COVID-19 has affected the majority of game developers, according to GDC survey

The global COVID-19 pandemic has affected all of life in a large way. For the gaming industry in particular, this has meant delays, shifts in how work is done and more. The organizers at GDC (Game Developers Briefing) surveyed almost 2,500 developers beyond different studios. The aim of the survey was to detect exactly how the pandemic had affected them. Some of the biggest findings from the survey are:

A shift to work-from-home setups for a bulk of game developers.
Nearly half of devs report longer working hours and less productivity than before the pandemic.
A tertiary of devs have had a game delayed due to the pandemic.

Information technology'south near easier to name the big games that haven't been delayed this year rather than the games that take. But some of the titles explicitly delayed due to COVID-19 include The Concluding of Us Role 2, The Night Pictures Anthology: Petty Hope and Wasteland 3.

Shawn Layden, former Chairman of Sony Worldwide Studios, recently stated in an interview that the earth before the pandemic is "sealed in amber" and that "Everything that was pre-virus is now a historical artifact."

Still, some are finding creative ways effectually the problem. Xbox is allowing developers to apply a depression-latency, 60FPS version of Project xCloud to stream and access Xbox Development Kits.

The ramifications of the global pandemic will no doubtfulness continue even as the next generation of consoles arrive, with the Xbox Series X and PS5 both scheduled to arrive quondam in Holiday 2022. As the pandemic continues, it's possible that more than games will take a longer time to develop due to using a piece of work-from-home environs.

How to approach a Souls game like Elden Ring for absolute beginners

Demystify the ring

How to approach a Souls game similar Elden Ring for absolute beginners

Elden Ring is quite tough, simply it'south non unfair. If you're finding yourself wishing you could get into these types of games, I'1000 here to tell you that y'all can, as someone who but did so relatively recently. I'm not a pro gamer by whatsoever means, yet I find myself enamored with Elden Ring'south magical world. You tin can be too.

New Windows 11 preview build brings improved taskbar for touch users

New build!

New Windows 11 preview build brings improved taskbar for impact users

Information technology's time for another Windows 11 preview build, and this week is another big one. Today's build is 22563 and features even more taskbar improvements, this time for tablet users. Microsoft is introducing a new auto-hide Taskbar interface that's similar to the affect-first taskbar that was first introduced on Windows 10X and the Surface Neo.