Postmortem - Final Fantasy XII

By Taku Murata

The twelfth installment in Square Enix’s wildly popular series was developed in a fashion quite unlike the others. No one on the team had worked on a major Final Fantasy title before, and most had been accustomed to mid-sized projects, not massive ones. General manager of R&D Taku Murata focuses more on what went wrong in this ingenuous postmortem.

Programmers’ Roundtable

With Brad Bulkley, Stuart Denman, Chris Hecker, Clinton Keith, and Bruce Rogers

In this exclusive roundtable interview, five top technophiles discuss what’s right and wrong with game programming these days, from in-house procedures to multi-processor systems to code reuse.

The Code/Art Divide: How Technical Artists Bridge The Gap

By Jason Hayes

Game studio Volition (The Punisher, Saints Row) makes a case for hiring a few technical artists, their value ranging from time savings to smoother in-house communication. As linchpins, technical artists keep programmers and artists bonded in their mutual cause, helping to ensure that each department gets what it needs from the other—and within reason according to the project’s schedule.

Game Plan

By Brandon Sheffield
An E3 Without Developers

Heads Up Display

Game developers’ census, the big three at E3, and more.

Skunk Works

By Tom Carroll
3DConnexion’s SpaceNavigator, Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended, and product news.

Business Level

By Nicholas Beliaeff
More of What They Want

Pixel Pusher

By Steve Theodore
Fight the Good Fight

The Inner Product

By Mick West
Domain-Specific Languages

Game Shui

By Noah Falstein
Hybrid Vigor

Aural Fixation

By Jesse Harlin
Vox Populi