Indie Game: The Movie – Where Are They Now? - Features I spoke with filmmakers Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky, the duo behind Indie Game: The Movie, thorough e-mail, but unfortunately due to timing and space, I wasn't able to include their interview in the original article. To find out what their up to, and to find out more about the upcoming special edition of Indie Game: The Movie, you can check out the full interview below. What are you up to now? Hugo Bille's Blog - The Invisible Hand of Super Metroid The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. This Super Metroid analysis has been lying around on my own website for a while. Upon reading Mike Stout's Zelda dungeon design analysis here on Gamasutra, I realized that there is really no excuse not to post this here as well. Here I can assume that readers are somewhat familiar with the Metroid franchise or at least some other form of "Metroidvania", and skip some of the sight-seeing in favor of focusing on level design and the subtle tricks the designers seem to have used to direct the player through what may seem to be a haphazard experience, but is not. This analysis takes most of its material from the first playthrough of the game by my friend Rufus, which I had the pleasure of observing from beginning to end.
Shadowrun Creator Jordan Weisman Reveals Golem Arcana Following the extreme success of Harebrained Schemes’ Shadowrun Returns Kickstarter and subsequent on-time launch, studio founder and game designer Jordan Weisman wanted to return to his roots. In recent years Weisman is arguably best known for his work designing games like the rebooted Shadowrun for Xbox 360 and Microsoft’s Halo 2 ARG "I Love Bees." But in the early 1980s he founded FASA, creators of beloved tabletop games like Battletech and the original analog versions of Crimson Skies and Shadowrun. Bottom line? Both Weisman’s tabletop and video game credentials are more than legit.
Why Core Gamers Hate Free-to-Play What if Borderlands 2 was the exact same game as it is today, but it was free? Imagine a Borderlands 2 experience monetized by a player economy instead of a $60 up-front fee + $60 worth of post-launch DLC. You get the full game - the complete experience. If you choose to, you can buy and sell drops on a real-money auction house, with the creators taking a 10% cut.
Daniel Cook's Blog - A single game as a lifelong hobby The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. (This essay was originally posted on Lostgarden.com. Worth catching up on the existing comments so far.) Do you finish one game and then move onto the next?
When players buy your game before it's done: Expert tips on alpha funding On the face of it, alpha funding sounds like a relatively easy-to-implement ride. You develop part of your game, you put what you've created onto the internet with a price tag, and then use the money that comes in to fund the rest of the game's development. Of course, anyone with even the slightest idea of what this process entails knows that there's nothing simple about it. There's frequent updates to implment; there's multiple methods through which to offer your alpha; there's community interaction to keep them keen. If anything, you have to wonder whether offering an alpha build of your game could potentially distract you from actually making the damn thing. But do the pros of alpha funding your game outweigh the cons?
Paper Mario: Sticker Star Storyline Bowser crashes the Fest. World 1 Mario and Kersti get help from the group of Toads, who form stairs for them to walk onto the ledge. Why Left 4 Dead Works [What makes the Left 4 Dead series' gameplay design work so well for players? This comprehensive design analysis analysis from Full Sail grad student Paul Goodman and course director Adams Greenwood-Ericksen takes developer commentary and matches it against the SRK Framework, a tool for categorizing cognitive behavior in interactive media.] Mechanics are the core building blocks of any game. They are the primary method by which players are able to operate in a game environment to overcome the challenges and obstacles that a game's developers have placed down. Yet in their design a crucial factor can be overlooked with regards to how game mechanics are made or adjusted through the development process: understanding the ways in which players think and learn about the function of game mechanics is key to determining their effectiveness. A strength of the SRK framework is that it is broadly applicable to virtually all interactive activities.
So You Want to Be a Game Programmer? I often get email from people looking to get their first job in the game industry asking me for advice. What are companies looking for in candidates for entry-level programming positions? How come it’s so difficult to land a job? Robert Boyd's Blog - So You Want to Be an Indie Game Developer? The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. So You Want to Be an Indie Game Developer? First off, enjoying the playing videogames is not the same as making them. Seems pretty obvious, but you'd be surprised at how many people assume that just because they like to play videogames, they'd also enjoy making them.
Want To Make a Video Game? Here's How! Please ensure you have JavaScript enabled in your browser. If you leave JavaScript disabled, you will only access a portion of the content we are providing. <a href="/science-fair-projects/javascript_help.php">Here's how.</a> Want to make video games for a living? Here's how For any gamer with a creative side, the thought has probably occurred at least once: What if I could make video games for a living? But for a would-be game designer, the industry can be a tough nut to crack. For starters, the field can be insular.
Getting Started How long have you dreamed of making a video game? Video game development is a substantial industry, employing over 40,000 people in North America alone. But while many people daydream about working in game development, few have the chops to follow through and take action.