Game Developer (magazine)

Game Developer

June–July 2013 cover
Editor	Patrick Miller
Categories	Video game industry
Frequency	Monthly
First issue	March 1994; 30 years ago (1994-03)
Final issue Number	June/July 2013 (2013-07)[1] Vol 20 No 06
Company	UBM Tech
Country	USA
Based in	San Francisco
Language	English
Website	gdmag.com
ISSN	1073-922X

Game Developer was a magazine for video game creators, originally started in March 1994 by Miller Freeman, Inc^[2] as quarterly, later bimonthly, and finally monthly.^[3] In each issue, industry leaders and experts shared technical solutions, reviewed new game development tools, and discussed strategies for creating innovative, successful video games. Monthly postmortems dissected the industry's leading games, from AAA console to social and mobile games and beyond, and columns gave insight into deeper development practices from across all disciplines, from design, to programming, to art, to business, and audio. It was closed in 2013 as part of a restructuring at parent company UBM Tech (part of UBM plc) that included the closing of all print publications owned by that company.^[4]

Contents

The magazine contained articles on professional game development topics relating to game programming, art, audio, quality control, design, and production. Monthly columns from industry veterans offered in depth discussion on a variety of topics. It had articles by notable video game industry figures and reviews on game development related books, tools, and software packages. The back page "Soapbox" was also a popular feature but moved to sister site to Gamasutra circa 2004. It was replaced by a splash art page called "Thousand Words" and then replaced again with a regular column "Arrested Development".

Game Developer's most popular feature was probably its monthly "Postmortem" column which discusses the recent development of a video game with the top five each of "What Went Right" and "What Went Wrong". It provided a frank, first-hand account of the lessons learned in the development process. The first Postmortem was featured in October 1997 and written by Andre Vrignaud on Dark Sun Online.

Starting in 1998, Game Developer recognized exceptional game development tools with their "Front Line Awards" which were given annually. Winners included software (such as Photoshop and VTune), game engines (Unreal Engine), middleware (Havok physics), hardware (GeForce 3), and books (Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice).^[5]

Gamasutra, the sister publication web site of Game Developer, acts as an online resource for game developers, as well as a job posting board for employment in the game development field. It was not part of the closure that resulted in Game Developer's cessation and continued some features from the magazine.^[4] Gamasutra rebranded itself to Game Developer on August 26, 2021.^[6]

See also

• Video game publisher
• Game programmer
• Game designer
• Game producer

References

1. Brendan Sinclair (9 April 2013). "Game Developer magazine ceasing publication". Games Industry. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
2. "Game Developer Premier 1994". Game Developer Magazine. Miller Freeman, Inc.: 2. 1994. ISSN 1073-922X.
3. "GDC Vault". www.gdcvault.com. UBM Tech. Retrieved 2018-12-24.
4. "Game Developer magazine shuttering, Gamasutra evolving". Polygon. April 9, 2013.
5. "Game Developer Reveals 2009 Front Line Awards Winners, Bink To Hall Of Fame". IGN. January 8, 2010.
6. Graft, Kris (August 23, 2021). "Gamasutra is becoming Game Developer". Gamasutra. Retrieved August 23, 2021.

External links

• Game Developer Magazine official site
• Archive of all issues at GDC Vault
• Front Line Awards official site Archived 2013-06-02 at the Wayback Machine