Each workday morning I will be bringing you the latest events, articles and releases in the independent and mod development communities, as well as any mainstream news that seems pertinent.

Industry Articles:

• Things You Were Too Afraid to Ask: Tim 'spacemonkey' Appleby - In the first edition of "Things You Were Too Afraid to Ask," Splash Damage lead character artist Tim Appleby answers some questions about his development experience and life in general.
• Q&A: Neil McFarland On Gaming's Artistic Future - Neil McFarland, designer for the PSP title WipEout Pure, answered some questions from GameSetWatch editor Drew Taylor about the future of art in games.
• Q&A: Ugobe's Sosoka Explains Pleo's Game Design Philosophy - Gamasutra sat down with Pleo (the real-world NPC) creator Ugobe's CTO John Sosoka and asked him about his development experience and how it spurned the creation of Pleo, as well as future plans as a development platform in its own right.
  
• Student Postmortem: The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom - GameCareerGuide.com has a postmortem on this game that was developed as a USC graduate student thesis project.  Set in a silent film world "filled with mischief, time travel, and delicious pie," The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom represents more than just a game--it's the cumulative result of creator Matt Korba's academic experience.
  
• Super Mario Galaxy Demystified - Developer Jeremy Alessi explains how Mario Galaxy created its unique gravity-based, planet-specific physics and then reproduces it in a playable prototype and source code.
  

Developer Events

• Distant Hope Announced - Distant Hope is a new modification for Half-Life 2 being developed by a small group of modders including members of the Insurgency team. The mod aims to bring Battlefield 2-style gameplay to the Source engine--not an easy feat considering Source's issues with large maps and vehicles, but the mod has announced that it already has a working, optimized version of the Orange Box engine.  The mod is now concentrating on the art assets, and is recruiting.  If you are a modeler, texture artist, level designer, animator or concept artist and are looking to join a unique, interesting project, check them out!
  

Game Releases

• HER Airborne 2.3 (Mod for MOHA)
• Rect Winder ASCII (Indie)
• GZDoom 1.1.02 (Mod for ZDoom)
  

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! If you're interested in starting your own game development project (or already have one), don't forget to check out ModCenter, which can help you manage your project and move efficiently towards a successful release.