Backfirewall_

Backfirewall_ is a first-person tragicomic narrative adventure set inside a smartphone. Your task is to save the old system from being wiped by an update, navigating through different parts of the phone, solving puzzles, and meeting all kinds of applications on your humorous escapade.

The Artful Escape

The Artful Escape takes you on a psychedelic journey as a teenage guitar prodigy searching for inspiration and self-discovery. Accompanied by progressive rock, you’ll navigate through the Cosmic Extraordinary to the Cosmic Lung spaceship and other surreal locations.

Superliminal

Superliminal is a mind-bending puzzler set inside a surreal dream, a therapy program. Explore the world which subverts your expectations and learn what happened to you.

Ghostrunner

Dharma Tower is a grim, cyberpunk megastructure—and humanity’s last shelter after a world-ending cataclysm. Your role as a cyber-warrior is to climb it at a lightning-fast speed and face the tyrannical Keymaster, who rules this city.

Manifold Garden

Manifold Garden presents a world of impossible architecture, also known as Escher-esque. Solve physics-defying puzzles and bring life to the barren area.

Arboria

Arboria is set in a curious Yotunz village and ever-changing, creepy dungeons of Durnar. Called a “trollz-like 3D roguelite”, the game sets you against bizarre monsters on your mission to save your tribe—if you die in battle, another Yotun will take your place.

The Unfinished Swan

The Unfinished Swan, advertised as a “first-person painter”, takes you to a mysterious, surreal kingdom. Splatter paint on white landscapes to reveal your surroundings and learn the story of the place.

Did we miss your favorite unique game world? Share your pick on our Discord.

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The post Top 7 Unique Game Settings You’ll Remember for Years appeared first on Allingames.

With your free time gone forever, how do you find time for gaming with a full-time job or a family? How do adults find time for anything?

Luckily for you, it’s a common problem, and it can be solved. An all-ways-of-life team from All in! Games will share their habits and tips with you. Too many? Click here for a tldr version or scroll down to the bottom!

Event Manager: full-time job, married, parent of two

Scheduling is the key to finding time for video games. I work in a video game company, and sometimes I play at work, too. Another habit I developed is letting children watch as I do something family-friendly in a game, such as exploring in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. It’s fun for them, I have my gaming time, and everyone is happy. 

Senior Producer: full-time job, married, parent of one, has a dog

In addition to my daily chores, I live in a village, and a trip to town takes around half an hour one way. As I spend a lot of time with my family, it leaves me only about 2-3 hours to play in the evening and on weekends when my son is asleep, so about 8-10 hours a week. That’s why I gave up on playing long AAA titles in favor of more varied and novel indie games. If I really want to stay up to date, I watch gameplay videos instead. I also stopped playing games which take more than 8-10 hours of the main story to finish, and my playstyle has changed—I used to be a completionist, but now I don’t do all side quests.

I’m lucky to have a wife who understands that gaming is important to me, and she sometimes plays with me in co-op. I can meet my friends in multiplayer games, too, as many of them are from other cities. I’m usually bad at long-distance relationships, but playing together helps me stay in touch in a natural way.

Social Media and Community Manager: full-time job

My method to find time for video games is to schedule gaming time on the same list as my chores in the Todoist app. Instead of wondering what else I should do today, I just go with the list. Usually, I aim to play two games at the same time and launch them in turns every other day.

During the week, my daily playtime can be two hours, and longer on the weekends. Multiplayer titles are also great for short sessions. If I don’t feel like it, I simply don’t play at all, no pressure. In addition, it helps that my job is connected with video games.

UX Researcher: full-time job, pet rats

Gaming time is precious to me, so I schedule my day to find it. I usually do chores until, say, 8pm or 9pm, and then I chill in front of the screen.

Digital Marketing Lead: full-time job, married, has a dog

Schedule, schedule, and then schedule some more. My way is to plan gaming time about a week ahead and book myself the time for it. If an AAA video game comes out, and I know it will take me a long time, I put it off until a better time, like a long weekend.

PR Lead: full-time job, partner

My partner and I try to play together as our quality time, which is easier because I work remotely. I think it’s important to schedule free time for yourself for mental health, so instead of going out or meeting people on the weekend, sometimes (or rather most of the time) I stay home. If all the chores are done and I have a few hours for myself, I select one of several things that bring me joy, including video games, but it can also be reading or watching my favorite show. 

Another thing that helps me to get into playing is choosing games I played as a kid—I don’t need to learn anything extra, because I know how to play, and it’s kind of a security blanket, something familiar. But I do feel that if you are tired from looking at the screen for work, games might not be the best option, so it’s important not to force yourself.

