Johnny Geng’s Post

The Pros and Cons of PvP Games: Building Strong Communities and Tackling Challenges 🎮 PvP games have revolutionized the gaming industry by fostering vibrant communities and offering dynamic, competitive experiences. Here's a quick look at the major benefits and challenges: Pros: 👨👩👦👦 Enhanced Community Engagement: PvP games foster social interaction and build strong communities through features like in-game chat, guilds, and team-based objectives. ▶ Increased Replayability: Human opponents' unpredictable nature ensures that each match is unique, keeping gameplay fresh and engaging. 💰 Cost-Effective Content Creation: Introducing new characters or abilities can diversify and enrich the game experience without requiring extensive new levels or storylines. Cons: 🌊 High Reliance on Liquidity: Maintaining a large and active player base is essential for quick matchmaking and balanced gameplay, requiring continuous effort and strategic planning. 😖 Development Complexity: Beyond balancing, PvP games require robust infrastructure, anti-cheat systems, and continuous content updates to keep players engaged. 🎮 Matchmaking Challenges: Ensuring fair and balanced gameplay is tough. Effective systems pair players of similar skill levels, but even these can have flaws, leading to mismatched games and a less enjoyable experience. Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of different mechanics is key when planning your next game and its mechanics and pitching to investors. This month's blog post will expand on PvP and how it can benefit or harm new games. We'll share it here when it's out - stay tuned! #gaming #PvP

Let the games begin! Calling All Gamers! 🎮 Gear Up for the Ultimate Showdown at Road to Hell Games 7!🔥 Join forces with Fornixa Games as we unveil the epic #videogame God Machines and guide you into the world of community-driven game design, development, and marketing. Hosted by Liga Fantasium, #RTHG promises thrills and insights like never before! Get ready to level up your #gamedev knowledge as 🎤 Bartosz Borusiewicz (Co-Founder and Executive Director at Fornixa Games) and 🎤 Paweł Sobotkowski (Co-Founder and Marketing Director at Fornixa Games), the visionary minds behind Fornixa Games, take the stage to explore "The importance of community-driven and aesthetic approach in game design, development and marketing". Highlights: • Importance of the quality and aesthetics aspects in the game development — how to stay unique and attract gamers • Real cases of community-driven development • How important is community in games and how increase of games number affects gamers behaviours and video games market? • The key marketing practices and activities to implement when creating video game Real gods are digital! Join our stand during RTHG event and play #GodMachines with us! Take your friends and play together against each other. Welcome to a machine-dominated world, where ruthless God Machines reign. Are you ready to leave your human sentiments behind? Brace yourself for a blood-soaked journey through a post-apocalyptic wasteland, where the shattered corpses of your enemies pave the path of your adventure. Can you beat the AI or other players in multiplayer? If you never try, you’ll never know! We hope you are just as hungry for power as God Machines are. Step into the shoes of a newborn digital god to claim unrivaled supremacy and determine the future of the primitive lifeforms that swarm this planet. Prove your worth. Glory to the Machines! #event #gamers #videogames #gaming #aesthetics #gamerscommunity #gamingcommunity #RealGodsAreDigital

The rich, complex history of the video games we enjoy today may be traced back to the shared excitement of tabletop activities, especially role-playing games and board games. Immersion storytelling was made possible by tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. The various personalities, dramatic journeys, and fantastic settings that were constructed at the tables created a mental theater that inspired innovation. 🎭 Playing board games taught us how to be strategic and make important decisions. Video games from the past, like Risk and Chess, encouraged players to embrace tactical thinking, which is a feature that is naturally present in modern games. ♟️ The essence of tabletop gaming found a new home in the digital sphere as technology developed. The shift from paper and pen to pixels created new opportunities for strategic gaming and interactive storytelling. There's no denying the shared DNA, whether you're managing a tabletop campaign or navigating a virtual environment. These game worlds are linked by the excitement of discovery, the companionship of shared tales, and the strategic skill needed to overcome obstacles. A lot of video game creators honor their tabletop heritage. In addition to embracing RPG features, games like Baldur's Gate 3 and The Witcher series pay homage to the spirit of tabletop narrative in a digital medium. It's amazing to see how far gaming has come from simple dice rolls at a table to the expansive digital worlds of today, coming from someone who started playing tabletop RPGs in 1997. It confirms that the fundamental qualities of tabletop and digital gaming—a passion for discovery, strategy, and group adventure—remain constant. 🎲 Do you still play board games or tabletop RPGs, and if so, which are your favorites? Maybe you can also inspire newcomers or those looking for different games. #TabletopToDigital #GamingEvolution

