FEATURES

Postmortem: High Voltage's The Conduit

The Conduit represents High Voltage's first major foray into the world of original IP, after years of making licensed product. The lack of an external license to guide their choices and a publisher to keep them on track proved difficult-this postmortem provides good information for any company looking to make that leap.

Middleware Showdown

More and more companies are using middleware to alleviate the pain of rising development costs. But there's not a whole lot of information out there. Our survey shows what developers want from middleware, and which packages are most popular in each field.

Bang! Are You Dead?

Determining damage in online player-versus-player games requires an arbiter, not only to make sure that hits are correctly scored, but also to circumvent cheaters. Sony's Ronald Roy shares some tips.

The Fearful Eye: Cinematic Cameras

Most games don't really aim for cinematic excellence, preferring instead to show as much of the game as possible. But it's possible to do both, as this article proves through a careful dissection of the design considerations involved.

DEPARTMENTS/COLUMNS