Normally when a game company is trending on Twitter, the hope is that it’s because an anticipated game has just released to critical acclaim, or the fan base is ecstatic about a new piece of information. In March of 2015, one of the gaming industry’s giants was trending, but for a reason that had some people scratching their heads and others gasping in disbelief.

This giant was Konami, and rumors were that Hideo Kojima, the man behind the incredibly popular Metal Gear Solid series, would be leaving the company.

Why Did People Suspect He Was Leaving?

What’s interesting about this entire ordeal was the fact that neither Kojima nor Konami said anything at first. Rather, it was fans who smelled something fishy after noticing a few clues across the net.

The fact that Konami is planning to make changes to their executive department this coming April was the initial spark of the rumors. Concern came when NeoGAF and Reddit users noticed that Kojima is already omitted from the list Konami executives on their website.

This alone probably wouldn’t be enough to cause speculation across the net, but the next sudden changes clearly were.

First off, the Kojima Productions website suddenly received a complete makeover that removed all traces of the name “Kojima,” including the fox logo, and basically turned it into a Konami page. Second, the official Twitter account for Metal Gear, previously “Kojima Pro Live,” has been abandoned and replaced with a new account: “METAL GEAR OFFICIAL.”

The last, and perhaps the most alarming, clue was the renaming of Kojima Productions Los Angeles, the studio working on the online portion of MGSV, into Konami Los Angeles Studio. Suffice to say, Konami removing the Kojima name from their sites and social media pages was enough to send the entire gaming community into speculation.

So Is Kojima Actually Leaving Or Not?

All signs point to yes, including a statement Konami had no choice but to send out as rumors swirled:

To Customers,

Thank you for your continued patronage of KONAMI products and services.

The latest title in the METAL GEAR series,”METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN” (below, “MGSV: TPP”), will be released as planned starting on Tuesday, September 1st, 2015 in North America, Latin America, and Europe, followed by Japan and Asia on Wednesday, September 2. Hideo Kojima will remain involved throughout.

Hideo Kojima stated, “I want to reassure fans that I am 100% involved and will continue working on METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN; I’m determined to make it the greatest game I’ve directed to date. Don’t miss it!”

In addition, KONAMI will continue to develop and distribute top-quality content in the METAL GEAR series following “MGSV: TPP.” We greatly anticipate and deeply appreciate your ongoing support for METAL GEAR.

As the next step in the series, KONAMI has already resolved to develop new “METAL GEAR.”

We will be conducting interviews for main staff to lead the development.”

It sounds fine and dandy until you notice how much Konami is trying to point out that Kojima will be involved with MGSV, but nothing else after. They emphasize that the Metal Gear series will continue after The Phantom Pain, and even end the statement with a “conducting interviews” comment suggesting they’re already in the process of replacing Kojima entirely.

Why Does Everyone Care So Much?

For all we know, this could be another one of Kojima’s elaborate and often-brilliant PR stunts. But if he is in fact leaving the company that helped him develop one of the most recognizable video game characters of all time, it’s a big deal. There are few developers we can think of that are as tied together with their brainchild as Kojima is with the Metal Gear series.

Thus, it’s probably obvious seeing why fans of these games are in disbelief. Kojima not only created the original Metal Gear for MSX2/NES but has been involved with every title, including the one responsible for popularizing the stealth genre: Metal Gear Solid. Since then, he has been at the helm of all the portable titles, remakes, and of course, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

The cause for concern is simple: can Metal Gear continue without its creator?

Although it’s hard to believe, it wouldn’t be the first time a popular game series went on to find success even after its original maker disappeared. Perhaps Konami is confident that they’ll find a successor to lead the series when they start conducting interviews for their next executive appointments on April 1st.

Wait, Did You Say April 1st? As in, April Fools’ Day?

Yep. Here’s hoping we’re just being fooled once again!

[su_note]Check out the School of Game Design at the New York Film Academy, and learn by actually creating games. Campuses in New York and Los Angeles.[/su_note]

If there’s one thing that has been polarizing fans for a few years now, it’s the possibility of Nintendo entering the smartphone scene. Should the “Big N” consider making games for smartphone devices and claim a stake in one of the fastest growing markets? And if they ever did, would that spell the end for their portable consoles dedicated to making games?

