Ghost Story Games is another rebranding of the same studio that made Bioshock (2K Boston) and Bioshock Infinite (Irrational Games), and is still headed by Ken Levine. Basically, this is Bioshock 3 (4?) in all but name, if the “From the creators of Bioshock” wasn’t explicit enough.
I hate to say it, but games should stop using licensed music. Or at least if it has an expiry date, which they all seem to. Every game that licenses a song becomes a ticking time bomb before it is either pulled from sale or all of the music gets patched out, even if you purchased it before then.
I’d say keep an open mind when it comes to industry and environment. I got my start in game dev but quickly left it after I realized it wasn’t really for me. I bounced around for a while after that, even picking up a job teaching English abroad (probably not advisable in your situation) before returning back to the US and taking a job working for a nonprofit.
A lot of industries like healthcare, finance, education, and enterprises in general have need of developers with experience and they still pay decently well. It may not be as exciting as FAANG/Silicon Valley style dev work, but you’re likelier to find stability and a more manageable work/life balance. It helped me finally learn to work to live instead of live to work, and I can also still take some pride that the work I do is used to help people.
Definitely won’t be all of them. Probably just a small set that are not huge money makers. They already publish some titles as third party, like Minecraft, Ori, and Lucky’s Tale.
Guessing we just get ports of, like, Hi-Fi Rush and Psychonauts, and continued support of some Activision titles that are 3rd party like Diablo 4, Spyro, Crash, and a token Call of Duty game.
It’s probably not too vital. It sets up some new backstory for Yuffie (and also ties into some elements of Dirge of Cerberus of all things), but I am assuming Rebirth will sum up the important parts of Yuffie’s story so far, at least in broad strokes, for when she joins the party.
If an independent developer is threatened by AI, then they’re using it wrong.
From a development standpoint, it is so nice if you are someone who is good at coding but bad at art to be able to use AI to help with the visual design of the game. It’s easy to say “just hire an artist” when so many indie devs are literally one-person operations who can barely afford rent, let alone wages for an artist.
Funny idea, but I feel like a game about the political elite crushing a revolution of the people isn’t something that would ring well with a lot of folks, haha.