Game Developer August Issue Showcases The Conduit Postmortem, Middleware Showdown

Author: by Staff

The August 2009 issue of Game Developer magazine, the sister print publication to Gamasutra and the leading U.S. trade publication for the video game industry, has shipped to print and digital subscribers and is available from the Game Developer Digital service in both subscription and single-issue formats. The cover feature for the issue is an exclusive postmortem of High Voltage Software's sci-fi first-person shooter The Conduit. The article, crafted by High Voltage software creative director Eric Nofsinger and producer John Olson, offers insight on the challenges and successes experienced by the independent studio. It is introduced as follows: "The Conduit represents High Voltage's first major foray into the world of original IP, after years of making licensed product. The lack of an external license to guide their choices and a publisher to keep them on track proved difficult -- this postmortem provides good information for any company looking to make that leap." The issue also includes Mark DeLoura's feature -- based on an exclusive survey of top companies conducted by the industry veteran -- rounding up some of the most widely-used middleware, showing which packages are most popular among developers and why, described as follows: "More and more companies are using middleware to alleviate the pain of rising development costs. But there's not a whole lot of information out there. Our survey shows what developers want from middleware, and which packages are most popular in each field." In addition, two other notable in-depth pieces are offered, as Chris Pruett discusses the opportunities available offered by the fixed-position cinematic camera in games, and Sony's Ronald Roy takes a look at the various potential solutions for achieving damage arbitration in online multiplayer games: And as usual, our regular columnists contribute detailed and important pieces on numerous areas of game development -- this issue, we include Bungie's Steve Theodore on managing assets, Noel Llopis on procedural content creation, Maxis' Soren Johnson on turn-based versus real-time design, LucasArts' Jesse Harlin on audio in retro remakes, and Matthew Wasteland with his monthly humor column. 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 and PDF downloads of all issues, all for a reduced price. There is now also an opportunity to buy the digital version of August 2009's magazine as a single issue.