Pictured: May 2007 cover |
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| Editor In Chief | Brandon Sheffield |
|---|---|
| Categories | Video games magazine |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| First issue | March 1994 |
| Company | UBM TechWeb |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Website | gdmag.com |
Game Developer magazine is the premier publication for working (and aspiring) video game creators, and reaches over 35,000 industry professionals monthly. Each month, industry leaders and experts share technical solutions, review new game development tools, and discuss strategies for creating innovative, successful video games. Monthly postmortems dissect the industry’s leading games, from AAA console to social and mobile games and beyond, and columns give insight into deeper development practices from across all disciplines, from design, to programming, to art, to business, and audio.
The magazine contains articles on professional game development topics relating to programming, art, audio, quality control, design, and production. Monthly columns from industry veterans offer in depth discussion on a variety of topics. It has articles by notable game industry figures and reviews on game development related books, tools, and software packages. The back page "Soapbox" was also a popular feature, which 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 is 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 provides 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.
Game Developer has been recognizing exceptional game development tools with their "Front Line Awards" annually since 1998. Past winners include software (such as Photoshop and VTune), game engines (Unreal engine), hardware (GeForce 3), and books (Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice).
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.