Over the last two years I have been personally meeting with several people behind various other independently-owned game development websites. Sharing drinks at various conference parties, we've all had many a conversation about ways that we can work together to better serve our audience in mutually beneficial ways. While we here at GameDev.net have always tried to cover game development in general, there's no mistaking the fact that over the years as the industry has grown doing this effectively has become more and more difficult! There are so many fields, so many specializations within these fields - luckily various websites have begun to pop up that have chosen to focus on a specific field or specialization and they are doing a great job of it. Do any spring to the top of your mind? If not, then you may want to check out AIGameDev.com or tech-artists.org to name just two. Through these content partnerships we'll be bringing more to your attention as well.

I'm happy to announce that our first full-fledged content partner is the training website design3. They specialize in creating videos narrated by experienced game developers covering a variety of topics from mobile gaming to various engine software like Unity and UDK. They've been at it now for almost a year and we're loving what they have accomplished so far and plan on doing in the future. While they will occasionally be giving us a glimpse at video content available only to paid members of their site, we will more often be showcasing some of their regular content here on the site to help keep people informed of what they have available. In addition they'll be offering a 10% discount to all GDNet users and we are working on a shared membership program that would bring even greater discounts for GDNet+ members and members of their site looking to purchase a GDNet+ membership here. Finally, we are members of their website affiliate program, and this is the link you should bookmark for visiting their website.

I look forward to announcing additional site partnerships as the year goes on and I'm glad all the conversations and brainstorming I've had with people over the past few years is finally coming to fruition.

In related news, the article archive cleanup is progressing well. I now have four very capable volunteers helping me out and they are doing an excellent job. I shall be really digging in and getting things wrapped up by the end of this month as that is when archive.gamedev.net will be going offline. If you'd still like to help out, I could always use some extra hands! Drop me an email at drew@gamedev.net.

Since I'm still stuck in the archives though publishing will continue to be completely sporadic. By the end of the year with the majority of the site maintenance behind me I hope to be back to at least a month lead time of scheduled articles to be posted 2-3 times a week like I was doing back in 2008 - 2010.

Now go check out the design3 video content we just posted and let us (and them) know what you think!