Author: by Staff

The January 2007 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 January 2007 issue is 'Not Your Typical Grind: Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam for Wii' by Toys for Bob's Toby Schadt, and described as follows: "Skateboarding at home, in the living room, on the couch, never felt so alive. In this postmortem of the newest Tony Hawk game, Toys for Bob lead designer Toby Schadt explains how playtesting was different for this Wii game, and how the legal department can hinder even the most generic design choices." The January issue also reveals Game Developer’s 2006 Front Line Awards, as announced in December, which "pays homage to the companies and products that make game development possible. Seven winners are named—and one tool that no developer could live without is inducted into the Hall of Fame." Another major feature is Chris Hind and Dan Bell's 'Setting The Bar', for which it's said: "'There wasn’t enough time to fix them all,' said the game developers about the bugs they just couldn’t get rid of. Sound familiar? Two test engineers from the Microsoft Games Test Organization have a theory about why developers should just let go and accept that some bugs are inevitable. But, they also have a plan for finding the bugs that count and exterminating them in a way that’s neither costly nor overly time-consuming." 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 January 2007'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.