Blog: Coping with comparisons to other games 5
by Gamasutra Community [05.13.13]
So people think your game is like Title X or Y. This... can be a downer. How do you work past that -- and still make a success of your game? This blog post rounds up some thoughtful tips.
Console/PC, Social/Online, Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Design

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PC browser games going away? Not in China, apparently 2
by Brandon Sheffield [05.13.13]
Some say PC browser games are destined to be superseded by mobile games. But Aaron Hsu, head of Taiwanese game company XPEC, says Chinese market trends suggest otherwise.
Console/PC, Production

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This Week in Video Game Criticism: From Fatherhood to Art Gore  
by Kris Ligman [05.13.13]
This week, our partnership with game criticism site Critical Distance brings us picks from Kris Ligman on topics including fatherhood and art gore.
Console/PC, Indie, Design

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Get a job: Robot Entertainment is looking for a Technical Artist  
by Kris Ligman [05.13.13]
The Technical Artist/Animator "will be instrumental in creating and maintaining efficient pipelines for the art assets used in Robot’s game development efforts."
Console/PC, Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Art, Recruitment

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Blog: How gifting and play sessions affect iOS App Store rank 3
by Gamasutra Community [05.13.13]
In his continuing analysis of the performance of indie RPG Nameless: The Hackers, James Liu crunches data to figure out effects on App Store rank -- with surprising results.
Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Business/Marketing

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Amazon releases its virtual currency for Kindle apps  
by Kris Ligman [05.13.13]
Amazon Coins represents the company's latest bid to bolster sales on the Kindle Fire. "For developers, it's another opportunity to drive traffic, downloads and increased monetization," says Amazon.
Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Business/Marketing

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Video: What game developers can do for NASA 1
by GDC Vault Staff [05.13.13]
NASA researchers shared their vision of working with game developers to create the future of space exploration, where everyone can step on distant worlds via virtual holodecks.
Console/PC, Social/Online, Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Design, Video

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Finding the good in free-to-play 14
by Gamasutra Community [05.13.13]
Lee Perry used to work on the Gears of War series. Now he's gone independent, and is contemplating how the free-to-play business model can be done right.
Social/Online, Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Design, Business/Marketing

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This mobile dev's market value has topped Nintendo's 2
by Mike Rose [05.13.13]
We already knew that GungHo Online's mobile hit Puzzle & Dragons is proving rather popular, generating around $2.5 million daily back in February.
Smartphone/Tablet, Business/Marketing

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PR tips for indies: Reaching out to the press 8
by Gamasutra Community [05.13.13]
Making your game isn't enough -- you have to get people interested in it. PR professional Shannon Drake covers the basics of how to start a PR campaign.
Indie, Business/Marketing

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Blizzard donates all Diablo III exploit cash to charity 3
by Mike Rose [05.13.13]
Following a Diablo III exploit that allowed some players to duplicate gold in-game last week, developer Blizzard Entertainment has made the decision to ban those players who took advantage of the exploit, and donate all their sales proceeds to charity.
Console/PC, Business/Marketing

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Team-led design in a mid-core social strategy game 7
by Staff [05.13.13]
Plarium, developer of mid-core strategy game Total Domination, shares its process of getting the best results from its player-focused iteration process.
Social/Online, Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Design

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Blog: My four takeaways from the year in strategy games 10
by Gamasutra Community [05.13.13]
The strategy genre is exploding with great new games, and there are plenty of lessons to learn from how XCOM, FTL and others are evolving the art of strategy game design.
Console/PC, Indie, Design

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'Oligopolistic' console business blamed for Square Enix losses 7
by Mike Rose [05.13.13]
As Square Enix posts a swing to significant losses for the last fiscal year, the company has blamed the "increasingly competitive and oligopolistic" console game markets in North America and Europe.
Console/PC, Business/Marketing

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The cost of disruption 10
by Patrick Miller [05.13.13]
The game industry is obsessed with progress, but as we move forward, we leave a lot behind. Game Developer EIC Patrick Miller sifts through the ash heap of history.
GD Mag, Design, GD Mag Exclusive

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Games for Change announces 2013 festival keynote speakers  
by Kris Ligman [05.10.13]
Games for Change has announced the line-up of keynote speakers for its tenth annual Games for Change Festival, this June 17th to 19th in New York City.
Indie, Serious, Design

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Blog: Why we took our game design back to the drawing board 3
by Gamasutra Community [05.10.13]
It seemed like a great idea for a game, but playtesters just weren't into Henchmen! That's when the developers decided to start fresh.
Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Design

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Warren Spector: Use the storytelling tools that work for games 27
by Christian Nutt [05.10.13]
"Respect the medium and the player" was Warren Spector's message in his presentation at UC Santa Cruz's IFOG symposium. There are strengths to games that must be harnessed to tell better stories.
Console/PC, Design

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Time to move on from the gameplay vs. story debate 43
by Christian Nutt [05.10.13]
UC Santa Cruz's Michael Mateas (Facade) argued in an impassioned presentation this morning that the time for debate on whether games should have stories has passed -- it's the work that matters.
Console/PC, Social/Online, Smartphone/Tablet, Indie, Programming, Design

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This OS could turn Google Glass into a game device 1
by Mike Rose [05.10.13]
A San Francisco start-up has launched a real-world operating system that it hopes will soon serve as a visual layer for wearable computing devices such as Google Glass.
Social/Online, Smartphone/Tablet, Business/Marketing, Video

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