This new little gadget aims to solve one of phone gaming's biggest frustrations: when someone calls mid-game, and you have a controller attached, you have to wrestle with it to get to your messages and calls. As the name suggests, the FlipPad's answer is basically to, well… just flip it down. Okay, so there’s a small part of me that loves how we’re heading back to the ‘90s with accessories like this, and I remember clicking on lights and magnifiers to my Game Boy in much the same way. And that’s part of the appeal, for me anyway.

The new gadget is built around portrait gaming, which makes it different to something like the GameSir X5 Lite or Backbone One controller, which simply turns your handset into a tiny landscape console. The FlipPad sits alongside your phone and gives you a physical D-pad and ABXY buttons, so retro games, arcade titles and controller-supported mobile games can be played with something a bit more tactile than virtual buttons. In some ways it’s more akin to the Evercade TATE Grip that turns the EXP-R retro game console vertically.

FlipPad is a return to physical buttons

The FlipPad appeals because touchscreen controls and virtual buttons just don’t feel the same as pressing actual buttons; it’s one of the reasons I keep picking up the newest retro handheld, the Sinclair GamerCard: its rubber discs may be a little weird, but they just feel good. FlipPad is aiming for something similar, and it’s a design I feel could be perfect for playing retro games on a phone.

8BitDo has gone for a wired USB-C connection too, so there's no Bluetooth pairing and, according to the company, no wireless connection dropouts or latency to worry about. Plug it in and play, which is pretty much what you want from a phone accessory. It's also small enough to carry around, doesn't need its own battery or charger, and is designed to work with most phone cases, so you shouldn't have to strip your phone down every time you fancy a quick game.

The FlipPad launches today for £24.99. It works with iOS 26.2 or later and Android 13.0 or later.

Yet these old rules of premium branding have collapsed because Gen Z never bought into them, just as they never bought into heritage branding. Gen Z consumers evaluate brands in the same way they evaluate everything else: laterally, comparatively, and without the deference on which the old hierarchy depended. A drinks brand isn't competing with other drinks brands. Instead, it competes with the best experience that person had yesterday: the app that worked seamlessly, the café that named the grower, the moisturiser that itemised every ingredient.

When the benchmark is every category simultaneously, price loses its authority as a proxy for quality. The functional gap between premium and mid-market has narrowed across almost every category. What separates brands that gain loyalty versus more transactional brands is a genuine feeling that this was made for a person, not a market segment.

Design for the long hello

For Gen Z, buying items that last isn’t idealism; it’s just good economics. Permanence for this group isn’t indulgence, it makes common sense.

Capgemini found that 89% of consumers name durability as a guiding factor across categories, but thrift isn’t driving that, it’s a question: will this purchase still mean something in five years’ time?

Design something worth keeping and keeping becomes its own reward. Stanley took the everyday drinks cup and redesigned it around permanence: a lifetime warranty, a vessel weighted and finished to signal durability. A pleasant surprise for Stanley was that once people owned one cup, they wanted more.

The practical consideration for any brand should hinge on whether the packaging can earn a place in the home once the product is gone. Loewe's ceramic candle holders give a clear answer: the vessel outlasts the product by design, not by accident.

Own the specific, not the broad

The cultural authority that once came from being universally recognisable has shifted away from reach towards rootedness. What Gen Z reads as credibility isn't scale but depth.

Gen Z consumers use products to signal who they are. A brand speaking their specific cultural language earns something a globally optimised visual system cannot: the feeling of being seen rather than targeted.

The most culturally intelligent brands aren't adapting. They're building from the culture, not towards it. Indian chocolate brand Subko runs its packaging in Devanagari and Kannada and traces every ingredient to a named farm. That local specificity is the product. Gully Labs builds sneakers as collectible documents of modern Indian street culture, gaining global traction precisely because of how rooted they are, not despite it. Cultural authority comes from depth, not reach. A brand that genuinely belongs somewhere will always outperform a brand trying to belong everywhere.

Make the encounter the brief

Shelf performance used to be the primary design brief but now the product also performs in the bathroom, at the table, or in the corner of a photo. It exists in a permanent state of being seen by someone other than its buyer. Gen Z shops with that in mind.

Deloitte data puts 47% of consumers in the category of active value-seekers: people who require a product to justify itself socially. Being worth the price and worth being seen with are equally weighted criteria.

Rhode's phone case embodies this shift. The product sits on a phone, appears in every selfie, and generates media without a media budget. 818 Tequila designed a miniature keychain bottle: an accessory first, a product second. Both brands understood that the encounter is the marketing. Design for it intentionally.

Lead with the true thing

Density of claims used to mean quality: if a brand had a lot to say, it must be worth it. Now restraint is a statement of confidence, and saying less is a premium signal. The Ordinary skincare products name the active ingredient and state the concentration; there’s no narrative or lifestyle imagery. Its clinical type and bare packaging trust consumers to know what they are buying. In the same category, Drunk Elephant built its identity around a public exclusion list: six ingredient categories it will not use. It’s defined by what it removes, not what it adds. That’s radical clarity delivered with personality.

Bake conviction into the brief

Each of these shifts signals something significant about the brand. Building for permanence means believing in your product, while leading with ingredients means transparency.

None of this requires a luxury price point. It needs conviction baked into the brief, not applied as a layer at the end. The brands getting this right didn't arrive at it through execution. They started from it.

For more, see why brands need to ditch the monolithic Gen Z concept.

Admittedly, open-ears are never going to compete with the best wired headphones, and the audiophiles out there may turn their noses up at these compact buds, but I'm here to fight their corner. Lightweight, unobtrusive and surprisingly crisp, I'm happy to announce I've met my new audio soulmate.

The look

I've been curious about open-ear audio options for a while now, as AirPods (and AirPods-adjacent options) have never really done it for me – my individuality complex needs something more... underground. And while beauty is subjective, in my humble opinion the Clip Pros are aesthetically gorgeous.

The design is simple and clean in line with Nothing's future-forward aesthetic, featuring a matte white case with a large silver dial on top (more on that later). As for the buds themselves, the ultra-lightweight build and covert design make them a great, unfussy option, and while I predict the clip stem will be stylistically divisive, I happen to like the look. More than an audio option, the Clip Pros are the ultimate accessory, toeing the line between playful tech and fashion statement.

The sound

I said I was going to try and convert you to these open earbuds, but I must ask that you approach them with an open mind. No, they're not going to perform the same as a pair of noise-cancelling wireless headphones, but the integrated Ultra Bass Technology brings a nice body to the sound. It's clear enough that I can feel immersed without losing track of my surroundings, perfect for when you want to soundtrack your life but still be tuned in.

I find myself gravitating towards my Clip Pros during my evening walks around the city, where having an open ear is sensible for safety. The audio is surprisingly crisp and clear despite the buds' open design, and there's minimal noise leakage (great news for my paranoia that people can hear me listening to Britney Spears on the bus). I even put them to the test in the office and can confirm they are delightfully covert, despite taking a bit of trust to get used to.

The function

Naturally, these open earbuds aren't going to be the best performing when it comes to audio quality, but there's a place for them if you're fed up with stuffy headphones that suffocate your ears. Their ultra-light build makes them a great compact commuter option and everyday companion that can be easily stowed away in a pocket.

When it comes to functionality, the Clip Pros are an absolute treat. Straight out of the box, I found that the earbuds were a doddle to connect as they instantly appeared on my phone's Bluetooth device list. Once connected, they make a little blink sound, and you're good to go.

The usual earbud controls are present – tap once to pause, tap twice to skip a song, tap thrice to go back. My only minor gripe is the volume. Controlled by holding down the button that lurks behind your ear (left for volume down, right for up), I find the reaction time a little slow, especially with the earbuds' gentle bleep to let you know it's responding, so I find it easier to control my sound via my phone or, even better, with that nifty silver dial.

