5 Years of GDAM

Apologies for the lack of attention last month.  I had some issues with my computers and am now in the process of building a new one.  I am still using mobile devices at the moment, which makes it harder to update.

Before the end of last year, I had in fact wanted to comment on the 5th year anniversary of GDAM blog.and go through some sort of 2014 year-end review.  5 years ago, GDAM started as an unofficial initiative of the IGDA Game Design SIG.  Its target audience was game designers, students, and other professionals in the industry.  I wanted the blog to be a forum for issues that particularly concerned game designers.  I meant it to be a community blog and not so much my blog, but I did take it upon myself to start writing more blog posts when there were lulls in participation.

In the early days, I had a co-editor, Altug Isigan, who helped to review and solicit articles.  Altug provided scholarly attention and added a dimension of critical analysis to the blog.  I also had a pantheon of repeat contributors who enjoyed the topics that were raised by fellow game designers.  The podcasts were very popular but they proved to be too work-intensive for me.  Altug finished his PhD thesis and afterwards, could not help with the blog as he did before.  He is now a professor.

Throughout the years, there have been starts and stops.  At times, I was working in full-time jobs that took me around the world and simply did not have the time.. Still, GDAM became a regular column in the IGDA Perspectives newsletter (which sadly has been discontinued) and I tried to at least keep a monthly schedule down.  At last, I relaxed the condition that all articles had to be on the monthly topic and simply accepted articles as they came, as long as they fulfilled one of the previously suggested topics.

I hope that as readers, you have found some enjoyment and usefulness in hearing the different voices and opinions expressed on this blog.  I sorta like the variety and I hope that I will get more contributions in the New Year.  And if you're a friend of mine, then yes, I will relentlessly bother you for an article :)

Best regards,

Sande Chen