There is a certain inexplicable sense of achievement and joy that comes with seeing your articles published somewhere, be it a website, magazine or book. This feeling is only amplified if this involved articles that, due to unforeseen circumstances, risked never being published in their original form or by the original outlet they were made for. Having the chance to still save those pieces and see the people involved in them receive the attention they deserve, is heart warming.

CRITICALGAMER.CO.UK
——————-
– July 20th, 2011. ‘KBA Voice Productions’ Khris Brown on twenty years of voice casting for LucasArts, and beyond’
– July 12th, 2011. ‘Kenn Hoekstra on Raven Software, leaving the three year death march and setting up Category 6′
– July 11th, 2011. ‘Interview: Cory Doctorow on the game industry’
– June 30th, 2010. ‘Shogun 2 Total War – Trimming a ten year old bonsai tree.’
GAMER.NL (Dutch)

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– July 6th, 2011. ‘Redlynx: ‘We maken games waar we zelf in geloven’
– June 30th, 2011. ‘The Darkness II: ‘Besturing demonische armen nu intuïtief’
– June 28th, 2011. ‘Digital Extremes: ‘Star Trek-game wordt een buddy-movie’

With other distractions having grabbed my attention recently, it might be a better idea to present a quarterly wrap-up this time.

GAMER.NL (Dutch)
——–
June 22nd, 2011. ‘Binary Domain: een schietgrage versie van Yakuza‘
June 18th, 2011. ‘In gesprek met SEGA en Platinum Games over Anarchy Reigns‘

BASHERS.NL (Dutch)
———-
June 23rd, 2011. ‘SOCOM 4: Special Forces – Zonder Navy Seals, maar wel met pit‘
June 15h, 2011. ‘XCOM gaat toch voor vijanden in menselijke vorm, gameplay lijkt nu erg bekend‘
June 8th, 2011. ‘The Darkness 2 wordt ‘nog grafischer’’
June 8th, 2011. ‘Dead Island onderscheidt zich met RPG-elementen, open wereld en melee‘
June 8th, 2011. ‘Skyrim is Fallout 3 met zwaarden en draken‘
May 25th, 2011. ‘De indiegames op Nordic‘
May 12th, 2011. ‘Nordic scoop: Prince of Persia-bedenker toont zijn allereerste game‘
May 18th, 2011. ‘Festival of Games: Gesprek met Patrick Liu van DICE over zijn carrière als producer‘
May 9th, 2011. ‘Festival of Games: In gesprek met Jeroen Elfferich, pionier in interactieve tv‘
May 3rd, 2011. ‘Festival of Games: In gesprek met Leisure Suit Larry-maker Al Lowe‘

I was invited to speak about this and four other topics at the Kajaani University of Applied Sciences in Finland. This lecture explains the importance of attending conferences and the best way to get to them. The topics covered in part 1 are:
1.40 Game conferences
2.00 How to get to conferences
6.30 My own story
9.30 Volunteer
10.10 Cover an event as press
11.15 Bluff it till you make it
12.00 Preparing for a game conference
12.10 Step 1: Organize getting a hostel with friends and peers
13.15 Step 2: The basics
16.00 Step 3: Don’t go camping
16.30 Step 4: Do your research
18.10 Step 5: Network (randomly)

You can find part 2 over here.

I was invited to speak about this and four other topics at the Kajaani University of Applied Sciences in Finland. This lecture explains how you should understand game journalists as people and treat the importance having the game press write about their products. The topics covered in part 1 are:

1.45 Quick recap: How press Works
2.30 Who are these people?
3.30 Similarities between press
6.40 Brand Boyer’s GDC 2010 rant
7.45 When things go wrong in game journalism
9.45 The unwritten rule of game journalism
10.30 Why you should know this stuff
12.00 Know your real enemy, the big publishers
14.30 Don’t use their tricks
15.45 What happens behind closed doors
17.00 Wake up and smell the coffee

You can find part 2 over here.

