Dev Links: Through The Thickets

Today’s Developer Links feature articles on Kickstarter, Ouya and development studio growing pains.

Ouya launch: Great potential for devs – let’s see where it goes (Gamasutra)
“The Ouya has an uphill battle. A year ago, the idea of an Android microconsole seemed so novel — but as CEO Julie Uhrman herself concedes, “making the hardware isn’t hard. These aren’t custom chips.” As it launches today — in the U.S., Canada, and the UK — she’s optimistic about the Ouya’s chances for success. Why? Because she thinks that players will buy the system because of its cheapness and its potential — and indie developers will flock to it because of how unrestrictive the company is being about business models and creative oversight as compared to the competition. ”

How Double Fine’s happy-go-lucky designer won Kickstarter (Gamasutra)
“If you follow video games and aren’t familiar with the name “Brad Muir,” there’s a good chance you will be familiar soon.”

Hundreds of Tiny Icons (Gaslamp Games)
“Someone has to do it. Someone must take up this mantle; Someone has to come up with a blog post about something or other because Nicholas & Daniel are too tired from crunching out a bunch of (quite fascinating actually) systems which, however, lack visual polish and therefore aren’t much good to show off. Yes yes, we’re going to fix that giant white cube that says “POWER SAW” on the side.”

Growing pains: Are big studios doomed to fail? (Games Industry)
“Studio growth is risky – Bizarre Creations, Avalanche, Realtime Worlds and more help uncover the success and pitfalls of rapid expansion”

Styling the BattleBlock Theater Art (The Behemoth)
“What does it mean to be an artist at The Behemoth studio? Our newest artist in the development team, Eric Haddad, will go into detail about his process as an artist who worked on BattleBlock Theater.”

One thing left for Sony to fix (Made By Pixelate)
“I live in Sweden and I intend to stay. At least twice a year I visit my parents and friends in Germany. Every time I try hard to remember to buy several German PSN prepaid cards, because I canceled my German credit card after the PSN hack. Back in Sweden I use the prepaid cards to buy the games I want to play on my PS3 or Vita. Every time, I run out of credit before I go back to Germany. Today I did not buy Hotline Miami, because there’s less then 50 cents missing on my account, and I can’t add more money. Looks like I’ll have to wait until Christmas.”

Here come the french! (Positech Games)
“It”s amazing the extent to which your finely honed and perfect game completely falls to pieces when you introduce more than one level isn’t it? I’ve just been adding France as a playable nation to Democracy 3.”

Announcing the fantasy RPG “Seasons Of The Wolf” (Winter Wolves)
“Originally I wanted to wait a bit more before announcing it, but then I got new images so nice that was a pity to not share them with my followers on the various social networks and so… I cannot be silent anymore, I must speak!”

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