Proposal for summer.

I am currently working on a proposal for the research I intend to do over the summer break from uni.  This will lead on to a dissertation length business plan and feasibility study to produce a 2D point and click adventure game, which I would be lead artist on.  I am basing the game on a continuation of the story my current animation, Forest (still a working title at the moment), and as such will be using my production bible as proof of concept.  I intend to use my time working at Infamous Adventures to learn more about the production pipeline and the ins and outs of business start up.

Edge games industry news for March

zynga-keen-draw-something-dev

braben-pre-owned-killing-singleplayer-games

molyneux-industry-wasnt-ready-milo-and-kate

Wow!

Preview of Deponia

Edge magazine

The most recent issue of Edge has an interesting article about microtransactions and the future of games developers.  Worth a read.

Double Fine's kickstarter efforts.

News at Double Fine

Homage or intellectual property theft?

 An interesting article about the increase in "cloning" of popular games in the casual games/apps market.

 Game developers - A faint line on cloning.

Games artist, living the dream!

Here is a link to the site and forums for the adventure games company I am working for.  I am currently involved in backgrounds, character dialogue portraits and cut-scene art.  There are links to download our finished games, and there are plenty of exciting new ones on their way!  You can also follow us on facebook for updates.

Infamous Adventures homepage

Interesting video about "the joy of discovery" in games from the developer of Braid.

The phrase "the joy of discovery" really struck a cord with me.  I experienced this playing the classic adventure games in my early gaming days, but also while recently playing Limbo.  I think it is a step in the right direction to design games that don't hand you the answers on a plate, and where part of the challenge is simply figuring it out.  It is also quite promising for the revival of the adventure game genre.

Work experience opportunities!

I don't know how far afield people would consider travelling, possibly over the summer for their placements, but thought the jewellery designers might like a little heads up about a post I just saw on the facebook page "punky pins":

Who would like to come and see what its like to work with Punky Pins for a week or 2? We have a couple of vacancies free for work experience coming up, email claire@punkypins.co.uk

Based in Middlesbrough.