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GDC Radio, in association with the Game Developers Conference and Gamasutra.com, provides professionally recorded MP3s featuring the game industry's top leaders and innovators. Choose from a wide variety of downloadable GDC lectures or Panels, including GDC itself, GDC Austin, Serious Games Summit GDC, Independent Games Summit, Casual Games Summit, and Game Career Seminar.
[*NEW*: The GDC 2008 audio lectures are now available on GDC Radio, offering a complete set of sessions from the inaugural CMP-run GDC event and available in both CD-ROM and individual MP3 download versions.]
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest Gamasutra Podcast, part of our regular GDC Radio podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
For today's podcast, we present an interview with Iain Simons, writer and live events coordinator of Nottingham's GameCity Festival. Besides serving as the co-creator of GameCity -- now going on to its third year, Simons is the author of three books: Difficult Questions about Videogames, BFI Film Guides 100 Videogames, and Inside Game Design -- part of which was recently excerpted on Gamasutra. He is a tireless advocate for the cultural significance of games.
In the course of conversation about the festival, which grew out of and evolved from initially more informal alcohol- and curry-fueled get-togethers, Iain speaks passionately about various subjects such as the role of game advocates as apologists of the medium, the lack of a human face to the games industry, and the reluctance of game publishers to discuss the process of creating games as opposed to promoting finished product. He also takes the comparison of games and cinema to task, particularly regarding what that analogy implies about the aspirations of the form.
He talks about themes that have been going through his mind recently, such as non-threatening entertainment, the removal of player-character death from modern game design, and safety and the permission to explore in-game environments.
He also discusses how to make games and game culture more palatable to non-gamer audiences. These include directly addressing the creative process of making games -- getting to questions that one might ask of any creator working in better known contemporary mediums.
Finally, Simons discusses ideas that didn't quite make it into his latest publication, Inside Game Design, and what factors defined which ideas made it into the book or not. He also shares some wonderful personal anecdotes about developer involvement with both GameCity and Inside Game Design. And he closes with Nottingham Trent University Undergraduate and Post-graduate programs' support of GameCity's latest project: an archive of early to current game artifacts and history.
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast with GameCity director Iain Simons (.MP3, 108 minutes, 32 MB).
In addition, you can subscribe to the Gamasutra podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest Gamasutra Podcast, part of our regular weekly GDC Radio podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
For today's podcast, we present an interview with Mike Wilson, Grand Champeen of Gamecock Media Group, who we caught up in Chicago with after a marketing and promotion planning meeting with Wideload Games.
Co-founder Wilson has a vital business role in game history over the past 15 years - working at id, setting up the influential GodGames, and now running his upstart publisher (Dementium, Hail To The Chimp), and this latest Podcast, he talks about his storied career and intriguing plans.
Gamecock's business philosophy sees it stretching themselves to leverage very asset from box designs, guerrilla marketing to reach untraditional audiences, and direct communications with gamer communities. It also secures approval from the developer on all phases of marketing, advertising, promotions, and PR.
This philosophy stems from Wilson's deep history in game development and publishing, starting out at DWANGO and id Software, and moving on to Ion Storm, and his first venture in artist-driven publishing, Gathering of Developers. Wilson generously shares his personal experiences and observations working in the game development and publishing industries, and how he has refined his personal and professional approach along the way. Although Gamecock Media Group is a new venture, Wilson reveals how the principles on which the company was founded have been in existence for more than a decade.
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: The Strange History Of Gamecock's Mike Wilson (.MP3, 54 minutes, 25 MB). Today's podcast is also being simultaneously offered as a feature on Gamasutra.com.
In addition, you can subscribe to the Gamasutra podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest Gamasutra Podcast, part of our regular weekly GDC Radio podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
For today's program, we wrap up our interviews from this year's Penny Arcade Expo with double-header conversations with both president and CEO Vlad Ceraldi and COO Joel DeYoung of Penny Arcade Adventures developer Hothead Games, and CCP Whitewolf's Peter Golan and Noah Ward, marketing director and lead game designer of EVE Online.
In the first part, Hothead Games' Ceraldi and DeYoung describe the challenges studios faces from quality of life for older employees with families, staffing and outsourcing pressures, new technologies, and as-yet still small installed bases. The two talk particular Hothead strategies such as taking advantage of alternate distribution platforms, adopting novel production models for games using a best-fit supplier model and scalable staffing to maximize efficiency. They also discuss how these strategies don't mean that a developer has to sacrifice on quality.
