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GDC 2010SXSW Interactive FestivalIEEE Virtual Reality 2010Women in Games
 | E V E N T C O V E R A G E Game Developer's Conference 2010 by Gamedev.net, posted 3/9/10 Our coverage of GDC 2010. |  | G A M E I N D U S T R Y IGF 2010: Loren Schmidt by Oli Wilkinson, Drew Sikora, posted 3/4/10 We talk to Loren Schmidt, creator of the IGF finalist game Star Guard, nominated for Excellence in Design |
 | P R O G R A M M I N G Deferred Rendering Demystified by Noam Gat, posted 3/1/10 Deferred Rendering is an alternative rendering approach that has many advantages. The theory behind it has been discussed to great detail, but implementing a deferred renderer is still a puzzling task. This article discusses the technique from a design standpoint, suggesting how a graphics engine can be structured to easily integrate a deferred rendering approach, and is accompanied by an open source implementation of one using the Ogre 3d engine. | | F E A T U R E D A R T I C L E S IGF 2010: Daniel Benmergui by Drew Sikora, Oli Wilkinson, posted 2/26/10 We talk to Daniel Benmergui, creator of the IGF finalist game Today I Die, nominated for a Nuovo Award |
| Friday, March 12, 2010 | |
| The Daily GameDev.net | |
| Posted by: Trent Polack at 12:41:14 AM | |
 It's GDC, guys! It's my first GDC ever and, as a result, I have essentially no idea what I'm doing. If you check out my journal, though, you'll see a lot of words. This is going to be somewhat of an abbreviated Daily since I've been writing a lot of words and it's late and I'm tired and it's totally my birthday!Speaking of GDC, you should check out our GDC event coverage. You have people like me, Ian Overgard, Tim Barnes, Scott Hilbert, and Kevin Hawkins all talking about the sessions we saw, things we heard, and so on. It's fun! PocketWatch Games' Monaco took the Seamus McNally Grand Prize. This was the first IGF/Game Developer Choice Awards I've been to, but Andy Schatz, of PocketWatch games, had such an excited, earnest, and happy reaction to both of the awards he received that it was a fantastic end to the show. Meanwhile, Uncharted 2 absolutely swept the Game Developers Choice Awards. This is, in my opinion, a completely deserved thing. Also Gabe Newell got a Pioneer Award and John Carmack got a Lifetime Achievement Award. I saw these people live! It was glorious! Bioshock 2 rocked the NPDs. Go go underwater world. And that's it. That's all the news. This is not entirely true but, as we discussed earlier, I'm sleepy. xoxoxo trent Read More.. | 2 Comments | |
| Wednesday, March 10, 2010 | |
| The Daily GameDev.net | |
| Posted by: Oli Wilkinson at 12:22:20 PM | |
| I'm about the only one around here that isn't at the GDC this year, so today we get a nice, hearty mid-week GDNet Daily. Hurrah! Unity 3.0: You may have seen the press release on the frontpage a couple of days ago, but I'll recap it here for you. Those nice chaps at Unity Technologies just don't stop, do they? On Monday it was announced that the Unity Engine will be hitting its third major version, bringing PS3 support, iPad support, Android support and integration of Umbra Software's occlusion culling middleware and Illuminate Labs' "Beast" lighting engine. The iPhone version has also been upgraded to add Bluetooth support and increase the speed of GUIs and 2d sprites. Rebelllion Layoffs: Develop are running a story claiming that UK developer Rebellion will be axing 20 staff from their Oxford studio, whilst their troubled Derby studio is presumed to be closed after events in January saw it enter a period of consultancy. I tip my hat to you guys. Steam on Mac: Great news for Mac owners. Valve's worst-kept secret was confirmed yesterday - the Mac will see the release of both Steam and the Source engine in April. This brings games such as Portal, Left 4 Dead, Half-Life and many others to the Mac platform. Good news for owners of both PC and Mac because Valve are also letting you buy the games once and download to both systems and that as the Mac is being treated on the same footing as the PC, meaning that updates to games will hit Windows- and Mac-based machines together. Well done Valve, the world applauds you. XNA 4.0: Microsoft's XNA team used the GDC to announce the forthcoming release of XNA Game Studio 4.0, which includes support for the new Windows Mobile 7 mobile phones. Zune HD developers are being "encouraged" to migrate to the Windows Mobile 7 platform, basically meaning that XNA on the Zune will stay at 3.1 and won't move forward to 4.0. Is this a sign that the Zune will be phased out? OnLive Dated & Priced: The US Launch of cloud-based gaming service OnLive will be with us in June for the PC & Mac and will cost $14.95 a month. There's no news about a European launch yet, but I imagine many people will be watching the US launch with great interest. PSP on Phyre: PSN developers have long had access to the PhyreEngine, a free piece of engine technology developed in-house by Sony for the creation of PS3 games. Sony used this year's GDC to announce that the PhyreEngine will be expanded onto the PSP, allowing PSP developers to take advantage of the technology. The release of the engine to the PSP goes some way to show that Sony are still serious about the platform. Enjoy the rest of your week, folks. ... Oh, and it's Trent's birthday tomorrow - make sure you send him caek 'n' pi! Read More.. | 12 Comments | |
