Ronald Grover and Malathi Nayak wrote:

“Walt Disney Co plans to shut the 30-year-old LucasArts studio it inherited with the acquisition of George Lucas’ film company last year, and focus on licensing its “Star Wars” brand externally, a spokesman said on Wednesday.”

“ The decision to shutter LucasArts comes as the developer and publisher, once known for humor-tinged adventure games like ‘Secret of Monkey Island’, has struggled in recent years to produce a hit in an industry increasingly dominated by action-oriented games.”

See the article at:

http://music.yahoo.com/news/disney-shut-lucasarts-games-studio-lay-off-workers-183037451–finance.html

From our perspective: Once more, the lessons learned from 1983 apply, focus on quality of the user experience and the market.  This is easier written than done.  Game design is about psychology, behaviour economics, and business strategy as fundamental disciplines to deliver a user experience of value, not about character design, story development, or even gameplay in isolation.

Here Are the 2012 Games That Developers Want to Give Awards to

By Evan Narcisse

http://kotaku.com/5978790/here-are-the-2012-games-that-game-developers-want-to-give-awards-to

From a game design perspective, why are the following games the top game designs of 2012:

Dishonored (Arkane Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
Mark Of The Ninja (Klei Entertainment/Microsoft Studios)
Spelunky (Derek Yu/Andy Hull)
Journey (Thatgamecompany/Sony Computer Entertainment)
XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Firaxis Games/2K Games)

A History Of THQ, 1989-2013

By Luke Plunkett
http://kotaku.com/5978508/

One of the lessons learned from the history of THQ appears to be “set up your vision and stay on course” -easier said than done, but even students find it difficult to stay on their vision over a short two week assignment.  Creative people are always tempted by new ideas and this needs to be balanced with business context, instinct, education, and heroism.

Julian Tam visiting Hong Kong

A great show with Crystal Kwok and Lindsay Holloway.  Thank you to Elena Krotman!

Kwok Talk Audio: http://programme.rthk.hk/channel/radio/programme.php?name=/kwok_talk&d=2012-11-20&p=5160&e=198178&m=episode

If on MacOS, you might need Flip4Mac or Windows Media components for QuickTime:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/windows-media-components-quicktime

How does one design a transcendental game?  Here is an example of a hugely successful game.  More successful than any Facebook, iPhone, Xbox, PlayStation game combined.  Only time will tell which games will survive for generations.

“References to a game called xiangqi date back to the Warring States Period; according to the first century BC text, Shuo yuan (說宛), it was one of Lord Mengchang of Qi‘s interests.^[7] Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou once wrote a bookXiang Jing in AD 569. It is believed to have described the rules of an astronomically themed game called xiangqi or Xiangxi (象戲). The word Xiàngqí 象棋 is usually translated as “elephant game” or “figure game”, because the Chinese character 象 means “elephant” and “figure”; it originated as a stylized drawing of an elephant, and was used also to write a word meaning “figure”, likely because the two words were pronounced the same. But the name can also be treated as meaning “constellation game”, and sometimes the xiàngqí board’s “river” is called the “heavenly river”, which may mean the Milky Way. For these reasons, Harold James Ruthven Murray, author of A History of Chess, theorized that “in China it [Chess] took over the board and name of a game called 象棋 in the sense of “Constellation Game” (rendered by Murray as “Astronomical Game”), which represented the apparent movements of naked-eye-visible astronomical objects in the night sky, and that the earliest Chinese references to 象棋 meant the Astronomical Game and not Chinese chess”. previous games called xiàngqí may have been based on the movements of sky objects. However, the connection between 象 and astronomy is marginal, and arose from constellations being called merely “figures” in astronomical contexts where other meanings of “figure” were less likely; this usage may have led some ancient Chinese authors to theorize that the game 象棋 started as a simulation of astronomy.” Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiangqi)

Please post links to videos about the history of video games.

20 years of Sonic.

Thank you, Julian!

Dreamcast, GameBoy ----> XBox360.

Julian's collection

The collection of portable consoles included Sony, Sega, and Nintendo with many games.  The 3DS demonstration was particularly interesting!  Thank you, Julian!