Hi all, I am just about to begin learning game development,practices etc proper(am starting in Uni of Abertay in 2 weeks) but would like to know what sort of websites all of ye in the industry check on a daily basis to keep up with news? I check gameindustry.biz, gamedevelopers.ie(I live in Ireland!), slashdot games and gamasutra.com but any others I should know about? Cheers, Ed PS. Sorry if there is already a topic of this kind, couldn't find it :)

I know of three free extremely useful daily newsletters. Sign up for them at:

http://www.gamasutra.com/
http://biz.gamedaily.com
http://www.fiercegamebiz.com/

Doing work and surfing the web for news are mutually exclusive tasks.

>> websites all of ye in the industry check on a daily basis to keep up with news?

Whatever web sites you want. You mentioned a few popular sites, and there are thousands of others. Generally you'll hear about the important stuff through the office anyway.

It doesn't really matter that [insert company name] is going bankrupt, that [insert engine name] has some great new technology, or that [insert game title] is going to be the hotter than bare feet on blacktop. What matters is that you actually accomplish something.

A couple of others with a more UK/IE/European focus:

http://www.mcvuk.com/
http://www.developmag.com/

I agree with frob that you can spend far too much time surfing and not enough doing work, but I'd disagree that keeping up with industry news doesn't matter. For example, knowing what the competition is up to helps give you yardstick to measure your own product by (e.g. laugh at their screenshots/demo knowing you'll trounce them or realise that yours is waaay behind and better be improved); knowing that developer x has just gone out of business at a time when you're trying to hire experienced people can solve a problem for you and the redundant staff. Being reasonably clued up about a company is particularly important when you're going for job interviews.

Definitely agree about the "industry grapevine" though - the major happenings are being whispered/emailed throughout the industry sometimes months before the news sites get a whiff of them.

Thanks guys, I agree what was said before but as I am just going into a Masters now I'm not quite in the 'grapevine' just yet and so need some help to keep in tune with whats going on, cheers for the UK/IE sites!

On another note, does anyone have any info on the growth of game dev companies in Ireland?Its been quite slow in taking off in general(with the exception of Havok and a couple others) but is nothing in comparison with the UK, anyone know of any plans to expand into Ireland?I;ve heard the Irish government is starting to offer €500,000 to every college that starts game dev courses to try to boost the amount of graduates but I'd reckon the courses that start will be a joke for at least 5 years before they mature! Personally I don't mind too much working in the UK/USA/Japan anywhere but where I'm old and grey[and not running my own business :)] it would be nice to be able to come back to something at home!Might be a question for the Irish game dev sites but would be interested if any of you nice folk have anything extra!!!

Cheers,
Ed

Quote: On another note, does anyone have any info on the growth of game dev companies in Ireland? Its been quite slow in taking off in general(with the exception of Havok and a couple others) but is nothing in comparison with the UK

IMHO there are a number of reasons for the slow progress of the industry in places like Ireland when compared to places like the UK:

history: back in the 8-bit era when most of the European industry was a 'cottage' industry of developers selling by mail order, places with a larger population of developers such as the UK started clustering development to some degree with companies such as Ocean - that is where much of todays studio model came from.

infrastructure: publishing nowadays has a strong USA bias; there are far more transatlantic flights to UK airports than there are to Shannon & Dublin.

migration: in the 1980s, a lot of young people (including would be game developers) left Ireland in search of work in the UK (some of my family included).



Various tax breaks from the Irish government for creative and technology industries could help to improve the scene over there. Middleware in particular seems to be doing quite well with the likes of Havok, Demonware, and Torc/Instinct (hiring Mike Gamble was major coup for them!)


I know of a few companies who've considered opening offices in Ireland (e.g. DC Studios opened/were about to open a place near the Guiness brewery in Dublin then hit some rough water...) - unfortunately various things have gotten in the way for each of them -- usually fate or external issues rather than any difficulties with Ireland.


Some current Irish games companies:

http://www.gamedevmap.com/index.php?tool=location&query=Ireland