Next, Peter Golan and Noah Ward discuss the longevity of their lead franchise, EVE Online. EVE has been on the marketplace since 2003, far longer than most MMOs. Interestingly, EVE has always had great subscriber retention and a steadily growing base since its launch. Golan and Ward explain how they aren't afraid to make a specialized experience for a hardcore audience, and in fact how their focus has lead to their ongoing success.
In their upcoming expansions, they state that CCP has no plans to simplify their game, but are interested in providing tools to the player to more clearly introduce new players to the options their game has to offer. Although they don't seek to make their game more mainstream, they discuss their efforts to ensure that everyone has a significant role, regardless of their experience or rank.
They talk about how most of the changes to the game to date have been directly driven by their player base and how their design philosophy has always allowed their players to dictate a remarkable level of input and control over the lore and design of the EVE universe.
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: PAX 2007 Interviews with Hothead Games and CCP Whitewolf (.MP3, 32 minutes, 14.8 MB).
In addition, you can subscribe to the Gamasutra podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest free Game Developers Conference recording, part of our regular weekly GDC Radio podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
For this week's special GameCareerGuide.com podcast we cover five Game Career Seminar sessions from the recent Austin Game Developers Conference, all of which are being brought to you in association with The Art Institute Online.
The topics covered in the sessions range from choosing a school, to breaking into the industry, to improving your networking skills, to a special interview with industry veteran David Perry on his rise through the industry to his successes today.
The five sessions are as follows:
A Game Industry Journeyman
Speaker: Andy Schatz (Pocketwatch Games)
From his start as an intern at one of the first internet gaming portals in 1995 through his work in the big budget console world to the happy land of indie game development and the casual gaming gold rush, Andy has seen it all. Learn about how to break into the industry, and then how to break out of it.
Download the Game Career Seminar lecture, 'A Game Industry Journeyman' (.MP3, 62 minutes, 14.1 MB).
Schools Under the Microscope: An Open Q&A
Speaker: Gordon Dutrisac (Student Services Director, DigiPen Institute of Technology)
Jeannie Novak and Stacey Simmons (Director, BRADIC)
Casey Jones (Instructor, Texas State Technical College)
Bob McGoldrick (Video Games Coordinator, Austin Community College)
Representatives from various types of schools that offer degrees in, or related to, game development and design are on-hand to take your questions.
Download the Game Career Seminar lecture, 'Schools Under the Microscope' (.MP3, 59 minutes, 13.6 MB).
What are Employers Looking for Now?
Speaker: Robin McShaffry (VP Operations, Mary-Margaret.com)
Michael Nichols (Senior Recruiter, THQ/Vigil Games)
Jackie Shuler (Recruiter, Electronic Arts, Inc.)
What are the latest hiring trends in the game industry? What do companies look for in entry-level candidates? Which skills are most sought after? Learn, from search to follow-up, how to showcase the skills you are equipped with. Followed by Q&A.
Download the Game Career Seminar lecture, 'What are Employers Looking for Now?' (.MP3, 56 minutes, 13 MB).
Networking 101
Speaker: Darius Kazemi (President, Orbus Gameworks)
Get out of your seats for an interactive networking live game! It's more than just shmoozing, it's a valuable way to open up new opportunities.
Download the Game Career Seminar lecture, 'Networking 101' (.MP3, 63 minutes, 14.3 MB).
When did You last Level Up? Career Advice from an Industry Veteran
Speaker: David Perry (CEO/Founder, Gameconsultants.com)
It's like going on a diet, it won't be easy, but if you want to spike your career right now, David Perry (a 25 year industry veteran with multiple #1 games under his belt) is here to share some advice. This Q&A with GDC's Executive Director Jamil Moledina, should reveal some insights into how this multi-millionaire developer has found ways to keep a career growing in this fast moving and highly-competitive business.
Download the Game Career Seminar lecture, 'Career Advice from an Industry Veteran' (.MP3, 62 minutes, 14.2 MB).
In addition, you can subscribe to the GDC Radio podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest free Game Developers Conference recording, part of our regular weekly GDC Radio podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
This week's podcast comes from this year's Austin Game Developers Conference, with a roundtable consisting primarily of voice recording artists DB Cooper and Pat Fraley.
Both veterans of traditional and game-related voiceovers, DB Cooper's work has appeared in titles by studios such as Blitz Games. Fraley has appeared in a number of classic LucasArts titles such as Escape From Monkey Island, as well as Armed and Dangerous and is currently recording original sounds and languages for user-created creatures in EA's Spore -- the latter of which he previews over the course of the podcast.