Many have thought they should, even assuming that the day Nintendo started making games for smartphones would represent one giant step toward being the software-only company that Sega has now become. Now that the Japanese gaming giant has announced their partnership with DeNA to start releasing games on smartphone platforms, let’s take a look at the big questions many have in regard to this surprising event.

Who is DeNA?

Although not a household name like Square-Enix or Namco Bandai, DeNA may soon become one with this historic alliance. Started in 1999 to make an online auction site, DeNA eventually started providing the infrastructure for mobile and online services in 2009 before eventually publishing games themselves. Today they employ over 2000 people and have several locations across the globe, including their headquarters in Tokyo.

DeNA has already had some big partnerships in the past few years, including one with Disney in 2012 that involved making several popular games. Notable games include Star Wars: Galactic Defense, Transformers: Age of Extinction, and Godus.

What kind of games do they publish/develop?

This is what has a lot of people a tad skeptical about the partnership. Although DeNA’s library of games has an impressive number of top-grossing titles, pretty much all of them are free-to-play. There’s nothing wrong with this business model when done right, but most fans have dreaded seeing their favorite Nintendo IPs become freemium games where your enjoyment is based on how much you spend in the cash shop.

However, DeNA was chosen by Nintendo for a reason, so it is unlikely their games will compare to the shovelware you see in most mobile game stores. When it comes to providing rich free-to-play experiences that are fun to play whether you spend real cash or not, DeNA knows what they are doing. Either way, it’s still too early to tell if Nintendo will have their games be free at all.

Which Nintendo IPs will they use?

This is perhaps the most exciting question popping into the minds of gamers everywhere upon reading the news. Will we see side-scrolling Mario games, or perhaps some kind of Pokemon adventure? Maybe they’ll even focus on resurrecting older IPs like F-Zero and 2D Metroid for their mobile games.

Knowing this question would be asked, Satoru Iwata made it clear that anything is possible:

As for which Nintendo IP will be used, we do not intend to make any exceptions. Potentially, any Nintendo IP could be used in our smart device software.

No matter what IPs DeNa uses, it’s great to see Nintendo open to the idea of lending their beloved characters and worlds into their hands.

What was meant by a Membership Service?

The president of Nintendo also mentioned that they are currently working on a membership service with DeNA that will “create a connection regardless of the device the consumer uses.” In other words, we could finally see the unified account service we’ve all been dreaming about. Imagine buying a Nintendo game for your iPhone and then being able to also play it on your 3DS and Wii U. This is one of the possibilities a unified account service provides.

Whether the Nintendo Network ID system will coexist with this new membership service remains unclear.

Wait, did Nintendo just announce a new system?

Yes and no. It’s no surprise that Nintendo is already working on a new device. In fact, Shigeru Miyamoto openly discussed that new hardware is already in early stages of development late last year in an interview, so this news isn’t groundbreaking. However, this is the first time we’ve been given a codename for the new console: “NX”.

As expected, hardly any details were given on this new console other than that it would be a “dedicated game platform with a brand-new concept”. It makes sense that Nintendo would mention NX during this event simply to calm down the people who would assume Nintendo was abandoning their own consoles in favor of going software-only. What’s interesting is that the NX wasn’t necessarily mentioned as the successor to either the Wii U or 3DS. Since Nintendo has mentioned the desire to combine the benefits of portable and console devices into one, it could potentially be a unified platform.

[su_note]Want to learn to create video games for your favorite platform? Check out the School of Game Design at the New York Film Academy, where you can learn by actually creating games. Campuses in New York and Los Angeles.[/su_note]

Creating an indie game is something many game developers dream of doing at some point in their career. There’s nothing more exciting than seeing your own brainchild come alive with hope of it becoming the next big hit. It is how games like Minecraft and Braid got their start: in the mind of one person, or a few people, only to become some of the most played and memorable gaming experiences of our time.

Of course, with all these dreams and goals come a lot of misconceptions. Some look at popular indie games with their pixel art graphics and lack of cutscenes and think making indie games is easy. Others see surprise hits that make a lot more money than the developers could ever imagine and assume their game will also make them rich.

