Tomonobu Itagaki spent the better part of two decades at Tecmo and Team Ninja, where his major projects included developing the Dead or Alive fighting game series and making sure you knew the competition (Tekken in particular) wasn't any good. He left the developer several years ago and is now working on action game Devil's Third at Valhalla Game Studios. In other words, he's no longer in the fighting game business and therefore no longer trash talks the competition -- and it's exactly that which Tekken boss Katsuhiro Harada misses.

I’m a big fan of your work and reader of your blog. You probably don’t remember me but I briefly met you at GDC Online last year. I was looking for Dr. Richard Bartle, who I did find and conducted an interview with.
A few months ago I released the interview on my Youtube Partner account but forgot to mention to you that I had done so. I thought you might be interested in it.

I’m starting to realize that most of my blog posts begin with me making excuses about something as well as linking to somebody else’s post or article. Spoiler alert, today will be no different. The excuse is that this post is not my follow-up to my last one about my initial adventures with off-screen particles, due to a lack of time to work on it while moving into a new place and also some disappointing results with mixed resolution rendering. So what I’m talking about instead is my experiences with interviewing for programming intern positions throughout this past Spring. A while back, Jaymin did a great post about programming tests and demos, but I feel like I might have some insights for aspiring entry-level game developers.

In her new book, Reality Is Broken, Jane McGonigal argues that the rules, rewards and feedback offered by modern videogames can be used to make the world a happier and more productive place. We sit down with her to learn more.

With exclusive access to Minecraft creators Mojang, I spent a day with Markus ‘Notch’ Persson and his team in their Stockholm offices, from the first meeting of the morning to the Friday afternoon’s booze and gaming relaxation. With kebab in between. Notch talks to us about how he came to be in the position he’s now in, his intentions for Minecraft and Scrolls, and the philosophy behind his game development. I also speak to his colleagues Jakob Porser and Carl Manneh, find out how the team deals with player feedback, their passion for transparency, and Notch’s plans for games after he’s completed Minecraft.

The only strange thing about this talking wolf is the high quality of its conversation. “I could shoot you, you know,” I threaten the wolf, having already established that my daughter might still be alive inside its belly. That wasn’t picked from a dialogue menu; I typed it in. Without missing a beat, the wolf responds, “I’m afraid you’ll have to.” Sentient characters and interactive dialogue have been common this entire play session. Impressed? The game’s responses are driven by game designer Jason Rohrer.