Game Developer August Issue Gets Psychonautic, Mods Civ IV

The latest 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 now shipped to subscribers and is available from the Game Developer Digital service in both subscription and a new single-issue formats. The cover feature for the August 2005 issue is a postmortem of Double Fine's warped action platform title Psychonauts. which went through two publishers and four years of cinched belts before seeing the light of day. What holds a development team together when the game they're making is literally straining toward psychosis? Game Developer strives to find out. In addition, the article 'Act Of Mod', from Firaxis' Mustafa Thamer, discusses how the forthcoming PC title Civilization IV was designed so that players could customize and mod nearly every bit of it, from XML editing to complete DLL re-compiling, so that Sid Meier and his merry team of developers can "make an extremely 'moddable' title which would help the game's longevity and allow users to change almost every aspect of gameplay and graphics." And in a special expanded Business Level column, an executive from Pandemic Studios, makers of Destroy All Humans! and Full Spectrum Warrior, shares the company vision: grow, but never at the expense of your employees, even when swiftly expanding to two different studios on two different continents. Finally, the magazine features a technical article discussing HDR rendering, product reviews of Endorphin 2 and ClayTools System, and regular code, art, audio and design columns featuring everything from designing CG eyes to discussing ways of bringing abstract concept into audio design, as well as regular news and art gallery sections. Worldwide paper-based subscriptions to Game Developer magazine are currently available at the official magazine website, and the new Game Developer Digital version of the issue is also now available, with the site offering six months and a year's subscriptions, and access to back issues for a reduced price. There is now also an opportunity to buy the digital version of August 2005's magazine as a single issue. Newsstand copies of the magazine will also shortly be available at North American outlets including Fry's Electronics and Barnes & Noble.