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First, let us understand what transparency in video gaming to know is and how this latest trend in game design is helping to change the whole industry. A transparent game in its truest sense is a game that helps the player to understand how he/she can win the game. After a player finishes their first game they have a pretty good idea about how to win and play well. This is a different game development strategy that requires players to keep repeating the same tasks over and over again to understand howto win the game. Nowadays, transparency in gaming has become a common element in family and party games as well as in hobby games.

Game developers nowadays use crowd-funding websites like Kickstarter amongst others to not only fund their new gaming projects but also to gather a dedicated audience and a sense of community and support for their games even before it is ready to be launched. Furthermore, there are platforms like Xbox Preview programme and Steam Early Access that allow the gamers to try their hands on a game before it is finished and have their opinion about it. This is a growing trend amongst the largest of game development studios where there is a paradigm shift in project initiation; the studios are now trying to garner financial assurances about their development projects before even starting a new one.

Also, many studios along several hundreds of thousands of game developers are now working to make the process of game developing more transparent. Many people are live-streaming their game designing process from their office itself which is definitely difficult but if done with dedication on a regular basis can interact with fans who are already great advocates for their game, even before it is made! Also with such interactions through streaming most such companies charge for people to be able to watch them, and hence, garner a huge amount of revenue from this side project on its own.

When it comes to transparent game development in the game it is definitely not about hidden information as many people think. But instead, it is about the visibility of the players’ decisions that they must make in order to win the game and about the visibility of the choices they can make.

Also with the availability of such steam early access platforms the type of games being popularized presently is definitely being affected. For instance, rogue-like games go well on the steam early platforms hence, are gaining more traction in the industry with this changing ecosystem. While sandbox games tend to be easier to play in early access systems, narrative games somehow lag in this sector but many are working on making narrative games available as well. The main focus for narrative games to do well in early access is to have the beginning and the end laid out first and also the roadmap of the journey to be kept in public. However, such projects are still work in progress and are taking a hit due to the refund policy of steam early platform.

In closing thoughts, having the players involved in the creation of the games, with the emergence of transparency in both the development process as well as having it involved in the game play, the video gaming world is poised to witness a greater involvement from its audience and definitely better games. After all, it is due to transparency that some classic games like chess and tic tac toe are so popular even now.