November 2008

FEATURES

Postmortem - Certain Affinity's Age Of Booty

By Max Hoberman

Beginning with a paper prototype and then creating an original engine, Certain Affinity brought Age of Booty to completion in just over a year, all while juggling multiple projects and shuffling developers on and off the project. Even an unexpected last minute dispute over the name couldn't scuttle the game and Certain Affinity took home the real treasure: full control over its own IP.

Game Developer's Top Deck

By Staff

Not all game developers are cards, but many of them are unique in their way-in Game Developer's first Top Deck feature, we name the top creatives, money makers, and innovators, highlighting both individual and company achievements. 52 developers, organized by suit, with two jokers to round out the bunch.

Building The Perfect Beast

By Oliver Franzke

In-house tools and editors can present clever solutions for asset handling. However, as projects grow over long development cycles, what was once a handy fix can become a costly burden to maintain. A little planning at the onset of a project can make for tools that are easily extendable over the long-term and offer flexible error reporting with more useful real-time feedback, keeping your game on track and your asset creators happy.