The June/July 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 Crystal Dynamics' latest Lara Croft adventure,
Tomb Raider: Underworld. The article offers insight on the challenges and successes experienced by the Eidos owned studio. It is introduced as follows:
"Tomb Raider: Underworld was originally planned as an 'easy' sequel to the previous game in the series, using the same toolchain -- but it never quite works out that way. Eric Lindstrom describes the process, highlighting instances in which the team wasn't able to avoid known problems."
The issue also includes a feature on the 2009 Top 50 Developers report, including the rankings (just
announced in part on Gamasutra) and some excerpted data from the full Game Developer Research report:
"Our second annual Top 50 Developers report uses metrics such as review scores, revenues, and reputation surveys to determine the best and brightest developers that released games in the past year."
In addition, developers from CCP offer an argument for single-shard massively multiplayer games:
"Most MMOs use multiple shards to break up their game universes. EVE Online, by contrast, uses a single shard. Here, various members of the team, from programmers to designers, share why they feel one shard is the way to go."
Furthermore, Microsoft researcher Bruce Phillips contributes a guide to creating "learning goals" that can help to remedy the problem of gamers frequently leaving games unfinished.
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 metagames, Noel Llopis on mock objects, BioWare's Damion Schubert on tactical transparency, LucasArts' Jesse Harlin on voice direction, 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 June/July 2009's magazine as a single issue.