For their extensive and entertaining Austin GDC lecture, the two, as well as a number of audience participants, give practical advice for voice actors, audio engineers, script writers, designers and more can do to get the best performances for their games. From the official roundtable description:
"This roundtable is for the exchange of ideas between writers, designers & audio people, and voice actors & AFTRA in the interest of learning what game developers need the most from voice talent and what the "perfect-world" deliverables would be from talent and contracts. There will also be discussion about the things game designers and audio directors can expect from voice actors and the union and what changes can be made in their concerted approach to best aid the game design process from the very beginning."
Examples of all of the tips and processes covered are given, including how to coach a elegant and graceful performance out of actors who are only recording gun-shot character grunts, screams, and falls.
You can now download the Austin GDC lecture, Creating a New Age of VO in Games (.MP3, 70 minutes, 16 MB).
In addition, you can subscribe to the GDC Radio podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest Gamasutra Podcast, part of our regular weekly GDC Radio podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
Today we present a two-part show featuring live interviews at PAX with Richard Iggo of GameCock Media Group and Joe Ludwig and Rick Saada of Flying Lab Software, developers of the upcoming MMO, Pirates of the Burning Sea.
Much has been made of the cavalier attitude and indie spirit of GameCock Officers, Mike Wilson, Harry Miller and Rick Stults. After taking some hard licks with the implosion of their previous publishing venture, Gathering of Developers, the founders of the new company are capitalizing on their experience and giving indie publishing another go.
Prior to its untimely demise, GodGames's PR antics often upstaged the fact that they managed to make the relationship-based publisher model work and released a number of critically and commercially successful games.
Likewise, Gamecock certainly attracts its share of interesting PR. But there seem to be some more serious activities going on behind the scenes. GameCock VP of Marketing, Richard Iggo takes a moment from his duties wrangling his bosses at PAX to talk about GameCock's efforts to repeat the behind the scenes successes of GodGames with the benefit of its founders' hard earned experience.
For the second interview, Joe Ludwig and Rick Saada of Flying Lab Software share a long and storied history of the independently developed MMO, Pirates of the Burning Sea. Starting out as a small-scale casual title, Pirates of the Burning Sea has grown to a full-blown MMO with loads of content and an impressive set of features. Joe and Rick talk about how the growth of their game influenced the growth of their company, and what they have learned along the way.
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: PAX 2007 Interviews with Gamecock Media Group and Flying Lab Software (.MP3, 34 minutes, 16 MB).
In addition, you can subscribe to the Gamasutra podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 The organizers of the Austin Game Developers Conference have announced that it has made audio proceedings from AGDC's first day available for individual purchase via the GDC Radio service.
As well as the individual MP3 download versions, which are priced at $7.95 per lecture and available via GDC Radio, full audio DVD-ROMs are also now ready for pre-order, with the full conference audio available for $249, and individual conference tracks for $129.
Some notable sessions already available for purchase are Raph Koster regarding 'Designing For Everywhere', Vicarious Visions' Evan Skolnick discussing 'Everything I Needed to Know about Game Writing I Learned from Star Trek', and Mike Morhaime's keynote called 'How to Rule the World (of Warcraft): Ten Lessons'.
The GDC Radio service itself works in association with the Game Developers Conference and Gamasutra.com, provides professionally recorded MP3s featuring the game industry's top leaders and innovators. Interested parties can choose from a wide variety of downloadable GDC lectures or panels, including GDC itself, GDC Austin, Serious Games Summit GDC, Independent Games Summit, Casual Games Summit, and Game Career Seminar.
 In the latest Gamasutra Podcast, presented by Tom Kim, we present a round table on the new format of the E3 Media and Business Summit. The panelists discuss the new format of the show and reflect on their impressions resulting from these changes.
Representing the gaming press, we have Susan Arendt of Wired's News Blogging team at Game | Life, N'Gai Croal, General Editor of Newsweek and John Davison of the Ziff Davis Game Group's 1UP Network. From the developer and technology services side, we have Todd Northcutt, Director of IGN / GameSpy Multiplayer Technology and Denny Thorley, President of Day 1 Studios.
This year's E3, spread out over several hotel suites and the Barker Hanger at Santa Monica was an effort by the event's organizers to offer a more viable environment for exhibitors to present their products and to conduct business.
Susan Arendt of Wired commented initially on the changes in the podcast: "E3, to me this year, felt more like it was being done out of habit than anything else. There weren't any big surprises, really. Just about every game that we saw we knew was coming had already seen at a game day event. With rare exception, we pretty much had already heard everything everyone had to say. It just felt like we were all kind of there because we all get together for E3 every year."
The panelists discuss how access to materials was affected by both the invitation-only attendance as well as the physical layout of the expo, spread out as it was between multiple locations.
