Hey, good news for anyone who wants more 3D support out of Torque X 2.0. For those of you who are out of the loop on game engine goodness, Microsoft’s (essentially free) XNA game engine also has a compatible engine from popular independent games developer and distributor GarageGames–Torque X. Torque X allows developers a chance to deploy and test their game on retail Xbox 360 units through Microsoft Creator’s Club.

(more…)

Game Design Workshop: Designing, Prototyping & Playtesting Games by Tracy Fullerton, Chris Swain, and Steven Hoffman covers the core concepts and best practices of game design. It is organized into three parts. The first part gives a formal description of all of the different aspects of games, to build a framework for discussing how to design them. The second part talks about the iterative process as it applies to game design (in particular, how to prototype, focus test and playtest, and respond to feedback); in fact, this is the only game design book I’ve seen so far that does so. The last part gives an overview of the game industry and the job roles and responsibilities of the game designer.

(more…)

If you’re a woman or minority, heads up for a new $45,000 scholarship from the ESA Foundation for students pursuing game education. To be applicable, you must want to attend for full-time study at accredited four-year colleges and universities. Although applications for this round are due on May 15, 2008, the ESA plans to add fifteen more scholarships for fields including graphic design, computer science, animation or programming, digital entertainment or software engineering.

(more…)

I started in the Animation industry as a Modeling/Texture Artist at a small Studio in Chicago almost 11 years ago working on a cartoony kids’ video series Veggie Tales. During my 3 years there I not only modeled characters, props and sets, but also got involved in concept design. I then moved to Atlanta where I was hired as a Generalist at Fathom Studios (an even smaller studio of 15 people), to work on the still yet unreleased animated film Delgo.

(more…)

Although already well known for its dialog interaction in past role playing games, BioWare’s interactive narrative game play was upgraded by strides when it went for increasing the emphasis on designing cinematic interactive dialog in Mass Effect. This is where Ken Thain, Lead Cinematic Designer at BioWare, stepped in and got an opportunity to incorporate his past experience with making machinima into the actual core game play.

(more…)

Massive Entertainment Lead Artist Rodrigo Cortes gave us insight on the art development of World in Conflict, a real time tactical game with a heck of a lot of artistic details that flesh out the environment and the combat during gameplay. For all you console gamers out there, keep an eye out for this PC title as it gets ported to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in the fall.

(more…)

For all of you independent game artists and designers out there, the IndieCade 2008 festival, which is happening July 10-13 in Bellevue, Washington, has recently announced an open call for their game contest. Not only are they taking straight up art games, but also commercial, abstract, serious, and alternate reality games in a variety of interactive forms.

(more…)

In my short career in this industry, I’ve worked on 4 licensed titles. Initially, I had no contact with the Licensors, but since moving into the role of Project Coordinator, one of my responsibilities involves liaising with our Licensors. Here’s a step-by-step run through of how to get a licensed character approved to appear in the game:
(more…)

Before I entered the career field of texture artist, I went and did 3 years on a BA course in ‘computer game art’. Ultimately it isn’t essential in getting a job as a texture artist but it can be a good motivation to learn the basics of 3D applications and how to approach your work. The biggest problem is that the teachings can be based on methods and technology that is a few years behind, while I can only say that about the course I attended, I do still often hear that many other similar courses still share that very same problem today.
(more…)