''Game Developer'' (known as ''Gamasutra'' until 2021) is a website created in 1997 that focuses on aspects of

video game development Video game development (sometimes shortened to gamedev) is the process of creating a video game. It is a multidisciplinary practice, involving programming, design, art, audio, user interface, and writing. Each of those may be made up of more speci ...

. It is owned and operated by

Informa TechTarget TechTarget, Inc. (doing business as Informa TechTarget) is an American company that offers data-driven marketing services to business-to-business technology vendors. TechTarget, Inc. was founded in 1999; it is headquartered in Newton, Massachuse ...

and acted as the online sister publication to the print magazine '' Game Developer'' prior to the latter's closure in 2013.

Site sections

''Game Developer'' publishes daily news, features like post-game post-mortems and critical essays from developers, and user-submitted blog posts. The articles can be filtered by topic (All,

Console Console may refer to: Computing and video games * System console, a physical device to operate a computer ** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device ** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...

/ PC,

Social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives fro ...

Online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed as "on lin ...

Smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

/ Tablet,

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

, Serious) and category (Programming, Art, Audio, Design, Production, Biz (Business)/Marketing). The site has an online storefront for books on game design,

RSS RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many ...

feeds and the website's Twitter account. The site also has a section for users to apply for contracted work and open positions at various development studios.

Trade Center Resource

While it does post news found on typical video game websites, ''Game Developer'' provides articles for professional game developers on the disciplines of design, audio, public relations, and art. The site encourages professionals to publish blogs in order to share their expertise with other developers. The editorial staff also takes part in conducting interviews with developers and hardware designers, such as ''

Dragon Quest previously published as ''Dragon Warrior'' in North America until 2005, is a series of role-playing video games created by Japanese game designer Yuji Horii (Armor Project), character designer Akira Toriyama (Bird Studio), and composer Koi ...

'' creator

Yuji Horii is a Japanese author, video game designer, writer and director best known as the creator of the ''Dragon Quest'' franchise, supervising and writing the scenario for ''Chrono Trigger'', and '' The Portopia Serial Murder Case'', released in 1983 ...

Nintendo 3DS The is a foldable dual-screen handheld game console produced by Nintendo. Announced in March 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS, the console was released originally on February 26, 2011 and went through various revisions in its lifetime, ...

designer Hideki Konno, and ''

Portal Portal may refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * ''Portal'' (series), a series of video games developed by Valve ** ''Portal'' (video game), a 2007 video game, the first in the series ** '' Portal 2'', the 2011 sequel ** '' Portal Stori ...

'' writer

Erik Wolpaw Erik Wolpaw is an American video game writer. He and Chet Faliszek wrote the pioneering video game website Old Man Murray. He subsequently worked for game developers Double Fine Productions and Valve, and is known for his work on video games i ...

Post-mortems

Project post-mortems, articles in which developers recount the successful and unsuccessful elements of a specific game's development, provide direct insight in all aspects of game design and educate other developers on various risks and important tips. Many post-mortems have been published, ranging from independent games such as ''Okabu'' and '' The Path'' to major studio projects such as ''

Ōkamiden ''Ōkamiden'', known in Japan as is a 2010 action-adventure game developed by Game Studio (company), Mobile & Game Studio, Inc. and published by Capcom for the Nintendo DS. It is a spiritual successor, rather than a sequel, to ''Ōkami'', a game ...

'' and ''

BioShock ''BioShock'' is a 2007 first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Boston (later Irrational Games) and 2K Australia, and published by 2K. The first game in the ''BioShock'' series, it was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 ...

''. There are currently over 150 collected post-mortems dating back as far as 1997. There have been unusual post-mortem articles published, including "A Story of GameLayers, Inc." that reveals the tumultuous development and eventual cancellation of a

Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curr ...

toolbar-based

MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

, and "What Went Wrong? Learning from Past Post-Mortems" that details the most common mistakes that developers make as admitted in the articles.