If you’re a future indie game developer and plan on whipping up your own awesome title one day, keep in mind the following list of common misconceptions that many have toward indie games:

1: Indie games are easier to make than big-budget titles.

It depends on how you look at it. Did a game like Super Smash Bros. for Wii U require more people, time, and resources to make than Limbo? Of course. Games that massive obviously require a larger team, with each member using their talent to contribute to the whole. But when it comes to indie games, the job doesn’t get easier for you as an individual.

This is because being an independent game developer means that you’ll be spending close to all your time working on your project. Whereas in a studio you eventually go home to relax and sleep, as a full-time indie developer there’s no such thing as “clocking out”. Instead, you’ll spend most of your day working on your game and then your free time thinking about it. As a part-time developer, that little free time you had will be taken up by your project.

Not only will working on an indie game take up more of your hours but you’ll also find yourself having to learn and utilize different skills. You won’t just be the programmer. You might also have to write dialogue and stories, all while also writing press releases and content for your social media pages and website. This may involve sending and answering e-mails as you beg sites to write an article on your game.

In short, you’ll find yourself wearing a lot more hats than the typical game designer at a large studio.

2: Releasing an indie game will make you rich.

Rich? The lucky indie game developers are the ones that manage to even turn a profit. This false idea comes from the fact that a few indie games a year do end up selling millions of copies and making their creators a lot of money. As most indie devs will tell you, however, their only hope is to at least break even once the game they’ve been working on for months, if not years, finally launches.

This is because making any kind of video game isn’t cheap as an individual. From paying your bills and buying necessary programs, to shelling out cash for needed hardware, there are plenty of expenses that tend to stack up. This is perhaps why it took Jonathan Blow three years to make Braid. He not only had to use his own time to make the game, but also had to pay for the artist, musician, and anyone else who contributed.

The good news is that a lot of publishers are now taking more interest in smaller game developers. Receiving funding has its benefits, but may also come with disadvantages, mainly on the creative level. However, if you stick to doing things on your own or in a small team, don’t be surprised if you end up losing money after the project is all set and done.

3: You will get paid in a timely and consistent manner.

If you game does manage to start selling copies, don’t expect to receive that money when you most need it. When it comes to the cash flow problems affecting most small businesses, indie games are certainly no exception. While some are fortunate enough to receive a check once a month, others have to wait until their game reaches a certain number of credit and/or sales. Once it does meet the requirements, it can be a long time before you actually ever see that cash in your bank account.

Other issues come into the mix when it comes to PayPal, which also doesn’t provide a very fast process for transferring money to your account. There is also the issue of PayPal fees, which can take a small but valuable chunk out of your profits.

As an indie developer you’re better off budgeting your expenses under the notion that you’ll only get paid once a month.

4: There’s no need to spend time marketing if my game is good.

If you don’t tell people about your game, they probably won’t play it. This is one of the biggest lessons almost every indie game developer learns after releasing their first title.

Yes, this even applies if your game is not only good but possibly one of the best indie projects to launch all year. Here’s another way of putting it: even big-budget titles need time and money spent on marketing, what makes you think your game doesn’t?

There are tons of games releasing these days and yours is only one of them. Instead of assuming your game will experience the same (very rare) occurrence that something like Flappy Bird did, prepare to do some marketing. You will need to do some studying to get good at this because, contrary to popular belief, most of us are terrible at marketing at first. It also doesn’t help that the general public also tends to be very good at noticing “bad”’ marketing.

5: If you do market your game, it only needs to happen near release.

There have been developers who only started spreading word about their game near launch and found success. However, there are a whole lot more who started marketing well before their game was complete and ended up with a nice, healthy fan base ready to purchase their title on day one. Which of the two sounds like the situation you would want for your game?

What’s great about today is that social media and the internet make it very easy to hype up your game while it’s still in development. You can start a Twitter and/or Facebook page where you post screenshots of art as it is developed, new features about your game, and more. Many developers even have live Twitch sessions regularly, where people interested in the game can chat with the devs while they work on content.