| Tuesday, March 9, 2010 | |
| Razer and Sixense release SDK on Steam | |
| Posted by: Kevin Hawkins at 7:27:38 PM | |
 Game Developers Conference, San Francisco, Calif. – March 9, 2010 – Today at the Game Developers Conference, Razer, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-end precision gaming and lifestyle peripherals, and Sixense Entertainment, the developer of superior motion control technologies, announced that the Ultra-Precise Motion Controller SDK (Software Development Kit) and FPS (First Person Shooter) utility library are now available for download from Steam, the leading platform for PC games and digital entertainment.Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Palm webOS PDK Public Beta Now Available | |
| Posted by: Kevin Hawkins at 7:05:47 PM | |
| SAN FRANCISCO, Game Developers Conference (GDC), March 9, 2010 – Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) today announced that a public beta version of the Palm® webOS™ Plug-in Development Kit (PDK) is now available at the Palm Developer Center (developer.palm.com). Palm is demonstrating new games from early PDK developers in its booth at GDC (No. 2016). Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Jumptap launches mobile ad network | |
| Posted by: Kevin Hawkins at 6:30:43 PM | |
| GAME DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA — March 9, 2010 — Jumptap, the leading mobile advertising solutions provider, today announced a new self-service application for publishers of mobile websites and mobile applications, including iPhone and Android. Publishers can quickly and easily integrate their properties into the Jumptap mobile ad network and gain access to hundreds of leading advertisers looking to reach consumers on mobile sites and in smart phone applications. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| The Daily GameDev.Net | |
| Posted by: Promit Roy at 11:46:28 AM | |
| This is a Twittertastic GameDev.Net Daily! I'm at GDC, in the middle of the AI summit led by our own Dave Mark. So basically, I'm not gonna write anything today. Most of the action is on Twitter and there should be plenty of coverage here on GameDev pouring out through this week and next week. In the meantime, keep an eye on these Twitter points of interest: #gdc Tweets GDevNet, our main Twitter account! d3dhaxxor, that's me! GameConfTweet The GDC coverage page is here Other editors: Please feel free to amend this post! Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| XNA Game Studio 4.0 Announced | |
| Posted by: Jim Perry at 11:25:49 AM | |
 Michael Klucher lets a cat out of the bag as part of Microsoft's GDC 2010 info - http://klucher.com/blog/achievement-unlocked-xna-game-studio-4-0-for-windows-phone/.Read More.. | 3 Comments | |
| Monday, March 8, 2010 | |
| Unity Technologies Unveils Third Generation of Its Powerful Development Platform | |
| Posted by: Lincoln Beasley PR at 7:55:18 PM | |
 Unity 3.0 Adds Groundbreaking New Features and Support for Android, iPad and PlayStation® 3, Becoming the Engine With the Broadest Support on the MarketRead More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Entertainment Media Council Reveals Charter Membership Program | |
| Posted by: Morgan Ramsay at 1:48:34 PM | |
| Entertainment Media Council, the first and only U.S. association for entrepreneurs and corporate leaders in the interactive entertainment business, today revealed that the new organization is now signing charter members. "Entertainment Media Council exists to transform the way the game is played and advance the industry to the next level," according to founder Morgan Ramsay. "The path we have chosen is difficult, but the rewards will be great. We are seeking Charter Members, businesses whose leaders believe in our mission, to help us forward." Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| The Daily GameDev.net | |
| Posted by: Mike Stedman at 11:13:57 AM | |
