I very recently wrote a post entitled ‘Why Does Redundancy Always Happen In Game Development?‘ that kinda hit the spot with a few people and I think it needs more context so I thought it worthwhile giving a separate update.

It’s a tough topic to discuss and it always has negative connotations but it’s a fact of life and ignoring it and not being prepared is a bad thing.

It’s worth understanding why redundancies are a natural consequence for an independent studio when they finish a project.

Firstly, it’s important to understand that the end of the project is always the point when the team is the largest, QA come onboard, people are generally added to get the project delivered to a high enough quality.

So, what happens when the project ships? What do all of these people do? As much as we’d like to believe that 100% of the team have meaningful work, it’s not going to be the case.

I am frequently contacted by video game developers asking me for help in a couple of areas, some just want some feedback, some are asking me for financial investment to make their game a reality.

Maybe your one of these people, or maybe you’d like some critique of your work?

I’m currently looking for 1 other developer to mentor and devote some real attention to, should this be you?

I’ve collected a list of all of the video game bloggers I’ve found so far. These cover a broad range of topics include developers, producers, artists, designers, business and I’d wholly recommend adding them all to your favourite RSS reader.

(mobile post)
There’s an interesting post over on GameProducer.net about how Juuso uses Twitter as part of his game blog that I wanted to emulate here.

I use my @GameLinchpin Twitter feed largely to auto-post new articles from this blog. This is done automatically when I hit publish so it’s the best way to keep up-to-date. Simply follow us and you’re all set.

I also follow other people in the games industry, not companies, and join in chats there and also RT (re-tweet) anything I find interesting and relevant to game development. I also follow events such as #e3expo, #develop2010 and #gamescom and RT interesting items too.

As Juuso says, you really need a client to use Twitter as the basic web service really doesn’t scratch the surface of what’s possible.
I use Tweetdeck on my iPhone, Home Mac and work PC as it’s by far the best app. I use Twitterific on iPad as TD isn’t very good yet.

If you’re starting out, start by following me then go through my lists and add people from there. Most people will follow you back and it’s a good way to kick start your Twitter addiction.

Hashtags are pretty much like public chat channels, you simply follow a hash tag and you join the conversation. This can be an amazing way of getting involved in a community. I’ve met lots of people on these channels who I continue to chat with on a daily basis. Find a channel, add people for the channel as they’re obviously interested and engaged in that subject.

I follow:
#xblig – Xbox Live Independant Games
#gamedev – general game development
#iPhone – broad iPhone chat
#leanstartup – small business bootstrapping

Event specific ones pop up too such as
#gamescom
#develop2010
#e3expo

Joining Twitter was one of the best things I’ve done for. Long time and I’d consider it pretty much mandatory for game debs to keep up with a rapidly changing industry.

Which people and #hashtags do you follow?