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Strict visa rules are still keeping game devs out of the US
The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Foundation awards scholarships each year to up-and-coming artists, writers and programmers from around the world. The scholarships offer passes to the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, plus a travel stipend, exclusive networking opportunities, tours of local studios, help with resumes and portfolios and one-on-one mentorships with industry veterans. For a developer trying to break into video games, it's a fantastic prize.
Devs would rather work for Valve than go indie, IGDA finds
Given an open field, developers in the gaming industry would most want to work at Valve, according to the 2014 Developer Satisfaction Survey conducted by the IGDA. The IGDA surveyed more than 2,200 developers to gather the top 10 most desirable employers in the gaming industry. Valve tops the list, followed by "my own company," Activision Blizzard, BioWare, Ubisoft and "current employer." According to these results, the desire to go independent is alive and well in the industry, trumped only by what we assume is a deep need to know the status of Half-Life 3. See the complete list in the below press release.
IGDA: Number of women in industry rising, still under half
Women compose 22 percent of the gaming industry, up from 11.5 percent in 2009, the 2014 IGDA Developer Satisfaction Survey reports. Men make up 76 percent of the industry, while 2 percent of respondents identified as transgender or "other." "Men still dominate the industry," the IGDA says. Game industry respondents worked for an average of four different employers in the past five years, and nearly half of all developers earn less than $50,000 annually; 19 percent earn more than $100,000 annually. The average respondent has been in the industry for nine years and has worked on 16 projects. When these developers leave the industry, 39 percent of the time it's to find a better quality of life. Fifteen percent of respondents say they leave because they're burned out. "Similar to the findings in the 2009 survey, respondents say they feel they need to work more hours than are specifically required or expected," the report says. Fifty-three percent of respondents say "crunch" is not a necessary aspect of game development, and 37 percent report they receive no extra compensation for working a crunch schedule. See the visual breakdown of these numbers below. [Images: IGDA]
IGDA makes opposition statement to King's 'Candy' trademarks
The International Game Developers Association has issued a statement opposing King's recent Candy Crush Saga trademark filing, criticizing the developer's "predatory" attempt at owning and controlling the words "candy" and "saga" across all gaming platforms. The organization plans to leverage its Business and Legal Special Interest Group to investigate the filing. King's "candy" trademark was recently approved for publishing by the US Patent and Trademark Office, giving developers and organizations 30 days to oppose the mark's final publication. "While we understand and respect the appropriate exercise of Trademark rights," IGDA executive director Kate Edwards said. "King's overreaching filing in its application for the Trademark for its game 'Candy Crush Saga,' and its predatory efforts to apply that mark to each separate word contained in that name, are in opposition to the values of openness and cooperation we support industry wide, and directly contradict the statement King's CEO, Riccardo Zacconi, made on January 27th." Edwards continued: "Our Business and Legal Special Interest Group will be providing a more comprehensive analysis of this issue from its perspective soon." King targeted indie developer Stoic Studio last year, claiming that its title The Banner Saga was "confusingly and deceptively similar to [King's] previously used Saga marks." King relented in the following months, stating that it "has not and is not trying to stop Banner Saga from using its name." [Image: King]
Ponder this concept art from Naughty Dog's canned Jak and Daxter reboot
Prior to working on The Last of Us, Naughty Dog had considered a Jak and Daxter reboot. During a recent IGDA talk revolving mostly around The Last of Us, creative director Neil Druckmann revealed some preliminary images of the canned project and told the story of why Naughty Dog ended up dropping the game. Work on this reboot began in 2009, when Naughty Dog's presidents Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra formed a second team focused on creating something different from the work that was ramping up on Uncharted 3. Druckmann said the team "spent a lot of time exploring the world of Jak and Daxter," but that all of their ideas and concepts didn't feel right for the universe. Ultimately it felt like the team was "doing this for marketing reasons." He went on to say the concept wasn't "doing service to what the fans of this franchise really liked – even if the reinvented Daxter is pretty damn good looking." So they asked if they really had to create this reboot. "No, I just thought it'd be easier for you guys if you started with something, but if you want to do something else, come up with something else." Shortly after, The Last of Us started to form, based on another game concept Druckmann had come up with years prior to joining Naughty Dog. Druckmann is the better storyteller, so we'll let you hit the play button on the video above for the rest.
