CODA A sideways look at the games industry


THE INDUSTRY IN 140 CHARACTERS A month in tweets by the industry elite


@charltonbrooker


If any film starred a character as rubbish & po-faced as this Deus Ex prick, audiences would hurl shoes at it. (Charlie Brooker, celebrity journalist) Monday, September 26th


@ georgeb3dr


How long till Blizzard/Activision sue @notch over MineCRAFT? Good thing Minecraft isn’t sci-fi or fantasy. Whew. (George Broussard, 3D Realms) Thursday, September 29th)


@BillGates


For those of us lucky enough to get to work with Steve, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.


(Bill Gates, Microsoft) Thursday, October 6th


@michaelpachter


Team Bondi bankruptcy embarrassing, especially with overworked employees left unpaid. Crunch complaints fair if workers unpaid. I apologise (Michael Pachter, analyst) Saturday, October 8th


@notch


I appreciate the offers to help texture it, but it’s my dragon! Go make your own dragons! :P *hugs dragon* (Markus Persson, Mojang Specifications) Saturday, October 8th


@SpiltMilkStudio


I do love how journos tweak what you say just enough to be headline-worthy :) genuinely love it. I doff my cap :D (Andrew Smith, Spilt Milk Studio) Monday, October 10th


@wonderlandblog


“This model of PS3 does not support the PS2 format “. That’s it, Sony. You and me are SO OVER.


(Alice Taylor, Makielabs) Tuesday, October 11th


@numberless


RIM’s Slough branch is responsible for international BBM service outages. Did they hire David Brent or something? (Scott Jon Siegel, PopCap) Wednesday, October 12th


@danthat


Wish game designers would come up with a better, less intrusive alternative to that useless Grenade Indicator arrow. It is no help. (Dan Marshall, Size Five) Wednesady, October 12th


@mikeBithell


I’ve only ruddy gone and made 8 levels. It’s an odd feeling, learning to use tools you made. No third party to blame when it breaks ;) (Mike Bithell, Bossa Studios) Wednesday, October 12th


IT FIGURES:THE iOS WEALTH GAP


According to a survey conducted by indie studio Streaming Colour, four fifths of iOS games developers share just three per cent of total revenues generated across the business. The same report revealed that that just one per cent of mobile games developers take more than a third of total revenue the games business makes, and that half of mobile games developers make less than $3,000 in lifetime sales. Only Four per cent have made more than $1 million. Deeper research found that 25 per cent of mobile games developers have made less than $200. Another 25 per cent have made more than $30,000. From total mobile games revenues one per cent of respondents claimed 36 per cent of total revenue, 19 per cent of respondents claimed 61 per cent of total revenue and 80 per cent of respondents claimed four per cent of total revenue Streaming Colour, which created LandFormer (pictured) drew the conclusions from an online survey of 252 developers.


56 | NOVEMBER 2011


28% Kd trees


Dismissing PCs


63%


Telling Kotaku readers why the platform that once defined id Software is losing its potency: “We do not see the PC as the leading platform for games. That statement will enrage some people, but it is hard to characterise it otherwise; both console versions [of Rage] will have larger audiences than the PC version. […] Nowadays most of the quality of a game comes from the development effort put into it, not the technology it runs on.”


Telling Twitter some thing about… well… Kd trees? We’re not really sure:“Implemented Wald/Havran O(N log N) Kd tree builder, but it is often slower than my previous O(N log^2 N) builder that is multithreaded.


Asking Twitter about following nodes. At least, we think it’s a question. It’s definitely about nodes:“Potential locality improvement for Kd tree tracing by always making the larger SAH, instead of the more negative, node follow?”


9% node follow


AN OPEN MIND


JOHN CARMACK based on his comments on PCs and Kd trees


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