2018 Best Audio: “Little Nightmares”, Tarsier Studios (SE)
Jury’s motivation: The soundscape plays a uniquely central role in conveying the feel of the world and the personality of its inhabitants. The resulting ambience is discreet, yet stays to haunt you even after finishing the game.

2018 Best Audio nominees also included:
“ECHO”, Ultra Ultra (DK)
“Figment”, Bedtime Digital Games (DK)
“Nex Machina”, Housemarque (FI)
“Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus”, MachineGames (SE)

2018 Best Fun for Everyone: “Passpartout: The Starving Artist”, Flamebait Games (SE)
Jury’s motivation: This game strikes a strong balance between accessibility and depth. The simplicity of the activities means everyone can enjoy it, whether they’re gamers or non-gamers of all ages. But as you fall into game’s enchanting loop, you realize there is something there that you didn’t expect at first.

2018 Best Fun for Everyone nominees also included:
“A Hat in Time”, Gears for Breakfast (DK)
“Fugl”, Muunluun (NO)
“Little Police”, Filimundus (SE)
“OCMO”, Team OCMO (FI)

2018 Best Debut: “ECHO”, Ultra Ultra (DK)

Jury’s motivation: An ambitious, grand vision paired with an economical design and brilliant use of resources makes it almost hard to believe that this game is any studio’s first. If this is their debut, who knows what the future may hold.

2018 Best Debut nominees also included:
“A Hat in Time”, Gears for Breakfast (DK)
“Milkmaid of the Milky Way”, Machineboy (NO)
“OCMO”, Team OCMO (FI)
“Passpartout: The Starving Artist”, Flamebait Games (SE)

2018 Best Technology: “Sparc”, CCP (IS)

Jury’s motivation: This game throws your entire body into a convincing world of sci-fi sounds and visuals, adding a surprisingly tactile and sporty feeling to the virtual reality technology. This is not just a fun and competitive workout for all your senses, but a look into the future of sports games.

2018 Best Technology nominees also included:
“ECHO”, Ultra Ultra (DK)
“Fugl”, Muunluun (NO)
“Star Wars Battlefront 2”, EA DICE (SE)
“Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus”, MachineGames (SE)

2018 Best Game Design: “ECHO”, Ultra Ultra (DK)

Jury’s motivation: A central idea that feels as new and unique as it feels natural and logical, surrounded by a game perfectly built to let it live up to its full potential. This game is a simply perfect storm of good design choices.

2018 Best Game Design nominees also included:
“A Hat in Time”, Gears for Breakfast (DK)
“Little Nightmares”, Tarsier Studios (SE)
“SteamWorld Dig 2”, Image & Form (SE)
“Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus”, MachineGames (SE)
“World to the West”, Rain (NO)

2018 Best Art: “Little Nightmares”, Tarsier Studios (SE)

Jury’s motivation: Every area feels like a coherent piece of set design, traversed by vividly animated creatures. The world has a cinematic quality while feeling disturbingly real. Horror is transformed into beauty.

2018 Best Art nominees also included:
“ECHO”, Ultra Ultra (DK)
“Milkmaid of the Milky Way”, Machineboy (NO)
“Nex Machina”, Housemarque (FI)
“Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus”, MachineGames (SE)

2018 Nordic Game of the Year – Small Screen: “SteamWorld Dig 2”, Image & Form (SE)

Jury’s motivation: This big labyrinth is full of little secrets to unearth, and gives you a great sense of accomplishment for finding them. It’s an excellent melding of genres that doesn’t make any compromises, while still being easy to pick up and enjoy anywhere.

2018 Nordic Game of the Year – Small Screen nominees also included:
“Milkmaid of the Milky Way”, Machineboy (NO)
“OCMO”, Team OCMO (FI)
“Pako 2”, Tree Men Games (FI)
“Returner 77”, Fantastic, Yes! (DK)

2018 Nordic Game of the Year: “ECHO”, Ultra Ultra (DK)

Jury’s motivation: Clever game design, elegant visuals and a cold, unnerving atmosphere. Every single aspect of this game comes together to form a thoroughly impressive whole, unlike anything we’ve ever played.