A design delight, the Clip Pros Smart Dial is a wonderful touch that adds an extra layer of control to your setup. Already, it gains major points for the clicking sound as it turns (I'm a sucker for something tactile that I can fidget with). You can customise your listening experience via the Nothing app, which is surprisingly straightforward and well worth the 30-second minor faff. Check out my set-up below.

I was initially a bit sceptical about the Smart Dial being a little too smart (a.k.a, triggering in my pocket when I don't want it to), but thankfully Nothing has that covered. Tap twice and hold; the dial will lock, so there's no chance of non-consensual interruption. However, it does alert you with a scary robot lady that says "SMART DIAL DISABLED", which spooked me on first encounter – you have been warned.

Charging

Now I must confess, I spent an embarrassingly long time trying to work out how to put my earbuds back in the case, but once you've got it down, they snap back into place easily. The 10 hours of playback time mean that you rarely have to give them a proper charge, and with only 10 minutes, you get 4 hours of juice – great news if you're in a pinch.

Final thoughts

Open earbuds will always be divisive given their unconventional design, but for some (a.k.a. me), I think they're a perfect fit. If you're looking for an audio option that feels light and unnoticeable in ear, the Clip Pros are a delight to wear all day. Do you sacrifice a little noise cancellation? Yes, but what you regain is an in-tune connection to the outside world.

The truth is I don't always want to shut the world out – whether it's for my safety when walking around alone, or simply because I want to feel present. Nothing's Clip Pro provide the perfect background soundtrack to my day-to-day life. If unique style, comfort, and convenience are your main prerogatives, Nothing's open earbuds are a perfect fit.

Below, Jin explains the concepts behind four examples of his work.

Corruption

“This piece depicts someone consumed and controlled by wicked desires, twisted into something hideous and deformed.”

New Species

“After an ecological catastrophe devastates Earth, civilisation is nearly destroyed. Nature reclaims dominance, and species that slept for thousands of years begin to awaken.”

Exploring the Ruins

“Deep within an ancient continent lies a long forgotten demon temple. Years later, adventurers drawn in by rumours of a mysterious power that could reshape the world journey to uncover its secrets.”

Demon

“A malevolent demon that preys on human desires and greed, cunningly taking everything you possess.”

You can see more of Jin's work on his ArtStation profile.

If you're building your own creative setup, you might also want one of the best laptops for 3D modelling or the best drawing tablets.

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. Subscribe to ImagineFX to never miss an issue. Print and digital subscriptions are available.

Creative Bloq is now easier to access than ever before with our on-the-go app, which brings you all the content you know and love from our website, but in a super-streamlined design.
Download the Creative Bloq app for iOS
Download the Creative Bloq app for Android

With PlayStation announcing the death of physical games, the console itself has never been more important. Whether you're looking to snag yourself a swanky custom PS5 or simply upgrade your DualSense controller, for Marvel fans, this new collab is pretty much a no-brainer.

Inspired by Insomniac Games' Battle Reborn suit, the new console and accessories have a bold, tactile feel across the collection. Coming in a yellow, black and slick Adamantium colourway, the collab features distinct details like hand-drawn ink illustration and claw marks that reveal the inner workings of the console.

“I still draw all my artwork traditionally, so the opportunity to marry cutting-edge hardware with the energy and looseness of hand-drawn ink is incredibly exciting. I’m stunned by how well the console and accessories captured the raw energy of the drawing, bringing Wolverine to life in a completely unique way,” says graphic artist, Jock.

For those who are already the proud owners of a PS5, limited-edition console covers give the same distinct look without having to spend out on a new PlayStation. A pair of DualSense wireless controllers, available in yellow and Adamantium colourways, completes the striking collection.

The limited-edition consoles and accessories will be available for pre-order on 19 August at 10 AM local time on the PlayStation website.

The reason for this week's new chapter in the Instagram logo history was less immediately clear. According to Adam Mosseri, head of the platform, it was "time for a refresh" simply because 10 years have passed, which sounds like the worst possible rationale for a rebrand.

When you look deeper into what Instagram's saying about the new logo, things become clearer. Nevertheless, users have largely decided one thing already: the new design doesn't say 'Instagram'.

Behold, the new Instagram logo – or is it Instagzam?

Instagram says its new wordmark "elevates simplicity, creativity and connection". The aim was to achieve a design that still feels like Instagram but also carries it into the future... and also takes it back to its roots.

The Meta-owned platform says its team "explored hundreds of directions: from all-caps, to camera concepts, to literal handwriting". Basically anything; after all, it was time for a change. But they came back to the idea of a script typeface, which was deemed to feel warmer and more personal.

“Script reflects individuality, so referencing that felt right. The new wordmark is bolder and simpler, with touches of unexpectedness. It cues individual expression, a personal voice, both of which have always been core to Instagram,” says Jasmine Probst, Director of Product Design.

The colours aren't going completely. Alongside the wordmark, there's a new brand system. The camera logo will still be used, as will the rainbow gradient, but the use of the latter is going to become more subtle.

We're told there will be refreshed motion and UI design. There's also new typography in the form of an updated Instagram Sans, a new handwriting typeface called Instagram Pen and a new Instagram Mono font.

For some users, we've reached "peak blanding" when even the Instagram logo starts to look like a generic fashion identity. It is simpler and bolder, but is it also somehow more complicated at the same time? It moves from the script while also leaning into some of cursive writing's more challenging forms – and everyone knows that Gen Z can't read script typography.

'Instaguam?' is one person's attempt in the comments on Adam's post above, perhaps taking the new name to be a tribute to the US Micronesian territory. “Instagwam – how a toddler would pronounce it," someone else thinks. "InstagZam… like an orgasm?" another person suggests. That latter interpretation seems to be the most popular so far.

Perhaps we have to give it some time. When Instagram launched in 2010, it was with a skeuomorphic logo designed by co-founder Kevin Systrom to resemble a vintage Polaroid camera. But this was a time when the app's rivals weren't TikTok or Snapchat, but retro photo apps like Hipstamatic.

In 2016, Instagram replaced that with a flat, neon gradient glyph. Users weren't wild about it, to say the least. But ten years on, I think we can conclude that it was huge success in terms of building the brand. It's become one of the most recognisable app icons, if not one of the best logos, and still stands out.

Reading the blog, it feels like Instagram wants to roll back time and recover what it used to be: a platform on which to share cool, spontaneous creativity with friends, while injecting a touch of class to redeem it from the torrent of AI slop that's been unleashed on social media. The problem is that achieving this is going to take a lot more than a new logo design.

What do you think? Will the new Instagram logo grow on us? Or have they achieved the seemingly impossible and created a design that's simultaneously blander and less legible?

Hayao Miyazaki has made some of the most beautifully constructed animated films of the 80s and, well, ever put on screen, so you'd probably expect him to have every detail mapped out before the first frame is drawn. Apparently not.

In a 2002 interview with Midnight Eye, Miyazaki explained that he often starts making a film without having the whole story worked out. Instead, the story develops as he draws the storyboards, with production beginning while those storyboards are still taking shape. I've rejigged the quote around in this article's header, but he says, “We never know where the story will go,” and adds, “but we just keep working on the film as it develops.”

That's a surprisingly reassuring thing to hear from someone whose films can feel so meticulously planned and executed. From the best anime films like Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke to my favourite, My Neighbour Totoro, these are the sort of films where you can spend hours picking apart the details and wondering how Miyazaki could possibly have known exactly where everything was going. It turns out, he didn't, and that's refreshing to hear for anyone who's sat down and stared at a blank canvas wondering where to begin, or even where it's going.

