2 Gender wage gap: How the game industry compares to the U.S. average The gender pay gap is once again a hot topic in the world of U.S. politics, and in the world of video game development, the issue has reared its head.

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1 Grinding and the burden of optimal play "Somehow I had made a game in which you repeat the same task (solving a hacking puzzle) over and over again. How did it come to this?"

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  Game Developer Salary Survey 2014: The results are in! Gamasutra recently polled over 4,000 game developers worldwide, asking them the question: How much money did you make?

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  Antialiasing procedural shaders in the Unreal Engine "When using texture mapping, most modern engines will take care of antialiasing for you. Procedural shaders do not share this luxury and the creator usually has to take care of this."

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6 'What are the greatest influences on your work as a creator?' When we asked our Twitter followers what influenced them, we were hoping to hear lots of different things, and so we did.

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6 Cliff Bleszinski opens up about the future of games "Not having an agenda has been tremendously freeing, creatively as well as professionally." - Cliff Bleszinski on his "retirement," now officially ended with the announcement of BlueStreak

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  Video: No more scapegoats -- Improving the public image of games In this GDC 2013 panel, professor Ian Bogost joined Epic expat Mike Capps and the IGDA's Daniel Greenberg to argue against public misconceptions about games, and what we can do to counter them.

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  Yahoo takes a step toward mobile analytics with Flurry buy Nothing much will change, says Flurry's president and CEO, as web behemoth scoops up popular mobile analytics and advertising platform.

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16 Developer of cancelled Yogscast game reveals where the money went Winterkewl Games' lead developer Kris Vale has published a frank accounting of how the indie studio managed to spend nearly half a million dollars in Kickstarter pledges without making a game.

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10 When an artist creates games... "We keep talking about video games as art but there’s still this big gap between the video game world and the contemporary art world; we need to fill it. I want more of Pippin Barr feat. Marina Abramović."

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  Get a job: Firaxis is hiring a Senior Software Engineer The makers of Civilization: Beyond Earth are looking to hire a senior software engineer to help design and implement next-gen systems code from the studio's offices in Baltimore, Maryland.

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7 Classic Postmortem: Defense of the Ancients (a.k.a. DotA) This 2009 look-back at the popular mod (which gave rise to the now-huge MOBA genre) was written by some of its key developers and explores the origins of the phenomenon.

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7 Analyst tries to keep up with Kardashian game Analysts are lauding Kim Kardashian: Hollywood as a major turning point for Glu Mobile and doubling their expectations of its earning potential in the wake of the freemium app's strong debut.

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1 Blog: Why Zenimax v. Oculus matters Attorney Dan Rogers takes a look at the fight between Oculus VR and Zenimax, which alleges its code is what made the Rift what it is today -- and how NDAs may lie at the core of the case.

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  Blog: Shifting priorities - The milestone problem How the unique nature of each game project means that the rigid milestone structure the industry follows is difficult to realize -- and a stab at redefining it to be more useful.

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3 A new $25M investment fund for game developers Chasing the game-driven success of LINE, mobile messaging platform Tango has hired a Gree expat and set aside $25 million to entice developers and fund nascent internal development efforts.

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  Knowing your mobile audience: Surprising insights from Publisher IDs "If we all played by our gut, we would have targeted ads in other similar strategy games, other trading card games... Surprisingly, Star Admiral attracts its best audience from quiz apps."

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  Finishing strong: A Darkest Dungeon Kickstarter postmortem Red Hook shares data on how the Darkest Dungeon Kickstarter stayed strong in the middle of the campaign, and reflects on how effective its marketing/fulfillment strategies actually were.

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  This Week in Video Game Criticism: On the Perils of Selling Your Game This week, our partnership with game criticism site Critical Distance brings us picks from Kris Ligman on topics ranging from a Japanese lexicon for fun to getting lost in a crowded games market.

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  After bailing on mobile, Bigpoint gives the market another shot Free-to-play game company Bigpoint is ready to try the mobile market on for size once again, following a failed initial attempt.

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2 One of China's biggest online game companies goes private in $3B deal Giant Interactive, a major Shanghai, China-based online game operator, has completed a deal to go private that’s worth $3 billion.

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2 Network traffic culling "By implementing simple network culling we were able to reduce traffic by 50 percent; from 2000 messages per second to +/- 1000."

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  Alaska Natives share their stories, culture through commercial games After 20 years in traditional games, Sean Vesce aims to help the Inupiat people of Alaska share their culture and values with the commercial gaming audience through puzzle platformer Never Alone.

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34 Power Rangers studio goes after indie dev team over hero game Saban Brands, the company that holds the Power Rangers IP, is targeting a rights-sharing deal for Behold Studios' Chroma Squad.

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25 Don't Miss: With new perspective, Cliff Bleszinski plots next move "You spend those first 18 years struggling to grow up, and then the next 18 years struggling to get back." Leigh Alexander talks to a man who wants to be known for more than chainsaw-equipped assault rifles.

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