These are articles I wrote for Digital Artist Management's newsletter. Some of them are good, some could be better. I'll update this as new ones are done.

Indie Developer-focused pieces
An interview with Introversion: Indie devs who made it
An interview with Chris Bateman; designer, award winning writer, design theorist / philosopher and generally good bloke
GDC and the steady rise of Indie gaming
More support for the Garage Developer
Trying to go Homebrew Part 1
Trying to go Homebrew Part 2
A much earlier piece on Indie gaming and homebrew devs. Can you see a pattern yet?

Hollywood and Games
In prep of the Hollywood and Games Summit
Hollywood and Games or Art VS Money?

Other stuff
E3 2006 Pre-show
E3 2006 Post-show
I-Phone: Saviour of Mobile Gaming and the Indie Developer?

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 5:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I would disagree, but hey, everyone's got an opinion right?

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 5:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you're a codemonkey or tech whore in general, this is worthwhile reading for you:
http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story...

And here's Carmack talking about shooters with Wired. I think the Crysis dude is in here too (I skimmed it):
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/games/0,72443-0.html

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Maegawa interviewed about the company's entirely new 2D top down shooter for Xbox 360 (different from Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun, but by the same director and team). Also, check this quote out for a truly admirable attitude I think any creative guy / team would want in their boss:

1UP: That's rather rare to hear in this industry. So, we have to ask, are you content with where Treasure is or do you have bigger aspirations for the future?
MM: Honestly, my vision and the company's vision is to have the team working on games that they enjoy and feel passionate about. That is our sole vision. It's not what I want to do, it's what the team wants to do. As long as we feel like we're making good games and we can stay in business, we're happy.

Full interview here:
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3156213

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And stuff on the XBox Live Arcade version. And a general interview with Koji (IGA) Igarashi.

http://games.kikizo.com/features/koji_igarashi_konami_vidiv.asp

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 7:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Before you is a very frank audio interview with David Jaffe. It be good. He talks about Indiana Jones again. And new games.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/files.neogaf.com/jaffe.mp3

And this is also a great interview, simply because the dude's so fucking honest. And he tells the marketing guy to shut the fuck up. Jaffe wins +100 honour points.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slIAhNwksm0&eurl=

[Update: as an added comedy bonus, Lord Anon of the Anon Dark Forest Warriors has sent me this wonderous note]

Loved that David Jaffe interview you just posted. I looked up that Sony marketing prick to see if there had been any comeback on that interview. Instead I just found some more hilarious bullshit quotes:

"The key message from this campaign, in speaking to the E3 audience, is that the PlayStation brand will continue to push the interactive entertainment boundaries. By positioning traditional activities in extreme scenarios, we metaphorically looked to position the PlayStation brand as being fearless in constantly redefining what it means to play. Our booth experience, with multiple hardware platforms and extensive software portfolio, was then the ultimate pay-off to this campaign idea," he concluded.

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 10:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Enter Chris Bateman. Knows his onions, uses his balls to make a difference AND a nice fella to boot. Mine hat be tipped.
http://www.damagents.com/newsletter/enews37.html

Also, his blog is most excellent thoughtful reading for designers aspiring and professional:
http://onlyagame.typepad.com/only_a_game/

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 9:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pretty good stuff. Spore's on track for 2007 and unlike Wright's other stuff, it appears to have an 'end' of sorts.

http://ncroal.talk.newsweek.com/default.asp?item=364178

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 9:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had no idea he was originally pegged to lead Beverly Hills Cop. This is really a rather good interview.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/30865

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 8:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Your mother was a hamster and your father smells of elderberries.

http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3155613

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 4:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

He talks Pan's Labyrinth, the Cthulu project and Hellboy 2.
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/commentary/0_,00.html

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 12:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With the 1up boys. Ain't listened to it yet, but they're usually pretty solid at this sort of thing. The talk is with Bungie's Frank 'Stinkles' O'Connor and Brian Jarrard:
http://zdmedia.vo.llnwd.net/o1/Podcasts/Halo3/112106.mp3

And another interview here about how Bungie's improving their Match Making features for Halo 3:
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3155452

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 10:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

He looks terribly miserable in the photo they used for it. This is hard to understand because his game is rather lovely indeed.
http://games.kikizo.com/features/gearsofwar_videointerview.asp

A 1up video feature on Epic's studio:
http://media.1up.com/flat/News/Videos/3155270_broad.html

And another interview:
http://computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=148692

And one with Epic's Presidente, Mike Capps:
http://computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=148708

Meanwhile, here's CVG's John Houlihan playing the game in the IMAX in Waterloo. Lucky bar steward.
http://computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=149354

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 10:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For the first time ever.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/sa...y_speaks

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 7:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nothing more needs to be said. Today is day of great interviews. That, and I wrote too much in the Lanning one and need to make the page look a bit less serious.