Miyazaki actually describes this way of working as “dangerous”, and admits he'd prefer it to be different, but it's how he makes films. The story grows alongside the drawings, rather than the drawings simply being used to execute a finished script.

That's probably something a lot of artists need to hear because it's very easy to look at a finished illustration, animation, game or film and imagine that the person who made it knew exactly what they were doing from the start. They probably didn't. They started somewhere, made some decisions, changed their minds, followed an idea that seemed interesting, threw some things away and kept going until the art began to take shape.

That's particularly easy to forget when you're working digitally, where there's always another layer to add, another reference to find and another opportunity to convince yourself that you should have figured the whole thing out before you started. Miyazaki didn't have the whole story finished. He just started drawing, and sometimes that's enough, because getting started can be the most frustrating part of any new project.

Read the full Midnight Eye interview with Hayao Miyazaki for more.

Our pick of the best Hayao Miyazaki art books:

I am German, living and working in Hamburg for quite some time, but I was lucky to grow up in Paris and to call France my part-time home for a couple of years. So whenever something is buzzing in the French branding landscape, I tend to notice. And there is definitely some buzz around Monoprix. (See here how to celebrate heritage brands.)

When I was a kid – this was the casual store we would go to grab our groceries on the way from the »Metro« to our family apartment in the Marais. Over the past few years I noticed Monoprix lifestyle items in the Vogue or Elle magazines on our coffee table at our French house. Now a new brand identity is popping up – and it reminds me more of a MoMA store or a softened version of the legendary Jean-Paul Goude posters for Galeries Lafayette than of groceries. Something must have happened!

Let‘s start with some facts.

Monoprix is a retail chain founded in France in 1932 and headquartered in Clichy; it has been wholly owned by the Casino Group since 2013. The company operates approximately 736 stores and combines groceries with fashion, cosmetics, and household goods. In addition to its core market in France, Monoprix operates through franchise and partnership structures in Belgium, Luxembourg, Tunisia, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Guadeloupe, and Réunion, among other locations.

But how did it all begin and why is the new brand identity so spot on?

The founder Max Heilbronn, "Monsieur Max" as his employees liked to call him, invented a new type of store in the early 1930s, in the midst of the economic crisis: a downtown store offering all the essentials of daily life at low prices. No one had thought of this before or dared to take such an initiative. So in 1932 »Monoprix« was born. "Monsieur Max" envisioned a future society where everyone would have access to a wide range of products previously considered out of reach. He was driven by the desire to "make beauty, goodness, and well-being accessible to all". That mission is at the core of the brand up to this day.

Since then, Monop' – as the French call it – has always been an innovator. Its apostrophe eventually became the brand's iconic "Pop" mark. The company launched its first private-label brands and introduced self-service as early as 1950. Already in 1990 they started selling ecological food, invested in eCommerce in the early 2000s and broadened their portfolio to meet the habits of modern society. The latest »coup« was then the curation of French designer furniture at discount prices – most items are sold out in hours and feature in Architectural Digest or Elle Deco.

Slowly Monoprix evolved from a daily go-to-store to a symbol of French style, something the people can relate to and even be proud of.

The new identity delivers exactly that. It is unmistakably French by means of mixing an effortless attitude with a high sense of style and beauty – a combination mostly uncommon when you think of grocery stores.

From Heritage to Identity

To meet this cultural grounding, W Conran Design went back to the source: the legacy, the French Art Nouveau movement, popular posters, and mass-market graphic design. These references reflect a conviction that has remained intact since the beginning: Monoprix enriches life.

This reinterpretation of the brand’s heritage led to the establishment of three principles. First, they understood that Monoprix is not merely a retailer but a brand of taste and curation, the author of its own narrative. Second, their blend of worlds – fashion, home, food, and beauty – becomes a visual language in its own right, not merely a juxtaposition of departments. Finally, pop culture is the visual DNA that anchors Monoprix as much in culture as in commerce.

A Unified Brand Language

This translates to a redesigned iconic logo, a reinvented pattern, a proprietary iconography created from scratch, original illustrations, and a vibrant, confident color palette.

Together, these elements form a unified language designed to encompass the full spectrum of brand expression: from the bag to the storefront, from the app to in-store signage, and from customer loyalty to brand commitments.

As Martin Pilot, Vice President of W Conran Design, puts it: “We didn’t redesign a brand—we reawakened an icon.”

Why It Works

And they did a great job. At a time when retailers are seeking to differentiate themselves beyond price, Monoprix is asserting its status as a lifestyle brand more than ever. This rebranding captures that approach in a new theme: “A taste for the good and the beautiful.” It's a reminder that, in an increasingly competitive sector, brand identity remains a powerful driver of consumer preference. Rather than chasing trends, Monoprix has chosen to highlight what has always set it apart: a retail experience where commerce intersects with popular culture.

Excuse my French, but this is "formidable"!

For more excellent branding, see our best branding of the 2020s so far.

The upcoming animation Charlie Vs The Chocolate Factory will get the prestige treatment that KPop Demon Hunters was denied, with a seven-week exclusive theatrical release before it comes to Netflix. It seems the streaming giant has learned from its biggest animation release to date, which could be good news for KPop Demon Hunters 2.

Netflix Animation Studios' Charlie Vs The Chocolate Factory was made possible by the streaming platforms's acquisition of the Roald Dahl Story Company in 2021. The movie will tell a new story set several years after the events of the original novel.

This will see Willy Wonka return to his factory after doing time for turning a kid into a blueberry. Meanwhile, one Charlie Paley and friends plot to break in to steal a chocolate bar that could save them from eviction from their London homes.

Like KPop Demon Hunters, the animation will be the work of Sony Pictures Imageworks. Kit Connor will voice Charlie, while Taika Waititi plays Wonka. Nicola Coughlan, Charithra Chandran, Samson Kayo, Christopher Chung, Kate Winslet, and Helena Bonham Carter also star, directed by Jared Stern and Elaine Bogan.

What Roald Dahl would think of the story, I can't say, but it's interesting to see the about-turn that Netflix has made in its release strategy. It's not the first time it's taken animated movies to the big screen, but it will be the first time it's giving one such a long and prominent run.

Back in 2022, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio was released in cinemas a month ahead of its debut on Netflix but only in a limited number of independent venues. KPop Demon Hunters was released in cinemas for special sing-along events, but only after it had already become huge on Netflix.

It seems Netflix has realised that big-screen releases are more than an irritation necessary to qualify for major awards. They bring sales, and they can help secure big names, who still see the cinema as having a prestige value over TV.

Netflix also wants to avoid being caught by surprise like it was with KPop Demon Hunters, for which it hadn't even lined up merchandise lines. It's going to avoid that with the Charlie sequel, having already signed up Ferrero to release ten Wonka-branded chocolate, candy, ice cream and cereal, and with Moose Toys to launch a toy line.

Studies suggest that streaming has hit smaller-budget movies, dramas, and comedies. On-demand access has replaced the routine habit of going out just to "see something" at the weekend, but event films continue to draw huge crowds.

Netflix's decision to give movies like Charlie Vs The Chocolate Factory and next year's live-action Narnia long cinema runs suggest that after missing out on buying Warner Bros. Discovery, it aims to slink into multiplex's itself. KPop Demon Hunters 2 will now surely have to receive a proper cinema release. Fans wouldn't accept anything less.

What's less certain is Ray Gunn, the more imminent neo-noir science fiction mystery from Brad Bird. Despite Bird having written and directed hits like Pixar's The Incredibles and Ratatouille, there's been no news of a theatrical release. The film's due to hit Netflix on 18 December, the same date that Dune 3 and Angry Birds 3 come to the box office.

