The creator of decomp.dev, known as @encounter, has disabled the site's public index and leaderboard that tracked game decompilation progress. The maintainer cited AI tools being used to rapidly 'finish' forks of others' projects with little regard for quality, turning the leaderboard into what they called 'a hollow numbers game.' Decomp.dev, launched in 2024, had centralized progress tracking for matching decompilation efforts across many game projects.
Double Fine Productions has launched Thank You Bus Driver, a $5 chaotic driving game and the debut release from its new experimental label, Double Fine Action Labs. Players enforce increasingly absurd passenger rules while racing a bus against the clock, available on Steam, Epic Games Store, Itch.io, GOG, Humble Store, and Game Jolt. Separately, One More Level has released Valor Mortis, a $40 first-person Soulslike set during the Napoleonic Wars, starring a corrupted Napoleon voiced by Vincent Cassel, available on Steam, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and Game Pass.
Walmart is selling the digital version of Pikmin 4 for Nintendo Switch at $39.88, more than $20 below its usual price. The discount comes as the puzzle-strategy game, which adds a dog companion and darker story elements to the series' formula, prepares for a $10 Nintendo Switch 2 update.
The admin of decomp.dev, known as Encounter, announced the site is closing because advanced AI models have made reverse-engineering game code dramatically faster than the traditional human-led process. Encounter said it has become impossible to distinguish projects driven primarily by humans from those produced largely by AI, undermining the site's collaborative structure.
The Information reports that Apple and the Justice Department are continuing settlement negotiations in the 2024 antitrust lawsuit, with discussions reportedly centered on iPhone interoperability requirements. PayPal and Epic Games are among the developers who have told DOJ officials they fear any resulting deal could impose only minimal restrictions on Apple's practices.
Democratic Representative Ritchie Torres has introduced the Power to Players Act, a bill that would direct the FTC to ensure consumers who buy video games actually own them rather than receive a revocable license. The bill cites NBA 2K25, which launches September 6, 2025 but is set to become unplayable after server shutdowns on December 31, as an example of the problem it targets.
New York Representative Ritchie Torres announced plans to introduce the Power To The Players Act, which would direct the Federal Trade Commission to require that video game purchases grant actual ownership rather than revocable licenses. The bill would also mandate that games with online features include an offline mode before their servers are shut down. Torres cited NBA 2K25, which will be delisted and have its servers closed just two years after release, as an example of the problem the legislation targets.
Thomas ten Cate, developer of the sailing exploration game Around The World, found that POV-Ray was not simulating multiple light scattering inside clouds, leaving a lookup table that made cloud undersides too dark. He wrote his own multithreaded Monte Carlo ray tracer in Rust to generate a more accurate scattering table, producing a lighter, more realistic cloud appearance.
Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York has introduced the Power To The Players Act, federal legislation directing the FTC to set rules ensuring consumers who buy video games actually own them rather than merely holding a revocable license. The bill would also require games with online functionality to offer an offline mode before their servers are shut down.
A developer has released Parin, an open-source 2D game engine written in the D programming language, positioning it between minimal libraries like raylib and full engines like Godot. It includes a pixel-perfect physics engine, dialogue system, tile map and animation tools, a basic UI library, and integrations with Box2D, Steamworks, ENet and microui, with support for Web, Windows, Linux and macOS, installable via DUB.
Epic Games is building a new version of its Easy Anti-Cheat system for Linux, called EAC Linux V2, designed to match the capabilities of the Windows version. It relies on existing Linux security features like Secure Boot, TPM 2.0 and Kernel Lockdown rather than a kernel driver, and runs as a systemd service only while a protected game is active. Distros including Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora, Bazzite and Debian already have recognized signing keys, meaning users on those systems could play protected titles if their hardware meets the other requirements.
Developer peiikai released a free fan-made PC port of the 2019 Switch remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, built almost entirely using Claude to decompile and reverse-engineer the original code. The beta runs natively on Windows, macOS, and Linux, with an experimental Arm Linux build, and requires users to supply their own game files. It adds features like adjustable aspect ratios and resolutions, keyboard and alternate controller support, 360-degree movement, and a randomizer with seed-based saves and item shuffling.
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