Motion Designer: full-time job, partner, 2 cats

I play with other people online or solo at least once a week. The plans are usually for the weekend or far enough to schedule time. When it’s settled, I check what’s left to do at home and do chores as soon as possible to leave my evening free. In addition, I set myself a time limit, for example, 2 hours, so that I won’t stay too long at night.

My friends live far away, and playing together is like a digital meeting with everyone, sometimes we talk more than we actually play. It’s not a magic trick or anything, it’s all about scheduling and finishing your chores beforehand.

The most challenging part of it is planning time for my friends, especially my partner—I feel we should take advantage of our free time whenever we can, so I let her know when I’m going to play and make sure it’s okay with her.

Brand Manager: full-time job, partner, social butterfly

One of my methods to find the time for playing games is finishing work and chores quickly so that I have free time later. It also helps if the game is a co-op one, and I can ask a non-gamer to join in because they see how much fun I’m having—together time becomes gaming time, especially if the other person is your partner.

In addition, I think it’s important to have your space in a relationship, like reserving a few hours for yourself. It works for many hobbies, and to me, playing games is sometimes more meaningful than reading or watching movies, because it’s more engaging when I can influence the story.

Junior Producer: full-time job, partner, sports enthusiast

I think it’s super important to adapt your free time according to your life. It is entirely possible to balance training and family life satisfyingly while still finding time for games. Self-discipline is the key, and you need to decide how much you want to spend on a specific activity. If you work in game development, it’s a bit easier because you can play at work. What’s more, multiplayer titles are great for team-building activities, both at work and outside of it. 

If you can’t find time for playing video games, take a moment to think about your priorities. Maybe you simply don’t need games right now, but if you feel you miss them, try to fit them into your free weekend schedule, pick your favorite title, and enjoy yourself.

How to find times for video games:

1. Scheduling is the key. Apart from planning time for video games, don’t start anything too long unless you have some more days off.
2. Share the fun. If your partner, children, or friends enjoy video games, find a way to engage them in the activity and combine gaming time with family time.
3. Change the game. Big AAA titles are usually time-consuming, so you can try taking a look at short video games, indie titles, multiplayer, or games you can enjoy even in small chunks of time.
4. Change your playstyle. Being a completionist is fun, but if you struggle to find time for video games, consider giving up on side quests.
5. Pick up an old title. It’s easier to get into a game whose mechanics you already know, without the need to learn them from scratch.
6. Find a job connected with video games. While it’s a bit different from playing for pure fun, you’ll probably need to keep up with the industry.

Nothing seems to work? Let go, for now. Sometimes there’s little you can do, and the important thing is not to force yourself to play. Focus on your other hobbies and wait—one day, when your life gets less hectic, video games may make a comeback, too.

If you have other ideas on how to find time for video games as an adult, feel free to share them on our Discord!

Disclaimer: the content given here is general information and isn’t meant as professional advice for serious gaming issues. If you feel that you or a loved one may suffer from gaming addiction, please seek professional help.

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My Steam Deck is the 256GB, NVMe SSD version that comes with faster storage, a carrying case, and an exclusive Steam Community profile bundle (a background and an avatar frame). You can see its technical details on Steam or in many other reviews, and I’ll just focus on my gaming experience here.

I’ve been struggling to get invested in video games for a while, and Steam Deck actually made me come back to gaming and enjoy it. I came back to some older titles like BioShock™ Remastered or Portal to see how they work and the performance was really good, even for some unverified titles.

You may find the device expensive, but it’s worth what you get in return, considering the prices of PC components. And Steam Deck is a PC–it has the Steam OS with game mode and desktop mode, on the latter of which you can use Linux. I even ran Blender 3D on the device and it worked well enough to have some fun while traveling.

While Steam Deck is massive compared to Nintendo Switch, I liked it better. It did fit nicely into my hands and was more convenient to use. The handle is similar to a typical pad, so I can keep my thumb unbent. Analog sticks are large, which results in greater precision.

In addition, Steam Deck offers a lot of customization options, which helps to prolong battery life. You can adjust the power usage of your graphic card or the number of FPS in the system, or pause your game any time and put the device into sleep mode—although it uses more battery in this mode than Nintendo Switch, so you need to keep an eye on it. Valve has also added an option to set up a lock screen, so your “friends” won’t take advantage of an unattended device—it’s mine, my own, my precious.