2018 Nordic Game of the Year nominees also included:
“A Hat in Time”, Gears for Breakfast (DK)
“Little Nightmares”, Tarsier Studios (SE)
“Nex Machina”, Housemarque (FI)
“SteamWorld Dig 2”, Image & Form (SE)
“Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus”, MachineGames (SE)

2018 Jury’s Special Mention: Wolfenstein “Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus”, MachineGames (SE)

Jury’s motivation: A politically charged alternate history tale that tackles heavy themes of racism and bigotry, with well-defined characters and a dark sense of humour throughout. It never ceases to shock and amaze.

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees for the 2018 Nordic Game Awards!

The post 2018 Nordic Game Awards Winners appeared first on Mmos World.

As absurd as that sounds, this is a real thing. Games From Space uses the power of your GPU (Graphics Processor) to find crypto-currency coins. These are in turn used to buy your favorite games. To do so the hardware solves complex mathematical equations to support the underlying blockchain system. This is called mining. The better your GPU, the faster you’ll get your game.

So how and why would players even consider this? The GPU landscape in recent times has been in turmoil when it comes to pricing and availability because of miners. Miners used to buy up all the supply of graphics cards, so for a while gamers could not find any. Thus, what Games From Space is trying to do is change that narrative or perception that folks have against mining. When it comes to the rewards though, the games on offer aren’t exactly low-key too. From the website, it appears that even the latest games are up for grabs including PUBG and even subscriptions for World of Warcraft and EVE Online.

For the more business savy folks out there, you might be thinking that trading your GPU’s lifespan and work for a free game every week is a poor deal, especially if you can mine these coins yourself for a larger profit. That’s a totally viable argument. But the average gamer won’t have more than four GPU’s, which is really the entry level set up that one needs to mine crypto-currency efficiently. So the allure factor here for casual gamers is the promise of a free Triple A game every week or so, depending on how good your GPU is in return.

Games From Space hasn’t gotten large scale exposure yet, and one wonders how they will be perceive by gamers at large. Time will tell.

The post Games From Space: Would You Rent Your GPU To Crypto Miners In Exchange For Free Games? appeared first on Mmos World.

• Glyph of the Tailor: Gain a 33% chance to receive bonus cloth scraps.
• Glyph of the Leatherworker: Gain a 33% chance to receive bonus leather scraps.
• Glyph of Industry: Gathering completes 50% faster.
• Glyph of Flight: Increases movement speed for 5 seconds after gathering completes.

The game is offering all players (Non F2P) a free glyph from the in-game store to use, but assuming you have more than one unlimited tool, you’ll need to get the rest. So where do they drop from?

Something To Gamble On

The answer lies within the Black Lion Chests, or the game’s RNG lockbox. Glyphs now have a chance to drop from there, so players will need to purchase a key using gems to try their luck at getting one. Still, is this update necessary and why would players pay for something like this? To be fair, there are non-gem store ways to get them too. Limited use tools can be upgraded with glyphs that you trade Karma for at vendors in the main cities, but remember, the tools will expire. The good news is, the upgrade glyphs simply return to your inventory until you get more limited tools to use them on. There’s a catch though; Limited-use tools with inherent bonus effects are the only tools exempt from glyph swapping, and their effects can’t be removed or changed.

The good news is, they aren’t bound on acquire, and you get buy them from the auction house too if you’d rather not spend real money on gems to get them via boxes.

According to ArenaNet, here’s why they included this:

“We intended this to be a nice little bonus, but instead it felt incomplete and arbitrary. We wanted to organize the system to make it clear where bonus effects come from and how players can get them, both through the Gem Store and in the game.”

Cosmetics May Be Your Thing

That’s not all however. If you own a bunch of unlimited tools, you can now swap their cosmetics freely at the cost of Transmutation Charges via the wardrobe. This is the same system that you use to change your character’s look, so it’s standard fare. Important to note here is that the skins are account wide, so if your alt has the nicer skin, the wardrobe will just pull that for you to use on other tools you get in the future.

