[Just a final reminder for the IGF student and mobile competitions for 2009, which are finishing up this weekend and Monday respectively - good luck to all the entrants, both competitions have had some standouts in previous years.]
Organizers of the 2009 Independent Games Festival are giving a final call for entries for this year’s Student Showcase competition (due November 15th), and IGF Mobile competition (due November 17th), following the closing of entries for the main IGF competition earlier this month.
After a record turn-out for the IGF Main Competition, with entrants to be revealed soon, the ever-popular, free Student Showcase competition has an imminent deadline, with game students battling to be one of the ten games available in playable form on the 2009 Game Developers Conference show floor.
The Student Showcase honorees, which have previously included Portal predecessor Narbacular Drop and Dyadin, an early game by the team behind Flow, […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Simon Carless) and software by Elliott Back

[In this in-depth opinion piece, game commentator Duncan Fyfe examines the increasingly overblown promotional campaign that preceded the release of DICE’s Mirror’s Edge — and considers whether it’s all worth it.]
It’s essentially over. Mirror’s Edge has been released and from my perspective it ran a very strange campaign.
This is one of our last opportunities to talk about that process while it’s still current and hopefully still interesting, although Mirror’s Edge itself will be last-gen and boring as early as next January so pretty soon nobody will be talking about the actual game either. These things have a very fragile lifespan.
The debut trailer in May quickly endeared itself to the constituents of Internet City. Clearly it was something different: artistically striking and an original first-person take on a familiar third-person genre. It invited favourable comparisons to Portal (perhaps unintentionally) as both games appeared to have a visual and a gameplay […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Chris Remo) and software by Elliott Back

Good Lord, it’s time for a little more GameSetLinkDump-age, headed by the UK Guardian discussing game addiction as an alternative to facing up to bad realities - a strangely needed personal perspective on gaming and feelings, something that maybe isn’t done enough.
Also hanging out in here - the sad disappearance of WizKid Games, a version of Shadowrun (pictured) that you might not have seen before, the rise of doujin, something about Second Life that almost makes sense to me, and lots more.
Yee haw:
Naomi Alderman: Computer games are good for you | Technology | guardian.co.uk
On post 9/11 trauma and Diablo: 'I remember surfacing from four-hour Diablo II sessions feeling as if I'd been on holiday, so grateful that I'd been able to blot out the images of genuine horror filling my city.'
WizKids Games shuttered by Topps
"We feel it is necessary to align our efforts more closely with Topps' current sports and […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Simon Carless) and software by Elliott Back

[We really had an insane amount of good content on big sister site Gamasutra this week, and there’s a couple of longform pieces that I think might get lost otherwise - here’s one, which is Christian Nutt’s visit to the Insomniac Community Day, with plenty of Resistance 2 talk all round.]
Last week, Insomniac Games welcomed around 100 members of the game-playing public into its offices for its first ever community day, to celebrate and promote the launch of its fall PlayStation 3 title, Resistance 2, with its most passionate fans — and shared a surprisingly robust number of development secrets with the public.
The event was held at Insomniac’s Burbank, California headquarters, and the day was split into two theater sessions that concentrated on the making of the game, and also included lunch, gameplay sessions, studio tours, and signings for the fans.
Insomniac CEO and Resistance 2 creative director Ted […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Simon Carless) and software by Elliott Back

[Every week, our sister console digital download site GamerBytes‘ editor Ryan Langley will be summing up the top console digital download news tidbits from the past 7 days, including brand new game announcements and scoops through the world of Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and WiiWare.]
No new Xbox Live Arcade releases this week, no PlayStation Network releases last week, and a variety of quality for WiiWare worldwide makes for an odd selection of titles.
I can’t blame them, though - with Gears of War 2, Mirrors Edge, Fallout 3, Call of Duty: World At War, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and more games that have come out in this past week, who really would release a new game now?
Here’s the top news stories of the week in the space:
Xbox Live Arcade
This Week On XBLA - New Arcade Hits, SFIIHD Pinball Table for Pinball FX And Banjo Kazooie Download Codes
Feeding […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Simon Carless) and software by Elliott Back

