GDC 2012

GDC 2012's 'Indie Soapbox,' Halfbrick, Moriarty sessions debut for free on GDC Vault

GDC 2012 may have come and gone, but the GDC Vault service is working to keep the show's spirit alive by debuting new free videos of its most popular lectures. This week, the service has added a handful of free sessions that offer a glimpse at GDC 2012's notable Summits.

This new batch of free content includes the extremely popular 'Indie Soapbox' panel, a postmortem from Fruit Ninja developer Halfbrick, an education-focused talk from adventure game veteran Brian Moriarty, and an overview of online globalization from the CEO of social game developer Wooga.

As part of the GDC Summits, all of these videos provide a targeted look at some of the most pertinent and emerging sectors in the modern game business. Each session offers some important insight on game creation, and developers looking to stay on top of the latest industry trends might learn a thing or two from these various GDC 2012 Summit speakers.

Here are the newest free Summit videos to join the GDC Vault:

- The 'Indie Soapbox' session, part of GDC 2012's Independent Games Summit, gives 10 prominent independent developers a chance to tell the world about the things they care about most when it comes to making games. The session features developers like Polytron's Phil Fish (Fez), Team Colorblind's Ben Ruiz, and Lazy 8's Rob Jagnow (Cogs), and covers everything from the "egocentric" indie community to how games function as "3D media objects."

It's a wild, fast-paced session to be sure, but it offers the rare chance to peek into the minds of some of the industry's most eccentric, creative, and influential indie developers. If you've ever wondered what makes these successful indies tick, now's your chance to find out. [GDC Vault free video]

- Elsewhere, over in the Smartphone and Tablet Games Summit, Hafbrick's Luke Muscat looks back at the studio's popular Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, and shares some important lessons about maintaining support for a mobile game after its initial launch. Along the way, he points to several occasions in which Halfbrick's game updates introduced some severe problems on the app market, and explains how other developers can avoid making these mistakes themselves. [GDC Vault free video]

- As part of GDC Education Summit, Infocom and LucasArts veteran Brian Moriarty (Beyond Zork, Loom) outlines the "sinister" approach he uses to teach game design to students at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Rather than teaching them about the development process step by step, Moriarty provides his students with a custom, simplified game engine, dubbed "Perlenspiel," and tasks them with making their own pixel-based game from scratch. This approach gives students direct hands-on experience with game creation, and the simplicity of the Perlenspiel engine encourages them to focus on design above all else. [GDC Vault free video]

- Finally, Wooga CEO Jens Begemann hosts a Social and Online Games Summit talk detailing how to make games for a global market. While it originally got it start in Europe, Wooga now distributes its Facebook-based social games all over the world, and in this session Begemann lists the seven key principles for finding widespread success in the growing social game market. [GDC Vault free video]

These free videos join a host of other free and notable lectures already available on GDC Vault, including the recently released classic game postmortems (Gauntlet, Harvest Moon and more) and track keynotes (from Blizzard, Plants Vs. Zombies creator George Fan, and more) from GDC 2012.

In addition to all of this free content, the GDC Vault also offers more than 300 additional lecture videos and hundreds of slide collections from GDC 2012 for GDC Vault subscribers. GDC 2012 All Access pass holders already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription Beta via a GDC Vault inquiry form.

Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company. More information on this option is available via an online demonstration, and interested parties can send an email to Gillian Crowley. In addition, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault admins.

Be sure to keep an eye on GDC Vault for more free content in the weeks ahead, as GDC organizers will also archive videos, audio, and slides from upcoming 2012 events like GDC Europe, GDC Online, and GDC China. To stay abreast of all the latest updates to GDC Vault, be sure to check out the news feed on the official GDC website, or subscribe to updates via Twitter, Facebook, or RSS. GDC and the GDC Vault are owned and operated by Gamasutra parent company UBM TechWeb.

[ Source: Gamasutra ]

Zynga platform gets 2.8 million monthly users

Web-based open beta platform doing pretty well, it seems

Zynga's web-based social gaming platform has got itself 2.8 million monthly active users, the firm has announced.

Zynga launched its online-based platform at Zynga.com in open beta form in March, and has seen rapid growth since. The site saw 1.7 million users in the month ending March, but that number has soared by over a million in April.

At the time of writing the website showed 1.17 million concurrent players online.

Zynga recently added advertisers' paid words into the hit smartphone game Draw Something, after buying its developer OMGPop.

[ Source: Gamasutra ]

PS Access episode 32 stars Sniper Elite V2

As well as Crysis 3, Medal of Honor Warfighter and Battlefield 3 DLC

The latest episode of weekly HD PS3 video show Access is out now on the PlayStation Network.

Episode 32 stars Sniper Elite V2 as Game of the Week, and the Access team visits EA's recent London showcase to check out Crysis 3, Medal of Honor Warfighter and the upcoming Battlefield 3 DLC.

There's also a round-up all of the latest PS3 news and PS Store content.