| This is going to be a pretty abbreviated week of GDNet Dailies, as at least 60% of the Daily crew is at GDC. I have not gone (this year) so don't look for me on the convention floor, especially if you are one of the many businesses I have wronged through my combination of flippant remarks and running jokes. The first bit of news I want to share with you is that there will be a sequel to Scribblenauts. I dug the first game's Smalltalk-meets-setting-a-fireman-on-fire vibe, and expect to continue to accidentally shoot a police officer when trying to give him a handgun. Now that you have some happy news in your head, you can use it to dampen the flames of Ubisoft's failure to maintain uptime for their oft-criticized, always-connected DRM. At the risk of adding Ubisoft to the list of publishers who want to take a hit out on me, I'm going to have to say that having your super expensive oppressive DRM fail within the first freaking month of service is not the best way to justify its existence to your legitimate customers. Back to the good news on what is proving to be a rather uneven Daily with some Fallout: New Vegas screenshots. Obsidian has done it again, or at least made some pretty screenshots. Bad news again: uber-budget publisher Majestco is again threatened with delisting on the Nasdaq, which may well allow it to join the ranks of Midway and Atari in what I like to call Delisto, the haunted town of delisted stocks. Other Dailyists have written about the Indie Fund, so I'm not going to. Except for where I just did, just now. If you're an indie kind of mood, why not check out Flotilla, which combines turn based tactics with spaceships and space exploration? None of those things are ever bad. Everyone is writing about this Doom WAD made by a Bioshock 2 level designer, and I'm no different. These are really cool. Speaking of sequels, have you played Mass Effect 2 yet? If not, and you live in the United States, you can pick up the Xbox 360 version for cheap from Amazon. You'll thank me when you are flirting with your crewmates in between refilling your starship before jetting off to harvest abandoned worlds for their delicious, savoury platinum. Before you go today, it's absolutely essential that you watch this marching band perform. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Saturday, March 6, 2010 | |
| Weekend Reading: Tales from Journal Land | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 12:57:16 AM | |
| Entries from 2/27 - 3/6 FYI - due to the Game Developers Conference, there may not be a Weekend Reading next week. I'll be playing it by ear and seeing how I feel at the time - I may just want to drop dead by then. So if I can't get it done, double dose coming the week after! There is a bit of brevity to this edition, but in my defense I have a plane to catch in 4 hours. California hooooooooooo!!! Journal Land Pick of the Week Continuous Refinement - Oh snap! Superpig busts the lid on the new site design, showing off what articles will look like in V5 (and by extent a large portion of the site as well). Now, disclaimer - I'm getting nothing but the generic error screen as of right now, despite hitting F5. So don't blame me if you can't see anything! Just flood superpig's email box ;) Read More.. | 1 Comments | |
| Friday, March 5, 2010 | |
| Karvonite 4.0 (Beta 2) | |
| Posted by: MP Advanced at 8:09:40 PM | |
| Karvonite 4.0 Beta 2 has been released. Beta 2 now supports multi user concurrency. From now, you can easily create multi user game editing tools. Beta 3 will feature Undo/Redo capabilities. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| IGDA Annual Meeting @ GDC – Watch Live! | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 11:25:51 AM | |
 The IGDA Annual Meeting is a yearly session that takes place during GDC where the Board of Directors and organization management present a rundown of the association's progress over the last year, as well as an indication of what's in store for 2010. Attendees also get to meet the newly-elected Board members and have a direct Q&A session with the Board to address any issues the membership may have. In the past, this was limited to those in attendance, but this year anyone with an internet connection can tune in live to take part in the Board Q&A session. GameDev.net will be streaming this meeting over their uStream broadcast channel and online chat will be enabled to allow viewers to comment on the discussion.Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| LOGIN 2010 Conference Revs Up Early Registration | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 11:01:31 AM | |
| The doors to early registration for the 2010 LOGIN Conference have now been opened, and this year, new registration options are available for LOGIN attendees to pick from that will match their needs better than ever. Hosted at the Seattle Waterfront Marriott from May 10th through May 13th, the 2010 LOGIN Conference is a leading event for an international audience of experienced game developers and serious deal-makers. Starting at just $495 for three-day passes, LOGIN offers a variety of different networking and amenity preferences for the seasoned conference-going game industry veteran. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| 3D Rad Game Editor Now Totally Free To Use For Any Purpose | |
| Posted by: 3D Rad at 10:11:42 AM | |
