🗝️Bosskey Newsletter 39 - Ratatan ! Ai Games, Xbox Wins?

# 🗝️ Bosskey Newsletter #3 Things: 1 🎮 Game news, 1 🔎 Interesting Find, 1 📱Social Post. Written by a Part Time Indie Game Dev

Mar 21, 2025

Hi There Gamers and Devs,

3 Things I read this week, AI Vibe coding is here, Ratatan and 3 layers of Game Design Core Design First and Xbox Winning?

🎮 Game News – Ratatan, the spiritual successor to Patapon, is making waves. Will it capture the magic of the original?

📱 Social Post – The rise of AI in game development—game-changer or overhyped trend?

🔎 Interesting Finds – Game Design Core Design First, Xbox quietly making a comeback?

Lets Go!

This post first appeared on

https://cgboss.beehiiv.com/p/bosskey-39-ratatan-ai-games-xbox-wins

🎮Game News:

Ratatan

Came across this on Xboxera and found out that the Patapon Dev team from the PSP days is making a spiritual sucessor.

As a Patapon fan who spent countless hours tapping rhythmic commands on my PSP, I couldn't be more thrilled about Ratatan finally making its way to multiple platforms! The recent trailer from Ratata Arts showcases everything I loved about the original series. The beats are quite cute and hypnotic commands alongside friends.

After learning about the Kickstarter a year ago, it's incredibly satisfying to see this spiritual successor coming to life across Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox Series consoles. For anyone who fondly remembers the addictive "pata-pata-pata-pon" sequences or newcomers looking for a uniquely engaging rhythm-action experience, Ratatan promises to deliver that same magical combination of musical precision and strategic combat that made the original so special—but now with friends!

📱Social Post

AI Games Gold Rush

AI Games trend is here thanks to ChatGPT and after learning about it from the Indie Hackers newsletter.

I think it’s good to start learning AI tools for coding but this is novelty.

This happened after Peter Levels @levelsio showcased his flight simulator game he coded with cursor.

The ones winning are Cursor and Claude getting subscriptions for their services.

Sometimes I wonder If I should Jump on the Trend but it makes me split focus and deviates from my One Thing.

I don’t think this trend will last long.

X Link : @csallen https://x.com/csallen/status/1897748857272123717

Links:

https://www.indiehackers.com/post/tech/the-gold-rush-for-ai-game-development-is-here-no-coding-skills-required-UIiQyOLwPdAFEoIURjE0?utm_campaign=ih-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=indie-hackers-emails&_bhlid=3c2d958990370e74df873525aa602c839b8649b7

Thanks for reading BossKey // CG BOSS Games! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Core Design First and Xbox Winning Strategy

Core Design

Linkedin user Anton Slashcev talks on the importance of the Core of Games Design, Why start from the core for your game design. This is what makes games memorable. If its not right it won’t work downstream, most time I feel that I start with content rather than the core or have a weak core design.

I feel that it’s a reminder for my own game trying to get what makes it engaging.

3 Layers of Game Design

There are 3 layers you need to get right:

𝟭. 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 🕹️
This is the heart of your game.
• Fun mechanics
• Core loop
• Game feel
• Risk and reward
• Clear objectives

If this isn’t strong, nothing else matters.

𝟮. 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 🔄
Once the core works, build around it.
• Progression
• Difficulty curve
• Resource management
• Skills and upgrades
• Social features

This keeps players coming back.

𝟯. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 🎨
Now make it beautiful.
• Art style
• Narrative and lore
• World map
• Environment details
• Animations

This makes your game memorable.

If this isn’t strong, nothing else matters.

LinkedIn User Anton Slashcev:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aslashcev_many-studios-design-games-backwards-they-activity-7301914926606942208--9v8?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAAIF01QBg5Jq6vXzGEafxFPBl6GEUOm4hwQ

Xbox Winning?

Xbox is going multiplatform. This video examines how it might be a good thing for Xbox though it sounds fanboyish. I do feel that the strategy to move multiplatform and build an ecosystem might help Xbox Win revenue wise.

That’s it thanks for reading this far!

BossKey // CG BOSS Games