Newsweek's N'Gai Croal added of these issues: "Obviously there was no Kentia Hall, so there goes a lot of the obscure, the Korean, the sort of the variety of stuff that you would see over in Kentia Hall. That was deliberate on the part of the ESA. In previous years they had allowed a range of smaller publishers to draft on their coattails as they saw it, and this year they decided not to do that... For me, coming from Newsweek I tend to have to cover some of the bigger games with a mix of smaller games, and I am personally more interested in indie games than I've been in the past, and again, because I couldn't get over to Barker Hanger I couldn't see those."
Their reports weren't all critical. Particularly from the developer side, the panelists go into some specifics about how well the format worked for them in terms of doing business. And on the press side, the journalists appreciated the quality of access they got unfettered access they got directly with the developers themselves.
The panelists wrap up their commentary by speculating on how the ESA could address some of the perceived deficiencies of this year's format, and some of the challenges they might have to face to do so.
Newsweek's Croal particulary noted: "I go to a news conference for news, and little news was being made... You have all these companies, these video game publishers that are based in the United States, yet Sony and their third parties just announced a whole slew of new games in Japan [immediately following E3] and it's not even Tokyo Game Show. What does that say when those games could have been announced at E3?"
He concluded: "I know the Japanese market needs a boost as far as the PS3 is concerned, but what does that say about North America's position in the global game market - when Sony can just have its own event not even a full week after E3 and unveil a slate of new games from itself and third parties, and it’s not even TGS?"
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: 'Does The New E3 Work?' (.MP3).
In addition, you can subscribe to the Gamasutra podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest Gamasutra Podcast, part of our regular weekly GDC Radio podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
For today's show, with Manifesto Games now open for a couple years, we check in with Greg Costikyan to see how the independent digital distribution service has fared. In the years since the service has opened its doors, the gaming landscape has changed perceptibly, though even with many more distribution channels emerging on both the PC and consoles and a broadening of the market, Manifesto Games still offers titles that appeal to particular interest groups that conventional games don't.
Despite the varied offerings of casual games portals such as Pogo, online distribution services such as Steam, and classic games and new content services such as GameTap, Costikyan says that he does not feel that the marketplace is crowded. Rather, he feels that games are now common cultural currency, perhaps to the degree where people can be convinced to check out games in subjects that appeal to them, whether they are self-identified "gamers," or not, and says success is really a matter of identifying the right markets for the titles that each service offers.
Costikyan explains that one of the most significant challenges for the indie space is to convince the public that games produced by independent, smaller teams don't equate to poor quality, but instead says that individual creators can work with a more singular vision to craft worthwhile experiences. The games that have done best for Manifesto, such as Impact Games' PeaceMaker and Wadjet Eye's The Shivah, says Costikyan, distinguish themselves by being particularly innovative in theme and topic or game play.
In the course of the interview, Costikyan addresses Manifesto Games' plans to appeal to community building to foster a relationship with the audiences who are most interested in the kinds of games Manifesto offers. He talks about his general impressions about the indie games scene, and the emergence of digital distribution services such as Xbox Live Arcade and Sony's PlayStation Network. And he shares what accomplishments he is most proud of, and what we might expect out of Manifesto in the future.
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: Interview with Greg Costikyan (.MP3, 32 minutes, 15 MB).
In addition, you can subscribe to the Gamasutra podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest Gamasutra Podcast, part of our regular weekly GDC Radio podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
For today's show, we feature an extensive interview with Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter.
His unvarnished opinions and gutsy predictions have garnered him and his firm a high profile among the gaming community.
But, says Pachter in the course of the interview, "I don't solicit all this press coverage. The press finds me. I think that the press finds me because I'm colorful, I'm not shy, I have an opinion and I frankly really don't care if someone agrees or disagrees with it. I'm willing to share."
"The controversy - the invective - that I get comes primarily from the games industry people always writing me emails and asking me, 'what do you think about this?' You know, 'what do you think when one of your competitors said "something"' that I thought was stupid. I wrote back that the guy was naive. And boy, headline: 'Pachter calls other analyst naive.' Today someone asked me, 'what do you think about the Sega marketing guy saying the Wii is a fad,' and I responded. Boy, headline."
We talk about the method behind his madness, delving into some of the thinking and methodology behind his analysis. He talks about how his coverage of the entertainment sector, and games in particular, differs from other categories covered by sales side analysts. We discuss his thoughts on investor-friendly publishing and consumer desire, and why the two might not be mutually exclusive.
In true Pachter-ian fashion, he straightforwardly addresses his cult of personality among message boards and gaming communities.
