Miloš Jeřábek

Creating a new IP on a “triple A” scale for under $30 million might sound impossible, but Cronos: The New Dawn from Bloober Team proves otherwise. The game cost less than $30 million to make, thanks in part to Poland’s lower development costs and Bloober’s refined production pipelines. Some might call it a regional advantage, others a skill issue. Either way, the result is a major new release built on efficiency. Several factors explain how a studio like Bloober can deliver a large-scale, ambitious game without reaching the massive budgets seen in the U.S. or Western Europe. First, Poland has a lower cost of living compared to major game development hubs such as California, London, or Montreal. This immediately reduces the baseline cost of production. Second, Bloober has built up deep expertise and production pipelines over years of development. With titles like Layers of Fear, The Medium, and the ongoing Silent Hill 2 remake, the studio has refined workflows, asset pipelines, and in-house tools. That efficiency means less wasted time and fewer resources spent reinventing the wheel for each project. Third, Polish studios often benefit from favorable tax incentives and government programs designed to support the country’s growing video game sector. Grants and subsidies help reduce risk and keep budgets lean, even on ambitious projects. Fourth, Bloober has developed a reputation for focusing on tightly scoped experiences. Rather than sprawling open-worlds with endless side content, the studio delivers narrative-driven games with carefully designed environments. This creative discipline means production resources can be concentrated, reducing the need for ballooning teams or endless content creation. Finally, Bloober’s strategy has always emphasized specialization. By focusing on psychological horror and atmospheric storytelling, the studio can reuse its technical expertise, motion capture setups, and even some core design philosophies across projects. That specialization keeps development costs down while still producing games that feel fresh and unique. All of this adds up to a situation where Cronos: The New Dawn can be built for under $30 million, a fraction of what AAA publishers often spend, yet still position itself as a premium release targeting console players. Can't wait to play.

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Two formalized resources: Amir Likes Me and Complete Job Search Playbook Folks, all the time we are tinkering with new resources for Amir Satvat's Games Community. Sometimes what we add is brand new. In other cases, we have run extensive trials and, based on consistent and strong feedback, decide to formalize them. Today is one of those times. The first is Amir Likes Me. Once a month, you can let me know about a job search post that is at least partially for a role in games. I will add a supportive comment to help boost its visibility. Over the lifetime of our community, I have done about 200 of these. The feedback has been uniformly positive, so I am formalizing it as a resource. This is not a miracle fix, but it is one more way to get more eyes on your post and more connections. It is now on our homepage with a Google form for tracking. I am also adding statistics for this to our bi-weekly community updates so you can see the data on its impact. I will start the tracking at 200, per the data above. Link: https://lnkd.in/gUUuRSjd The second is the Complete Job Search Playbook. This PDF checklist, distilled from a LinkedIn post that received very positive feedback, outlines everything I would consider before calling a job search complete. I know the list is long and that not every candidate can do everything on it for many reasons. This is respected and that is not the goal. It is meant to be a short, printable document you can use to check off actions over any period of time and find new ideas you may not have tried, whether that is just one of them or all of them. Link: https://lnkd.in/gF_gj4rS Neither of these will be numbered resources, but both are now in our resource library, which is linked from our homepage. I hope many of you will use Amir Likes Me to boost your search posts and the checklist to expand your job search activities. Link to Overall Resource Library: https://lnkd.in/eE9EXB5M A big thank you to Desirée R., who helped with UX, resource planning, branding, and design. She did an excellent job. I appreciate your engagement and amplification of this post so we can get this help into the hands of as many games jobseekers as possible. Thank you games community for the continued privilege of serving you.

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As a freelance rigger, I need to make sure my builds have a lot of flexibility. So I've recently reworked my lid modules to add variable joint counts. By utilizing a curve-based output I can changed the amount of joints used based on the needs of the project. Higher joint counts for fidelity and control, lower counts for simplicity and optimization. Or I can test and iterate to find a happy middle ground. So animators using my rigs on film or game projects can enjoy the same features, such as: - Automated lid follow with eye movement - Main controls to position the lids through translation and sculpt the curvature with rotation/scale  - Secondary controls for finer detail (If there are enough joints to support it) - Manual or automated blinking. Animate controls, or activate the automated meet point between your posed lids for a perfect seal I've been using iterations of this system over my last few projects, both commercials and games. The core elements of this system have been floating around in my head since 2018, so it's been great to finally put it to the test. 

