The Game Developers Conference holds its next event in San Francisco next March, but will miss one of its best.  The event organizers have announced that after 5 years working on the Game Developer Conference and Game Developer Events,  Jamil Moledina is leaving in pursuit of other interests.

The announcement states Meggan Scavio will pick-up the reins as Event Director.  She looks to continue and enhance the GDC’s relationship with the developer community which sounds promising as she is an 8-year veteran.
(more…)

Maurine Starkey is a founding member of Westwood Studios. She has worked as an art instructor, lead artist, art director, creative director, producer and game designer for over 24 years, plus continues to paint, sculpt, storyboard, and illustrate books, paper games, and comic books. (more…)

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!

(more…)

First off: I wish the title of this blog actually indicated that I had some excursion in South America replete with harrowing tales and wonderful discoveries… but this is about software. Yes, of course I am talking about the Behemoth software that is Maya 8.5 and learning to effectively and efficiently model.  I have absolutely no experience with Maya whatsoever but I have to admit that my lessons have been straightforward and sensible to implement. I won’t lie to you: I was worried at first. Online class, complicated program and a bunch of assignments to complete… but everything been straightforward and makes sense.  You just have to learn how to function all over again in a new software environment.
(more…)

“Judgment day is at hand, and it’s time for a showdown with the guy downstairs to bargain for Bosco’s soul.” Just another day in the lives of Sam and Max, the popular characters debuting in a series of Telltale’s episodic games. We nabbed up Director of Design Dave Grossman for an insightful and fun interview about all the happenings over at Telltale. I mean, who wouldn’t be having fun with chumps like Strongbad to hang out with?

(more…)

How would you like to travel the world for inspiration and research to create the art direction of a cross-console Next Gen game? That’s just the kind of experience former UbiSoft Art Director Raphael Lacoste had exposure to while working on the beautiful Assassin’s Creed. Although he’s since decided to move into films, he reflects here at Notes on Game Dev on his final game work.

(more…)

I run a video game studio out of my apartment. I have three employees, two of whom I’ve been working with since 2005. We’ve never met. They’re in Latvia, the Netherlands, and Japan. My boss, Dave Gilbert, lives in New York City. Right now I’m making him a game with a five-figure budget. I’ve never met him, either.

(more…)

Hello, I’m Amy Jones. I’m an artist, have a lifelong love of video games and was lucky enough to win the NoGD 2008 ‘Aspiring Women Artists Competition’. I am a product of an endlessly twisting road of unexpected, intricate and confusing attempts of trying to mesh my hobbies and career. Finally, I have an unusual light at the end of my twisted vocational journey: I’ve been granted the means to become an artist in the video game industry. To someone who doesn’t know me this may seem like a sudden and unexpected scholarship but the story behind winning it has been a lifetime in the making… er, my lifetime that is.

(more…)

Notes on Game Dev writer Nic Berry sits down with David “Knuckles Dawson” Dreger, a Microsoft MVP for Xbox and game journalist at Rooster Teeth, home of Red vs. Blue. And just what does it take to make a career out of blog writing about video games? Apparently perfect MCAT scores.

(more…)

The depth behind the main character Kratos from the God of War series is immense. One story of many tells of how Kratos’ skin is gray because he is covered in the ashes of his family. Although this has not explicitly appeared in game content thus far, the layers of stories add to a rich background that fans gather together. And who is responsible for this level of detail? Game writer Marianne Krawczyk, who took the time to talk about her experience working on the God of War games, which are undoubtedly continuing with the currently in-development God of War 3.

(more…)