100 ISSUES OF DEVELOP | BETA
ISSUE 73 - JUNE 2007 We cornered Microsoft Games Studios boss Phil Spencer to talk about the publisher’s new focus on European developers, and Blitz gave us a masterclass for Wiimote development while also proclaiming that the ‘next development battlefield was staff training.’
ISSUE 75 - AUGUST 2007 Rockstar Leeds cleaned up at the Develop Awards thanks to their superlative work on GTA Liberty City Stories, so we pinned down Gordon Hall to find out how they created one of the few must-have PSP games of the time. Also, Warner Bros. made its first move into games.
ISSUE 78 - NOVEMBER 2007 It was perhaps one of the most surprising stories of the time, and Bungie’s emancipation from Microsoft is still unprecedented. We quizzed studio head Harold Ryan on what it meant for both parties, and how it was making Bungie become responsible once again.
ISSUE 81 - MARCH 2008 Our recruitment special touched on many separate issues – hiring females into dev roles, the skills shortage, the danger of writing off all games courses, interview techniques and training. We also spoke to Autodesk about getting into the middleware business.
ISSUE 84 - JUNE 2008 The Games Up campaign sought to save Britsoft, and board member Rick Gibson talked us through the initiatives. We also looked at the rise of physics-based games, and featured the magnificent OE-CAKE!, which you should all play. Right now. DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET
ISSUE 74 - JULY 2007 Quantic Dream had just signed up Heavy Rain with SCEE, so we asked them what they thought about the beast. This issue also marks the first appearance of Ed Fear, making his debut with a stunning overview of the localisation sector. He is definitely not the one writing these words.
ISSUE 76 - SEPTEMBER 2007 Its animation tech lineup was finding huge success within the industry, but that wasn’t enough for Oxfordbased NaturalMotion – they wanted to get into proper game dev too. We’re still looking forward to BackBreaker, even if we don’t ‘get’ American football.
ISSUE 79 - DEC ‘07/JAN ‘08 After a sustained effort of building up its internal development offices, Codemasters also went and opened a new studio in Guildford – so we snuck in to find out what was going on. We also looked at whether multiplatform development was harder in this gen.
ISSUE 82 - APRIL 2008 Emote told us all about its plans for social gaming (back before Playfish went and conquered Facebook) and new models for developer funding, while we looked at the audio process for Battlefield Bad Company. A pretty slow month, looking back.
ISSUE 85 - JULY 2008 It’d been a while since we last looked at the burgeoning Brighton development scene, so you can’t blame us for putting it in focus for our Brighton show guide issue. What you can blame us for, though, is that headline: apparently ‘Brighton Pier’ is rhyming slang.
ISSUE 77 - OCTOBER 2007 Disney’s purchase of Climax Racing raised quite a few eyebrows, some of which we helped to lower with our cover story in issue 67. But we wanted to know how Black Rock had slotted into the entertainment empire, and the answer was ‘quite nicely, thanks.’
ISSUE 80 - FEBRUARY 2008 Ah, the trusty list feature. We picked the 25 people that were changing the face of game development, including Satoru Iwata, Bobby Kotick and, er, Howard Tomlinson. Also, we had a typically tryhard interview with Gamecock. Yeah, what a surprise they went bust.
ISSUE 83 - MAY 2008 EA’s Guildford studio was renamed EA Bright Light, and we went undercover (read: were invited) to see its new IP Zubo and iterative design process. We also looked at how Dare to be Digital has grown over the years into an international event to be proud of.
ISSUE 86 - AUGUST 2008 Rockstar North cleaned up at the Develop Awards, and so it only seemed right to go straight to the top and interview boss Sam Houser – and, amazingly, we did. We also charted Splash Damage’s journey from mod team to triple-A developer. NOVEMBER 2009 | 31