Today's new post is a review of a set of rings that we've found useful for tracking conditions/effects with TTRPG minis! These rings fit in a 1" map grid, stack on top of each other, work with standard-sized mini bases, and can be used a few different ways to help both players and GMs. I hope this gives you some ideas for your games, and read the post here! https://lnkd.in/ge9fEmqs #TTRPGkids #TTRPG #DnDkids #DnD #review #accessories

This is a fantastic article, and I recommend that all game developers read it. The extreme focus on launch week sales, and the expectation that a game would only sell for 3 months was reasonable for a time. If the main selling point of your game is the graphical fidelity, and groundbreaking new tech came out every 18 months, even 6 months of strong sales would have seemed like a dream come true. Today the visible pace of that change has slowed to the point where this strategy is no longer even theoretically viable.

While it's mainly about why and how live games took over in the last 10 years, and this reasoning now feels obvious, it's interesting to see how Nexon was already firmly on that trajectory more 15 years ago, and still are, with new flavours like Arc Raiders. The main point is how to look at the current situation with this lens: "Most people reason from mental models inherited from past success, even after the conditions that made them effective have changed. When those models stop working, it feels safer to defend them than to replace them. Going against the crowd is difficult not because the evidence is unclear, but because it threatens both identity and status. In its pursuit of live service games, the industry’s constraint has not been capital or talent. It has collectively spent many billions on live-service development and M&A over the past decade, yet most of the largest publishers have struggled to produce durable, growing franchises. The problem was the mental model used to deploy those resources." As usual, Owen Mahoney's article is well worth a read.

Are you the type of player who needs to 100% complete every game in your library? Check out the latest post at why the achievement system in SENTINEL 519: SAGA - GENESIS was designed the way it was. For all the players who have already jumped into the universe... did you manage to secure your spot in the 0.1% of players who conquered the Epilogue? 🏆🐻 #AppyBearStudio #GameDesign #Sentinel519 #IndieGames #MobileGaming

Indie Studio and Publisher, 2 Wedges confirms presence at PAX East 2026 with playable Litany for the first time! 2 Wedges is confirmed for PAX East 2026 and is preparing a series of new releases for the event's audience. The studio will bring playable versions, exclusive content, and unprecedented experiences of its main titles, reinforcing its presence in the international independent game scene. The studio is also proud to have been selected as part of PAX Together, a PAX diversity initiative, highlighting the ones that promote inclusivity and work to lower the barriers to entry in gaming....

Modern AAA titles are so massive that even physical copies now require huge downloads, raising serious questions about game ownership and preservation. #gamingnews https://lnkd.in/gqEEy4rp

Understanding these 6 major studio size differences in game development, helps making better games.  I made the 2026 version: Indie vs AA vs AAA, All have their own Advantages, and Disadvantages. Key is to use them wisely. Don't you agree? Cheers. PS: Powered by AppMagic, has variety of data and articles on Steam market, provides great intelligence for your studio to grow. 

"Players hate ads" No they don't, we run 12-15 interstitials per day in most of our 200+ games. Retention? Fine. Players hate BAD TIMING Show a rewarded ad after a win → 80-90% watch the whole thing. Show a full-screen ad mid-gameplay → uninstall. Same ad. Same player. Same game. Only the TIMING changed. We spent years and 200+ games learning exactly where every ad type belongs and where it kills your game instantly. This carousel is the cheat sheet 👉 Save it Send it to a dev who places ads randomly and hopes for the best #GameMonetization #MobileGaming #UXDesign #GameDev #IndieGameDev #PlayerRetention #GSG #GuavaSliceGames

CONTINUE isn’t just another new video game publication. It’s designed to be a platform for the industry to engage with video game criticism and reporting, and offer long-form writing opportunities to new video games journos. Click here to read more of Influencing’s chat with CONTINUE co-founders Mark Serrels and Jackson Ryan, published yesterday. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gpNWrbmU

Steam’s GDC 2026 ‘state of the platform’ talk was intriguing. They really stressed transparency and building features to make both players and devs happy. And this slide shows that the number of games earning more than $100k on Steam is scaling significantly - to 5,863 in 2025 - and in step with the amount of CCU increase on Steam (~double in 5 years.) (Of course, this increase is across all games, not new games. And the market is still crowded AF. But devs are getting paid out more, so yay?) More on it in GameDiscoverCo’s Friday newsletter…