Hellpoint Interview - PS5, Xbox Scarlett, Cloud Gaming, Engine Tech and more - Games - Video Peeling news, instructions, exemplary procedures, reviews and cultu

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A veteran of the gambling industry talks about his extremely exciting emerging game as well as the general orientation of the gambling industry.

Cradle Games is a brand new studio consisting of developers with 10-15 and sometimes 20 years of experience in working on AAA games. It consists of Veterans of Activision and Ubisoft and is currently working on the incredible-looking game Höllpunkt, _ an action roleplay with an amazingly pronounced art style. _Höllenpunkt appears next year and offers an interesting premise in addition to its eye-catching art (you are on board a space station that circles a black hole), some extremely interesting technologies that drive it and meets every system on the market. It is also a game that highlights 60fps and split screen multiplayer at a time in which only a few games deal with it.

In view of the successes of the people who work on the future of the game and its emphasis on technology over the entire industry spectrum, Cradle Games are in a unique way to speak about the state of the game industry, and where It could stumble. Of course, they are ideal for talking about the appearance of superlatives Höllenpunkt too. In this detailed chat with Marc-André Jutras of Cradle Games is talked about _höllenpunkt, _ The technology that drives it, the greater direction of the game industry and more.

_ One of the things we wanted to talk to them was technology - of course the technology that drives their own game, and also the larger technology trends across the industry, and where they feel like developers, that we feel. _

One of the things I want to clarify is what we mean when we say that the next generation of consoles may not do anything new. Consider the Cloud Service of Microsoft. You do this for the processing to be done online in the cloud and then streamed to your console. On an Xbox One this is not possible, on hardware base is not new. This can be done on the current console. This is also the case with Sony. There you can read how the PS5 V-Sync, backward compatibility and texture streaming supports. And the current generation of PlayStation can already. The developers have the choice to turn them on and off. I'm sure you remember that the first set of PS3s can play PS1 and PS2 games immediately. If anything, we have lost the assumption that the new generation hardware - it should be a breeze that it is backward compatible, it should not be a shiny new feature. And in the last generation PS4 decided not to do it.

_ Would not you say that this is due to the hardware change from the cell to the X86? _

But if you change from the PS3 to the PS4, you have the tenfold computing power and the emulation of PS3 games should be quite easy. This is not a real limitation. They have only decided not to do so.

One thing we want to say is that when we look at the new hardware that comes out, we do not see none - of course it is more powerful and we will buy you because we are gamer and it's new hardware and games come out . However, no hardware-specific functions are displayed that influence the way in which games are created or the way they are played in. The change from SNES to PlayStation is different than from 2D to 3D. Suddenly we had 3D games that did not exist before. There is nothing that could offer the next generation.

_ It is basically the same, just made better ._

Yes. They want more power, more RAM, more VRAM, more MHz, more of everything we had before, we get it. The only thing we wish that more developers do what we are doing is Target 60fps. We know that big developers like Assassins Creed do not afford 60fps, because the more graphics they can pack in the game, the easier it is to advertise and market it. If it looks better, you can sell more.

_ Yes, you can not create a screenshot on the back of the box with 60 frames per second ._

Yes, as long as they seek 30 FPS, they agree. But one would like to see one with the new console generation: More people bring back Split screen. Because if you have more power, you can make a lighter split screen. And we have these big 4KTVS, and the split screen is dead, which is strange because you could pack four 1080p TVs on a 4K screen.

_ Let's switch short to Hellpoint. I wanted to ask you for the engine you use. Is the proprietary or use unreal, unity ...? _

One thing we really like is the question of what the game runs because you can not find out. We work with a custom framework that builds on Unity. We have selected Unity. One of the advantages of Unity is that you can remove as well as you do not like. So we use Unity because it is very simple to compile it on pretty much every console there. You only have to enable a check box and can compile it for PlayStation or Xbox. What is very important to us to change very quickly from a console to another.

Anyway, look at lights, shadows, wayfind, detail, cameras and pretty much everything else offered. We have decided not to use and produce your own products.

_ What can you tell us about this lighting and reflection and how does it differ from Unity? _

For example, the space station always circles the black hole in our game. So there is a camera that operates the Skybox independently. So you have at least four cameras, one for the SKYBOX, one for the player, one for the user interface and the last camera for the split screen. And what happened is that the Skybox has its own unique goal in which the true goal of the black hole and the lighting of the sky are separated. However, if you arrive at a part of the space station from which you can see outside, the Skybox should be really reflected and the scene is illuminated correctly. So if the sky is very red, you expect the world looks red. On the normal reflection probe of Unity you can not see our custom sky. Therefore, we have created a custom probe with which the sky can be updated, and a separate reflection probe above it.

