Game Developer (website)

Game Developer (known as Gamasutra until 2021)[1] is a website created in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa and acted as the online sister publication to the print magazine Game Developer prior to the latter's closure in 2013.[2]

"Gamasutra" redirects here. Not to be confused with Kama Sutra.
Game Developer
Type of site
News and information for video game developers
OwnerInforma
URLgamedeveloper.com
Launched1997 (1997)

Sections

Game Developer has five main sections:

  1. News: where daily news is posted.
  2. Features: where developers post-game post-mortems and critical essays.
  3. Blogs: where users can post their thoughts and views on various topics.
  4. Jobs/Resume: where users can apply for open positions at various development studios.
  5. Contractors: where users can apply for contracted work.[3]

The articles can be filtered by either topic (All, Console/PC, Social/Online, Smartphone/Tablet, Independent, Serious) or category (Programming, Art, Audio, Design, Production, Biz (Business)/Marketing). There are three additional sections: a store where books on game design may be purchased, an RSS section where users may subscribe to RSS feeds of each section of the website, and a section that links to the website's Twitter account.

Trade Center Resource

While it does post news found on typical video game websites, Game Developer provides articles for aspiring and professional game developers on the disciplines of design, audio, public relations, and art. The site encourages professionals to publish blogs in order to share their expertise with other developers. The editorial staff also takes part in conducting interviews with developers and hardware designers, such as Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii,[4] Nintendo 3DS designer Hideaki Anno, and Portal writer Erik Wolpaw.[5]

Post-mortems

Project post-mortems, articles in which developers recount the successful and unsuccessful elements of a specific game's development, are the most celebrated features on the website, as they provide direct insight in all aspects of game design and educate other developers on various risks and important tips. Many post-mortems have been published, ranging from independent games such as Okabu and The Path to major studio projects such as Ōkamiden and BioShock. There are currently over 150 collected post-mortems dating back as far as 1997.[6] There have been unusual post-mortem articles published, including "A Story of GameLayers, Inc." that reveals the tumultuous development and eventual cancellation of a Firefox toolbar-based MMORPG,[7] and "What Went Wrong? Learning from Past Post-Mortems" that details the most common mistakes that developers make as admitted in the articles.[8]

Guidelines

Game Developer offers the opportunity for users to publish articles on their website. To ensure a high standard of quality, interested authors are required to collaborate with the features director, Christian Nutt. Regardless of the author's level of development, whether they have fleshed-out drafts, an outline, or a concept, the editorial staff offers assistance in shaping, polishing, and editing articles before publication.

The publication caters to a diverse audience consisting of businesspeople, educators, and developers, both professional and aspiring. As such, the author may choose from a wide variety of topics, provided that the article contains at least 1500 words. Typically, articles range from 2500 to 3500 words in length.

Game Developer also requires a thirty-day exclusivity period from the date of publication, after which the author is free to take the article elsewhere and retains ownership.

Users are also allowed to comment on articles, but there is a strict set of rules. Comment guidelines are designed to keep user discussions of a given article on the topic and prevent comments from devolving into[9] flame wars (hostile interactions on the Internet), as seen on other community-driven websites where comment regulations are looser. Users are encouraged to post only constructive thoughts that add to the conversation.

GameSetWatch

GameSetWatch is an alternative video game weblog and sister site of Game Developer. It is dedicated to collecting curious links and media for offbeat and often ignored games from old and new consoles, as well as digital downloads such as iOS, and indie spaces.[10]

GameSetWatch was founded by Simon Carless in November 2005. It was up and running for six years until its semi-permanent hiatus in November 2011. The site stopped as the creators saw an overlap of content with their sister site IndieGames.com and because they felt the mainstream gaming blogs were covering more of the "weirder" and alternative video game news.[11] GameSetWatch has remained up for readers, but no new content has been posted since 2011.