| The full installation file of version 6.41 of 3D Rad, the user-friendly 3d game creator, becomes today publicly available for download. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Esenthel RPG 2 (Esenthel Engine tech-demo) released with source codes | |
| Posted by: Esenthel at 7:51:24 AM | |
| Esenthel RPG 2 the latest tech-demo of Esenthel Engine has just been released. Featuring improved graphics, large outdoor environments, horse riding, dynamic combat, spellcasting and a simple quest. Source codes are released to all licensed developers. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Fly Like Airwolf Through Your 3D Cities | |
| Posted by: Procedural Inc at 6:27:33 AM | |
 CityEngine receives official 3Dconnexion CertificationRead More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Paris Game AI Conference Line Up Detailed, Early Bird Tickets Selling Out! | |
| Posted by: Alex J. Champandard at 4:41:18 AM | |
| AiGameDev.com is excited to announce more sessions in the line-up for the Paris Game AI Conference 2010. In particular, the event features a talk about physically-accurate racing controllers in Milestone's upcoming SUPERBIKE 2010, exclusive insights into the development of indie-favorite SUBVERSION and its procedural world by Introversion, a talk about personallity modeling in SILENT HILL: SHATTERED MEMORIES, and a presentation about social behaviors for the next generation of characters in EVE ONLINE. Early Bird Tickets are still available, but due to high demand the deadline has been advanced to next week. Be sure to secure your seat as there are only a limited number of them available and selling fast! Read the full post for details... Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| The Daily GameDev.net | |
| Posted by: Trent Polack at 12:42:34 AM | |
| This is my last GameDev.net Daily before I pop my GDC cherry next week! You can look forward to my various pieces of writing throughout the week next week; I'm hoping to chronicle everything in the style of a vaguely-ADHD, first time GDC-goer who drinks caffeine and alcohol like water and is in a constant state of child-like wonderment of the things around him. Fun for everyone! It's also my birthday next week where I turn the ripe old age of twenty-five. FUN MULTIPLIER! The big news yesterday was, of course, the fact that the Just Cause 2 demo hit all platforms and you should all be playing it. I'm waiting for the full game, but this is no doubt going to be super fantastic. The actual big news yesterday (and the rest of this week) is, of course, the continued drama between Activision and Infinity-Ward. Infinity Ward co-founders issued a lawsuit against Activision regarding their termination. This is a suit which charges Activision with initiating an investigation to find pretext for the termination of co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella as a means to, among other things, avoid millions in royalty payments to Infinity Ward. Activision retaliated by calling the allegations in the lawsuit "meritless". Honestly, and I know Promit quoted something from me earlier this week, unless there is something dirty and dastardly that has yet to come to light on the side of Infinity Ward, I simply have no idea what Activision is thinking. I understand Activision wants money and the risk of losing the Modern Warfare games would hurt their long-term profitability, but the way that Activision is handling this whole thing, and I'm going only off of information known to the public so this may be off base, is completely fucking sleazy, tasteless, and unprofessional. Infinity Ward has always been known for being a very outspoken, arrogant developer, but they have the talent and the portfolio to back up that attitude and they have delivered, almost single-handedly, one of Activision's most profitable, popular, and critically acclaimed franchises in the publisher's (and industry's) history. Any developer or potential developer interested in games (and media as a whole, really) should pay attention to this story and the fallout of it. Publishers are well within their rights to bully developers in order to get a good product, but bullying developers after they more than deliver on any given product is uncalled for and poor long-term business sense. I'll caveat this once again: there may very well be information the public is not aware of that makes sense of Activision's actions here, but if that information does not exist and this whole situation really is what it appears to be right now then it's time to be pissed off, folks. You're going to hear a lot about this story and it's easy to push it aside and be tired of the drama, but developer/publisher relations are important and it's never just a matter that the developer is always right or the publisher is always right; it's a relationship like any other. There's give and take and compromise abound, but what matters is the product, the customer, and that those responsible for delivering a well-received (commercially