_ As far as I know, you said that you are looking for a frame rate of 60 fps. The general perception of the unit is that they are fighting with the frame rate, which may be wrong, but that's a perception. So how can you dodge if you use Unity as the base and then add more own technology? Especially since this is also on the switch, which is not so powerful as a hardware compared to its competitors? _

This is a bad reputation that gets the unity that has a hard time to come to 60 fps. For example, Hellpoint is currently running on my home computer with all settings to a maximum of 260 fps on a 1070Ti. Sure, that's a new graphics card, but with all settings to the maximum ...

The idea that Unity has problems with 60fps, in my opinion is due to how easy it is to create a game for Unity. In the end, you have a lot of people who have no experience in making games, making games, and then they fight because you can do something pretty much with Unity. For example, if you want to create a game on Unreal, the doorstep is higher. However, you need much more experience to create a game on Unreal Engine. That means you have to know what you do. At Unity, the bar is so low that you do not have to know much about creating games, and you can create a. And then you say that it is difficult to reach 60 fps. Yes, but they do not know why they do not reach 60 fps.

In our team we have all over ten years experience in the shipping of AAA games for Ubisoft and Activision. For example, I have 14 years of experience and two different Assassins Creed, two different Prince of Persia and two Rainbow Six. So if we open Unity, we know what to do, I am a programmer. First of all, I always have an open profile and always knows when the frame rate drops, and we do not have to seek to find out what causes the problem.

This is not to do at the end of a project. "Oh, we will optimize the frame rate in the last two months of developing a game." No, you have to concentrate all the time to keep your frame rate stable.

_ The general idea of ​​people is that they optimize towards the end, but they say they must start with the optimization from the beginning ._

Yes. From the first work on the project you must check if the execution takes too long. One of the Prince of Persia games we have delivered was, for example, "Forgotten Sands" for the Wii nobody knows something. It ran on the Wii with 60 frames per second. It is one of the highest evaluated versions of the game. At the moment it came out, it was just like in the movie, and there was a version for PS3 and Xbox 360 and our version for the Wii, which was different. These three versions were sold as the same game, but the Wii version was completely different.

The version on the Wii had a different story, another mechanics and ran with 60 frames per second. And we have taken care of it.

__

_ I wanted to ask you for the art for Hellpoint because it stands out. They look at the screens of the game and know immediately, so to speak, what they are looking for. It's a bit of Lovecraft-Ey. Similar to Bloodborne. What exactly was your inspiration for the art style? Which approach have you chosen in terms of graphics and art? _

Yes, we wanted to say as if Dark Souls, Dead Space and Doom had a baby. As far as the art style is concerned, we needed a long time to find out for what kind of art we were looking for. Because it's easy to deal with science fiction and similar things, but it's not really interesting, everyone makes. And in the end, we found out a style that came around the First World War when all buildings were made of concrete. We have found that it gives a good pressure feeling and is very easy to produce. So we make the feeling that the room is huge, but it feels tight all the time.

_ To achieve the atmosphere of fear and tension for the player ._

Yes.

_ Was the technique ever a consideration when they started with art, in the sense that "the technique ever will be able to meet the art"? Or was it reversed? _

It was the other way around. The idea behind it was to make one to find out how the world should look like, and one of the things we knew was that she has to run at 60 fps. At the time of production, we decided that the most important point we want is - so before there was anything else in the game, we wanted splitscreen coop and split screen means that you need 60 fps if you are not in the split screen . Because if you work with 30 pictures per second and go to split screens, they will be reduced to 20 pictures per second. The goal was to achieve stable 60fps. So all this comes after, belongs to this mandate. The world must therefore be built with technologies that support these 60 fps. Gameplay, Movement, Physics, everything has to assume that it is running with 60fps. In order to achieve this, we have undertaken in Unity, among other things, the level of-details system, as it is too expensive in Unity to run in splits screen mode.

