Kojima AR 🥽, Steam wishlists 🎮, Showcase ROI 💸, OpenGL PBR 👨💻
📈 Wishlists & Showcase ROI
Indie Fan Fest: A Wishlist Engine for Steam Next Fest
Digital Bandidos and The MIX are launching Indie Fan Fest to amplify indie visibility right before Steam Next Fest. With curated “tentpoles,” a low $600 selection fee (and waivers when needed), and Steam event pages that can drive thousands of wishlists, the showcase aims to surface overlooked gems. Over 700 trailers arrived for the debut, and the team plans recurring events, potential physical shows, and a broader platform to tackle discoverability head-on.
Game Showcase ROI: Data, Costs, and Why Triple‑I Wins
Showcase slots can cost $15k–$250k per minute—but a dataset of 214 games shows where they actually pay off. Triple‑I Initiative delivers the strongest median follower gains at the lowest price, and formats with “just trailers” keep viewers watching. The real wins come when you pair a showcase with a demo, Next Fest, or media features. Negotiate hard, chase free slots, and don’t blow your entire marketing budget on one show.
🛠️ Production Craft: Rendering & Cinematics
Modern OpenGL PBR with GLTF 2.0: Metallic-Roughness, IBL, and GGX
Dive into physically based rendering in OpenGL using GLTF 2.0’s metallic-roughness workflow. The video shows how to load PBR textures and parameters with Assimp, compute PBR inputs, and implement IBL using GGX and precomputed BRDF/irradiance. Expect clear shader breakdowns for specular and diffuse, normal mapping, and energy-conserving multiple scattering. It’s a practical path from Phong to modern PBR with assets ready for Vulkan.
Build Film-Quality Cutscenes in Unity with Timeline and Cinemachine
Learn how to craft cinematic sequences in Unity by combining Timeline and Cinemachine. This tutorial covers camera clip blends, dolly splines (auto and keyframed), gameplay-triggered cutscenes, and per-camera post-processing with smooth profile blending. You’ll also set up realistic depth of field using HDRP’s physical camera and animate focus pulls.
DIY iPhone Mocap: Chest-Mounted Selfie Stick Hack
3D artist Gloria showcases a clever DIY motion capture setup: no headmount needed—she attached a selfie stick to her chest to secure an iPhone. The post includes a closer look at the improvised rig and points to her earlier Blender-made elven character. It's a practical, low-cost approach indie devs can emulate for quick mocap tests. Follow her work for more inventive workflows and character art.
🌍 Gameplay & Worlds: AR Canvases and Parkour Systems
Kojima x Niantic Spatial Tease Smart-Glasses AR Storytelling
Kojima Productions is partnering with Niantic Spatial on an AR project designed to “push the boundaries” of interactive storytelling. A teaser shows smart glasses guiding players to digital artifacts in the real world, hinting at a wearable-first experience. The collaboration follows Niantic’s sale of its game division to Scopely and the launch of Niantic Spatial to pursue geospatial AI—backed by $250M but marked by layoffs.
Outlaw’s Vengeance: Fluid UE5 Parkour Meets Third-Person Gunplay
Gameplay programmer Saba Danelia showcased a custom Unreal Engine 5 traversal system featuring fluid, realistic parkour reminiscent of Assassin’s Creed. The prototype underpins Outlaw’s Vengeance, a third-person shooter about an exiled assassin on a revenge quest. Get an early look at character movement, world building, and development workflow via the project’s YouTube channel.