Publishers cotton on to Kickstarter. Drama ensues.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119668-Obsidian-CEO-Publishers-Are-Trying-to-Sneak-Into-Kickstarter

Free to play

http://www.gamesbrief.com/2012/09/can-narrative-led-games-be-free-to-play-the-gamesbriefers/

"This post is the third in a series called ‘The Gamesbriefers’ where industry luminaries debate topical questions about game design, monetisation, business and ethics."

Another interesting KS article.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-07-29-kickstarter-the-wisdom-of-crowds

Vivendi set to divest 60% of Activision/Blizzard assets

http://www.digitallydownloaded.net/2012/07/activision-blizzard-is-up-for-sale.html?m=1

Games getting easier

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/06/28/games-are-getting-easier-5-reasons-thats-a-bad-thing/

An article regarding the recent trend of games getting easier to play/complete and some of the reasons behind that/reasons why that sucks.

Game dialogue writing

http://kotaku.com/5921878/why-video-game-characters-say-such-ridiculous-things
A few pointers and observations on writing dialogue for game characters.

Kickstarter technical considerations

http://e1ven.com/2012/06/13/exploiting-kickstarters-success-metrics-for-fun-and-profit/

Interesting look at the technicalities and loopholes of reaching kickstarter goals.  Something that will probably need to be addressed by KS in the future!

Full trailer released for Deponia

http://e3.gamespot.com/video/6379802/deponia-full-trailer

Beautiful point and click adventure game, somewhat akin to Monkey Island 3 in graphic style and attitude.  Worth keeping an eye on.

Booth babes at E3, are they bad for business now?

http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/banning-e3-booth-babes-isnt-good-manners-its-good-business
Great article about the shift in demographics for the games industry, and why aiming your promotion entirely at men and playing to stereotypes could be alienating female gamers and harming your business/sales.

Kickstarter musings

http://www.kickstarter.com/blog/blockbuster-effects
An interesting article on the ins and outs of Kickstarter.  As Neil Gaiman puts it: "For anyone worried that Kickstarter is a finite pool, or a big Kickstarter is taking money away from smaller ones"

Infamous Adventures gets a mention in Game Informer!

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/209/gi2e.jpg/

Infamous Adventures feature in an article on classic adventure game remakes in the June edition of Game Informer magazine :)

Indie game marketing advice interview

http://www.indiegamemag.com/building-awareness-is-a-huge-step-indie-game-marketing-advice-from-phil-hassey/

Some helpful info about getting your new game noticed, indie bundles, games cons, and Steam.

Ron Gilbert's new game for Double Fine gets announced!

http://www.vg247.com/2012/05/24/the-cave-gilberts-double-fine-game-comes-out-of-the-dark/

After several character design concept teasers, Ron Gilbert's game is finally announced.  It will be published by SEGA.  Looks stunning, and definitely still carries his signature style.  Looking forward to this :)

Leisure Suit Larry makes it into the Wall Street Journal!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVGtSLsgwS4&feature=youtu.be

Great timelapse video of the vector art background elements in Space Quest 3!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1QPVfGq19f8

Interview with Al Lowe about LSL!

http://www.destructoid.com/interview-lowe-on-leisure-suit-larry-225743.phtml

Adventure games are go!

So with the continued success of Kickstarter, the adventure game genre is finally getting a revival!  All the old masters are crawling out from under the woodwork to get their new/remake game proposals funded, and they are doing well.  Al Lowe is pitching a remake of Leisure Suit Larry 1, which if successful, will pave the way for him, and the rest of the team at Replay games, to start making new Larry titles.  Tim Schafer has had great success with his kickstarter efforts, with a goal of $400k, they actually raised just shy of $3.5 million to make Double Fine adventures.  Jane Jensen, also an ex Sierra Online employee and creator of the Gabriel Knight games is raising funds to start a project where backers will get access to all the games they produce over that year, and get input into some big decisions in the games' development.

Jane Jensen Kickstarter page

I have also just discovered today, that on top of all this, Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe (the original creators of Space Quest) has teamed back up again with a new company called Two Guys from Andromeda, to continue making space related adventure games.

Guys from Andromeda

I genuinely hope that all these projects and more get the go-ahead and get the genre back in the public eye, and that the bottom doesn't fall out of this kickstarter trend before that happens!

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