And that's great at Unity, because if I were on Unreal and there would be a problem like this, I would stay stuck. I would be forced to use what unreal gives me to use for the detailed accuracy. In our case, when we found out that there is a system of unity that does not support what we want, our four cameras per player, which means that the lods are updated four times per player. We wrote our part in a separate thread. And made it so that it's a frame too late, no one does not notice. The frame is rendered and in the next frame all LOD data is retrieved. Nobody realizes it.

_ I would like to ask you if you bring out a switch version. One of the reasons ... Nintendo is one of the last companies that focuses on split screen, local gaming and the like. Was that the reason why you have published your game on switch? _

The switch is actually the most difficult console for the split screen. On the Wii u it was really easy because someone could use the Wii U-Pad and someone's television. On the Wii you could have a few different Wiimotes and play at the same time. The switch is disconnected to the tablet when you take it from the dock. When we found out that the switch is a TV or PAD system, you can not both run at the same time. So it was a bit more difficult, because as soon as you have the tablet in your hand, there will be no split screen anymore, that would be strange. Surprisingly, the switch will be the only console that will be strange for us at this front. We will try it and see how much we can bring that it plays well. One of the features we are currently trying is the cross-platform support. Therefore, we want someone who is on the PC against someone who is on Switch or PS4, plays coop or PVP. One thing we examine is that we do not mind sharing your game across platform. That's something we look, that's just fatnites. However, we see no reason why we can not do that either. Someone who plays on the PC or Steam can have his account on switch, so he just stops playing, picks up the switch and playing his game in the bus.

_ Do you think - as you said it's not widespread - but do you think that Cross-Platform Play is the kind of things we will see a lot of a lot of future consoles? _

I think we will see more and more of it and it is becoming more and more to the mainstream. Sony has recently announced that Fortnite will allow this to PS4, and then Rocket League announced that this is also possible for PS4. Because for small businesses - when published from Software Dark Souls, it is to be expected that millions of players on each platform play the game. So you have no big problem with the player base. You can still play Dark Souls 1 and duel you with someone. For smaller indie games, this can be more difficult, because if only 100 players per platform are online at the same time, we may find players with whom we can not find any other players to play. So the cross-platform play helps us to consolidate our player bases, and makes it easier for every player to find other players with whom he can play.

_ One thing I wanted to come back was that they have said that consoles do not make the leap they made earlier, as with SNES and N64. It's basically the same, but more powerful and better. Do you think that this is only the way of the future with the change to a standardized architecture? We will get less exciting hardware? _

One thing I think is when you go back and deliver games for PS2, PS3, PS4 and Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, I believe that the wake-up call was at the time of the PS3. If you remember, the PS3 was on a PowerPC architecture with seven cores ... I think there were seven independent cores or something very strange. One helped only when loading or something. The PS3 was really powerful, but it took a good four or five years until the developers actually find out how to use them correctly. At the end of the cycle, the PS3 games looked good and played well too. But it took so long, I think that was a wake-up call. Because they had the Xbox 360, which was pretty much only a PC and in which no special hardware was. Developers were able to use 100% of the console from the beginning. For Microsoft, it was much easier to create a console with standard parts in terms of design, manufacturing and shipping.

And then you have a new cycle with the PS4 Pro, but has been updated the same hardware. Can you imagine make a pro version of the PS3? That is, they return to all this really specific hardware and make a new iteration. This is harder for Sony and developers, without really good reasons. The idea for a console, which only uses the parts of a PC, is very useful. I think we are now sticking to it. The last company that makes yet strange proprietary stuff is Nintendo, and I see that you do not change that. Under the hood with the switch there is so much weird stuff. It is typical of Nintendo, if you look at the different consoles, the Nintendo has previously made, like the DS, the switch feels exactly how it feels like that. It just smells of Nintendo.

But I think the PS5 and the next Xbox will be pretty much a PC, and a PC that can easily be upgraded for 8k or whatever in five years to get a PS5 Pro. But I still think that Nintendo will stay with her approach, at least for the next generation.

_ For Sony and Microsoft, Pro and ONE X-Updates are the standard ._

Yes, you will do that. I think it makes sense to you, because one of the things we have found out is that we had to build a PC with the exact specification of the PS4 when we started developing, just to make sure we're with 60 fps work . It was really in the first months of development before we had the developer kits. And we found out that the parts used in PS4 are very expensive. The construction of a PC, which is much more powerful than a PS4, costs less than the construction of a PC with parts of the PS4. The idea is that the parts of the PS4, which no one buys more, there is now much better parts. Therefore, it makes sense for Sony to use the console for at least five years. An upgrade of these parts makes sense.