Overall, this update will be well receive for hardcore crafters. Materials out in the world require some labor to gather, and the Glyph of Industry is the most efficient and popular for that. Currently, it’s going for 400+ Gold on the auction house.

The post Guild Wars 2: Do Players Really Need Stats On Their Harvesting Tools? appeared first on Mmos World.

See, many who play Secret World Legends are die-hard fans of The Secret World, and have not seen new story missions since mid 2015, when Funcom closed the story chapter of Season 1 in Tokyo. Therefore, it’s understandable why there’s plenty of excitement surrounding Season 2. So what can new or returning players expect from tonight’s update?

Free Expansion

First and foremost, it will please you to note that the story expansion and new map will come free of charge. That’s the best thing about Secret World Legends relaunching last year. Funcom has kept their promise to make the entire content free for all players to access. Having said that, there are many parts of the games that require some form of microtransaction to progress faster. It’s a trade-off that not many are fond of, but it’s a way to keep the game alive. Eitherways, if you’re dying for new content, at least you know you will not be spending a dime to experience this one of a kind story.

The Main Story Continues

And speaking of stories, Season 2 continues the main story missions that this game is renowned for. The vanilla game that lead into the Tokyo expansion was all about setting the scene. This secret world is under attack by unknown evil forces and higher beings with agendas. Who set off the Filth? What is your and your secret society’s role in all of this? How do we pick up the pieces after Tokyo? This new expansion will answer all these questions and follow a lead to close a loose thread in the form of the Morninglight cult, who had a big part to play in the events leading up to Tokyo. That alone may be enough to intrigue some, but the real longing for players here is that they’ve had to wait for three years to get the story to continue. So expectations are super high right now.

New Gameplay, Agent Dossiers & Monsters

From the teaser trailer, we’ve seen what’s coming. Us players will be going undercover in the Morninglight compound to integrate ourselves into the cult. Who are they really? And why are they here? While we expect new missions, we’ve seen that there’s new monsters to fight as well. How difficult will they be? If I had to guess, I think players will be comfortable jumping in with an Item Level or Item Power of around 400 or more.

And since the new Agent Network System is out as well, I do expect Funcom to release new Dossiers to collect in Season 2, which could add more flavor and back story to the agents operating in the region. Overall, it’s exciting times ahead for Secret World Legends, and we can’t wait to jump in.

The post What To Expect From Secret World Legend’s Dawn of the Morninglight Expansion appeared first on Mmos World.

Located in the city of Wrocław, south-western Poland, the new studio will join forces with CD PROJEKT RED Warsaw and Cracow, and bolster development of Cyberpunk 2077 — the upcoming futuristic AAA role-playing game.

“Wrocław is one of the biggest and most technologically advanced cities in Poland and a playing field for serious creative talent. I think the scope of our current and future projects, as well as the overall package we’re bringing in, will pull in people who were hesitant to move to Warsaw or Cracow.” — says Adam Kiciński, President and Joint CEO, CD PROJEKT Capital Group. “The founding dev team of CDPR Wrocław is already pretty stellar, but I still can’t wait to see what talents we’ll discover in new people along the way.” — Kiciński adds.

Consisting of 18 talented industry veterans, Wrocław-based developer, Strange New Things, will form the core of the new studio.

“We’re pretty hyped to be on the spearhead of this new office.” — says Paweł Zawodny, Head of Studio, CD PROJEKT RED Wrocław. “We know Wrocław inside out and it’s an amazing place to make games. The team is strong, and I’m sure we have both the experience and the creative firepower to make Cyberpunk 2077 an even better game.” — Zawodny adds.

“Aside from their immense technological knowledge and artistic flair, the core team of CD PROJEKT RED Wrocław are just great people.” — says Adam Badowski, Game Director for Cyberpunk 2077 and Head of CD PROJEKT RED. “CD PROJEKT RED is not a typical game developer — we put gamers, creative freedom and quality games above making business. These guys not only share this approach, but, much like the rest of the team, think that this attitude is essential to creating epic video games.” — Badowski adds.

