Gamasutra Expert Blogs: From Twitter To Brown Games

Author: by Staff

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 The Most Significant Thing At E3 2009 (Kim Pallister) The biggest news coming out of E3 last week wasn't Microsoft's 3D camera Project Natal, the PSP Go or Super Mario Galaxy 2. The big news, so says Intel's Kim Pallister, was the integration of Facebook and Twitter into game consoles. Hear him out... Multiplayer Can Hurt You (Benjamin Quintero) Benjamin Quintero explains why he isn't particularly drawn to multiplayer game experiences, saying he'd rather have developers spend their time fleshing out a deep and lengthy single-player game. He sparked quite a long string of responses from people on both sides of the fence. Why 'Next-Gen Games' Went Gray, Brown, And Grey (Philippe Ringuette-Angrignon) Many gamers have become tired of the desaturated color palettes of the current console generation -- sometimes it seems that every other game is gray and/or brown. But it's not simply because developers are huge fans of dull tones. There is a technical reason for the visual gloom, explains Philippe Ringuette-Angrignon. The Great Irony (Byron Atkinson-Jones) Playing games is fun, but Introversion's Byron Atkinson-Jones addresses the irony that making games is often incredibly stressful and not fun. Marriage break-ups and fisticuffs in the office aren't unheard of. Atkinson-Jones wonders how long it will take for someone to really hit the breaking point. What Use Is A Baby? Part 1: Post-Natal (Noah Falstein) Noah Falstein offers his initial impressions of Project Natal, shortly after Microsoft's E3 reveal. Such cameras aren't perfect, he admits, and they won't completely replace controllers. But he argues that advanced camera control is no gimmick -- it's the real deal. Is he right?