I was invited to speak about this and four other topics at the Kajaani University of Applied Sciences in Finland. This first lecture explains to the students how they should understand and treat the importance of pr & marketing in the creation of their games in order to one day turn them into products. The topics covered in part 1 are:

2.00 Traditional game marketing
2.45 Marketing basics
3.15 Why you need marketing
3.45 Why you need need it even more
4.00 Why you need it forever
4.40 The obvious chores
5.30 What you can do right away in four easy steps
6.00 Step 1: PR ≠ Marketing
9.00 Step 2: Create Assets
10.15 Step 3: Join (and participate in) Communities
11.00 Step 4: Understand how press works
13.45 Why you don’t need marketing
14.30 Some handy tricks
14.45 #1 Use SEO and be unique
17.15 #2 Don’t forget social media

You can find part 2 over here.

I’ll be at the Kajaani university’s Kajak game development lab program this week, lecturing about various subjects including game marketing, game journalism, conferences & networking, (self)publishing and staying true to your own beliefs.

The next couple of weeks are going to be all about diving back into my journalistic activities. I’ll covering and doing interviews at both the NLGD Festival of Games in Utrecht, The Netherlands and the Nordic Game Conference in Malmö, Sweden.

Hope to see you all there!

While still freelancing for multiple outlets including Gamesauce.org, I’m happy to announce my first official (side)step into game development that does not include an internship or a 48 hour game jam. As of a couple of weeks, I’ve joined game developers Veli Vainlio and Ilkka Lein in their efforts to build the cute mass-runner Snobli Run into a succesful game on the iOS platform. You can follow our progress on Facebook, Twitter or just have a look at our development blog.

So it’s official, I’ve given up my position as European Editor for Gamesauce.org.

Though I’ve very much enjoyed working with the Gamesauce staff and growing the online portal for the past 8 months, it’s time to move on and find a new challenge. No worries if you’ve just been interviewed by me and expect something to be published soon, I will still be writing for Gamesauce on a freelance basis for the time being!

Even though writing about the industry was a great learning experience, I’ve realized that I need to pursue my desire to get involved in the production and business behind games. I’m not really sure what kind of direction I will end up pursuing, but I already know that it will involve finding an entry level job that let’s me learn the ropes from the start, allow me to work my way up and hopefully offer me the following opportunities:

1. Having to work with a team of talented people I can learn from.

2. My efforts must result in the sales (or at least promotion) of high quality game titles.

3. Become involved in the intricacies of the game development, both in the sides of business and production.

January required a lot of prepartions to be made for both Casual Connect Europe and GDC two weeks later. Little time was left for anything else.

January 27th, 2011. ‘Studio profile: Nikitova LCC in Kyiv‘
January 19th, 2011. ‘Studio Spotlight: Codeglue in Rotterdam’
January 5th, 2011. ‘Gazillion’s Stuart Moulder on being a product person, loving casual and what two decades of expertise can get you’

And here I was thinking November was a slow month for content! Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2011 to all. Here’s what got finished in December:

Gamesauce

December 31st, 2010. ‘Easy Studios’ Ben Cousins on Avoiding Disasters, Building a Career in Games, the Sacrifices for Control and the Benefit of Being First (part 2)‘

December 29th, 2010. ‘Redlynx’s Antti Ilvessuo on their Multi-platform Background, Tuning to Perfection, Staying Indie and the Future of Digital‘

December 13th, 2010. ‘Gearbox’s Steve Gibson on the catharsis of Borderlands and promoting a legend‘

December 9th, 2010. ‘Easy studios’ Ben Cousins on pioneering free-to-play at EA, his career in digital and how to be the best producer you can possibly be (part 1)‘

December 3rd, 2010. ‘Uvula’s Keita Takahashi on looking beyond videogames, making sacrifices and convincing developers to look beyond platforms‘

Well this sure wasn’t my favorite month of the year. Not only did someone break into my home, but I also had the least time to actually write articles. More responsibilities repeatedly change one’s work, so that’s life for you. Here’s what I did get published:

Gamesauce

November 15th, 2010. ‘Meet the press: Ukraine’s Alexander Ptitsa’
November 12th, 2010.  ‘Studio Spotlight: GSC Game World in Kyiv’
November 10th, 2010.  ‘Nevosoft’s Julia Lebedeva on creative PR, reviewing games and developers from Mars.’
November 9th, 2010.  ’Playfish’s Jeferson Valadares on teams as business units, social game evolution and managing the company’s culture.’
November 5th, 2010. ’Studio Spotlight: Vogster Entertainment in Kyiv’
November 2nd, 2010. ‘THQ Digital UK’s Don Whiteford on big studios going from retail to digital, borrowing brands, and making publishers see money in digital downloadable.’
November 1st, 2010. ’Studio Spotlight: Frogwares in Kyiv‘.

Spending almost half of the month in Kyiv didn’t really help me write more articles. But wow, what an amazing city! I decided to head over there a couple of days early before having to cover Casual Connect Kyiv, only to end up visiting about 7 local game companies in the process. I’m impressed by what I saw. Eastern Europe has some great potential if it comes to making games. You’ll be able to read all about it on Gamesauce.org very soon! In the meanwhile, you can check these out:

Gamesauce

October 19th, 2010.’Bethesda’s Pete Hines on his PR philosophies, finding the right people and how sincerity sells’.
October 14th, 2010. ‘Animation Arts’ Marco Zeugner on making adventure games, the smartness of small and conquering the German adventure market‘.
October 11th, 2010. ‘Relic Entertainment’s Quinn Duffy and Raphael van Lierop on going from RTS to shooters in the Warhammer 40K Universe’.
October 5th, 2010. ‘A chat with Stunlock Studios’ Tau Petersson on starting a studio fresh out of college, getting a publishing deal with Funcom and becoming a professional game developer overnight’.
October 1st, 2010. ‘A chat with Krome Studios’ Steve Stamatiadis on pitching comic books, creating Blade Kitten and going downloadable’.

Bashers.nl (in Dutch)

October 15th, 2010. ‘Thatgamecompany’s Robin Hunicke over Journey en haar werk als producer’.

Suddently becoming a full-time professional game journalist came as quite the surprise! Working from home, building up the required discipline and structure was tough, but I think I finally got the hang of it. Now that Gamesauce.org is finally online in all its glory, I can finally publish the articles that I’ve worked on since GDC Europe and gamescom Cologne!

Gamesauce

September 29th, 2010.’Irrational Games’ Shawn Robertson on breaking out of Rapture’.
September 28th, 2010.’PopCap’s Jason Kapalka on the state of social games, Zuma Blitz and the future of downloadable games’.
September 22nd, 2010.’Ubisoft Paris’ Antoine Henry on reinventing Rabbids, working with an extra year and designing for more replayability’.
September 8th, 2010. ‘Inxile Entertainment’s Matt Findley on Hunted: The Demon’s Forge and taking the next step in co-op games’.
September 8th, 2010. ‘Obsidian’s Josh Sawyer on Fallout: New Vegas, the Van Buren legacy and learning from mods’.
September 7th, 2010. ‘Thatgamecompany’s Robin Hunicke on working with feeling, Journey and how to be a great producer’
September 7th, 2010. ‘IGG’s Kevin Xu on challenging the Chinese game market’.
September 7th, 2010. ‘Bruce Shelley’s Five Rules/Steps for a Game Design’s First Draft’.
September 7th, 2010. ‘Louis Castle on how to reinvent yourself in a dynamic market’.
September 7th, 2010. ‘Size matters with client-based games’.
September 6th, 2010. ‘How far were they prepared to go to make Heavy Rain?’
September 6th, 2010. ‘Staying on top in the Chinese game market, the Tencent way’.
September 6th, 2010. ‘Playfish’s Jeferson Valadares on Intuition vs. Metrics’.
September 3rd, 2010. ‘Warren Spector warns for marginalization’.
August 25th, 2010. ‘Achieving critical success in game production’.