GAMES
How Microsoft is Empowering Game Creators in Everything We Do
Here at Microsoft, our mission is simple: we want to bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet. Ultimately, we aspire to empower everyone to play the games they want, with the people they want, anywhere they want. While most people know about our gaming business in Xbox, not everyone knows about our offerings and technologies in the world of game development. In fact, game development is in Microsoft’s DNA, with over 40 years of experience building games for Windows and console, our open ecosystem reaches virtually every endpoint between console, PC, mobile, and the cloud.
As we see it, we must empower developers not just to create great games for our platform but for all platforms. We are committed to helping all developers in an effort to enrich the entire game-development ecosystem. Game development has always been on the cutting edge of technology, whether it’s pushing the boundary of graphics, creating massively multiplayer experiences, or combining the real-world with the digital – gaming is largely seen a vanguard for other industries.
This week, at the annual Game Developers Conference, we shared more of our vision for the future of game development, delivering 27 technical talks addressing topics spanning across Graphics, Performance optimization, Cloud development/production, Accessibility, and more. There’s also a fireside chat between CEO of Xbox Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond, Head of Xbox Creator Experience that is a must-watch for anyone interested in game development. Head over to the new and improved Microsoft game development website to watch it at aka.ms/GDC. Our own Major Nelson rounded out the week by interviewing Sarah Bond for the Official Xbox Podcast (which you can watch above).
Last but certainly not least, we also shared demonstrations of nine different solution areas using Microsoft technologies that support game creators at each stage of their game’s lifecycle – whether that’s building, running, or growing their game. Let’s take a closer look at those demos to see what we can offer game creators.
Forza Horizon 5 (Azure PlayFab Data Platform)
Playground Games and Turn 10 are deeply committed delighting fans of Forza Horizon 5. To best understand player behavior, the teams at Playground Games and Turn 10 leveraged the Azure PlayFab Data Platform to run integrated, self-service custom analytics for optimized performance.
As Satya Bobba, Senior Software Engineer at Turn 10 put it: “We love how PlayFab fully manages our data ingestion into Azure Data Lake so our engineers can focus on making the game better for our players rather than managing the pipeline.”
By using the Azure PlayFab Data Platform, the teams were able to take advantage of real-time actions, optimize performance by controlling which events to analyze, and open new avenues of integration between PlayFab and their pre-existing analytics solutions.
Halo Infinite (Simplygon)
While developing Halo Infinite, the developers at 343i knew that they needed to optimize and render the game’s vast world quickly, smoothly, and efficiently. To do that, 343i utilized Simplygon to optimize the massive environments in Halo Infinite to ensure the game renders the world perfectly, while running smoothly at the target frame rate on any platform.
“It’s hard to imagine how we could have built this game without Simplygon,” said Kurt Diegert, Environment Technical Art Lead at 343i. “Simplygon allowed us to focus our time and energy on building quality assets and gave us the tools we needed to reduce and optimize our content for our target platforms.”
Simplygon allowed the team to ensure more efficient content production by integrating into existing content production pipelines while also working quickly and iteratively, building content in less time and lowering the cost of making content changes. Finally, Simplygon let the developers at 343i scale Halo Infinite’s performance requirements and hit its performance goals on different target systems.
Microsoft Flight Simulator (Azure PlayFab UGC)
By actively incubating its creator community over the years, Microsoft Flight Simulator has made its mark by offering fans one of the world’s most engaged and vibrant marketplaces of user-generated content. With the release of the new Microsoft Flight Simulator last year, the team at Asobo and Xbox Game Studios Publishing helped grow creator revenue by integrating the Azure PlayFab UGC platform and supercharging the volume of assets creators had to work with.
“PlayFab supports our goals of offering a flexible, open and vibrant marketplace for creators that allows them to reach the entire Flight Simulator audience,” said Jorg Neumann, Head of Partner Production at Xbox Game Studios.
Using Azure Playfab UGC offered the teams an off-the-shelf solution to build a best-in-class creator marketplace, ultimately saving time, money, and resources. On the content front, a streamlined content management system allowed them to catalog to store and manage content while an easy-to-use content search let players quickly find interesting content to use in-game.
Psychonauts 2 (Visual Studio 2022)
Double Fine has always been known for its focus on innovation, creativity, and storytelling. The studio’s development team honed that focus more than ever while creating Psychonauts 2, a strategy that paid off with more than 60 industry awards. A big part of their success was the ability to move and iterate quickly using Visual Studio, which helped reduce the time spent on build iteration.