and critically) product are given their just compensation. When there's abuse on either of this relationship, the development community needs to know about it and be angry about it. Given the information at hand right now, Activision is being nothing more than a bully who wants more money than it already has by taking it from the people who work their asses off to deliver a good product. In other news, EA Partners signed Deathspank and Shank. These are two incredibly promising games from Hothead Games and Klei Entertainment (respectively) and it's awesome to see these games get the distribution/publishing backing of EA Partners. The Rock Band Network is now live! This program allows users to independently create and distribute custom-made music tracks on the Xbox Live-based store. According to MTV Networks Music Group SVP of Electronic Games and Music (holy crap what a division name) Paul Degooyer: "The Rock Band Network Music Store gives artists at any level the opportunity to reach new fans through our deeply engaging interactive platform, [...] This new pathway for discovery is a huge win for passionate music fans, as well as an opportunity for artists to promote themselves while positively impacting their bottom line." And according to source site Gamasutra: "Artists who submit songs for the Network can select from multiple pricing tiers per track, and receive 30 percent royalties for every track purchased through the Store. Currently more than 100 tracks are available to purchase from artists like The Shins, Of Montreal and more -- commercial artist songs not available through traditional Rock Band track backs may offer songs for sale through the Network." Nexon announced a program to offer $1 Million USD in rewards to independent developers. The program, called The Nexon Initiative has the tag line "Dream It. Pitch It. Launch It." and has the goal of "in finding original, unique and promising projects at an early stage of development in order to sponsor (and in cases co-develop) and later on publish through [Nexon's] global network." The site goes on to point out: "If your project becomes sponsored, Nexon will provide you a one-stop chance for your online game project to get actual support in terms of funding/development and global publishing all at the same time!" Also: SOCOM 4 was announced and is being developed by Zipper Interactive (who recently released the superb Playstation 3-exclusive MAG). And now I'm off to go play some Toy Soldiers and Bad Company 2! Have a good weekend guys and girls and if you see a lanky white dude with shaggy hair wandering around GDC be sure to say "I HATE YOU!" If this person responds with a confused look or anger, you should run, but if he responds with a giant grin then it's probably me. Read More.. | 1 Comments | |
| Thursday, March 4, 2010 | |
| The Daily GameDev.net | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 11:24:43 AM | |
| This will be my last Daily... until the week after GDC. I know, scared you there didn't I? Actually we're not entirely sure what we'll be doing about the Dailies next week, considering all but two of the Daily editors will be at GDC. I just realized we haven't really talked about it. Eh, no matter - last minute panic is how we do our best work (I learned that from Calvin). We'll have something for you all next week in some form or another. Now then, on to today! Studio News: Upbeat Edition. Layoffs? Pah! Closures? Nahhh. The latest on the Activision fiasco. So, as Promit reported on Tuesday, things over at Infinity Ward have been in a bit of a turmoil with the removal of studio co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella. As far as is known, the reason for the removal is still "insubordination", which game attorney Tom Buscgalia considers to be "complete bullshit" as a reason for termination due to its subjectivity. Apparently West and Zampella aren't too happy with Activision's reasoning either, as they have already opened a lawsuit against the company do seek damages for the ousting. Meanwhile, people are still scratching their heads over the removals, wondering what could cause the leaders of such a successful franchise to fall out of favor with Activision. Indeed, GameSpy takes a look back at Activision's annual report that specifically states the CoD franchise as one of 3 key factors in the company's financial health, along with their goal of working to "retain skilled personnel". Over at Gamasutra, Leigh Alexander wonders if Infinity Ward knew what they were getting into when they signed the franchise over to Activision. And just so there's no confusion, Sledghammer Games is not developing the 2011 CoD game. Obviously you'll be hearing lots more on this story as things unfold, and no doubt it'll be the Hot Topic at GDC next week. Pirates: 233674, DRM: 0. Ok, so no one is keeping exact score, but it's common that DRM, at some point or another, becomes rather useless