Game Developer December Issue Features Defcon, Destroy All Humans AI

Author: by Staff

The December 2006 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 December 2006 issue is 'Detonating Introversion's Defcon' by Chris Delay, Vicky Arundel, Thomas Arundel, Gary Chambers, and John Knottenbelt, and described as follows: "Steam-distributed PC strategy title Defcon was a completely independent project, continuing Introversion’s reputation as “the last of the bedroom programmers.” In this postmortem, team members from all aspects of the game’s production weigh in about the logistics of releasing and popularizing a game with a sub $100,000 budget in this era of bloated budgets and gargantuan team sizes.." Another major feature is 'Creating All Humans' by John Krajewski, of which it's explained: "Artificial intelligence is of paramount importance in all games, but flaws therein can be even more noticeable in open-world games, in which the player is given a wide range of control. Using a data-driven AI architecture, Pandemic Studios created a flexible system for Destroy All Humans II that alleviated many of the typical problems seen in open-world games." Another major piece for the issue is 'State Of The Industry: Piracy' by Paul Hyman, for which it's said: "Piracy has been a concern since games were first made available for sale. The PC is a particularly embattled platform as far as digital piracy, though console gamemakers have their fair share of troubles as well. Professionals from id, Macrovision, the ESA and other organizations explain where the industry’s biggest concerns lie and what we might do in the future to disrupt pirate activities. Leave your eyepatch at home." The issue is rounded out by in-depth news, code, art, audio, and design columns from Game Developer's veteran correspondents, as well as product reviews and game art features. 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, all for a reduced price. There is now also an opportunity to buy the digital version of December 2006's magazine as a single issue. Newsstand copies of the magazine will also shortly be available at North American outlets including Barnes & Noble and other specialty bookstores.