“As Tech Director, I switch between many of our game projects throughout the day to compile and review the latest code,” said Chad Dawson, Technical Director at Double Fine. “The improved project load times and faster link times in Visual Studio 2022 are exciting and will be a welcome improvement to my workflow.”
The benefits of embracing Visual Studio were clear to the team at Double Fine, including faster build iteration, stable and efficient debugging to elimination frequent debugger crashes and have a streamlined experience, and a much faster and smoother editing experience that reduced inefficiencies.
NBA Clash (Azure PlayFab Live Ops Services)
Launching a new game is tough, especially when you need to use data to make confident decisions about how to grow your game. When NBA Clash launched on mobile platforms, the developers at Nifty Games knew they needed to successfully release a new Starter Pack. To make that happen, they turned to Azure PlayFab Live Ops Services to help them easily configure and manage experiments to test the content against targeted player segments.
“PlayFab has made a big difference for us – it has driven measurable efficiencies around our experiment management and analysis,” said Jonathan Bach, Head of Central Product at Nifty Games. “PlayFab continues to improve, and we look forward to continued collaboration.”
Using Azure PlayFab Live Ops Services allowed Nifty Games to make confident, data-driven decisions based on insights into player behavior, run A/B tests and experiment with variable gameplay experiences, and deploy player-targeted experiments concurrently to optimize the rollout of new game flows.
No Man’s Sky (Azure PlayFab Multiplayer Services)
From the beginning of the game’s development, Hello Games set out to create an epic adventure in No Man’s Sky. They also strongly believed that the experience would be enriched by having all players – regardless of platform – enjoy the game together. Using Azure PlayFab Multiplayer Services allowed the team to have gamers on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC playing together. What’s more, the team’s insights into creating cross-platform games were highly valuable in shaping Azure PlayFab Matchmaking to include real-time notifications and a Lobby feature to group players across their user base.
Iain Brown, Server/Multiplayer Lead at Hello Games, summed it up best: “PlayFab allowed us to realise our vision of a single shared universe for all our players to explore together.”
Unify players across platforms with matchmaking allows developers to connect their communities, while allowing them to create, find, and join searchable lobbies offers the type of custom multiplayer experiences gamers have come to expect. All of this and more is available through the use of Azure PlayFab Multiplayer Services.
DOOM Eternal (Azure PlayFab Multiplayer Servers)
During the game’s development, id Software was laser-focused on making DOOM Eternal a unique experience for gamers all over the world. By taking advantage of Azure PlayFab Multiplayer Server features to save time and money, the team could reduce overhead and focus on what they do best: making a best-in-class shooter.
“The way Azure PlayFab delivers online features and functionality aligned with our ideas for next-generation game technology,” said Travis Bradshaw, Principal Program Manager at Microsoft and the former Lead Services Programmer at id Software. “That synergy gave us confidence.”
To ensure players get matched to the best, lowest latency servers around the world, id Software used Azure PlayFab Multiplayer Servers automated latency and QoS monitoring features. And because Azure has a multitude of regions for hosting servers, players are matched to their first-pick server regions quickly and frequently.
Rogue Company (Game Production in the Cloud with Azure)
The last few years have changed everything in the world of game development. While game production had always been a highly centralized activity, hybrid work models forced development teams like Hi-Rez Studios to pivot. The developers at Hi-Rez moved quickly to shift development of Rogue Company’s post-launch updates to the cloud. By using Perforce and Incredibuild in the cloud, the team was able to enact cloud-powered game production workflows, successfully operating remotely while keeping a tight, fast iteration loop.
“The speed and efficiency we gain by having the ability to spin up hardware through automation is a game-changer,” said Matt Smith, Lead Tools Engineer at Hi-Rez Studios.
Best of all, Azure offers more flexibility than ever before. Teams can control when and which pieces of the production pipeline migrate to the cloud, all based on a studio’s individual needs. A development team can move a single process, incrementally retool a pipeline, or fully migrate to the cloud. Low latency VMs on Azure’s global network allow teams to work anywhere, with the same build speed they would get in the office.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Touch Controls for Xbox Cloud Gaming)
In an effort to maximize the reach of their hit game Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio embraced Xbox Cloud Gaming to bring the experience to more players in more parts of the world. The Xbox Cloud Gaming APIs and the Touch Adaptation Kit allowed them to bring the full HD version of the game to smartphones and tablets, implementing scenario-based touch control layouts that dynamically changed on-screen based on what the player is doing in-game. The results were groundbreaking, with all new audiences now able to enjoy the award-winning title.