Phoenix Art Museum hosts indie game showcase on Sept. 21
The Phoenix Art Museum will be overrun with 20 indie games from local developers on September 21 from 10AM to 4PM, the final weekend of the museum's The Art of Video Games exhibition. The Arizona Indie Game Showcase is hosted by the Phoenix IGDA and Game CoLab, a productive collective of developers in the city. Scheduled for display at the showcase is a slew of high-profile indies, including Indie Megabooth participants Gravity Ghost from Ivy Games, Scale from CubeHeart Games and Aztez from Team Colorblind. Other developers include Kyle Pulver (Offspring Fling), Corey Nolan (Growing) and Abstrakt Games (Protein Pirates), with music madness in the hands of Adventureface. Connect with the Game CoLab and RSVP for the Arizona Indie Game Showcase on Meetup.
IGDA considering support groups for harassed developers
The International Game Developers Association is considering providing support groups for developers concerning the harassment they receive from their fans, Polygon's report on harassment in the industry revealed this week. IGDA Executive Director Kate Edwards said the harassment is "getting to a point where we're thinking, 'Yeah, it's becoming something we're going to need to talk about. It might be time to consider doing a more explicit support group or mechanism to help people who are dealing with this sort of thing." Edwards suggested the potential impact of the harassment could silence and hinder "content creators in ways that protect the interests of certain fan groups, which again is no justification for the kinds of abusive behavior and language seen online today."
IGDA defines new rules for future industry parties after GDC 'mistake'
During the week of GDC, the International Game Developers Association threw a party that featured underdressed, dancing women as part of the entertainment, prompting two IGDA members to resign and Executive Director Kate Edwards to issue a statement of regret.Today, Edwards defined a new set of regulations for future IGDA gatherings, starting with the goal to cut back on "parties" and instead offer more "networking events.""Building a community and providing networking opportunities are part of our core mission, and we want to create activities that provide that opportunity, and to do that in a way that will be appropriate and enjoyable for everyone," Edwards wrote.If a specific IGDA chapter wishes to throw a party, it may, but the organization still expects "chapters to uphold the IGDA's values of inclusion and diversity, regardless of the type of event and locale." Edwards said the IGDA will be vigilant when dealing with partners in the future, to provide "comprehensive oversight" of the entire event: The dancing women at this year's GDC party were courtesy of party sponsor YetiZen, which said it hired "avid gamers, who happened to be models." YetiZen said the IGDA approved all aspects of the party, including the dancers.Edwards outlined a set of actions for IGDA members to uphold while at other industry events, including a "walk out and talk out" policy for any party with content "contrary to the IGDA ideals, regardless of the potential value of being present.""Our humanity makes us prone to mistakes, but that does not diminish our resolve to be a force of change," Edwards concludes. "I hope the IGDA membership will rise to the challenge, and keep working together to help our industry reflect the reality of our diversity, whether it's at events, in the workplace or in the games we create." Read her full missive here.
IGDA party features dancers, prompts controversy, resignations
The International Game Developers Association's GDC party resulted, rather than merriment for all, in the resignations of several IGDA leaders, after the appearance of underdressed dancers on stage at the event, reportedly hired by party sponsor YetiZen.Student Alicia Avril first brought the appropriateness of the dancers into question in a Forbes report, noting that it doesn't square with the professionalism or advocacy the group espouses. "Knowing there are such concerned women as members of this group," she told Forbes, "you'd think that the IGDA would be more thoughtful in their own party and how they're portraying themselves."Some members' concern led to the end of their membership, including game designer Brenda Romero, who publicly resigned from her position of co-chair of the IGDA Women in Games SIG, and developer Darius Kazemi, who "formally resigned" following the party.The IGDA issued a statement in response to the controversy. "We recognize that some of the performers' costumes at the party were inappropriate, and also some of the activities they peformed were not what we expected or approved," the statement reads. "We regret that the IGDA was involved in this situation. We do not condone activities that objectify or demean women or any other group of people." The group pledged increased vigilance toward "encouraging inclusion and diversity."During the IGDA meeting today at GDC, executive director Kate Edwards elaborated on the organization's position, Gamasutra reports. "We realize that we make mistakes sometimes, and we want to make sure that all of our programs and activities are considered inclusive and professional." She called for participation from all members, including those who left, in order to know "what we can do to do a better job in the future."
