Gamasutra Expert Blogs: From Horde 2.0 To Steam Pirates

[In highlights from Gamasutra's Expert Blogs, industry notables write about diverse topics, including Gears of War 3's Horde 2.0 mode, how Crimson: Steam Pirates was built in just 12 weeks, and why all games are about choices.] In our weekly Best of Expert Blogs column, we showcase notable pieces of writing from members of the game development community who maintain Expert Blogs on Gamasutra. Member Blogs -- also highlighted weekly -- can be maintained by any registered Gamasutra user, while the invitation-only Expert Blogs are written by development professionals with a wealth of experience to share. We hope that both sections can provide useful and interesting viewpoints on our industry. For more information about the blogs, check out the latest official posting guidelines. Here are the top blogs for the week: This Week's Standout Expert Blogs Gears of War 3: Horde 2.0: A Lesson in American Economy (Benjamin Quintero) Benjami Quintero don't like how reviews keep relating Horde 2.0 to Tower Defense -- as a tower defense fan, he says that they are more like Ying and Yang on the same battlefield, which is not a good thing... How Crimson: Steam Pirates (#1 Game On iPad) Was Built In Just 12 Weeks. (Aljernon Bolden) Crimson: Steam Pirates was released on Sept 1st and quickly became the #1 Free App on iPad. The game was made in 12 weeks by a team of seven. Aljernon Bolden explains the technical decisions his team made, their dev processes, and their use of open source Lua platform Moai. The Mobile Market Place: How Does It Look Today? (Tom Killen) As indie game developers, it can be easy to become buried in our projects and lose sight of the big picture trends that are defining in our industry. The Voxel Agents conducted a survey of the major industry trends, and presents a the summary of that research. All Games Are About Choices (Shay Pierce) Replying to Chris DeLeon's post "Not All Games Are About Choices", Shay Pierce touches on his "Unified Theory" of fun gameplay as he takes Sid Meier's "Interesting Decisions" definition and relates it to all gameplay genres -- including ones that may surprise you!