Julia Lichtblau

Animating with Cascadeur: Physics-based animation software is pretty wild. That’s 8 keyframes there. The one on the right is my first rough animation “Keyframe prompt” and the green dude on the left is the interpretation.

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What do Lethal Company, Skyrim, Helldivers 2 all have in common? They are designed to be broken. Dig into what this even means in my recent video, which you can find on my channel here: https://lnkd.in/gDPk_8E6

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Tip for publishing consideration submission to Midwest Games... tldr - Send info through our portal (https://lnkd.in/gWtKgpuU), not through email (or LI). I get that it's a little counter-intuitive...you might think you want to put your info right in front of the sourcing decision influencers' faces. But it's actually a disadvantage - especially those of you who are agents throwing multiple titles at us at once. The submission portal goes right to our database, and that database is there for a reason: to keep an organized and consistent record of all submissions in one place. I look through there all the time. I'm reminded of titles I may have overlooked or need to go back to consider as circumstances change all the time. We rarely, if ever, make immediate decisions or even quick deep review/consideration. Our factors for consideration shift regularly. I do not review your particular email regularly, or at some point even remember you sent one. I go to the database. Connection via other channels is good. Discussion about your game over other channels is good. But having your core game info in those channels is not good. Please use the submission portal!

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2nd Book Progress – Be so good they can’t ignore you   This week has been great. I have been fleshing out my other significant character in the development team: an ambitious Senior Level Designer from Italy who is free-climbing in her free time. She is going to have a major story arc in the book. On her journey to becoming a team leader, she has faced several difficult problems in the past that carry over to our current project. She has a reputation of focusing mostly on herself and her own achievements. She is very controlling and wants to get into higher positions for the privilege and power they offer. This is also the main reason why her former team leaders had kept holding back on giving her more responsibilities, especially with regard to leading other team members. Naturally, this made Simone feel somewhat bitter to the point where she feels the company owes her a promotion. At this stage she joins project leader Angelo and his team to lead the level design department there. This is a great opportunity for her, and with Angelo’s guidance, she starts to thrive. A few key things he tells her are that your leaders need to understand what kind of leader you would be if they were to give you this chance. Therefore: 1️⃣ Focus on others and elevate your team members over your own achievements. 2️⃣ Lead before you officially are a leader. 3️⃣ Do remarkable things for the project. 4️⃣ Be so good they can’t ignore you. Once she internalizes these points, she starts changing her behavior and immediately sees success and recognition from the team. When the pandemic hits she really begins to shine. Her wits and adaptability ensure a great working environment despite the new challenges of working from home. She even surpasses Angelo in making sure everyone feels valued, cared for, and able to perform at peak efficiency. This, truth be told, is the best compliment you can get as a leader. When someone in your team becomes better than you.   #gamedesignimpossible #writing #gamedevelopment #gamedesign

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In today's little bit of progress, we're working with a little bit of music and setting up some Enemy Animation Blueprints- just with patrolling and idling for the time being. These are called Agonized Hunters and probably for good reason. Lore is so fun to come up with, by the way. I suppose all the stories I started to write even as a kid should've been a grand sign towards my liking of storytelling, but I definitely know about it now. I thought it would be a nice touch for the light to turn red/add in some invincibility frames when the player comes in contact with them, as well as adding in a sliiiight distinction between the breakable platforms and the ones you can walk on regularly. On a semi-related note, something I only learned fairly recently: the Nav Mesh Bounds Volume in Unreal only registers traversable ground. That's why it's only the ground that turns green when you preview it and not the air that the volume may also be in contact with. If you're working with flying enemies you won't want to rely on those or the functions related to them (like GetRandomReachablePointInRadius and co.), since they will bring those flying guys right to the ground at best. You'll want to look into the Math function RandomPointInBoundingBox instead. ✨

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Paradox Interactive announced today that Double Eleven, the developer behind Prison Architect 2, will be stepping away from the project after nine years with the Prison Architect franchise. Good news first, construction on Prison Architect 2 isn't being halted! Co-development studio Kokku, who's been working on the game since 2023 and previously collaborated with Double Eleven, will take the lead in bringing the sequel to completion. The news comes with a hint of complication. While Prison Architect 2 passed certification, negotiations between Paradox and Double Eleven for continued development reached an impasse. Technical hurdles, particularly with memory usage and minimum specifications, emerged during final testing. Paradox, likely wary of past performance issues (think Cities: Skylines 2), emphasizes their commitment to delivering a high-quality sequel that honors the Prison Architect legacy. Kokku, a Brazilian studio with a history of co-development and outsourcing on major titles like Horizon Forbidden West and Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War, is now at the helm to ensure Prison Architect 2's smooth launch. The Prison Architect series, which began in 2015 with the original simulation/management game, is still on track for a 2024 release with Prison Architect 2. While the development team has shifted, fans can rest assured that work on this highly anticipated sequel continues. (source: https://lnkd.in/dWtBvDhN)

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Latest 3ds Max Tutorial is out! - Learn how to make a Procedural Sci-fi Hallway Generator ⚡ https://lnkd.in/e7-v3Vbj

