[In this analysis, attorney Mona Ibrahim examines how DigiPen and other game schools manage student-created IPs -- and why these institutions need to change their policies to ensure that students are given due credit for their work.]

In academia, students traditionally retain intellectual property rights in their term papers, artwork, screenplays, and other creative works. An unsettling trend has developed, however, in those institutions that exclusively offer game development and game design programs.

These programs, such as those offered by DigiPen and similar schools, force students to assign to the institution all rights, titles, and interests in games created during the program.

For many students, the bitter realization that they will not own their work if they attend the program is a difficult pill to swallow. On the one hand, they want to attend one of the most highly regarded and accredited game design/development schools in the country. On the other, they want attribution and compensation for their work.

Why Institutions want Ownership

The institutions themselves believe they have the best interest of their students at heart. Claude Comair, President of DigiPen, has previously asserted that DigiPen?s Intellectual Property policy is for the students? own good.

According to Mr. Comair, the institution is ill-equipped to determine who contributes to the hundreds of games developed through the school?s various programs. If students retain their IP, this could easily lead to legal disputes concerning credit and ownership down the road when those games obtain critical acclaim. If the institution retains ownership of the game this is no longer a problem; DigiPen does not and likely never will commercially exploit its students? works.

The fact that DigiPen has a policy of not competing with the games industry and refuses to release any of the games produced within their program is a sure sign that this isn?t greed talking. It?s a matter of control. DigiPen?s first priority is job placement in the industry for its students. For the most part, its IP policy is a parallel to what most students will face in the real world.

There are additional factors indicating that this policy makes sense. In some cases it enables students to create things they otherwise couldn?t produce on their own. According to the USC/SCA (School of Cinematic Arts) Intellectual Property Policy, USC/SCA owns the "Student-Produced Works" that are produced with SCA funds, equipment, guild agreements and insurance.

This is without question in the students' best interest. Securing guild agreements and insurance is an expensive and tedious process that many students are ill-equipped to handle. As these contracts are made with the institution, the institution must necessarily own the completed work. However, students retain rights to the ?underlying script, idea, treatment, concept or other written work product related to any such audiovisual work.? Thus students are free to do whatever they want with their idea independently.

Similarly, DigiPen provides the software licenses and equipment needed to produce games within their program. It may therefore share a similar justification as the one presented by USC/SCA. In this case, the reasoning is two-fold: The commercial licenses for the programs and tools used to develop these games are expensive and prohibitive. Students may not be able to secure the commercial licenses they need to make the game they want. However, schools like DigiPen rely on non-commercial and student versions of these licenses.

Not only does this prohibit games using these licenses from commercial exploitation, but as these licenses are in the school?s name, the licensors may require that the school ?own? the game. It becomes a balancing act between giving students creative ownership and giving students the tools they need to become effective game developers. And while DigiPen does not permit students to retain rights in their underlying script, idea, treatment, etc., this hasn?t stopped students from reproducing future games that rely on the same game mechanics.

Finding a Balance

So are these institutions in the right? Is DigiPen merely protecting its students by asserting its rightful stake in the project? Perhaps, but it?s taken it to a fascist dimension and is, for the most part, avoidable. As mentioned above, IP policies like the one presented by USC permit students to retain ownership in the underlying work. If a dispute arises concerning future uses of the underlying rights, those disputes will naturally arise in the future and without USC?s involvement.

This is one solution DigiPen and similar game schools could and should consider when examining its own IP policies. Even if the institution itself does not want to compete with the games industry, it has no right to prohibit its alumni from competing once they?ve completed (or quit) the program.

There are other solutions that could give students 100% ownership as they work through the school?s program, should these schools choose to embrace the policies frequently adopted by the rest of Academia:

1. IP Education. Providing students with an understanding of intellectual property rights generally and infringement specifically will hopefully prevent future foibles. Game development programs should provide at least one mandatory legal/IP course. This could be a semester-long course or a week long ?orientation? program that discusses idea theft, intellectual property infringement (including patent and trademark infringement), copyright ownership, plagiarism, attribution, and the school?s policy concerning idea theft and copyright infringement.