Guidelines

''Game Developer'' offers the opportunity for users to publish blog articles on their website. To ensure a high standard of quality, interested authors are required to collaborate with their editorial team. Contributors retain the rights to their content after publishing it with ''Game Developer''. Users are also allowed to comment on articles, but there is a strict set of rules. Comment guidelines are designed to keep user discussions of a given article on the topic and prevent comments from devolving into

flame wars Flaming, also known as roasting, is the act of posting insults, often including profanity or other offensive language, on the internet. Flaming is distinct from trolling, which is the act of someone causing discord online or in person. Flaming eme ...

(hostile interactions on the Internet), as seen on other community-driven websites where comment regulations are looser. Users are encouraged to post only constructive thoughts that add to the conversation.

''GameSetWatch''

''GameSetWatch'' is an alternative video game weblog and sister site of ''Game Developer''. It is dedicated to collecting curious links and media for offbeat and often ignored games from old and new consoles, as well as digital downloads such as iOS, and indie spaces. ''GameSetWatch'' was founded by

Simon Carless Simon Carless is a video game industry businessperson and former game designer and editor. Simon is the founder of GameDiscoverCo, a video game discoverability consultancy firm, and previously worked overseeing the worldwide Game Developers Confe ...

in November 2005. It was up and running for six years until its semi-permanent hiatus in November 2011. The site stopped as the creators saw an overlap of content with their sister site ''IndieGames.com'' and because they felt the mainstream gaming blogs were covering more of the "weirder" and alternative video game news. Those that contributed to the launch included IGF chairman Brandon Boyer, ''

GameTrailers ''GameTrailers'' (''GT'') was an American video gaming website created by Geoffrey R. Grotz and Brandon Jones in 2002. The website specialized in multimedia content, including trailers and gameplay footage of upcoming and recently released v ...

'' stalwart Michael McWhertor, ''Game Developer'' news director

Frank Cifaldi Frank Cifaldi (born May 22, 1982) is a video game preservationist, historian, and developer. Cifaldi founded ''Lost Levels'', a website that collected information about unreleased video games, in 2003. This began his career in the video game ...

, Alice Taylor, as well as ''Game Developer'' magazine EIC Brandon Sheffield.

IndieGames.com

''IndieGames.com'' started in October 2005. ''IndieGames.com'' is ''Game Developer''s sister site dedicated to reporting on

indie game An indie video game or indie game (short for independent video game) is a video game created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A ...

s. It became the UBM TechWeb's main method to deliver news about independent games after ''GameSetWatch'' closed. In September 2018, ''IndieGames.com'' split from its longtime owner UBM. The writers started a new independently ran website called ''Indie Games Plus'' and carried over the older ''IndieGames.com'' posts to the new website.

Interviews

The interviews section of the site features interviews with indie game creators and developers. The interviewees answer a set of questions posed by the interviewer including questions regarding their inspirations and hardships. The page is also split into three categories: desktop, console, and mobile to organize the interviews by platform interests.

Features

The features section of the site consists of posts by the writers and editors of the site. Articles are written on any topic in the indie game sector. It was announced in September 2014 that there would be a collaboration with the Games We Care About Twitter page to help gamers discover alternative games recommended by developers and peers. There also is a Best of Features page that highlights some of the more notable freeware and indie games of current and previous years.

Reviews

The Reviews section of the site is written by Michael Rose starting in February 2009. It features reviews on the games mentioned in the "Best of Features" page to give readers a look into the game before playing it themselves.

Awards

As ''Gamasutra'', the site and its team of editors won a

Webby Award The Webby Awards (colloquially referred to as the Webbys) are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over three thousand industry experts a ...

in 2006 and 2007; their five-word acceptance speeches were "Heart plus science equals games" and "Art plus science, still games", respectively.

References

External links

* {{Video game journalism Video game development websites Internet properties established in 1997 Webby Award winners Informa brands