Gamasutra News

Joystick Labs incubation program accepting applications starting March 6

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:41:00 -0500

Newsbrief: North Carolina-based Joystick Labs has announced its latest incubation program that will provide funds and mentorship to aspiring indie developers. Much like the Joystick Labs' previous incubation programs, select indie teams will get a chance to enroll in a 12-week course that will help them refine and develop their projects with the help of both game educators and industry professionals. Applications for the 2012 program will open March 6 and conclude on May 25. ...

Gamasutra expert blogs: From slow play to outsourcing's secondary costs

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:40:00 -0500

[In highlights from Gamasutra's Expert Blogs, industry notables write about diverse topics, including the secondary costs of outsourcing, appreciation of slow play, and more.] In our weekly Best of Expert Blogs column, we showcase notable pieces of writing from members of the game development community who maintain Expert Blogs on Gamasutra. Member Blogs -- also highlighted weekly -- can be maintained by any registered Gamasutra user, while the invitation-only Expert Blogs are written by development ...

CryEngine 3 adds Scaleform integration

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:56:00 -0500

Newsbrief: Crysis series developer Crytek on Wednesday released an update to its proprietary CryEngine 3, adding full integration for Autodesk's Scaleform UI solution. This new update is available as part of the free CryEngine SDK, and will allow developers to more easily create and edit in-game maps, HUD elements and more from directly within the CryEngine toolset. In addition to the Scaleform integration, the new CryEngine update will add several DirectX 9 rendering improvements, a ...

Viximo assists game distribution for the avatar-based Gaia Online

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:56:00 -0500

Viximo, the distribution company that helps developers bring their games to new social platforms, has signed a deal with major social networking company Gaia Interactive to expand Gaia's game catalog and bring its internally-developed titles to other sites. In particular, Viximo will help Gaia bring its popular social game Monster Galaxy to the numerous other social sites in its network. In addition, Viximo will add a number of other popular social games to the avatar-based ...

America's missing link: Core-focused free-to-play

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:31:00 -0500

If nothing else, the revenue figures unveiled when Zynga went public have proven that the microtransaction-based "free-to-play" business model for video games was not limited to places like China and Korea. Even America, the land of the video game console, has been catching on: according to upcoming research by DFC Intelligence previewed at Thursday's [a]list summit in San Francisco (and with subsequent data revealed exclusively to Gamasutra), North American gamers spent $1.1 billion on microtransactions ...

EA returns to basketball without the NBA Elite name

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:03:00 -0500

Later this year, Electronic Arts plans to launch its first major NBA title since the infamous cancellation of NBA Elite in 2010. This new game, however, won't use the "Elite" branding, but will instead return to EA's classic NBA Live label. EA confirmed to Gamasutra that the new game, titled, NBA Live 13, will ship this Fall, though the studio did not confirm why it has chosen to ditch the NBA Elite name. Of course, ...

Gaming's next legal hotbed

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:17:00 -0500

It's an election year. And despite 2011's historic Supreme Court ruling, you really didn't think video games were going to be dropped from the political agenda, did you? As predicted, privacy is fast becoming a legal hotbed-and while it's something that's certain to impact traditional game makers in one form or another, it's mobile developers who are increasingly finding themselves in the crosshairs. A new study from the Federal Trade Commission looking at mobile apps ...

GDC Play adds Game of Thrones, GardenQuest devs to showcase lineup

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:00:00 -0500

GDC 2012 is drawing ever closer, and show organizers have chosen to highlight even more of the notable and eccentric game developers at the first-ever GDC Play showcase. As outlined previously, GDC Play is a new program that gives emerging game developers a chance to show off their games to a host of specially invited industry decision makers, in addition to the 19,000-strong GDC attendee base. The showcase itself will take place Tuesday March 7th ...

GetJar launches virtual currency for games across Android's app stores

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:55:00 -0500

GetJar has launched a new virtual currency that works for games released across Android's various app stores, including its own free app store, Android Market, and Amazon's Appstore. The company claims the currency and its linking to global advertisements solve two problems similar platforms have previously faced: low free-to-paid conversions due to complicated user experiences, and the lack of access to global markets. Consumers earn GetJar Gold by downloading a free, GetJar-powered game from any ...

Bungie co-founder Seropian starts up core-focused mobile dev

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:08:00 -0500

Bungie co-founder Alex Seropian on Thursday revealed what he's been up to since ditching Disney: a new, core-focused mobile studio. Called Industrial Toys, the developer says it wants to veer away from the "inferior gameplay, graphics, and ... elementary mechanics" that the space is mostly known for, instead promising free-to-play titles with "intricately advanced layers of narrative and gameplay." Seropian worked on a number of core games after co-founding Bungie in 1991 and serving as ...