Although support from Valve is brilliant, with major updates almost every week, Steam Deck has its problems. The biggest flaw is its short battery life. Luckily, it can be customized by locking up FPS, GPU power usage, etc., so you can extend your Cyberpunk 2077 session on default game settings from an hour and a half to 2-3 hours.

Downloading games requires the device to be awake, so you need to stay alert and not let it enter sleep mode, and software compatibility still needs lots of improvements. I had only 67 verified games as of May 2022 working great in my library, and some unsupported titles were enjoyable too, though sometimes with issues such as UI too tiny for Steam Deck. It’s worth noting that new titles are verified every month.

To sum up, Steam Deck is a great device and I believe that with proper support it’ll have a bright future, possibly for more than just gaming. The freedom of usage is amazing so far, but unless you plan to install Windows on your Steam Deck, I’d recommend the cheaper 64GB version—a good-quality micro SD memory card makes the games run just as well.

_{The review was prepared based on the experience of Karol, Graphic Designer at All in! Games.}

Have you received your Steam Decks yet? Share your thoughts on our Discord.

Check out our titles verified for Steam Deck:

• Chernobylite
• Tools Up!
• Fort Triumph
• Metamorphosis
• Red Wings: Aces of the Sky
• Of Bird and Cage

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You’ll need to decide what stores you want your game to appear in. In this article, Bartosz Smreczyński, our Junior Release Manager, will go through the most popular PC stores, requirements to release your game on them, and the difficulty of the process.

Steam

Steam is without a doubt the most popular place for PC gamers. Valve has millions of users logging in and purchasing games every day. We can safely assume that you want your title to be on Steam unless you’ve received an amazing offer to go exclusive on a different store.

Releasing your game on Steam is an extremely well-documented process. Most of the information is available publicly, so you can do research on your own. One of the biggest things streamlining the process is that Steam is currently the only platform that doesn’t require your game to go through any acceptance process. You simply pay the product registration fee and you can release your game.

Valve will need to accept your store page and the game’s build as they are making sure that you’re actually selling what you’re advertising, but the certification process is very simple and quick. Once you’ve passed it, you’ll be able to change and push builds live whenever you want to.

Steam hosts many promotions every year, which can boost your title sales numbers. Taking advantage of the high traffic generated during the Summer and Winter Steam Sales is extremely important if you want to take full advantage of this store.

In addition, Steam provides you with keys that can be sold through a number of E-tailers, such as Humble Bundle, Sonkwo, Xsolla, and many others.

Epic Games Store

Epic Games Store, or EGS for short, is growing in popularity each month, and their free weekly game giveaways play a big part in it. Sadly, the process of getting your game there isn’t as easy as on Steam. You’ll need to pitch your title to Epic, and they will either accept it or reject it. This, however, has its advantages—EGS is much less crowded than Steam, making your game easy to find for customers. You might also get picked for the free game program, which will give your title immense visibility.

Overall, the release process on EGS isn’t very complicated. While you’ll be able to do most of the necessary actions on your own using the Developer portal, Epic will still have to assist you with the game release—some things can only be done by the Epic support team. Luckily, they’re always happy to assist you. They can even walk you through the entire release step by step to ensure a successful and smooth launch.

You should keep in mind that you’ll need to prepare a separate PC build for EGS. Integrating the Epic social overlay, achievements and similar extras are also highly advised. Similarly to Steam, after your game’s launch, you’ll be able to push any new builds whenever you want to.

GOG.com

GOG.com is the last PC store from “the big three”, very popular with some groups of gamers thanks to their “no DRM” policies. It’s also the only store that actually sells you the game, and not just the license to use it—Steam and Epic could technically remove your game from the store and your customers at any time.

Handling GOG.com is very simple and even pleasant. You’ll need to contact the GOG.com team and pitch your game to them. We would advise providing them not only with a well-constructed pitch deck, but also with a build or a Steam key, so they can play your game.

If your game gets accepted by GOG.com, you’re on your way to a release. There aren’t many things to do on your end. You’ll need to prepare a DRM-free build and some marketing assets. You might also include achievements and the GOG Galaxy overlay, but it’s not required.

You’ll need to take care of uploading and testing your game builds, but other than that all of the actions needed for the release will be handled by GOG.com. They’ll create a store page based on the materials you’ve provided them with, and handle the game’s launch procedure.

In addition, GOG.com hosts many promotions throughout the year, and we advise that you take advantage of them to boost your game’s visibility.

We’re happy to say that through the years of working with GOG.com they’ve always been extremely helpful and a joy to work with!

