Analog Control

Evan Goncalo is a part-time writer and full video game virtuoso who lives and works in Massachusetts. He has worked at several different video game studios including Turbine, Blue Fang Games, and Hasbro Digital Media. Evan is currently employed at Varolii Corporation as an Application Engineer in addition to lecturing on Game Design at Bristol Community College. He is the writer of blog "Analog Control" on AWN.com. The blog covers all the latest and greatest of the game industry. You can email him at egoncalo@awn.com!

GDC 2011 - Six Indie Principles to Live By

Posted In | Blog Categories: GDC 2011 | Site Categories: Games

What makes this event so exciting are the new ideas being thrown out to the crowd, innovations, and completely honest commentary on what goes into creating an independent game.  You can feel the creative energy in the air and when you leave the summit – you’re possessed with some inherent indie verve.

What have I learned this year?  Here are my newly discovered indie principles...

GDC 11 - Level Design in a Day: Best Practices from the Best in the Business

Posted In | Blog Categories: GDC 2011 | Site Categories: Games
Today I attended Level Design in a Day which had a star cast including Neil Alphonso (Splash Damage), Matthias Worch (LucasArts), Coray Seifert (Arkadium), Jim Brown (Epic Games), Joel Burgess (Bethesda Softworks), Forrest Dowling (Irrational Games) and Ed Byrne (Zipper Interactive).  Each speaker had the floor for about 50 minutes a piece, with many of of the other speakers chiming in at various points.

GDC Day 2: Sony Press Event

Posted In | Blog Categories: GDC 2010 | Site Categories: Games

 

PlayStation Move Header

 

The focus of this year’s Sony Press Event is on its new motion controller titled “Move.”  The name may not ring a bell, but the trademark “glowing orbs” atop its black plastic remotes may bring the image to mind from it’s prior announcements during CES.

To find out more what transpired at this year's event, hit the jump.

GDC Day 2: NinjaBee's Top 10 Development Lessons

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Ninja Bee

 

Brent Fox of NinjaBee (Band of Bugs, A Kingdom for Keflings, Outpost Kaloki) presented his top 10 development lessons during today's Indie Game Summit.

Check out the article for his tips!

GDC Day 1: Effective Marketing for Indie Game Developers

Posted In | Blog Categories: GDC 2010 | Site Categories: Games

 

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The “Wolfire Experiment” is what John Graham calls his public relations tactic.  I can only describe Graham as a PR pioneer within the indie developer community.  His role as PR Manager on Wolfire’s flagship title, “Overgrowth,” has allowed him to develop some refreshing strategies on how to get your game out there to the masses.

GDC Day 1: From Big Studio to Small Indie - Guerilla Tactics from Hello Games

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Sean Murray, the resident programmer for 2008 studio startup “Hello Games,” was on hand to represent his team and to tell us a bit about the team’s transition from working at a big studio to their current indie lifestyle.  The group of four friends, that includes David, Grant, Ryan and Sean, has collectively worked at studios like Criterion, EA, Kuju and more.  After working on titles like Burnout and Geometry Wars they felt comfortable leaving as what Murray described as “Young Industry Veterans.”  Today, they are working on launching their first title, Joe Danger! 

GDC Day 1: Scrap Metal: Pushing the Envelope with a Team of Two

Posted In | Blog Categories: GDC 2010 | Site Categories: Games

 

 

Scrap Metal
Slick Entertainment's Scrap Metal

 

The dynamic duo that make up Slick Entertainment, Kees Rijnen and Nick Waanders, gave a presentation on their journey to their first indie game launch.  Their first title built under Slick Entertainment is titled “Scrap Metal” and will be released tomorrow, March 10th on XBOX Live Arcade.  The fast paced racing combat game was built completely on internal proprietary tools by only two people.

Hit the jump to read more!

 

GDC Day 1: Abusing Your Players Just For Fun

Posted In | Blog Categories: GDC 2010 | Site Categories: Games

 

Cactus

 

Jonathan Soderstrom, aka Cactus, gave a presentation on how to abuse players “just for fun.”  Cactus is well known in the independent game community for creating unusual games within YoYo Game’s “Game Maker” software.  They often involve trippy visuals and 100% unique gameplay. 

Why should you abuse your players you ask?  Cactus supplies the reasons!

 

Hit the jump for more details!

Quick Look: PDP Dual Triggers for PS3

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PDP Dual Triggers

 

As someone with big hands, I usually find it difficult to keep a good grasp on the standard PS3 controller.  It’s definitely a bit smaller than my preferred XBOX controller, and the shoulder buttons drop off drastically.  This makes it so your fingers sometimes get tired, or slip off if you have large mitts like me.  While searching for a quick and cheap solution I ended up finding a product by PDP (Performance Designed Products.)

Hit the jump for more details!

MAG - Massive Multiplayer Mayhem

Posted In | Site Categories: Games

 

Mag Logo

 

Zipper Interactive, creators of the popular SOCOM game series, have made their first sortie into PS3 territory with their massive first-person-shooter, MAG.  The game promises huge 256 player battles delivered exclusively online, on PlayStation Network.  This technological feat, along with player customization, and the fine-tuned trappings of a current-gen FPS attempt to edge this past competition like Modern Warfare 2. 

Does Zipper Interactive succeed?  Hit the jump for the full review.