Are games art?
January 9th, 2009
The Debate Roger Ebert largely reignited the debate over whether games are art back in a 2005 column, when he claimed that not only are games not art, but they can never be art: "the nature of the medium prevents it from moving beyond craftsmanship to the stature of art." In a later article he retreated a little to say ...
Indie Friendly Online Distributors
January 7th, 2009
As a small indie developer, we don't have the resources to make a bunch of CDs and boxes for Overgrowth. The good news is that physical retailers are out and online distribution is in. This Penny Arcade strip from 2007 is pretty telling. It's 2009 and online distribution is bigger than ever. After our big news with Steam ...
Multiplayer News
January 7th, 2009
Hi everyone, I'm Henry. Although this is a very late introduction, I've actually been working with Wolfire since 2005. You might know me from the Windows port of Black Shades, and from the earlier multiplayer Lugaru 2 post from 2006's version. I've avoided writing one of these for so long because I split my time between ...
Overgrowth Alpha 8
January 6th, 2009
Has it been a week already? That means it's time for a new build of Overgrowth. If you're just tuning in, we are doing something a little unusual with our development on our upcoming independent video game. Every week, we release our latest build, however raw it may be, to fans in our secret preorder forum. New this ...
Pen and paper: next-gen design tools
January 5th, 2009
When designing algorithms for 3D rendering, it's often tricky for me to visualize what I'm doing. I find that if I stop for a few seconds and sketch the idea out using pen and paper, it helps understand how it all fits together. There are all sorts of computer programs that let you make charts and outlines really ...
Free Lugaru Postmortem
January 4th, 2009
A few weeks ago, we tried something new. We gave Lugaru away 100% for free in a holiday promotion. It was only covered by a few big sites, the largest two being the awesome TIGSource and IndieGames Blog. Initially we were disappointed by the lack of coverage but this quickly disappeared as it was passed around the internet like crazy ...
Aquaria design tour
January 2nd, 2009
The last post had many design tour requests, so I picked one of the most popular for this week. Sorry it took so long; it's a long game! This is the fourth design tour, and it is about Aquaria by Bit Blot. Be sure to click here to watch it in HD! Press the triangle button for captions (download ...