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Interfaces ConferenceNLGD Festival of GamesParis Game AI ConferenceGames for Health
 | R E V I E W TortoiseSVN by Stefan Maton, posted 6/3/09 SVN is a top-notch version control server, but you still need a decent way to talk to it. TortoiseSVN is a friendly and integrated (and free) SVN client. Read about it here. |  | P R O G R A M M I N G Microsoft XNA Game Studio 3.0 Unleashed by Chad Carter, posted 5/29/09 Chapter 22: Creating a 3D Game |
 | P R O G R A M M I N G Moving Noise by Dan Nielsen, posted 5/27/09 This feature introduces a drop-in Perlin noise variant useful for quickly generating organic procedural functions that change over time. You can use it to create scenes, textures, animations, and sounds. If you modify it or do something interesting with it, the author would love to know | | R E V I E W WinMerge by Stefan Maton, posted 5/27/09 Need a differencing tool that works at a larger level than just two files? Is your budget low? Is your budget zero? Well then, we might have just the thing. |
| Thursday, June 4, 2009 | |
| The Daily GameDev.Net | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 12:36:54 PM | |
 I've been working hard to catch up on all my Google Reader feeds (hence the late-ish Daily), and I'm nowhere close. I did manage to skim through all the game dev and gaming headlines however, so while it's not the full extent of my news reach, I have a couple of interesting things for you all today.Trailer and gameplay E3 video goodness. First up, check the new GT5 concept movie. I'm not entirely sure why it's labeled "concept" unless they're saying it's not all in-game footage during the car racing segments. However if you pay close attention, you will see some smashed up hoods in the NASCAR sequence. Oh, and they apparently have NASCAR. After you watch that a couple of times, head on over to the Uncharted 2 trailer for some jaw-dropping eye-watering visuals. Yay Elana is back! Oh and you also get to listen to sexy Claudia Black's voice as Chloe. After watching that a few times, Joystiq has some Alan Wake gameplay footage via unsteady cam (keep the lunch down) which looks pretty tense and creepy. I didn't realize this was a lights out game. Finally, and to reiterate from yesterday, top it all off with the Star Wars: The Old Republic cinematic video. I want to be a bounty hunter so bad. IGDA Board controversy. As an IGDA member for almost 10 years and co-founder of a successful local area chapter, I'm starting to get a bit fed up with all the ruckus going on around the IGDA Board of Directors, and I'm not talking about the Board, I'm talking about everyone else. The latest flare-up (after the QoL issue that's still ongoing) involves Board member Tim Langdell going after Mobigame's iPhone game Edge, as it apparently infringes on his trademark with the word "Edge". All that legal crap aside, my main gripe is with people fussing over the fact that this man is on the IGDA Board, completely ignoring the fact that he was elected into that position. Even worse, the board elections this year did not meet quota, which means not enough people cared to vote to keep him off of the Board - this isn't the first time he's pulled a stunt like this. However, him acting in the interests of his company also does not reflect his involvement with the Board, but him as an individual. These are two different things that people commonly fail to understand. I just wish people would stop throwing rocks from outside the fence and instead become a member of the organization so that they can work to make the changes they want happen. Because you can. EGM Returns! I'm no longer much of a newsstand reader, preferring to get my information in pure digital form these days, but several years ago I was a loyal subscriber to EGM, and I really enjoyed the magazine. So I was sad to see the print publication die earlier this year, but it seems that its now got a new lease on life thanks to original founder Steve Harris regaining the rights to the magazine. The magazine could return to newsstands this year. With pretty much all the original staff scattered into the winds by now, it will be interesting to see who comes back, and what EGM will be from now on. I like video game music. Right now, I'm listening to the FLOCK! soundtrack, which you can download for free. Also out now is the Resident Evil 5 soundtrack, which is $18.98 for the three disc collection. At the end of last year I finally made it out so see Video Games Live, which was fabulous, and just last month I got the pleasure of sitting in on a performance of the Video Games Orchestra. If you ever need a classical fix of gaming music, check out VGO's YouTube channel. Notable Headlines of Singular Goodness Wright, Meier, Wardell Added To Intel Game Contest Judges Thumbprint required to trade in games in Florida Industry Movers: Turbine, Trinigy, Titmouse and More Interview: 38 Studios' Close Talks Big Huge Get I haven't been playing much Burnout Paradise lately, although every now and then I like to log on for some online play. Come June 11th, however, I'm looking forward to digging into the Big Surf Island expansion and grabbing some huge air time. Who else on PS3 is with me? You can find me on PSN as Gaiiden, of course. Oh and it seems I love Deus Ex so much, Sims 3 coming out this week hasn't even really distracted me much from still playing it. How about that? Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Wednesday, June 3, 2009 | |
| gDEBugger iPhone - Beta Program | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 4:30:21 PM | |
 Enhance your iPhone graphic applications without compromising performance!gDEBugger iPhone enables you to optimize your OpenGL ES application usage, allowing you to deliver more complex games straight to the hand of your user. Graphic Remedy is proud to announce the upcoming release of gDEBugger for the iPhone platform. gDEBugger iPhone will be released in July 2009, but you have the opportunity to experience it now. To join the gDEBugger iPhone Free Beta Program, please visit: http://www.gremedy.com/gDEBugger-iPhone.php Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| The Daily GameDev.Net | |
| Posted by: Tiffany Leigh Smith at 11:13:01 AM | |
