Dev Links: A Blast From The Past

Today’s Developer Links include advice about advertising, alternative paths, audio, and even some things that don’t begin with A.

Nordic 2012: Curran tells gamers to look beyond genres and play everything (Gamasutra)
“Drawing comparisons between the decline of punk rock and video games, former Zoë Mode creative director Ste Curran delivered a Nordic Game Conference talk calling on people to stop dismissing Justin Bieber and to play Draw Something.”

Indie Game Advertising Strategies (Cliffski.com)
“If you are a lone-wolf indie game dev, you probably don’t spend ANY time thinking about grand strategy when it comes to advertising. Don’t worry, I think about it enough for both of us 😀  Which strategy works best for you, really does depend on your game and your overall business model (paid-app, DLC, micro-trans, subscriptions…). However, there might be some benefit to brainstorming different approaches…”

Indie Tools: ZZT (IndieGames.com)
“ZZT has been around for over 20 years now, during which it has introduced hundreds, if not thousands, of gamers to the joys and intricacies of both game and level design. And though it may still run on MS-DOS and thus require the use of DOSbox, its venerable world creator is a brilliant introduction to scripting and also a huge challenge for even the most experienced game designer.”

10 Tips: The Creation and Integration of Audio (Gamasutra)
“Sound is crucial to any game, but what do you really have to concentrate on to reach the heights of the video game medium? Gamasutra caught up with audio directors to pick their brains for 10 juicy morsels of sound advice and ideas.”

The Depth Jam (The Witness blog)
“The Depth Jam was designed in reaction to shortcomings of other game-related events. In order to explain the design choices behind the Depth Jam, I will speak critically of these other events, in order to highlight the problems that the Depth Jam is meant to address.If you are a fan of these events, organize some of them, or otherwise identify closely with them, then this will be uncomfortable. The best I can do here is to assure you that this isn’t attack-style negativity; it is criticism that comes from years of carefully considering these situations and thinking hard about how to make things better.”

How to Protect Your Game From Clones (GamesIndustry International)
“The mobile gaming industry is experiencing an invasion of clones. While cloning has a long and varied history, it has become more prevalent with the explosion of social and mobile games. Take, for example, Words With Friends, a variant on Scrabble, and the scores of Minecraft clones on the market. As game development times decrease and the useful lifetime of games diminishes, cloning has become more lucrative: games are easier to copy, and there are more of them to clone. The influx of copycat games in the mobile space brings with it new legal questions – are these clones merely off-brand digital replicas or are they blatant theft?”

A Matter of Choice (AltDevBlogADay)
“A couple of days ago I finished playing The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. And if you have played the game, you know that I use the term Finish loosely, as I think few people have ever truly finished the game. You see, The Witcher 2 is one of those rare gems of a game which you don’t come across too often. Not only does it tell an epic tale, filled with interesting characters, quests, and dialog; not only does it present you with enormous and amazingly designed levels, with stunning graphics; and not only does it provide you with character abilities and mechanics that are unique and interesting; but most importantly it gives you the one thing that any good RPG strives to do: Meaningful choice. Incidentally, this is also the reason why I’ll probably never play it again!”

Free Art Friday 2: Bomb Party (Lost Decade Games)
“We’ve got a lot of unused art laying around here at Lost Decade Games. So last month I asked on Reddit if there was any interest in monthly free game art, and there was! The first Friday of each month seemed like as good a time as any to upload it, and it’s that time again.”