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 The organizers of the Austin Game Developers Conference have announced that it has made audio proceedings from Austin GDC 2008 available for individual purchase via the GDC Radio service.
The individual MP3 download versions are priced at $7.95 per lecture and available via GDC Radio, with many of the notable sessions now available from the September event, which was attended by a record number of online, audio and writing-centric game professionals.
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.
 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.
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.
 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 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 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 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 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 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.
The latest podcast features a frank lecture by Ready at Dawn Studios' president Didier Malenfant from Game Developers Conference 2006 on the company's critically acclaimed PSP title Daxter.
Among the numerous topics brought up by Malenfant during the course of his talk, he addresses some of the unique challenges that arose during the game's development, which took place simultaneously alongside the creation of the studio itself. The executive also offers a postmortem of the game itself, noting not only what went right over the course of Daxter's development, but also, in his own words, "what we screwed up."
You can now download the Daxter GDC 2006 lecture by Didier Malenfant (.MP3, 58 minutes, 14 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.
Today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast comes from the archives of the 2004 Game Developers Conference, with Lionhead founder Peter Molyneux and lead programmer Jonty Barnes asking: as AI becomes ever more complex, does this open the door for more or less gameplay?
From the original GDC 2004 synopsis:
"Lionhead's Jonty Barnes and Peter Molyneux will demonstrate the benefits and drawbacks AI can have on gameplay and design, by looking at games from the past, present, and future. Technology advances are always exciting and it is tempting as a developer to incorporate cutting edge technology wherever and whenever possible but a designer must always remember that the gameplay experience must be the primary consideration in any game design. However, used well, sophisticated AI can open up innumerable gameplay and design possibilities. This session looks at what has now become possible in the field of AI and what impact and effect it will have on the games of the future."
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast, AI Gameplay & Design: A Marriage of Heaven or Hell? (.MP3, 57 minutes, 13.8 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 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.
Today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast comes from the archives of the 2006 Game Developers Conference, with Carnegie Mellon University's Experimental Gameplay Project co-founders Kyle Gabler and Kyle Gray, both now part of Electronic Arts, giving advice on how to make games fast with an arsenal of tips, tricks, and examples on extremely rapid high quality prototyping.
From the original GDC 2006 synopsis, which notes that its target audience was game designers, people with short attention spans, and anyone who's been preaching the oncoming return of creativity in gaming:
"A team of four grad students from Carnegie Mellon University locked themselves in a room with 3 rules: 1. Each game must be made in less than seven days, 2. Each game must be made by exactly one person, 3. Each game must be based around a theme like gravity, vegetation, swarms, etc. This is the aftermath. From the whirlwind Experimental Gameplay Project that lovingly brought you TOWER OF GOO and SUBURBAN BRAWL, this session is a giant collection of bite-size tips, tricks, and demos showing how anyone can prototype a ton of games and features in no time at all."
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast, How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days (.MP3, 60 minutes, 14.6 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 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.
Today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast comes from the archives of the 2005 Game Developers Conference, with Infocom, Legend Entertainment, and Atari veteran Bob Bates explaining the classic 'hero's journey' as it relates to the construction of a story, and offers advice on how to tap into that timeless archetype for use in games today.
From the original GDC 2005 synopsis:
"We've heard for years about Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces and how the Hero's Journey underlies most epic stories. But when it comes to putting Campbell's observations to practical use, they become maddeningly elusive. Are there 12 parts of the Journey, or 8, or some number in-between? Must the hero encounter all of Campbell's archetypal characters, or is it okay if he skips a few?
When these questions are met with a shrug and the answer, "It depends," Campbell's observations are in danger of being used only as an analytical device after a story has been written, rather than being used by the game designer during the construction of his or her story.
This talk shows you how to put the Hero's Journey to work while you are building your story. It will explain the function of the various parts of the Journey, and the uses to which the archetypal characters can be put. Attendees will come away with a better understanding of story construction and some practical advice for creating a mythic substructure to their games.