| Sony has officially confirmed the PSP Go. GIBIz reports that the new handheld was leaked over the weekend, but Sony confirmed the sliding screen, lack of UMD port and focus on wireless connectivity at their E3 press conference yesterday. The new PSP has 16GB of internal Flash memory for storage and built-in WiFi, integrated Bluetooth technology and a memory expansion port. The price is going to be USD 249 or EUR 249 (GBP 215), with a release date set for October 1. There's going to be a new Zelda title for Wii! Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed a new Legend of Zelda title is in development. "To be honest with you, I really wanted to announce a Zelda game for Wii at this E3. But rather than think about something to bring you to show you, we really wanted to focus on actual game development." he said, speaking during a behind-closed-doors presentation, attended by Eurogamer.net. "However I didn't want to come empty handed, so I did bring the next illustration for the next Zelda title," said Miyamoto, before showing an oil painting-style art image. "This illustration does contain elements that are central to the storyline, and I hope it does prove to you we are quite far into the development of the title." He continued: "I would like to say we hope to bring it to you next year. It may take a little longer." Miyamoto went on to reveal the game is likely to work with Nintendo's latest Wii accessory. "We'd like to make it compatible with Wii MotionPlus, [...] It's quite possible it will be playable only with Wii MotionPlus. The potential for it becoming MotionPlus-only depends of course on how well Wii Sports Resort sells. Sony have revealed a new motion controller similar to the Wiimote that works in tandem with the PlayStation Eye to track motion in 3D. The controller was presented on-stage by Dr Richard Marx, who worked on the original EyeToy. Marx admitted that the technology had been in the works for several years, and "far surpasses any technology on the market now" -- source GamesIndustry.biz points out: "although he obviously made no mention of Microsoft's reveal of Project Natal. The demonstration featured a variety of different applications for the controller, including various sporting environments, an archery demonstration and a light saber effect. The controller is set for a Spring 2010 release, although no specific title compatibility was announced." Microsoft also announced their innovative new controller Project Natal, where you are the controller. "Project Natal," is a hands-free motion-sensitive controller system. The technology, allows users to control games, movies, and anything else on their Xbox system with their hands alone, and without touching any hardware. Although only a select few have so far been allowed to see it, reports are that the system is able to track the motion of the users entire body as well as recognize skeletal structure and potentially recognize each user and grab their existing Xbox avatars. Nintendo are unphased by rivals' motion technology says Nintendo UK general manager David Yarnton. He sounded confident that Nintendo would remain ahead of both rivals. "We can't really make a comment because we've not actually seen anything running here and now," he said. "We've got our product out there and we've had that out for a while. We haven't seen anything current from those guys to comment on it. "We're looking at innovation all the time, as you saw with the Vitality Sensor that was shown briefly today. There are always things coming through that enable us to keep two steps ahead. On top of that we've got one or two other areas to compete with in other forms of entertainment. Well we all knew MS and Sony were going to jump on that bandwagon eventually, it was really only a matter of time. There are lots of beautiful game trailers coming out of E3 atm, but this one is stunning! Star Wars: The Old Republic. I'm on my way to E3, if you spot me there today, come say hi. You can also play Cave Story Wii at the Nintendo booth today, so if you're there, go check it out! :) Read More.. | 5 Comments | |
| Side-scrolling Shooter SDL Contest | |
| Posted by: SDLTutorials.com at 5:54:25 AM | |
 SDLTutorials.com is hosting it's first (possibly annual) game contest. Details can be found here: http://www.sdltutorials.com/contest/Any interested game developers are welcome. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Tuesday, June 2, 2009 | |
| The Daily GameDev.Net | |
| Posted by: Promit Roy at 9:30:49 PM | |
| I just now realized I was supposed to write a Daily. I'm about twelve hours late. I have no choice but to title this a Promit Fails GameDev.Net Daily. In my defense, it's E3 and I can't possibly pack everything into this post. So clearly you should be finding a more complete source of news. Where to start...Well, I don't want to snub Tiffany here, so we're mostly looking at yesterday's news. For example, Sims 3 launched worldwide. Now personally I don't really understand the point of the game, but apart from World of Warcraft it's pretty much the top selling PC game of all time. That makes it a big deal. It'll be fun to see what kind of entirely insane sales numbers this one rakes up. Okay, yes, fine. Microsoft has debuted the Project Natal sensor. There is also some footage. Long story short, they're trying to out-Wii the Wii, by using a camera based sensor box to completely replace the controller. In other words, you require no controller at all. As a strictly technical achievement, it's brilliant. As applied to games, I'm dubious. Not that you should put much weight in that, mind you -- one of the top selling games worldwide is Wii Fit and I can't begin to fathom why anyone would pay ten dollars for it, let alone the full cost. However, I did work on the Microsoft Surface team some years ago, and one of the things I noticed is that, on a purely technical level, you can provide all kinds of awesome user interface "upgrades". The problem is actually leveraging this stuff in a useful way. In short, the question is how you step beyond gimmick. Usually the step you want to make is into consumers' wallets. There's no question that Nintendo pulled off that trick brilliantly. Can Microsoft? Well, they've never quite had the marketing flair for that. When's the last time you saw Surface used for anything vaguely productive? Thought so. An E3 showing is a start, but they've got a lot of work to do if this is going to be more than a fancy version of the EyeToy peripheral. Other stuff? Left 4 Dead 2, Crysis 2, Forza 3, Crackdown 2, No More Heroes 2, the new Metal Gear Solid title will include Xbox 360 -- pretty much the standard E3 fare. Let's talk Natal! What's in store, big success or epic fail? Read More.. | 10 Comments | |
| Final Schedule Announced for Paris Game AI Conference on June 10th / 11th | |