2. IP Enforcement. Every institution in higher education takes plagiarism seriously. Students can and have failed courses and have even been expelled for stealing another person?s work. Disciplinary measures for idea theft are one of the most stringent among most colleges and universities. This should also hold true in game development programs. While this does not curb the practice entirely, it certainly provides students with incentive to stick to their own ideas.

3. IP Ownership. Each team member in a project should own an equal undivided interest in the work. Additionally, each team member may own 100 percent of their contribution to the work. No matter how the ownership structure is determined, contributors should be documented and attributed throughout the game?s development. This can be managed by an advisor or a senior-student/project lead. Prior to the release or exhibition of a game the game credits should be well established and confirmed. If this isn?t already an existing practice at schools like DigiPen, it should be. Additionally, prior to exhibition or release of a game the school should prepare a copyright application designating who owns what; this can be funded by the students or by the institution as appropriate.

4. Dispute Resolution. One of the concerns Comair mentioned involved ownership disputes and possible legal claims. Rarely should a dispute concerning games developed in an academic setting ever see the inside of a court room. If a game is the subject of a legal dispute, it should have nothing to do with the institution itself. Most academic institutions have ethics committees or judiciary committees that will reach their own determination as to claims of idea theft and intellectual property infringement. This same technique can be used to determine whether students deserve credit or should be disciplined.

5. Licensing. This should be fairly straightforward; prior to the release or distribution of any game, students should be required to obtain the requisite commercial licenses for their games at their sole expense (or at the expense of an interested publisher). Once a student elects to release their game, they are responsible for that game and DigiPen should rightfully disclaim all liability, rights and interests in the final product. However, DigiPen may elect to retain a non-exclusive, perpetual, and royalty-free license to reproduce and display the work for instructional and academic purposes.

Conclusion

Having policies and procedures in place to resolve disputes and discipline those who commit idea theft is the responsibility of any academic institution. DigiPen and other institutions with similar IP policies undoubtedly have their own, but for whatever reason have determined that those current infrastructures are ill-suited to manage such disputes. This is aggravated by the increased risk created by the commercial value of games, which may encourage students to litigate for monetary reasons as opposed to moral ones.

Regardless of the reasoning behind institution ownership, students should still own their work. Despite the problems arising from student ownership, these issues can be addressed without creating a significant burden to the school?at the very least the burdens are no more significant than those experienced by most universities. A Graduate Student preparing to publish her dissertation at Harvard doesn?t worry about whether Harvard?s going to prevent her from doing so because she used their library to conduct her research. Traditional Academia has centuries of experience handling intellectual property and attribution disputes. These lessons should be passed on to this ?new? art form.

[Mona Ibrahim is a Trademark, Entertainment and Media law attorney based in Seattle, WA. She is the principal attorney of the Law Offices of Mona A. Ibrahim, where her practice emphasizes trademark, copyright, trade secret, unfair competition, name and likeness, entertainment and employment law. She is also Of Counsel at Imua Legal Advisors.

THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. The content of this article is not legal advice. It only constitutes commentary on legal issues, and is for educational and informational purposes only. Reading this article, replying to it via comments, or otherwise interacting with this article does not create an attorney-client privilege between you and the author. No information you provide in the comments portion of this article shall be deemed confidential.]

Next month, Pittsburgh will host Via 2010, a new festival that aims to showcase musicians, DJs, and producers "blurring genres of electronic music alongside artists working at the forefront of video, game design, and live music visualization."

The Iron City Brewery and satellite locations will present more than 12 hours of performances/installations from both local and international artists across three days. Via 2010 will also have an online presence with demos, forums, and a livestream of the event at its site.

Along with indie darling/rapper Freddie Gibbs and huge electronica names like Matthew Dear and Dãm-Funk, the festival will feature Canadian experimental game group Kokoromi Collective, which organizes events like the recent Gamma IV one-button challenge at GDC 2010.

