Game development news

The movement of Electronic Arts Warrington staff to local studios continues, with former EA NW technical director Fred Gill moving over to Birmingham-based Swordfish.

Two very different developers have signed up to product amBX-specific versions of their games, with indie team Introversion and Codemasters supporting Philips' upcoming 'ambient experiences' kits.

The popular Havok physics and animation tool has found another friend in game development, with Lionhead confirming that it has licenced Havok Complete for the production of Fable 2.

Last week's Game Connection event in Lyon saw its biggest turnout ever – over 600 development executives attended to forge deals with publishers and service providers.

Finalists have been announced for the ninth Independent Games Festival, which takes place in March next year as part of GDC 07.

Red 5, the US studio put together by former developers of World of Warcraft, has been boosted with a $18.5m investment injection from Benchmark Capital and Sierra Ventures.

Sentinel Studios, a new five-man games development team, has been opened in the US by the former bosses of Ubisoft's Sinister Games and independent Vicious Cycle.

After a successful beta, Microsoft's indie development tool Game Studio Express has hit public release, with XNA Creators Club, Garage Games' Torque X beta and a design competition launching, too.

The Casual Games part of 2007's Game Developers Conference has been expanded to two days.

Valve, creators of Half-Life and owners of the Steam distribution network, has said that the  addition of in-game advertisements to its Counter-Strike game could help fund new game mods.