GDC Feature: 'Dashing for Independence: Gamelab CEO Eric Zimmerman'

On the eve of the 2006 Game Developers Conference, casual game developer Gamelab has announced ambitious plans for the near future, most predominantly of which being its switch from developer to publisher. "We'll be financing and distributing our own work," Gamelab CEO Eric Zimmerman said in the recent press release. "For a creatively-driven company, this is an important and necessary step in our evolution: there are new audiences to reach, new stories to tell, and new forms of gameplay to explore." In addition to self funding, the developer of last year's PlayFirst-published Diner Dash has also announced an initiative to develop games based on an independent funding model, as in the film industry; a mostly unheard-of business model for the video game industry. You can now read our exclusive Gamasutra interview, in which Zimmerman discusses the developer's future in some detail, its publishing philosophy, and the growing need for independent content (no need to register, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).