“We used the Xbox Cloud Gaming Touch Adaptation Kit to easily place buttons and icons proactively in a way that was intuitive, making actions in each scenario easy to understand,” said a representative of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio.
The Xbox Cloud Gaming APIs and the Touch Adaptation Kit ensures that players get the best experience in every part of a game with context sensitive touch layouts that feel mobile-native. Most importantly, they also allow developers to create an immersive experience with custom controls that match the game’s art style.
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This Week’s Deals with Gold and Spotlight Sale
GAMES
The German Empire Marches to Italy in a Free Expansion Today
We have a new expansion for our WW1 Italian Front FPS game Isonzo releasing today! It’s the first part of our Caporetto season of free expansions, and features a whole new faction with the arrival of the German Empire on the Italian Front, and brings a new map for the Offensive game mode. There will be two more releases in the Caporetto season, each one with a new map to ultimately link together into a three map Caporetto Offensive.
The German faction comes with more than ten new weapons, as well as historically accurate uniforms and equipment. This first Caporetto map sees you taking part in the early stages of the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, with German troops assaulting Italian positions on the road to Caporetto. Historically it was a military disaster for Italy which brought down the government – but maybe things can go differently with you on the battlefield?
The update sees new uniforms and equipment from the German Empire for Isonzo’s six classes: Rifleman, Assault, Engineer, Officer, Marksman and Mountaineer. For those who aren’t familiar with the game, each class has different weapon, gear and perk options that allow you to specialize your play style within the overall focus of the class. For instance, Marksmen are always sharpshooters, but a lot depends on your loadout. You could be a long-range sniper and observer identifying and eliminating high value targets with a scoped rifle, or you could equip body armor to take and hold a front line position with deadly accurate mid-range fire. Every class has choices to make in this regard.
In Isonzo’s signature Offensive game mode, one side must attack and break through multiple defensive lines. Thick layers of barbed wire, trenches, and whatever extra defenses the enemy engineers put together will stand in the way of a successful attack. Objectives can be taking and holding key points, or planting dynamite to sabotage enemy supply stashes or heavy artillery guns.
The new Caporetto map – the first of three in the season – is a huge battlefield based on the strategically important Monte Kolovrat. There are five defensive lines, where each line has two objectives for the attackers before they can advance further. While in the historical Battle of Caporetto both German and Austro-Hungarian forces were involved, in Isonzo we’ve chosen to focus on the German contribution, so the map recreates the stunning German advance from the town of Tolmein all the way to Kolovrat Ridge. It’s a damp, overcast day when the attack begins, and the attackers must first cut their way through lines of wire to break into a devastated town – including capturing a church defended by multiple heavy machine gun positions. Fortunately, in Isonzo there are many tactical options available to deal with such strong points: artillery barrages, smokescreens, snipers, rifle grenades, even poison gas. From there, it becomes a literal uphill battle for the German attackers as they begin to climb towards the peak of Kolovrat Ridge. They’ll need to sabotage bunkers and capture command posts while navigating rocky trenches and steep forested slopes. At the penultimate fourth defensive line there is a huge siege mortar to sabotage and a cluster of houses providing cover to the Italian defenders – then it’s one last climb to reach the final objective: Hill 1114. If the Germans can take it, the Italians will finally be the ones fighting uphill as their reinforcements stream in to try and counterattack.
Of course, things are no walk in the park for the defenders either – although it’s easier to maneuver when going downhill, and it’s much simpler for officers to deploy flares to call in support, the extensive trench lines can become a liability once the Germans get a foothold, providing cover as they advance. Some of the Italian defensive positions can be exposed against the sky, making it easy for German marksmen to pick off targets. Italian engineers should make good use of their construction abilities to put down additional sandbags and lay out extra wire to prevent German assault troops sneaking through the trees to flank trenches with their grenades or light machine guns.
