog: How the Rubik's Cube inspired a laid-back Atari puzzler An excerpt from '21 Unexpected Games to Love For The Atari VCS,' exploring why the Atari Video Cube isn't anything like a real Rubik's Cube. It's a lot more accessible!

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  Learn the secrets behind reviving BattleTech today at 4PM EDT We're talking to two of the lead developers behind the new BattleTech at 4PM EDT. Come ask your questions!

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  Capcom scrapping Puzzle Fighter to focus on Dead Rising The mobile version of the arcade classic only launched in November last year, but has already been deemed surplus to requirements.

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1 Blog: Lessons from the Latvian game developers conference Indie developers Helen Carmichael and Jake Birkett from Grey Alien Games learned a lot at the recent Latvian game developers conference. Here's Helen's report from the event.

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  Create your own cardboard controllers with free 'gambi_abo' blueprints The brainchild of Enric Llagostera, gambi_abo is a free collection of do-it-yourself instructions for cardboard game controllers designed with accessibility in mind. 

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1 Australian High Court orders Valve to pay $2.4M fine over misleading refund policy "This important precedent confirms the view that overseas-based companies selling to Australian consumers must abide by our laws."

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  Blog: Breaking the convention commandments In trying to tease our next game, The Deep End Games decided to try something different. Here, Director Bill Gardner discusses his goals and how it all went in this mini postmortem.

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2 Game Design Deep Dive: Dandara's unique jump-only movement mechanic "By designing natively for different input methods, you can bring life to a completely new game design," writes Dandara dev João Brant in this Deep Dive into the game's unique movement system.

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1 Video: Alternative ways to approach concept art In this 2015 GDC session, One Pixel Brush's Shaddy Safadi explains how AAA games need not only concept artists, but concept designers.

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12 Thanks to a cosmetic change, Epic accidentally rebalanced Fortnite's shotguns Epic Games decided to change the rarity ranking of Fortnite's in-game shotguns, and the result was an unprecedented change in how each weapon was used.

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  Oculus overhauls privacy policy and terms of service Ahead of the EU's GDPR, Oculus implements a new privacy policy and terms of service which will affect global users.

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  Get a job: Shiny Shoe is hiring a Project Manager Shiny Shoe is seeking a software project manager that is highly detail oriented and can manage multiple simultaneous projects.

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5 Blog: What happens when you lose your entire test-suite? What happens when your QA team loses its entire test-suite? Well, read on as I explore how we lost our test-suite, the reaction, and how ultimately realised it was a blessing in disguise.

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1 Don't Miss: Game design and mind control in Superhot At GDC 2016, game director Piotr Iwanicki detailed Superhot's design process and how its developers ultimately leaned into the "mind control" elements of the game's narrative to build a better game.

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  TheWaveVR secures $6M for its social VR platform The virtual reality startup TheWaveVR has raised a grand total of $6 million for its social music and visual arts platform of the same name.

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1 Blog: A postmortem of the Anime Matsuri Expo This postmortem is a way for me to share with other indie developers my personal experience as a first time indie game exhibition, the Anime Matsuri Expo.

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6 Loot boxes with real-world value deemed unlawful in The Netherlands The Netherlands Gaming Authority (NGA) had been investigating loot box usage in 10 unnamed titles after concerns were raised by players, parents, and those working in addiction care.

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  Blog: Designing countermoves in PvP games As game designers, how do we encourage players to play better and longer in our games? One effective way is to design countermoves -- emergent solution to specific problems.

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  Crossfire developer Smilegate closes Berlin studio The South Korean company began branching out into Europe back in December 2016, and opened its Berlin office in February 2017.

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