Kokoromi Collective is slated to bring two games to show off at Via 2010, 3D puzzler Super HyperCube (pictured, co-developed with Fez developer Polytron/Phil Fish) and ][ Games' tro-player music title I Have Big Balls.

You can buy tickets and find more information for Via 2010, which will run October 1-3, at the festival's official site.

[Thanks, Mitch!]

Unless you've watched experienced Tommy Wiseau?s 2003 movie The Room, this likely won't mean much to you, but Newgrounds creator and The Behemoth co-founder Tom Fulp (with help from Newgrounds artist Jeff Bandelin) has adapted the cult favorite film into an adventure game.

Former GSW guest editor Jenn Frank points out that the point-and-click tribute re-creates the movie's flower shop, the rooftop of Johnny?s apartment, and other settings with 8-bit-style environments, and it even presents environments that weren't in the movie (Denny?s apartment).

Keep in mind that like the movie, the game does include adult themes (e.g. cartoon nudity, sex). You can play The Room Tribute for free online over at Newgrounds, though seriously, you should make sure you watch the movie first to understand it all.

[?The Blue Key? is a new biweekly GameSetWatch-exclusive column by Connor Cleary that explores the wide arena of gamer culture -- where it's been, where it is now, and where it might be going. This is the second of a two-part series exploring the violence in modern gaming -- the potential benefits as well as the potential problems. This week, opposition to the recent California legislation and support for the ESRB.]

In part one I defended violence in gaming as a healthy outlet for our natural but socially unacceptable tendencies toward aggression. However, there is another side to this issue, and it would be unfair to ignore the often valid concerns of parents and educators and the like who worry about kids being exposed to violence and graphic imagery.

The famous California court case regarding video game ratings and minors has recently brought this issue to center stage under the public spotlight. To address the issue, I have chosen arguably the most extreme example of gratuitous, unwarranted violence that has ever been portrayed in a game.

Now, I never picked up Modern Warfare 2, and somehow I missed the initial fervor around the notorious airport massacre scene, but a friend of mine recently showed it to me.

As my friend strolled through the bloody mess of an airport (the character is forced to calmly walk, making it that much more disturbing) I wracked my brain trying to figure out why Infinity Ward would put this in their game. As more and more shrieking, pleading, unarmed civilians were gunned down, the only conclusion I could come to was this: At best, it is supposed to disturb you and make you disgusted with what you?re seeing and doing, while at worst, they did it for shock value in a shameless attempt at publicity.

In the above linked article, author Tom Chick describes a scene at his local GameStop on MW2?s launch day: ?A lot of children were there with their parents. One kid with his copy ran back to the car ahead of his grandparents. He was literally leaping into the air, clutching the box, kicking his legs out eagerly, like a gymnast or a spazz.? To be completely honest, the thought of those kids playing the infamous level is more than a little unsettling.

That?s not to say that I haven?t played and enjoyed my share of ultra-violent games like State of Emergency and Grand Theft Auto?these examples are particularly notable because in both cases civilian casualties are not only possible but also highly likely. Despite my experience with violent games, and my previously stated belief that such games can be highly therapeutic, I was still horrified. There is something about the MW2 scene that epitomizes everything negative that has ever been said or written about violence in video games.

The wisdom?or lack thereof?behind the inclusion of this scene could be discussed ad nausem, but as a private game studio it was and is Infinity Ward?s right to do so. Censorship is clearly not an option, as it can only stunt creativity; if that kind of censorship had been placed on movies, it would have prevented the realization of some of the most compelling cinematic experiences to date. Saving Private Ryan?s famous Omaha Beach scene comes to mind. But just as Saving Private Ryan earned itself an R-rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, so too did Modern Warfare 2 earn itself an M-rating from the Electronic Software Rating Board.