"I publish my monthly console and handheld hardware numbers because the NeoGAF guys think it's so fun," says Pachter of the infamous messageboard. "But no one's ever asked to see my annual forecast for all those things. I'm spot on, for my annual forecast. I'd love to see those guys put out a contest for annual forecasts for the next five years and then we'll compare my numbers to theirs, because I've been spot on for five or six years now."
"The average NeoGAF visitor isn't equipped to actually prepare those things," says Pachter, "because it requires you to make an assumption about pricing, and I've been great on that as well. It's hard to do."
Pachter shares some of his biggest industry surprises of the past few years, and his personal pick for most under-rated company in the game industry:
"I love the innovation. I love the opportunistic rapid market response. I think this company's going to earn a lot more money than most people do."
And, finally, responds to earlier comments he's made that next-gen game prices are too low and that "consumers are getting a gift":
"I'm just making an economic argument, not so much a suggestion," says Pachter. "[Prices of next-gen games] aren't going up. You're seeing collectors editions at $70 -- you're seeing the GTA collector's at $90. Guitar Hero -- $90. People don't even blink. They stand in line for the thing."
"I just meant that the public is willing to spend more for the content that they want," he adds. "Again, adjusted for inflation, the old PSone game in 1995 that came out at $49.99 would be probably about 70 bucks right now, just at 3 percent inflation compounded for the last 12 years, you'd be up over $70. On an apples to apples basis, $60 is a bargain. And the content of a PS3 game is a lot greater, or an Xbox 360 game, than the content of the first generation PSone games."
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: Interview with Michael Pachter (.MP3, 48 minutes, 22 MB).
In addition, you can subscribe to the GDC Radio podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest free Game Developers Conference recording, part of our regular weekly GDC Radio podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
This week's podcast comes from this year's 2007 Game Developers Conference, with a lecture entitled Where Game Meets The Web, from ex-Sony Online Entertainment producer and A Theory of Fun author Raph Koster.
Koster's latest venture, in production at his recently founded studio Areae, hopes to, as he says, marry the MMO world with the philosophies and practices of Web 2.0. "There's a lot of things wrapped up in that," Koster told Gamasutra, "everything from very low-end user costs for being able to participate, lots and lots and lots of listening to users, having them involved, having them contribute."
An explanation and elaboration of many of those principles can be found in his GDC lecture. As the official lecture description reads:
"We've all heard it, and probably even said it: games are kind of like movies. We have the blockbusters, the opening days, the big budgets and interdisciplinary teams... There are many lessons we can learn from the well-established content industries.
But games are also software, and the software world is undergoing a revolution. The web world is in ferment - some say a new bubble - and it's dragging content industries kicking and screaming into the 21st century. The underlying technological assumptions of the web regarding concepts such as IP, distribution, and user participation are very different from the Big Media way of doing things. Could 'release early, release often' possibly apply to the world of gamemaking?
This session is about lessons we can learn from how the web world works, applied to the game industry, and concrete takeaways on how to leverage the brave new Web world."
You can now download the GDC lecture, Where Game Meets The Web (.MP3, 68 minutes, 15.7 MB).
In addition, you can subscribe to the GDC Radio podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest Gamasutra Podcast, part of our regular weekly GDC Radio podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
For today's show, we feature an interview with Kane Minkus, principal and founder of Somatone Interactive Audio.
Although you might not be familiar with Somatone, you are probably quite familiar with their work. Somatone scores and produces music, sound effects, and voice overs for over 120 titles a year, including some of your favorite console, casual and downloadable games, such as EA's Medal of Honor series, PlayFirst's Diner Dash series, 3-Rings' best of IGF winner, Bang Howdy, and PopCap's fiendishly addictive Peggle.
Not only does Somatone handle music composition, sound design, voice overs, and mixing and mastering, but they are also responsible for developing a highly optimized, high quality sound and music technology specifically tailored for downloadable games.
In the interview, Kane talks about his motivation for starting up Somatone, specifically with an eye, or ear, toward servicing the game industry. Kane explains how their movement into the downloadable casual space has been a great challenge to the sound designers and composers at Somatone in terms of the breadth of styles and the diversity of the audience for those games. Also, how Somatone's tight integration of technology for their clients allows them a more cooperative and creative role in working with the game development team.
He addresses some of the technical considerations in the development of their audio technology for downloadables, and how it shapes the feature set of their production tools. The end result being a highly optimized, very efficient and surprisingly flexible solution.
Kane also talks about some of the unique process that Somatone applies to score games, including their use of Laban Movement Analysis, a systematic means of describing and deconstructing motion. Finally, he talks about the musical inspiration behind the score for Peggle, which turns out to have the same controlled randomness as the game itself.