Charlie Vs The Chocolate Factory will be released at cinemas on 5 November 2027 and on Netflix on 22 December 2027.

According to Watt's founder and CEO, Egor Tomskiy, the initial concept was to make a game based on traditional Slavic mythology, which has certainly become very popular in games thanks to The Witcher, as well as a desire to feature a female protagonist. That resulted in looking at Russian fairy tales, and inspiration came from the most popular Russian fairy tale of them all, The Tsar Sultan by Alexander Pushkin, whose heroine happens to be the swan princess.

"We took this idea and then thought of Swan Lake, which is ballet," he tells me. "So we thought, let's unite ballet combat with fairy tales to create something really incredible." That said, Tsarevna is definitely more of a dark fairy tale, not just in its post-apocalyptic setting but also in its grey morality where the gods are just villainous.

When it came to realising ballet combat, the team spent a year researching real martial arts, notably Chinese martial arts and Brazilian Capoeira, with moves comparable to dance. But it really started coming together when Tomskiy managed to enlist the help of Alena Kovaleva, a prima ballerina from the prestigious Bolshoi Theatre who's been motion captured for all of the moves performed by Tsarevna's heroine Swan.

"She's a real star, and she helps us a lot because she also does a lot of research herself, trying to understand what ballet moves work better with the combat," Tomskiy explains. That did, however, mean the team arrived at a major problem with how to translate ballet moves to combat, given that classical ballet's slow and graceful nature is at odds with the fast pace of a hack-and-slasher. "We also tried to give her a sword to fight with, but swords in ballet don't work at all because they are pretty heavy and it's not so easy to make a ballet move with props in hand."

The solution was that Swan is more akin to a battle mage, so when she dances, she's casting spells to help her fight, such as conjuring swords to spin around her. The other piece of the puzzle was to recruit someone else for the combat. "We got one of the best martial arts stunt guys in Russia and captured his sword moves, then brought it together with the ballet mo-cap sped up, and wow, it just worked!"

Mo-cap has been important for Tsarevna's development, and, crucially, Watt Studio already has this facility in-house owing to the company's previous expertise in virtual production, which involved creating digital characters for different media, including film, TV and advertising. "Then COVID happened, so we had to switch the business because there were no shows being made!" Tomskut explains.

While the studio's debut game, Hannah's Day, was a smaller-scale title that didn't perform well commercially, it was important to show that the studio could build and ship a game. Tsarevna is a step up in ambition and visuals, with an upgrade to Unreal 5. The most useful aspect of the engine for Tomskiy is how quickly it allows the studio to prototype its ideas and present them at a decent quality.

"You can use Fab or different test sets and plug-ins and create a prototype in maybe a few days, and then test it," he explains, detailing how the initial prototype using Meta Human faces and an off-the-shelf inventory system was more of a Soulslike. While that prototype received lots of negative feedback, it only cost a month of development time, as the team pivoted away from Dark Souls to a hack-and-slasher influenced more by the likes of Devil May Cry 5, including its own twist on the Devil Trigger mechanic.

Considering how the studio had already been using Unreal 4 for its previous work in virtual production, just how much of that expertise carries over to game development? Aside from Watt's in-house mo-cap facilities, not a lot, it turns out.

"Virtual production helps us a lot to create really good visuals, but in fact, it doesn't work for game production," Tomsky says. "Virtual production is about one event, so you prepare everything; it works only once on a stage. But in game production, it has to work every time for years. In virtual production, you don't need QA, but in games, it is impossible to create a game without QA!"

Tsareva: Age of Tales is coming soon to PC and consoles. You can wishlist the game on Steam, and also request access to playtests.

At its best, Duskfade recalls the really good PS2-era platformers, Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, Kingdom Hearts – that whole period when developers were throwing enormous colourful worlds at us and filling them with enough stuff to make you want to poke around every corner. Duskfade has that appeal almost immediately, and while it borrows liberally from those games and never really expands on those old ideas, there’s a genuine pleasure in seeing this particular formula brought back with a modern coat of Unreal Engine 5 paint.

Its world is particularly lovely, a strange clockwork fantasy filled with enormous whirring cogs, ancient ruins, sandy temples, rails cutting through the landscape and some increasingly bonkers locations, including a flooded undersea mansion where getting a jump wrong can mean a near-instant death. The environments have enough scale to make you feel like you’re travelling somewhere, rather than simply working through a collection of disconnected platforming challenges, and on Switch 2 the larger spaces have room to show off the art direction.

The story itself is considerably more serious than all of this makes it sound. You play Zirian, a young apprentice caught up in the emergence of a mysterious Clock Tower and the spreading darkness that follows, with his missing sister, Allira, at the heart of the story, as the adventure explores loss, memory, and the desire to put things right. Duskfade delivers that story through a constant stream of jokes, colourful characters and sepia cutscenes, so the tone can be a little all over the place, and slow to get going without ever really teasing the twist you know is coming.

Duskfade has a story to tell

The early hours can be a slog because Duskfade throws a lot at you before giving you much reason to get excited about the mechanics, slowly introducing the familiar platforming toolkit as Zirian learns to grapple, air dash and eventually grind along rails and glide. Anyone who's played a 3D platformer in the last couple of decades will recognise most of this immediately, and while the game is perfectly competent, I was waiting for it to give me something that felt like its own thing.

The payoff comes once you've got enough abilities to start combining them, because the movement becomes much more interesting when you can grapple across a gap, air dash towards the next platform, hit a rail and launch yourself towards somewhere that looked completely inaccessible a few hours earlier. There are crystal clusters sitting just out of reach, chests tucked away in awkward corners, and even before reaching the end of the game I was mentally cataloguing places I wanted to revisit. That is usually a pretty good sign that a platformer has got its exploration right.

It helps enormously that Duskfade looks so good on Switch 2. Built in Unreal Engine 5, it leans into expansive environments that stretch into the distance, and the combination of giant machinery, ancient architecture, and fantasy weirdness gives the game a strong visual identity, even when the underlying gameplay is perhaps too familiar. There are moments when the sheer scale of the environments really sells the adventure, particularly when you can see rails, towers and distant structures laid out in front of you and start wondering which bits you can eventually reach.

The problem is that the closer you get to the actual platforming, the more Duskfade starts reminding you that PS2 platformers weren't always perfect. The camera is usually fine until you're moving quickly through a gap using the grapple or trying to land an air dash on a narrow platform, and there are enough occasions when it fails to give you a useful view of where Zirian is headed that it becomes a genuine source of frustration.

The platforming itself is generally solid, so it’s particularly annoying when a missed jump feels less like your mistake and more like the camera didn't quite give you the view you needed or lead you to the next grapple point, making complex platforming a game of trial and error as you memorise when to manually swivel the camera to catch the line you need.

Combat is equally hit and miss. Zirian carries a giant clock hand as his main weapon, which is a brilliant bit of character design and fits the clockwork setting perfectly, but actually fighting with it never feels particularly fun. Enemies can be dealt with well enough, but the combat doesn't develop into something I wanted to master, so encounters often feel like interruptions between the more enjoyable exploration and platforming.

Where Duskfade does show invention in combat is with its boss fight encounters, which play out as much as platform puzzles as they do parry-and-dodge fights. This can be jumping a whirl of cogs to tease a robot into shooting its own electrical power sources, to leaping onto invisible platforms and gliding to new heights to reach a recharging aged wizard. Even if you're not a fan of old-fashioned boss fights, the focus on plaforming is refreshing.

Fun exploration, but why?