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TONIGHT AT 6:30 PM join us for an improvised version of PVP Circuit and help us rebuild our local community brick by brick. I still can't believe I get to work in the video game industry. My 6-year-old would laugh, and then cry once she realized what it means to work in the creative technology sector. That's why IMO everyone could use some levity during these unprecedented times. Join us for a fun evening to raise funds for the Trevor Project. Event link >>> https://lnkd.in/g7tBuP6d Frequently Asked Questions: What if I can't attend the event? - If you can't make it, please consider purchasing a ticket to help us raise money for charity or get one on behalf of someone impacted by layoffs. What if I want to join but can't justify the cost? - If you want to join but find the cost prohibitive, DM me and we'll make it happen (see point above). Do I have to pitch at the event? - No, you don't have to pitch if you prefer to observe. It’s a great way to see how it's done. Will there be another event like this? - We plan to host our community again, but I can't specify if this event will be the focus. #gamesindustry #event #comedy <3

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Happy Wednesday all! Today I want to talk about hiccups setbacks and what to do when a troll enters the dungeon! Today as I was prepping an exciting review meeting with my technical artist on all the amazing VFX applicants I logged in and saw nothing. All gone! Poof! Not sure what happened possibly a glitch in the matrix or what not but plans had changed for the entire day and rest of the week in a flash. All I could do was to try and get things moving forward again. Can’t get mad about a setback no time! So I hopped on here sent the SOS to all the amazing individuals interested in the VFX role and stated the facts. -emails gone -review delayed -follow ups complicated And now it’s on to being a bit humble and asking for support. Anyone interested in the SENIOR VFX ROLE please reapply 🧡. Mistakes happen and hiccups and delays are all part of the startup life. It’s important to remind oneself to be professional under the hardest of times but also keep the larger picture in mind. This may have flipped my week upside down but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the weeks, months, years ahead. Much love everyone!

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DeamPlus Games Earned $12M+ IAP Revenue Amids “Hoa Hoa Hoa” Season 🍂 Game of Vampires: Twilight Sun, an empire-building RPG, is the ultimate vampire fantasy brought to life. 🌘 Gothic castles, luxurious dark interiors, a spooky atmosphere — and a ton of pop-culture references! From Twilight and The Vampire Diaries to Blade and The Addams Family — this game is packed with nostalgic nods that resonate with players through its ASO, ad creatives, and character design. 🧛‍♂️🏰 The right timing and a touch of luck drive this success even further: with the game’s global launch, the unexpected revival of the Twilight franchise came into play! Millennials are fueling it with nostalgia, while Gen Z is having fun with those cringy moments the old movies have. ✨🧛‍♀️ For a deep dive into this phenomenon and the insights game developers can draw from it, check out Diana Levintova's fantastic article for AppMagic. Halloween couldn’t be a better time to dive into the industry insights, spooky vibes, and, of course, “hoa hoa hoa” 🎃👻 Link in the comments! 👇

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https://lnkd.in/gTknvq8R Terrible loss for video game preservation. Why are we allowing classic video games to be lost to time? Many games are impossible to re-experience these days due to either: 1. hardware beginning to degrade or be discontinued. 2. online services shutting down and it being impossible to buy it. 3. Multiplayer servers being shut down, good luck playing your online only experience with no servers. Oh but, you can't host your own, cause that's illegal. 4. Emulating the game is considered pirating and is illegal. Why are we making it harder? To give you a personal recent example: I wanted to buy some DLC for an old Forza game that I owned. Too bad, says Xbox Store, this item is not sold anymore. I look online to perhaps buy a code, they are all gone and no retailer is selling them. This is from a game made in 2015 for the Xbox One, which is still being supported! Video game industry: we need to look to other industries such as music and film and do better. If your game is no longer playable or purchasable on modern hardware, and you have no intentions to sell it, we need to make efforts to preserve it. We risk having many games and especially DLC become impossible to play and we can lose a massive amount of history.

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Hi all. I want to share another magic item I've created for an upcoming D&D 5th edition supplemental item module that I'm working on. This item is called Viridis, which loosely means Green, and is inspired by Emerald Dragons. Since I'm not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast, I'll be removing any Forgotten Realms lore I desribed when it's included in my upcoming module—it's just for my current campaign haha. About the weapon, I wanted to make it a Halberd because 5th Edition D&D doesn't currently have any unique magic halberds ha. I've always been interested in some of the less used weapon types in D&D. D&D Beyond Link to the item: https://lnkd.in/eex9H2mP

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Do you love Autochess? Of course you do. Do you love Arkanoid / Brick Breaker? Rhetorical question, everyone loves those games. Now what if someone were to combine those two things? Well I did that and it was pretty cool. BRKRX combines the shop mechanics of autochess, the physics gameplay of arkanoid, and some JRPG influences into a unique roguelite experience. Read the full design breakdown of the prototype, and try it out yourself, at the link below. https://lnkd.in/gr824QPq