Those who bash violent games, and characterize them as some abominable evil that turns children into violent lunatics seem to either be uninformed about the video game rating system or misunderstand one of the primary purposes of that system. It allows parents to make the call whether or not their child can mentally and emotionally handle the more graphic games. Most people can handle violent imagery without suffering any mental or emotional consequences, and some of those people are under the age of 17.

In part one of this series, I cited a set of psychological studies, one of which showed that the young people who are negatively affected by violence in games and movies are most often people with certain pre-existing traits. As Christopher Ferguson, PhD, states in the above linked article: ?Violent video games are like peanut butter. They are harmless for the vast majority of kids but are harmful to a small minority with pre-existing personality or mental health problems.?

So, while playing Grand Theft Auto might be good for me?as a healthy outlet?it could also be really bad for certain subgroups of people. For example: How many people played the Grand Theft Auto games? And how many of those people tried to set a house on fire with Molotov cocktails afterward? Two, apparently. Considering this ratio, it would be patently absurd to place the blame entirely on the game.

Speaking of M-rated games, let?s go back to that kid from Tom Chick?s article, and his grandparents. The ESRB website has plenty to say about Modern Warfare 2. The content descriptors are: ?Blood, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Language? and the rating summary includes:

? Players use machine guns, sniper rifles, grenades, and missiles to kill enemy soldiers throughout the battlefields. Realistic gunfire, explosions, and cries of pain are heard during the frequent and fast-paced combat. The most intense depiction of violence occurs during a "No Russian" mission where players take on the role of an undercover Ranger: Several civilians* are gunned down at an airport as players are given a choice to participate in the killings (e.g., players can shoot a wounded civilian that is crawling on the ground), or walk by and observe without opening fire. In either case, civilians scream and emit pools of blood as they are shot to death. ? [Emphasis added.]

*Author?s Note: This is a serious understatement; it should probably read something like ?A ridiculous number of civilians.?

Clearly this game is not intended for children.

Although Chick never mentions an age when describing the boy, I will generously assume he is a pre-teen. For the sake of argument let?s say the kid is really mature for his age, has a good sense of the difference between real and fake, and in real life is very empathetic to the distress of others. Furthermore, let?s say his grandparents took this all into consideration before purchasing the game. In that case: So be it. A judgment call was made, and who am I to second-guess his guardians? I don?t have that right, and neither do the attorneys general who have thrown their weight behind the so-called ?Schwarzenegger appeal? California legislation.

The folks trying to outlaw the sale of M-rated games to minors through legal action, would probably have a more useful impact on society if they spent that time informing parents about the ESRB instead. Arming parents with that knowledge would allow them to make informed decisions about what to buy for their kids, and would therefore probably go a long way in keeping games like MW2 and God of War III out of the hands of children. How many parents would read the ESRB?s God of War III summary?including this gem, ?[A] god's eyes will be gauged out by thumbs.??and think: ?That?s the one. That?s the game I need to get for little Brad?s birthday this year!?

After a little over 40 weeks on the shelves, Modern Warfare 2 recently became the largest selling video game title of all time in the UK. Despite this, I have not seen an unusual flood of violent crime and horror stories flowing out of the UK. So I think we can safely assume that violence in gaming?even the gratuitous and unwarranted kind?does not, in and of itself, create disturbed criminals. I would expect Conan, and the guy who single-handedly defeated a Predator, to understand that.

GDC Vault has debuted both free and subscriber-only videos from August's GDC Europe event in Cologne. Free-to-watch talks feature ArenaNet's Guild Wars 2 and notables from the ESA, Remedy and Crytek on building grassroots political support for games.

Following the successful Europe-wide developer event that ran alongside Gamescom last month, organizers of the Game Developers Conference series of events are making specially recorded versions of the talks available -- while also archiving all of the GDC Europe content in video form for future use and study.

These new free talks debut alongside an update making available over 65 lecture videos from GDC Europe for subscribers at the GDC Vault website. The site features video technology that allows users to simultaneously view a presenter's slides alongside video and audio of their presentation.

