Scheduling meetings can be a nearly insurmountable task. Finding a time that works for everyone in the same organisation, let alone across different time zones, can feel like trying to solve a puzzle with a missing piece.

There are several web applications that can help you send around a poll to find out what times work for each participant, with several different options for dates and times provided. By taking the intersection of all the good times, you can uncover the ideal meeting schedule. | Should you want to host your own meeting poll software, there are several open source options available to you, and the linked article covers five of those. Not all have to be self-hosted as the very first option is a free cloud hosted solution, which can be optionally self-hosted too.

See https://opensource.com/article/22/4/open-source-alternatives-doodle-polls

#technology #opensource #scheduling #meetings #event

Valve has written up a short blog post going over how their Steam Next Fest has improved things for developers, and it seems by a huge amount in some cases.

For users who haven't seen one before, Steam Next Fest is a regular event Steam now runs a few times a year, that gives developers some extra time in the spotlight. Developers can offer up limited-time demos, do livestreams and talks - all in the name of pulling in my wishlists and sales.

So how has it all been going? Very well overall, according to the latest data from Valve .

Picture - Valve

Compared with the events in 2020, there's been a huge jump in the amount of wishlists for developers. Wishlists are an essential marketing tool, since it's a way for developers to remind users their game has released or is on sale and hopefully convert them into actual sales. Valve notes that there's a few reasons why 2021 has done so much better, including a change to their rules that mean developers can only enter once per-game, so Valve thinks developers have taken a bit more time to be ready — makes sense.

The big question really though is how has the event increased sales for developers? Valve checked the data for games that have actually released since the festival, noting that the "median released game saw an increase of 500% in 'converting wishlists' made during Next Fest compared to converting wishlist additions made in the two weeks leading to Next Fest".

None of it is surprising. Marketing is hard, even harder each year with more games releasing and advertising space is limited. Player time and money is a limiting factor to, so having a big splash where you let users try out the game first direct from Steam is a great idea when previously a lot of events like this were only done in-person.

Today the Terraria x Don't Starve Together crossover event is live, with both games seeing an update with elements of the other appear. Sounds like a lot of fun and a surprisingly good fit between them.

Why though? During the 10th anniversary of Terraria, the developer was asked "If you could implement another crossover into Terraria, what franchise would you choose?" and they replied "If I had to pick just one I would love to do something with Don't Starve Together". Shortly after, chats began and this is the result from both development teams.

Check out the trailer:

Watch video on YouTube.com

New in Don't Starve Together:

• Added the Terrarium, which can be found hidden somewhere in the world.
• Added the Eye of Terror, which can be defeated to obtain Milky Whites and the Eye Mask.
• Added the Twins of Terror, which can be defeated to obtain the Shield of Terror.
• Added new boss statues.
• Added the Suspicious Peeper and the Friendly Peeper.
• Added two new Crock Pot recipes, Frozen Banana Daiquiri and Bunny Stew.
• Added Terraria-themed World Settings and World Generation presets for the Forest and the Caves.
• Added Terraria-themed skins.

New in Terraria:

Added a Don't Starve themed seed

- Play with Don't Starve-inspired shaders and lighting
- Complete darkness is now dangerous to your health
- Players will need to eat or face hunger and eventual starvation
- A few minor Don't Starve inspired worldgen features
- Has substantially improved drop rates and availablility of Don't Starve related items

• Added the Deerclops, a mid-late pre-Hardmode boss hailing from the world of Don't Starve
• A variation on the Deerclops' boss theme, provided by Klei Entertainment!
• A few rare background clouds featuring characters from Don't Starve can now appear
• Added several new Don't Starve related emotes
• Main menu now has some links to some assorted Terraria-related websites
• Worlds using special seeds now have unique icons in the World Select menu to better tell them apart
• Added a config option for an older version of Smart Cursor Hold, labeled in the config file as "SmartCursorHoldCanReleaseMidUse". Changing this setting to true will make it so that Smart Cursor: Hold will IMMEDIATELY deactivate when releasing the hold button, even if the player is mining.

New Items

• Several new pets from the Don't Starve universe
• A collection of Don't Starve weapons and equipment, adapted to the world of Terraria!
• Wilson and Willow Vanity Outfits
• Several vanity hats and accessories
• Two food items, the Froggle Bunwich and Monster Lasagna
• The full array of standard boss related items from Deerclops
• 4 Don't Starve themed paintings

Where to buy a copy of either:

• Don't Starve Together: Steam .
• Terraria: GOG , Steam and Humble Store .

Today (November 12) at 10am PST / 6PM UTC, Valve are hosting the Steamworks Virtual Conference: Steam Deck and you will actually be able to watch. As a reminder, the Steam Deck has been delayed .

Originally, the announcement made it seem like you had to be a registered Steamworks developer to attend. However, Valve has sent out an email to confirm that "anyone can watch the event, only those signed in with a Steamworks developer account can participate in the live Q&A and chat.

Going over the list these will be the subjects of the talks:

Development without a dev-kit (documentation they just put up )

"Designer Lawrence Yang outlines how developers can get their games running well on Steam Deck, even without a dev-kit to test with. From testing for compatibility with what you have laying around, to putting together a deconstructed Deck for all-in-one testing, he goes over several options and best-practices for getting ready for Steam Deck without a dev-kit."