| Posted by: Alex J. Champandard at 6:52:04 PM | |
| The AiGameDev.com Team is proud to announce the final schedule for the Paris Game AI Conference '09 (free by registration), set to take place on June 10th & 11th. The event is organized in conjunction with the CNAM and its CEDRIC research lab, and will feature leading developers in Europe from studios such as Guerrilla, Crytek, Recoil Games, Black Rock, and more. The final schedule has been announced, including presentations about recent games like Killzone 2, Crysis: Warhead and Pure -- as well as technical discussions about character animation and motion planning, multi-threading, and automatic construction of navigation meshes. The conference, which takes place on the 10th and 11th of June, costs nothing there are a few places left. You can read the full schedule here (PDF) and here you can register at no cost. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Monday, June 1, 2009 | |
| Help Wanted Picks - June '09 | |
| Posted by: Jason Adams at 9:27:31 AM | |
| Look inside for another great set of Help Wanted Picks featuring some of the great projects our members are looking for help with, as well as some of the skilled members who are offering help with your existing project! Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| PathEngine Announces SDK Release 5.20, New Licensing | |
| Posted by: PathEngine at 9:26:07 AM | |
| Lyon, France - June 1st 2009 - PathEngine announces release 5.20.00 of their pathfinding and agent movement SDK, with key features being: addition of a voxel 3D processing code path (switchable on an option with the existing BSP based code path), support for completely dynamic (i.e. fully run-time specified) off mesh graph connections, and an example implementation for formation movement with very minimal per-agent update cost. We're also very pleased to announce licensing to Masthead Studios, for the 'Earthrise' MMORPG. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| The Daily GameDev.net | |
| Posted by: Mike Stedman at 9:25:22 AM | |
| Welcome to the first June GDNet Daily! How were everyone's weekends? I changed my oil and also helped my buddy change his. All I can say is that if you're the guy who designed the inline five motor for the Volkswagen T4 Eurovan, I will come to your house and punch you in the doodleheinz. I have rarely if ever had a less comfortable oil filter to remove. If you're Peter Moore or John Riccitiello, can I borrow a few bucks? I'm good for it, honest. I will sell out the integrity of the daily in return for a pristine 1973 Datsun 510. For those of you who didn't have the computer to run Crysis, rejoice. Now you can also not have the console to run Crysis. Crysis 2 has been announced for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. Valve has given in to peer pressure and re-enabled gaining items in Team Fortress 2 by achievements. Unlocks and random drops. Excellent. Also new is news about Borderlands, Starcraft 2, Dead Rising 2 and "NIER". We are preparing for the run-up to E3, so new game news will likely slow to a trickle until it comes out in a giant burst that blinds and deafens you. For instance, we can plan on seeing Microsoft not even waiting for the conference to start, and more bizarre behaviour from Ubisoft. Speaking of E3, someone at Sony is so getting fired over the leak of their new download-only PSP, which seems incredibly uncomfortable to use. On the plus side, Gran Turismo PSP has once again been promised and will likely still not be delivered. In independent news, here is more trailers than you can possibly withstand, an incredibly complicated legal battle, an awesome 2.5D Megaman remake and the Swedish Game Awards winners. There was a King of Fighters competition over the weekend, and the lucky winner made off with a pretty awesome prize. While it seems to be missing some of the old SNK magic, KoF XII is a must-buy for me, and instantly bypassed the yawning circuits in my brain that Street Fighter 4 triggered. Before you go today, watch the always-entertaining Penn Jillette talk about the American controversy over a Japanese "rape simulator" that isn't even sold on our shores. Read More.. | 3 Comments | |
| Friday, May 29, 2009 | |
| Weekend Reading: Tales from Journal Land | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 5:59:11 PM | |
| You might notice me getting picky lately. Well, you probably won't actually unless you're a journal author who notices I made no mention of you whatsoever. Rest assured I still read every new entry each week. I'm just trying my best not to overdo it. Too much. Editing is always a fine balance between having enough content and having content that actually matters to people who read it. I don't think I'm quite there yet but I definitely feel myself getting closer. Journal Land Pick of the Week Oddgames development journal - O-san has a short video clip of his character moving around a small level to demonstrate the physics, but also note the lighting and layering as well. I really like what O-san has been doing with his editor, game and Iso work in general. I dunno what it is about Iso games but the whole perspective issue just makes things seem more challenging to me, so seeing it pulled off so nicely is always a treat. Read More.. | 2 Comments | |
| 5th Annual Games for Health Keynote Speakers Announced | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 2:19:21 PM | |
| The Games for Health Project, together with its partners, is pleased to announce the following keynote presentations and speakers for the Fifth Annual Games for Health Conference: Shyang Kong (EA SPORTS), Steve Brown (3Banana), and Nina Fefferman, Ph.D. (Rutgers University) Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| The Daily GameDev.net | |
| Posted by: Trent Polack at 12:01:35 AM | |
