I'll be teaching a game design and production overview class at UCSC Extension in the bay area, CA soon (starts July 11). The class will review the fundamentals of the gaming industry and what's involved in making a game. Students will also learn how to use the Neverwinter Nights 2 toolset to make a simple module. If you're interested in taking the class,to find out morego to

http://courses.ucsc-extension.edu/ucsc/public/category/courseDetails.do;jsessionid=CF3B3096519A955791099235E4C0FD3D?method=load&courseId=4241142&selectedCategoryId=1000075&selectedProgramAreaId=1000171&selectedProgramStreamId=1528553

(sorry about the long URL - gamespot wouldn't let me use tinyurl.com to shorten it). Discount rates are available. If you have any questions about the course feel free to ask.

iPhone games are the biggest thing for me right now. I've always played Mac and PC games in the past (and some PSP games - don't have any major consoles right now), but they've taken a back seat to some extent. The exception being NWN2 - I've been playing that this past year, and more importantly, been making my own single player module for it.

But the iPhone's app store is the major draw right now - it's seriously addictive! