News & Views
2/27/15-3/6/15
Video game
season is starting to hit its stride! With GDC this week, and PAX East this
weekend, a lot of stuff is happening gaming world. The biggest news coming out
of GDC is virtual reality, and Valve’s foray into this increasingly competitive
space. The breadth of gaming seems to be ever expanding, as several game
engines were announced to be going free! This week I’ve put together a bunch of
little things, from highlights at GDC to some great articles about the pricing
of new games, tales of old games, and cultural divides. Enjoy!
Spotlight
Claude Smith, Niche
Gamer
Worth Reading
Laura
Hudson, Slate
Samantha
Blackmon, Samanthablackmon.net
Paul Tassi,
Forbes
Kirk
Hamilton, Kotaku
Colin
Campbell, Polygon
And the rest!
Mitch Dyer,
IGN
Written contemporarily with Spec Ops: The Line’s 2012 release, Dyer unpacks some of the
thoughts and work that went into the game’s fantastic story. You can read my review of the game here.
Making Unreal engine free for any developer is huge
news, and could change the gaming landscape. Unreal, Unity, and Source 2 all
were announced to be free at GDC this year, and mark a promising chapter in
game development.
Gavin
Craig, Kill Screen
Craig gives a nice perspective into
the era of video game mascots, and how that time has long since passed. Crash
was my mascot of choice, and it’s sad to see him dead and gone.
Sal Romano,
Gematsu
Telltale has been doing great work
these past couple of years, so I am excited to see what some former devs can
put together. From what I have seen so far, Oxenfree is
worth keeping an eye out for.
Lauren
Preston, Gamasutra
Preston concisely summarizes the
major design lessons learned by Schafer and team when making Grim Fandango, as described in the remastered version’s developer commentary. You can
see my review for Grim Fandango Remastered here.
Nicole Lee,
Engadget
Virtual reality seems here to
stay. We have some exciting times ahead as Valve (Vive), Sony (Project
Morpheus) Microsoft (Hololens) and Oculus Rift all compete for
the same market. With Valve being the first to announce a consumer product
release window (end of 2015), the race is on to see who wins the VR war.
Danielle Riendeau, Polygon
Leigh Alexander and Laura Hudson are teaming up
to helm Offworld, and I love that the site is emphasizing diverse game writing
from two individuals with such a tremendous track record. I am very much
looking forward to the March 9th launch.
Derek
Sakamoto, Blizzard, GDC
There have been a lot of great talks
at this year’s GDC. Sakamoto gives a fascinating look into UI design for Hearthstone, a game that relies so strongly on excellent user interface. Sakamoto
instills some great design principles and presents limitations to every design
choice.
And my rank for the February season
of ranked play in Hearthstone! Not
too bad considering I didn’t play for the last week and a half.
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