The upgrade economy has a similar imbalance, with crystals turning up constantly while the cogs needed to actually spend on upgrades are much harder to accumulate. I regularly ended up with maximum crystals and not enough of the currency that would let me do anything particularly useful with them, which makes the progression system feel oddly stingy in a game that showers you with crystals to collect, and as a consequence does make the risk and reward of exploration redundant.

That’s a shame because so much of Duskfade works. The platforming is satisfying for the majority of the game, the environments are enjoyable to move through, and there are enough secrets, other than crystals, tucked away to make taking the long way around worthwhile (music boxes, coins to buy collectable cards and more). I like Zirian, I like the strange clockwork setting, and I like that the game is so obviously made by people who have a real affection for the platformers they grew up with.

What I don't love is how often Duskfade seems content to recreate those games rather than build on them. It has the colourful world design of Jak & Daxter, the movement and rail-grinding familiarity of Ratchet & Clank, some of the fantasy flavour of Kingdom Hearts and all the expected platforming ingredients, but there isn't a huge amount here that feels genuinely new. The art direction is grinding the game’s nostalgic cogs hard, because Duskfade has created a world distinctive enough to make those familiar PS2-era mechanics feel fresh, for a while.

There aren't many games like this anymore, proper colourful 3D platform adventures with big worlds, silly characters, secrets tucked into every corner and new abilities that make you rethink places you've already visited. Duskfade doesn't reinvent that formula; it's not perfect and has its flaws, but there’s something refreshing about a game that is this unapologetically nostalgic.

For a child growing up in that era, a Chopper wasn't just a bike; it was a status symbol, proof that you were no longer just "a little kid". In the playground, we were obsessed with whose was faster, whose had the better gears, whose parents had splashed out for a new one rather than going second- or third-hand.

So when news broke recently that Raleigh's parent company, Accell, had filed for insolvency, it hit me hard in the feels, as today's kids say. And it appears that I wasn't alone.

Nostalgia tinged with resignation

Tributes came thick and fast online to the Chopper, the Grifter, the Burner. For a brand with this much heritage, that was so tied up in my own childhood, it felt like the end of an era.

But once the nostalgia subsided, my second reaction was one of resignation. Because Raleigh's collapse isn't really a story about bicycles, corporate debt or even the post-pandemic cycling slump. It's a story about what happens when a brand mistakes its past for a strategy.

For decades, Raleigh coasted on recognition rather than relevance. The badge stayed the same while the world around it changed. Cities built cycle lanes, e-bikes opened up cycling to new constituencies, and younger buyers started choosing brands that spoke to how they actually live now. And yet Raleigh's branding stayed rooted in a version of Britishness that felt old-fashioned to me, let alone to youngsters born in an entirely different century.

There's a comforting myth in branding circles that a strong heritage is inherently protective, that decades of goodwill act as a buffer against market shifts. It's clear now that this was hogwash. As it turns out, heritage without reinvention isn't an asset; it's a liability.

Unlike Raleigh, other brands used heritage as a springboard rather than a security blanket. Barbour, for instance, has leaned into its history while continually updating fit, colourways and collaborations to attract younger buyers. Similarly, Adidas' Originals line works precisely because it sees its archive as raw material for new ideas, not just a template for endless repetition. Lego, too, has repeatedly modernised its design language, retail experience and storytelling, without ever losing the plastic brick at its core.

What unites all these brands is a willingness to question their own icons and their own history. To them, heritage is a story they're still writing, not something set in stone.

Key takeaways

For designers everywhere, Raleigh's fall is a useful reminder to interrogate our own client relationships. Honestly ask yourself: are you helping brands evolve, or just polishing the same assets on a loop? The latter is probably the easy way to go, of course. But in decades to come, when they go the same way as Raleigh, how will you feel then?

That's not to say, of course, you can't get into trouble going too far the other way. Jaguar is currently struggling to convert either loyalists or new buyers, having ditched its past but offering only confusion about its future. Its controversial rebrand, which dropped its iconic leaping cat and leaned into a bold, abstract new identity, split opinion so sharply that it's still not clear whether the gamble has won over the electric-car buyers it was aimed at.

My main point is that designers talk a lot about reinvention, but reinvention doesn't just mean creating a cool new logo or hiring a bunch of models with cutting-edge hair. It means truly considering whether a brand's visual identity, product design and customer experience reflect how people live today, not when the brand was founded. And it means having difficult conversations with clients who think any change to their look is a betrayal of their history.

I loved that Chopper more than anything else as a kid (sorry, Mum). But Raleigh didn't fail because people like me stopped loving it. It failed because that love was no longer enough to build an entire business on. Rest in peace, Raleigh.

For more branding insight, check out how Lego and Barbie could have saved Claire's or take a look at what the internet's recent nostalgia trip can teach creatives.

Rumours have suggested for a while that Apple is planning to deviate from its standard practice of announcing both the standard iPhone and the iPhone Pro this September. And now, one of Apple's suppliers has allegedly confirmed that the standard iPhone 18 won't be appearing until next year.

As spotted by MacRumors, Pegatron has revealed in an earnings call that one of its suppliers, widely believed to be Apple, is changing its usual smartphone shipment schedule, with the standard iPhone 18 not arriving until March 2027.

But while Apple might withholding one model in September, it's also said to be giving us a brand new one. Apple's long-awaited folding iPhone, rumoured to be called the iPhone Ultra is also set to debut next month. But with that model all but guaranteed to cost even more than the Pro and Pro Max, September isn't looking like a great month for Apple fans on a budget.

We were mightily impressed by the base level iPhone 17 when it launched last year. With a ProMotion display, always-on screen and 48MP camera, it represented perhaps the most 'Pro' version of the standard model ever. And now it's looking like we might know why – perhaps Apple gave the iPhone 17 a massive spec bump knowing it would need to survive in the market for several months longer than normal.

You can only create and submit your artwork within the browser-based drawing canvas, which evidences that it was created by a real human using the provided tools, rather than uploaded slop that anyone could have generated.

The canvas looks reminiscent of Microsoft Paint. It's extremely basic at first glance, but when you dive deeper, it has a dynamic brush engine, drawing assist tools, and stylus support. It would pair super nicely with one of the best drawing tablets.

Bakatako is somewhat new, having launched around four months ago, and is especially useful for artists and creatives needing a bit of inspiration, motivation, encouragement, and support from a wider community.

It offers fun and engaging prompts to get your creative juices flowing, can be as easy or complex as you set out (perhaps as a warm-up exercise to get going for the day), or a meaningful way to seek feedback from other artists. It could also be used to gradually curate a portfolio displayed on your user profile, which is never a bad thing for networking and potential commissioning work if someone likes your style.

I spoke with the brains behind Bakatako, who shared their initial inspiration to create the platform.

"The inspiration was my wife. She's an artist, and after we had kids, she was having a hard time staying consistent with her art. Not because she loved it any less, but life gets full, and momentum is fragile. I wanted to give her an easy way to see her progress with digital art and a little motivation to keep showing up. That's how bakatako was born. She wasn't alone, it turns out. Staying consistent is one of the hardest parts of making art, and doing it in isolation makes it even harder."

I'm not an artist, more of a general creative and crafty soul, but even I can tell how special Bakatako is, the potential it has to grow, and I have a strong, overwhelming urge to protect it at all costs.

There seems to be a movement brewing with younger audiences that are questioning how much social media really adds to their lives. Minimalist platforms like Bakatako are appealing as a safe space for creation without the negativity that can surround larger networks.

The creator (who wishes to remain anonymous for now) tells me that "the end goal is for Bakatako to become THE social network for artists, from complete beginners to working professionals. We want to make art fun, social, and approachable for everyone!"

