Jenova Chen, creator behind the multi award-winning student game Cloud and flOw, co-founder of thatgamecompany, is dedicated to expanding the emotional spectrum of video games and making them available for a much wider audience. And how did Jenova “make it” as an independent developer? With a lot of support and a drive for innovation.
Tamir Nadav, formerly a programmer who has marked his path out as a game designer at KingsIsle, has been involved in the industry for over 5 years with his enthusiastic networking abilities. He’s always up for an interesting conversation and pitches in with events like Women In Games International, which promotes the inclusion and advancement of women in the games industry, worldwide.
Mythic isn’t bad, they’re just a victim of genre. Jen MacLean, Chairperson of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and VP of Business Development at 38 Studios, recently set the record straight about the Mythic Warhammer Online credits controversy. For those not in the know, Mythic was targeted for press attacks when news got out that people who worked on the Warhammer MMO prior to the studio shift and lost over 3-4 years of work wouldn’t get credit.
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For all of you independent game developers out there, it ain’t always easy finding funding, especially for avant garde or experimental games. That’s where GCube Ventures, an investment firm for interactive entertainment, steps in. Managing Director Shiraz Akmal, formerly from THQ, filled us in on the details of this unique form of financial support for a “gaming ecosystem” from content development to publishing to distribution.
Ready for a Retro-Future with customizable characters and a wide range of new creative “homemade weapons” to blast away your nuclear waste enemies? The time is almost here! But until then, there’s a range of concept art and sneak peek screenshots. In this interview we feature character artist Dane Olds, who is responsible for weapons as a character artist for Bethesda’s much anticipated Fallout 3.
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Although we specialize in game art and design, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to talk with Blaine Christine, Producer at BioWare Austin. Sadly we didn’t get any good juicy bits about the mysterious unannounced forthcoming MMO (are you thinking what I’m thinking?) but we did get ourselves a case of BioWare job envy. Blaine’s is a classic story from QA to Producer.
In line with the recommendation to independent game developers to chase Asian markets with strategies like micro-transactions in portable community-oriented games, there’s a new untapped audience on the rise. Mexico is known as a market caught up with piracy, but a recent report from Research and Markets Ltd. suggests that the game industry there could be worth $1 billion by 2010.
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As game designers, we need to ask ourselves how far we should go. The Wii is a whole new playing field for experimenting with forms of game play. And right now, the news is abuzz with the upcoming release of Mad World for its violence in physically enacting attacks with the Wiimote. I’d like to remind everyone that this is nothing new–other games such as Manhunt 2 and Red Steel experimented with this play awhile ago. Of them all, Man Hunt 2 is the most overtly violent.
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It’s not just about hardcore versus casual (and not to be confused about people getting hardcore about casual games). Researchers at Ghent University* responded to the latest generation of game technology (mmm, Nintendo Wii) by coming up with new labels for gamers based on player motivation. In the end, all of this research is to help game developers design games for different kinds of players.
What do you get when you put together a writer, artist, designer, academic, and activist all in one? Mary Flanagan and her work at Tiltfactor, the first academic center to focus on social activist games. We had the chance to nab up an interview with Mary all about her work and role in feminist game design. Because, yes, games can be feminist!
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