IGDA increasing profile, plans on posting special interest group position papers
The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) will soon have its special interest groups post position papers on various topics impacting the industry, creating a more transparent sense of the organization. New IGDA Executive Director Kate Edwards told us today that she's aware of the organization's lack of profile outside of the development community, and would like to see it be an organization."We have our special interest groups in the IGDA who represent different topical areas like women in games, diversity, anti-censorship committee," said Edwards, listing several more groups. "For every one of these topics that makes sense to do so, we're going to have position statements on these issues. Basically, have something more overt out there, like: 'What does the IGDA think about sexism in the industry?'"The IGDA will also have speakers on each of these topics. Edwards continued, "Every one of these major topics we will have position statements, we will have information on the website."Asked if the IGDA was turning into a lobbying group for developers (like the ESA is for publishers), Edwards clarified it's not a lobbying group, but they see their "lobbying" as empowering individual members to speak up on the behalf of the development community. So when legislators try to enact unfair laws, the community reacts.The IGDA won't get involved in the drama du jour, but according to Edwards, "Obviously, when big issues like SOPA come along, we'll be very vocal about it."
Biden talks video game violence with industry representatives today
US vice-president Joe Biden is meeting with games industry representatives today to discuss the role of violent video games with regards to gun violence, as part of a response to last month's massacre at a Connecticut elementary school. As the Associated Press reports, today's meeting in Washington is the latest in a series of discussions Biden's task force is undertaking before presenting recommendations on how to suppress gun violence to President Barack Obama on Tuesday, January 15.Meetings with film industry representatives and the National Rifle Association took place yesterday, with the NRA emerging "disappointed" from what it felt was an attack on the Second Amendment, objecting to a number of proposals including limits on high-capacity ammunition magazines and bans on assault weapons.The Entertainment Software Association confirmed to Polygon that it's being represented at today's meeting by president Michael Gallagher. Sources involved with the meeting told Polygon other attendees include representatives for game publishers, research on the impact of video games on children, and the retail sector.Several industry organizations, such as the International Game Developers Association and the Electronic Consumer Association, issued open letters to the vice president ahead of today's meeting. The IGDA calls on the government to consider the "totality" of research into video game violence, and to avoid causing the games industry similar damage to that suffered by the comic book industry because of the censorship laws of the 1950s. Similarly, the ECA notes a negative correlation between the growth of the games industry and the decrease in violent crime across the last decade.As Polygon learned this week, there are plans to reintroduce a bill to Congress calling for a Federal Trade Commission study into connections between violent video games and harmful effects on children. The bill, originally brought to Congress last month following the Connecticut shooting, failed to make it through the 112th session on January 2. Its author, West Virginia senator Jay Rockefeller, is likely to reintroduce the bill before the end of the month. Previous FTC studies failed to establish any causal connections between violent video games and violent behavior.
Kate Edwards named IGDA's new executive director
Gordon Bellamy stepped down as the director of the Interational Game Developers' Association last July, and the organization has finally named his successor. Kate Edwards will serve as the group's new executive director, after being an IGDA member for 16 years, and founding and chairing the IGDA's Localization Special Interest Group.Global cultural strategy is Edwards' specialty: She worked for Microsoft as a geopolitical strategist in the '90s, and more recently worked at her own company, Englobe, since 2005. In addition to her other experience with the IGDA, Edwards also helped co-organize the Game Developers' Conference Localization Summit. The IGDA's chairman, Dustin Clingman, says he hopes Edwards will use her talents to help the group "lay a foundation for ongoing international growth."