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: Interview with Kane Minkus (.MP3, 36 minutes, 16 MB).
In addition, you can subscribe to the GDC Radio podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest free Game Developers Conference recording, part of our regular weekly GDC Radio podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
With God of War: Chains of Olympus coming to the PSP, and the extremely well received God of War II continuing to be a top seller, we take a look back at the development of the original God of War with a lecture from the 2006 Game Developers Conference.
For his "God of War: How the Left and Right Brain Learned to Love One Another" lecture, Sony Computer Entertainment America director of technology, Tim Moss looked at the left brain/right brain split between David Jaffe and the game's designers and himself and his team of programmers, and how, despite it all, the two sides managed to come together to make a hit game.
Listed as important for "programmers, designers and anyone who has to come up with a project plan that keeps them all happy," the official lecture description reads:
"God of War is a big game, lots of special case elements, high production values. Its lead designer was a Right Brain, random creative type who couldn’t really speak Programmer. Its lead programmer was a Left Brain analytical type who likes things to be methodical, well thought out and hates special cases. Through a 3 year process of arguing, designing, building, programming, and much, much more arguing they managed to find a way to make a game. This session will cover how the code, engine and tools were structured to allow the creative people on the team to make the game we they wanted."
You can now download the GDC lecture, 'God of War: How the Left and Right Brain Learned to Love One Another' (.MP3, 53 minutes, 12.2 MB).
In addition, you can subscribe to the GDC Radio podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest Gamasutra Podcast, part of our regular weekly GDC Radio podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
For today's show, we talk with Stephen Totilo, reporter for MTV News. Stephen is perhaps the only full-time reporter hired by a mainstream news outlet to cover games exclusively. He covers online, on-air, and broadband offerings with MTV News, as well as posting his own Player Two blog at stephentotilo.com.
Newsweek General Editor N'Gai Croal calls him, "the best cultural correspondent covering games." Given Stephen's strong convictions about bringing in more enterprise and initiative into gaming news, his stories consistently define a unique perspective within the games press.
We address the ongoing debate about the role of formal schooling and training in journalism, how to bring more relevance to entertainment media coverage, the power of effective reporting and the true values of journalism, the proper separation between games journalism and game development, and the need to address the curiosity and concerns about game-related cultural experiences. Stephen also talks about his editorial freedom covering gaming news outside of the traditional enthusiast press.
We talk about the recent departure of more seasoned and talented games journalists from the field directly into game development or the game industry overall, and some of the possible factors behind this flight.
Stephen brings up the need to feature more people in game reporting, and some of the obstacles that might apply specifically to the gaming press to cover that kind of story. And the balance between that sort of coverage and the typical reportage seen in the games press.
He proposes some access to alternate coverage that he would like to see from game developers and publishers regarding more interesting ways to talk about their products to the gaming press. And how they could perhaps leverage their fans' deeper curiosity about the process and the people involved with making games to get beyond canned statements and product points.
We discuss how games coverage might differ from traditional news reporting, specifically with regard to blogging and non-traditional first person writing. And lastly, we talk about what might hold games back from being a truly mainstream entertainment and how games might become more accessible to a larger audience.
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: Interview with Stephen Totilo (.MP3, 59 minutes, 27 MB).
In addition, you can subscribe to the GDC Radio podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest free Game Developers Conference recording, part of our regular weekly GDC Radio podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
Our latest podcast comes from this year's Game Developers Conference, with Introversion's managing director Mark Morris and financial director Tom Arundel talking about how winning three prizes at IGF 2006 saw a massive turnaround for the UK based, self confessed last-of-the-bedroom-programmers, Introversion Software.
"One year on," the official GDC session description writes, "Introversion returns to spill the beans on what happened when all of the hangovers, camera crews, excitement and hype surrounding IGF dissipated. We will discuss the trials and tribulations of running a small, independent games company, including topics such as:
* Advice on how to attain commercial credibility and compete with the big boys of the games industry whilst retaining creative freedom
* Maximizing the benefits whilst downplaying the limitations of running a small dev team
* Tapping in to the opportunities now present to indies via internet retail and distribution
* Why now is a better time than ever for the budding independent developer."
The session was listed as relevant to anyone "already familiar with and interested in [Introversion's] work and also to those seeking viable, working alternatives within the games industry to the traditional franchise and sequel cash-ins favored by the worst kind of profit-greedy and creatively stunted publishers."
