ALPHA | NEWS
EDITORIAL THE BIG BREAK
A week or so after the spectacle of GDC was over, the copy of Develop you now hold in you hands was almost off to the printers. Then news cameras across the United
Kingdom turned their attention on the country’s Government for the Budget address, where changes to the likes of taxes and pensions are announced to the nation. Amidst the list of climbing prices and benefit cuts was some very special, very positive news for the UK games industry. After years of effort by studios, trade bodies and various other interested parties, tax breaks for the UK games industry were announced. For a moment it felt like the brain drain causing the UK to haemorrhage homegrown dev talent would reverse instantly. After two dizzy days of excitement, delight and backslapping, the questions started to be asked. ‘What will the impact be?’ ‘When will it happen?’ And perhaps the most common of all; ‘Will small studios benefit?’. Here at Develop, we knew we needed to try and find answers. That was the moment our well-ordered issue was pulled apart. It was time to hit the phones, and talk to the people behind the UK tax breaks. The result of that effort is our new cover
feature – an in-depth investigation of the detail of the UK tax breaks, and an attempt to see if they really are everything we’ve all hoped for. Elsewhere in this issue is an analysis of the
troubled rise of HTML5, and a special feature that looks at the development environment of the PS Vita, which various Ubisoft staff tell us is surprisingly easy to make games for. And, importantly, there’s a five-page guide to winning a Develop Award – or nominating one of your contemporaries. If you’re hoping to grace the stage at the ceremony this July 11th, you’d best turn to page 28 right now, because the deadline for lobbying closes on April 18th.
Will Freeman
will.freeman@
intentmedia.co.uk
After a significant GDC for Epic with private showings of Unreal Engine 4 and the unveiling of Infinity Blade: Dungeons, Rob Crossley asks Epic president Mike Capps what comes next
YOU ANNOUNCED THE next Infinity Blade at the Apple ‘iPad 3’ press event that happened alongside GDC 2012. What’s your reaction to the press conference? I think our show there went really well. The new iPad is awesome, and with the new resolution and new camera it has all kinds of shit I really want. I think Epic shocked people at the event
with how good Infinity Blade: Dungeons looked. Doing that a third time is hard.
06| APRIL 2012
An Epic Show
With Apple’s hardware cycle moving so fast, it really must be tough in terms of development cycles. How do you keep up? It is hard, and they are pretty secretive, so we don’t get as much heads up as we’d like. When you talk about consoles you kind of know even a few years ahead what’s coming. Stuff gets disclosed a long way out ahead. Obviously Apple don’t do that. I’m not even sure they know what they’re doing in a year. I’m joking, but you know what I mean.
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