The two free GDC Europe-related videos currently debuting on the site are as follows:

- In 'Designing Guild Wars 2's Dynamic Events', ArenaNet's Guild Wars 2 lead designer Eric Flannum and lead content designer Colin Johanson outline how the industry's attitude to content in games in the MMORPG genre has evolved over time.

The duo discuss the inspiration for -- and the implementation challenges of -- their Dynamic Events system in the much-awaited PC MMO, "with the goal of creating an exciting, living, breathing online world that encourages social interaction between players."

- The newly available talk 'Building Grassroots Video Game Activist Networks' features a panel led by the ESA's Richard Taylor, discussing how "governments in Europe and the United States continue their attempts to censor and regulate game content".

Taking examples from the U.S. Video Game Voters Network, the panel, which includes Remedy's Matias Myllyrinne (Alan Wake) and Crytek's Avni Yerli (Crysis 2) alongside Stephan Reichart of G.A.M.E., the German Games Developers Association, discuss censorship issues and the importance of establishing similar European grassroots networks.

In addition to these lectures, GDC Vault's free videos section includes GDC 2010 lectures from Zynga, Ernest Adams, and NCsoft, plus highly rated lectures featuring 2D Boy's Ron Carmel and Bungie's Brian Sharp, as well as a number of other top talks such as the Indie Game Rant.

The free recordings available are a fraction of the content currently being flowed into the GDC Vault, which has recently added several new features. It's now easier to navigate through the free section of the site, with video, audio and slides more clearly split with browsing and searching. In addition, site searches will bring up both free content and Vault Subscriber-only content in the same results page.

Full GDC Vault access, including synchronized video recordings for over 200 of GDC 2010's sessions, 65 talks from GDC Europe, and hundreds of historical video and audio recordings, is available to GDC 2010 All-Access Pass holders, as well as All-Access Pass holders for other GDC events during the year. Similar recording sessions are planned for GDC Online in Austin next month, as well as December's GDC China.

Notably, game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company. More information on this option is available by contacting Suzanne Cunningham or viewing an online demonstration. Individual Vault subscriptions not tied to All-Access passes are planned for trial in the near future.

Locomalito, the Spanish indie developer behind last June's excellent 16-bit-style shoot'em up Hydorah, has posted a video for his latest project, a "minor" ZX Spectrum-esque platformer directly inspired by microcomputer classics like Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy.

The developer describes L'Abbaye des Morts (The Abbey of the Dead) as "an obsolete videogame for a dark passage of history":

"In the 13th century, the Cathars, who preach about good Christian beliefs, were being expelled by the Catholic Church out of the Languedoc region in France. One of them, called Jean Raymond, found an old church in which to hide, not knowing that beneath its ruins lay buried an ancient evil. ...

This little game has been created at nights during our vacation in southern France. The whole style is spontaneous and sincere, straight out of our trips in the region during the day. Be sure to visit the Languedoc if you feel somehow attracted by the game."

Developed over two weeks, the platformer features around 40 minutes of gameplay (10 if you know your way around), 23 screens to explore, and "secrets and hints to collect items".

Locomalito expects to release L'Abbaye des Morts tonight on this page. You can see some awesome boxart for the game after the break:

[Via IndieGames.com]

As he prepares for the birth of his son, artist Das Chupa designed a set of unorthodox bumper stickers to honor his upcoming video game achievements, like saving the Princess in Super Mario Bros. without using warp pipes (a feat I haven't yet accomplished even with warp pipes).

It doesn't look like Das Chupa is selling premade stickers, but you could probably print these out and make your own. He explains how he came up with the ideas:

"I've never understood why parent stick the crap bumper stickers about their six year olds making the honor list in a grade where bladder control is part of the curriculum.

So I decided to make some stickers that I would be proud to brag about to the world. And since my child will grow up playing games that build character, (and OCD) they would look like this."

I imagine it will take a long time before his son reaches any of these accomplishments -- though defeating Wood Man in Mega Man 2 is wayyyy easy. Now, defeating Quick Man's stage on the first try would be impressive...