| I've had kind of a busy week this week. I received a job offer, quit my job (two weeks notice), have been packing my things, looking for a place to stay for three months in Salt Lake City, finding a moving company to take my things to Austin at the end of August, playing Team Fortress 2 and Famous, and being kind of awesome. Seriously, though, as of June 15 my official title will be "Game Designer" and I'm very excited about it. In what was the most confusing headline of the week for me -- one I had to read five times before I really believed what I was reading -- a Japanese organization moves to ban the sale of rape games. This is a genre of game I, personally, never knew existed anywhere, but Japan's Ethics Organization of Computer Software (EOCS), who oversees game ratings in Japan, "is forbidding the retail sale and production of games created by its members that simulate forced sex, such as Illusion Soft's controversial RapeLay." This action is supposedly spurned by a recent campaign by Equality Now that demanded "that Illusion Software [developer of RapeLay] and Japanese government officials, including Prime Minister Taro Aso, [...] remove and ban rape-simulation game RapeLay from sale in Japan." I don't even understand what kind of name "RapeLay" is. In an unfortunate turn of events that will disrupt what I've considered to be a relatively layoff-free time the last few weeks, Sweden-based developer GRIN is rumored to be experiencing massive layoffs. The company is, reportedly, seeing massive layoffs that are affecting its Stockholm, Gothenberg, and Barcelona offices. GRIN, recently, has been behind the recently-released Wanted: Weapons of Fate (not so recent), Bionic Commando (recent), and Terminator Salvation (very, very recent). There has been no offical statement confirming or denying these reported layoffs, which would, unfortunately, lend additional credence to the validity of the rumors. 4mm Games, the studio that was formed by the co-founders of Rockstar Games, announced Def Jam Rapstar yesterday. And. Uh. Okay. In far more important news, Unknown Worlds' released a teaser for Natural Selection 2, their highly anticipated follow-up to the amazing Half-Life mod Natural Selection, earlier this week and I really think you should see it. The studio has also opened-up preorders for Natural Selection 2 in a $20 standard flavor and a $40 special edition flavor. According to the company's Twitter account an astounding 95% of purchases are for the $40 special edition of the game (mine included!). So that's pretty awesome. Also: MadBalls. This is a game I know a fellow GameDev.net patron is involved with the development of and the trailer is delightful, so let's all rock out. Finally, the third Game Design Round Table is currently underway and aims to discuss the role of achievements in game design. While I enjoy that there less responses than the last one -- since I'll be writing the conclusion article amidst a sea of packing boxes and mayhem -- you should still contribute. I will admit, though, that the contributions to the thread so far are of an unprecedented overall depth and quality. Despite said commitment to packing and preparing for the move across the country, I will be gorging on inFAMOUS and Team Fortress 2 this weekend. Both games are just supremely entertaining, so I'm riding that wave of gaming fun. Read More.. | 11 Comments | |
| Thursday, May 28, 2009 | |
| The Daily GameDev.Net | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 2:26:29 PM | |
| Thursday, I think, is a pretty "blah" day. It's late enough in the week for you to be able to look back and decide whether or not this week has sucked; It's not quite the end of the week but it's very close so you're pining even more for that lucrative Friday to arrive; If the week has sucked, the need for Friday to get here becomes exponentially worse; If the week was awesome, you realize that it's now almost over and who knows what next week will be like? Finally, there's still enough time left in the week for one you determine to be awesome so far to turn to complete crap. So. How's your week going? Mine's turning to complete crap tomorrow. 38 Studios Acquires Big Huge Games. I was really happy to see Tim Train update his Facebook status late last week saying "shouts out to all Big Hugers: we are signed, sealed, and delivered!" because I knew he had been racing all over looking for a buyer for Big Huge Games after THQ's shut down ultimatum. Fortunately they found one in 38 Studios. To be honest, I had never seen 38 Studios to be in line with BHG, which has always been an RTS developer like Ensemble to me, but I'm looking forward to see where this deal takes them in the future. Congrats BHG! Free Realms hits the 2 million player mark. In only a month, the free-to-play MMO from Sony has managed to rack up over 2 million unique users, and could very well become the gateway MMO for young children - 75% of its users are under 17 years old, and 46% percent are under 13. The game is targeted towards the young audience by way of graphics, gameplay and content, suceeding admirably in addicting even the youngest of the young. Ok, I will fully admit that the whole reason of writing up this headline was so I could share that video. It's both hilarious and frightening at the same time. Sure, it could be viral, but the premise remains the same. 450 people working on Assassin's Creed 2. [wow] 450 people. That's around the total number of people working for Ubisoft on this project, which is still around 3 times larger than the team that worked on the original. In additon, its development will cost 20% more. Obviously more people means more money but... when you're talking multi-million dollar budgets well, 20% is a lot. I haven't played the original, but I hear it's pretty awesome and it's now a Greatest Hit game, which means it's only $30 - so I'll have to pick it up sometime. Notable Headlines of Singular Goodness Industry Movers: Gazillion, Ruffian Games, GDC Europe and More So in the past 4 days I've logged 18.2 hours playing Deus Ex, for like the third or fourth time through. I get the nag to do it every other year or so, and decided I might as well get it out of my system now before The Sims 3 comes along and steals my life away. But then later on in the year I'll hopefully be consumed by CitiesXL. Mmmm PC gaming... Read More.. | 10 Comments | |
| Wednesday, May 27, 2009 | |
| The Daily GameDev.Net | |
| Posted by: Tiffany Leigh Smith at 12:45:09 AM | |