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news06/tenacious.php

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A great interview. Some very thoughtful ideas discussed, most of which we won't see tackled for a while in great numbers as this industry is in sore lack of testicular fortitude, but I'd have to disagree with the last statement.

I think he missed the excellent Chronicles of Riddick game as per his point on how people look at IPs and gaming's relationship to them. Though it's probably the only argument I can think of, bar Stranglehold which is not quite the same, but is still somewhat relevant.

The reality is, people in the movie biz look at games as merchandising as extending the FILM I.P. What they need to look at is creating / extending an I.P PERIOD and developing it to suit each medium. Production Companies and finacners need to become IP Companies or facilitate IP creation, not film creation and IP exploitation.

Currently, they only focus on the movie and so once that's greenlit, everything tends to follow its dev timeline which is why you get shitty / short dev timeline games rushed out to HELP SELL FILMS. Quality only has to be passable sadly to sell to the movie fan, though luckily, that's changing. Problem is, marketing people are making these sorts of decisions and don't understand creativity very well, otherwise they'd know this and would've acted on it more aggressively by now.

Annoyingly, Paul W.S Anderson is doing this with a new I.P, as per his announcement at Hollywood and Games in June, so if he's first out the gate and his execution sucks like previous movies of his, it could ruin it for the rest of us.

Anyway - enough of my rant. Here's my favourite point from the whole thing, relating to how games execs look outside the games industry... to find talent to sell the products to the games industry and those who are fans of its produce.

"If you have to wear a suit to be taken serious at a job interview, you wear a suit. If we have to be a film director to be taken seriously as a story-teller, then we'll make the transition. Because if we can then we'll make better games. Except we won't be sweating about the games the same way as we used to be as a third-party developer under a third-party agreement."

My take on it? Pubs need to start putting credits (seniors at least) on the box like movie posters. Don't wait ten years till a guy's starting to get recognised by the industry to slap his or her name on there. Talent SELLS. Start pimping it early when its unknown and it'll pay off in the longrun. You greedy brand-worshipping shits.

PART 1 >>>
PART 2 >>>

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 4:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And it's a video interview. Well worth a watch.

http://games.kikizo.com/features/finalfantasyxii_videointerview.asp

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some hyperbole / lie sniffs here and there, but overall, informative enough to be worthy.

http://threespeech.com/blog/2006/10/31/phil-...ble-games/

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 4:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Big up the Gamasutra. Some really good questions and Molyneux is becoming more and more of a good interviewee. If the site asks for registration to read, it's worth it.

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20061031/carless_01.shtml

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Decent enough interview. Nothing you don't already know but at least we know Rubin's trying the comic > game > film development model with his Iron and the Maiden game:
http://www.gametrailers.com/bonusround.php

And here's the first media on Iron and the Maiden:
http://www.myspace.com/ironandthemaiden

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Worthy of your time if you were entertained by the likes of Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive or DOA Volleyball...

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3154580

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 8:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In Japanese. Not very useful unless you speak it, but here it is anyway:

HIDECHAN RADIO >>>

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 7:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

He gives people credit as it should be given, he made cheesy horror flicks before doing super big-budget stuff that was respectable to the source material and now he wants to make an episode in the Halo game series. Peter Jackson is fast becoming one of the most honourable creatives in the film biz. At least from my perspective, which is limited to what the media chooses to feed me that day.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=68186

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 5:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An MMO he's working on. I wonder if he's aware of the toilet humour connotations of the game's name?