6: You can rely on retro visuals or cheap art to make an indie game

While many devs are genuinely interested in making 8-bit games with that retro NES feel to them, some teams take this route simply because they assume it will make development faster and easier. But if you were to ask the people behind Shovel Knight if this is the case, they’d probably laugh at you. Since games tend to be difficult to make, whether you’re talking about 3D models or 2D sprites, you’re better off choosing a visual style that actually matches the game you want.

As for the idea of using “cheap art”, we’re talking about investing less in art than you should. This often involves using volunteer-made content that rarely turns out as good as stuff made by someone you paid. Even if you don’t plan on having the breathtaking visuals of the next big-budget titles on the newest console systems, you should still plan on either spending some cash on art or finding an artist partner with whom you can split profits.

Good artwork can really make a huge difference. For example, although not everyone is a puzzle fan, it’s hard not to admire the visuals of Braid.

7: There are no constraints when it comes to indie game development.

It’s true that you will have far more creative freedom making an indie game than while working at a studio with publishers and investors breathing down your neck. Since millions of dollars aren’t riding on your game being a success, you’ll have the opportunity to be more unique, creative, and risky with your project. However, if you think you won’t have to abide by any restrictions whatsoever, you’re in for a shocking revelation.

In many ways, you’ll actually have more constraints. Just like the huge games being whipped up by large developers, you will also face the problems that arise from limits in the form of technology, budget, and time. You’ll have to cross off awesome features, work twice as hard during what little free time you have, and so on. In fact, you may even have to change the direction of your game if you study the latest trends in the industry and want to stake a claim in whatever is currently popular.

8: Making an indie game guarantees that I get a job at a big developer.

First off, it’s important to point out that making games is without a doubt the best thing you can be doing if you ever want to land a dream job at your favorite game studio. Even making a simple game or two will turn you into a better prospect in the eyes of major developers. Yes, even compared to the game design degree graduates that haven’t even made anything yet. Developers want someone who can demonstrate a knack and passion for game making, and there’s no better way to do this than by actually showing them games you helped craft.

[su_note]This is why the New York Film Academy School of Game Design takes a learning-by-doing approach. Upon graduating the program, you will have released at least one digital game.[/su_note]

The sad reality is that many younger developers are currently whipping up indie titles in hopes of using it as a way to get their foot in the door at a certain studio. While they will have a better chance than others, they probably will be overlooked when competing with someone 10 years of development experience at a different big studio.

So, instead of becoming discouraged because you’ve been an indie developer for a few years and still can’t land your dream job, keep making games and reaching for that goal. Making indie games doesn’t guarantee you’ll get the job, but it serves as a bigger step forward than anything else you could be doing.

Being a game designer is not only about coming up with cool ideas, far from it. The truth is, being a good game designer requires talents and skills that you may not have thought are necessary for the process. In fact, maybe more than any other role in game development, the game designer must wear many different hats if the result is to be a fun, enjoyable game.

Although these can differ from project to project, below are a few “roles” any game designer should feel comfortable taking on while making a game. Since you will be the one envisioning how the game will work and play, it’s your responsibility to ensure that the team creates that awesome idea in that is floating around your mind; something many gamers will hopefully love.

Game Designer = Player Advocate

One of the most important things a game designer must do throughout the development process is see the game through the eyes of a player.

A fatal mistake many designers make is getting caught up with other concerns of production. Does X look good enough? Will we have enough money to hire someone for Y? What if we can’t get our engine to get Z to work?

Your time is much better spent focusing on the player experience, so when someone finally gets their hands on your game, they won’t be able to put it down.

As an advocate for the player you must be the one to detach yourself from your (and others’) work so that you can continue asking yourself the most important question of all: will players find this fun?

Game Designer = In-house Playtester

A playtester is, of course, someone who plays a game with the intention of providing feedback on their experience, all while notifying the team of bugs, glitches, etc.

Playtesting is absolutely crucial because it lets you see how someone with a fresh perspective receives your game, providing valuable information for the team to consider. Even if your team happens to have dedicated playtesters, as a game designer you should be doing a lot of playtesting yourself.

Take advantage of this time by noting what you’re doing and feeling as you play the game yourself, even if the information you get out of this may not be as valuable as what you receive from a fresh tester. At the very least, you’ll have a better understanding of any issues that come up among outside testers that perhaps you ran into yourself but weren’t exactly sure what to think just yet.