| Yes! Wednesday is here! EA VP and general manager of Casual, Harvey Elliott, told GamesIndustry.biz yesterday, that he's not a fan of porting a game as-is to other platforms, but believes instead that time should be taken to "build great games for that platform". Speaking at a recent EA Play event in Paris, Elliott was answering a question about how the label approaches the potential of new platforms such as the iPhone. "From a product standpoint I've long given up on the idea that you just port what you've got to that platform," he replied. "I think a lot of platforms have come in with a lot of things which just naturally fit our customers - they're either people that are buying that platform for a reason, or they've got technology that works in a certain way (such as the Wii with motion controls). "There are things that those platforms allow us to do, and for me it's about building an experience that's tailored to that platform. There's nothing worse than having a third-grade port from a franchise when you can have something that's custom-built for that platform. "You have to build great games for that platform, rather than taking a game and porting," he added. Rockstar games are embracing the LGBT community with their upcoming DLC for GTA 4, "The Ballad of Gay Tony", Rockstar games will be the first game in recent memory with LGBT themed so prominently. The Ballad of Gay Tony puts players in the shoes of Luis Lopez, "part-time hoodlum and full-time assistant to legendary nightclub impresario Tony Prince (aka "Gay Tony")", Take-Two said in a press release. And now for something a little different. A Swedish games company named A Different Game, have announced their mobile game Ghostwire is in development for the Nintendo DSi. The game already won first place in the Nokia's N-Gage Mobile Games Innovation Challenge 2008 and definitely has a new take on gaming. The game certainly looks innovative! For today's video link, watch the Dice-O-Matic in action. I saw the story yesterday on Slashdot but seem to be having issues with the site right now. The main site for the Dice-O-Matic is here and contains more information on what hardware was used and how it all works. Read More.. | 1 Comments | |
| Tuesday, May 26, 2009 | |
| IndustryBroadcast out of the gates strong this week | |
| Posted by: Ryan Wiancko at 8:34:36 PM | |
 Another week and another great new set of articles from IndustryBroadcastGameDev.net Book Collection. Today’s piece is from the Advanced Game Programming book. Specifically from the Chapter Titled ‘Multi-threaded and Distributed Computing with the Actor Model’ Audio Article #110: Multiplayer Level Design Audio Article #111: How to Prevent your Startup from Being Shot Down(Pt1) Audio Article #112: Delicious Data Baking Audio Article #113: You’ve Got Narrative in My System Audio Article #114: Multi-threaded/Machine Coding with the Actor Model Audio Article #115: The Anatomy of a Game-Development Company Full descriptions after the jump. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| GameX Internship Opportunities | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 7:54:21 PM | |
 GameX has immediate opportunities for part time, uncompensated summer interns. We are looking for college or high school students, or young game professionals in the PA, MD, NJ, NY and VA regions looking to add to their resume. This is great opportunity to gain marketing experience and learn about what it takes to plan a high-profile event in the game industry.Interns must be willing to work remotely (from their home office) approximately 2-5 hours per week on a scheduled or as-needed basis on a variety of marketing and research/development tasks. Internship lasts for approximately 6-8 weeks with the opportunity to extend upon successful completion. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Game Engine Gems Call for Papers | |
| Posted by: Eric Lengyel at 6:31:57 PM | |
 Jones and Bartlett Publishers is pleased to announce a new book series entitled Game Engine Gems, produced by some of the same people who created the Game Programming Gems series almost ten years ago. The paper submission period for Game Engine Gems is now open through August 1, 2009.Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Upcoming Agile Training Courses Offered By SolutionsIQ, Inc. | |
| Posted by: SIQTraining at 4:53:29 PM | |
| Agile/Scrum Training courses hosted by SolutionsIQ Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| The Daily GameDev.Net | |
| Posted by: Promit Roy at 1:23:27 PM | |
| Some of you are probably starting or getting ready to start brand new jobs, having graduated from college. Some of you are probably wishing you could find a job at all. Me, I'm going back to class starting today. It's the homework that's the worst, I think. In any case, it's time for a Tuesday is the New Monday GameDev.Net Daily. I don't need to tell you that gaming has really taken off as something on which even adults spend rather a lot of time. Gaming has already crushed watching movies in popularity. And once adults are spending a lot of time on something, advertisers are sure to follow. One analyst group says they'll follow to the tune of $1 billion in five years time. That's a lot of cash. There's a lot of chatter about changing business models etc, too. It's always fun to see how advertisement distorts everything. If anybody wants to start developing ad-blocking software for games, now might be the time to start. I think it could be a fairly lucrative endeavor in its own right -- you can make the download page ad-supported. In a sort of similar vein to ad supported games are microtransaction games. (Insert sardonic Penny Arcade strip here.) Sony's microtransaction MMO, Free Realms launched a few weeks ago to great fanfare and has apparently grown a massive userbase with unbelievable speed. The newest participant is EA, with a "Play4Free" edition of their RTS, BattleForge. A free version of the game replaces the demo, and buying the in store real version earns you EA points. In other words, you are buying money. The mockery practically writes itself. I am curious to see if microtransactions actually works, though. My friend on the Free Realms team is certainly confident. In distinctly different news, GamaSutra has a very long interview with Tim Sweeney. Read it. You may not like the Unreal Engine, or the Unreal games, or Sweeney's ideas about where game programming is going (also worth reading). But the man is basically one of the legends in the game development industry, and so it's valuable to know what he has to say. For those of you in California: sorry about your Supreme Court's miserable decision, and good luck joining the rest of us in the 21st century some time soon. No chaser -- I'd much rather read about some of the civil rights battles of the sixties today. Read More.. | 2 Comments | |
| Monday, May 25, 2009 | |
| The Daily GameDev.net | |
| Posted by: Mike Stedman at 9:10:51 AM | |
| Welcome to a GDNet Daily. Unlike last week, I don't have this Monday off. This means that Americans who felt bad about not having a Queen can now make me feel bad about not having a memorial. As for the rest of the world, we're still cool, right? We all hate the Americans and their hateful bank holidays of remembering things. We can all comfort each other while we deal with another Monday of thankless toil in a salt mine millions of miles below the crust of the Earth. Post-apocalyptic racer Fuel may be the biggest console game ever made, with its substantial amount of open world racing distance. Did Trent mention the Diablo 3 screenshots? It might be because he doesn't love you like I do. There was also a recall of the Terminator Salvation PC game after it turned out that customers could not actually install the game. EA is reportedly in talks with Evolved Games on borrowing their innovative copy-protection technology for future PC ports. In independent news, new games include The Gutter, a grimy, bizarre 3D wonderland and the Mac port of Braid. I have been playing Squid Yes! Not So Octopus!: Squid Harder almost constantly over the past few days. Other exciting games that I have yet to play include Swords and Soldiers and FATHOM, which looks fantastic. Last night I played Team Fortress 2 with Trent and a few of the people behind Shacknews, and we enjoyed the Spy vs. Sniper content update. Personally, I enjoyed getting in a one-two punch of flamethrower and shotgun onto Trent's medical expert as he screamed in German-accented pain. The random drops are a big improvement over the previous achievement system but I still don't feel it's as good as the original QuakeWorld Team Fortress. What did everyone else get out of it? I've also been trying to get ranks in Call of Duty 4, mostly because there is a palpable excitement about Modern Warfare 2's new trailer. Check it out - it has an exploding castle. An exploding castle. You can't make this stuff up. Except that Infinity Ward did. When the original Delta Force games came out, they were innovative for their use of voxels to render an organic environment with hilariously long view distances from which I could shoot other people over the Internet. Well, the voxels are gone, but Delta Force lives on in the form of Delta Force: Xtreme 2, which has a title painful enough to force me to weep openly. Before you go today, you must endure The Thrill of Combat. It's utterly brilliant, it is. You may remember the developer from Party Boat, which was also quite brilliant. Read More.. | 8 Comments | |
| Help Wanted Picks | |
| Posted by: Jason Adams at 6:32:30 AM | |
| Here we are with a quick bonus edition of the Help Wanted Picks, showcasing some of the more interesting and/or promising projects from our Help Wanted forum. Check back next week for a full edition featuring many more great projects... Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Friday, May 22, 2009 | |
| Weekend Reading: Tales from Journal Land | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 11:33:35 PM | |
| Getting closer to actually appearing on Friday again! :P Well, the site may post this as Friday still, but I'd rather it appear during the day. My littlest sister is graduating from college this weekend at Cornell, so that's my mini-vacation - going up to attend the ceremony and all that pomp and circumstance. I'm not a big fan of college but I recognize the achievement at least. Hope everyone has some good plans set for this holiday weekend! Journal Land Pick of the Week On the path with a ramblin' man - jollyjeffers has another epic post in his ongoing discussion of tessellation. This time he takes a serious look at compute shaders and his use of them for pre-processing the height map in his LOD implementation. Lots of code, fancy diagrams, and useful information inside! Grab a cup or two (or three!) of your favorite beverage and settle in for a long but worthy read Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Rosetta Stone Hosts 1st Annual Summer Game Jam | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 9:40:41 PM | |
| Rosetta Stone is looking for people who like to code, compete and most importantly, win. So bring your game face and gaming ability to the place where Rosetta Stone® was born to prove you've got skills. Fly solo or work with some pals to build and create something that will inspire us, motivate us, utterly floor us, in 48 hours or less. Come see if your big ideas can help you win big. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| The Daily GameDev.net | |
| Posted by: Trent Polack at 12:30:21 PM | |
| So, it's been kind of a long, strange week for me. And the game industry has been giving us all sorts of interesting news in preparation for the upcoming Electronic Entertainment Expo. Warner Bros. has made a $33 million bid on the now-bankrupt Midway Games. This maneuver is, apparently, called a "stalking horse." The bid is awaiting court approval and, additionally, "Midway said there will be a court-supervised auction process that will allow other qualified buyers to make bids on the company, in order to maximize Midway's sale value" says source Gamasutra. The eventual buyer of Midway would have to then acquire Midway assets within thirty days of a court approval. Heh, "stalking horse." Tee-hee. Yesterday, Monolith released a trailer for their upcoming F.E.A.R. 2 downloadable content: Armored Front. The trailer must be watched. Gamestop saw record profits in their first quarter financial period, but the company is planning for a decline in the future. GameStop's profits were up 13.4% to $70.4 million during its first quarter financial period (which ended May 2) and total sales were up to 9.2% to $1.98 billion. GameStop CEO Dan DeMatteo says: "In the second quarter, like the first, we face very strong comparisons to the prior year period due to the unprecedented number of blockbuster titles released in the first half of 2008 and a significantly more brittle global economy. [...] Although new video game software sales declined by 2.8 percent, lower-priced used products grew a robust 31.9 percent, illustrating that value is becoming more important to our customers." Chris Remo over at Gamasutra put up an opinion piece yesterday entitled "Do Video Games Over-Egg the Epic?" and it discusses the incredible over-use of "epic" settings for games and their narratives. Games are never about the exploration of small spaces or anything but, instead, aim to be enormous space operas like Mass Effect, historical fantasy like God of War, or the enormous scale of gameplay, environment, and story of a game like Grand Theft Auto 4. The article is a well-written opinion piece that I recommend reading. Most importantly: the Team Fortress 2 Spy and Sniper update is out. If you're not playing it, you should be. I know I am in about... now.even though you totally ditched Read More.. | 7 Comments | |
| Thursday, May 21, 2009 | |
| Engage! Expo San Jose - Sept. 23-24, 2009 + call for speakers | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 7:42:46 PM | |
| This is the year for Engagement. You have no doubt seen the frequent stories discussing how businesses are working to understand and leverage social media like Facebook and Twitter to better engage with their audience. Or read the reports on the many companies using virtual worlds and the related technology to engage with employees and partners for immersive training, learning and collaboration. And of course all this activity on the electronic frontier has spawned much discussion of the associated legal issues. There is just one conference that focuses on the whole engagement picture, that conference is Engage! Expo - San Jose. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Inaugural GDC Canada Brings Attention to Creative Community, Bolsters Careers | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 7:38:30 PM | |
 The Game Developers Conference® Canada (GDC Canada) produced by the Think Services Game Group and Reboot Communications brought together more than 800 game industry professionals last week at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Center (VCEC). Building on the momentum of the 2008 Vancouver International Game Summit (VIGS), GDC Canada more than doubled attendance numbers from the previous year's event. The two day conference provided opportunities for sharing knowledge, making new connections and celebrating the passion and dedication of fellow Canadian game-makers. GDC Canada returns to the VCEC May 6-7, 2010.Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Chief Creative Director, EA, Head of Game Education, Carnegie Mellon, to Keynote GES | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 7:34:55 PM | |
| Richard Hilleman, Chief Creative Director, Electronic Arts (EA), and Professor Don Marinelli, Executive Producer, Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), will keynote the Game Education Summit (GES), a Game Path event scheduled for June 16 – 17 in Pittsburgh. GES, the only conference for instructors of college and university game programs, will offer a wide range of sessions on curriculum options, with advanced sessions for schools with a long program history as well as sessions essential for schools starting a game program. Hilleman and other senior game industry executives are attending to help academics understand the skills students need to have successful careers in the game industry. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| The Daily GameDev.net | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 7:29:24 PM | |
| It's another GDNet Daily: Evening Edition. I'm slowly working my way back towards a regular schedule after two weeks of conferences (which were great, don't get me wrong). Thanks again to Trent for filling in last week, I know you all enjoyed it. Sorry to make you wait another day for your mittens fix. Since there were some stories from last week I'd still like to cover, this may seem a bit bulkier than normal, but as always it's all good stuff. Industry Feature Roundup. A Gamasutra OpEd piece by GamerBytes editor Ryan Langley gives out 5 tips to making your XBox Live Community game better. Still over at Gamasutra, a feature by Ian Fisch gives the ten biggest reasons why a game's production doesn't end up working out quite as hoped, and possible fixes for those issues. The final Gamasutra feature highlight is from Rob Bridgett discussing whether interactive mixing is the key to future AAA game audio. TIGSource has an interview with Jonathan Blow. Goodbye Factor 5. Hello 4mm, Loose Cannon, Newtoy, etc. I was really bummed to hear that the US branch of Germany-based Factor 5 was shutting down last week. Even if they haven't put out a game I've played recently (although my friend has shown me Lair and it's pretty cool) I'm still smitten with them from all the hours I spent playing Rogue Squadron on my N64. That would be yet another one of my childhood game companies lost :( However we're seeing more new developers than shuttered ones these days thankfully. Former Sly Cooper developers have founded Loose Cannon based out of Seattle, working on an unnamed original IP for new consoles; Naughty Dog co-founders Jason Rubin and Andrew Gavin have founded Monkey Gods, and are focused on the development and distribution of games for online social networks, the iPhone, and the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii consoles; Another Ensemble Studios group has founded Newtoy, already working on its first game for the iPhone; Jerry Bruckheimer has gone in with MTV to create a studio dubbed Jerry Bruckheimer Games and are still remaining secretive about their projects; Rockstar co-founders Gary Foreman and Jamie King have formed new independent studio 4mm Games, focusing on titles for the iPhone and other online markets; Toronto-based TransGaming is opening a development studio working on a music game for the Wii. Introversion: Kicked out of the Bedroom. I love all the fine folk over at Introversion. I've talked mainly to Mark Morris over the years but Chris Delay, Vicky Arundel, Tom Arundel, they're all awesome. And not just because of the games they make but because of the strides they take to make their company completely transparent. Mark especially has written a lot of content over at bit-tech.net, and his latest piece talks about the near failure that Introversion had to struggle through with Multiwinia. Riding high on the combined success of Uplink, Darwinia and Defcon, Mark admits that he and the team were becoming rather arrogant and ignorant of the fact that they were slowly becoming more of a full-on company than small-time indie developers. As always, a candid look into a development studio is a refreshing read. Don't forget that they're also running a developer diary for Darwinia+ that's actually focused towards developers more than it is to consumers. Ad Revenue Share at Newgrounds. TIGSource has the word that last month, popular Flash portal Newgrounds extended their RevShare service, so that you don't have to sign up for the ads to still receive payment from views. It seems Kongregate has a similar program, so this may have been in response to that. Anyone use either of the services that would like to compare them in the comments? Outsourcing Saves You Money? No. Joystiq picks up on a study covered by GameBizBlog which shows that outsourcing work from a project doesn't