Introversion promised to "prove to developers and publishers alike that the current approach to games development is forcing creative stagnation, but can be overturned by new openings in the industry which allow the small independent to retain creative freedom whilst remaining financially viable."
You can now download the GDC lecture, 'After the Party: Introversion Software One Year On From IGF 2006' (.MP3, 56 minutes, 12.7 MB).
In addition, you can subscribe to the GDC Radio podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest Gamasutra Podcast, part of our regular weekly GDC Radio podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
For today's interview, we get some advice from veteran game industry recruiter, Marc Mencher. Marc and his staff at GameRecruiter.com have 18 years of experience recruiting the technical, production, and executive talent who make up game industry companies.
Marc and his firm specialize in strategically important and un-advertised jobs in all segments of the game industry. These are the kinds of positions you won't find in the classifieds or on job boards. Marc believes in a career-building approach, rather than placing candidates in one-off positions.
Marc draws on his 25 years of experience to impart advice to anyone looking to get, and keep, a job in the game industry. We discuss the absolutely crucial role of networking, how to introduce and sell yourself at industry events, how to use job postings as a lead source to take control of your job hunt, and how to stand out among the hundreds of candidates applying for a given position.
In separate segments, Marc shares some practical tips on how to break into the game industry, how to build your skills with the goal of assembling the right work samples, and how to start building your industry mentors and contacts. And he gives his opinion on the value of attending a specialized game school.
For those of you with a few releases under your belt, we talk about how to track industry trends very specifically, and how to keep yourself employable and valuable in the market. We also discuss the impact, from a hiring perspective, due to new consoles, production pathways and agile development, outsourcing, and freelancing.
Marc also provides some insight into the career viability of new growth sectors, such as the mobile and MMO markets, and some of the forces defining the influx of talent from other entertainment fields, and the departure of veterans from gaming into other industries. To round out the discussion, Marc shares his take on this year's Game Developer Magazine annual salary survey, and how it stacks up against his experience.
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: Interview with Marc Mencher (.MP3, 63 minutes, 29 MB).
In addition, you can subscribe to the GDC Radio podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest Gamasutra Podcast, part of our weekly audio sessions, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
Our latest podcast comes from this year's Game Developers Conference, with Harmonix's Guitar Hero producer Daniel Sussman and senior sound designer Eric Brosius explaining that, contrary to other genres, in most music games your songs are your levels, which means your sound designers are your level designers.
Over the course of the lecture, the two discuss specifics on how they created compelling game content from established rock music in Guitar Hero, including how to choose songs that made good levels, some of the tools the studio used to "level the playing field," and specific examples from both Guitar Hero releases.
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast, 'Is Jimi Hendrix a Good Level Designer?' (.MP3, 59 minutes, 13.5 MB).
In addition, you can subscribe to the Gamasutra podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest Gamasutra Podcast, part of our weekly podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
For today's show, we feature two interviews from the Game Developer's Conference. The first is with Dan Snyder, the PR Manager of Intel Corporation and the second is with Joshua Hong, the CEO and founder of pay-to-play MMO company, K2 Network.
In my interview with Dan, we discuss Intel's resurgence and refocus in the gaming market and community. Dan addresses Epic VP Mark Rein's statement that Intel is killing PC gaming, speaking in particular about the bad rap of integrated graphics and its impact on game developer's market presence.
He also comments on Intel's work to improve support, providing more robust and efficient drivers and working with game developers to achieve the best possible performance on Intel hardware including development on multi-core processors on multiple threads.
Finally, he addresses some of Intel's plans for the future including the next generation of 45nm "Penren" processors, new mobility tools and integrated SLI in notebooks, their new streaming Symbion instruction set, SSE4 with 50 new instructions, many of which have direct applications to gaming, and their functioning 80-core prototype chip set.
Joshua Hong talks about how MMO companies should be service companies as much as they address development and publishing. He talks about the importance and difficulties of maintaining a thriving gaming community, especially when that community comprises between 8 - 9 million users worldwide.
Joshua explains how K2 is introducing free-to-play model and adapting the service to Western tastes. He explains how free-to-play is more than a pricing structure, but how it has significant implications for distribution, product development and service as well. And how selling in-game items is not limiting game play, but is actually empowering choice by enabling customers to shape their experience to their personal level of comfort or commitment. In other words, to only have to pay for the content they want to experience.
He also expresses K2's philosophy regarding their product portfolio, and how their business model allows for continuous yearly, monthly, and even daily enhancements and expansions to the game.
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast: GDC 2007 Interviews with Dan Snyder of Intel and Joshua Hong of K2 Network (.MP3, 35 minutes, 16.1 MB).
