The Iterative Digest #91

Nightmarket Festival, planning game promotion, Mental Health First Aid Training.

Hello and welcome to issue #91 of the Digest! This week we discuss Steam’s first Nightmarket Festival, how to plan your game’s promotion, as well as the skills Community Managers can develop from attending Mental Health First Aid training.

So without further ado, sit back, relax, and enjoy this week’s latest - curated by yours truly! Remember, if you like what you see then don’t forget to share and subscribe. Have a great week!

• Steam launched its first Steam Nightmarket Festival this past weekend, the platform’s first-ever sale putting games from Southeast Asia in the spotlight! A number of games were on sale or had demos available, including The Signal State, Sigil of the Magi, and Knight Crawlers! If you want an update on our titles, go read up on our Special Quarterly Digest!

• Microsoft has issued a new Xbox software dev kit to partners with frees up hundreds of additional megabytes of memory for Series S games, potentially to be reallocated to graphical performance.

• Sony has come out and stated that franchises like Call of Duty could inspire users to switch to Xbox following Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, despite Microsoft’s head of Gaming confirming his intention to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation platforms once the acquisition is complete.

• Gaming history has been made with Twitch speedrunner Jervalin completing the Halo 2 LASO challenge set out by YouTuber MoistCr1tiKal. The challenge consisted of a player completing Halo 2’s campaign on Legendary difficulty with all skulls on with the exception of the Envy Skull. The challenge sees Jervalin $20,000 richer and the first individual to complete the extraordinary task.

With all of the industry changes like early access, streamers, open development, summer sales, and an ever-increasing number of game releases, you may be feeling a little overwhelmed by what a modern game campaign could cover.

This GDC talk highlights the current challenges of PR planning and provides best practice examples to show how these challenges can be overcome and how best to promote your game.

Fartherest Frontier

Fartherest Frontier is a medieval city builder where you must protect and guide a small band of settlers to forge a town from the untamed wilderness at the edge of the known world. Harvest raw materials, hunt, fish, and farm to survive. Produce crafted items to trade, consume, equip and fight with as you battle for your survival against the elements and outside threats.

Coming to PC on August 9th.

Cult of the Lamb

Start your own cult in a land of false prophets, venturing out into diverse and mysterious regions to build a loyal community of woodland Followers and spread your word to become the one true cult. Build your flock, destroy the non-believers, and spread your word in this cute action roguelike.

Coming to PC, Switch, Xbox, and Playstation on August 11th.

Arcade Paradise

Embark on a ’90s fueled retro arcade adventure. turn the family laundromat into the ultimate arcade! Play, profit, and purchase new arcade machines with over 35 games to choose from, build your own Arcade Paradise!

Coming to PC, Switch, Xbox, and Playstation on August 11th.

For the last two weeks, I was very fortunate to attend an online training course centralized on community management of mental health.

This is my writeup on why as a community manager you should attend the Safe In Our World Mental Health Training and some of the skills you can develop from it!

Slime Rancher

Join Kelsey as she dives into Slime Rancher, a charming, first-person sandbox experience. You’re a thousand light years away from Earth and you’ve decided to make a fortune doing something truly unique on this strange and distant planet. Of course, I’m talking about farming slimes.

Read more at the TIC blog!

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We are The Iterative Collective - an indie games incubator & publisher! Each week, we shed light on the latest gaming trends for all folks interested in the scene by going through a summary of the latest news from the industry as well as promising upcoming game releases! Click to learn more about us below!