IGDA executive director resigns, joins China's Tencent
Gordon Bellamy, the (now former) executive director of the International Game Developers Association, has stepped away from the post to join Tencent, the popular Chinese online social service. Bellamy will remain on the IGDA's board (where he was before he took the executive director post), but will step away from day-to-day operations. Dustin Clingman, the current board chair, will take over in the interim until a new director can be found.Tencent runs a number of popular online social and gaming services in China (including the world's largest online community, QQ), and has recently been putting together a collection of ties to major Western gaming companies. Bellamy's Twitter account now lists him as the Director of Business Development and Industry Relations at Tencent. According to his recent tweets, he's "excited for Tencent" and is "looking forward to working with the world."
Riot Games' close calls with disaster
Riot Games CEO Brandon Beck gave the closing keynote at last week's IGDA Leadership Forum in Los Angeles, California, and during the talk (in which he made the point that "Riot's secret weapon all along" has been its employees), he gave a few interesting examples of how Riot's staff had really gone the extra distance to turn League of Legends into the successful online phenomenon it is today. His first example was about the matchmaking system -- originally, Riot struggled to make sure that players were matched up against each other in an interesting and effective way, and the company ended up bringing in not a game developer, but a programmer with a PhD in computational biology whose "thinking was radically different and compelling," according to Beck. A month after this hire, the company had a whole new matchmaking system, and in the end, it turned out to be "too fair" -- the games were too close. Since "what players remember are the outliers," according to Beck, the team developed "snowball items," which were "risky purchases that rewarded flawless execution." That bit of gameplay mixed up the matches, and came to be the system the game uses today.
BioWare plans to grow community with cross-platform offerings
On stage at the 2011 International Game Developers Association Leadership Forum here in LA, BioWare's Senior Director of Business Planning Development Richard Iwaniuk took the stage to chat about how the company has built up its online community into the 3.2 million-strong registered users it is today, and what it plans to do next to keep that growth going. Iwaniuk's main point was taking BioWare's franchises, which of course include Dragon Age and Mass Effect, and spinning them out to cover as many platforms as possible -- not just the HD consoles, but mobile platforms, online social networks, and even into areas like films and television. Iwaniuk said quality was a big part of that push, but "quality," according to Iwaniuk, "is becoming more relative as opposed to absolute." He added that "it's going to be defined as much by the consumer as it is by the product. It's relative to the genre or the platform that that product is being served on." Iwaniuk said that while sales or ratings might have been indicators of game quality in the past, these new platforms call for other "key performance indicators," like player engagement or just simple awareness. "If [players are] promoting your game," said Iwaniuk, "that's success in some of these genres." Iwaniuk cited Felicia Day and her Dragon Age work as a great example of a cross-platform push on BioWare's end, and said that even BioWare was learning -- originally, the company was using social networks like Facebook simply to push out information and promote its products, but "in actuality, it should be more of a pull" in those places, where BioWare pulls in player feedback and making use of it rather than simply trying to raise social awareness. And how soon will we see this player feedback put into practice, and all of these cross-platform offerings revealed? "Stay tuned," teased Iwaniuk. "I think that might be as short as three or four weeks, and you'll know more."
IGDA still unhappy with Amazon Appstore policies
This past April, the International Game Developers Association published an open letter to its members, warning them of the Amazon Appstore's reportedly developer-unfriendly pricing and revenue splitting policies. Today, it reiterated its words of caution following the horror story of indie developer Bithack, which butted heads with Amazon over its latest piece of software, Apparatus. Bithack's main point of contention with the retailer is its inability to filter Apps by which hardware they'll run on. After a number of shoppers using incompatible devices grabbed Apparatus, they trashed the game's reviews, to which Bithack was unable to respond to as Amazon had stripped the developer's contact info from the game's description. Amazon also made the decision to reduce the game's list price from $3.99 to $0.99 without first contacting Bithack. The IGDA added to this Bithack report, saying, "We remain open to discussing these issues with Amazon and helping them create a developer friendly environment."