Attendees learn how to convert Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey from a collection of analytical observations to a set of tools they can use in the construction of their stories."
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast, A Practical Guide to the Hero's Journey (.MP3, 56 minutes, 13.6 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 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.
Today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast comes from the archives of the 2001 Game Developers Conference audio track, with Blizzard Entertainment's Matt Uelmen describing his role on, and giving a general overview of the making of Blizzard's hit sequel Diablo II from an audio standpoint.
As Uelmen introduces in his case study synopsis:
"This presentation will discuss some of the nuts and bolts of one particular aspect of the development of this series: music and sound effects. Relationships in the development world have three facets - business, creative and personal. Despite the obvious fact that none of these three aspects exists in a vacuum, I will attempt to focus on the creative elements of my experience in working on these two titles.
Aside from some work as an itinerant musician in my teenage years, my time at Blizzard has been my only real experience in the working world, so I lack the experience to offer much comparison between the environment we have created here against other workplaces.
Still, I hope that by focusing on some basic elements of the production of these titles I can help shed some light on whatever "magic formula" it is that has given us our string of #1 titles. I will focus specifically on the tools I used in creating these hits; the individuals who played a great part in helping me get my material in the game, and, most importantly, my relationship with the final product while in the muddy trenches of content creation."
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast, Diablo II Case Study (.MP3, 56 minutes, 13.6 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 our 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, we present a session from the Game Developers Conference 2006, 'Odd vs. God: An Interview with David Jaffe by Lorne Lanning'.
As the official GDC2006 session summary explains:
"This session offers a rare glimpse into the mind of God Of War director David Jaffe in a one-of-a-kind interview by Oddworld creator Lorne Lanning. Lanning sits down with Jaffe and gets him to warm-up with "off-the-record" commentary on his recent commercial and critical hit, God Of War – and its outstanding creative and design aspects that made it a huge success.
He then puts Jaffe on the spot by drilling down on Jaffe's provocative rant on game journalists, why he thinks his comments are taken out of context, why he doesn't care - or does he? - before getting the scoop on his upcoming projects and thoughts about the future of game design. Attendees get a unique opportunity to learn what makes Jaffe tick as Lanning exposes him in a different light - as only a fellow game visionary can."
Over the course of the hour, Lanning speaks with Jaffe on a variety of development issues, including creating concepts and getting them through the green light phase, production and maintaining good relationships with the team members, the future of games as a medium, and life as a designer.
You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast of 'Odd vs. God' (.MP3, 60 minutes, 14.5 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 its latest 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.
Today's GDC Radio lecture comes from our extensive archive of Game Developers Conference recordings. This week's recorded lecture, "Creating a Monster RPG: The Light and the Dark Side of Development on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic," comes from GDC 2004, and sees BioWare producer/project director Casey Hudson discussing the development of the critically acclaimed console/PC RPG.
An extract from the official lecture abstract follows:
"BioWare’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic started development as an ambitious role-playing game set in the Star Wars Universe. In the end, it achieved almost all of its original design goals and went on to set sales records, becoming one of the most critically acclaimed RPGs of all-time. This talk will cover the entire development process at BioWare, from concept to completion, of this large and complex project. With a length of 40-60 hours, a complex rules system, 20,000 audio assets (including 14,000 lines of spoken dialog) and a 90+ man-year schedule, the physical size of the game alone presented a significant challenge to the developers.
Further challenges faced by the development team at BioWare involved complex testing efforts, licensing and approvals processes, the support of large-scale Marketing initiatives, managing co-development of two SKUs (Xbox and PC) and management of the BioWare online community.
BioWare’s Producer/Project Director of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic will discuss the challenges faced in development as well as the methods used to achieve the original design goals on this ambitious game while still keeping marketing, PR, and licensing responsibilities in balance."
You can now download the 'Creating a Monster RPG' lecture (.MP3, 60 minutes, 15 MB).