Are you looking for a publisher? Check out our tips for pitching your game to a publisher:

• How to Pitch a Video Game to a Publisher
• Top Mistakes to Avoid When Pitching Your Game to a Publisher

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The post 3 Major Digital Platforms to Release Your PC Game On appeared first on Allingames.

Without further ado, let’s look at some of the key mistakes to avoid when pitching from Alessandro Bovenzi, our Business Relations Developer here at All in! Games.

1. No elevator pitch. 

It’s good to include an elevator pitch at the beginning, that is to say a short, succinct description that explains what the game is about and what genre it covers, familiar elements (inspirations), and twists (what differentiates it from other games). 

If a few slides in we still don’t have an idea of what this game is about, it might turn us off. Keep in mind that publishers tend to see and review hundreds of pitches a year, so you need to grab our attention immediately and leave us wanting to ask for more rather than overload us with unnecessary information.

2. Poorly prepared Unique Selling Point (USP).

One of the things we often see is a mismatch between the USPs described in your pitch and what is playable in the prototype. This is very common, and we totally understand that financial help is often needed to get you to a vertical slice stage, or even prototyping the main mechanics, but you should be mindful of this. Expect more questions from us in those areas that you’re not able to showcase in a build and make sure you can discuss these topics at least from a design perspective. 

Sometimes there is no mention of USPs in the presentation deck at all or it’s poorly presented. Make sure that you pay attention to this section—Unique Selling Proposition is something that makes your game stand out. What makes it unique? Why would people buy it? You need to answer this question. Check out Game Marketing Genie for more details about USPs.

A successful USP doesn’t need to be super complicated. On the contrary, it should be straight to the point. For example, a USP of one of our games Red Wings: American Aces is: 

3. Lack of visual assets representing your game.

Ideally, we’d like to see what style you’re going for. Please do not use art from other IPs in the presentation unless it’s for a specific example you want to refer to—make it clear when that’s the case. We understand that elements are a work in progress at this stage, but you should make sure that everything is clear and transparent.

We want to see your concept art, actual visuals from the game (if you have them), scenery, and characters.

4. Poorly researched competition.

Competitors and inspirations behind your game will help us understand it better. Publishers will do their own research, but if you refer to similar titles as examples of previous success, don’t just list the best-known outliers. We all dream big, but e.g., not every farm/sim-life game can be as big as Stardew Valley. At the same time, don’t be afraid to get inspired by your competitors—if their idea worked for them, it may work for you.

Knowing the competition helps you realize your possibilities and place in the market. Maybe it’ll turn out your game perfectly fits an untapped niche, which is a great argument in favor of a publishing deal.

5. Lack of clarity about your needs.

Be upfront and clear about your needs. Financial support and time to develop your game are the obvious necessities, but most of the time there’s a range of services publishers can offer, and we want to know what you are looking for in a partner—we’re in this together.

Also, when listing your budget requirements, make sure to be clear about what is included and what isn’t (e.g., localization, VO, QA, porting). 

In addition, cooperation with a publisher isn’t one-sided. Make sure you make it clear what kind of involvement you’re expecting and trust the publisher to deliver. When your goals are clearly stated, the cooperation is much smoother.

6. No company background.

Include a very brief summary of your company background and your team’s experience. This is very important especially if the scope and features of the game you’re developing are quite ambitious. Let us know who you are and why you feel confident in this project.

In addition, this information can be used later to catch marketing and PR attention. Maybe there’s something interesting about the team that would be an advantage to the project—it would help set you up for different opportunities like grants, special events, interviews, etc. 

7. No technological information.

Make sure to include technical information about your game, such as what engine you’re using. This is often critical to understanding the feasibility of porting to other platforms, and whether there are additional licensing costs. You can also let us know if you plan to port the game yourself or if you need our help with that. If your game offers multiplayer mode—or will at some point—include your infrastructure plans too. Are you going to use P2P or servers?

Mentioning other software you’re using is a nice addition too. You can name the coding language you use or tools, such as SpeedTree.

8. Grammar or spelling mistakes.

When your pitch is ready, make sure you take your time to proofread it before sending it to us. Spelling mistakes or messy parts will be regarded as unprofessional, while in reality, they are easy to avoid even with online resources, such as Grammarly. 

Don’t worry about not being a native speaker, but be open about it. After all, your game is more important than linguistic errors.

9. Unrealistic plans.

It’s important to include a clear and realistic budget and timeline in your pitch. It doesn’t matter how ambitious your goals are if you can’t achieve them—consider your abilities and make a down-to-earth plan. After all, meeting deadlines will make the cooperation smoother.

