Continental Drifting, Again...

We got our first copies of the September issue of Game Developer, pictured to the left, when we were in London for GDC Europe last week, and the Tetsuya Nomura-drawn cover seems to works great with the orange and black color scheme, woo.

In any case, this is the point where I talk about the Game Developer's October 2005 issue, which is the third annual Top 20 Publishers issue - we calculated the top game publishers by factoring in revenue, average review score, anonymous feedback, and other factors, with fascinating results. Also in the issue - a neat in-depth interview with Daniel James of Puzzle Pirates and now Bang! Howdy fame about appealing to the 'broadcore' gamer, and a postmortem regarding the graphics of the gorgeous Resident Evil 4 from Capcom Japan artist Yoshiaki Hirabayashi.

So, as mentioned above and in the linklog, me and Holly went to London last week, both to see my family and to catch Game Developers Conference Europe, and both went rather spectacularly! Over on Gamasutra, we covered GDC in-depth, and I actually got a chance to do some writing for once - witness Sony's Phil Harrison keynote, some great developer-specific Xbox 360 info, and a fascinating session on SCEE's SingStar karaoke game series. The game design mash-up and Keita Takahashi's keynote were two other highlights of the show - looking forward to next year's already! Oh, and pre-GDCE, my colleague Brandon's interview with ex-Silent Hill supremo Takayoshi Sato is one of my favorite Gamasutra pieces to date - nuanced and with lots of personal insight.

So, we're off to Japan on Tuesday for the Tokyo Game Show and to stealth interview a mess of Japanese developers, and I imagine the linklog will degenerate into photoblogging at that point, doh. Please try to curb your enthusiasm. Oh, and as a random postscript - thanks to all the entrants to the 2006 Independent Games Festival - the first round saw 117 game entries, a record, and there's going to be some kickass finalists who really showcase indie game development in a positive way. Yay!