In the July edition of Vancouver Magazine is my profile of Stewart Butterfield, co-founder of Flickr and the guy leading the development on Glitch, a new social MMO that just hired creative genius Keita Takahashi, the guy who designed Katamari Damacy.

Stewart Butterfield first put his mind to making a video game nearly 10 years ago. He and some friends had formed a company to make a title called Game Neverending. Building from the technology used in that game, they created other software projects, including a photo-sharing application.

In the June 30 edition of the Georgia Straight is my article looking at how the independent game developer scene in Vancouver has grown by leaps and bounds in the past year.

A couple times in the past few months, the VFS Café on West Hastings Street has overflowed with a motley assortment of people. They call themselves Full Indie, and they are a bright spark in Vancouver’s video-game development scene.

I spent last week in Los Angeles, covering the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Of all the games I saw, and there were some great games, my favourites were three smaller titles: From Dust, Journey, and Soundshapes.

Links to my articles are below:

• New Halo, voice-controlled games make noise at Xbox E3 event
• Sony prices new handheld video game device, makes 3-D more affordable
• Nintendo celebrates Zelda’s anniversary, release of new game console Wii U
• Big games abound at E3 2011, but smaller games the most charming

When it comes to racing, the thing I like best about the off-road games is the variability of the terrain. With both Dirt 3 (Codemasters; PC, PS3, Xbox 360; rated teen) and MotorStorm: Apocalypse (Sony; PS3; rated teen), gamers can race vehicles on all manner of tracks and surfaces, including sand, gravel, asphalt, grass, and ice.

In last week’s Georgia Straight is my look at Infamous 2 through an interview with Joe Ishikura, from Sucker Punch, the game’s developers.

By the end of Infamous, protagonist Cole MacGrath is something of a superhero. In the sequel to the 2009 video game, a PlayStation 3 exclusive developed by Sucker Punch Productions, Cole becomes even more powerful.