DICE 2011

All week long we've been showcasing different artists in the video game world who have created amazing works of  art for and about the games you love. It's all part of the Into the Pixel art exhibition that's running at DICE 2011. More than just works to enjoy on a gallery wall, the Into the Pixel art can be yours.

All the art we've been featuring is available for sale on eBay, and all the proceeds from the sale go to Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Foundation, whose mission is to encourage the emerging talent in the video game industry through its scholarship programs in honor of two individuals who have contributed greatly to this medium, Randy Pausch and Mark Beaumont.

Check out all the incredible art on sale on eBay, and make a bid or two-- you know you want a nicer, classier wall hanging than that old Guns N Roses mirror you won at the state fair that time. Auctions end in three days, so don't sleep.

The 2011 Into the Pixel exhibit features twenty works of video game art, selected by a panel of jurors from a field of submissions gleaned from artists around the world. The exhibition offers an opportunity for published video and computer game artists to be reviewed and recognized by the public and by their peers in both the fine art and video game worlds.

We're highlighting the artists taking part in this year’s Into the Pixel exhibit leading up to the end of the DICE conference on February 11. Read on to find out about the artists behind this StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty artwork entitled "Tychus Findlay." (Click artwork image for a high-resolution version.)

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The 2011 Into the Pixel exhibit features twenty works of video game art, selected by a panel of jurors from a field of submissions gleaned from artists around the world. The exhibition offers an opportunity for published video and computer game artists to be reviewed and recognized by the public and by their peers in both the fine art and video game worlds.

We're highlighting the artists taking part in this year’s Into the Pixel exhibit leading up to the end of the DICE conference on February 11. Read on to find out about the artists behind this Disney Epic Mickey artwork entitled "Wasteland." (Click artwork image for a high-resolution version.)

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Last night at DICE 2011, Mass Effect 2 won the game of the year award. (I'm sure you watched our amazing live-stream of the Interactive Achievement Awards, right?) But that got me thinking: My GotY was Red Dead Redemption, hands down.  What about you? What game is your personal "of the Year?"

The results are in from the 14th annual Interactive Achievement Awards, and the big winner is Mass Effect 2. The game took home the Game of the Year award, as well as the prize for Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Story.

In terms of sheer numbers, Red Dead Redemption is the winner, taking home five total awards, including Best Outstanding Character Performance for John Marston and Action Game of the Year.

The full list of winners is below:

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Are free games better than paying for games? Adam Sessler conducted the DICE 2011 Hot Topics discussion about free games vs. paying games, inviting two developers to help get a better understand about the business side of these two different gaming techniques.

Min Kim, V.P. of Marketing for Nexon, makes his argument that games are meant to be free to play and shared with others like MapleStory, a 2-D, side-scrolling, massively multiplayer online role-playing game with endless character customization options that are all for free. However, on the other side  Matt Johnston, Senior Producer for PopCap Games, rebuttals that free games take you out of the gaming experience when charging you for better items or providing more content.

Which side do you believe has a valid point? Watch our video below and share your thoughts.

BioWare co-founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk are responsible for some of the most successful and acclaimed franchises in gaming, and during their DICE 2011 presentation, the doctors discussed the business philosophies and core values that have led to BioWare’s success.

Not surprisingly, BioWare puts a heavy emphasis on long-term goal oriented thinking, and the doctors advise that while it might be attractive and easy to think about the now, it’s much more beneficial, creatively and from a business perspective, to instead focus on the “power of then.”

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When it comes to figuring out what new, innovative, and original title Scribblenauts developer 5th Cell will pursue next, the developer's chief officers, Joseph Tringali and Jeremiah Slaczka, have some very clear ideas about what they want and what they don’t want, and it really comes down to two schools of thought: first to market or best of breed.

As evidenced by the success of the Nintendo DS smash hits Scribblenauts and Super Scribblenauts, 5th Cell’s approach is all about bringing fresh and original titles to market first.

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Mark Cerny is a big of a legend in the game development world, from 1982 to 2011, he's been there since the days of the arcade boom to working on today's current-gen games. He witnessed the crash of the video game crash of 1983 (and the not much talked about arcade crash of 1982), and he laid out the roadmap for the immediate future of video game development. 

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For his DICE 2011 panel discussion, famed game developer and “private astronaut” Richard Garriott focused primarily on his work in trying make commercial space flight a reality, but also spoke, rather tenderly, about the connection between his fascination with space and his passion for interactive entertainment.

“The same passion that drives the creation of games, which is, in my mind, an exploration of the unknown, is the same drive that drives me to do terrestrial exploration, deep sea exploration, even space exploration,” Garriott explained. “Not just as an observer, but also to help build those industries. I’ve helped open up the doors to those environments so that all of us can go. Just like when we create games,  we’re opening a door into these virtual worlds, so that we and our friends and our customers can go into those as well.”

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Dr. David Gallo is the Director of Special Projects at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, more commonly known to the rest of the world as the group of people who found the Titanic. At first glance, it would seem odd to have an oceanographer talking at DICE, but surprisingly, there are gaming applications relevant to both the discovery of Titanic, and its continued existence.

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For the opening session of EEDAR’s Hot Topics session at DICE 2011, G4’s own Adam Sessler sat down with Nexon developer Min Kim and PopGames dev Matt Johnston to discuss the strategies and philosophies behind two seemingly disparate schools of thought on how to make money on games: free vs. pay.

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DICE 2011: "Game Changers" Keynote Panel Video »

One thing about video game developers: they always want to know what the other guy or gal is playing. That's no different at DICE 2011 where the big guns at the Keynote talked about what has been occupying their time. There's probably an intrinsic need to know if someone has been playing your game.

There's no shame here, or is there? What are some of the heavy hitters playing? Read on to find out.

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The Interactive Achievement Awards will be streaming tonight (February 10) at 10:30PM ET / 7:30PM PT exclusively on G4tv.com. Each year the The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' honors the best technical and artistic achievements in video games. The awards will be hosted by comedian Jay Mohr.

If you miss the live stream tonight, you can watch it when it airs on G4 as an X-Play special Saturday, Feb. 12th at 4PM ET / 1PM PT. And as a special Valentines Day gift to you we're going to post the archived video of the awards show on Monday on G4tv.com. You have plenty of chances to watch it, so no excuses.

Our very own Adam Sessler conducted the Hot Topics discussions at DICE 2011 today, bringing together different people from around the industry and having them speak on relevant issues in the development community. One of those involved Jesse Schell, Professor of Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon, and founder of Schell Games, along with Chief Designer Brian Reynolds from Zynga.

Both men have a lot of development mileage under their hoods, with Jesse being a former Imagineer at Disney and founder of his own game studio (and the subject of last year's infamous "Toothbrush" game development video), and Brian having worked with Sid Meier and developed titles on his own like Civilization II and Rise of Nations, along with working on the XBLA version of Settlers of Catan with German board game creator Klaus Teuber.

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