3 How arcade games have come, gone, and could come again In this classic Game Developer magazine column, Nolan Bushnell explains why arcade machines failed and how location-based video games could still thrive in the age of online technology.

---

  Massive Atari archive heads to ICHEG for preservation The National Museum of Play's International Center for the History of Electronic Games has acquired a thousands-strong collection of Atari coin-op materials, stretching from 1972-1999.

---

5 No more excuses: Apple now labels apps with IAP on App Store charts Today's iOS update adds a new labeling system to the App Store charts and lists to highlight games and other apps that offer in-app purchases.

---

  The best part about King's expansion into Japan are the TV ads Candy Crush Saga developer King has opened an office in Tokyo, Japan in order to localize King games for the lucrative Japanese mobile market.

---

  New documentary delves into the game industry's LGBTQ presence You can now pay what you want for Gaming In Color, a feature-length documentary film that seeks to elucidate and explore what it means to be a part of the LGBTQ community within the game industry.

---

  3 tips for organizing internal hackathons "Before organizing a hackathon, think about the goals you hope to accomplish, as well as the strategies and logistics that will resonate well within your company culture."

---

5 10 insightful playtest questions "Playtests are always a valuable way to evaluate the state of your game, but it's important to observe the right signs and ask the right questions in order to get objective and worthwhile feedback."

---

5 Electronic music for fun, games, and profit: A complete beginner's guide Paul Taylor of Mode 7 Games (Frozen Synapse) shares "the absolute basics with an emphasis on the practical rather than the theoretical" when it comes to getting started with game music.

---

4 Rebel Jam aims to turn a game jam disaster into something positive The games industry read on in collective despair last month, as it came to light that a production company had attempted (rather hideously) to film a game jam in the format of a reality television show.

---

1 Rehearsals and Returns: A game about conversations that'll never take place Rehearsals and Returns, from Independent Games Festival 2011 nominee Peter Brinson, plays with the ideas of effort vs. rewards, life, and death.

---

1 Namco Bandai goes big on free-to-play with Rise of Incarnates After dabbling in the free-to-play model over the last couple of years, Namco Bandai is looking to hit the sweet spot with the newly announced Rise of Incarnates.

---

  NetEase is bringing Heroes of the Storm to China Heroes of the Storm, the upcoming MOBA from Blizzard Entertainment, will see a release in China via NetEase, the internet company that already operates Blizzard's World of Warcraft in the East.

---

2 Think you don't have the resources for user testing? Think again "User testing is critical, especially when you don’t have resources to spare. The long-term benefits far outweigh the short-term costs, and if you do it right, you'll make a better game."

---

1 Codemasters reveals plan to re-focus the GRID series "On release of GRID 2, I think it's fair to say that... we hadn't quite achieved everything we set out to do." - Ben Walke, Codemasters, explains how the company molded the next GRID game.

---

1 An evolutionary algorithm in action: Darwin's Nightmare "In this game, all enemy craft designs are obtained by varying a unique genotype: whenever a new ship appears on the screen, digital DNA is recombined to create a new type."

---

2 Q&A: How self-publishing brought Age of Wonders 3 back to life In the wake of this fantasy 4X strategy game's remarkable launch, Gamasutra sits down with Age of Wonders 3 lead designer Lennart Sas to find out why the studio waited 11 years to return to its roots.

---

2 Game consoles are go in China, as government sets regulations The country's government finally, fully opens up its market to video game consoles -- as long as the companies selling them follow the guidelines.

---

  AbleGamers raises over $30k to help players with disabilities Charity which focuses on outreach, consultation, and grants around video game players with disabilities gets its biggest boost ever -- with help from the industry.

---

4 This Week in Video Game Criticism: Everybody Loves Garrus This week, our partnership with game criticism site Critical Distance brings us picks from Kris Ligman on topics including the political agenda of Halo and why Garrus Vakarian is Mass Effect's most enduring character.

---

  Get a job: Crystal Dynamics is hiring an Environment Artist The developer of the Tomb Raider reboot is looking to hire environment artists to work alongside the cinematics team in its Redwood City, CA office.

---

2 Blog: 25 years of Game Boy Brian Davis (Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon) shares memories of the joy of getting a Game Boy in his youth, as Nintendo's first portable system turns 25.

---

7 How I beat burnout and started having fun making games again An independent game developer writes about the dangers of crunch, the wonder of flow and his path from recovery to burnout.

---

1 Blog: Ethical game design - My precepts "A simple set of precepts that I can easily remember and refer to for guidance. They aren't perfect, but they're enough to remind me of what I've decided is important."

---

  It's been 25 years since Nintendo first released the Game Boy Nintendo released the original Game Boy in Japan on April 21, 1989, which means that a ton of 25-year retrospectives and tributes to the little brick have been published. Here's one worth reading.

---

12 Blog: Diversity, Halo, and the 'sexual/political agenda' of Fragments of Him "It is possible to see an agenda in Halo, if we wish to look for it, just as it is possible to see one in Fragments of Him, but I know which game is more likely to be discussed in terms its agenda."

---

[Read More]