as it is cracked by hackers. In the case of Ubisoft's new (and highly controversial) DRM, this apparently has happened before a single game using it has even hit the shelves, prompting drastic changes (that makes it work, not really makes it better). What's your take on this DRM? Gamasutra has its own opinion. Aussie R18+ decision to come soon. These next two months will be the decisive time that Australians have been waiting for, as Australian National Classification Scheme will be meeting in April and could be discussing the new R18+ rating that would allow the sale of mature-content games. However, this could all be moot if the one man with veto powers on any decision by the ANCS (and who is completely opposed to this rating) isn't successfully denied re-election this month. If you'd like to help prevent that, check out Gamers 4 Croydon. Meanwhile, Gamespot talked to Aliens vs. Predator producer Paul Mackman and others from EA on their take of the whole situation. IGDA elects 4 new board members, welcomes back another. Congrats to the newest IGDA Board of Directors members Wendy Despain, David Edery, Darius Kazemi, and Jane Pinckard. Board member Coray Seifert was re-elected for a second term. Daily Remainders - more cool stories that didn't make the cut along with game dev articles/features. It's no secret that I love game soundtracks - especially free ones. Even if you're not particular to game soundtracks well... free is free! So head on over and download the music from the Xbox Live Indie Game Clover.  Read this post in ChineseRead More.. | 6 Comments | |
| Wednesday, March 3, 2010 | |
| The Daily GameDev.net | |
| Posted by: Oli Wilkinson at 3:42:15 PM | |
| Wednesday and I'm still sick - and to rub it in the GDNet staffers are planning their parties for next week's GDC. Bah. Valve Mac teaser: Mike mentioned last week that Steam is having a bit of an overhaul and that the rumours of Mac support are abound. Today Valve have thrown more fuel onto the fire by releasing a few teaser images of, ermmm, something. We're not sure what, but they depict something valve related and something Mac-related - could it be their not-so-subtle way of hinting that Steam is indeed coming to the Mac? Indie Games Fund: Several well-known Indie developers have got together and founded the Indie Games Fund. No real information yet, except to say that the fund "was established [it] as a serious alternative to the traditional publisher funding model. Our aim is to support the growth of games as a medium by helping indie developers get financially independent and stay financially independent" (from the fund's website). More information will be presented at this year's GDC in San Francisco. Square Enix Sound Layoffs: I hate reporting studio layoffs, but I'm here again talking of more job losses in the game industry. This time around it's reported that Square Enix are laying off several long-serving veterans of their in-house sound team. Many of the people have been with the studio for over 10 years and have been involved in many legendary games, including the Final Fantasy series. More information is expected when this story develops further. THQ's Universomo Liquidated: Finnish mobile games studio Universomo has today been confirmed as entering liquidation. THQ have commented that they are still committed to the mobile sector and intend to release 15 more games and entertainment titles on mobile platforms over the next year. Develop comment that this will be achieved via outsourcing and using resources from elsewhere in the company. Boom Blox: EA's decision to relocate development of Boom Blox from EA's LA studio to EA's Bright Light studio in the UK will result in a "small number" of layoffs. EA have denied that this is due to the recent restructuring effort of the past few months. Nvidia Ion: Nvidia's Ion graphics processor is expected to deliver ten times the performance of GPUs in current netbooks. If true, this will be very promising for netbook game development and gaming, provided the batteries can handle it. I MAED a L0T 0F M0N1E5!!!1: Almost forgot this story. James Silva's released sales figures for his XBox Live Indie Game "I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1" - he's sold over 200,000 units at $1 each - meaning he's netted over $140,000 from it. Wow. Many people on the Gamasutra forums and elsewhere are arguing that the $1 selling point is damaging to games that could achieve $3-$5 pricepoints and that $1 is only there to dump leftover Microsoft points from purchases. I can't see James Silva complaining though! Read More.. | 9 Comments | |
| Byron Reeves and J. Leighton Read Announced as Second LOGIN 2010 Keynote Address | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 12:02:45 PM | |