Take for the PS5, I know you use AMD, but suppose you use the 1060. And in four years, the 1060 is so rare because it is no longer established that the hardware costs twice as much. So it makes sense to create a pro version and to use a 2060 instead of a 1060. The execution costs less.

_ Do you think that there will be other ways on the basis of your statements how these consoles can be innovative? You said Nintendo will make your own thing, but the PS5 and the next Xbox? _

Yes, Nintendo will make his own thing. The success with the Wii was not because she was not powerful, and the success with the switch is not because she is powerful. The hood is basically a raised tablet. Nintendo does not focus on the raw strength or the raw power of the console.

In terms of innovation, I think that the last console generation VR can, so ... should we look at the next generation now, and that's a small jump in terms of graphics and graphics quality.

_ Because of falling returns ._

Yes, because we can now create huge, fully realized worlds. What I would like to see in the future and it will be a bit difficult, neuronal networks are.

_ Are we available from the point of view of the mass market? _

No, but I think that's something that affects video games. Let's say in Assassin's Creed learn the games that they perform certain quests or things and customize some of them to their way. I think that's something we'll see. Because it is really easy to get bored in big world games. It's easy to say, "Oh, I have always seen the same thing and the same." The fun factor of games returns less and less. So if the game can learn when you get bored, and this moment can generate something for you, I think that could be great.

_ Do you believe that this will be possible with the next generation? _

Yes, at the moment, the current generation does not have the CPU performance to run neuronal networks properly, but I think the next generation has enough performance so that developers can run one or two threads side by side and perform some neuronal networks on the side Side. I think it's something we'll slowly see in games.

_ I wanted to talk to you about VR, you have addressed that. This is an interesting undertaking, because at the moment on the market has not arrived yet, but we know that it can be great and another experience. Do you think VR could next go to the mass market? _

It's really strange because VR, when it came out, I would say 2012 when the Oculus Rift Kickstarter came out, my first reaction was "It will not catch this generation". And I'm not sure if it will reach the next generation. Yes, it's great and is really fun. But the hardware is so expensive and so cumbersome that it is so exhausting to set up all wires. And in the end, there is a separation where there are VR games and non-VR games, which is simply weird. And a game where I found out that it could blow up the gap were the star Trek games that were VR exclusive. Of course, the publisher said, "No reason to be only VR. Let's just make it accessible to all and sell more specimens. "

The problem with VR is that you need at least 90fps because everything is less than that and you get travel sickness. You can not move. Let's say you wanted Call of Duty to do in VR. In the end, all players would be sick in their living room. One thing we have seen are games that you teleport you as a compromise. You have so many restrictions in the game that it feels like a ... for me. So you know the Wii remote control. When the Wii came out, every game wanted you to do that to handle it by wigging with the Wii remote control. And a year later, no one did, because they found out that it was terrible. In the end they had players who had sprained the wrists. It did not react fast enough. And when she wanted to swing her sword, she wanted to swing at the push of a button, not as the Wiimote realized that she moved it.

So I'm not against such stuff, on the contrary, I'm glad that these companies try these things. But I'm still skeptical how much the market is prepared for such things, especially if the hardware is not ready. I think it will take one or two generations of VR hardware until it works really well. Currently there are so many different formats and standards. It will take a few more years until a large part of the VR competition fails, and there is a clear winner, namely the new format we will use. It will take a while.

_ I wanted to ask her about Cloud Streaming services. Previously, you called Xcloud from which we know that Microsoft does it, and Sony makes PS Now. Believe that this is a moiré for the future, or do you believe that cloud streaming could be a practicable method for providing games in the near future? _

I know that this type of streaming is becoming increasingly popular in some countries around the world. I know that there are a streaming company in Brazil, which is very popular because people have no money to buy a console. You would rather pay $ 10 a month and play a variety of games by streaming. I think it gets more popular, but I do not think it will replace the right hardware. Because play _ call the duty_ at streaming? That simply does not work. If you are considering the Internet infrastructure, it means that you have to click on a button and the feedback on your screen will have 100 ms delay for input and another 100 ms delay for output when the data too and Transferred from your client. And if the host computer that processes the data has a separate delay, another approximately 100 ms latency will be added. Can you introduce you to play? Rumber of duty with this latency? Where does the server need 100 ms to know that you fire a weapon?

