The February 2010 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 Gearbox's post-apocalyptic shooter
Borderlands. The article, crafted by the Texas-based developer's Aaron Thibault, offers insight on the challenges and successes experienced by the independent studio. It is introduced as follows:
"As Gearbox's first original IP in many years, Borderlands had a lot riding on it. The game wound up having an interesting design coupled with a new art style—but it didn't start that way. The team took a circuitous route to success, as Aaron Thibault explains."
Also featured in the issue is a postmortem of RedLynx's
Trials HD, the latest in the Finnish company's unique series of sidescrolling motorbike trick games:
"The Trials series has been around for some time, but Trials HD marks RedLynx's first breakout success. Discussed here are the troubles getting up and running on XBLA, the magic of physics, and more."
In addition, Game Developer Research presents a selection of data from the just-released State of Game Development 2009-2010 Survey, of which a
smaller excerpt is available online:
"In this Game Developer Research-partnered report, we reveal stats and figures related to our audience, from number of employees to core markets and game engine usage."
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 push-button art,
Canabalt developer Adam Saltsman on constructed procedural generation, Maxis' Soren Johnson on theme versus meaning,
Flower composer Vincent Diamante on audio loops, Matthew Wasteland with his monthly humor column, and the new Good Job! column on industry career moves.
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 February 2010's magazine as a single issue.