As we mentioned before, historically the Battle of Caporetto was a disaster for the Italians. Appalling leadership led to poorly motivated and unprepared troops falling apart in the face of the combined Austro-Hungarian and German armies using cutting edge infiltration tactics. The Italian soldiers were not allowed to retreat until too late, and in the end hundreds of thousands would surrender. After Caporetto the top Italian general was fired and replaced by someone far more competent, who managed to turn the war around for the Italians. In Isonzo, it’s a more fair fight where both sides have an equal chance of winning, if they can use all the tactical options available better than their opponents.
The release will also bring other improvements to the game, including a prestige mode and higher level cap. Additionally, for those who want more options for visual customization of their character, the Royal Units DLC is releasing alongside the free expansion and contains uniforms from the German Kingdoms of Bavaria and Württemberg. Though part of the German Empire, these states had their own distinctive uniforms which we’ve carefully recreated with the same accuracy and attention to detail as with the other uniforms in the game.
The Battle for Caporetto Begins…
Isonzo is available right now on the Microsoft Store for Xbox, and the free Caporetto expansion is out today! Plenty of time to master the art of mountain warfare before the German Empire joins the action on the Italian Front. Follow us to get the latest development news as we add the finishing touches!
We’ll see you in the trenches!
Isonzo
BlackMill Games
$29.99
World War One expands to the mountains of the Italian Front – beautiful but deadly in equal measure. Inspired by the two year struggle for control of the Isonzo river valley and the Alps during World War One, Isonzo elevates the WW1 Games Series, figuratively and literally.
From the makers of Verdun and Tannenberg…
Take part in historical offensives from the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo to the Strafexpedition. Reflecting the course of the actual battles, as the attackers advance the fighting will shift through vastly different landscapes within a single offensive: from hillside fortresses to mountain trenches and fierce urban combat on city streets. Everything is recreated based on research and field trips, from sound effects and uniforms down to the houses, vineyards and trenches you’ll be fighting over.
The new Offensive game mode puts you right in the middle of key historical offensives on the Italian Front. Lead the charge across stunning Italian landscapes as you choose your path to victory – cut paths through barbed wire, flank your enemies by following mountain trails, or man a mortar to blast a way through. Shape a dynamic battlefield by laying sandbags and wire, placing ammo crates, deploying trench periscopes or sniper shields, and more.
Call in support with a unique historically accurate flare system: flare guns can mark targets for artillery or biplane flybys, or different colored flares can be used to guide your team. Once the big guns have softened up the enemy, finish the job at close quarters with an Arditi dagger or mountaineer’s pickaxe. Man heavy machine guns, mortars and even mountain guns for more direct fire support.
Choose from six classes based on historical combat roles and build your loadout from a selection of weapons, equipment and perks linked to that class, giving flexibility and variety while staying grounded in what real soldiers might have carried. You’ll be operating wire cutters, bandaging yourself and wounded teammates, and blowing the whistle to start an assault. One shot can kill and even lighter injuries can lead to quickly bleeding out.
Being an effective soldier in Isonzo is not just about being a good marksman. Mastering the terrain is also key – the mountain can be a friend or foe. Learn how to navigate well to maintain cover and surprise your enemies or support your allies.
Finally… watch out for the dreaded poison gas. You’ve never experienced WW1 action quite like this!
Isonzo key features include:
• MOUNTAIN WARFARE: Assaulting mountain fortifications, battling through ruined towns, and fording rivers are just a few of the challenges you’ll face as you fight your way through numerous enemy positions
• TACTICAL MULTIPLAYER FPS: Choose your role and loadout carefully to survive this high altitude combat – play a sniper to pick off the enemy engineers before they can cut your wire, use rifle grenades to clear enemy machine guns, and much more
• WORLD WAR ONE GAMEPLAY: Historical Offensive game mode based on real battles and focused on the unique challenges of Alpine warfare. Fight with 30+ WW1 weapons, poisonous gas attacks, and intense artillery barrages
• BUILD FOR VICTORY: Place your own wire, sandbags, trench periscopes, and more! Whether you’re digging in or on the attack, shaping the battlefield to your advantage will be key to victory
• FACES OF WAR: Make every class your own by picking from a variety of historically class-appropriate uniforms, accessories and headgear. As a finishing touch, you can even pick your mustache from several famous period-accurate styles!
