Steam AI 🎮, Candy Crush Design 🍬, Roblox tools👨💻
🧠 Industry Shifts & AI in Games
Valve Now Requires Steam Devs to Disclose Generative AI Content
Valve has quietly overhauled its Steam disclosure form to address generative AI in games. Developers no longer need to report internal "AI powered tools" used for workflow, like code helpers, but must disclose any AI-generated content that actually ships. That includes in-game art, text, or audio, plus marketing assets and store page materials. Games that generate AI content during gameplay must also be flagged, with devs providing a short description of how AI is used.
Designing Candy Crush Blockers: Complexity Staircases, AI Bots and Fair Challenge
Candy Crush’s latest Crush & Tell episode dives into how King designs blockers and balances difficulty across more than 20,000 levels. Senior product manager John Davies explains the “complexity staircase” that introduces simple blockers early and more intricate ones to veteran players. New blockers like the Mal-O-Matic must earn their place with unique behaviors and carefully staged rollouts. AI and bots now assist with difficulty estimation and draft level generation, but King insists human designers still make the final creative calls.
🌍 Global Reach & Localization Strategy
Game Localization Tier List: Where Indies Get the Best ROI
BiteMe Games tackles game localization with a creator-friendly tier list that ranks target languages by impact, cost, and practicality. Backed by hardware survey stats, the video shows which regions deserve your attention first and which you can safely skip as an indie. It then explains how to localize step-by-step, plus what to do now to prepare your project for future translations. Ideal for devs who want more players without building a new game.
Valve Now Requires Steam Devs to Disclose Generative AI Content
Valve has quietly overhauled its Steam disclosure form to address generative AI in games. Developers no longer need to report internal "AI powered tools" used for workflow, like code helpers, but must disclose any AI-generated content that actually ships. That includes in-game art, text, or audio, plus marketing assets and store page materials. Games that generate AI content during gameplay must also be flagged, with devs providing a short description of how AI is used.
🛠️ Tools & Tech for Game Devs
WebGL Virtual Textures: Streaming a 32K Assassin’s Creed Map in 16 MB
Alex Goldring has revisited and shared his WebGL implementations of virtual texturing, complete with live demos. One highlight is a 32,768 x 32,768 pixel Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey map that would normally demand 4 GB of VRAM and an 804 MB download. Using virtual texturing and 2048 x 2048 tiles, the demo runs in a browser using only about 16 MB of VRAM and loads almost instantly. The article links to several VT demos and his social channels for deeper exploration.
Redupe Plug‑In Brings Array‑Style Duplication to Roblox Studio
Redupe is an open-source Roblox Studio plug-in by Mark Langen that brings array-style duplication from 3D tools into your Roblox workflows. Creators can use viewport handles to generate and tweak geometric patterns of objects in real time, adjusting spacing and layout on the fly. The latest update adds smarter auto-align behavior for rounded cylinder joints, better circular connections, and a custom Extrude resize system ideal for modular doors, windows, and columns. It’s available now on the Creator Store with source on GitHub.
🎮 Gameplay Feel & Design Craft
Designing Candy Crush Blockers: Complexity Staircases, AI Bots and Fair Challenge
Candy Crush’s latest Crush & Tell episode dives into how King designs blockers and balances difficulty across more than 20,000 levels. Senior product manager John Davies explains the “complexity staircase” that introduces simple blockers early and more intricate ones to veteran players. New blockers like the Mal-O-Matic must earn their place with unique behaviors and carefully staged rollouts. AI and bots now assist with difficulty estimation and draft level generation, but King insists human designers still make the final creative calls.
Polishing 2D Platformer Movement: Stepping, Slopes, and 8-Way Dash in Unity
Sasquatch B Studios level up their Unity platformer controller with a fresh batch of movement improvements. You’ll see how to implement auto-step / vaulting over small obstacles, refine slope descent so players can run off edges based on angle and speed, and tighten up head corner correction. The episode also redesigns the 8-way dash and introduces a handy editor tool to visualize dash angle ranges. If you’re chasing “feels right” platformer movement, this breakdown is packed with actionable tweaks.