[In addition, you can subscribe to GDCRadio.net podcast using iTunes and searching the directory for GDC Radio or by clicking this link. You can manually add the GDCRadio podcast to your iTunes by using the Subscribe to Podcast option from the Advanced menu. When it asks for the URL enter feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.]
 Gamasutra is proud to present the twelfth edition of our free GDC Radio Archives downloads, as part of our series of weekly podcasts which alternate between two sources under the overarching GDC Radio brand - the Gamasutra Podcast, a new original podcast show, and GDC Radio Archives, which will exclusively feature the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
Today's GDC Radio lecture comes from our extensive archive of Game Developers Conference recordings. This week's recorded lecture, "Big Brands, Small Screens," comes from GDC Mobile 2006, and is a talk on bringing popular brands into the mobile games space.
An extract from the official panel abstract follows:
"From classic arcade titles like PAC-MAN to the always popular TETRIS, branded mobile games are starting to become more everpresent on the carriers' respective top ten lists. Even Hollywood properties like Wheel of Fortune, Spider-Man, and Batman Begins are starting to show that well-made titles matched with big brands equal a lot of revenue for everyone involved. This session seeks to highlight the main advantages and disadvantages of working with big brands for mobile games."
You can now download the 'Big Brands, Small Screens' lecture (.MP3, 49 minutes, 11.2 MB).
[In addition, you can subscribe to GDCRadio.net podcast using iTunes and searching the directory for GDC Radio or by clicking this link. You can manually add the GDCRadio podcast to your iTunes by using the Subscribe to Podcast option from the Advanced menu. When it asks for the URL enter feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.]
 Gamasutra is proud to present a series of weekly podcasts will alternate between two sources under the overarching GDC Radio brand - the Gamasutra podcast, a new original podcast show, and GDC Radio Archives, which will feature exclusively the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conference.
Today's GDC Radio lecture comes from our extensive archive of Game Developers Conference recordings. This week, we present 'AI and Design: How AI Enables Designers', the Game Developers Conference 2004 lecture from Big Huge Games head Brian Reynolds which looks at how the game design process and the creation of AI overlaps in today's game business.
An extract from the official panel abstract follows:
"Whether you're a programmer who's always wanted to work on the game design or a designer who thinks there might be something to this 'programming' thing, here's your chance to talk with someone who has worked both sides of the fence. We'll focus on AI and the ways in which AI development does (or should) overlap with the game design process, drawing case studies from the presenter's experiences as Lead Designer for Rise of Nations, Alpha Centauri, and Civilization II.
We'll talk about why delaying AI development 'until the design docs are final' is a wasted opportunity, and how both AI and Design benefit from simultaneous prototyping. We'll explore not only the traditional use of AI to determine goals and strategy for computer players, but also the critical role of AI in supplying 'personality' to computer-controlled characters. Perhaps most importantly we'll talk about the sometimes-unexpected ways AI techniques can be invaluable in content generation.."
You can now download the 'AI and Design: How AI Enables Designers' lecture (.MP3, 15 MB).
[In addition, you can subscribe to GDCRadio.net podcast using iTunes and searching the directory for GDC Radio or by clicking this link. You can manually add the GDCRadio podcast to your iTunes by using the Subscribe to Podcast option from the Advanced menu. When it asks for the URL enter feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.]
 Gamasutra is proud to present a series of weekly podcasts will alternate between two sources under the overarching GDC Radio brand - the Gamasutra podcast, a new original podcast show, and GDC Radio Archives, which will feature exclusively the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conference.
Today's GDC Radio lecture comes from our extensive archive of Game Developers Conference recordings. This week, we present 'Burning Down the House: Game Developers Rant,' GDC 2005's 'Burning Down the House: Game Developers Rant,' the infamous session in which Gamelab's Eric Zimmerman, Deus Ex designer Warren Spector, Maxis' Chris Hecker and others were given the chair to discuss the state of the game biz.
The session originally caused considerable controversy thanks to its frank content, and is being release in audio form for the first time. An extract from the official panel abstract follows:
"Rant: To rave in violent, high-sounding, or extravagant language; to be noisy, boisterous, and bombastic in talk or declamation.
