Opinion: Let's retire the word 'gamer' 102
by Brandon Sheffield [05.15.13]
"The word 'gamer' is regressive. It accepts the portrait of us painted by the mainstream news media, and every time I hear it or read it it actually makes me feel a little sick."
Console/PC, Social/Online, Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Programming, Art, Audio, Design, Exclusive

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Sponsored: Win $100K in Intel's Perceptual Computing Challenge  
by Intel [05.14.13]
Intel wants to inspire developers to forge new ground by integrating voice control, gesture control, facial recognition, and augmented reality with apps and games on PCs.
Console/PC, Social/Online, Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Serious, Programming, Art, Audio, Design, Production, Business/Marketing, Sponsored Article

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Dungeon feng shui: Procedural design in RPG environments 7
by Gamasutra Community [05.14.13]
A look at how you can use "clever programming" to automatically (and intelligently) populate an RPG environment with enemies, items, and treasures.
Console/PC, Indie, Programming, Design

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GDC Europe sees 25% submission boost, adds Crytek, CD Projekt board members  
by GDC Staff [05.14.13]
Organizers of this August's GDC Europe have announced more than 275 talk submissions, adding Advisory Board notables from CD Projekt (The Witcher) and Crytek (Warface).
Console/PC, Social/Online, Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Programming, Design, Production, Business/Marketing

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How can I make my games more inclusive? 16
by Gamasutra Community [05.14.13]
Daniel Cook, the Spry Fox designer behind Triple Town, offers simple, actionable ways to make your games more appealing to a wider audience.
Console/PC, Social/Online, Indie, Art, Design

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Blog: The divided future of the video game industry 10
by Gamasutra Community [05.14.13]
"Here it is, I think: the moment the world of video games definitively chunked up into discrete groups and congealed," Matthew Burns begins, in this rumination on developer culture and identity.
Console/PC, Social/Online, Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Design

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The psychology of skill trees: Making choices satisfying 12
by Gamasutra Community [05.14.13]
Most core games these days offer character progression choices -- but how do you present them in a way that's most satisfying to players? Psychology research holds the answer.
Console/PC, Indie, Art, Design

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YoYo Games rolling out GameMaker: Studio module for Tizen  
by Kris Ligman [05.13.13]
"We strongly believe that Tizen will be a significant platform for mobile and other devices," says GameMaker: Studio developer YoYo Games, in announcing the software's support for the open-source OS.
Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Programming, Business/Marketing

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Warren Spector teams with University of Texas for new game school 2
by Kris Ligman [05.13.13]
The University of Texas at Austin is joining forces with Warren Spector (Epic Mickey) and Paul Sams (COO, Blizzard) to found a new game design school, the Denius-Sams Gaming Academy.
Console/PC, Social/Online, Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Production, Business/Marketing

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Triple Town devs' new title takes cues from a famous poem 2
by Kris Ligman [05.13.13]
Road Not Taken is an upcoming puzzle game from Spry Fox, developers on Triple Town and Realm of the Mad God. It also draws upon the poetry of Robert Frost. View the trailer here.
Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Art, Design, Video

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Blog: Coping with comparisons to other games 5
by Gamasutra Community [05.13.13]
So people think your game is like Title X or Y. This... can be a downer. How do you work past that -- and still make a success of your game? This blog post rounds up some thoughtful tips.
Console/PC, Social/Online, Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Design

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This Week in Video Game Criticism: From Fatherhood to Art Gore  
by Kris Ligman [05.13.13]
This week, our partnership with game criticism site Critical Distance brings us picks from Kris Ligman on topics including fatherhood and art gore.
Console/PC, Indie, Design

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Get a job: Robot Entertainment is looking for a Technical Artist  
by Kris Ligman [05.13.13]
The Technical Artist/Animator "will be instrumental in creating and maintaining efficient pipelines for the art assets used in Robot’s game development efforts."
Console/PC, Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Art, Recruitment

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Blog: How gifting and play sessions affect iOS App Store rank 3
by Gamasutra Community [05.13.13]
In his continuing analysis of the performance of indie RPG Nameless: The Hackers, James Liu crunches data to figure out effects on App Store rank -- with surprising results.
Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Business/Marketing

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Amazon releases its virtual currency for Kindle apps  
by Kris Ligman [05.13.13]
Amazon Coins represents the company's latest bid to bolster sales on the Kindle Fire. "For developers, it's another opportunity to drive traffic, downloads and increased monetization," says Amazon.
Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Business/Marketing

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Video: What game developers can do for NASA 1
by GDC Vault Staff [05.13.13]
NASA researchers shared their vision of working with game developers to create the future of space exploration, where everyone can step on distant worlds via virtual holodecks.
Console/PC, Social/Online, Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Design, Video

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Finding the good in free-to-play 14
by Gamasutra Community [05.13.13]
Lee Perry used to work on the Gears of War series. Now he's gone independent, and is contemplating how the free-to-play business model can be done right.
Social/Online, Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Design, Business/Marketing

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PR tips for indies: Reaching out to the press 8
by Gamasutra Community [05.13.13]
Making your game isn't enough -- you have to get people interested in it. PR professional Shannon Drake covers the basics of how to start a PR campaign.
Indie, Business/Marketing

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Team-led design in a mid-core social strategy game 7
by Staff [05.13.13]
Plarium, developer of mid-core strategy game Total Domination, shares its process of getting the best results from its player-focused iteration process.
Social/Online, Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Design

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Blog: My four takeaways from the year in strategy games 10
by Gamasutra Community [05.13.13]
The strategy genre is exploding with great new games, and there are plenty of lessons to learn from how XCOM, FTL and others are evolving the art of strategy game design.
Console/PC, Indie, Design

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