[I’m so far behind on blog updates, that I’m just gonna repost this mag-related post from GameSetWatch, so you guys at least get SOME updates! More soon!]
So, as you guys may recall, I’m also EIC of Game Developer magazine in my ‘copious spare time’, and as it happens, we just made the December 2006 issue of the mag available online for paid digital download. For those who don’t know, GDMag goes out to around 35,000 qualified game professionals in North America and worldwide every month, and it’s a B2B trade mag which deals with the art and business of making games, with postmortems, technical articles, and in-depth columns galore. And Reggie gets it!
Anyhow, with the help of trusty cohorts Brandon and Jill, who kinda actually run the mag (since I’m evilly busy), our cover postmortem this month is for Introversion’s Defcon, written by Chris Delay, Vicky Arundel, Thomas Arundel, Gary Chambers, and John Knottenbelt – yep, the whole caboodle. Wired’s Chris Baker already IM-ed me to say something nice about it, so it does indeed seem to be a neat look at making an indie death sim extraordinaire – which is now available in a Santa edition, incidentally!
Other goodness in the issue includes an in-depth article on piracy, interviewing folks like Todd Hollenshead from id and representatives from the ESA, alongside a technical article on how, “…using a data-driven AI architecture, Pandemic Studios created a flexible [AI] system for Destroy All Humans II.” Plus our regular columnists, of course.
And shh, don’t tell anyone, but here’s a sneak peek at our January 2007 cover, which both reveals the Front Line Award winners for the best game tools, and also has an exclusive Wii postmortem, for Toys For Bob’s Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam, alongside plenty of other goodness.
Oh yeah, and it has a GDC 2007 preview guide in it, so the entire Jan 2007 issue is going out to >100,000 people on our GDC mailing lists – so you may see a copy even if you don’t normally subscribe to the magazine. That’s why we’re eradicating typos _as I speak_, and consulting our Funk & Wagnalls tremulously.
Anyhow, if you don’t get Game Developer right now and would like to (esp. if you’re not a qualified game professional!), there’s actually a special deal on the digital version to be $21.95 for the year, if you’re so inclined. [The digital edition is like reading the mag in a web browser, and works really well – esp. cos you have access to back issues and it’s searchable. I still like the print edition, which is a bit more expensive, but that’s just my paper leanings!]
(Also worth noting with regard to my current work – the IGF Main Competition finalists are announced: “Nominations are led by Bit Blot’s dreamlike, innovatively controlled 2D underwater adventure title Aquaria, which garnered 4 nominations, including one for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. Other Grand Prize nominees included Queasy Games’ cleverly designed abstract shoot-em-up, Everyday Shooter, which grabbed 3 nominations in total – nominees for the top prize were rounded out by Peter Stock’s intelligently complex physics puzzle game Armadillo Run, Three Rings’ Wild West indie strategy MMO Bang! Howdy, and Naked Sky’s Xbox Live Arcade action-puzzler RoboBlitz.”)