Head over to Bakatako now to see what it's all about for yourself. All we need is an app version, and this could be the only platform artists rely on in 2027. I can see this being hugely popular, and I think it's one of the coolest art websites on the internet right now with such a genius concept.

Below, he presents four examples of these passion projects. Accompanying making-of videos reveal his process for each one. He uses a combination of tools, including 3ds Max, Maya, Unreal Engine, ZBrush, Corona Render and Substance Painter (see our guides to the best 3D modelling software and the best rendering software).

• Get 3ds Max from Autodesk

Link

“For the wave simulation in this Zelda fan art, I used Phoenix in 3ds Max. The clouds are animated via the sky system from Corona Render.”

Sonic

This making-of was created using 3ds Max, ZBrush, Corona Render, Substance Painter, and After Effects.

Metroid

“I created this Metroid Fusion fan art purely for study purposes. It was the first project that I made using Unreal Engine.”

Mario and Bowser

“This is a Mario and Bowser fan art that I made in my free time. When it came to the model of the castle walls and luminaire, I used assets from Quixel Bridge.”

You can see more of Juliano's work on his ArtStation profile.

If you're building your own creative setup, you might also want one of the best laptops for 3D modelling or the best drawing tablets.

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. Subscribe to ImagineFX to never miss an issue. Print and digital subscriptions are available.

Creative Bloq is now easier to access than ever before with our on-the-go app, which brings you all the content you know and love from our website, but in a super-streamlined design.
Download the Creative Bloq app for iOS
Download the Creative Bloq app for Android

The artist has even brought to life one of the internet's favourite viral cat memes.

The 3D artist Vossadova has been developing a vibrant low-poly animation style to tell stories about quirky, expressive animal characters. For the piece above the artist decided to turn their "favourite image" into an animation, finally providing a backstory to a meme that's been in circulation online for over six years.

According to Know Your Meme, 'Milk Face Cat' was uploaded in a dump of animal memes to imgur back in May 2020. With a new story behind it and interpreted through a low-poly art style, the image gets even funnier as a jump scare (if you're not familiar with the original, here's the little fella in all his glory).

Check out Vossadova's Instagram for more short animations in a similar style.

While the artist often uses warm lighting, they recently took on the challenge of a cooler nighttime scene depicting a situation that anyone with a cat will be able to relate too.

If you're inspired, see our guides to the best laptops for animation and the best animation software.

There's light leather upholstery, a wood dashboard, a floating smartphone-shaped tablet, and, perhaps most strikingly of all, a full-length brass spine that Jaguar's calling a "signature art piece". If you didn't like the car's outside, you're not going to like the inside either.

On the outside, the new Jaguar is a beast of a thing that looks like a low-poly video game model (it actually made an appearance in 007 First Light). The inside was guaranteed to spark more debate.

The four-seater takes clear inspiration from the Type 00 concept car. In fact, Jaguar's calling it "a concept car vision brought to production". the company mentions travertine stone and "the rich textures of artisan textiles" as influences for a cabin that blurs the line between car interior and business class air travel.

That prominent "art piece" of a spine means this isn't a car for people who want to cosy up on the back seat. It divides the car into four sections, giving each passenger their own defined space and no risk of rubbing knees. The division continues into the driver and front passenger sections in the dashboard design.

There's a sweeping low ceiling with panoramic glass. Instead of a rear-view mirror (and rear window) a digital rear-view camera can be viewed on a screen at the base of the windscreen at the same height as the wing mirrors.

Jaguar mentions "hidden on-demand technology" integrated directly into the car's architecture. Hopefully, it won't be showing Spider-Man adverts like BMW. A small touchscreen console for heating and infotainment controls rises from the central spine.

Jaguar's leaper logo is embossed on the doors, while the wordmark with its capitalised 'G' appears behind the wheel. An overhead image shows motifs on the dashboard also on the bonnet's top lip, creating a continuation between interior and exterior design.

Jaguar boss Rawdon Glover described the interior as being "like no other", while Chief Interior Designer Thomas Holden says the interiors are intended to emphasise the car's "dramatic longitudinal nature" and "unmistakable drama and theatre".

Some people will never forgive Jaguar for its deliberately provocative rebranding, but they're not the people it wants to appeal to, and they might be helping it. The company decided its brand was dead and needed shock treatment to revive it. Shock it did with its rage-baiting launch campaign. The drip feeding of design details has kept it in the news ever since.

Whether you and I like the design doesn't really matter. The world has noticed and will be paying attention at the Type 01's full unveiling in New York on 6 October. Then we'll see if Jaguar proves the haters wrong.

A small Canadian cinema didn't receive its delivery of Spider-Man Brand New Day posters to put up in its foyer. With nothing to display in the 'now screening' box, it resorted to a homemade solution: a member to staff was asked to draw a poster for the movie by hand.

The resulting design is now spinning such a web on social media that some are calling for prints to be made. Could it accidentally be one of the best movie posters of the year?

On display at the Cineplex Famous Players cinema in Prince George, British Colombia, the handmade Spider-Man poster shows Spidey throwing devil horns, along with a hand-lettered title. At the bottom, the member of staff responsible has written an apology explaining the reason for the unofficial artwork.

"We didn't get the poster in due to shipment issues, so my boss asked me to draw it, so I did. Never expected it to get this big," the artist has responded on the Reddit post above.

The Cineplex employee added that the cinema was going to look into getting the official poster printed locally, but they're having second thoughts now that their own design has taken off. "[We] kinda can't rn as the movie is still in and we need the poster there because it's famous now," the artist says.

Many Marvel fans have praised the creativity, with some suggesting that it has more personality than the official posters (see below for comparison).

The cinema's depiction of Spider-Man is being compared to the viral MS Paint Spooderman meme (below). It also reminds me of the impressionistic charm of Ghanaian movie posters.

There have long been complaints that movie posters all look the same. The viral popularity of the Canadian cinema's Spider-Man artwork shows how people crave more creative and original aesthetics even if they don't necessarily show what the movie looks like. It's also great advertising for a friendly neighbourhood cinema.

Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, Spider-Man: Brand New Day also stars Tom Holland and Zendaya. You can watch the trailer below.

It's worrying, then, that YouTube has decided to double the numbers of views that new channels need to achieve to be able to monetise their content.

From 1 February 1, 2027, creators who apply to join the YouTube Partner Program to monetise their channels will need 8,000 qualified watch hours over the previous year. For YouTube Shorts, creators will need to achieve 20 million qualified views within three months. Both figures are double the current requirement (4,000 watch hours or 10 million Shorts views).

The change won't affect existing members of the programme or the thresholds for Fan Funding and shopping products. YouTube argues that the change is needed because of the platform's growth and says it will help fund new creator incentives. It also says that it expects creators to earn more overall because of an expansion of its Premium Lite subscription tier to more countries.

But although YouTube's framing the changes as "new opportunities", they could make things more difficult for new independent animators. It doesn't pull the ladder up completely, but it removes a few of the lower rungs.

Creators who are already monetising their content may earn more if YouTube's expectations pan out, but new creators need to get a lot more views before they can start earning anything.

For animators that can be even harder than for creators in other field because of the sheer amount of time and work involved in creating a single short piece. This can make it more difficult to keep up a frequent flow of new content to feed the platform's algorithm and get picked up by the recommendation system.

If not YouTube, where else can animators break through? (and don't say Disney's TikTok for Disney+ progromme).

Meanwhile, some animators are also expressing frustration with YouTube's review process. Adam Mickiewicz, the animator and co-creator of the Bridge Kids, complains that the show's latest episode will be set as "for kids" despite it being an adult animation with swearing.

One might presume that "for kids" would be a more restrictive category for safe content, but it seems not.