The post CD PROJEKT RED Are Expanding And Here’s Why appeared first on Mmos World.

The round – led by Makers Fund and including firstminute capital, Neoteny, Mosaic Ventures, and Novator – will be used to scale up the development team to work on the studio’s upcoming title, Seed.

The new investors join existing backers Reid Hoffman (Greylock Partners), Joi Ito and David Helgason (Unity), as well as original investors London Venture Partners (LVP), and Adalsteinn Ottarson (Riot Games).

“We’re extremely honored to receive the backing from these prestigious investors who have the faith in us to realize a dream that began over a decade ago. We believe Seed to be a vital part in the next generation of computer games, and it’s exciting to have their trust that we can turn this concept into a reality,” explained Mundi Vondi, CEO & Co-Founder of Klang.

“Seed is a genre-breaking game in the making, developed by one of the most creative and technically accomplished teams in the industry,” says Michael Cheung, Partner at Makers Fund.

“Backing teams with the technical depth and creative breadth of Klang is a privilege. We believe their vision will transform the way people play games and redefine the MMO genre,” states Spencer Crawley, Co-founder & General Partner at firstminute capital.

Joi Ito comments, “I’m extremely excited to participate in the growth of Klang, a dream team building the most ambitious game I’ve ever seen. I can’t wait to play!”

Seed is a continuous, persistent simulation where players are tasked with colonizing an alien planet through collaboration, conflict, and player-to-player interaction. Using unique gameplay based on managing multiple characters in real-time, communities can be built even when the player has logged off, allowing the world of Seed to be a living, breathing entity.

With over 30 years’ combined experience working on MMOs EVE Online and Dust 514, the team at Klang holds a deep-rooted understanding of designing and operating persistent games. This experience will be applied to develop Seed’slarge, player-driven world.

Seed utilises Improbable’s SpatialOS, a cloud platform for game development. By building on SpatialOS, developers can use standard tools and game engines to design, build and manage games that go beyond the limits of a single-server architecture. It allows for a swarm of hundreds of game engines, running in the cloud, to cooperate together to simulate a world much larger, richer, and with more players than any single engine or server could.

To discover more about Seed, visit the project’s website: www.seed-project.io . You can find out more about catching Klang at GDC 2018 here: https://www.klang-games.com/gdc

The post Have You Heard Of AI Driven Simulation MMO Seed? appeared first on Mmos World.

Officially licensed by CBS, Star Trek Online is the only free-to-play MMORPG that allows players to become a captain and explore the iconic Star Trek universe from within. The game currently offers more than 500 starships hailing from the United Federation of Planets, Klingon Defense Force and Romulan Empire factions, many of which are captured directly from the franchise’s most popular films and televisions shows. Star Trek Online’s signature ship editor gives captains numerous options to customize their own starships, allowing them to select their own ship names and registry numbers, choose from a variety of colors and shield skins, plus add entire ship sections like nacelles and saucers.

Starting today, Star Trek Online players can bring these starships to life, with the help of Mixed Dimensions’ new GamePrint technology, which combines the company’s proprietary 3D printing solution with the hand craftsmanship from a team of master artists. After customizing their ships in the PC version of Star Trek Online, players will discover an option to upload their ship design directly to the GamePrint website. From there, they will be able to select from three different purchase options:

Collectible Version
Base Price: $350
Captains can commission one of the company’s master artists to hand-paint a premium, full-colored resin model of their starship, which includes detailed shading. Exceptional artistry and focus is placed on each individual ship.

Single Color Version
Base Price: $225
Players can order a 3D-printed model of their starship, painted in either gold, silver, bronze or black. The model is polished, finished and ready for display.

Primer Version
Base price: $200
Model painters and hobbyists can order a primed model of their favorite starship, coated in a base layer of primer and ready to be painted.

