July 21, 2005

Beware the Ides of August?

guide05.jpg As you can see, the Game Developer Career Guide for 2005 is now available, complete with neeto Scott Hansen/ISO50 cover art. Actually, you can get it the mag both in stores (try Fry's Electronics, Barnes & Noble, and so on), or buy it online in digital form - hope it'll help budding game developers in some way.

However, next up is the August issue of the magazine, which has actually already gone to the printers. So what's in it? Well, for the cover story, we have what I honestly think is one of the best Game Developer postmortems of all time, in the form of Double Fine Productions' Psychonauts. With such a quirked-up, crazy Tim Schafer-headed project that spans four and a half years and almost 12 million dollars, you can hardly avoid some great lessons, and exec producer Caroline Esmurdoc (coincidentally, an old boss of mine) has written a mind-tingling expose of the game's genesis.

In addition, there's a great technical piece by the guys at Firaxis, explaining how they've made Civilization IV one of the most moddable games around - and also how they faked the curvature of the Earth for the game, heh. Add to that an expanded Business Level column from Destroy All Humans! and Full Spectrum Warrior makers Pandemic Studios about growing your game company smoothly and successfully, plus a bunch of neat technical columns (Steve Theodore's piece on modeling CG eyes is particularly enthralling), and all the other 'normal' content, and it's happy sails all round.

On Gamasutra, heck, we're bounding along as well - we've now started the daily 'news feature', with a good initial explanation available on the site, and Frank Cifaldi and Jim Rossignol (with a tiny dash of, uh, me) doing a great job of writing them. Highlights so far? Probably Tim Schafer's media consumption, Rossignol's eclectic insanity, a 'critical reception' for Killer 7, and playing catch-up with Al Lowe, ah reckon. Otherwise, there are still plenty of neat full-length features, too, from Astro Studios on designing the look of the Xbox 360 through Borut Pfeifer on the rise of indie gaming to Rodney Greenblat discussing Parappa and Um Jammer, all the way to discussion of formal usability studies for games. I really feel like the site is firing on all cylinders, and, sad obsessive that I am, it makes me happy.

Otherwise, heck, just keep reading the linklog, drinking in the information, watching the skies, and I'll see you for more frantic recapping in just a few Earth weeks.

Posted by h0l211 at 09:49 PM