Every year at the GDC, if you listen carefully, there are subtle rumblings beneath the happy audience applause and brisk tradeshow traffic. Every year, in the subtexts of the keynotes and panel discussions, a handful of important issues surface. Are licenses killing games? Are development companies becoming sweatshops? Why does the public think games are bad culture? Where the hell is the indie game industry? Burning Down the House: Game Developers Rant brings these important issues out of the shadows and into your face.
Come to this session prepared to have your assumptions questioned and your sensibilities shaken. You have been warned."
You can now download an audio recording of the entire lecture (.MP3, 60 minutes, 13mb).
You can subscribe to GDCRadio.net podcasts using iTunes and searching the directory for GDC Radio or by clicking this link. 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 Game Developers Conference lecture, as part of a weekly series of podcasts will alternate between two sources under the overarching GDC Radio brand - the Gamasutra podcast, a new original podcast show, and GDC Radio Archives, which will exclusively feature the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
This week, we present 'Developers are from Jupiter, Marketers are from Saturn: Learn the Secret Codes for Working with a Marketing Team,' the GDC 2005 lecture featuring April Jones from Arctic Light and Billy Cain from Critical Mass Interactive, and focused on the crucial issue of developer/marketing interaction.
You can now download an audio recording of the entire lecture (.MP3, 60 minutes, 13mb).
You can subscribe to GDCRadio.net podcasts using iTunes and searching the directory for GDC Radio or by clicking this link. 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 Game Developers Conference lecture, as part of a weekly series of podcasts will alternate between two sources under the overarching GDC Radio brand - the Gamasutra podcast, a new original podcast show, and GDC Radio Archives, which will exclusively feature the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
This week, we present 'Murder, Sex and Censorship: Debating the Morals of Creative Freedom,' the GDC 2006 panel moderated by game designer Brenda Brathwaite that features California politician Leland Yee, the IGDA's Jason Della Rocca, and others discussing government legislation against video games on the wake of the "Hot Coffee" scandal.
You can now download an audio recording of the entire lecture (.MP3, 60 minutes, 14mb).
You can subscribe to GDCRadio.net podcasts using iTunes and searching the directory for GDC Radio or by clicking this link. 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 Game Developers Conference lecture, as part of a weekly series of podcasts will alternate between two sources under the overarching GDC Radio brand - the Gamasutra podcast, a new original podcast show, and GDC Radio Archives, which will exclusively feature the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.
This week's edition of GDC Radio is a lecture from Game Developers Conference 2004, with Double Fine's Tim Schafer (Psychonauts, Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle) discussing the creation of memorable game characters in 'Adventures in Character Design.'
You can now download an audio recording of the entire lecture (.MP3, 65 minutes, 15mb).
You can subscribe to GDCRadio.net podcasts using iTunes and searching the directory for GDC Radio or by clicking this link. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 In this week's edition of GDC Radio, we present a panel from the Serious Games Summit at GDC 2006, featuring University of California, Irvine's Bill Tomlinson and M.I.T.'s Eric Klopfer discussing the potential for shortening a serious game's length to accomodate a student's time in the classroom.
The introduction to this lecture explains:
"The average K-12 class is 45-minutes long. The average college class is 60-minutes. Even if there are longer sessions planned most commercial games easily outstrip the allotted time two to three class sessions provide. This begs the question of how do games and class structures adapt to one another. The options include games that work in small bites, changing the nature of class structures, building supporting tools to aide in-class use, and more.
This panel debates some of the critical issues in an attempt to outline 5-10 critical recommendations to schools, developers, and the serious games community at large, as it relates to this proverbial square peg in round hole issue."
You can now now download the 'Can Serious Games Work in 45 Minutes?' GDC Radio lecture (.MP3, 10.8 MB).