Loop Games, led by Mert Gür, Hulusi Onder, and their team, introduced a groundbreaking mechanic with Match 3D, effectively creating a new billion-dollar category in the casual gaming space. This innovative concept has not only set the stage for a genre revolution but has also paved the way for other studios to thrive by adapting and iterating on this engaging mechanic. This mechanic has inspired a diverse array of games, including Peak' Match Factory, Boombox Games Inc's Triple Match 3D, Higgs Studio's Tile Master 3D, LIHUHU PTE. LTD.'s Match Triple 3D, Spyke Games' Blitz Busters, and Gameberry Labs' Match Star 3D. These titles are just the tip of the iceberg, with numerous smaller and medium-sized games also benefiting significantly from this innovation. Among the notable followers is King's Candy Crush 3D, which is currently in its soft launch phase and eagerly anticipated to soon make its mark in this flourishing category. Despite Loop Games' decision to sell Match 3D and Match Tile 3D to Lion Studios (AppLovin), the impact of their contribution cannot be overstated. This mechanic emerged as a beacon of innovation at a time when the match 3 and merge 2 genres faced saturation, high CPIs, and intense market competition, proving to be a disruptive force in the mobile gaming industry over the past 5-6 years. #GamingCommunity #CasualGames #StrategyGames #MobileGaming #GameSuccessStories #hybridcasual #NextBigGames

Introducing "The WereCleaner" the next of the Advanced Games Projects (AGPs) premiering at the 2024 USC Games Expo! The WereCleaner is a casual stealth game with a comedy twist. Play as Kyle, a werewolf janitor who works the night shift, doing his job while trying to resist killing the other employees and getting fired. Explore a detailed and evolving office, making plans and improvising when those plans are foiled by Kyle's worst instincts. Check it and 60 other student-made games out at the 2024 USC Games Expo, live on USC's campus and streaming live on uscgamesexpo.com on May 7th, 2024 @ 4PM! __________ USC Games, North America’s No. 1 game design program for twelve years according to the Princeton Review, is collaborating with Amazing Seasun Games to feature the game designers and developers of tomorrow at their annual USC Games Expo. Building on last year’s highly successful live and live-streamed event, the show will premiere on May 7th, 2024 at 4PM PDT, with a “Jr. High/High School Student Sneak Peek” earlier that day at 12:30PM PDT. The show will feature over 60 final student projects. All attendees to the live show this year must have RSVP'd and bring photo identification to enter. Virtually all of the games shown will be downloadable and all streaming content can be viewed at www.uscgamesexpo.com. This is the 8th Expo for the over 20-year-old program—a joint initiative between the Viterbi School of Engineering and the USC School of Cinematic Arts—continuing their legacy of making it the largest University-sponsored gaming and esports event in the world. As it has historically, the Expo will also feature the first hands-on for the 10 projects being developed in its capstone course, the Advanced Games Program (AGP). ✦✦ Content Contributor: USC Games & Amazing Seasun Games Video Editor: Bitsyflick Thanks to Our Partner: Seasun Inc. ✦✦ Visit us on our other socials! ▶Twitter: @uscgames ▶Facebook: / uscgames ▶Instagram: @usc.games ▶Our LinkedIn: games.usc.edu ▶Our Website: games.usc.edu ✦✦ ABOUT USC GAMES: Recognized as the #1 game design program in North America by the Princeton Review, USC Games represents an exciting collaboration between the School of Cinematic Arts’ Interactive Media & Games Division and the Viterbi School of Engineering’s Department of Computer Science. Incorporating elements of design, artistry, and engineering, USC Games offers an utterly unique educational experience for students and serves as the launching pad for them to play significant roles in the game design field. https://games.usc.edu

Are you ready to transform your gaming dreams into reality? 🎮 Our powerful and intuitive game creator is here to revolutionize your gaming experience! 🔥 Unleash your creativity without limits and bring your unique game ideas to life effortlessly. Our user-friendly interface makes game development a breeze, even for beginners. No need for complex navigation or mastering intricate skills – just let your imagination flow! 🌟 Key Features: ✨ Intuitive Design: Craft stunning games with ease. ✨ Seamless Integration: Merge graphics and gameplay seamlessly. ✨ Dynamic Storytelling: Engage players with captivating narratives. ✨ Multi-Platform Compatibility: Reach gamers across various devices. Ready to level up your gaming journey? 🚀 Click the link now to explore our game creator and start building the next big hit! #GameDevelopment #CreativeGaming #InnovationUnleashed #GamingRevolution #IndieGames #GameDesignGenius #LevelUpYourCreativity