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A good game isn’t good enough anymore. The challenge isn’t just quality. Good games are failing today. Well-reviewed titles, crafted with passion, are launching into silence. It’s not just about quality – it’s about visibility. A big part of my work is making content visible and that’s where our industry keeps slipping. Why? Because the bar for discoverability has changed and many of us haven’t adjusted. We often blame marketing missteps or product features; that’s fair. But zooming out, the broader trend is undeniable: oversaturation + limited attention = discoverability collapse. 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆... 𝗙𝗜𝗩𝗘. In 2024, nearly 19,000 games launched on Steam. On paper, it looks like a golden age. But here’s the twist: 2/3 of all PC playtime went to just FIVE titles. And most aren’t new – they’re SIX+ years old. • For developers: it’s oversaturation. • For players: it’s discoverability hell. 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁-𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗺 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗻𝗼 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴. In 2021, money was everywhere. Studios raised millions with slides alone. By Q4 2024, funding dropped 47% – the lowest in five years. That pushes pitches toward sequels and spin-offs, while bold new games get shelved. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟮𝟰-𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘁. Players don’t just choose between games. They’re splitting hours with Netflix, TikTok, YouTube, podcasts. Even sleep is a competitor… and sleep is free. On average, they’ve got 3 hours a day for screen time. We’re all fighting for the same slice. These problems won’t fade. AI, UGC platforms, and cheaper tools will only accelerate supply. The flood isn’t slowing. 𝗦𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼𝘀 𝗱𝗼? Extraordinary effort now goes into differentiation and marketing. Even then, discoverability is harder and less predictable than ever. For indies, it feels like the deck is stacked… and honestly, it is. That’s why discoverability isn’t a side problem. It is the number one problem in games. Solving it will decide who survives the next decade. The biggest underutilized dev team? ↳ YOUR PLAYERS. The biggest underutilized marketing team? ↳ YOUR PLAYERS. In 2024, creators earned $1B+. That’s GDP, not UGC. And with 10.7% of global playtime happening inside player-made content, the shift is real. There are 2 big trends: №1: Game-as-a-Platform. Build tools, templates, and incentives. №2: Players in the Dev Room. Not just feedback forms but real authority, through sandbox tests, player councils and revenue share. Platforms like PlayMakers, Overwolf, or Mod(.)io are showing the way: giving players the tools, turning them into creators, rewarding them for creativity. So here’s the real question for the future: Are you still asking how to make more content? Or are you building a system where players make it for you – better, faster, at scale? Thoughts?

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Last week I sat down with the genius Jonas Tyroller to talk about Indie game development and the culture around it. According to Jonas, "It is less about technical mastery and more about creative problem-solving and smart planning." "Success emerges when you prioritize what feels meaningful, learn from mistakes and stay open to feedback." "Instead of striving for perfection, focus on refining ideas and working mindfully to avoid common pitfalls." Jonas emphasizes keeping things simple and scope manageable. Start with appealing concepts, test early and don’t be afraid to cut unnecessary features. Sustainable progress comes from short, focused workdays and always centering your project around what players truly enjoy. Some key highlights: ✅ Prototype broadly, let quantity lead you to quality. ✅ Playtest as soon as possible to guide real improvements. ✅ True indie success is about having the freedom to keep creating. ✅ Collaborating with experienced creators can amplify your reach far beyond just building your own channel. ✅ Feature creep and burnout are common traps, keep teams small and maintain work-life balance for healthier progress. Watch the full episode, you will love it. Link in the first comment below 👇 #IndieGameDev #gamedev #entrepreneurship #storytelling

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There’s about to be a major migration of talent out of the games industry. And Hiring Managers should be salivating at the thought of snap them up. Amir Satvat has made a compelling case as to why the migration will happen. So let's talk about how this is a major boon for everyone and why game devs thrive anywhere. Excellent Cross Functional Skills:  Every game developer is working closely with folks from other disciplines with competing priorities and divergent thought processes.  What other industries call “collaboration,” we call table stakes. Development Constraints:  We all want to give players the moon. But we also know how to negotiate scope, cut features, and still ship something great.  Our ability to discuss constraints and handle horse trading in those situations is second to none. Customer Focus: We are, as a group, obsessively focused on how our work affects the player.  This is true for everyone from art to backend engineering.  Those companies that bang the drum ‘consider the customer’?  It literally keeps us up at night. Chaos Navigation:   Beyond how our ship days in games are scarier than most corporate crises, the sheer number of our customers who actively try to circumvent *everything* is staggering in a way that’d make most product managers have a coronary. Game dev is the ultimate proving ground. If you can succeed here, you can succeed anywhere. Tomorrow I’ll share a guide for translating game job positions to corporate speak. In the meantime: What skill do you think game devs bring that other industries underestimate?

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