[“Might Have Been” is a column by Todd Ciolek that explores the ways in which promising games, characters, concepts, and companies failed. This week’s edition looks at Taito’s Time Gal, released in the arcade in 1985, for the Sega CD in 1993, and for the PlayStation in 1996.]
Dragon’s Lair was not a good game. It didn’t really need to be. The typical arcade patrons of 1983 were quite willing to forgive awful, barely extant game structure as long as they could watch beautiful, seamless, laserdisc-streamed animation from the guy who directed The Secret of Nimh. And the laserdisc games that followed, from Don Bluth’s own Space Ace to half-cohesive anime collages like the Lupin-derived Cliff Hanger, didn’t have to be good, either, so long as they had cartoon visuals to smooth over their cheap, sudden deaths.

Time Gal was too late to ride that train. It was 1985 by the […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Todd Ciolek) and software by Elliott Back

[This interview with the nice UK Video Game Archive folks was conducted by us just before they went ‘public’ at GameCity, and it’s good to see more people thinking about how to archive games as an artform - hurrah.]
“Video games are living, breathing things with cultural lives and histories,” says Dr. James Newman of the UK’s recently created UK National Video Game Archive.
The newly launched Archive is a partnership between the National Media Museum and Nottingham Trent University’s Centre for Contemporary Play. Gamasutra caught up with Newman, a key figure behind the venture, to discuss its plans and intent.
Rather than being a straightforward game collection, Newman stresses that the Archive’s goal is to chronicle game history and game culture broadly speaking — which extends beyond game design itself and out into the art that surrounds gaming, including game-inspired media and fan-created works.
Says Newman, “To make sure that we can […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Simon Carless) and software by Elliott Back

[’Bell, Game, and Candle’ is a regular GameSetWatch column by writer Alex Litel, discussing stuff that happens - or doesn’t happen - in the game business. This time - he travels into the future to bring back press releases.]
EA Signs the Legendary David Lynch for Three Game Deal
Auteur behind Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive to elevate the plane of interactive entertainment
Electronic Arts today announced that cinematic legend David Lynch will bring his unique talents to the development of three original games. Lynch will lead development of the games with a team at Pandemic Studios in Los Angeles, the same studio recently released open-world title Mercenaries 2: World of Flames and the forthcoming The Lord of the Rings: Conquest. Lynch’s acclaimed works include Oscar-nominated classics such as Mulholland Dr., Blue Velvet, and The Elephant Man. He is presently devoting his time to an array of multimedia projects.
Under the agreement with […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Alex Litel) and software by Elliott Back

Now I haven’t changed my anti-Wii stance (Which is I don’t want one, but I don’t necessarily dislike them. They’re just not for me.), but I know a hell of a deal when I see one and this is one hell of a crazy ass deal. Sam’s Club will have the “Wii Family Bundle” during the day after Thanksgiving known as, “Black Friday.”

It will cost $224 and consist of a WII, two Wii Remotes, and two Nunchuks. But that’s not all! It also comes with the two games Mario Super Sluggers and King of Clubs Mini-Gol Now keep in mind that the Wii alone costs $250. That’s such a huge deal that I’m excited by the savings more so than actually owning the bundle.
I’m willing to bet that I’m not the only one and that there will be a mad stampede of people when Sam’s Club opens on Black […]

Original post by Paul and software by Elliott Back

[What are the six key things you can do to advance your career in the game business? From getting good game credits through efficient networking, Divide By Zero CTO Joe Ludwig provides practical advice in this handy opinion piece.]
Advancing your career is your responsibility. Maybe this is obvious to everyone, but it’s something I’ve really only started paying any attention to over the past few years.
In the game industry this is even more important. Game companies disappear on a regular basis and you can be looking for work very suddenly.
Not everything related to your career development is in your control. Chances are you don’t get to pick what projects your company green lights. You also rarely get to choose when you are laid off.
Fortunately there are several things you can control, so if you focus on these items you will be better off than someone who […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Simon Carless) and software by Elliott Back