Resourcium

Sorry, I ran out of time to look for news today, but I was able to quickly post some links of interest.

• Why Big Media's arrival in games is good for independent studios
• Cliff Bleszinski: PC Gaming in Disarray
• The man behind GDC: Jamil Moledina speaks
• Top game development jobs this week
• Why Big Media's arrival in games is good for independent studios
• Opinion: Our Inevitable Episodic Future

Gamasutra has an interesting game design article on making your video game accessible to those that have disabilities. It talks about the motivations behind creating games that are usable, which tend to have design elements that make them accessible to various disabilities. Game design challenges are looked at and how they may conflict with one gamer over another. There is a section on creating simple game control schemes that allow the game developer to open the game to a wider audience. Lastly, it discusses the critical step of testing the game with target groups of gamers.

Intel, Microsoft, Nvidia, AMD and others may be announcing a PC Gaming Alliance targeted at keeping the pc computer a competitive gaming platform. They are expected to focus on fixing issues that have turned some gamers to easier to use console gaming systems.

It is easy to understand that many gamers would turn to console systems. You can go crazy trying to keep up with the latest graphics card hardware and drivers, operating system patches, software running in the background, and tweeking the settings to get your game running optimally. Compare that to a standardized video game console system where you insert the disk and start playing a few moments later.

Betsy Aoki has posted some game development tutorials on making a 2D XNA game.

• Making a 2D XNA Game - When Cods Collide Part 1
• Making a 2D XNA Game - When Cods Collide Part 2

Wired has a interesting short article from the Design Innovate Communicate Entertain, DICE, summit in Las Vegas. Namco Bandai's Roger Hector spoke about the value of building a character through high-quality entertainment.

"The secret to character longevity is to steadily increase a character's equity, a concept the industry veteran learned during his tenure at Disney. "All characters have equity," he explained. "Equity is something that builds up with time through the association of that character with high-quality entertainment."

The article is short, but it got me thinking about creating a character brand. If I were creating a new game, I would create new characters in an attempt to make a game with unique content. I don't often think about starting my own character brand and creating new entertainment experiences around them.

Are you going to be at the Game Developers Conference and looking for a new job in the game industry? Gamasutra has prepared a guide to maximizing your job search at the GDC. Take their tips on what to do before, during, and after the show.

"If you're on a mission to make your next career move, good news: the Game Developers Conference is right around the corner! GDC is the best opportunity for game industry job seekers to start forging the relationships that make a significant impact on your professional success. "

"Graduates in the UK face an increasingly tough time getting a job in the games industry, and university courses aren't necessarily the best means of preparation."

Matthew Jeffrey, Electronic Art's head of Global Talent Brand, warns that a lot of the gaming degrees don't prepare graduates for a career in the game industry. He advises students to look towards traditional degrees so that they have options available to them.

There are a lot of gaming degree programs out there. Make sure that you are researching the best path to getting a job in the game industry as well as one that provides you some flexibility to work in other fields.

Dan Walters has created a 12 part video game programming training series using XNA Game Studio and SOFTIMAGE|XSI Mod Tool "without skipping steps". It teaches you how to make a complete XBox game from scratch.

Here is what the series teaches you:

• How to build a simple 3D model in SOFTIMAGE|XSI Mod Tool
• How to build a more complex skinned, rigged & animated character model in SOFTIMAGE|XSI Mod Tool for use in an XNA game
• Project setup for XNA and XSI projects
• Pipeline & workflow between XSI and XNA
• How to animate a skinned XSI model in XNA using the XNAXSIRuntime library provided for free by SOFTIMAGE
• How to creating and managing sound and audio using the DirectX XACT tool
• How to handle input from the controller
• How to prep an XNA PC game for XBOX 360
• How to deploy an XNA game to the Xbox through the Creators Club
• And many, many nuances and "gotchas" that will help make your development experience 1000% smoother.

I haven't had a chance to review the videos yet, but I'm very excited about it.

Before you create your video game think about what the gamers are buying. Nintendo Wii and Guitar Hero are topping the sales charts against more sophisticated games like BioShock. Gaming is maturing from the solo gamer to the social gamer. The NY Times takes a look at why Mass Effect, God of War II, and Value's Orange Box aren't in the top 10.

"the growth in the now $18 billion gaming market is in simple, user-friendly experiences that families and friends can enjoy together."

"Nine of the 10 top-selling games of 2007 include a significant multiplayer component."

This past Christmas I discovered that 40% of the people I worked with had Guitar Hero III at home. It was one of the games I asked for this past holiday after playing it with some friends on the Xbox. After I got Guitar Hero III, the next day I bought the Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II double pack because I loved the game so much.

Jason Kapalka, from PopCap, provides some video game design tricks for the casual game industry in an interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun. The article focuses on how PopCap was able to create successful casual video games such as Peggle and Bejeweled.

Interesting casual game developer information:

• 89% of players are aged 30+
• 76% are female
• Create puzzles with more than one solution to increase replay value
• Have sound cues of rising pitch associated with combos
• Never award points in increments of less than 10
• Focus on fun first over the bells and whistles
• Hardcore gamers can get into casual games too

I've watched some people play casual video games. One of my co-workers loads up a different game during lunch everyday. I've also watched my girlfriend play them. Neither of them have actually purchased any of the games yet.