What’s so hard about game development, anyway?  One of the articles in today’s Developer Links addresses just that.  But don’t worry; some of the other articles give some advice to make it a little easier, including a tool you can use to promote your games, some tips if you plan to enter Ludum Dare, and how to grow a local games industry.

The Trial Of The Game Developer (AltDevBlogADay)
“This little rant was mostly to have something to point people towards who don’t appreciate what it takes to make a game. For the people who are happy to whinge about the way a box falls off a shelf rather than just smile and enjoy the game.  Making games is hard.”

Ludum Dare: 10 Tips And Tricks (Reddit)
“I’ve ‘won’ two Ludum Dares (Ludum Dare 15 with ‘Beacon’ and Ludum Dare 21 with ‘Flee Buster’), as well as Global Game Jam twice, and my games were quite completed and polished both times, so I’ll drop some advice!”

Indie Tools: Promoter (IndieGames.com)
“Let’s say that for some peculiar reason (probably because you enjoy eating and sleeping on beds) you want to actually sell your games. Or, at the very least, spread the word about them and be recognized as a true artist or a pop idol. Well, there are more than a few things you can do, including heavily advertising, releasing demos and even shooting us an email, but you will in most cases also need the help of Promoter.”

Help Microsoft Fix The XBLIG Forums (Mommy’s Best Devlog)
“About a week ago, Microsoft split the XBLIG and WP7 site back into two sites. One for Xbox LIVE Indie Games and one for Windows Phone 7 development. This is nice… actually it’s more funny than anything as originally the XBLIG had it’s own site.. but anyway.  After that change it turns out that doing a search for information on the forums does not work. Let that sink in. Search is broken.”

Sister’s Little Helper (Auntie Pixelante)
“games, as a form ordered by rules and performed by their audience, have a unique capacity to use repetition as a form of characterization. sister’s little helper (direct download link) was designed for a game-making pageant about “rituals.” there is a ritual at the center of this game, not some videogame ritual like “put the bird statue on the worm placard” but the kind of real ritual that actually has a place in our lives.”

Gamescom The Aftermath.. (Hello Games)
“Hello everyone!  We all survived Gamescom, and it was AWESOME. Here are some things we liked about Gamescom:”

Want To Be Surrounded By A Thriving Local Games Industry?  Grow Yours (Gamasutra)
“This is how an optimistic girl on a teacher’s salary helped grow her local industry from a handful of development studios to nearly 30 making and releasing games. In two years, the Sydney Chapter of the IGDA grew from 300-something to a membership of nearly 1000 — and all this cost less to pull off than an overseas trip to GDC.”

Island Snapshot… (The Witness)
“… from a different angle than usual.”

You may be interested in:

1. 

   Dev Links: Alchemy
2. 

   Dev Links: Getting Medieval
3. 

   Dev Links: In The Crosshairs
4. 

   Dev Links: SCIENCE!
5. 

   Dev Links: Multiplatform