[Via Rampaged Reality]

If you're one of those cheapskates that refused to buy Terry Cavanagh's VVVVVV for the reasonable $15 he was asking for, you can now buy it on Steam for just $4.49 -- starting September 13, though, that price will shoot up to an astronomical $4.99.

The retro-style 2D puzzle platformer, what with its Metal Storm-esque gravity-reversing mechanic, eight lengthy levels, and awesome chip music soundtrack composed by Magnus "Souleye" Pålsson, was already worth the price at $15, in my opinion, but it's a steal at $4.49.

And if you would still like to try out the Windows/Mac game first before dropping any money, you can try out two of VVVVVV's stages at Kongregate or with this downloadable demo.

[As you may recall, veteran game journalist Chris Morris has now joined big sister site Gamasuta, so we'll be running many of his pieces here on GSW too. Here, he examines the curiously abrupt end of Acclaim's 9Dragons, which stranded 1.5 million U.S. players -- when a game struggles in the high-risk MMO market, the players end up losing out, too.]

Nobody saw the end coming for 9Dragons ? especially the players.

A post in the game?s Acclaim-operated forums, which went up just hours before the U.S. servers shut down, was the only official notification.

A panicky press release from GamersFirst, which had announced just two days prior that it would be assuming North American publishing duties starting in September, followed ? urging players to create screenshots of their in-game inventory and characters and save and document their in-game status.

For most players, neither provided enough time to react. They learned their game had gone away when they tried to log on and couldn?t, part of a larger shutdown of client-based games operated by Acclaim.

The shutdown of 9Dragons was, by any definition, a debacle. It was poorly organized, poorly executed and it punished the people who were most loyal to the game.

Nearly 1.5 million people in the U.S. had registered 9Dragons accounts ? though the number of active players was certainly much, much lower. All of them were left stranded and fuming by the action ? and are still unsure if they?ll ever see their characters again.

9Dragons continues globally (the developer Indy21, is based in Korea, and the game has various licensees in different territories), but the game?s saga in the U.S. market is demonstrative proof that persistent worlds aren?t as, well, persistent, as many people think.

The games can disappear at any time ? leaving players who have invested (in some cases) hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars with nothing but memories and a bitter taste in their mouth.

"Let's be honest here -- who shuts down an MMO server and forum with such short notice?" asked a player who goes by 'itsmyid' on the GamersFirst forums. "Disney is the only company capable of such a dastardly deed. Disney has no emotional attachment to our community. To them, we're nothing more than peons occupying space."

For a company that?s in the midst of making a push to become a AAA developer, that?s not the sort of sentiment you want to hear. (Disney recently purchased Playdom, which owned Acclaim, the publisher of 9Dragons in the U.S.)

GamersFirst says it?s in the process of working with Disney to find a way to transfer over character data ? but has warned players it won?t be an easy process.

"Our first and foremost priority is to help recreate your accounts on our platform as expediently as possible," Josh Hong, founder and CEO of GamersFirst, told players in a forum posting. "We?ve already made progress and will be on it like there is no tomorrow. Quite frankly, this process won?t be easy and will require a lot of close collaboration between us and the community."

Part of what made the shutdown of 9Dragons so shocking was the lack of warning bells. The in-game item mall never closed down ? and an expansion, dubbed "Tibet," had been released just one week prior. (On the now shuttered website of Acclaim, Disney notes that it will refund any purchases for the free-to-play, microtransaction powered game made within the last 30 days of the game.)

World of Warcraft players in China experienced something similar last year. When Activision-Blizzard terminated its agreement with The9, the partner shut the game down in China. It was more than two months before the servers went back online with the publisher?s new partner NetEase.

Earlier this year, MarketWatch.com said World of Warcraft had lost about 15 percent of its Chinese users after The9 shut down the game.