*** Showcase opportunity for gamedevs: Time to show off the awesome games of tomorrow! *** 'Tomorrows Awesome Games Showcase' - TAGS, is a part of the new upcoming Copenhagen Gaming Week, a brand new gaming festival being held in Copenhagens largest conference facilities at Bella Center Copenhagen from the 12-14 January 2024. Tomorrow’s Awesome Games Showcase gathers the best of the up-and-coming games from developers who want to showcase their hard work, dedication, passion and skills to the visitors of Copenhagen Gaming Week - and South Swedish developers are welcome too, so members of Game Habitat can also apply for the 'Up and coming showcase'-category. Anyone who has a great playable game, whether it is vertical slice, demo, beta or a game that has been released recently (within the last 12 months) is eligible. TAGS has two categories: Up and coming showcase ● This category is meant for any up and coming games, so whether you’re a solo developer or a company, as long as you have an awesome up and coming game, we want you to apply ● To be eligible all you need is a game that is playable. Beyond that if your game is live and released it has to have been purchasable for less than 12 months. ● Submitting a beta, a demo or a game early access is all okay. Student Showcase ● This category is meant for any student or group of students that is studying at any of the great Danish educations. ● This means that only students at Danish educations are eligible to join. Deadline for submission is 15th of December 2023 at Midnight (CET) Signup and more into at the link below https://lnkd.in/eAVtJdQm Thanks to DKGame and the organizers and supporters of Copenhagen Gaming Week, Copenhagen Capacity, Wonderful Copenhagen, Københavns Kommune, Region Hovedstaden,

Can a game surrounded by IP controversies still be worthy of praise and admiration? (RU in comments) The recently released PALWORLD by Pocket Pair studio has stirred a strong reaction in the gaming community. Many claim that its successful launch was heavily reliant on characters very similar to Nintendo's Pokemon. As a game producer, I decided to take a closer look at the reasons behind PALWORLD's success and managed to highlight 3 most striking ones: 1) In their own backyard PALWORLD is not Pocket Pair's first open-world survival game. In 2020, the studio had already released a similar project in a different setting - Craftopia. The game sold over a million copies, meaning our colleagues at Pocket Pair had the most valuable resource in game development - expertise. The product team just had to smooth out the rough edges, and as we see, they succeeded. 2) All the right ingredients It's not hard to decompose the game into its mechanics, after which it becomes clear - the studio took players' favorite ingredients, mixed them, and created a new dish named PALWORLD. Here are just a few of them: - ARK: Survival Evolved - The Legend of Zelda - Valheim - RimWorld 3) REduce, REuse, REcycle I've already mentioned Craftopia when talking about expertise, but there's more. PALWORLD is essentially a reskin of Craftopia, where mechanics, models, and even boss behaviors were reused! Thanks to this approach, the team was able to free up a huge amount of resources for the game's showcase part - the visuals, which became the defining factor. The high quality of PAL models, indistinguishable from original Pokemon, immediately attracts the audience's attention, which could only dream of seeing Pokemon on PC and Xbox. This factor became a key element in the game's passive marketing. Considering all these factors, I can say that the success was not solely defined by its similarity to the original Pokemon. The Pocket Pair team did a tremendous job on the game, both technically and strategically, and undoubtedly deserves respect and praise! What do you think was the main factor behind such a successful early access launch of the PALWORLD game? #gaming #gamingindustry #gamedev

I’ve built something new and it involves #bikes and #tech… My latest side project is called The Gradient Games. It’s a new form of health/training motivation for people who ride bikes. It brings together gaming, rewards and (friendly) competition, as incentives to live a more #activelifestyle. 👉 app.thegradientgames.com 👈 The Gradient Games offers weekly competitions in which you earn points by riding your bike. Your points convert into chances to win. Think “raffle”, but instead of buying tickets, you earn them through #movement. The Gradient Games is currently open in Beta, with 17 riders (and counting...) already playing in the first game (thanks so much 🙏). There’s post-Beta perks on offer for those who join early and connect their Strava account (this is where I get the activity data from), so jump in and don't miss out 😏 If you like the sound of this and know others who might, I’ll see you (and them 🤞) in the games! Let’s get the world moving.