I think it works well with offline games . But the moment you turn something online, like a shooter in which you need a response in second fractions, it does not work. So it will be popular? I'm not sure.

_ Do you think that Sony and Microsoft are prepared for this type of challenges? _

The problem is that you do not suddenly throw money on it and let the problem disappear. The network latency has hardly changed in the last 20 years. We are limited by the speed of light when it comes to the end. The data from your computer to your router to your ISP in the neighborhood to any switch to node to node to the server farm ... You will end with delays. You can not do anything about it.

_ Streaming does not define the next generation of consoles? _

No, it will offer games for a new market that can not buy consoles [at the level of sales, on the console games as popular in the US], such as China and India, and for those who do not have hundreds of consoles A lot of money to buy a PlayStation. But for $ 10 a month, you can play 10% of the PlayStation catalog that works well with streaming. That's fantastic and brings Sony a lot of sales. And for Sony, it makes sense that PS5 is also backward compatible as it opens thousands of games for the streaming catalog.

_ Do you think that the next Xbox and PlayStation are backward compatible? _

I think the PlayStation will make it. I know, was it the Xbox 360, where you had a downward compatibility list with the original Xbox? You had to approve the game title for titles? I think that's strange and hope it is not that way. I prefer an emulator that performs all the games on a console, possibly with small mistakes and breakdowns, rather than saying that 50 games are in my library and I can only play four of them, as the others are not yet approved.

_ You want the Nintendo approach ._

Yes. I do not like it with the switch that he is not backward-compatible, but when they came out with the Wii U, every game worked on the Wii. That should be the way to do it. Suppose you have created a new console. Your user base is zero at this time, and the number of games you have for your console is also zero. So you need developers to develop games, and they need people who buy the console. And that's a HENNE EI problem. Will developers jump to the train and develop games that people bring to buy the console, or will people buy the console, what the developers brings to make games? If you bring out a new console, this is already a big challenge, as you do not know if you have enough games to sell a console, or whether enough consoles are sold to sell a game.

What I want from the PS5 is that Sony has made some great exclusive products. I mean, I bought PS4 because Bloodborne was on the console, and you have received a complete sale for this an exclusive product. And I think Microsoft has stalled in this area, even though they look at how many developers Microsoft has bought last year. I think you have finally found that you need exclusive products if you want to sell the console, and you have to be good. So I hope that the next generation of consoles offers great exclusive products and that Sony and Microsoft find out that when you bring out a console on which all old games can be played, you have a user base to access it with greater probability Can be board because you can play your huge catalog of games. If I have 100 games on Xbox 360 and 100 games on Xbox One and comes out a new Xbox that reproduces all my Xbox 360 and Xbox One games, it is much more likely that I buy the new Xbox than any other console.

_ Do you think that the consoles could be disclosed? _

(Laughs) I think you will have a revelation version, but I think it will give a version with CDs for the next generation. There are some reasons: Not everyone has internet, and if you have internet, many people do not have enough bandwidth to download 80 GB per game. The current generation of games is huge. Not everyone can afford to download a game and patches. However, there are still internet providers with bandwidth restrictions. And if we have bandwidth problems here, you can imagine that it could be worse in other countries.

The second problem I see is that if you work with a version of a console without disc, why then Gamestop would sell these consoles? In the whole market they sell the games with profit. So they say pretty much: "Hey, sell our console with whom you do not win, and do not sell any games." I do not think you'll see slices of this generation dying. One thing I would like to see is that I'm currently having problems with Blu-rays that can only be loaded slowly. Therefore, there are games with long loading times in the last console generation, and the games must be installed.

One thing I want to see is that some games can be offered on cassettes or USB sticks.

_ But are cartridges not too expensive? _

Not really, for developers who end up trying to publish games on a disc, it's almost always the same problem. You have not completed your game two months in advance, so you can be pressed on the disc. I think the problem of having a disc, a USB stick or a cassette is quite the same. I could see that printing of Blu-ray discs takes some time only to make it right. The flashing of a USB stick with an existing image is much faster.

_ Some time ago there were reports that Nintendo's cassettes were too expensive with higher capacity and developers decided to skip them ._

Yes, but the switch came out almost two years ago. Time flies so fast! But if you look, it is crazy how the storage capacity has exploded in the last two years.

