Gamasutra Expert Blogs: From Industry Primers To Lawsuits

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 official posting guidelines. This Week's Standout Expert Blogs I Wanna Make Games When I Grow Up (Adam Saltsman) After starting his Gamasutra blog just a week ago, Adam Saltsman has already generated a considerable slate of mainly design-related material. In this post, however, he begins what is intended to be an ongoing resource of links aimed at prospective developers -- from primers on games and the industry, to discipline-specific tutorials. An Example of Indie Game Patronage (Darius Kazemi) Historically, great artists were often supported by wealthy patrons. In a free-market non-aristocratic society, that may not be feasible, but some developers are testing out distributed fan-driven patronage (surprisingly, inspired in one case by more traditional patronage). Darius Kazemi explains. Game Dev from the Dark Continent (Rodain Joubert) Most development coverage focuses on the regions of North America, Europe, and Japan, but that doesn't mean game creation isn't going on elsewhere. Here, Rodain Joubert takes an in-depth, historically-informed look at game development in South Africa. Commentary: Design Lessons from Torture in Games (Reid Kimball) Why can Rocky train via montage in films, while players are rarely able to take similarly efficient paths in games? Reid Kimball mentally toys with the idea of implementing interactive montage through game design. Fighting Piracy: Bring on the Lawsuits! (Ian Fisch) While the physical, maritime version of piracy has recently exploded onto the headlines, digital piracy never really leaves its place of prominence in video game industry discussion. Ian Fisch floats the controversial idea of suing pirates in great numbers, and a comment thread explodes.