Typically, the end of a MMO comes with some warning ? and there?s good reason for that. It gives players, who are often loyal to a fault when it comes to the games, a chance to say goodbye and a chance to go through the grieving process.

It also gives them a chance at closure. The end of The Sims Online, for instance, turned into a block party, with characters shaking their Sim-booty one last time and sitting around a campfire, saying their goodbyes to each other as the final minutes ticked down.

For publishers, a long wind-up period is a chance to go out with a bang. The Matrix Online, for example, planned to crush characters at the end (though server glitches spoiled the fun). Asheron?s Call 2 destroyed the world.

9Dragons may have ended with a bang as well ? but not the kind that anyone was expecting or wanted to see.

Bergen's Permanenten West Norway Museum of Decorative Art plans to hold Press Play, which it calls "the first exhibition devoted to computer game graphics ever to be held in a Norwegian art museum", starting September 18th through February 20th, 2011.

The museum argues that developers put a tremendous amount of artistic work into their video games, and that they are on par with other visual art forms. With Press Play: The Art of Digital Games, the Permanenten hopes to display proof for those arguments.

Press Play will primarily focus on Nordic games designed for PCs (see Funcom's Dreamfall artwork slated for the exhibition after the break), representing both established game producers and independent studios. It will also show off classic titles to demonstrate "the genre's historical development."

The show will also feature a special exhibit-exclusive game about the history of video computer games, which attendees will be able to play. Organizers for Press Play note that the Bergen Public Library in Strømgaten will have a designated area where people can try out other exhibited games.

Dutch independent developed Ronimo Games announced that along with its upcoming PSN port of WiiWare's Swords & Soldiers, it's also putting out the real-time strategy game for Windows PC through Steam.

As with the PS3 edition, the PC release will include 30 "ridiculols" campaign levels, three factions (Vikings, Aztecs, Chinese), an online multiplayer mode, leaderboard-enabled challenge modes, a "new extended soundtrack" customizable Skirmish modes, and more.

Swords & Soldiers will also have Steam achievements and a cursor-based control scheme (naturally) on PCs, whereas the PSN version have Trophies and a dual analog control scheme. Both editions will release some time this fall.

[We're continuing to put out some top-quality content over at Game Developer magazine, and here's the latest issue, with an exclusive postmortem of Singularity and some other articles of notable interest to today's game creators.]

The September 2010 issue of Game Developer magazine, the sister print publication to Gamasutra and the leading U.S. trade publication for the video game industry, has shipped to print and digital subscribers and is available from the Game Developer Digital service in both subscription and single-issue formats.

This issue's exclusive postmortem looks at the creation of Raven Software?s Singularity. During development, the Singularity team experimented with a third-person perspective for the game but ultimately decided to return to a first-person shooter design:

"The first-person camera returned the focus of the game back to the TMD (Time Manipulation Device), instead of on the main character. We figured that the best way to use our limited development time was to reduce our scope and depth while achieving higher quality.

Instead, we put our efforts into presenting the TMD as our main character, and put more attention and detail to time-manipulating dynamic objects and enemies, environmental time shifts, and creating a completely immersive environment to bring the setting and back story of Singularity to life."

Also in this issue is Lin Luo?s proposed server architecture that aims to bring 256 or more players into a persistent first-person shooter MMO. While traditional MMOs can host thousands of players at once, the technical requirements of an FPS are quite different:

"In a real-time game server system, we have to avoid any lengthy iteration logic inside each tick of the game update loop. Furthermore, when the number of connected clients grows, the server-side outgoing bandwidth requirement grows proportionally. So as the number of clients increases, the server tick rate will drop proportionally while the bandwidth requirement expands proportionally.

At some point, when the synchronization frequency drops below an acceptable figure for each client to maintain a reasonably real-time gameplay update, we have to stop adding more clients to the game session. That?s why most of the real-time multiplayer FPS games have a maximum number of players (64 is the largest number to date) that can be supported in one game session."