• AUTHENTIC WW1 ATMOSPHERE: Accuracy in everything from maps and weaponry to music and the uniforms – fight for the Kingdom of Italy, the German Empire or the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy
MORE GAMES IN THE AUTHENTIC WW1 GAME SERIES
Immerse yourself in more WW1 action with our other standalone titles Tannenberg and Verdun. Experience trench warfare on the Western Front in Verdun, or maneuver for control of key sectors in Tannenberg on the Eastern Front. These authentic WW1 shooters let players choose from a range of squads from across the war, as they fight for control of the ever-changing frontlines.
GAMES
Transport Fever 2: Console Edition is Bringing the Full Transport Tycoon Experience to Xbox
Today, we proudly share a sneak peek into the development of Transport Fever 2: Console Edition, and how we managed to bring the full transport tycoon experience to Xbox.
Transport Fever is a very popular and highly rated transportation tycoon franchise on PC. Its latest entry, Transport Fever 2, delivers a level of size and detail never before seen in the genre. The goal of the game is to build a successful transportation company by constructing railroads, streets, water and air lines. Starting in the 19th century, the player connects towns and industries to transport both passengers and cargo. In addition to a customizable free game mode, there is also a fully-fledged campaign mode with challenging missions set in real-world transportation history.
After the huge success of Transport Fever 2 on PC, it was only logical to bring the experience to consoles as well. Not only that, but no efforts were spared to give the console community the full experience that made the game great on PC. In order to achieve this, the engineers at Urban Games had to pull some rabbits out of their engineers’ hats.
Always providing the freshest layer of paint
One of the most cherished features of Transport Fever 2 are its highly detailed vehicles. The game comes with more than 200 lovingly hand-modeled trains, ships, and airplanes, each sporting multiple 4k textures and normal maps.
On PC, it is easily affordable to have all the models and textures in memory whenever needed, as a typical rig has 16 GB of RAM and a GPU with a dedicated extra memory. Consoles, however, are built differently. They have a unified architecture with an overall smaller amount but ultra-fast memory. The key to make it work on consoles is texture streaming, which allows to clear textures of models that are not in view anymore. Moreover, this technology is used in Transport Fever 2 to constantly load textures at the highest affordable resolution to present the stars of the show, like the classic Class A 3/5 steam locomotive, in their best coat of paint at all times.
Keeping the ground like a console pro
A trademark of Transport Fever 2 are its huge maps. During development of the game, it was always paramount to provide a real sense of scale. The engine should allow for maps where a high-speed train, such as the famous Japanese Shinkansen, can really make use of its superior speed. So, a lot of effort was put into designing a highly effective terrain rendering pipeline that can handle maps of more than 120 sq miles of size with a detail resolution of almost 1 yard. Central to this is a dynamic terrain tessellation algorithm on the CPU that, while costing a bit of extra memory, makes sure the engine can render these maps on a wide variety of PCs.
Now, enter the world of consoles with their incredibly well-designed GPUs and graphic APIs. Here, the hardware can be leveraged very well for terrain rendering by making use of the GPU tessellation feature. This feature generates the render mesh for the terrain fully on the graphics card, saving valuable processing time for the complex economy and city growth simulations. While generating more triangles, the hardware approach still costs less memory overall due to its efficiency. So vast maps can be viewed from a bird’s view high up in the sky and seamlessly zoomed in down to individual rocks on a riverbank.
Inspiring the inner architect
Finally, let’s talk about constructions, a central and defining part of the Transport Fever 2 experience. Constructions are large assemblies that consist of dozens of assets, street segments, ground decals and terrain modifications. Think of structures like airports, train stations, docks, highway crossings, and many more. Anything that is needed to build a vast transportation empire.
For a smooth construction experience, it is key that the player really feels that he has precise control over the building placement. On PC, constructions are typically built using the mouse. As the average PC user is very well adjusted to this method of input, it is sufficiently performant to calculate the entire construction each frame and place it under the cursor. However, on consoles, the best way of building constructions is to have them always kept in the center of the screen and move the camera along the map for placement. And moving the camera needs to be as smooth as silk.
So, for the console release of Transport Fever 2, the construction preview pipeline was overhauled. All dynamic calculations are now performed in the background while a static preview of the structure and its underlying ground plan are shown. Not only are constructions now completely stable in terms of FPS, but they also give feedback to the player on what environment features the construction would tear down when built.
Let’s get tycooning on console
We are very excited to bring the Transport Fever franchise to consoles for the first time ever with the release of Transport Fever 2: Console Edition on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One in February 2023, and we hope you will enjoy it as much as we did developing it.
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