Turning down Zynga: Why I left after the $210M Omgpop buy
gamasutra.comThese are not good reasons to join a company whose values are the opposite of your own, or to compromise your ideals, or to give up control of something you rightfully own. I politely declined to join Zynga and became the only Omgpop employee to be left behind. I don't have a job; but I can sleep soundly at night knowing that I'm not working for any employer with whom I strongly disagree.
Estimated reading time: 8 min
Gamasutra - News - Turning down Zynga: Why I left after the $210M Omgpop buy
gamasutra.comI politely declined to join Zynga and became the only Omgpop employee to be left behind. I don't have a job; but I can sleep soundly at night knowing that I'm not working for any employer with whom I strongly disagree.
Estimated reading time: 8 min
Persuasive Games: Wii Can't Go On, Wii'll Go On
gamasutra.comthe Wii U isn't sure of itself, and that's its greatest virtue. In an age when showy CEOs shout hubristic, trite predictions about the inevitable future of games, The Wii U offers an understated bravado that's far more courageous. With it, Nintendo admits, "we don't know either." We don't know what video games are anymore, or what they will become. It's a huge risk, and it's probably the most daring move Nintendo has made in its 125-year history. Domestication through polite ferocity. Feral design.
Estimated reading time: 22 min
Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem
gamasutra.comI hadn't considered the idea of putting this new SimCity to real-world use. So when the second beta weekend rolled around, I decided to have a crack at testing some theories that I have about my own hometown of Northenden, Manchester (population of roughly 15,000, as far as I can tell).
Estimated reading time: 6 min
In-depth: Is it time for a text game revival?
gamasutra.comGamers are hungry for deeper characterization and worlds to which they can truly attach, and text can be a way to illuminate inner worlds, thought processes or other elements that aren't easily demonstrated by imagery.
Estimated reading time: 8 min
Opinion: Xbox One is a desperate prayer to stop time
gamasutra.comI didn't have to attend the reveal event to watch it; I streamed it on a PC and took notes on a netbook. I talked to a friend about it on an iPhone. I participated in, processed and ultimately covered the announcements across three different screened devices, none of which was a television. Yet in Microsoft's world, the TV is still the core of the theoretical home for people who want "immersive worlds and epic battles".
Estimated reading time: 6 min
So What Are We Doing Here?
gamasutra.comThe NES was the Wild West of game development, I thought, lawless and free.
Estimated reading time: 4 min
Persuasive Games: Wii Can't Go On, Wii'll Go On
gamasutra.comIn an age when showy CEOs shout hubristic, trite predictions about the inevitable future of games, The Wii U offers an understated bravado that's far more courageous. With it, Nintendo admits, "we don't know either." We don't know what video games are anymore, or what they will become. It's a huge risk, and it's probably the most daring move Nintendo has made in its 125-year history. Domestication through polite ferocity. Feral design.
Estimated reading time: 22 min
Opinion: The Depth Jam
gamasutra.comI think that nice feelings are nice, but you want to build an ecosystem where the nice feelings coincide with behavior that will make developers robust and powerful and interesting in the long-term. You don't want nice feelings to act as a soporific.
Estimated reading time: 15 min
Diagnosing Liberty City's crime problems using SimCity
gamasutra.comIt's not just Niko Bellic, Johnny Klebitz and Luis Fernando Lopez who are allowed to run rampant with hardly any backlash from the law -- the city is overrun by various mobs, and it makes you wonder whether Liberty City could do with an extra police station or five.
Estimated reading time: 6 min
superlevel recommended this story.
Gamasutra - News - Steve Jobs, Atari Employee Number 40
gamasutra.comHe flew out and though he was able to fix the problem, it wasn't a joyous business trip for either party involved: vegetarian Jobs struggled to eat in the "meat and potatoes" country, and Atari's German distributors didn't know what to make of the odd foreigner. "He wasn't dressed appropriately, he didn't behave appropriately," Alcorn remembers. "The Germans were horrified at this.‹
Estimated reading time: 7 min
fscklog recommended this story.
Ask Gamasutra: How to annoy a games journalist with a press release
gamasutra.comI don't want to say the era of traditional PR is over for games, but it's getting close. As indies and smaller more agile teams get more and more prominent, you have to take a more personal approach. Most indie game news is disseminated through blogs and twitter nowadays, and there's a more personal interaction between journalists and developers. Traditional PR is increasingly becoming a middleman that slows the process rather than facilitating communication.
Estimated reading time: 10 min
Kristin K recommended this story.
Let's Talk About Touching: Making Great Touchscreen Controls
gamasutra.comButtons are doomed; touchscreens are the new game controllers.
Estimated reading time: 18 min
Lorenzo Pilia recommended this story.
More