GDC08: PhyreEngine, Sony’s new (free!) cross-platform engine
Thursday, February 21st, 2008 Posted in Development Tools, Video Game News, Video Game Dev | No Comments »Quietly unveiled at yesterday's PSN session was PhyreEngine, a new "free to use graphics engine" from Sony Computer Entertainment. According to the presentation, the package includes full documentation, "70+ samples" and "full source code and artwork" of sample game ...
Microsoft Unveils Full XNA Game Studio Plans
Thursday, February 21st, 2008 Posted in Development Tools, Video Game News, Video Game Dev, Video Game Industry | No Comments »Just as we suspected, the cunning group at Microsoft has revealed big plans for its XNA program, aimed at giving homebrew software developers a chance to showcase their talent. John Schappert, Microsoft's corporate vice president of Live, Software and Services for ...
GDC: Ken Levine’s Secrets of Game Story
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 Posted in Developer Profiles, Video Game Dev, Video Game Industry | 2 Comments »In his speech he offered fascinating insights into the development of Bioshock, and how the game’s underlying story had evolved as well as how it came to represent a high-point of in-game storytelling. “The truth is that nobody cares about your ...
Bioshock Creator Levine Agrees, Ending Failed
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 Posted in Video Game Dev | No Comments »While interviewing Ken Levine earlier this month for my story on the use of objectivism in BioShock we talked quite a bit about the plot. Near the end of the interview I found myself compelled to tell Levine what I ...
Molyneux: About to Revolutionize AI in Fable 2?
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 Posted in Video Game Dev, Video Game Industry | No Comments »Speaking in an interview with Next-Gen, at GDC, Monday afternoon, Molyneux hinted that the new game would revolutionize in-game AI. Although he refused to be drawn on details he said, “In the six years since Black & White [was released] ...
Epic’s Cliffy B Talks About The Proper Time To Announce A Big Game
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 Posted in Video Game Dev, Video Game Industry | No Comments »This post is not about “Gears of War 2. The mastermind behind the only “Gears” game that has ever been released, Cliff Bleszinski makes it clear in the interview that follows that he’s not hinting at any sequel.So don’t go ...
Microsoft Developing New Xbox Live?
Monday, February 18th, 2008 Posted in Video Game Industry | No Comments »The job description, as advertised on Games on Deck, calls for a program manager to help "build the games, the console interface and logic, and the server support for a totally new Live experience”.“Want to be involved in the next ...
ImageMetrics Facial Animation Tapped For UT3, GTA IV
Monday, February 18th, 2008 Posted in Development Tools, Animation / 3D, Video Game Dev | 6 Comments »Animation software company Image Metrics has revealed that its proprietary facial animation solution was used to animate characters in games including 2K Games' Top Spin 3, Epic's Unreal Tournament 3, and Rockstar's Midnight Club Los Angeles and Grand Theft Auto ...
Former Naught Dog Devs form new Studio “Big Red Button Entertainment”
Saturday, February 16th, 2008 Posted in Video Game Dev, Video Game Industry | No Comments »The current game-industry landscape is a challenging environment for startup studios, and even more so for those looking to focus on their own original intellectual properties. Given that, it's a good thing for the recently incorporated Big Red Button Entertainment ...
Peggle developer interview - casual gaming, hardcore and consoles
Saturday, February 16th, 2008 Posted in Video Game Dev | 1 Comment »John Vechey is one of three co-founders of PopCap games, a developer and distributor of numerous casual cross-platform titles. Starting with Bejeweled in 2001, their games have been downloaded over 1 billion times and released over multiple platforms. We caught up ...