ARCHIVE
 Interview
with the Goddess: A Chat with Lorne Lanning & Sherry
McKenna
Wired has called Oddworld Inhabitants co-founders Lorne Lanning and Sherry
McKenna "game making gods" and, to date, Oddworld
products have received over 100 awards and sold nearly
4.3 million units worldwide. Oddworld’s decision to
develop exclusively for Xbox and Microsoft stirred
passions and debate among their original fan base, but
with the Xbox release of Munch’s Oddysee raking
in the accolades, all appears well in the land of Odd...More (November 2003)
Developer's Life Part 13: More
Bookshelf Clearing
By François Dominic Laramée
It's that time of year again: my bookshelves are
overflowing with good stuff I have to recommend to you
guys, just in time for the game industry's Great Annual
Post-Christmas-Release-Crunch Sleepoff! Lots of good
stuff in there, so grab a pencil, fire up your Amazon
wish list, or just cajole your loved one something
extra, and read on…More (November 2003)
Interview with the Goddess: A Chat with Jason Rubin
In
this interview, Melanie chats up Jason Rubin,
President and Co-Founder of Naughty Dog. Jason and his
partner, Andy Gavin, have been developing games since
1986, and helped make the world a brighter place with
the Crash Bandicoot franchise, selling more than 25
million units worldwide. The third
installment in the Crash series, Crash Bandicoot:
Warped is reportedly the only foreign created and
developed title to have sold more than a million units
in Japan in the history of video games. Today, Jason and
Naughty Dog ready for the anticipated debut of Jak II,
the sequel to Jak & Daxter, the game that
some have credited for making PlayStation2 the leading
console for platform games...More
(October 2003)
Interview with the
Goddess: A Chat with Ian Wilkinson
In this interview, Melanie chats up Ian
Wilkinson, President and Chief Executive Officer of
Radical Entertainment. Founded by Ian in 1991,
Radical has developed a variety of successful games
including the recently released Hulk and
Simpsons Road Rage which has now sold over 1.8
million copies. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia,
Radical Entertainment was recognized in 2000 as one of
"Canada's 50 Best Managed Private Companies" and last
year was ranked the best place to work by BC Business
Magazine. The company now employs over 200 people
and has been lauded for implementing superior
communication between staff and management....More
(September 2003)
Interview
with the Goddess: A Chat with the Game Critics
In her monthly column, Melanie chats with
some of the most well known developers in the game
industry. Now, in this interview or, rather, in
these interviews, she turns the tables. She asked
Richard Aihoshi, Wagner James Au, Jim "Ripclaw"
Broach, Eric Butcher, Steven "Westlake" Carter,
Victor Godinez, Tricia "Kazi Wren" Harris, Dave
"Fargo" Kosak, Phil LaRose, and Chuck
Osborn, ten of the industry's most established
game critics, to share their thoughts on games,
and hopefully some insight for developers. Whether
you agree or disagree, their responses should make
for some interesting reading...More
(August 2003)
Austin
Game Developers Conference: Reasons to Attend (And Not
Just Because it's in Austin)
An initial
heads up: This article will be biased. And not
because anyone paid us to make it biased. Rather, this
article will be biased because this publication likes
kindred spirits. Those who offer an alternative to the
establishment. While the establishment certainly has its
benefits, including a certain level of comfort, there’s
also often nothing more inspiring and invigorating than
an alternative. We like to think we offer an alternative
to the industry trade publication "network", and we
believe the upcoming Austin Game Developers Conference
(September 11-12) may do likewise in
the game developers conference realm...More
(August 2003)
Interview
with the Goddess: A Chat with Jeff Anderson
In this interview, Melanie chats up Jeff
Anderson, President and CEO of Turbine
Entertainment, developers of the Asheron’s
Call online games, as well as the upcoming
Middle-Earth Online, based on J.R.R.
Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings, and
the very recently announced Dungeons &
Dragons Online...More
(June 2003)
The
Developer's Life Part 12: Enough is Never Really
Enough
By Francois Dominic Laramee
The always opinionated FDL kicks off a hot
summer with his take on the IDSA's attack on a
Washington state law, neoliberal dogma and
Reagan-Thatcher-Bush-Chrétien laissez-faire
capitalism. He also wonders why every game needs
to fill twelve DVDs and require 200 hours of
play time to receive favorable reviews – or even
any sort of distribution at all? And then he
really gets fired up...More
(June 2003)
E3
2003 Wrap Up:
Excitement, Expectations, Earnings
By Wendy Hall,
Larta
In an attempt to please the growing and
increasingly sophisticated interactive
entertainment audience, console manufacturers
and game developers pulled out all the stops at
this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo. Price
cut disappointments, Sony's new hand held
device, and slicker, more sophisticated
standards in gaming graphics took center
stage...More
(June 2003)
The
Developers Life Part 11: Size Matters
by Francois Dominic Laramee
Some time ago, the esteemed editor of this
publication and I briefly considered looking for a
sponsor for my column. Back then I quickly dismissed the
idea, convinced that no sponsor worth his salt would
give a second look to my left-leaning nonsense when
there were so many worthier targets for their
not-entirely-disinterested generosity. But now might be
a good time to revisit the concept, because the more I
think about it, the more I believe that I just might be
the last sponsor-free entity left on Earth...More
(May 2003)
Interview
with the Goddess: A Chat with American McGee
There are very few "above the title" names in
the game industry. American McGee is the obvious exception
to the rule. In December 2000 when Electronic Arts
released American McGee’s Alice, a darkly gothic
version of the Lewis Carroll tales, a
star was born. American was selected by PC Gamer
as one of the future "Game Gods", listed in the
Rolling Stone "Hot" list as "Hot Game Designer" and
was ranked #40 in the Gear Magazine "100 Most
Exciting People, Places, Things" issue...More
(May 2003)
Not
Dead Yet: A Report on the 2003 Game Developers
Conference
By François Dominic Laramée
He's back! It's time once again for FDL's GDC report
and, as in years past, no stone is left unturned and no
tamale husk left uncommented. So, let's begin this recap
with a big fat self-commiserating rant...More
(March 2003)
Interview with
the Goddess:
A Chat with the Oliver Twins
Melanie chats up
Philip and Andrew Oliver, perhaps better known as
the Oliver Twins, founders of independent game developer
Blitz Games. They began writing games in 1981 and had
their first games published in 1984. By 1986 an
estimated 7% of all games sold in the UK were attributed
to the Olivers. Over the years they have developed over
100 games...More
(March 2003)
Book
Review:
Secrets of the Game
Business
Some of the most common questions we
receive at GIGnews are posed by new developers
desperately seeking business advice. How do we get
published? We need artists, how do we put a team
together? We’re about to sign a publishing deal, should
we agree to X? We do the best we can to steer them in
the right direction, but we don’t always have all the
answers. Happily, a new book from Charles River Media
has come to the rescue....More
(March 2003)
Networking
Tips For GDC 2003
By Marc Mencher
Whether networking for new clients or a new
job, here are some suggestions for making the most out
of your entire networking experience at GDC...More
(February 2003)
Dr.
Ian Parberry and UNT's Laboratory for Recreational
Computing
In December, a couple of GIGnews editors had the
opportunity to "judge" game demos created by students at
the University of North Texas’ Laboratory for
Recreational Computing (LARC). LARC was established in
the Department of Computer Sciences at the UNT by Dr.
Ian Parberry in 1993 to train students as game
programmers. The Laboratory is a crucible for creativity
and originality, and stresses extracurricular
educational activity, cooperative learning, and group
activity on large programming projects. Impressed by the
quality of the demos and the students, we sat down with
Dr. Parberry for a quick Q&A...More
(February 2003)
Interview
With the Goddess: A Chat With Tom Kudirka of 2015
In this interview, Melanie chats up Tom Kudirka,
Founder, President, and CEO of 2015, Inc. 2015’s most
recent release, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault,
represents the culmination of Tom’s efforts as a studio
head. Tom is currently steering the studio through the
transition to the console market and 2015 has two highly
anticipated projects in production, including the
recently announced Men of Valor: Vietnam...More
(February 2003)
The
Developer's Life Part 10: Looking for a Quick Fix
By François Dominic Laramée
One of the things that surprised our beloved FDL
during the process of putting together his upcoming book
Secrets of the Game Business was how few of
the developers who wrote articles or submitted to
interviews complained about the business practices of
their publishers. After all, while the situation inside
the industry may not be anywhere near as dire as
"conventional wisdom" would lead us to believe, he has
lived through a couple of horror stories himself, and he
expected most of my peers to have as well. But it
doesn't seem to be the case....More
(December 2002)
Soundbites
Amazingly enough, 2002 is just about a done deal and
that means it's pundit time. GIGnews contacted industry
insiders to get their quick take
on the industry over the past year, and what they
envision and/or hope for next year. Good or bad, and
whether a couple of words or a couple of sentences, we
asked for their thoughts and we were kindly obliged.
