Cliff Harris, the indie developer behind games like Rock Legend, Democracy and Kudos, muses on the limits designers impose on themselves when they try to make games in certain genres. Cliff asks 'Why were games so much more imaginative in the good ol' days?'

James Silva talks about how repetition in game design is actually a very good thing and, looking closely at games like Halo 3, Marathon, BioShock and Ninja Gaiden, asks whether repetitive gameplay is responsible for ruining otherwise excellent titles?

PC game sales only account for 14 percent of total sales, according to the latest half cracked study that ignores most PC games sales. Is it the beginning of a bad joke, or are the first pieces of the computer game sky falling? Brett Thomas discusses the hype, marketing, and utter idiocy.

Mark Morris of Introversion Software, makers of DEFCON and Darwinia, writes in this weeks developer column about publisher pressure, how all the characters in Darwinia almost had smiley faces on them and why it's good to be indie.

Simon Hill, designer for Outerlight Software, takes the stage this week to discuss trends in game difficulties. Are games becoming too easy, or are players just getting better? Can developers ever really balance frustration with satisfaction?

When we left the story, James had just entered in a competition to have his indie game published on Xbox Live. Now, read the second part to find out how he bagged the prize without winning and completed the transition from dishwasher to game designer.

On the last day of 2007, columnist Brett Thomas takes a look back at a year of the People vs. the RIAA. Who fought, who won, and what we have to look forward to in 2008 - a DRMerry New Year.

Rob Yescombe, games writer for Free Radical Design and the mind behind the upcoming Haze, takes the microphone in a new guest column. He asks, just why is it that there are no good TV shows about games and whether this could change any time soon?