This time, I’m starting an article with a noise. I’d like to have been able to say that the noise was a sonorous fanfare or roaring drum roll. As a result, it’s somewhat disappointing when I inform you that I’ve chosen to start this article with a “pfutt”. And not the pfutt of triumph, like a miniature steam engine being tested or a helicopter rotor starting up. No, the pfutt I want to you to [...]

The approaching week heralds the start of the annual Game Developers Conference over in San Francisco. As the name suggests, it’s more of a developer shindig than a marketing exercise, but you generally tend to get a bucket of announcements before, during and after the event that tend to mix things up a little. However, instead of just pulling through what’s going on during the week and what’s in the announcement pipeline, I thought I’d [...]

It’s sometimes remarked that videogames are the most complex form of entertainment available. Some have been known to cost more to produce that a big Hollywood blockbuster movie, while others have managed to languish in development hell. But as the technology involved in videogame production begins to plateau (the next generation of consoles is estimated to launch in 2012), what methods do developers have to ensure their games manage to capture the attention of the [...]

Right when the market seems to be saturated with “me too” fantasy MMO titles, another one emerges from the developmental primordial soup and starts gathering momentum. This time it’s the turn of Aion: The Tower of Eternity to emerge into the dual headbeams that are the MMO-playing population’s insatiable appetite for new content. But since we’ve had Lord of the Rings Online fail to gain a significant handhold on the cliff face of market share, [...]

Videogames throughout the years have set a challenge for those that play them. Whether it’s through a series of puzzles that get more ingenious and complex as the game advances, or through an increasingly concept sequence of moves that you guide a character through, it’s become an agreed mechanic that a game becomes more difficult as it progresses. The way a game becomes increasingly difficult, or the difficulty curve, is one of the key tools [...]