By John Moore

Puzzle-based games and adventure titles that feature puzzles have been a staple of gaming for years. A newer entrant to the puzzle segment is Crytek, best known for first-person shooters such as Far Cry and Crysis. The company recently branched out into mobile games with Fibble, a physics-based puzzle game that focuses on the travails of a crash-landed extraterrestrial.

Fibble, available on the iPhone, iPod and iPad, marks Crytek’s first mobile offering as well as its first puzzler. We recently talked to Kristoffer Waardahl, studio manager of Crytek Budapest, about the company’s new development direction.

By Jon Lewin

There were over 2,000 games in the 2010 major league baseball season, and the creators of MLB 2K11 looked at video from almost every one of them while preparing the 2011 version of the baseball simulation game, according to game designer Sean Bailey. “These videos are the same broadcasts that fans at home watch,” says Bailey, a developer with 2K Sports. Bailey shares insights into the painstaking process of getting the simulations right, including bringing top baseball talent like the Philadelphia Phillie's star pitcher Roy Halladay into the studio. 

Roger Chandler

In a nutshell, it seems that the players, the games, the business models, the game delivery mechanisms, the platforms, the market size and the way players interact with games have all changed. And through it all, the PC -- the most open and innovative of all the gaming platforms -- is experiencing a renaissance. PCs in general are morphing into different form factors, including netbooks, tablets and media-centric designs. Developers are starting to riff on platform technologies -- like stereoscopic 3D, touchscreens, facial recognition, solid-state drives, Z-cameras and wireless display connections -- to make games more immersive and fun. Soon, it may be the norm for integrated cameras to map your face to your in-game character, mimicking your expressions in real time. Games may sense and translate not only your motions, but also your emotions.

William M. "Trip" Hawkins III - founder of Electronic Arts and father of the 3DO console - needs no introduction to serious gamers. But three decades after writing the blueprint for the PC and video game business, his latest creation - social games start-up Digital Chocolate  - is rewriting the rules again.

Originally a developer of games for mobile phones, the company has shifted its focus to Facebook and other social networks to tremendous success. It’s garnered more than 20 million monthly users within a year with hits like Millionaire City , MMA Pro Fighter  and NanoStar Castles . Here, Hawkins explains why he believes social gaming and virtual goods are the future of interactive entertainment.

Matt Ployhar

By Matt Ployhar

I’ve been following slates, tablets and similar PC form factors for quite a while now. They’ve actually been around for a very long time when one comes to think of it -- at least a decade from what I can tell. There’s a ton of hype around them all of a sudden, since Apple released the iPad over a year ago. So where will they go next?

By Scott Steinberg

Legendary British game designer Peter Molyneux, founder of Bullfrog Productions and Lionhead Studios and inventor of the “god game” genre with 1989’s Populous, tends to think big. Witness his resume, which includes epic strategy and simulation titles like Dungeon Keeper, Black & White and Theme Park, among the most ambitious of all time.

Occasionally vilified for overhyping new releases, Molyneux has spent 27 years of development on gaming’s front lines and hasn’t slowed his ambition -- or his willingness to buck trends. With his latest creation, the fantasy roleplaying epic Fable III, shipping for the PC this month, Molyneux talked about his commitment to grand, all-encompassing experiences -- and home computers.

Interactive entertainment’s answer to art-house films is indie game development. Titles like Minecraft , Recettear  and World of Goo  have captured a legion of forward-thinking fans’ and bedroom coders’ imaginations alike. But despite consistently raising the bar for innovation and creativity, life left of the keyboard isn’t all fun and games. Dave Gilbert, founder of indie adventure-game studio Wadjet Eye Games  (The Blackwell Legacy , Puzzle Bots ), explains the indie life to Scott Steinberg.

Quite often, simple things that occur in the real world can become incredible technical problems for visual effects artists attempting to digitally recreate or adapt those occurrences for film. One such gremlin is liquid simulation.

Previously, we looked at how Gradient Effects used the Exocortex Technologies Slipstream tool to create the memory pool in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, a sequence that required mimicking the effect of ink dispersing in water -- in large volume and high detail. Slipstream allowed Gradient Effects to complete the sequence with far less processing power, with greater efficiency and in far less time than other solutions, thanks to real-time rendering and a specialized production pipeline.

But while rendering ink in water is impressive, the power and majesty of the deep blue sea is something else entirely.

By Matt Ployhar

I’ve been following slates, tablets and similar PC form factors for quite a while now. They’ve actually been around for a very long time when one comes to think of it -- at least a decade from what I can tell. There’s a ton of hype around them all of a sudden, since Apple released the iPad over a year ago. So where will they go next?

Will consoles try to jump on the bandwagon? Will slates and tablets be able to displace laptops? What about netbooks? Then we have Windows 8 coming down the pipeline. It’s probably a good bet that Microsoft will throw a ton of eggs into the slate basket.