The September issue also features a look at player metrics gathering from Google developer advocate and Replica Island creator Chris Pruett:

"I started with just two events: player death and level completion. Each time a player dies or completes a level, the game reports that event to the server. From this data, I was able to construct a pretty detailed overview of the game flow. I could see which levels took the longest, which had the most deaths, and which were unusually short.

By dividing my values by the number of unique players, I could also see what percentage of players died on certain levels, and the average number of deaths for each player. By looking at the spatial location of the event, I could tell the difference between a death from an enemy and a death from a pit. As a first-pass implementation, my simple metrics system proved to be pretty detailed."

In addition, our regular columnists and special guests including Steve Theodore, Soren Johnson, Vincent Diamante, and Matthew Wasteland contribute detailed and important pieces on various areas of game development.

Worldwide paper-based subscriptions to Game Developer magazine are currently available at the official magazine website, and the Game Developer Digital version of the issue is also now available, with the site offering six months' and a year's subscriptions, alongside access to back issues and PDF downloads of all issues, all for a reduced price. There is now also an opportunity to buy the digital version of September 2010's magazine as a single issue.

If you didn't know that Jonathan Blow, creator of acclaimed XBLA puzzle platformer and IGF winner Braid, brought his next title, The Witness, to last weekend's Penny Arcade Expo, it's through no failing of your own -- its debut was unannounced, unmarked, and hidden at SpyParty/Monaco's booth.

Kotaku thankfully noticed the game's first public appearance and captured three minutes of footage from the "exploration-puzzle game on an uninhabited island". The site points out that the game is "far from finished", as the demo was filled with placeholder art and early puzzles:

"This was the game's first showing in public, its puzzles still far from complete and refined. It was being presented in a manner intentionally detached from any references that might hype the Braid connection and bias its players. Blow wanted to see, from afar, what people made of their first touch of this game. ...

Many of the puzzles I found involved using the controller to draw routes on blue squares that were set vertically on posts at the level of museum paintings, trying to inscribe the proper pattern that would solve the challenge and possibly lead to a new one. The puzzles were not just in the posted squares but in the more natural environment."

Blow says the reason he kept The Witness' public debut low-key was to counter the traditional approach companies take of capturing people's attention and trying to sell them things, and also to give players as much time as they want to try it out without a line of people waiting behind them.

The Witness will release for multiple platforms some time late next year.

Echoing the years-old sentiment brought up by resentful musicians and Guitar Hero/Rock Band haters about how "people should play music on real instruments, not video game music on instrument controllers", guitar company Sparrow takes a jab at gamers with this new print ad.

Sparrow hints at its annoyance with music games in the About section of its website, too:

"Time has not been kind to the electric guitar. Once a dangerous and revered tool in rock 'n' roll's arsenal, the mighty battle axe and amplified phallic symbol has been castrated over the years--smashed to pieces and set on fire by its wielders, all but ignored in hip hop circles and rendered obsolete by the World Air Guitar Championships and video games like Guitar Hero."

So, the company teamed up with ad agency Rethink for this campaign, recalling Grunge legend Kurt Cobain to remind people that "Teen Spirit Doesn't Smell Like Five Plastic Buttons" (actually, it doesn't smell like a guitar at all, according to these Sweet Strawberry and Pink Crush deodorant fragrances).

In addition to its unsubtle characterization of gamers as slobs who play Guitar Hero and watch TV on the couch all day with potato chip crumbs and half-eaten pizza slices around them, the ad reads, "Stop playing games. Start playing guitar."

[Via The Daily What]

Since a lot of people seemed to love the last set of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game (PSN, XBLA) animated sprites, here's another batch showing the 2D brawler's yeti, Katayanagi twins, Knives Chau, and other characters/ex-boyfriends.

Lead artist and pixelart genius Paul Robertson (Pirate Baby's Cabana Street Fight), who worked with Ubisoft Chengdu and Montreal on the game, posted these images and more on his personal blog. And if you missed them, check out the animated backgrounds also from the game recently uploaded by Stéphane Boutin.