The Toolsmiths » Announcements

Call For Submissions: Game Development Tools Book

Jeff Ward — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:36:16 +0000

I thought I would bring to the community’s attention this new book on Game Development Tools that’s looking for submissions. Here’s the call:

We invite you to submit a proposal for an innovative article to be included in a forthcoming book, Game Development Tools, which will be edited by Marwan Y. Ansari and published by A. K. Peters. We expect to publish the volume in time for GDC 2011.

We are open to any tools articles that you feel would make a valuable contribution to this book.

Some topics that would be of interest include:

Content Pipeline tools (creation, streamlining, management)

Graphics/Rendering tools

Profiling tools

Collada import/export/inspection

Sound tools

In-Game debugging tools

Memory management & analysis

Console tools (single and cross platform)

This list is not meant to be exclusive and other topics are welcome.

The schedule for the book is as follows:

June 30th – All proposals in.
July 15th – Final list of accepted authors are informed and begin articles.
August 15th – First draft in to editor
September 15th – Drafts sent to other book authors for peer review
October 15th – Final articles in to editor
November 30th – Final articles to publisher (A K Peters)
GDC 2011 – Book is released.

Please send proposals to marwan at www.gamedevelopmenttools.com.

Regardless of whether Toolsmiths readers get into the book, it sounds like it could be great.

Adult Beverages

Geoff Evans — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:17:57 +0000

If you are free at 6:00 PM on Thursday come out for some drinks during GDC. We will be at The Thirsty Bear Brewing Company.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/burnblue/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Follow us on Twitter

Geoff Evans — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:44:22 +0000

The Toolsmiths now have a twitter feed here (thetoolsmiths). Blog posts should be tweeted there, and we will drop some tweets about happenings at GDC.

Site Update

Geoff Evans — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:01:47 +0000

Hello! I am happy to announce that our humble blog has just moved over to a new host (from WordPress.com) and is sporting a shiny new domain name thetoolsmiths.org! This opens the door to adding new content to the blog with plugins (polls, etc…) as well as making it possible to add new features besides the blog (job board anyone?).

Do you have an idea of something that would be handy? Drop us a line or leave a comment and tell us what is on your mind!

Right as the site was updating there were some posts, so make sure you didn’t miss them:

Cheers and keep making great tools, folks… :)

Tools SIG: A New Year

Jeff Ward — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 14:51:41 +0000

The IGDA Tools SIG is proud to announce that we are relaunching the IGDA Tools blog with new authors, new technology, and a new name, The Toolsmiths! Along with a new design, we have enlisted the help of 3 new authors, all of which have a very clear opinion on game industry tools. All of us are hoping that we’ll be able to make this blog a great place for commentary on the current state of tools in the industry, a breeding ground for distributing ideas, a test bed for new technology, and a soap box from which we can improve the industry (through tools, of course).

So without further ado, our new authors are:

Me, Jeff Ward, Lead Architect, Orbus Gameworks
Geoff Evans, Senior Tools Programmer, Insomniac Games
Dan Goodman, Founder, Robotic Arm Software

I’ve asked that each do a blog post over the next week to introduce themselves and give you a post on something they’re currently interested in. If you have ideas for things you’d like addressed on the blog, please feel free to comment, or send any one of us an email.

Enjoy the new blog!