Game Designer & Producer at Sydney’s Blowfish Studios, Ellen Jurik is our guest this week. We speak to Ellen about the trials of working in a studio with as many active as Blowfish while still reminding in love your work. Ellen was nice enough to join us for the the entire episode speaking about herself but also shedding an informed light on the episode other topics.

The first topic of the episode looks at developer Crytek, who hit the news headlines yet again this week for failing to pay their staff. This is the second time this has occurred, with the last being in 2014. The independent developer of games such as the original FarCry and the Xbox exclusive, Ryse, is once again faced with poor management and mass walkouts and sits as a reminder of the less than favourable side of working in the independent gaming world.

Out last topic covers the gift that you love to hate, loot boxes…or crate drops, ultimate chests or whatever your game developers want to call them! After a steady pour of public disheartenment, China is taking a stand and will require developers to display the probability of item drops online. Is this a step in the right direction? We’ll have to wait and see. Blizzard also recently played into a highly loot box related story by giving away 500 loot boxes to a wronged Reddit user. All that and more on Episode 58 of Pixel Sift!

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