Flappy Bird creator is 'good now', working on new games Dong Nguyen explains the design of Flappy Bird and opens up about how its unexpected success affected him in a recent interview with Rolling Stone.

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2 What I learned from making 12 games in a year A game a month, both digital and non-digital, for a whole year -- what would you learn? Jenn Sandercock tried this experiment and in this detailed post, shares her experiences.

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  Reminder: Know your GDC 2014 Code of Conduct Meggan Scavio, GM of GDC events and all-around Boss Lady, takes a moment to detail the official code of conduct for GDC and all of its related events.

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  Glyph is Trion Worlds' new DRM-free digital game platform Trion Worlds announced today that it will be launching DRM-free a digital games platform featuring titles from Trion Worlds and select partners sometime after GDC 2014 next week.

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1 Blog: Early thoughts on Steam Early Access Mode7 Games' Paul Taylor ponders what it means to launch a game collaboratively with the community -- and what he might accomplish with Frozen Endzone.

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1 Wwise audio middleware is now free to use -- within limits Montreal-based audio middleware firm Audiokinetic is the latest company to makes its software freely available -- on a limited basis -- in a show of support for indie developers.

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2 Oculus snags Valve's lead VR engineer for new R&D team Oculus VR has hired Atman Binstock, a game industry veteran who most recently served as a lead engineer on Valve's VR team, to serve as its new chief architect.

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  Wild Rumpus reveals 'Mild Rumpus' game lineup for GDC 2014 GDC is excited to announce that indie video game showcase collective Wild Rumpus is returning to GDC 2014 with games like Hohokum, Quadrilateral Cowboy and more.

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  Xbox One's launch parity clause looms over self-publishing program Microsoft is ramping up its self-publishing efforts via its ID@Xbox program, but the issue of Xbox One’s launch parity clause is still a thorn in the side of game developers.

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3 Designing RPG minigames (and getting them right) "At their best, minigames offer players a meaningful way to test their skills in an alternative game setting... it is imperative that you consider their purpose, immersion factor and development time."

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2 Full native Linux support comes to CryEngine Crysis and Ryse developer Crytek confirmed today that its CryEngine game engine now has full native Linux support.

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1 New MMO studio will focus on Ultima Online-styled 'sandbox' play Experienced MMO developers announced Citadel Studios, an independent Washington D.C.-based company that's developing sandbox-style, open world MMO in the vein of games like Ultima Online.

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7 A quick look at localization best practices "The best way to handle localization is to think about it from the start of your project. You shouldn’t treat your primary language differently than the other languages supported by your apps."

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14 Blog: Let's face it -- we don't get why Flappy Bird was a hit "Don’t get me wrong -- 'how?' is a legitimate question. It's always advisable to learn from success stories. However -- is this what we’re seeing here?"

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4 Lords of War: The gunrunners of Counter Strike: Global Offensive Virtual "gunrunners" cut deals inside and outside of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's official channels. Mike Rose reports on a phenomenon only possible through a user-driven marketplace.

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  The Walking Dead comic publisher launches games business Former biz dev VP for Foundation 9 lands at Skybound, the comics and media imprint launched by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, to lead comic-to-game efforts.

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2 Warner Bros. invests in Machinima, in a round worth $18 million The YouTube channel for gamers brings in a significant funding round, this time led by a major Hollywood player, alongside other investors.

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  SoftBank funds new core-focused mobile startup, Turbo A new studio in New York City filled with veterans from companies like Square Enix, Riot, Rockstar, and Q Entertainment has just got investment from Puzzle & Dragons' parent.

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  Namco Bandai's ShiftyLook experiment was cool... but now it's over The ShiftyLook project has resulted in comics, animation, and games -- and resurrected classic Namco franchises and rehabilitated fan favorites. One game is left to be released, though, and that's it.

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  Road to the Student IGF: Black Pants' Symmetrain Following on the award-winning Tiny & Big, Black Pants' new project is the Student IGF-nominated iOS game Symmetrain.

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5 This Week in Video Game Criticism: A weird trick to fix games This week, our partnership with game criticism site Critical Distance brings us picks from Kris Ligman on topics including the future of game genres and the perils of 'easy solutions.'

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  Video: Watch history being made at the 2005 IGF and Choice Awards Relive the top independent and AAA games from a decade ago in this newly-archived video of the IGF and Choice Awards from GDC 2005, headlined by winners Shadow of the Colossus and Gish.

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65 The secret of immersive game worlds "What if we created game worlds that totally did not give a damn, worlds that didn’t care about the player at all?" asks Adrien Chmielarz.

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  Midnight City publishing Costume Quest 2, Gone Home on console Majesco's indie publishing label Midnight City will publish Double Fine's Costume Quest 2 and a console version of The Fullbright Company's Gone Home later this year.

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3 Transatlantic indie studio Shark Punch founded by Disney vets Three former Disney developers in Helsinki and San Francisco founded Shark Punch to develop a self-funded tactical turn-based heist game set in the '70s.

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