This is the first installment of my daily blog on developer-based news in the industry. I will be covering mainly independent and mod development-related news, but anything that is significant to the industry as a whole will be included as well. If you're a developer or an industry hopeful and want to keep informed on the happenings around the 'net, be sure to check back here on a regular basis.

Industry Articles:

• Nailing The Interview, Part 2: Recruiting: What, Why & How? - Gamasutra writer and game industry specialist Marc Mencher discusses proper standards of practice when approaching the area of recruitment for your development team. Topics covered include recruiting internally, advertising (ad design, legalities) hiring a recruiter, resume processing, and successful filtering methods. While this article is applicable to large gaming companies, smaller indie teams and even mod teams can glean some useful tips as well.
  
• Q&A: Judd Talks Capcom Japan, Next-Gen Bionic Commando - This interview with Ben Judd, US Producer for Capcom in Osaka, Japan, covers some interesting topics--specifically the unique experience of being the only American producer in a Japanese gaming company, and his work on the upcoming Bionic Commando--and the implications of such.
• NOT Developer Blog - NOT, an independent crime-based MMO hosted on ModCenter, has posted their weekly developer blog on their project wiki. This team aims to make their development as transparent as possible--allowing for beginning developers to witness the developmental process in its entirety.
  

Developer Events

• Nordic Game Jam 2008 - This write-up outlines the results of the third annual "game jam" hosted in Copenhagen, Denmark, in which 19 game demos were produced in 40.5 hours. The non-profit event is hosted each year by the International Game Developer's Association (IGDA), Diginet.org and the Center for Games Research at IT-University in Copenhagen.
• Juice Games Open Day - Juice Games is hosting an event for students interested in game development in Cheshire, UK this April. If you are in the area, be sure to check this out for a wonderful opportunity.
  

Tool Releases

• Grome Modeler v1.2 - Quad Software, developers of the Grome modeler, recently announced the release of v1.2 of their terrain and scene-modeling platform. The new version includes new editing brushes, added support for automate tasks by scripting and improves upon existing tool performance. Client developing pipeline and engine integration has also been enhanced via data exporting plug-ins. A demo version of Grome is available for free and has been used by many AAA developers including Square Enix, CCP and Star Vault.

Game Releases

• Korax Arena v0.9.2 BETA (Mod for Hexen)
• THE HANGOVER (Indie)
• Leaders and Cities First Installment (Mod for Rise of Nations)
• Open Doors (Indie)
• Noiz2sa iPhone Port (Indie)
• Gun Mute (Indie)
• AtomHex (Indie)
  

That's all for today. If you know someone on Pwned.com who would be interested in reading these daily blogs in the future, please tell them to add me as a friend!