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Games industry DESPERATELY needs to unionize. Since December my LinkedIn feed has been a sea of people looking for work because they've been laid off, due to the "business strategy" of laying people off when you want to look more profitable in Q1 of the next year, or just "trimming the fat"/ "improving efficiency". I won't say my experience was exactly like this necessarily, but I was recently laid off in January, though I haven't marked myself as looking for work due to many reasons, partly being the lack of jobs, all the bots and spam on this website, and the crushing damage to my self-confidence. Either way, NO ONE should be made to feel this way. I've even heard of people getting laid off mid parental leave, or while they're on vacation with limited internet access, THIS IS DESPICABLE. What's worse is in this industry we all experience imposter syndrome, and anytime this happens you can't help but think we're terrible at our jobs, if only you'd worked harder, spent more of your own time improving your skills, you would be essential enough to the company to keep on, but they still could let you go, so it doesn't even matter. CEOs or in general the entire C-suite of people should be held accountable and publicly shamed. If your business strategy is to hire as much talent as possible, realize you can't keep on all that talent, and then lay them off, then you are incompetent, and should not be given a pat on the back for at least giving severance, when you're just following the lowest requirements of the law. The people who you've laid off are people who have built your company and kept the lights on. You can't just use the excuse, "that's just the way the industry is", that's a weak excuse. There are industries that experience frequent lay offs but have a union and support, such as some plants in the auto industry, and the workers have fought hard for years so that they would have those benefits and salary top-ups. Of course that's not always the case and things could be better, but we shouldn't just sigh and be like "it is what it is", and keep trying to work within the system when the system is broken. I'm just mad right now, for myself, but mostly for my friends, and people I don't even know that work in this industry, because I know these devs are hard working people that are constantly learning and trying to improve, and they are now doubting all their skills and feeling like they're not good enough. As for the people who make these mass lay off decisions a regular occurrence, I would like to say something that may even hurt my career and job opportunities, but deserves to be said, and which many devs would like to say or even scream, Fuck you.

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A STUDY IN FLAME. Testing flame physics in Runway.

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Hello friends. Last month, I was looking for more work and finally secured some on Reddit from a guy who needed help with preproduction on his Tabletop RPG / Card Battler. After a meeting with him, he showed me what he had and it was quite impressive. He had a prototype of a card-battler using a tabletop RPG battle system, but he had little to no documentation or planning—he's been chiseling away at his game for a few months in his spare time after work. I suggested that before I dive into art, we flesh out the game design and the rest of the game up to around an 80% mark and let the last 20% be changes, additions, and that sort. As your game evolves, it'll come into it's own and you'll find things that need changed or added, this accounts for that. He agreed and I asked if I could work on all this since I did that with my game Alligori and lead the team from start to finish with our vertical slice, and I know tabletop RPGs very well. He agreed and we did the whole song and dance with paperwork, and he sent over a retainer and I began work the following Monday. Three weeks go by and we're working great together. I'm fleshing out his game, adding some meat to the backbone of his prototype with classes, abilities, etc. My goal was to write out as much as possible and then trim content to fit it into a 1-year development cycle. So I flesh a bulk of his game out, and then categorize it more into a game design document that clearly conveys concepts, ideas, and mechanics. Catching up, last week was the final week of my first month and payment was due. He just up and disappears like a fart in the wind, I have no idea if he's alive, incarcerated, on vacation, or what. He didn't remove me on Discord, so I don't entirely suspect malicious intent, but he gave no notice. That's the risk you run with working 1-on-1 with a client remotely, one day they can just up and disappear. I do have paperwork, so I may pursue legal action. If he doesn't log on by Friday, I'm going to publicly release all my documentation and the GDD I wrote on here.

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Awesome tips from Ori! Check em out and add some layers to yours 👇 #3danimation

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Indie game thoughts from a 12+ year veteran/educator: 1️⃣ By the time you've figured out what "the market" wants, it's already changed its mind. We're making art; this is a fickle space. 2️⃣ 80% of what could make your game a success is out of your hands. It's terrifying but true. 3️⃣ I recommend that you focus on what you CAN control: costs, timelines, how your work. Reach for the stars, of course, but mitigate risk and look after yourself.* (*This may or may not have come from years of therapy. 😅) #indiegames #gamedev #indiedev #videogames

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Unionisation has historically been lagging behind in games, with workers in the industry slowly catching up with protections that are more standard in film. When we mention that reality and ask what needs to change for games to reap similar benefits, Elmaleh says she's interested to see what will come out of the current situation. "The truth of any sort of basis of a union is that you have to resist," she says. "Corporations don't give things. Employers don't give things without resistance. To come into that awareness as a worker that you have something that they need, and that it is leverage that can be applied effectively – and has been proven to be applied effectively through collective action throughout history – is an awareness you need to step into and really take ownership of it. It takes a fight. "But what precipitates a willingness to fight is the kind of situation that we're in now. The layoffs have been absolutely brutal. That sense that sustainability isn't a priority for some of these folks… that the people who are currently deciding how things are run may no longer be acting in your interest, or that it will take a certain degree of frustration, disillusionment with the system that exists currently, and a willingness to build a new system… Unfortunately for some people, I think it takes a really dark, difficult moment like this to be like, 'You know what? I'm ready to try and really fight to make this look different for everyone's benefit'." ------------------------------------------ Excerpt from the article

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