By Gus Mastrapa

Rift, the new PC MMO, launched on March 1 in the United States and days later in Europe and Australia. The game debuts on a crest of positive buzz garnered through a slew of well-received beta events. But launching a successful online game is as much about follow-through as it is about first impressions. I spoke to Trion Worlds design producer Hal Hanlin about his company’s philosophies on keeping customers happy, leveraging technologies and, of course, making great games.

 

 

By Jon Lewin

In part one of my look at the simulation of an American pastime in MLB 2K11, we examined the broad strokes of creating a baseball simulation -- specifically the players and the stats. Now we turn our attention to the fine details that make the world come alive.

 

 

By John Gaudiosi

Bethesda Softworks showcased the much-anticipated Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim at Gamescom 2011 this summer in Cologne, Germany, allowing fans to check out the successor to the award-winning blockbuster hit Oblivion. Bethesda Game Studios has been hard at work on this new role-playing game (RPG), developing a brand-new game engine -- the Creation Engine -- for the open-world experience.

By John Gaudiosi

Electronic Arts used the Game Developers Conference this month to offer an initial look at its first-person shooter sequel, Medal of Honor Warfighter. Danger Close Games, its developer, is expanding the fight against terror by taking its Tier 1 Operators on a contemporary globe-trotting adventure to such exotic locales as the Philippines and the Somali coast. The game also features new vehicles on players’ new missions, like an on-rails boat ride through a monsoon-stricken city.Here, Rich Farley, creative director at Danger Close Games, talks about what’s in store for PC gamers and gives his take on the move to modern warfare in this exclusive interview from GDC 2012.

 

The FMX Partners section is ready to set sail. This is your chance to become a part of FMX 2013! There are various opportunities to participate and present your company or school in Germany next spring. Choose from a range of different offerings from workshops to sponsoring activities and individualize your choice accordingly. Take advantage of our Early Bird Rates that end January 31, 2013, and jump on board!

As winter blows through the northern hemisphere, the season brings with it the chilling threat of illness to those in the voice over industry. Nothing halts a voice over production faster than the actors losing their voices! Even worse, for the struggling actor or singer, blowing an audition because you’ve caught a cough can be a devastating hit.

Taking care of your voice during cold and flu season really just involves paying extra special attention to the normal tricks and habits that most voice over professionals should already be considering. For instance, be sure to drink LOTS of water with a minimum eight glasses of water of day to ensure proper hydration. In the winter this is especially true because the air tends to be dryer than usual, therefore vocal cords tend to become stressed with the relatively low humidity. In addition, many of us often drink extra coffee or tea to warm ourselves up, however these things, in combination with the dry air, only serve to dehydrate the body even more and, as a result, strains the vocal cords.

When we left off last month, we were just getting ready to talk about where your revenues will come from.  If your project is a feature length film, your revenues will probably come from these sources in these amounts:

Cinema/Theatre	20% - 30%
Video Sales	35% - 45%
Television	23% - 30%
Ancillary	5%   - 10%

If your project is for television, the breakdown would look something like this:

The beautiful thing about inspiration is that you never know when it’s going to hit.  Case in point – it’s 1989 and I’m working in the equipment checkout room at NYU’s Tisch School of The Arts.  The room is located in the “basement” of Tish, at 721 Broadway, and it’s where student filmmakers go to borrow the cameras, lights and all the grip stands they’ll need to make their films.

If you work in the basement, you will inevitably encounter the film student who believes that he or she is about to embark on a cinematic journey which will result in the production of a film that is no less impactful than Lawrence of Arabia.  They will approach the check-out counter waving around a sort of arrogance that is normally reserved for royalty while their crew scrambles around them like peasants.  This budding filmmaker, high on the power that comes with being a director, expects that his film is going to be a masterpiece and that his film equipment should nothing short of pristine.

By Tim Kridel

By next year, annual sales of smartphones that support HTML5 should hit 1 billion worldwide, says the research firm Strategy Analytics. Even today, there’s a healthy installed base of HTML5 phones: at least 336 million, based on 2011 sales.

That market momentum is one reason why HTML5 skills are increasingly important. We recently spoke with Mike Richmond, a technologist in Intel’s Open Source Technology Center who focuses on HTML5, about what to keep in mind when working with the language. [Disclosure: Intel is the sponsor of this content.]

Why should mobile app developers begin mastering HTML5 if they aren’t already proficient? Does HTML5 enable them to develop app features that they otherwise couldn’t, or target certain segments such as browser-based Web apps?

Mike Richmond: Applications developed in HTML5 are easier to move between target environments. And because HTML5 and CSS are so visual, it can be much easier to do user interfaces that are scalable between platforms rather than doing the same UI in native code. Web apps can also be delivered outside of an application store.

Buddy i used to play hockey with sent me this film. It's pretty good. Not sure it's my thing, but for a young squirt, it's well done. Plus, it's about addicts. I love addicts.