Game Developer August Issue Showcases Penny Arcade Adventures

Author: by Staff

The August 2008 issue of Game Developer magazine, the sister print publication to Gamasutra.com and the leading U.S. trade publication for the video game industry, has shipped to print/digital subscribers and is available from the Game Developer Digital service in both subscription and single-issue formats. The cover feature for the issue is an exclusive postmortem of Hothead Games' downloadable title, Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness by Hothead COO Joel DeYoung, offering insight into the episodic game's development. The piece is described as follows: "Hothead has brought downloadable episodic games to both PC and console with this Penny Arcade partnership, and along the way learned some valuable lessons, from the difficulty of working with fresh licensors to the trouble with and benefits of outsourcing. A sidebar from Jerry 'Tycho' Holkins and cover art from Mike 'Gabe' Krahulik round out the piece." Another major feature in the new issue is "Ready, Aim, Fire!" in which Page 44 Studios programmer Adam Hunter takes an in-depth look at the many different routes that can be taken when simulating weapons fire in first-person shooter: "In first-person shooters, there is often a disconnect between the location of the gun on the screen and the destination of an in-game bullet. Here, Adam Hunter scans different models that seek to rectify the problem, and draws a few conclusions of his own." In another notable feature, the magazine's own Jeffrey Fleming rounds up eight AI middleware packages available for game development, highlighting their major features, platform support, and examples of games they have serviced: "Artificial intelligence middleware is coming into its own as a crucial tool for modern game development. In this market overview we take a look at eight products that aim to make thinking machines a reality." In addition, code columnist and Power Of Two Games co-founder Noel Llopis delves into setting up code servers to try and lesson some of the gruntwork burden on programmers, and Bungie art columnist Steve Theodore takes a look at animation layering, wondering if it might become animation's equivalent of the seminal Photoshop layers. Plus, BioWare Austin's design co-columnist Damion Schubert wonders where all the humor in games has gone, and LucasArts' audio columnist Jesse Harlin addresses the sometimes-overwhelming number of simultaneous projects that can come with freelance audio work. Finally, in a new interview, former Sonic Team and Naughty Dog designer Hirokazu Yasuhara (Sonic the Hedgehog, Uncharted: Drake's Legacy), now senior design director at Namco Bandai Games America, who lays out his unique philosophies of game design and fun. As always, the issue also contains product reviews and other notable editorial columns, as well as the latest game development news and industry perspectives. Worldwide paper-based subscriptions to Game Developer magazine are currently available at the official magazine website, and the Game Developer Digital version of the issue is also now available, with the site offering six months' and a year's subscriptions, alongside access to back issues and PDF downloads of all issues, all for a reduced price. There is now also an opportunity to buy the digital version of August 2008's magazine as a single issue.