*Please note that costs for all three options may vary according to ship size and customizations. All starships will be delivered in customized packaging and include an exclusive Star Trek Online-branded display stand.

Since every customized starship is individually crafted and hand-painted, these ships will only be created in batches of 100 units at a time. When players place their order with Mixed Dimensions, they will be notified of the estimated time it will take to create and deliver their starship. In addition, captains will also receive photo updates of their ships in real time, notifying them when their collectibles have been printed and painted. Certain starships will be unavailable for this program. For a full list of ships excluded from 3D printing, please visit Star Trek Online’s blog.

For those who don’t have access to the PC version of Star Trek Online, Mixed Dimensions will be offering completed models, replicating 20 of the game’s most popular starships. These hand-painted starship collectibles will be available soon.

Shipping is available in most of North America, the European Union, Australia, Brazil and several other territories. For a list of countries where shipping is unavailable due to international restrictions, please visit Mixed Dimensions’ FAQ section. In addition, customers who place orders outside of the United States may be responsible for taxes and/or dues required by law within their territory.

To celebrate the launch of Star Trek Online’s starship collectibles, Mixed Dimensions will offer introductory pricing for a limited time. Please visit www.mixeddimensions.com for additional details.

The post How Would You Like Some 3D Printed Starships From Star Trek Online? appeared first on Mmos World.

The StreamCraft team is showcasing a number of enticing ways to get started earning a paycheck. Those who adopt the program early and help it to grow have the most chance to take home serious cash. Whether it’s through Props (our own virtual currency that converts to cash) or subscriber revenue, there are tons of ways for everyone to make streaming lucrative for themselves. The one we’re highlighting today is the Invitation Program, which rewards any streamer who refers their friends to sign up for StreamCraft.

OUR UNPRECEDENTED INVITATION PROGRAM

We’re also hosting a special Invitation Program that gives everyone $1 per person they refer to sign up for StreamCraft! If you refer 1,000 people? That’s an extra $1,000 in your pocket! It’s like a Stimulus Package to get your streaming career rolling, StreamCraft is serious about becoming the best and most rewarding streaming platform in the business.

As an example: the creators who are able to obtain the title of Founder will get exclusive perks allowing them to keep 100% of their subscription revenue forever.

It’s also extremely easy to get started with StreamCraft. Simply download the mobile app or our PC content creation tool or even just use OBS! Create an account, and start sharing your games with fans all over the world.

If you’d like to talk with the StreamCraft team about their unique approach to content and playing fair with creators of all types, or about the innovative features this unique app contains, please contact us today and we’ll get you set up.

STREAMCRAFT’S STANDOUT FEATURES:

●     Industry leading partner rewards programs
●     Exclusive community giveaways
●     Cash prizes through proprietary game shows and events
●     Watch, interact, and stream from any device (PC, iOS, or Android).

Learn more:
●    Official Site
●    Google Play or App Store
●    YouTube
●    Facebook
●    Twitter
●    Instagram
●    Reddit
●    Discord

The post Is StreamCraft Going To Beat Twitch As The New Darling Of Game Streaming Platforms? appeared first on Mmos World.

The Testronic 50% Initiative is the brainchild of Ann Hurley, the company’s Head of New Business – Games West Europe. She is also an Ambassador of the Women in Games Group and has worked in the games industry for over 20 years.

“We’ve called this the Testronic 50% Initiative because, despite females accounting for half of all gamers, in the UK – and many other regions, too – just 14% of those working in the industry itself are women*. We believe that figure should be closer to 50%” explained Hurley.

“At Testronic we buck the trend in some areas – 40% of our management team based out of London and Warsaw are female, while 42% of our localisation QA team are women. But there are other areas we need to work on, and it’s the same for many other companies in the business – whether publishers, developers or service companies.”

