Rogue Journalism 📰, AI Game Funding 🤖, Godot raytraced audio 🎧
Business & Funding Insights 📈
Rogue Debuts: Ad‑Free, Algorithm‑Resistant Games Journalism by Ex‑Polygon Staff
Seven former Polygon staffers have launched Rogue, a fully worker-owned, ad-free publication focused on human-centered games coverage. Rejecting algorithm-chasing and sponsored posts, Rogue aims to spotlight both AAA and indie titles while humanizing developers and holding studios accountable. The site is reader-supported with subscriptions starting at $7/month, while news and most guides remain free. “Nobody can shut us down or sell us,” the founders emphasize.
Pitching AI in Games: What VCs and Publishers Want in 2025
AI funding is surging even as traditional game investment tightens, say investors Carli Stein and Cassia Curran. Money favors AI tools that span the dev lifecycle and show strong retention, while AI‑native games face skepticism and optics challenges. Publishers are pickier: team strength, a compelling prototype/vertical slice, and a clear value proposition are critical. Use AI to accelerate prototyping—but avoid “AI slop”—and make the unique player value unmistakable.
Engine Audio & Rendering Performance ⚙️
Drop-In Raytraced Audio for Godot: Realistic Echo and Muffle, No Zones Needed
This MIT-licensed Godot addon brings raytraced audio to your game with minimal setup. Add a RaytracedAudioListener to drive procedural reverb and ambient direction, and use RaytracedAudioPlayer3D for automatic wall occlusion. It also creates Reverb and Ambient audio buses for quick mixing control. Links to GitHub, AssetLib, and a step-by-step video tutorial help you get up and running fast.
Vulkan Frames-in-Flight: Faster Submissions with Semaphores and Fences
This tutorial shows how to enable multiple frames-in-flight in Vulkan to boost throughput without stalls or corruption. It replaces QueueWaitIdle and a single semaphore pair with per-image semaphores and a fence-per-frame strategy, rotating a frame index and handling out-of-order image acquisition safely. You’ll also see how to measure FPS properly and use immediate present mode for clearer performance gains. Expect cleaner synchronization and higher framerates.
Character & Animation Tools 🎨
Draw, Space, Animate: Simple Animation Graph for Blender
Andry Dédouze’s Simple Animation Graph add-on lets you sketch a trajectory, mark spacings, and instantly animate objects or bones in Blender. It fuses 2D principles like spacing and easing with 3D power, making timing and stylized motion fast and intuitive. Compatible with Blender 4.1+, it includes free updates. Watch the new demo and explore Dédouze’s pro insights from CoD: Mobile to UNIQLO campaigns.
Next‑Level MetaHumans: UE5.6 Creator + Maya DNA Plugin Guide
Build, refine, and productionize MetaHumans with UE5.6’s in‑Engine Creator and the new Maya DNA plugin. Start from a custom sculpt, solve Identity, conform head/body, tweak materials and grooms, then assemble for Unreal and DCC. In Maya, precisely edit Neutral Poses, Skin Weights, and Expression Poses (with LOD-aware tools and reprojection), save a new DNA, and round-trip back to Unreal. A practical, end-to-end pipeline for stylized, scanned, or marketplace-ready characters.