Just over a month ago, Unity bought AI-driven audio analysis platform OTO to fight toxic behavior in multiplayer games. A month before that, Discord acquired Sentropy, a company behind AI-powered software to detect and remove online harassment. We sat down with Utopia Analytics‘ Sharon Fisher, a veteran in the games moderation space, to discuss the challenges the industry is facing in its quest to make the gaming environment safer.

Cyberpunk isometric RPG Gamedec came out on September 16. The game, inspired by the Gamedec book series by Marcin Przybyłek, puts you in the shoes of a game detective, who solves mysteries inside virtual worlds. A year ago, we discussed the Gamedec demo with the development team known as Anshar Studios. Now, days after the title’s release, we caught up with Mateusz Greloch, Community Manager at Anshar Studios, for an update on what has been…

Malte Burup, creator of Mind Scanners, discusses game design choices behind his quirky Orwellian brainchild.

Tim Willits, chief creative officer at Saber Interactive and former studio director and level designer of id Software, is one of the key people behind the DOOM, Quake, and Rage franchises. We caught up with Tim amid WN Winter’21 in a futile attempt to capture his 25+ years in video games, as well as to find out what he’s up to these days.

ENCODYA is a cyberpunk point-and-click adventure game that came out on PC on Jauary 26. We caught up with ENCODYA’s developer Nicola Piovesan to discuss the game and the team behind it at chaosmonger studio.

Gamedec is an upcoming cyberpunk isometric RPG. It puts you in the shoes of a game detective, who solves mysteries inside virtual worlds. The story adapts to the decisions you make, but those won’t come easy to you. Players will have to make their morally ambiguous choices and deductions under constant time pressure, never able to collect enough evidence to piece together the whole picture.

Carrion is a reverse horror game in which you play as an amorphous creature of unknown origins. The game received universal acclaim from players and critics for its clever power-fantasy premise, as well as satisfying traversal and combat mechanics, which allow for gameplay that can be both strategic and chaotic.

Cloudpunk is a neon-noir story set in a dystopian cyberpunk metropolis. You play as a courier with the Cloudpunk delivery service.

Defold, the game engine from the makers of Candy Crush Saga, doesn’t make news quite as often as, for example, Unreal or Unity. Last May, however, was important for the engine. First, it became open source. Second, it officially separated from King. Björn Ritzl, Defold product owner, explains why and how this happened.

The Shattering is a first-person story-driven psychological thriller with horror elements. It came out on April 21 and is currently available on PC.

Black Mesa 1.0 came out on March 6 bringing closure to 16 years of arguably the most ambitious modding effort ever. The nuances of Gordon Freeman’s inaugural adventure cleverly rewritten, multiple environments and AI overhauled, Xen completely reimagined. The game itself, once a fan mod, is now a commercial stand-alone title. All good things to those who wait.

Italy is a great market for games. It’s worth €1.7 billion, which means that people buy and play games. However, revenues from Italian developers account for just around €50 million, and almost everything comes from a handful of key studios.

LUNA The Shadow Dust is a hand-animated point-and-click puzzle adventure that came out on February 13. It is the debut title of the Chinese team called Lantern Studio.

Strategy game Through the Darkest of Times came out on January 30 to very positive reviews on Steam. The award-winning indie title chronicles the struggle of a small resistance group during the years of Nazi rule in Germany.

Ministry of Broadcast is a narrative-driven cinematic platformer released on January 30. The game is set in a dystopian country divided by the Wall, and to get to the other side, you must survive the reality show run by the omnipresent Ministry of Broadcast. Expect traps, tons of moral ambiguity, and brilliantly somber humor in the vein of Monty Python.

Eliza is the latest title from Zachtronics that took everyone by surprise. In contrast to the programming puzzle games the studio is famous for, Eliza is a visual novel about an AI counseling program, the people who develop it, and the people who use it.

On April 4th, a German indie studio called GrizzlyGames released Islanders, an atmospheric minimalist city builder. The game immediately got warm reception from critics and very positive reviews on Steam. Valve listed it among 20 top-selling games of April 2019.

The expression “industry veteran” is used too liberally these days. We are quick to call anybody “veteran” who has a couple of decades of experience. What does it make David Mullich, the man who has been making games or teaching about games for 40 years? And it’s not just any games. David created or was involved in creating the legendary titles like I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines,…