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Valve vet Chet Faliszek and Riot's Kim Voll form a co-op game studio
Half-Life 2 writer Chet Faliszek and Riot Games veteran Dr. Kimberly Voll are launching a new game studio with a focus on co-op titles. Dubbed Stray Bombay, the venture will leverage Voll's AI prowess to power "not just enemies but...the entire experience," according to the duo's new blog post. Faliszek, meanwhile, will tap into his wealth of work for Valve's co-op titles like Portal 2 and the Left 4 Dead series.
Microsoft announces new entertainment and game studio focused on Windows 8 tablet development
Windows 8 slates are riding a wave of 40 Xbox titles into an October launch, and now Microsoft has laid the foundation to deliver more games with a brand new studio focused on tablet development. The currently unnamed, London-based outfit will be headed by former Rare Production Director Lee Schuneman, who has shepherded Kinect Sports titles, the Xbox 360 Avatars, Fable: The Journey and the Xbox's Sky TV app to completion. Slabs running Redmond's latest OS won't see a project from the team for a while, however, as the studio is still looking for new hires and won't open its doors until November.
Rolando's Simon Oliver in the Daily Mail
The Daily Mail has reported the story of our friend Simon Oliver, creator of Rolando (whom we interviewed quite a while ago when the game originally came out). Apparently things have worked out very well for him -- the game has sold 700,000 copies so far, Oliver's set to be a millionaire, and he's now, as he says, the head of a game studio that already has a hit under its belt. Very impressive (too bad they still call him a geek).It's stories like this that are pushing the little App Store bubble we've got going nowadays -- every investor with money to spare (not as many as usual, given the current economy) is happy to sink it into releases for the iPhone, and while there is plenty of money being made, not every developer ends up like Oliver (let's not forget he had a quality product in the first place).But there is some good news here: without the App Store and the iPhone platform, this never would have happened. Say what you want about Apple's release policies or their initial "no SDK" choice, but with the iPhone, they've brought development and distribution down to anyone who can dream it.
Mainstream press talks up XNA
BBC technology commentator Bill Thompson is excited about developing games for the 360 using XNA Game Studio Express, despite not being able to play Halo without looking at the buttons. [Thanks laserboyjc]
