Group items tagged

"Abstract Video game developers have a tough road ahead as they try to out-do their competitors and develop the next blockbuster video game. The problem they face is that the cost of developing a video game is rising. The pressure mounts as economic uncertainty has led many consumers to cut spending on lucrative video game titles that publishers are tossing out up to $100 million (in rare cases) to develop, and the publishers are already beginning to feel the heat. Recent years have seen a number of publishers close up shop and even more publishers cutting jobs to save on spending. Despite the need for producing a product more efficiently and within a time restriction, the video game industry bases most of the production phases in-house instead of adopting a 24-hour business model in co-located sites around the world. Implementation of the 24 hour knowledge factory can help to solve some of the problems developers face in the numerous phases of video game development. However, publishers have yet to take advantage of this efficient business model."

"MakeGamesWithUs is a new iOS game publishing company with a twist: its focus is on helping high school and college students to build games. MakeGamesWithUs us will take the kids' creations, provide professional graphics and art and publish them in the App Store."

Report from the DICE summit on discussion about industry changes moving toward independent game developers

""The sixteen essays in this collection offer critical examinations of the issue of control in video games, including different ways to theorize and define control within video gaming and how control impacts game design and game play. Close readings of specific games consider how each locates elements of control in their structures"--Provided by publisher. Excerpted in Google Books. Published 2012.

To be published in May 2013, excepts in Google Books. "From the text adventures of Zork, to the arcade game of Pac-Man, to the corridors of Doom, and on to the city streets of Grand Theft Auto IV, the maze has often been used as a space to trap and confuse players in their navigation of gameworlds. However, the maze as a construction on the landscape has a long history before the invention of the videogame. By examining the change in the maze from the landscapes of open spaces and closed gardens through to the screen of the videogame, both mazes and labyrinths are discussed in terms of historical reference, alongside the author's personal experiences of walking and playing these structures. This book shows how our cultural experiences of real world maze landscapes may have changed, and how we negotiate videogame worlds along the various paths and meanings they so often create for us."

Excerpted in Google Books, Published November 2012."Join videogame industry veteran Michael Thornton Wyman on a series of detailed, behind-the-scenes tours with the teams that have made some of the most popular and critically acclaimed videogames of the modern era. Drawing on insider's perspectives from a wide variety of teams, learn about the creation of a tiny, independent game project (World of Goo), casual game classics (Diner Dash, Bejeweled Twist), the world's most popular social game (FarmVille) as well as the world's most popular MMORPG (World of Warcraft), PC titles (Half Life 2) to AAA console games (Madden NFL 10), and modern-day masterpieces (Little Big Planet, Rock Band, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves). Hear directly from the creators about how these games were made, and learn from their stories from the trenches of videogames production. This book is an excellent resource for those working directly on game design or production, for those aspiring to work in the field, or for anyone who has wondered how the world's greatest videogames get made."

Game Development for IOS with Unity3d, published by CRC Press in 2012, walks you through design, compatibility, debugging and publishing.

by Larissa Hjorth, published February 2011 (Bloomsbury)

"Point and click adventure game"

Report of a research study on how developers of 200 classic video game titles receive no royalties from publisher, followed by interview with author on why this is the case

"This paper is a part of the game studies field from a design perspective. It investigates the computer game design process, focusing primarily on prototyping, as it is being performed in game development today. ... Potential users of prototypes and prototyping methods range from the designer and the design team, to beta testers and publishers. The focus in this paper is on internal use of prototypes, where the design team is the target audience. The prototype functions as a tool for getting the team on the same track and to introduce new members to the work. Prototypes and visualizations also tend to replace the game design document more and more. The work presented here is based on analysis of interviews with game designers. By applying perspectives from rhetoric, the aim is to investigate how the communication around the prototyping process within a design team can be improved."

"Arkadium has survived for the past decade by making casual games for the web and Facebook. But with the arms race going in games, that approach may not cut it anymore. So the New York game publisher is announcing today that it has hired industry veteran Stephen Jarrett as its vice president of game design. ... The new hire goes with the strategy of moving up in games and making big investments in game platforms such as the upcoming Windows 8 operating system from Microsoft."

"Video game design isn't just coding and random number generators. It is a complex process involving art, music, writing, programming, and caffeine, that should be approached holistically. The entire process can be intimidating to the uninitiated programmer, which is why I've written an all-inclusive guide to game design. With the creation of my own original video game, Super Fish Quest, as a model, I analyze each part of the design process, discuss the technical side of programming, and research how to raise money and publish a game as an independent game developer."

Mainstream game publishers exploring Linux game development

Recently published by CRC Press, excerpts on Google Books. "expert advice you need to generate compelling and original game concepts and narratives."

abstract: "This paper examines video game sales by platform in the North American market from a period spanning 2006 through 2011. As the home video game industry has rapidly matured and become established as a forefront facet of interactive entertainment in the home, we seek to determine what aspects of the video game market seem to most impact sales. This question is particularly poignant as the maturation of the video game industry has witnessed efforts at both vertical integration and horizontal expansion on the part of the top game publishers and developers in hopes of solidly grounding the industry. This study employs a Kruskal-Wallis test to compare eight different gaming platforms. The results indicate Nintendo's Wii and DS are the top selling game platforms, Xbox 360 is in a second tier, multiple Sony PlayStation platforms are in the third tier, personal computer games are in tier four, and the retired sixth generation Nintendo GameCube is the lowest sales tier."

Published 2013 and excerpted in Google Books. From the description: "In Honoring the Code: Conversations with Great Game Designers, 16 groundbreaking game developers share their stories and offer advice for anyone aspiring to a career in the games industry. You'll learn from their triumphs and failures and see how they dealt with sweeping changes in technology, including critical paradigm shifts from CD-ROMs and 3D graphic cards to the Internet and mobile revolution. The book presents in-depth interviews with a diverse mix of game professionals, emphasizing the makers of adventure games, role-playing games, and real-time strategies. It focuses on developers who have contributed to multiple eras or genres as well as those who have hired, taught, or mentored newcomers. Since the mobile revolution has opened up new demographics and new gameplay mechanics, the book features current developers of games for mobile devices. It also explores how indie game developers are making commercial-quality games with a small team mostly using free tools and funded with crowdsourcing applications."

Published 2013 and excerpted in Google Books

Published March 2013 and excerpted in Google Books