Articles Posted in the Editorial Category
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IGDA AI SIG Reboot
The IGDA’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) SIG has been rebooted after a number of years of dormancy. We’re going to be focusing largely on advocating for broader use of AI in games by highlighting great uses of AI in games, and conceptual ways to incorporate better AI from design-time right through to development. The core thing [...]
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Self-Learning as Effective Learning
Self-Learning seems scary and rightfully so. Taking on a new tool, style or approach on anything can be quite a daunting task. Enter hours of frustration finding reliable resources, late-nights, angry significant others and compiling errors. But it doesn’t have to be that hard. You may have the tools to make what would be an [...]
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GDC 2013: Recap, Reunions, and Revisions
For one week a year, a collection of professionals, students & hopefuls from around the world gather in San Francisco, California to share knowledge, and celebrate the creation of video games. It is the Game Developers Conference — the “can’t miss” event of the year. The 2013 GDC proved no different, setting a new record [...]
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Q&A with IGDA Executive Director, Kate Edwards
Q: Kate, you spent 13 years with Microsoft as a geographer and even created and led the Geopolitical Strategy Team. Where does the passion come from to imagine that you can create change from within a large company like Microsoft? When I entered Microsoft as a cartographer on Encarta Encyclopedia, interrupting my Ph.D progress to do [...]
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Game Design Aspect of the Month: HTML5 Prime Time
There has been a lot of misinformation floating around the web concerning HTML5. The most important question is, “is HTML5 ready for prime time?” The short answer is yes, you can write polished games in HTML5 and have them run across a myriad of browsers, platforms and devices with consistent results. The longer answer – [...]
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The Code to Protecting Your Game
When creating a game, developers need to consider what level of built in protection, against which parties, is right for the project. To a certain extent, this decision relies on whether you’re programming for profit or fun or some combination of the two – when money enters the equation, the need to protect your investment [...]
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Playcanvas!
In my search for the right mobile game engine, I came across Playcanvas. Its free, cloud-based and uses HTML5 and Javascript. Here are six things I liked about my experience in trying it out and four things I hope will improve. Enjoy. Logging into your account is easy. It’s as convenient as getting into and [...]
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IGDA Scholars Program
(Featured image by Izzy Gramp) At the IGDA, we often mention the Scholarships program, which offers students from around the world a unique opportunity to attend a major industry conference. With the Game Developers Conference recently completed, we wanted to share with you the kind of experiences that the Scholars had at GDC. Typically, the [...]
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Every Kickstarter a Success
Kickstarter is a much-misunderstood platform. Who can – or should – be using it has been endlessly debated and a lot of people seem suspicious of it – and well they should. Kickstarter represents a disruption of the old funding model in which all content is filtered through gatekeepers whose whim determines “what the market [...]
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Gurus, Silos, and a Good Story: How to Approach Crowdfunding
“Most game developers are more lucky than good… Gurus are more good and charismatic than lucky.” To become successful in the game industry as an indie developer is somewhat of a holy grail. Many people produce maps, give advice, and sell supplies for the journey, but the failure or success of any given team is, [...]