Steam Deck Hardware (Overview)

"Steam Deck was built from the ground up for an optimal PC handheld gaming experience, and hardware engineer Yazan Aldehayyat shows how - and why- we made it the way we did. Even more importantly, he shows how those decisions allow for developers to bring all different kinds of games to Steam Deck as an optimal experience for players."

Steam on Deck

"We designed Steam Deck to give customers and developers the same Steam experience they've come to expect on any PC. Programmer Tom Bui and designer Tucker Spofford share how Steam features "just work" on Steam Deck, from Steam Community to the Steam Store and more. They'll also talk about some of the new Steam features made for Deck and crossing over to the desktop client as well."

Proton Support

"Programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais expands on Proton support, detailing the ways in which it makes Steam Deck compatible with Windows games, and sharing guidance on how to best avoid compatibility and performance issues."

APU Deep-dive with AMD

"Sebastien Nussbaum from AMD details the technology that powers Steam Deck's custom APU and goes over the options for graphics debugging and performance profiling available to developers."

Steam Input

"Steam Deck controls are a superset of XInput, so many developers won't need to do anything to get their game working on Deck. However, as programmer Scott Dalton shares, we've added powerful new controls to Steam Deck that some devs may find are even better options for their games."

Questions and Answers (developers only)

As we approach launch for the Steam Deck in December, Valve has begun ramping up their info for developers with the announcement of a Steamworks Virtual Conference .

Taking place on Friday, November 12, starting at 10AM PT / 5PM UTC the topic will be specifically for the Steam Deck this time, covering these subjects:

• Steam Deck Hardware
• Development without a dev-kit
• Steam on Deck
• Proton Support
• Steam Input
• Steam Deck Verified
• APU deep dive with AMD

After each talk is done, Valve will host a live question and answer session to go through questions developers have.

Unfortunately, the event itself is locked to Steamworks approved developers. However, like a lot of Steamworks videos, it's likely it will appear on the official YouTube at some point after. If that does happen, we will let you know.

If you missed it, Valve recently held a Q&A session for developers at GI Live: London that you can see below:

You may want to set aside some money and fill up that Steam Wishlist, as the next couple of big sale events now have their dates confirmed.

Instead of some kind of leak like what happened in previous years, Valve themselves are just giving out the dates to those who know where to look. On the Steamworks Documentation website, Valve has listed these sales:

• Steam Halloween Sale - Oct 28 - Nov 1, 2021
• Steam Autumn Sale - Nov 24 - 30, 2021
• Steam Winter Sale - Dec 22, 2021 - Jan 5, 2022

Of course these are only the main Steam events. You can still expect to see daily and weekly deals, publisher events and all the usual extra sales that Valve allow during and in between these times.

I'm tempted to finally see what all the fuss is about with NieR:Automata with Proton or maybe get sucked into Wasteland 3. Then again, I might also build up my collection of VR games as there's quite a few that look good like Blade and Sorcery. What are you hoping will have a good discount?

Another big Steam event is underway with the Steam Digital Tabletop Fest RPG Edition. A chance for you to pick up some cheap games and more.

Much like previous events there's a number of livestreams going on, so you can watch and listen to developers doing talks and streaming their games which Valve teamed up with Auroch Digital and friends for. You can watch these streams on Steam , YouTube and Twitch . You can catch it easily with our YouTube embed below:

Watch video on YouTube.com

On the subject of sales there's obviously a lot. The easiest way to see all the deals is probably the SteamDB list .

Do let us and your fellow readers in the comments know if you find a deal that is particularly good. With so many thousands of games on Steam it's often far too tough to decide between them all. Always a good idea to stock up on your Steam Wishlist for events like this.

Seems like Valve can't catch a break with The International 2021 thanks to COVID-19. After having to move venues, they've now cancelled and refunded all live tickets. This is a pretty big blow to the biggest esports event of the year, with it having the biggest prize-pool ever for a single event at $40,018,195.

Valve said they had be watching rising COVID rates in Romania and were aware of new local restrictions, so it seems requiring attendees to be fully vaccinated and masked was just not enough as they said:

We wanted nothing more than to welcome fans live to the event, but we can no longer do so in a way that allows us to prioritize the health and well-being of both audience members and participants. Those who purchased tickets will be issued a full refund automatically.

There were also reports of members from multiple Dota 2 Pro teams (and their staff) testing positive for COVID-19, so nothing has really gone well for the event overall.

Thankfully the rest of the event will still be going ahead on October 7. These are the dates sticking as far as we know:

• Group Stage will run October 7 - 10
• Main Stage play starts October 12
• The final will be on October 17

In other Dota 2 news, Valve recently announced they will remove 32bit support and OpenGL, with the Linux version bumping up the Vulkan version.

It's that time again! From now until October 7 you get to try out various new demos on Steam, watch developer livestreams and much more.

This is another wonderful chance to test out various games before they see a full release. For the games included in the event, they are supposed to be releasing somewhere between October 7, 2021 and May 1, 2022 so even if you find something you like it might be a while before you get to see the full complete thing.

As for what to check out? There's plenty — obviously. For some of our own quick-picks we can suggest a few that actually have Linux demo builds up:

You can watch the official livestream below: