Universities: The Indie Scene’s Bright-Eyed Little Brother

Much can be said about the indie scene in today’s industry: it’s hip, it’s sexy, it’s big business and getting bigger, it’s the guardian of innovation, it’s the future… I believe these are all true. The indie scene is certainly my pick for the right path both for individual developers and the industry as a […]

Casual Games Markets Plummeting to Earth

From a recent post on Greg Costikyan’s blog referencing a pair of posts on Sean Ryan’s blog regarding his experience and presentation from Casual Connect AMS 2008: the casual game development scene is starting to re-enter the atmosphere. As Greg puts it, “it’s not a landrush any more.” Casual game makers have made bank thus […]

Forgive Me, Master Vic

This evening I got an incredible phone call—Vic DeLeon, environment artist at Bungie and my mentor from GDC 2007, when I was an IGDA Scholar. Winning the scholarship was amazing enough, but you can scarcely imagine my astonishment that someone with this kind of status and reputation was going to take me around the conference. […]

Playing Nice

Yehuda posted another roundup the other day, and among the posts referenced was this one from this time last year. It’s about the work and philosophy of Judith Martin, better known as Miss Manners. I know hardly anything about Miss Manners except that my mother read a few of the books as a young woman […]

Shooting the Moon

A couple months ago this article showed up on GameProducer.com, reproducing a letter written by an anonymous game developer with an important story to tell. The subject may be best summed up by the author himself:
. . . I do have knowledge, for each technology section required to make [AAA 3D games], physics, graphics, AI, […]

“Passage” Site Complete

I created a simple tribute site for the art game Passage, by Jason Rohrer, subject of much critical acclaim as well as a post of mine from December 2007. I invite you all to investigate
http://www.davidmcdonough.net/passage/

Critical Series - Faith Fighter

A recent post on WaterCoolerGames.com describes the newest creation by indie dev Molleindustria: Faith Fighter. In their own words:
Faith Fighter is the ultimate fighting game for these dark times. Choose your belief and kick the shit out of your enemies. Give vent to your intolerance! Religious hate has never been so much fun.
More informative than […]

The Casual Skeleton in the Hardcore Closet

A recent post on Raph Koster’s blog describes a tectonic shift in the games industry—particularly the console segment—towards a repositioning of target audiences to the casual crowd… or at least more casual than in previous generations. “Away from the core gamers” is the salient detail, at any rate. Core gamers, it seems, are upset by […]