8 'Roguelike-like'? More like 'Procedural Death Labyrinth' Lars Doucet (Defender's Quest) suggests the creation of a new genre to help frame the design conversation around the important elements of what's often called a "roguelike."

---

  Here's how to apply for Samsung's new mobile game network for kids Samsung has teamed up with Fingerprint, a children's mobile tech company, to create a mobile games network specifically for kids, with the aim to provide a safe environment for them to play games in.

---

1 Insomniac kills Outernauts browser game to focus on mobile version Last year, Insomniac took a dive into the social games space with browser game Outernauts. Now the company has been forced to close down the online game, in favor of working on a mobile version of the game.

---

3 Blog: What is intellectual property? As a developer, you know that you want control over your intellectual property. But what precisely, from a legal standpoint, is IP? This blog by a game dev-turned-attorney, explains.

---

  Video: Frozen Endzone's unique take on the strategy genre Gamasutra editor Mike Rose talks to Ian Hardingham from Mode 7 Games about tactical American Football-esque game Frozen Endzone, in this latest video interview.

---

  Techniques for working with voxels Post-Minecraft voxels have become an important tool in the game production box. This post explains what they are, how they work, and how you can make them work in your game.

---

3 In the fight for job stability, Stardock finds its own solution Galactic Civilizations studio Stardock has put into place the Stardock Staffing Company, with the goal of retaining and recruiting the best, most experienced game developers.

---

  This Week in Video Game Criticism: A Rogue for All Seasons This week, our partnership with game criticism site Critical Distance brings us picks from Zach Alexander on topics including the player's idealized self as avatar and the storytelling of Rogue.

---

  Your game can change the world: How games can heal players "Games are effecting your players and society whether or not you’re designing them to," writes Brendan Bozzi, who runs down games that, "just by playing them, help heal mental or physical illnesses."

---

  Sony, Tencent, Blizzard, Ubisoft to speak at this week's GDC Taipei Summit The second annual GDC Taipei Summit begins December 5th, 9 a.m. UTC, with onsite registration available starting opening day at the Taipei International Convention Center.

---

3 Facebook games on the decline? No one told that to Pretty Simple Games Though notable companies have shied away from the social game scene, Pretty Simple's Criminal Case has met the challenges of Facebook and come away with a 6 million DAU game.

---

2 Monster Hunter continues to grab big sales for Capcom Capcom's Monster Hunter series continues to be a hit for the Japanese game publisher, as the series surpasses 28 million units sold.

---

  Video: Porting 3DS success story SteamWorld Dig to PC In the latest Gamasutra video interview, editor Mike Rose talks to Bryann Sigurgeirsson about the PC release of SteamWorld Dig, and how difficult porting from Nintendo 3DS to PC turned out to be.

---

7 Blog: Who needs interactivity? By focusing on game-like design, are attempts to move different aspects of games -- like storytelling -- forward being hampered?

---

4 Spil Games is gunning for HTML5 in a big way Casual game network Spil Games today announced that it will invest $5 million in developers creating HTML5 games during 2014, as the company looks to push the HTML5 platform.

---

17 Microsoft reveals the first batch of ID@Xbox developers Although the Xbox One didn't exactly appear very friendly for indie developers earlier this year, Microsoft has most definitely now changed its tune, and today revealed a raft of devs who are making games for the new console.

---

18 With Valve pushing Linux, the company joins The Linux Foundation "Joining the Linux Foundation is one of many ways Valve is investing in the advancement of Linux gaming." - Mike Sartain of Valve explains the company's next step in supporting the future of video games in Linux.

---

2 Refining the 'Gamification User Types' Andrzej Marczewski outlines version 2.0 of his Gamification User Types scheme -- a system for classifying users of gamified apps by what sort of reward they seek.

---

  Video: The evolution of eSports - from hobby to international pastime Members of Riot Games and Twitch join Cloud 9, djWHEAT, and the commissioner of Asian League of Legends pro team GPL in a panel on the evolution of eSports as a sport and entertainment.

---

58 'I'm not psyched about a business where 3% of your customers pay you' "I'm not psyched about a business where 3 percent of your customers pay you, which is what you're dealing with." - Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick on the free-to-play business model.

---

4 EA's new CEO spells out long-term plans, expectations "Platform is important, analytics are important, marketing is important, but at the end of the day, the future of this company will live and die based on hit, quality software," says EA's recently-appointed CEO Andrew Wilson.

---

1 Online game opportunity awaits in Southeast Asia, says report If you're thinking about bringing a game to Southeast Asia, now might be a good time if you're an online game developer.

---

1 'Freemium' design analysis: Combat Monsters F2P consultant Ben Sipe test-drives the monetization model of the turn-based strategy game to find out what works and what does not -- offering helpful suggestions on improving player conversion.

---

  Brenda Romero, Ubisoft's Patrick Redding join GDC 2014 speaker lineup New talks for GDC 2014 will see Brenda Romero on re-inspiring designers for greatness, Patrick Redding on enabling meaningful setbacks in stealth games, and Lucien Parsons on the psychology behind gender-based pricing and IAP for games.

---

  Blog: Generating solvable Cut the Rope levels Automatically generating levels is useless if they can't be completed by players. Researcher Michael Cook writes about a system that makes sure CPU-designed Cut the Rope levels work.

---

[Read More]