Learn what developers, publishers, reviewers, and more have to say
about the year behind and the year ahead for the
games...More
(December 2002)
Interview
with the Goddess: A Chat with Alain Tascan
In
this interview, Melanie chats up Alain Tascan. A
well-known game industry executive, Alain is Vice
President of Worldwide Product Development for BAM!
Entertainment. He joined BAM! after seven years at Ubi
Soft where he served as its Vice President of Product
Development. He was also responsible for the creation of
Ubi Soft Licensing, which includes entertainment
partnerships with Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, Disney
Interactive and New Line Media. Some call him a "suit,"
some call him "Mr. Vice President," but we just call him
that fun guy with the French accent...More
(December 2002)
Getting
Published: Part 3:
Just what are these games made of...legally speaking?
By Thomas H. Buscaglia, Esquire
The games you make are ultimately reduced to code. 1s
and 0s. But you know there is a lot more to what goes
into a game than just code. Art, sounds, textures,
models, animations and, of course, the engines that make
them go. Legally, this stuff is all termed Intellectual
Property or IP for short. There are several basic types of IP: copyrighted
works, patented inventions, trade and service marks, and
trade secrets. Attorney Tom Buscaglia takes a closer look at the different
types of IP to help you better understand their differences and
similarities...More
(October/November 2002)
Getting
Published Part 2: Initial Legal Issues
By Thomas H. Buscaglia, Esquire
So, you and a group of your talented friends have come
up with an idea for the best computer game ever. You
have the concept, you have the talent, and you’re ready
to rock. You begin with a really great story line,
amazing 2D renderings from a local artist friend of
yours and you use your substantial talents to transform
these 2D renderings into some of the most awesome 3D
characters and creatures that anyone has ever seen. A
friend of your brother is a hot-shot programmer and he
has done all the programming you need to make your game
go. You even put some really rocking music which you
downloaded off the net into the program. So, now your
demo is all ready to be presented to publishers to land
that development deal your have all worked for, right?
...More
(August/September 2002)
Getting
Published Part 1: Process Overview
The topic of how developers go about getting
published is an involved one and, apparently for many,
based on the "help!" emails we receive, an elusive one. Rather than trying to cover it all in
one article, we’ve decided to begin an ongoing
exploration of the topic. We begin this month with an
initial overview...More
(July 2002)
The
Developer's Life Archive: The complete series to
date by Francois Dominic Laramee ...More
Interview
With the Goddess Archives: A complete run down
to date of recent interviews with Larry Holland, Bruce Shelley, BigSky Interactive, Yu Suzuki, Elonka Dunin, Will Wright, Stevie Case and
John Romero, Richard Garriott,
Paul Steed, George "The Fat Man" Sanger, Paul Steed,
Marc Saltzman, and Rick Hall...More
Women
in games.
While the numbers of women entering the game industry
fray have undoubtedly increased over the past several
years, those numbers can still appear remarkably low. A
glance down the list of over 200 speakers at the recent
Game Developers Conference revealed about one female for
every twenty male speakers, and at least one game
development school reports almost 90% male enrollment.
So, why aren’t more women involved in game development?
And what is being done to change those numbers?...More
(May 2002)
Korean
Online Gaming: With
reports of one in every thirty Koreans having played
MMOG Lineage: The Blood Pledge at least once -
and that’s just one game – the phenomenon that is Korean
online gaming has drawn increasingly close attention ...More
(February 2002)
Negotiating
Contracts That Protect Your Title and Team by
Jay Powell
SURVIVAL
OF THE FATTEST: HOW I (BARELY) MADE IT THROUGH ANOTHER
GDC by François Dominic Laramée
GIG
@ GDC
Marketing
and Design
Your
Tradeshow Marketing Guide
Designing
for the Mainstream
by
Francois Dominic Laramee
Design
and Revenue Considerations for "Instant Play"
Online Games by Ben Exworthy and Marina Fish,
GameHouse, Inc.
From
his chilly perch near the North Pole, François
Dominic Laramée gets tight with the jolly fat guy and lets us in on Santa's
Shopping List for the Game Industry
Inspiration
What inspires great ideas? We asked a few game
industry types...
Game Industry
Charity
How I Spent My
Spring Break: A Report on the 2000 Game Developers Conference by François-Dominic
Laramée
Jay
Powell, Game Agent
|