Those that contributed to the launch included IGF chairman Brandon Boyer, GameTrailers stalwart Michael McWhertor, Game Developer news director Frank Cifaldi, Alice Taylor, as well as Game Developer magazine EIC Brandon Sheffield.[12]

IndieGames.com

IndieGames.com started in October 2005. IndieGames.com is Game Developer's sister site dedicated to reporting on indie games. It became the UBM TechWeb's main method to deliver news about independent games after GameSetWatch closed.[11] In September 2018, IndieGames.com split from its longtime owner UBM. The writers started a new independently ran website called Indie Games Plus and carried over the older IndieGames.com posts to the new website.[13]

Interviews

The interviews section of the site features interviews with indie game creators and developers. The interviewees answer a set of questions posed by the interviewer including questions regarding their inspirations and hardships. The page is also split into three categories: desktop, console, and mobile to organize the interviews by platform interests.[14]

Features

The features section of the site consists of posts by the writers and editors of the site. Articles are written on any topic in the indie game sector. It was announced in September 2014 that there would be a collaboration with the Games We Care About Twitter page to help gamers discover alternative games recommended by developers and peers.[15]

There also is a Best of Features page that highlights some of the more notable freeware and indie games of current and previous years.[16]

Reviews

The Reviews section of the site is written by Michael Rose starting in February 2009. It features reviews on the games mentioned in the "Best of Features" page to give readers a look into the game before playing it themselves.[17]

Awards

As Gamasutra, the site and its team of editors won a Webby Award in 2006 and 2007; their five-word acceptance speeches were "Heart plus science equals games" and "Art plus science, still games", respectively.[18]

See also

References
  1. Graft, Kris (August 23, 2021). "Gamasutra is becoming Game Developer". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on August 23, 2021. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
  2. Schofield, Jack (October 31, 2008). "Gamasutra looks at the people behind the games". The Guardian. Retrieved June 19, 2022.
  3. "Game Developer". Game Developer. Retrieved July 31, 2023.
  4. NuttBlogger, Christian (May 27, 2011). "25 Years Of Dragon Quest: An Interview With Yuji Horii". Game Developer. Retrieved May 6, 2022.
  5. Graft, Kris (November 2, 2009). "Valve's Writers And The Creative Process". Game Developer. Retrieved January 1, 2023.
  6. "Postmortem". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on June 17, 2018. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
  7. "A Story of GameLayers, Inc". Gamasutra. November 10, 2011. Archived from the original on June 17, 2018. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
  8. "What Went Wrong? Learning From Past Postmortems". Gamasutra. April 22, 2009. Archived from the original on June 17, 2018. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
  9. See [the example sentence for] sense number 5 ["To degenerate; to break down"] of this Archived October 11, 2021, at the Wayback Machine version of wikt:devolve#Verb. For (far) more example sentences, "see also" this Archived August 4, 2017, at the Wayback Machine other online dictionary, and while there, click on "more example sentences" at the entry for "(devolve into)" (that entry was labeled [sense] "1.2" as of August 3, 2017). The information in this footnote probably would "not" have fit into an "edit comment" (as of August 3, 2017)
  10. "GameSetWatch". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on June 17, 2018. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
  11. Tracey Lien (December 1, 2011). "GamePro And GameSetWatch Close Their Doors". Kotaku. Archived from the original on June 17, 2018. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
  12. Eric Caoili (November 29, 2011). "This Is The End, My Friend". GameSetWatch. Archived from the original on June 17, 2018. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
  13. Couture, Joel. "IndieGames: A Farewell, But A Hello At IndieGamesPlus.com!". IndieGames. Archived from the original on December 19, 2018. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  14. "IndieGames.com". indiegames.com. Archived from the original on June 17, 2018. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
  15. Simon Carless (September 14, 2014). "IndieGames.com Games We Care About – Tough Love++!". indiegames.com. Archived from the original on June 17, 2018. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
  16. "IndieGames.com - The Weblog". indiegames.com. Archived from the original on June 17, 2018. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
  17. "IndieGames.com - The Weblog | Reviews". indiegames.com. Archived from the original on June 17, 2018. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
  18. "The Webby Awards: Archived Winner Speeches". International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on August 28, 2008. Retrieved August 2, 2008.
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