Game Designer = Idea Communicator

Another essential skill no game designer can go without is the ability to communicate ideas clearly to other people. More than just telling others about a new idea, you must become effective at “selling” those ideas in order to convince others that it’s a good one. From fellow teammates, management, and even possibly investors, you’ll have plenty of people to convince that what you want to do is worth the time, effort, and risk.

The best way to be a good communicator is to improve your language skills. This way, you’ll have a better chance of gaining support from others by delivering a clear vision every time and presenting it well.

Of course, none of this is possible if you’re not a good listener as well. Be open to what other team members and playtesters have to say so you don’t miss a good idea just because you didn’t come up with it yourself.

Game Designer = Team Mediator

It’s not surprising to hear that most players are experiencing the most pleasurable and/or relaxing moment of their day while playing games. After all, as a game developer, it is your responsibility to make sure the public is spending hard-earned cash on something that will bring them high levels of joy and entertainment. But the truth is, game production is far from a smooth and relaxing process.

Instead, making a game can be one of the most stressful collaborative processes imaginable. Sometimes even more so than movies, television, and other forms of entertainment, game development requires a team of people that all come from diverse talents.

We’re talking programmers, concept artists, 3D animators, creative writers, executives, and more, all having their own individual personalities, goals, and ideas.

As a game designer you’ll be interacting with pretty much all of these people. You may become the bridge between people who aren’t always on the same page, such as programmers and artists. Serving as a mediator, it will be your responsibility to make sure that every group is working on the same game and towards the same end goal.

Game Designer = A Decision-Maker

If there’s one thing you should know about being a game designer, it’s that you’ll often find yourself under immense pressure.

Problems will arise throughout development that require you to make important changes to the game. Your goal as a decision-maker is to deal with these issues without causing new, perhaps even worse, issues.

Perhaps the biggest reason a game ends up feeling unbalanced, or lacking in certain areas, is because a poor decision was made when trying to solve a problem. As more issues pops up, more desperate changes are made until the game ends up a mess. Simply put, this is why games that appear to have all the potential in the world end up becoming something completely different than what was promised.

Knowing that games are complex and delicate systems, a game designer must do their best to separate the good ideas from the bad ones in order to avoid mudding up the production process. You must keep the team focused so they avoid the obstacles that come from bad.

Game Designer = Source of Inspiration

It’s usually toward the beginning of a project that a feeling of eagerness thrives across the entire team. After all, there’s nothing more exciting than starting something new, especially if everyone knows that there is a lot of potential.

However, as days turn to weeks and a host of challenges start to emerge, it’s easy to lose that initial enthusiasm that was once so prevalent among teammates. More often than not, a game that lacks creativity and uniqueness is usually the result of a burned-out team that lost their motivation long before the game was completed.

As one of the few people in the team that will work intimately with almost every department, it’s your job to keep them all inspired every step of the way. While keeping the programmers excited by sharing awesome art that’s being produced, you’ll also energize those same artists by talking about the cool mechanics that were just coded into the game.

The foundation for a fun game is a passionate team, and you can’t have a passionate team without a designer who sounds genuinely excited even when facing one of the many challenges that come with the production process.

Game Designer = Documenter

Just about every game released, on both physical and digital stores, had some form of design document. While most documents are started before a game even begins production and then get edited along the way, some projects don’t see a document created until well into development.

Although there’s no set way to write a game design document, you can rest assured that their existence has helped the creation of some of your favorite games go much smoother.

The game designer is usually the one adding most, if not all, the content into a game design doc with one purpose in mind: to clearly tell other people in the team everything they need to know to create your game. It is essentially a recipe which any group of game developers should be able follow in order to make a fully-functioning game.

When you find yourself in this process, keep in mind who your audience is. The game design document is not for potential players or gamers, but for your programmers, 3D animators, and the rest, so do your best to avoid “back-of-the-box” quotes when describing important gameplay elements and mechanics.

Game Designer = Fountain of Creativity

Without creativity, a designer cannot make a great game. Perhaps you’ll be able to pull off a decent, or even good, experience simply taking other ideas and perfecting them, but you can only get so far in this industry with little imagination and originality.

