Journalism and Marketing and PR on Dave Voyles

$100k worldwide Unity contest

Thu, 22 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Today, Unity and Microsoft announced a new world-wide contest with $100K in prizes to bring Unity games to Windows and Windows Phone. The rules are pretty straight forward, and he contest site is hosted at http://unity3d.com/contest/windows, so feel free to head over and submit your games!

Some books at the top of my list

Sun, 19 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve taken a bit of a break from playing games lately, and instead have been cranking through books. A lot of this seems like “self help” or “empowerment” books, but I’ve chose to keep those silly things off of this list. Instead, I wanted to focus on books that actually offer some sort of practical and useful knowledge. Here’s a few of them, and why I think they would be worth your time:

2013 year in gaming

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t write much about gaming anymore, which is disappointing, but I instead fill my time with development, and an indie development podcast. So this is my one chance to round up my brief, if not disjointed, thoughts on gaming this year.

Here’s a quick list of things I’ve played recently, and most of which in the last week. I had 12 days off from work after Christmas, so I cranked through as many games as I could, considering I didn’t play much earlier in the year. Hell, many of these games weren’t even released this year.

I started a new show – Indie Dev Podcast

Thu, 14 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Twice each month, I interview independent developers in the gaming industry. I felt that there was a niche not being served, in that I wanted the inside scoop behind many of the developers I interact without over the years.

This 30 minute show is a casual conversation between a developer and myself, where he or she illustrates how they got their start, what their current and previous projects are, and some of their favorite tools, languages, and frameworks are.

After 10 months, I've finished Persona 4 — A game you should all experience.

Mon, 26 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000

10 months. 80 hours. That’s how long it took me to play through Persona 4, and with my severe video game ADHD, if I play anything for more than a night, then that’s an accomplishment. Well, it really took a bit more than that, because I earned all 3 endings and died a few times, but we’ll go with the official game time of 8o hours. The last time I put this much time into a game was Dragon Quest VIII on the PS2, and Final Fantasy VII on the PS1.

Console wars of 2013: Who will win big?

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday’s E3 conference was perhaps the most interesting one I’ve seen since 1995’s Sega debacle, where they thrusted the Saturn out of the gate, 6 months ahead of schedule and unbeknownst to developers.

Microsoft came out of the gate with a strong lineup, a solid piece of hardware, and certainly some clarification on their policies which people were understandably curious about. Yesterday evening however, Sony came out swinging, pulling the ole’ rope-a-dope: A tactic where a fighter sits back and takes punches until it’s finally their turn to shine. And that’s exactly what they did.

My book, UnrealScript Game Programming Cookbook has been published!

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

My first book, UnrealScript Game Programming Cookbook has been published by Pakt Publishing today. It covers a variety of topics, from creating your own modular camera system, crafting AI, creating intelligent pathfinding for bots, and manipulating weapons.

A free sample chapter is available as well, which covers creating a modular camera system, from beginning to end.

It’s available in a number of formats, including a physical copy, as well as Kindle and .pdf formats. You can find the book here, or also at Amazon.com here.

My GDC Speech Is On Friday, At 2:30pm, Room 2002

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

**Update:**If you have GDC Vault access you can now watch the video.

GDC has just released the schedules for this year’s show, which is set to go exactly one month from now. My speech for the Indie Games Summer Uprising will be on Friday, at 2:30pm in Room 2002.

Are you headed to GDC this year? Drop me a line and let me know, I’d love to catch up!

I'll be a guest speaker on the Indie's Got PR Talent – A Press Panel at GDC Europe

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

UPDATE: Thanks @BigBossBenGilbert for the photo!

Headed to GDC Europe? Why not come take a gander at the panel I’ve been invited to attend by Deejay of Indie City.

Taken straight from his page:

I’ll be hosting the Indies’ Got PR Talent panel at GDC Europe on Monday 15th August, 12:40pm. I’ll be joined by games press veterans Mike Rose, Christian Nutt and Keith Stuarterr, someone else who’s yet to be officially confirmed (That’s me!).

We’ll be going through various indie press releases, screenshots and videos, highlighting the best and worse examples. All in the format of the [INSERT COUNTRY HERE]’s Got Talent gameshow, which should add extra mirth into the mix. After dissecting each, the panel will be giving their expert opinion on how indie developers can make a better impact with their PR activities.

Off to GDC Europe, and GamesCom

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I’m off to my first GDC Europe and GamescCom event, . I’ll be there from Sunday 8/14 – Sunday 8/21 and staying on the north side of town. If you’re there and would like to say hello, get in touch with me! If you’re an Indie developer, come by this event hosted by GDC at Club Diamonds in Koln on Tuesday evening. I’ll be there to support the Indie Games Summer Uprising.

Interview I did with Ars Technica last week is up now

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Last week I head the pleasure of being interviewed by Andrew Webster of Ars Technica for his piece “We Band of Brothers: Developer-led Xbox Live Indies promotion returns.” In it he describes how the uprising came to be, our future plans, and lessons learned from the previous uprising.

Indie Games Summer Uprising candidates narrowed down to 25 – developers choose 8 next week

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

EDIT: To see a clearer list of the 26 (read below) entries, click here.

The Indie Games Summer Uprising list has been narrowed down from 70+ to just 25 this week. Starting Monday July 11th, developers will have the opportunity to select 8 picks to represent the platform in the Uprising. Voting closes on Sunday July 17th. Developers are to vote on a variety of factors including: Marketability, originality, appearance, entertainment, music, and gameplay. A 5 star rating system will be used, just as XBLIG tittles are rated on Live, and the 8 titles with the highest average score are selected in the promotion. A poll will be e-mailed to all XBLIG developers who have submitted candidates. Winners will be announced the following day, Monday July 18th on the IGSU home page.

The Indie Games Summer Uprising site is up!

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

We’ve finally launched the Indie Games Summer Uprising site! Josh Addison, Nathan Smith, and Chris Brousseau have all done an outstanding job with the web design, art work, and initial launch trailer. You can find more of their work at Blazing Forge Games and Game Production Studios.

In addition to the site, we’ve released the initial launch trailer and press release to a number of outlets.

Be sure to “Like” us on Facebook as well, where you will have the opportunity to vote for two additional titles that you would like to see as part of the uprising. Click through for the press release.

GDC 2011