_ You said you want to have 60 FPS consoles from the next generation. Think that 4k and 60fps can actually be a standard of next generation? _

Not sure what concerns the 4K part, that's probably the biggest hardware jump we had in the last generation. Because instead of rendering 2 million pixels, they suddenly render 8 million. And now we have 8K monitors and no hardware can play this resolution properly, it's just too much to render.

Theoretically, PlayStation 4 Pro should be designed for 4 KB. On a normal PS4, games with 1080p and 60 fps are executed, but not with 60 fps at PS4 Pro with 4 KB. So it would be really great if the PS5 would come with 4k on 60fps, but I have questions. I'm not sure how much we will be able to do so. And as I said, there are some developers who do not care about 60 fps, like large AAA developers, who pretty much does not care about 60 fps. I do not think they will make 60fps. But a nice thing is the next big AAA game, which comes out with 30 fps on 4k. It will run at 1080p with 60 fps, which is pretty fantastic, especially for people who do not have 4K. For them, the next generation is 60 FPS for all games.

_ So lower graphics settings for higher frame rate? _

No, not lower settings. Let's say the next Call of Duty appears on PS5. And the game runs with 30fps in 4k. However, I have no 4K monitor and no display. If I connect a 1080p TV, the game runs only with 1080p and 60fps. That would be pretty awesome when all games with 1080p and 60fps and more would run.

One thing that would be interesting is that the game has an automatic recognition, like ... I think it would be fantastic if the console could recognize that she runs with 30 fps, but the bandwidth 40 has and adapts upwards. That would be really interesting.

_ So you talk about things like variable refresh rates, free sync, g-sync, something? _

No, not that, because if you want to execute free-sync, you need to sync the frame rate. If you otherwise try to run a 40 FPS game on a Freesync monitor, a frame is not displayed that is not synchronized in the game. The idea of ​​Freesync is just that they eliminate the tearing of the screen. I talked about it, one of the things that worsen your experience is when the frame rate is not stable. So you have a frame rate of 60 and then 40 and then 60 again, which gets annoying because they can feel like that drops and changes.

However, if the console recognizes that the game can not be performed with a stable speed of 60 fps, it is more stable at 50 fps. This will shut down the game and set to a stable speed of 50 fps.

_ What hardware specifications do you see for the next generation of console targeting? Ryzen CPUs, 16GB Ram, what do you see? How many GPU Tflops, what a thing with hardware? _

I do not believe that we will see 16 GB of RAM. Most games do not use so much ram anyway. I think the next generation will probably be between 8 and 12. However, what you will see is probably a good number of cores. It would not be surprised if the next generation would be Ryzen 2600 or the like. Because it is really stable, cheap and equipped with a good number of cores. One thing that will change will be that you will concentrate much more on the VRAM, which is currently the big bottleneck if you want good 4k games, as 4K frame buffer takes plenty of space. So if you have a 4K buffer, you need four times the VRAM. I think you'll see that you will not see shared RAM in the next gene, as you do it with the PS4. I do not think you'll see that because it's a big bottleneck. You will see more VRAM to support 4k and 5k and assist everything else. How much of it? I would not be surprised if the PS5 had 8 GB RAM and 8 GB VRAM.

_ My last question for you is from SDK view, you as a developer, what do you like to see for the PS5, Xbox and the next Nintendo? _

One thing I would like, is the, and Microsoft has already done this - I'm not sure how much I can talk about your tools - but at the moment the kit does not have to be connected to a TV, as this It is possible to set it in the form of a remote desktop that is simply fantastic. This is not possible with PS4 or switch. The more integration you have with the PC, the more you can simulate entries, remotely desktop, all these things. I would like to see that on other consoles. However, development for switch for smaller debug functions is a problem. You need to know where you need to look for how you need to search and how you have to read it, and that's a bit strange.

That's one thing for which I want to prove Microsoft the honor. It contains all this information in a clear way. The more I see other consoles that do the same, the better.

For Microsoft, the large Xbox One X developing kit on the front has an image frequency counter. That's great! You can also display other elements there, z. B. how much memory or latency or frame rate you have. And that's great, it makes our lives easier. If I want to know how much frame rate I have, I have a few different ways. I can write code to recognize the frame rate, but this line of code can also broadcast my frame rate.

_ The idea that something is on the side that does not claim resources, but shows me what I need is fantastic ._

So this kind of smallest stuff for the quality of life.

Yes, it does not have to be a big feature, but if it saves me every few days a few hours development time, that's very helpful. I do not have hundreds of developers who work on my game. Therefore, it is important that I save every hour.