| The 2010 LOGIN Conference is adding further intellectual and business muscle to the session agenda with the keynote announcement of Byron Reeves and J. Leighton Read, authors of the book "Total Engagement: Using Games and Virtual Worlds to Change the Way People Work and Businesses Compete". Dr. Reeves and Dr. Read will examine the lessons a wide array of businesses can learn from game developers, games and gamers in their day-to-day processes. This presentation, entitled "Total Engagement: Using Games to Change How People Work" will be shared with LOGIN attendees during lunch on Wednesday, May 12th. The 2010 LOGIN Conference is an exclusive international event for experienced game developers and deal-makers. LOGIN 2010 will take place from May 10th to May 13th at the first-rate Seattle Waterfront Marriott Hotel facing the beautiful Puget Sound Harbor. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Tuesday, March 2, 2010 | |
| The Daily GameDev.Net | |
| Posted by: Promit Roy at 10:15:47 AM | |
| One week from today, I'm going to be at GDC. That's kind of scary, actually. I've never been before, and I'm trying to coordinate everyone I need to meet, all the parties I need to go to, all the companies I need to harass, and so on. I'm planning to try and put Twitter to good use through the conference, so feel free to follow d3dhaxxor if you're interested in what I have to say for some reason. For now, it's a Companies Are Scary GameDev.Net Daily. Well, by companies I really mean Activision. Infinity Ward's studio heads have been vanished, apparently over breach of contract and..."insubordination". I'm sure plenty more information will start to spill out over the coming days, and we'll find out eventually what got Activision mad enough to fire studio heads. For the time being, I'll quote Trent: @mittense when you have a studio that makes one of the highest-grossing games of all time, its good management to **** up their shit. As Mike mentioned yesterday, there was some type of Playstation3 apocalypse yesterday. As suspected, the bug was an epic clock fail with leap years. At least I can finally go back to using mine. Pachter points out the glaringly obvious. It's always nice to hear about studios opening instead of closing. Rare is opening a new facility in Birmingham in the UK. They're also looking at a new staffing model, based on film production. I don't know much about film production, but it sounds an awful lot like they're making most of the jobs short term deals (do the project, then get renewed on contract or not). I guess we'll find out how it works for them. Drew linked Jesse Schell's DICE talk last week. If you didn't watch it then, you should probably watch it now. The reason? Turbine is making more money by making their MMO free, and this should not be a surprise. If it is a surprise, the DICE talk will put you back on the right track about why things work this way. Now watch the trailer for Attack of the 50ft Verbose Dinosaur. It's about a dinosaur who is mad about the internet's crimes against language. FINALLY! Read More.. | 9 Comments | |
| Monday, March 1, 2010 | |
| Franklin Group Releases Franklin 3D Engine for Runrev | |
| Posted by: Franklin Group at 12:30:46 PM | |
| The Franklin Group (http://www.franklin3d.com), a part of Paradigma Software (http://www.paradigmasoft.com) announces Franklin 3D 1.0 game engine for Runrev. This is a commercial adaptation of the Irrlicht engine, with professional support, example projects and more. This release allows developers using Runrev (http://www.mirye.net) to harness the 3D engine on Windows and Mac OS X. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| The Daily GameDev.net | |
| Posted by: Mike Stedman at 10:04:27 AM | |
| It's time for March. March, originally titled "March of the GDNet Daily" by the ancient Romans, was first known as a month dedicated to informing people about daily events in the world of games and game development. After thousands of years, March was eventually co-opted by special interest groups and changed to a conventional month object. It is not known if ongoing appeals from the GDNet brass will have any effect, considering there is not actually any single agency responsible for determining what to name a given month. If you bought a fat PS3, including debug kits, and you can't connect to the PlayStation Network, you're not alone. It's been busted since Sunday. What's weird is how spastically some of these games behave; Heavy Rain will just reboot the console, even though it's a single player title. Reportedly it's some sort of calendar bug, which makes sense to me as it seems unlikely that games would be designed that don't understand the concept of being offline. Oh, wait. What should you download this week? If you have a Wii, it'd be hard to go wrong with Mega Man 10, which now features "easy mode" for those of you who didn't turn your hands into withered claws incapable of sporting achievement as children. Speaking of Heavy Rain, it seems Quantic Dream has finally found financial success with the game enjoying its spot at the top of UK