Industry Insights

A trove of in-depth design, technical and inspirational talks and slides from the influencers of the game development industry, taken from over 20 years of the worldwide Game Developers Conferences.

The Penny Arcade Expo is a series of gaming conventions held in the United States &Australia dedicated to mainstreaming game franchises, gaming culture and independent game development. Founded by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, authors of the popular web comic Penny Arcade, each conference is a show dedicated to supporting and celebrating video and tabletop gaming.

A conference sponsored by private companies and featuring industry speakers. Topics seem to mostly focus on commercial uses of “serious play,” but the conference’s chief organizer, Clark Aldrich, is known for his publications on serious games and simulations for e-learning.

Gamescom is used by many video game developers to exhibit upcoming games and game-related hardware, and is the largest gaming event in the world.

Inside the Video Game Industry offers a provocative look into one of today's most dynamic and creative businesses. Through in-depth structured interviews, industry professionals discuss their roles, providing invaluable insight into game programming, art, animation, design, production, quality assurance, audio and business professions.

We Deserve Better Villains is a highly accessible how-to guide for video game designers no matter what level of experience to understand what is needed to be successful in the development cycle of any video game from concept to supporting the game live. Each chapter outlines a period in a video games development cycle, what key concepts need to be on a designers mind and how they can work to improve themselves every step of the way.

The Video Games Textbook takes the history of video games to the next level. Coverage includes every major video game console, handheld system, and game-changing personal computer, as well as a look at the business, technology, and people behind the games. Chapters feature objectives and key terms, illustrative timelines, color images, and graphs in addition to the technical specifications and key titles for each platform.

This book presents a nuanced picture of how the vast majority of videogame-makers work -- a picture that reveals the diverse and precarious communities, identities, and approaches that make videogame production a significant cultural practice. Drawing on insights provided by over 400 game developers across Australia, North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia, Brendan Keogh develops a new framework for understanding videogame production as a cultural field in all its complexity.

This book presents a study of so-called indie video game developers that are widely regarded as the creative and innovative fringe of the video game industry. The video game industry is an exemplary entrepreneurial high growth industry that combines digital media, cinematographic representations and interactive gaming technologies, and uses global digital distribution channels to reach local gaming communities. The study examines a number of issues, concerns, challenges, and opportunities that indie developers are handling as part of their development work.