And that's one of the things we did in Unity. We built tons of tools to accelerate our development. If you only put an object into the world, you have six or seven different tools that you can use to show the mouse where you want the object, and it will be displayed there. And if we want to align it, an automatic tool is done with just one click.

So I'm not looking for the next big feature, but after all the little features that make life easier for me. That's great.

And with the number of indie developers coming out of the forest, it is great that so many developers try new things that are all funny and interesting, and that's giant fun. And it's something that she has not seen ten years ago because the development for consoles was difficult and developmental kits cost. As long as you have an idea for a game, you can now start alpine sports in a few months and play a game on a console. It's easy!

And they at the end have a lot of shoveling games, while people learn the ropes, but on the other side they have a lot of small jewels that they had not had before ten years ago. I think the best example is Cuphead. Ten years ago you would not have had that. It's great that two brothers have this idea for a game, and they could do it just. Ten years they would not have done it.

_ That covers every question I had! Would you like to add something else? _

Huh. I think about all these things I want to talk about, but I can not give spoilers about Hellpoint. (Laughs)

_ Will there be a demo or beta for it? _

Currently there is already a beta, we shared the keys with our Kickstarter supporters. At the moment, players race only around to break things, and we try to send them a new build every week so they can see the progress. And usually we change things based on your feedback very fast because I would say that 99% of your time is your feedback correct.

Let me talk about this point. One of the things we have decided and from which other developers remove is Early Access. Early Access is easy too scared. For years we have games in Early Access, which is simply weird. Another thing is that you have only a publication for a game for publishers. Not two. If you publish your game in Early Access, this is your publication. And if it was unfinished or had problems and they had critics and players who commented their quality, it remains.

The concept of the Early Access hurts the developer more than just. And there are Publishers currently doing a game if it has Early Access. Because your game has already been released and if it was not complete and completed and you have received bad reviews? Well, too bad.

That's why we have decided to keep Early Access away and instead awarded kickstarter keys in a smaller, more convenient group. Instead that someone can buy the game at Steam and leaves a bad comment, we have a nice community at Discord, which can exchange feedback in a nice back and forth. As if there are some features in the game invented by the community and that are really fantastic. How can you leave messages in Dark Souls? We have such a thing, but you can not use words, they have no symbols. And that ends that the players invent their own language. This idea came out as a kind of brainstorming over the twisting, and many people mixed in the idea, and if you looked at them with a big picture, it is great at the end.

I always say players do not necessarily know what they want to play, but they know what they do not want to play. So you know what you hate, but if you think of something you love, you will love it very much.

And with our dedicated communities we try to work together at Hellpoint. We create all symbols in high resolution game. So if someone wants to create a wiki or the like, he can use the high-resolution files for his database. There is no reason to make the community harder to be a community to collect data or what not. You need icons or something? Just ask, and we will ask.

_ yes, and that can help your game also becomes viral when the community is engaged ._

Yes, and as I said, in the end you have these cool features. Like at the moment there is a discussion about a website that indicates in real time, where the black hole is located as the black hole is resistant and then moves when you do not play the game. "

_Sounds great. And the game appears in early 2019? _

Currently the goal is early July. It is discussed to have a physical publication for all platforms a simultaneous and for all platforms.

_I hope that it works! Good luck with the last months of development! _

Yes, that's always the hardest (laughs)

_ Today there were so many stories about it. Hopefully this is not as stressful as with Red Dead ._

Maybe this is another discussion, but our team currently works 35 hours a week, and at the moment we had no reason to do something over time. We have found that we work in 35 hours more than in 50 hours. Remember, I do technical work. When I work for 10 hours a day instead of 8 hours, the last 2 hours, I am less productive, but I also start to make mistakes. And mistakes in the code, if you do not intercept you, build on top of it, and a few months later we have raised everything back to fix the error. That's why I land a bit overtime in the negative time. A game is not better when 400 people worked on it. It's better if these people give their best.

_ Well, it's good that you do not have such a crunch! _

Yes, and it's really funny. We have a team that is accustomed to make crunches as I worked with Ubisoft and Activision. You start to have the mentality that it is normal that you need crunches to finish a game. When we founded this company, we only thought: "Let's try it with 35 hours a week and without overtime." And we find out that we will work more in this way!

_ Hopefully this can be something to an industry-wide thing ._

I also!

_ Thanks again for your time and good luck! _