sales charts. In indie games, I'm really interested by the concept of Rules and want to try it out. It looks like a great way to make tons of gameplay out of very little art content. The developers of Super Meat Boy had better watch out because Andy Schatz is going to steal their trophy at the IGF. The second TIGSource Comicompo has completed, and Cave Story for the Wii is finally approaching release with cool new stuff. A lot of people on the forums come to it with the intent of remaking or otherwise extending an existing commercial game. If you're thinking of remaking an Activision property, you should probably lawyer up because Activision just shut down an eight year sequel project of King's Quest. Before you go today, you should look out for bears. Read More.. | 6 Comments | |
| Catch a preview of the new version CityEngine 2010 during GDC 2010! | |
| Posted by: Marcel Reimer at 8:00:46 AM | |
| The developers of CityEngine have some cool stuff in the making! You can catch a preview of the beta version for the new "CityEngine 2010" during GDC 2010 in San Francisco. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Phonetic Arts Launches PA Preview at GDC 2010 | |
| Posted by: Lincoln Beasley PR at 6:42:47 AM | |
| PA Preview, a new application that enables game developers to create placeholder dialogue automatically. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Saturday, February 27, 2010 | |
| Weekend Reading: Tales from Journal Land | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 6:39:17 PM | |
| Entries from 2/20 - 2/27 Journal Land Pick of the Week Excursions into the Unknown - How well do you know C#? Mike.Popoloski has put together a little 5 question quiz to challenge your knowledge. Are you up for the task? Answers are here when you're ready to check your work - or just want to be lazy Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Friday, February 26, 2010 | |
| Matali Physics RC3 released | |
| Posted by: komires at 10:45:32 PM | |
| We are pleased to announce the release of Matali Physics RC3, advanced, cross-platform, fully managed 3D physics engine intended for the .NET platform. The new version brings several exhancements and new features. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| The Daily GameDev.net | |
| Posted by: Oli Wilkinson at 11:27:45 AM | |
| Thank generic honeycomb-centred chocolate bar it's Friday. I've been sick for the past few days, so today actually feels more like a Monday for me... On with Fronday's GDNet daily. Drew mentioned an epic list of studio openings and closings yesterday. Today it's emerged that EVE Online developer CCP are opening up a new office in the North East of the UK. This is good news as its the same area that was hit hard last year with the closure of Midway Newcastle and is an area of recent and soon-to-be graduates of game development-related degree courses. ... and that's not all. Naughty Dog are moving to a bigger studio, 500 feet away from their current Santa Monica base. EA are at it too, announcing that their Salt Lake City studio is expanding to ramp up work on a new "groundbreaking project" that involves their core team behind The Sims. Christofer Sundberg, the CEO of European indie studio Avalanche has told Develop that the game industry has become a "big chicken farm" and that publishers "should cancel more projects" when they begin to look shaky in order to help better manage their costs. Sundberg is emphasising quality over quantity here and says it'd be better to cut loose a project of questionable quality before the costs of developing it get too high. Um, rocket science it isn't... He also believes that game developers have lost their way to uncertainty in the recession, hence the chicken farm comment. In the same interview, he talks about how he believes owning one's own IP is the best way an indie studio can grow and increase their own worth. He takes a slight pop at the trend in the US for indies to sell out to bigger studios "too early" and losing control over your own direction. Develop, the UK-based game development magazine, run a game dev salary survey every year - here's this year's update. Are you earning what you can? It's interesting to see the breakdowns and the hint that 30% of developers are expecting to change jobs this year. Fluid. UK game retailer, Game, have announced that they're closing concessions, a few stores and reducing staff levels, losing 247 jobs across 43 locations in the process. Tough market conditions and slumping sales are being blamed, especially the lower-than-expected sales on the Nintendo systems last year. Finally, UK Indies may be interested in an event that Screen Yorkshire are hosting in April. "State of Independence" is a one day conference held at the York Racecourse and will focus on the challenges and opportunities of self-publishing. I'm off to drink my cold away. Have a good weekend y'all :) Read More.. | 6 Comments | |