The Testronic 50% Initiative will:

•       Encourage more young women to consider a career in the games industry by offering advice on the many roles available across the market
•       Nurture their careers via mentoring and self-development
•       Fuel their ambitions to help them become the games industry’s future leaders

“Here at Testronic we are actively recruiting more female testers, highlighting that a job in QA is often a stepping stone to a career elsewhere in the games industry,” offered Localisation QA Manager Gaelle Caballero. “We’re excited to be further pushing this commitment to closing the gender gap with the launch of the Testronic 50% Initiative and invite our publisher and developer friends to join us.”

Chris Bewick, Testronic’s Operations Director, added: “We’re delighted to be launching the Testronic 50% Initiative. One of the biggest challenges in the industry is the lack of female role models; we’re proud at Testronic that many of our management team are women, and look forward to helping nurture a new generation of female leaders.”

Those interested in finding more about the Testronic 50% Initiative should email women@testroniclabs.com .

*According to figures from games industry trade association TIGA

The post Testronic Launches New Initiative To Encourage More Women Into The Games Industry appeared first on Mmos World.

Throughout the month, we’ll be celebrating this epic milestone with our community. Revisit the saga that introduced the world to iconic characters like Jim Raynor, Sarah Kerrigan, and Zeratul, and helped set the stage for esports as we know them today.

• StarCraft Short Film: On March 31, we’re debuting StarCraft is Life: A 20th Anniversary Celebration, which features StarCraft players from around the world sharing how the series has impacted their lives.
• StarCraft Anniversary Live Stream: Join us on March 30 and 31 for a live celebration featuring StarCraft personalities old and new. Tune in on Twitch during the stream to earn a commemorative console skin for StarCraft II, and earn even more goodies by watching StarCraft on Twitch throughout the entire month!
• Party Across Games. It may be StarCraft’s birthday, but all our universes are coming to the party. Leading up to StarCraft’s anniversary on March 31, we’re giving out all kinds of bonuses and goodies when you log into your favorite Blizzard games.
• StarCraft II: Log in to earn Remastered Terran, Zerg, and Protoss console skins; a 20 Years of StarCraft portrait; a 20 Years of StarCraft achievement; and 20 Years of Terran, Zerg, and Protoss decals. Select StarCraft II items will also be on sale from March 6–20.
• StarCraft Remastered: A new console skin awaits those who log in during the StarCraft 20^th Anniversary. StarCraft Remastered will also be on sale from March 6–20.
• Heroes of the Storm®: Log in to earn Protoss, Zerg, and Terran portraits and test your mettle in StarCraft-themed Brawls. Also, be on the lookout for a new Hero from the StarCraft universe coming to the Nexus soon.
• Diablo® III: Call down the Hyperion to Tristram—in a manner of speaking—with the new Battlecruiser Pet.
• World of Warcraft®: WoW® players can stand up and be recognized when they /salute one of the following StarCraft-themed companion pets: Zergling, Grunty, Mini Thor, Baneling, or Zeradar.
• Overwatch®: One of the Dominion’s deadliest Ghosts meets Talon’s ruthless assassin with the new Kerrigan Widowmaker skin.
• Hearthstone®: Get ready for a StarCraft-inspired Tavern Brawl later this month.

For more information on how each Blizzard game will be celebrating StarCraft, when you can get your hands on these exclusive bonuses and goodies, and for news on all things StarCraft 20^th Anniversary, head over to www.starcraft2.com/sc20 .

Since its debut, StarCraft has emerged as one of the world’s most acclaimed and influential real-time strategy series, with over 20 million units sold. The series also established itself as a fixture of global esports, with millions of players still watching top pros like Sasha ‘Scarlett’ Hostyn—who won a Guinness World Record in 2016 for being the highest-earning woman playing video games competitively—compete in the StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS).

• StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War — the game that started it all and its first expansion are available to download free at www.starcraft.com .
• StarCraft: Remastered — a thoughtful recreation of the original StarCraft and Brood War expansion, with gorgeous 4K Ultra HD graphics and full connectivity to Battle.net.
• StarCraft II is now free-to-play, , including the epic Wings of Liberty campaign, ranked competitive play, and a Co-op mode with weekly challenges and regular content updates.

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