Are you an animator that relies on YouTube to share your work? Let us know how you think the new policy will affect you or what other platforms you would recommend new animators try.

When I first wrote about the Sinclair GamerCard, I wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. I liked the idea, loved the design and was completely seduced by the ZX Spectrum nostalgia, but there was always that nagging feeling that this was a very clever bit of hardware looking for a reason to exist, something that was a little more than just another way to play retro games.

Having spent a week with the GamerCard, I still can't fully explain why I like it so much. I just know I keep picking it up, carrying it around and finding another excuse to play something on it. It's not exactly a retro handheld in the vein of the best retro game consoles, as it can run indies and be used to play and code PICO-8 games – GamerCard is its own very unique thing imbued with the spirit of Sinclair.

The GamerCard is weird, and I mean that in the best possible way. It's incredibly slim and stupidly light, with a huge square screen that sets it apart from other modern gaming handhelds; then there are the big rubber discs on the front, which immediately make me want to poke them. No d-pad, standard buttons, nothing resembling a gaming handheld, just a screen and two large rubber discs – it feels like something designed in 1986 to look like something we’d use in 2026.

The screen is a big part of the appeal. It's a four-inch, 720 x 720 square IPS display at 254ppi, running at 60fps, and because we're so used to everything being wide these days, it takes a second to adjust to seeing a square screen again. Importantly, it’s designed this way for running PICO-8 games natively, which is one of GamerCard’s biggest draws and what sets it apart from pure retro handhelds like the HyperMegaTech! handhelds. GamerCard is more than a simple retro player, and that's a huge part of what it does well.

GamerCard's uniquely tactile design

GamerCard feels slightly odd at first, but once I start playing, it makes surprising sense for older games and small indie games, with pixel art looking crisp and bright. The big rubber discs covering the controls are probably the most obvious example of Sinclair refusing to do things conventionally. They hide the buttons underneath, and pressing them brings back the rubber-key feeling of the ZX Spectrum.

They're not perfect, though. I've spent too much time remembering which ‘button’ A is, which is Y and which direction I've actually pressed because the labels are hidden under the rubber. The navigation discs also aren't as responsive as a traditional d-pad, so anyone expecting modern controller precision will notice the difference. There are two smaller rubber discs on the rear of the handheld, which make playing 3D games easier.

Now, I've decided I'm prepared to live with the rubber discs, mainly because replacing those controls with something conventional would make the GamerCard a better controller, but it would also make it a much less interesting piece of hardware. If you spend most of your time playing games where accurate directional input matters, though, you'll probably find them frustrating, but for simple indie games and retro games they fare well enough. You can connect gamepads via Bluetooth, but they will need to be customised in the setup menu.

The GamerCard is built around a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, which means it can run RetroPie up to PlayStation 1, and is pretty remarkable when you consider the whole computer has been squeezed into a device that's just 6.5mm thick. I've got hundreds of ZX Spectrum games sitting on the removable microSD card in mine, too, all running on that little square display, looking fantastic with the retro-framed presentation. The small screen suits these pixel games surprisingly well.

My review model is the updated production version of GamerCard, which now includes a removable microSD card slot, something Sinclair says it added in response to the NAND memory shortage. It makes a lot of sense for a Raspberry Pi-based machine like this, particularly once you start filling it with Spectrum games, emulators, and PICO-8 titles, and it lets you use your own card or swap to a larger one rather than being locked into the storage it shipped with.

Sinclair has also bundled Nintendo Switch games Bloo Kid 2 and Astroblaze, which work nicely on the rubber discs, along with the classic Saboteur trilogy for some retro fun. Sinclair is also developing a GamerCard store designed to make the wider Raspberry Pi ecosystem easier to access without requiring users to type lines of code just to install or update things, and my review model has access to an early beta version of the ‘Get Pi Games’ app from which I downloaded Celeste Classic, Tombs of Myra and Quake, that latter id shooter looks incredible on the GamerCard’s display (though perhaps not ideal with the default rubber disc controls).

You'll need to connect the GamerCard to Wi-Fi to access some of these features, including the beta store and PICO-8's online games, so it's worth knowing that some of the more interesting bits aren't available the moment you switch it on.

Pi gaming has potential

Get Pi Games proves interesting, but it isn't something I'd score the GamerCard on yet. The bigger store, full of games and apps, is still being developed, and Sinclair has plans for more games, paid content, and new developer partnerships, but for now I can review what's here. The Raspberry Pi underneath already makes this more interesting than a simple emulator handheld. PICO-8 is installed on my GamerCard, although it's sold separately, and it feels almost tailor-made for this machine. The games are small, strange, colourful and inventive, the square screen suits them beautifully, and the whole thing has that homespun quality that fits the Sinclair brand and hardware.

I've found myself spending more time browsing those games than I expected. I'd loaded up the GamerCard wanting to see how many Spectrum games I could squeeze onto it and ended up disappearing down a PICO-8 rabbit hole instead.

Load up Saboteur or a few thousand Spectrum games, and you've got a nostalgia machine like so many others, but PICO-8 changes the experience because it opens the door to discovering new, modern titles imbued with the ragtag bedroom-developer invention of how games were made, rather than simply digging through the past. There's a Raspberry Pi computer underneath all of this too, meaning GamerCard doesn't have to spend the rest of its life pretending it's 1983 – connecting a monitor and peripherals turns this into a tiny indie dev platform.

It isn't all as slick as the hardware design would have you believe. The GamerCard became warm to the touch in the bottom-right corner after I used it for a while, especially with more demanding software, and the interface can be confusing. I've spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to escape a game and return to the main screen, pressing buttons in increasingly random combinations until something finally happened. This tends to occur with emulated games I installed rather than with those set up on the device by Sinclair or those downloaded via Get Pi Games, and it can simply be one of those quirks we expect from retro gaming.

But there is a roughness, and that’s understandable given what Sinclair has actually built. The company has squeezed a full Raspberry Pi computer into a pocketable 6.5mm form factor, using a patented stack of PCBs as the structure rather than surrounding everything with a conventional outer enclosure. You really need to hold it, poke those ridiculous rubber discs, turn it over, look at the ports and start wondering what else you can get running on it. That's when the GamerCard starts making sense.

I don't think the GamerCard is for everyone. If you want the best possible retro emulation for your money, there are cheaper and more capable options. If you want a perfect d-pad and responsive controls for action games, I'd look elsewhere. If you want a slick interface, there are better choices; for instance, PlayDate has a similar target of uniqueness and indie appeal but is perfectly smooth and playable.

Why I can't put GamerCard down

The GamerCard makes sense, however, if you want something that feels genuinely different: a gaming handheld you can tinker with but don't necessarily have to, and something that sits between a retro handheld, a tiny Raspberry Pi computer usable out of the box (not a DIY project) and an indie games machine.

I thought the appeal would be nostalgia, and obviously that's still a huge part of it, and seeing that Spectrum-inspired design and loading up old games scratches a very particular itch, particularly if you remember what tapping those old rubber keys felt like rather than simply what they looked like. And the more I use the GamerCard, the more interested I am in the newer games and features. As a retro handheld, it's a lovely way into emulation, but the PICO-8 and the Raspberry Pi ecosystem give it somewhere to go beyond simply looking backwards, and that's truly unique.

GamerCard is a bit awkward; the controls take some getting used to, and the UI could be clearer, but those things don't completely undermine the experience. The alternative would probably have been a more conventional, more polished and considerably less memorable handheld. And honestly, I’ve got enough of those already.

Below, he presents three examples of his work. If you're inspired, see our guides to the best 3D modelling software and the best rendering software.

• Get Cinema4D from Maxon

Owl Spirit

“Looking within myself for inspiration for something stylised yet detailed and related to nature, I explored the idea of something that symbolises a type of nature entity. Inspired by the concept of Chengwei Pan.”