Showing that you understand the balance between costs and a realistic level of success can help you too.

10. (Extra) No GIFs.

They aren’t required, but we love GIFs! They say a picture is worth a thousand words—if so, a GIF is worth ten thousand words. This is not essential, but if you do have any cool game mechanics or a vibrant style you want to showcase, GIFs can easily drive excitement. After all, we’re gamers too!

Do you have your own tips for pitching a video game to share with everyone? Join our Discord and let us know.

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The post Top Mistakes to Avoid When Pitching Your Game to a Publisher appeared first on Allingames.

What is a pitch deck?

To put it simply, a pitch deck is a short overview presentation of your game. It aims to convince the other side to make you a deal. Keeping this in mind, you should ask yourself: Why am I preparing a pitch deck? Why should people be interested in it? Then try to answer these questions in the deck.

What do you expect from a publisher? 

Before reaching out to a publisher, you should clearly state your expectations in the deck. It can be, for example, an investment amount, porting services, UX, QA, marketing, or all together. In addition, a publisher can support you after the release as well, handling sales, communication, community management, or player support. 

What does a publisher expect from you? 

You expect your game to be a success and so does a publisher—it’s a scenario beneficial for both sides. A publisher also wants you to come prepared, armed with information on the game’s loop, exact genres, and having done your research. If you can’t do that yet, it might be too early to pitch the game.

A clear and realistic budget and timeline are important too. Don’t show off with goals that are too ambitious and will need to be adjusted later, but rather consider your abilities and try to make a plan that will allow you to meet deadlines and make the collaboration pleasant.

You don’t need complicated, expensive tools to prepare a pitch deck—you can do it in PowerPoint or a pdf file or build it in other apps like Canva. It’s also important to proofread the deck to avoid spelling mistakes or messy parts which would be regarded as unprofessional.  If you have an idea but aren’t working on it yet, you may want to progress the project a bit to raise your chances. 

What to include in a pitch deck?

There are various elements a pitch deck should include. We list the most important ones below with a short explanation.

• Short description of your game—see the section below.
• Visuals—include screenshots, key visuals, concept art, etc. If you have a trailer, add it to your presentation, too.
• USP—try to come up with a unique selling proposition for the project and share it in the pitch deck.
• Target audience—you need to know who you’re trying to reach to determine how to. Familiarize yourself with the Gamer Motivation Model and customer journey, and create a player persona. 
• Competition—find similar games to let the publisher understand your game better.
• Playable prototype—let the publisher experience playing the game.
• Player experience—think about the game from the player’s perspective.
• Budget—how much will your game cost the publisher?
• Milestone calendar—how long will it take you to develop the game? What are the steps of the process?
• Team information—present the team and showcase their experience and past games. strong points.
• (Optional) Mentions in the press—has your game been mentioned in the press? Share it.

Short description of your game

A pitch deck is not the right moment to share every detail about the game yet. You need to be concise, while at the same time grabbing the publisher’s attention. Try to summarize the game in 1-2 short paragraphs, add factual information (like genre and planned platforms), explain the game’s core mechanics and systems, and core loop. It’s good to include an elevator pitch at the beginning—it should be short 2-3 sentences with an idea of what the game is, inspirations, and twists. 

For example, this is an elevator pitch for Chernobylite:

In addition, you need to explain how your game will grab players’ attention. Why do you think there’s a niche for this? What is its place in the market? Who is the game for? What differentiates it from the rest?

If it’s possible, show what your game is about. Include screenshots, GIFs, trailers, gameplay videos, demo versions—all the things that are ready to show and of good quality.

How to choose a publisher?

To decide which publishers you can reach out to, you should research games similar to yours. Who published them? What was the marketing like? What areas do they focus on? Each publisher has their own personality—who would your game match? See more details on Game Developer.

Alternatively, you can find video game development communities and ask about publishers on their channels. There are also lists of publishers that can be found online. Determine their offers, since some publishers only offer support in a certain area, e.g., marketing.

When you choose your dream publisher, find a way to contact them. Many publishers offer a way to submit a game through their websites. If you want to contact a specific department, check their employee section or LinkedIn to find the right person. Are there industry events in your area? Search for a publisher there too and present your game in person.

For example, to reach All in! Games with your pitch, you can submit a game via our website or send us via email at submit@allingameses.com.

Now that you know how to prepare a great video game pitch deck, we wish you luck! Share your experience with everyone on our Discord.

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The post How to Pitch a Video Game to a Publisher appeared first on Allingames.