actually save you much money, which apparently is one of the reasons people look to outsourcing. I'm highlighting this because at LOGIN last week, Boomzap head Chris Natsuume spoke about outsourcing, and his purpose for doing it seems much more reasonable - you have staff that you can fire easily. Why hire an in-house concept artist if he'll only work part-way through a project? You contract him out, and do so at the start of each new project. That's where the real money-saving benefits come into play, not the actual cost of the outsource job in question. Notable Headlines of Singular Goodness GDC Canada 2009: The Event Round-Up WiiWare Developer Finds Xbox Live Arcade 'Much Harder' Grin praises XBLA/PSN development, dislikes submission process Industry Movers: SCE, Blizzard, Frogster & More During the conference party at LOGIN, several of us were discussing the whole 3D Realms/Duke Nukem Forever debacle and realizing just how long it's been. To put things in proper perspective for us all, IGN has compiled a list of the Top 12 Human Achievements... done in a shorter time span than DNF (which, I should remind you all, still isn't done). These would include things like conquering the world, putting a man on the moon, building the transcontinental railroad... Also there's been a lot of hubbub over the Konami code popping up on Facebook. Well, that's not the only place you can find it. Victor Nicollet blogs a snippet of code pulled from the jQuery site that shows they support the Konami code, and links to a website that has compiled a list of sites supporting The Code, including Google Reader, AIM Express, Digg, GameSpot, and at least a dozen or two more. Read More.. | 2 Comments | |
| Simul Weather 1.2 Released | |
| Posted by: Simul Software at 10:14:57 AM | |
| Manchester, England: Simul have announced that version 1.2 of their award-winning weather software is now available. Simul Weather allows developers to generate real-time weather effects, including 3D volumetric clouds that grow and change in real time, with minimal CPU and GPU overhead. Available on PC and major console platforms, Simul Weather can be evaluated for free. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Wednesday, May 20, 2009 | |
| The Daily GameDev.Net | |
| Posted by: Tiffany Leigh Smith at 12:13:09 AM | |
| If you're anything like me, you're probably kicking back right now with your favorite cuppa, listening to some "phat tunes" and reading from your favorite sources on the internets! You also might be pondering the meaning of life, the universe and everything. Or is that just me? No matter. Looks like Wal-Mart, crusher of souls are entering the used games business by test-marketing an automated game trade-in kiosk. The kiosks are currently being tested in 77 Wal-Mart locations in the eastern US. According to kiosk partner e-Play's website, participants sell games by directly inserting a game disc into the machine, and receive trade-in money directly to their credit or debit card within 2-3 business days. Currently, trade-in prices are determined by e-Play through what the company describes as a proprietary algorithm that can change frequently. It seems that sales of videogame film tie-ins have dwindled this year. An article over at GIBiz references new data derived from the recent NPD Group sales results in the US. As revealed in an article from the Los Angeles Times, all five of the most prominent movie licensed titles in April underperformed in the US. Purposefully delayed from launch alongside both the film and DVD, in order to try and ensure quality, Grin's Wanted: Weapons of Fate has sold only 100,000 units since its launch on March 24. The critically acclaimed The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena also sold only around 100,000 units. Released on March 17 the game was famously dropped, alongside fellow film license Ghostbusters and others, during the Activision Blizzard merger - before being picked up by Atari. Even high profile tie-in Monsters vs. Aliens, published by Activision as part of its ongoing partnership with DreamWorks Animation, sold just 161,000 units since March 2. Meanwhile, Disney's Hannah Montana: The Movie sold just 65,000 units in its initial three weeks on sale. Although film tie-ins have for decades been criticised for their low quality, due to rushed releases schedules and the cost of obtaining the license, they have always been a reliable driver of sales. The relative failure of the most recent titles has also been mirrored in European sales charts, but it remains unclear whether this is a long term trend. Wal-Mart's entry into the used games business with dedicated kiosks is no threat to retailer GameStop, according to Todd Greenwald, analyst at Signal Hill says GIBiz. GameStop customers want immediate gratification by trading in their titles for another game, said Greenwald, while Wal-Mart's kiosks will only offer credit days after the initial trade-in. "While new competition in the used game business is never a good thing for GameStop, we don't believe this proposition poses much of a near-term threat," he said in his latest note to investors. "This is more of a traffic driver to Wal-Mart's stores and an alternative for cash-strapped consumers, than something that will take meaningful share from Gamestop's core consumers. Within this program, consumers must wait at least 2-3 days to get credit. It doesn't seem like there's any compelling reason for a Gamestop customer to switch to Wal-Mart's kiosks rather than one of Gamestop's 6000 retail stores." "We continue to believe that its used game business is nearly bulletproof," he added. Avalanche Studios will lay off 20 employees in the next three months, according to reports. GamesIndustry.biz first learned of the layoffs -- which aren't nearly as severe as staff losses late in 2008. Altogether, the studio's seen nearly 100 employees laid off in the past six months, but Avalanche CEO Christopher Sundberg maintains the development of Eidos-published Just Cause 2 remains unaffected. The game is expected to show at E3 in June. "As any other company we need to manage risks and sometimes that unfortunately means that we have to give notice and lay off staff," says Sundberg. "It's not more complicated than that." The studio is also developing The Hunter for Emote games and, reportedly, a third unannounced project in development for an unknown publisher. And for a vid link today, the latest game from the Ico and Shadow of the Colossus developer is well worth a looksie! Read More.. | 23 Comments | |