Farewell

“I love creating detailed and robotic things, so the idea of explosions and cyborgs was perfect for exploring that and creating a harmony behind it. Inspired by the concept of Chengwei Pan.”

Jinx

“After watching Arcane, I felt very inspired to try and produce something in that style. I loved the idea of stylised sculpture mixed with hand-painting, so I tried to do something similar.”

You can see more of Lukas's work on his ArtStation profile.

If you're building your own creative setup, you might also want one of the best laptops for 3D modelling or the best drawing tablets.

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. Subscribe to ImagineFX to never miss an issue. Print and digital subscriptions are available.

Creative Bloq is now easier to access than ever before with our on-the-go app, which brings you all the content you know and love from our website, but in a super-streamlined design.
Download the Creative Bloq app for iOS
Download the Creative Bloq app for Android

For 20 years, Mudbox has been used for concept art, game development, visual effects and motion graphics, although a lack of updates in recent years saw its importance fade. That's led to some raised eyebrows over Autodesk's reason for finally killing off the program.

Mudbox was first used as a fully fledged product for the 2005 film King Kong. Wētā artists Andrew Camenisch, Dave Cardwell and Tibor Madjar then left the VFX studio the next year to found Skymatter, which developed the software as an independent product.

Two decades after the launch of the public beta in May 2006, Autodesk has confirmed that its lights out for the software that it bought in August 2007. The company, which also owns the animation software Maya, says sales and renewals of three-year subscriptions ended on 7 August. Monthly and annual subscriptions will cease to be available on 7 November.

The reason why? According to the FAQs on the Autodesk website, the decision was made "Due to no significant feature enhancements since Mudbox 2019".

Some see that as a curious way to describe it since it was Autodesk's call not to make any feature enhancements. It also makes it sound like a death that was decided some time ago.

In its heyday, Mudbox was seen as the state of the art in multi-resolution digital sculpting. Its creators were commended at the 2014 Scientific and Technical Academy Awards. Autodesk developed the software further with regular updates into the mid-2010s.

But the last major addition was a dynamic tessellation system in Mudbox 2018.2. Six subsequent annual updates has no new features to cite (our Mudbox 2025 review from a couple of years ago remains a valid overview of Mudbox 2027 today).

Despite that lack of new features, the software continued to be sold on a subscription model rather than a one-off purchase. It currently costs £105 a year, fairly accessible for Autodesk but, at the same time, a steep price in the long-term for something that's not getting new features. The fact that there were artists still paying for it is testament to the loyalty the program inspired in some users.

Many praised Mudbox for being intuitive and easier to pickup than Maxon's ZBrush, widely seen as the leading program for digital sculpting. ZBrush's non-standard workflow presents a steep learning curve for newcomers. Instead, Mudbox has a layer-based workflow that feels familiar to artists coming from other software.

Some artists feel that this potential was never fully realised.

"This is the saddest software death since Softimage|XSI," one person writes on X. "Mudbox was so amazing and could have been so much more."

"One of the great 3D tragedies is that Mudbox lost all development steam and was never allowed to become a true competitor to ZBrush. It's so much easier to use, and has crazy potential," another artist agrees.

"Heartbreaking. I learned the basics of cg sculpting in Mudbox in my sophomore year of undergrad before moving on to Zbrush," another artist recalls fondly.

The 2027 edition of Autodesk’s Media & Entertainment Collection product bundle will be the last to include the software. Anyone who had a subscription to Mudbox or the Collection on 7 August will get a five-year subscription to Mudbox 2027 to give them time to find a replacement. This will include technical support and security fixes for the first three years.

Do you have fond memories of Mudbox, or are you not surprised to see it go? Let me know in the comments.

Then there was the great Hexed vertical orientation theory that suggested Disney had composed every frame in the movie to ensure it looked good on TikTok (and this was before Disney even announced that it's bringing TikTok to Disney+).

We can expect to learn more about the movie at the D23 Disney fan event later this week. In the meantime, at least one one person has found something positive to say about the Hexed trailer, demonstrating how it respects some of the Disney principles of animation.

Posted by FramebyFrame on X, the short breakdown above analyses examples of classic animation principles at work in Hexed, from opposing directional movement to lead and follow. They point out that in just one short shot alone, the timing of the beats and holds keep the action readable and the movement feeling intentional.

Of course, technical excellence is one aspect of great animation, and one we should really expect considering Disney helped define many of these principles. Whether the film succeeds will depend as much on story and character.

What do you think? Have people judged Hexed too harshly before we've really seen what it has to offer?

The movie will be released on 25 November. If you're inspired, see our guides to the best laptops for animation and the best animation software.

Completed by 100 speakers ahead of the conference in Cologne later this month, the annual survey found that 83% expect AI to affect team structure or productivity in some way. In what way exactly is where things remain more divided (if you're starting out yourself, see our guides to the best game development software and the best laptops for game development).

Respondents to the survey expect AI to influence how game development teams operate, but they differ on what they think that change will look like. Over a third (36%) believe AI will change roles rather than reduce teams while a similar proportion of developers (33%) expect AI to lead to smaller team sizes, and 14% expect per-person output to increase.

Opinions are also remain divided on how AI is best used in game development. While 34% see the greatest value of AI in code and production, 30% would prefer as little AI involvement in game development as possible.

As for the opportunities and challenges in game development, 37% see smaller development teams as the biggest opportunity. That's ahead of new publishing models and community building at 15% each.

Economic uncertainty is seen as the biggest challenge (54%), followed by market saturation (38%), discoverability (35%) and increasing development costs (30%, multiple answers were possible).

There is less agreement on which business model will dominate. Digital and physical premium games rank first at 29%, followed by live service at 24% and free-to-play with in-game items at 21%.

When asked how game discoverability could be improved, 32% said via more transparent platform algorithms, followed by better storefront recommendations at 22% and more curated editorial features at 21%.

In terms of the skills sought after in game development, leadership ranked first at 27%, followed by technical programming at 19%, art and design at 12%, and AI literacy and other at 11% each. Community management received 10%, while Production and Narrative received 5% each.

People were soon relieved to learn that May was not sharing artwork for an upcoming collectors' edition but issuing a call to arms against AI data centres. The guitar legend said he had asked Meta AI to recreate the cover of Queen's 1980 album The Game. But The image generator, created by the same company that thinks "pervert glasses", was clearly unfamiliar with the band's synth era.

None of the random men or mustaches in the image shared on Instagram look much like Brian, Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor, or John Deacon. For some that might be reassuring. If the image generator had replicated the album cover, we'd be talking about how it must have been trained on real album covers scraped from the internet without permission. The image suggests that it does have some visual information on what Queen were, but not enough to get it right.

“Maybe this is the time to realize WE ACTUALLY DON’T NEED AI!!!” May wrote. He went on to call for Prime Minister Andy Burnham to halt development of AI data centres that he said would "destroy our beautiful country, like they are already destroying beautiful America”.

Queen has paid a lot of attention to its visual art seriously. For the re-released Queen 1 box set, original negatives were used to recreate the sleeve photography. May has raised concerns about artificial intelligence before, warning that it raised questions about the future of creativity.

If it wasn't Brian May sharing the post, we wouldn't be talking about it. Weird AI imagery has already become so normalised on social media. But the Queen legend's plea to the world is a reminder that AI imagery still faces strong opposition on ethical and environmental grounds and that brands use it at their own risk.

There have been a bunch of other controversies this week. Warner Bros took down a promotional campaign for the sci-fi thriller The End of Oak Street that featured AI-generated talking dogs. People had criticised the ad for detracting from the film.