You can subscribe to GDCRadio.net podcasts using iTunes and searching the directory for GDC Radio or by clicking this link. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 In this week's edition of GDC Radio, we present a panel from GDC 2003, with Bungie's Jaime Griesemer and Mat Noguchi, along with Microsoft's Marty O'Donnell, discussing the iterative, creative process that went into the making of both Halo and Halo 2, from design, engineering and audio perspectives.
The introduction to this lecture explains:
"Each discipline has a unique insight into how the game should play, and discusses how the process enabled the entire team to contribute to the final product. The lecture explains how early design documents and brainstorming sessions turn into actual content and technology that worked well together and made the game fun to play, deep, and presented with high production values. The lecture looks closely at systems such as AI dialogue that require a high level of coordination between level and character design, tools and programming, and the casting and recording of actors."
You can now now download the 'Halo: Development Evolved' GDC Radio lecture (.MP3, 14.0 MB).
You can subscribe to GDCRadio.net podcasts using iTunes and searching the directory for GDC Radio or by clicking this link. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
 In this week's edition of GDC Radio, we present a lecture from game designer and regular Gamasutra contributor Ernest Adams from the 2005 Game Developers Conference. Here, Adams revisits a lecture he gave ten years prior, at which point he came to the conclusion that there is no such thing as an "Interactive Movie" (a popular phrase at the time), and that game designers should instead focus on interactive narrative. Has anything suggested otherwise in the last ten years? Adams focuses on this question, and more, in this fascinating lecture.
The following extract is from the lecture's official description:
In 1995 Ernest Adams gave a lecture at the GDC called "The Challenge of the Interactive Movie," in which he outlined some fundamental problems with interactive narrative at that time. He identified three in particular: the problem of internal consistency; the problem of narrative flow; and the problem of amnesia.
In this lecture, Adams looks back on the last 10 years and examines how both academic research and the game industry as a creative business have addressed these and other issues in the design of interactive narratives. He draws on the published literature and on his own experience as a player and a professional game designer to illuminate the progress that has been made, including numerous examples from real games.
This lecture will also be a partial summary of Mr. Adams' Ph.D. research.
The lecture brings the attendee up-to-date on the current state of the art and offers direct suggestions for further work. It includes a history of efforts to merge interactivity with narratives; a statement of the key issues faced in combining the two. It incluseds an examination of the work done over the last ten years, with comments on the degree of success of different approaches, and examples taken from published games. It also includes concrete proposals for future research, development, and experimentation.
You can now now download the 'Interactive Narratives Revisited: Ten Years of Research' GDC Radio lecture (.MP3, 15.7 MB). You can subscribe to GDCRadio.net podcasts using iTunes and searching the directory for GDC Radio or by clicking this link. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.
[Additionally, until June 30, 2006, all individual GDC radio downloads have been reduced to only $2.99. You can purchase individual sessions at GDCRadio.net.]
 In this week's edition of GDC Radio, we take a trip back to 2002, with Ion Storm's then-Project Director Randy Smith discussing stealth gameplay fundamentals in the Thief series, in a talk titled 'GDC Radio: Design Fundamentals of Stealth Gameplay in the Thief Series.' The lecture provided what was then an early glimpse at the mechanics of the third entry in the series, Thief: Deadly Shadows, which premiered on store shelves over two years later.
Although Ion Storm closed its doors in early 2005, and Smith is now doing contract work on games such as the upcoming film adaptation Open Season and franchise continuation Dark Messiah of Might & Magic (both for publisher Ubisoft), the design theory presented in this lecture remains as solid and relevant today as it was four years ago.
The following extract is from the lecture's official description:
"This presentation deconstructs the stealth gameplay in the Thief series of games by using the design concept of analog interaction structures. Analog interaction structures (roughly, a collection of player-influenced, interacting game systems) contrast with discrete interaction structures by creating environments where open-ended player expression is possible. Analog interaction structures empower players with meaningful choices in the game world and enable players to make plans and take actions that do not require explicit designer support. These qualities are essential not only to stealth in Thief but to other types of core gameplay in any number of products that enjoy both critical and financial success.
This presentation lists and describes the elements of analog interaction structures, discusses the bo |
