Palworld Studio Has Devs Share Screenshots Of Steam Playtime To Prove They’re ‘True’ Gamers

4 days ago 3

Do you want to work on Palworld? Do you have an embarrassingly long Steam history to prove it? Will BioWare use a similar test to hire its new production director for Mass Effect 5? And can the next Monster Hunter Wilds patch finally fix performance on PC? It’s the latest edition of Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku‘s daily roundup of gaming news, rumors, and culture. This is my new favorite behind the scenes game tease. Game companies should spend less time firing people and more time being silly.

Gamers without Steam achievements need not apply

What makes a good game designer? For Palworld maker Pocketpair it’s people who play a lot of Steam games and can explain why their favorite ones are good. Don’t have a Steam game history? Don’t even bother applying. CEO Takuro Mizobe says people have to submit screenshots of their playtime and those without any are screened out.

“In the interview, we ask them to explain the game mechanics of the titles that rank high in their Steam playtime, why they think those specific mechanics were adopted, and what makes that title stand out when compared to other games in the same genre,” Mizobe wrote on X (via Automaton). “Pocketpair is recruiting game creators who are true Steam gamers!”

Monster Hunter Wilds‘ next big performance patch arrives next week

“This patch will include optimization improvements for Steam-specific processes and options to reduce processing load,” reads an announcement on the server status account for an outage starting January 27. “It will also include a review of presets.” Another update will follow quickly after on February 18. Fans are hoping this is the one that finally makes a big difference with how the game runs on PC, especially after one modder apparently discovered a weird DLC check bug that was killing framerates.

BioWare is hiring for Mass Effect 5

“We are looking for a Production Director with a passion for the Mass Effect universe to serve as a high-impact leader on our next Mass Effect title,” reads a new job posting. “You will partner closely with creative leadership, studio teams, and internal and external partners to champion the game’s vision and ensure its execution at the highest quality bar.” That person will report directly to project lead Michael Gamble. “It’s gonna be awesome,” he wrote on X.

Vampire Crawlers will have a free demo next month

The Vampire Survivors-turned-3D-deckbuilder dungeon crawler spin-off will be free-to-try starting on February 23 on Steam and Xbox Game Pass. The 3D pixel-art genre mash-up has been looking very neat and has a new trailer explaining more of how its gameplay will work.

Epic has a secret $800 million deal with Google

“Epic’s technology is used by many companies in the space Google is operating in to train their products, so the ability for Google to use the Unreal Engine more fulsome…sorry, I’m blowing this confidentiality,” CEO Tim Sweeney told a court questioning its settlement with the search giant, The Verge reports. The deal, which is for Epic buying Google’s services, is apparently related to “the metaverse” and will include both companies marketing one another’s products. It’s definitely not part of some sweetheart arrangement of the kind that Sweeney previously railed against.