Godot IK Returns 🤖, Unity 6.5 Changes 🧱, Hades 2 Lessons 🎮

🕹️ Game Engines & Tech Upgrades

Godot 4.6 Brings Back IK: Inside the New SkeletonModifier System

Godot’s inverse kinematics didn’t just come back—it was rebuilt from the ground up across versions 4.4 to 4.6. The engine now features 19 SkeletonModifiers, including spring bones, constraints, and seven different IK solvers like FABRIK, CCD, and Jacobian IK. Core IK math is kept minimal, while separate modifiers handle twist distribution and angular velocity smoothing. With deterministic options and easier bone-chain setup, the new system is powerful, modular, and ready for advanced 3D character rigs.

Prepare Your Projects: Key Features Being Removed in Unity 6.5

With Unity 6.3 LTS out and 6.4 in beta, the engine team is previewing the breaking changes coming in Unity 6.5. Highlights include dropping the legacy Render Graph compiler, increasing the minimum Android API to 26, and changing how the Android Navigation Bar interacts with fullscreen. DOTS workflows will also shift as Entities.ForEach and Aspects are removed, alongside the final removal of the deprecated VR Module. It’s a heads-up for devs to start planning migrations early.

🎯 Design, Early Access & Market Strategy

Designing for Early Access: Lessons from Hades 2’s Breakout Run

Supergiant Games’ Greg Kasavin lays out how studios should think about launching into Steam Early Access, using Hades 2 as a blueprint. He argues that games should enter paid alpha already fun and content-rich, yet still flexible enough to meaningfully respond to player feedback. Hades 2 was explicitly designed around this philosophy, entering Early Access in 2024 and fully releasing in 2025. The result: top-rated PC game of the year, huge Steam concurrents, and major awards.

From Lottery to System: How Top Publishers Greenlight Mobile Hits

Breakout hits may look like luck, but top mobile publishers now treat them as engineered outcomes. This article dissects three powerful greenlighting models used by Voodoo, SLG giants, and Habby, complete with real prototype costs, timelines, and KPI gates. You’ll see how hypercasual volume testing, SLG UA arbitrage, and modular roguelite frameworks systematically de-risk new projects. It ends with blunt, practical guidance for smaller teams trying to survive in today’s winner-takes-all market.

💡 Graphics & Rendering Insights

Why Your Corners Look Wrong: Fixing GI with Bent Normals

If your GI corners look unnaturally sharp, bent normals might be what you’re missing. The author walks through what normals represent, why environment sampling at hard corners fails, and how “bending” normals toward the least occluded direction better matches real-world lighting. Side-by-side Sponza examples show softer, more grounded diffuse GI when using bent normals instead of standard shading normals. The piece concludes with practical advice on deriving them from your SSAO pass.