Since launching in September 2011 as the successor to FirstPlay, PlayStation Access TV has become the most popular free download on the PlayStation Network.

Miyamoto 'doesn't see Vita as a very strong product'

But "I'm not looking at Vita as happy that it's not selling well," says Nintendo legend

Shigeru Miyamoto has shared his thoughts on Sony's PS Vita, and it's probably fair to say the Mario creator doesn't give Sony's latest handheld a ringing endorsement.

Asked what he thinks of the platform, Miyamoto told Edge in its latest issue, which is landing with subscribers now and goes on sale on May 9:

"I think I really can't say. It's obviously a very high-spec machine and you can do lots of things with it, but I don't really see the combination of software and hardware that really makes a very strong product. But I can't really say.

"I'm not looking at Vita as happy that it's not selling well," he added, "or scared that it would sell well - I'm not look at Vita in that way."

While sales data for other territories is harder to come by, Vita has consistently been outsold by 3DS in Japan.

Company of Heroes 2 details: New engine, 'True Sight' and snow

How Relic is 'making the best better'...

Relic Entertainment's Company of Heroes was and still is one of the finest real-time strategy games ever created, and - thankfully - a sequel is in the works. Given THQ's recent troubles and cuts at Relic we were starting to think it would never happen.

PC Gamer, which revealed the sequel yesterday, has now posted up details on how Relic will be following up its lauded RTS.

According to mag CoH2 will use a vastly improved version of the first game's Essence 3 engine and feature a revamped line of sight mechanic called True Sight.
Have a look at the full details below:

• Company of Heroes 2 will take place on the Russian front, with players controlling the Soviets as they battle the invading Nazi forces.

• Snow plays a major part on the battlefield, falling and melting dynamically, and slowing your soldiers and tanks based on its depth.

• The game runs on the Essence 3 engine, the latest version of the graphics engine Relic have been updating and expanding upon for years.

• The cover system has been revamped, to function more realistically and allow soldiers to vault over obstacles.

• Line of sight plays a large tactical role, with the game's fog of war based on what your soldier's can actually see. Relic call this system "True Sight", and it causes areas of the map to be grayed out and enemies within turned invisible by buildings, items of cover, or dropped smoke grenades.

• The Normandy landing that opened Company of Heroes (and Saving Private Ryan, one of its key inspirations), was the 23rd biggest battle of World War 2. "13 of the 15 bloddiest battles" happened on the Eastern front, points out Company of Heroes lead designer, Quinn Duffy. The game should represent those battles and their vicious scale, as much as it does minute infantry tactics.

• Just like the original, the scenery is highly destructible, and you'll be given control of plenty of tanks and other explosive equipment. That includes barn-burning flamethrowers.

• There will be multiplayer, but Relic aren't ready yet to talk about it.

• The game is due out 2013.

Tip: If you haven't played the first Company of Heroes and live in the UK pick up the next issue of PC Gamer, which comes with a free copy of the game. Order it here and you'll get it delivered direct to you.

Notch: EA are 'cynical bastards methodically destroying gaming'

Minecraft creator takes issue with the mega-publisher's "Indie Bundle"

Minecraft creator and Mojang founder Markus 'Notch' Persson has hit out at EA in response to the company's release of the "EA Indie Bundle" on Steam.

As reported by Gamasutra, Notch appears to take issue with the mega-publisher's use of the word "indie", implying that the company is trying to cash in on a grassroots term.

The bundle in question features a selection of titles made by indie studios and published by EA, including DeathSpank, DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue, Gatling Gears, Shank, Shank 2 and Warp.

Persson said on Twitter: "EA releases an 'indie bundle'? That's not how that works, EA. Stop attempting to ruin everything, you bunch of cynical bastards.

"Indies are saving gaming. EA is methodically destroying it," he added, before saying that he no longer considers Mojang to be indie.

Next-gen Xbox 'already in manufacturing stages'

Assembly lines have started rolling in Texas, claims report

The next-generation Xbox is already in manufacturing stages, a new report has claimed.

According IGN's sources, assembly of the next Xbox hardware started recently at the Austin, Texas branch of Flextronics, the same electronics company currently assembling the Xbox 360, and the original Xbox before that.

"Prior to reaching the manufacturing stage, Flextronics created a new testing group separate from the rest of the company," the report claims.

"This team was solely dedicated to comprehensive marketing, software, and hardware tests of the next Xbox. With that activity concluded, Flextronics started building the hardware."

If true, it's most likely dev kits - not final hardware - that's being put together at the Texas firm. Developers are known to have been working on next-gen Xbox games for some time using high-spec PCs, and getting their hands on more final hardware would be the logical next step.

Microsoft provided IGN with the following statement upon inqury:
"Xbox 360 has found new ways to extend its lifecycle like introducing the world to controller-free experiences with Kinect and re-inventing the console with a new dashboard and new entertainment content partnerships.

"We are always thinking about what is next for our platform and how to continue to defy the lifecycle convention. Beyond that we do not comment on rumors or speculation."