A Game Development Blog

How to get a job in… Production

We spoke with by Realtime Worlds’ production manager Russell Murray about how to improve your potential for a prospective role in production.

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Sony Shows Off Various Companies Supporting Home

The Japanese arm of Sony has revealed a number of the high-profile games companies that have currently signed up for licenses to develop content for the firm’s growing virtual world service PlayStation Home.

Big-hitting backers such as EA, Capcom and Ubisoft had already been announced, and Siliconera reports that they have been joined by the likes of Activision, Sega, Disney, Konami and Namco.

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Phil Harrison on the Power of the Atari Brand

In Part 2 of our interview with Phil, he discusses the importance of the Atari brand, the next steps in Atari’s transformation, and the state of the games industry as a whole.

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LittleBigPlanet Review: A Designer’s Dream Game

A Digital Dreamer takes a close look at this gem of a PS3 game that every designer should take the time to play.

We had heard a lot of great things about LittleBigPlanet for the Playstation 3 months before it was released. We heard things like the way the characters were designed and showed emotions brought instant smiles on the faces of pretty much anyone who had a chance to play it. We had heard about great looking levels, multiplayer interaction, and creation aspects of the game. Little did we know… Little did we know…

Getting down to the most basic elements of the game, LittleBigPlanet is essentially a 2D side scrolling adventure. To leave it at that though would be criminal. The levels and puzzles you face in this beautiful world are some of the best level design concepts I’ve ever encountered. I was often left thinking, “How did they ever think of that? This game just from the single player elements alone warrants an instant purchase for those wanting to see a fresh angle to level design and problem solving at its purest form.

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XNA Developers Community Network

In the near future, Microsoft will be opening the floodgates so that anyone with a compatible compiler, Game Studio and the desire to make a game will be able to release products for the XBox 360 under the Community Games brand. Let’s not forget that since it’s XNA based, this also includes Windows and the Zune. As each developer (who pays their membership to the XNA Creators Club) will be given the key. Once the game undergoes the submit, peer-review process and is consequently approved will see their game listed in the XBox Live Marketplace for Community Games.

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Breaking into the Video Game Industry

For many people, getting a job in the game industry is their dream job. Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is being a game designer, making great games that people all over the world will play - oh, and get paid for it is good too!. The problem of course is how to get there. There was a catch-22: Companies wanted people but the people had to have experience - and those companies didn’t want to pay those new people to learn, they just wanted them to hit the ground running. This made it hard for those wanting to get in and prove themselves. So unless you got creative, it was very difficult. How can you get experience when they won’t give you the chance? When up against a wall what do you do? Make your own exit through.

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Game Designers Focus on Girls

Tony Key, senior vice president of marketing for video game maker Ubisoft, points to the Title IX anti-discrimination law when talking about new opportunities in gaming.

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Testing a Sports Video Game

As a longtime sports video game geek, it was a unique opportunity.

Electronic Arts Canada community manager Marcus Stephenson, a longtime online friend from our years playing Madden football and conversing on the game’s related message boards, sent me a PM (private message) in early September and asked: “How would you like to come out to Vancouver and help us test a game?”

Frankly, it was probably like Cindy Crawford asking Hugh Hefner if she could do a spread in his magazine. Uh, yes, I would.

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Peter Jackson Halo Project Revealed in Job Listing?

We’ve been hearing tidbits here and there about Peter Jackson working with Microsoft to create a new Halo experience, but using the talent and direction from this great movie director. Well, looking through the Gamasutra Job Boards, we came across something really tasty. The Job title listed by Microsoft Game Studios?

“Creative Director ? building a new Halo universe“

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UK games industry addresses skills shortage

The UK games industry needs to play a more active role in academia, helping to shape the syllabi of university courses to ensure game development students graduate with the right skills for industry, a Westminster Media Forum Keynote Seminar on the UK computer games industry has heard.

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