Dev Links: Building Blocks

“From April 2010 to May 2011, I had the opportunity to study manga (Japanese comics) and video game design at one of Japan’s leading art schools, Kyoto Seika University.

Today’s Developer Linksinclude indies publishing indies, the strength of Japanese games and the psychological appeal of violent shooters.

Characters and Worldbuilding: Analyzing the Strength of Japanese Games(Gamasutra)
“From April 2010 to May 2011, I had the opportunity to study manga (Japanese comics) and video game design at one of Japan’s leading art schools, Kyoto Seika University. In total, I lived, worked, and studied in Japan for about four years. Here, I would like to share what I learned there about game design.”

Redshirt developers video blog #3(Positech Games)
“For those who are new, RedShirt is a comedy/satire/lifesim/strategy game developed by indie devs ‘The Tiniest Shark’ and being published by Positech Games (me!). Enjoy…”

Oh Canada! La La La(Positech Games)
“So today I have been in Canada fact finding mode. Would you like to know the average Canadians maple syrup consumption? or the latest estimates for moose population? Forget all that…lets get down to the nitty gritty. A lot of statistical browsing has led me to the rather worrying conclusion that getting the Democracy 3 economic model to make sense over different countries is all but impossible. I am giving it my best shot, but don’t play the game thinking ‘this is Canada’. Play the game thinking ‘this country could vaguely be something like Canada’ and you will be fine!”

Spirits by the Numbers(Space of Play)
“We released our action-puzzle game Spirits on the iPad in late 2010. Over the next two years, we ported it to iPhone and Mac internally, and to PC, Linux and Android with the help of Tim Ambrogi and Apportable. For each port we spent a significant amount of time in getting the quality of the ports up and above the original version, supporting platform-specific features like Retina resolution or Steam Cloud. Reaching more players on different platforms helped our studio to be sustainable, and to be able to have some money in the bank while we work on our next game Future Unfolding.”

RTX 2013 Recap(The Behemoth)
“Howdy, y’all! Just got back from Texas yesterday and we had a blast at our first Rooster Teeth Expo. On the last day of RTX, we had more people coming by to play BattleBlock Theater and get raffle tickets. In the end, we decided to give a token of our appreciation to all of those who returned for our last raffle by giving everyone squeezy chickens. I mean, it’s the least we could do since the crowd even sang Happy Birthday to us! It’s The Behemoth’s 10th year and we appreciated the warmth and love RTX attendees had to offer.”

The Psychological Appeal of Violent Shooters(The Psychology of Video Games)
“I have a new article up on gamesindustry.biz exploring the psychological appeal of violent shooters via self-determination theory. I draw from work by Scott Rigby, Richard Ryan, and Andrew Przybylski that looks at how this theory of human motivation can explain why violent shooters are so popular.”

ᐊᑕᓇᕐᔪᐊᑦ (ᐅᖃᐅᓯᖅ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᖅ ᓈᒻᒪᔪᐃᑦᑐᖅ)(Hemisphere Games)
“Last year, Ryan Oliver – a developer from Nunavut – reached out to us. While playing Osmos he had noticed an achievement we named “Atanarjuat”, earned for completing the game’s “Chase” stage. This was a nod and a reference to a wonderful Canadian film Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, based on an ancient Inuit legend. (yup, we’re Canadian.) This one word sparked a vision in Ryan’s mind. “

Alex’s “Segway” or Everybody’s First Game is Awful(Owlchemy Labs)
“While Owlchemy Labs certainly produces absurd and highly polished games these days, our scientists weren’t born with that innate ability. In fact, pretty much nobody is! We’ve all had to start from somewhere and, oftentimes, those first few attempts not only fail spectacularly but also hilariously.”