Google game developer advocate leaves after four months

Mark Deloura was hired by Google in April to work with game developers on content for Google's browser-based app store. In a blog post, Deloura has announced that he left the company this week. "There are a lot of very interesting things going on at Google right now," Deloura said, "and I enjoyed working with many of the people there, but it was not the perfect fit for me."

Deloura went on to talk at length about the importance of easy access to middleware and cross-platform development. The increasing use of web services can abstract away a lot of the need for platform-specific SDK features," he said, "but there's still a lot of work to do all around. Games aren't getting cheaper to make, that's for sure, and it's important that technically complex features are still easily available to independent developers working alone."

During Deloura's tenure, Google announced its Chrome Web Store, purchased Slide, and -- in what may be Google's most successful browser gaming initiative yet -- made that neat Pac-Man logo game.