IGDA looking for feedback on L.A. Noire development conditions
The International Game Developers Association, a game industry non-profit organization, is responding to this past weekend's report of continuous "crunch" and dictatorial working conditions at LA Noire development studio Team Bondi by launching a full investigation. According to IGDA chair Brian Robbins, the organization will be soliciting reports, "positive or negative," from "any Team Bondi employee and/or family member." Robbins told Develop, "Reports of 12-hour a day, lengthy crunch time, if true, are absolutely unacceptable and harmful to the individuals involved, the final product, and the industry as a whole," echoing sentiments made in the past by a variety of game industry leaders. He also encouraged the aforementioned folks tied to Team Bondi to shoot an email to "qol@igda.org," before he added, "But no lolcats please ... okay, maybe a few."
PAX East todo: The Digital Game Canon, a panel about video game preservation
PAX East is underway and we're dedicated to making sure each one of you makes it to one very special panel. But first, we'll level with you: it requires some homework on your part. "Ten Games You Need to Play: The Digital Game Canon" borrows its name from the 2007 GDC session of the same name, in which an incredible group of panelists (including this writer) deigned to select ten video games that deserved to be preserved. We're revisiting that effort, and reconsidering it with a stellar group of panelists. This year's panelists include: Henry Lowood is a professor (and curator!) at Stanford University and chairman of the IGDA's preservation SIG. His academic work is focused on the preservation of video games. Chris Melissinos was a longtime gaming evangelist at Sun, before founding Past Pixels, an organization dedicated to the preservation of video games. He's currently curating the Smithsonian's Art of Video Games exhibit, scheduled to open in 2012. Jon Gibson has worn many hats (including games journo and screenwriter hats) but is currently busy with iam8bit, the LA-based outfit responsible for art exhibits, books, and excellent game marketing gigs (think: Capcom Fight Club). David Gibson has been employed as a Processing Technician in the Library of Congress's Moving Image section since 2006. In that time, he has become a key player in the Library's initiative to collect, preserve, and provide access to America's gaming heritage. Chris Grant is a writer who works from home in his pajamas. And your homework: Get a crash course in game preservation by listening to the entire hour-long "b-side" interview with Henry from Episode 2 of the excellent A Life Well Wasted podcast, which you can find here. Read the excellent "Preserving Virtual Worlds" final report while waiting in PAX East lines (download it here!) and, when you finish that, move over to "Before It's Too Late: A Digital Game Preservation White Paper" (which you can download here). VOTE! Head to www.artofvideogames.org and "vote for games that you think are visually spectacular or boast innovative design!" This is for the Smithsonian Institute, guys. Think about that! And, one final bit of homework: Get in line early. The panel takes place at 2pm on Sunday, March 13, at the IGDA Dev Center (on the 2nd floor, right next to Manticore Theater).
Turbine's Fernando Paiz to keynote PAX East IGDA conference
PAX East is less than half a month away, promising to be a good time for fans and developers alike. Considering that it's one of the only major gaming conventions in the northeast, we're not surprised that the International Game Developer's Association would have a presence, hosting both a series of panels on breaking into game design and a developer summit. It's the latter that's of the greatest interest to MMO fans, as the summit's keynote speaker is Fernando Paiz of Dungeons and Dragons Online fame. Taking place on Saturday, March 12th at 10:00 a.m. EST, Paiz's keynote speech is titled "The Game Monetization Revolution: Embracing new business models that are good for both players and developers." While the content of the speech is not known, odds are good that it will cover the successful Dungeons and Dragons Online free-to-play switch as well as what it means for the future of games in general. It's an interesting kickoff to the summit, and it shows just how much impact MMOs are having on the larger game industry.
Bilson gets to the heart of the new THQ in IGDA Leadership keynote
Keynoting the IGDA Leadership Forum last week, THQ "core games" boss Danny Bilson not only reflected on the publisher's steady turnaround (despite a recent slump), but also focused on its goals for the future. Previously reported updates from Bilson on Homefront, Darksiders 2 and Guillermo Del Toro's project, however, were just mere nuggets from his near hour-long presentation, which kicked off with a retelling of his personal journey from non-interactive media to games. Back in the late-90s, Bilson recalled, he was working in television in Vancouver -- specifically, on Viper and The Sentinel. During a business trip, a stranger sitting next to him on the plane asked about the scripts Bilson happened to be reviewing. That stranger was Don Mattrick, who was president of Electronic Arts at the time. Bilson would eventually join EA, launching his career in video games.