In addition, you can subscribe to the Gamasutra podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest Gamasutra Podcast, part of our weekly podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
For today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast, Tom Kim follows up on the '20 Questions With Phil Harrison' session at this year's DICE Summit by turning the tables on Harrison's interrogator and conducting an in-depth interview with Newsweek video game/technology writer and general editor N'Gai Croal.
In the interview, Croal discusses his interview technique, the differences, as he sees them, between coverage of games from the mainstream press versus the enthusiast press, his passion for new forms of media dissemination such as blogging and podcasting, working as a minority in the gaming press, and his take on critical game industry trends. This interview was recorded prior to the GDC, so the listening audience can decide for themselves how accurate his pronouncements actually were.
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast, Newsweek's N'Gai Croal (.MP3, 72 minutes, 33.4 MB).
In addition, you can subscribe to the Gamasutra podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest Gamasutra Podcast, part of our weekly audio sessions, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
This technical podcast features our first lecture presented from this year's Game Developers Conference, with Mark Cerny (Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Resistance: Fall Of Man), SCE/Naughty Dog's Jon Olick, and SCE lead graphics engineer Vince Diesi presenting PlayStation Edge, the advanced graphics toolkit for PlayStation 3 development announced and distributed at this year's conference.
Intended to give programmers creating PlayStation 3 content some background and necessary information on the toolset, GDC described the session like so:
"Three first party technology teams within Sony -- the WWS Europe Advanced Technology Group, WWS America ICE team, and WWS America Tools and Technology group -- have combined to create PlayStation® Edge, a set of cutting edge technologies for imminent release to all PlayStation 3 developers. Rather than an overarching engine, these teams have chosen to create specialized systems that demonstrate best practices of SPU and RSX utilization. A unique tool for RSX performance analysis, extensively used in the tuning of first party titles, will also be presented."
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast, 'Cerny, Olick, Diesi Present PlayStation Edge' (.MP3, 54 minutes, 12.3 MB).
In addition, you can subscribe to the Gamasutra podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest in the special GDC interview series of our regular podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
For today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast we feature an interview with Jamie Berger, senior vice president and general manager for the consumer products division of IGN Entertainment. Berger is responsible for overseeing IGN's subscription, digital distribution, and e-commerce portfolio, including FilePlanet, 3D Gamers, GameSpy Arcade, Direct2Drive, GameSpy Arena, and IGN Insider.
In the course of our conversation, we talk about IGN's entry into the digital distribution business, with direct downloads of PC games including top tier releases such as Supreme Commander and Jade Empire, as well as niche and legacy titles like Planetside, with Berger explaining that its game sales business isn't a conflict of interest with its game reviews business.
We also talk to Berger about IGN's upcoming channel for independent game titles and outreach program to smaller developers to help them manage and grow their business, and the site's launch of a new non-commercial indie game and mod building site intended as a resource for small developers and an interface between them.
Finally, Berger leads us through its GameSpy technology group, with its more heavily community driven push as late through features like Command and Conquer 3's "RTS As A Sport," which allows players to act as spectators and commentators of streaming or downloadable online matches, and touches briefly on GameSpy's partnership with Nintendo for the DS and Wii, with hints on how its online space might develop.
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast, Interview with Jamie Berger (.MP3, 23 minutes, 10.5 MB).
In addition, you can subscribe to the Gamasutra podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest in the special GDC interview series of our regular podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
For today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast we feature an interview with Tom Anderson, president and CEO of Novint Technologies. Novint's most recent push into the gaming space has come in the form of the Novint Falcon 3D touch feedback device, new hardware that the company calls "a small robot which lets users feel weight, shape, texture, dimension, dynamics and force effects when playing enabled games." Using the Falcon, Novint says, "players experience a full range of realistic touch sensations that allow them to control a game more naturally and intuitively."
In the course of our conversation, Anderson talks about the upcoming commercial launch of the Falcon, arguing that the device is a platform rather than a peripheral, and says why he thinks it will fundamentally change how people interact with the PCs, and possibly even their next-gen game consoles. He discusses the differences between the Falcon and other specialized gaming peripherals that have come before, and why Novint has chosen to pursue the gaming market as opposed to other business where they could just as easily apply their technology.
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast, Interview with Tom Anderson (.MP3, 13 minutes, 6 MB).
In addition, you can subscribe to the Gamasutra podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 Gamasutra is proud to present the latest in the special GDC interview series of our regular podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
For today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast we feature an interview with Michael Steele, vice president of marketing at physics hardware manufacturer and developer AGEIA. The company has been continuing to make strides at mass-ma |