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060918/wen_01.shtml

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And a little one some other stuff. Pretty good interview. The guy knows his onions.*

http://computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=145846

*and pies, and gravy... sorry

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 6:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Probably the only show that doesn't make machinma sound/look/appear/whatever lame.

http://computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=145379

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reminds me of Philip Bayer - a Wing Chun instructor with one hand, but insane skill.

http://www.badtaste.it/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3783

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 8:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Again, 1up delivers a solid kick to the chin of other sites, with this exceptionally awesome feature on my game of E3 2005. If you're a fan of Zelda and only own a PS2, you simply need this game:

http://okami.1up.com/

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 6:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It good. I type fast as laptop battery running out and power adapter be missing.

http://spong.com/feature/10109411

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 6:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

He's basically going to do with 300 what Rodriguez did with Sin City and use the comic as the storyboard and the in-comic text as the script.

http://superherohype.com/news/300news.php?id=4610

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

100 Blu Ray titles available? Hmmm...

Keep spinning those chins... >>>

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 8:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I would define this, a must-read:

http://spong.com/feature/10109407?cb=14

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 4:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Taken from the movie's blog. Hopefully they'll put the full teaser they aired on it soon. You get to see Venom for the first time too.
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/spiderman3/blog/

And here's a new interview with Thomas Haden Chruch on his role as Sandman:
http://superherohype.com/news/featuresnews.php?id=4599

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gunpey and Lumines on various machines. No Rez 2. Other sites take note; this is how features on game dev studios are supposed to be made.

http://q.1up.com/

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This was truly a mind-bending talk. Much as people call Chopra a shiester, there's no question he raised some very interesting and thought provoking points and theories. Well worth a watch if you're into creative development of ideas, characters, stories and other such, in any medium.
This is about an hour and a half long >>>
Bigger video >>>

And here's some fanboys ripping into the event on a net forum:
http://www.barbelith.com/topic/25247

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 11:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A fine, if sadly brief video discussion with two respectable creative gents from the world of film.

http://www.myspace.com/moobysclerks2

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 4:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think Kikizo called it when they said Demitri - or the concept Molyneux expressed about it being something where you would live your life - is in part, Fable 2.

From what it sounds like, you can actually put yourself in the game, to the point where you design your character's goals by describing yourself, your life and your background, then play out how you would play out your life in a magical, medieval setting. If that's what it is, then I'm impressed. Otherwise, I loved the first one anyway, so I'm sure I'll get hold of it regardless.

Part 2 >>>

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 9:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thank the heavens for men who speak their minds against the corrupt fuckers up top. This is the guy who directed A Scanner Darkly, which means I'll be watching it at least three times, so he gets more money.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2006/120..v.htm

And here's the audio version:
http://prisonplanet.tv/audio/110706linklater.mp3

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 11:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hasan Ali Almaci AKA the infamous Fishie is to be thanked for sending across the link to this fascinating interview with Tom Kalinske, rammed with insight and stories.
http://www.sega-16.com/Interview-%20Tom%20Kalinske.htm

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Taken from a documentary called If I Trust You to Kill Me. Or something along those lines...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIRff7MEsCw

And here is Keifer Sutherland, interviewed at Inside The Actors Studio:
Part 1 >>>
Part deux >>>
Part trois >>>

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 3:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's one of his E3 interviews:
http://games.kikizo.com/features/itagaki_interview_jul06_p1.asp

He wants you to enjoy playing with the girls.
http://1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3150712

And anyone remember this?
THE BAD QUESTION INTERVIEW >>>

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And how his and Tim Burton's comical fued started:
Script experiences with the Superman film (funny!) >>>

And the Tim Burton thing:
"FUCK Kevin Smith" >>>
And another interview on the same subject >>>

More Kev Smith greatness, here:
A Youtube Search with a lot of good clips >>>

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 4:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gaming's most well known clever person lets nuggets of genius fall out of his mouth.

Will talking game marketing >>>

And here he is at some thing talking with Brian Eno >>>

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 11:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

He's been quiet for a while. Can't wait to see his episodic game on Steam. Though I'll have to get a PC again.

PART 1 >>>
PART 2 >>>

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I fucking *love* that site. The interview page is safe for work, but most other pages on the site are not.

http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/Paul+Oakenfold/

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 6:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

His love of drinking is inspirational. His tan is also blinding.
NAGOSHI INTERIEW AT KIKIZO >>>

And Michael Madsen, Mark Hamill and Michael Rosenbaum will be voice thesps in the Western versions of the game:
http://games.kikizo.com/news/200606/102.asp?f=102.asp

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A truly funny, funny guy. Well worth watching.

Part 1
Part 2 (using the voice of Peter Griffin)
Part 3 (using Stewie's voice)
Part 4 (Quagmire!!!)

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 9:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Also, Stefan - the interviewer - finds him sexy.
http://news.spong.com/article/10212

And another, far more lengthy interview can be found here:
http://gameinformer.com/News/Story/200606/N06.0615.1711.20306.htm

Posted by Emperor Boutros of Daniel at 5:31 AM |