More than intelligence and passion, it is creativity that has driven legendary designers like Shigeru Miyamoto to continuously help create games that we now consider masterpieces. From Super Mario Bros. in 1985 and Ocarina of Time ten years later, to the new Star Fox for Wii U launching in 2015, Miyamoto has proven that creativity will always be a designer’s greatest tool.

As a game designer, you’ll be expected by the team to be the one who solves problems with good, imaginative ideas that no one else could think of.

If this sounds daunting, perhaps you should figure out where most of your creativity will come from. Miyamoto has often spoken of looking at his childhood and hobbies when coming up with game ideas, while Sims creator Will Wright taps into his fantasies and dreams.

No matter where you look to find your own creative inspiration, know that being a game designer is more than coming up with good ideas, it is about fitting that idea into the game in a fun and interesting way.

2015 is another year where we’ll play a host of amazing games we didn’t know could provide us with so much joy and entertainment. At the same time, there will no doubt be a few high-profile mistakes that should have been avoidable.

Below is a brief list of things most gamers would agree they want to see in this new year.

Keep Survival Horror Alive

It was on Sony’s original PlayStation that most of us started seeing our first taste of survival horror.

Resident Evil ditched tons of weapons, armies of enemies, and vast worlds to explore, and instead gave us a scarce supply of bullets, few but terrifying creatures, and it all took place in a creepy mansion. For the longest time, survival horror games were releasing by the boatloads, but eventually the craze died down.

Recently, the survival horror genre has experienced an amazing revival in our industry, partly due to the incredible response from Minecraft. From Five Nights at Freddy’s and Slender to Alien Isolation and The Evil Within, both big-budget studios and indie developers are capitalizing on the fact that many gamers are getting tired of the run-and-gun formula and instead want a different challenge, preferably one that scares your pants off.

No More Broken Launch Games

It’s hard to believe that so many people dropped $60 for a video game last year, perhaps even set aside some time to enjoy it for the first time, only to find that they paid for something that is pretty much unplayable.

The number of high-profile failures and mishaps was surprising last year, to say the least. Huge games like Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Driveclub launched with huge issues, requiring countless subsequent patches. As of this writing, three months after launch, Halo’s matchmaking system still doesn’t work.

Ubisoft also got a lot of flak for Assassin’s Creed: Unity, a game with glitches that had nearly the entire gaming community either enraged or laughing. The fact that most of these big-budget games require you to download a heavy patch before playing is something we hope doesn’t become the norm.

Games have certainly come a long way, and each new generation brings new advancements that offer some of the most incredible experiences possible, but at least older consoles like the SNES offered the opportunity to pop in a new game and start playing within seconds.

Games are, of course, very difficult to make and get right, but designing a great game that is ready for market should be a requirement before releasing. If there’s one thing we want to see in 2015, it’s less games that launch broken simply because developers want to get it out in time for a specific date.

More Awesome Mobile Games

It wasn’t too long ago that everyone assumed smartphone gaming would take over the mobile game industry. However, after a brief period of incredible growth and excitement, things have settled down and we now realize that Nintendo’s handheld consoles are here to stay.

In fact, while smartphones are plagued with free-to-play games, the 3DS has delivered some of the most memorable portable games in the last few years.

Even so, recently we’ve seen a lot of amazing mobile games come out that, despite not making millions and millions like Clash of Clans, are some of the best games you can buy for your smartphone.

Games like 80 Days, Monument Valley, and Hearthstone aren’t there to make money from your impatience or make a quick buck, instead they provide excellent gaming experiences.

We would like to see more of in 2015, and with Nintendo’s recent announcement that they are entering the smartphone gaming market, that is just what we might see.

More Indie Games, Please

Year in and year out we’re spoiled with an incredible treasure-trove of indie games, handcrafted by small teams with big ideas and plenty of passion. In fact, some of the best video games that were released in 2014 were indie titles. Games like Shovel Knight and Yacht Club helped further prove what we already know: gamers care more about fun gameplay than awesome visuals, big worlds, and all that other stuff investors think are important.

What’s interesting is that while indie developers are experiencing a golden age, AAA developers are going through a rough patch over the past few years. It is the large studios struggling to release games on time and without bugs or non-functioning features.

Quality over quantity is truly what rules the gaming environment today.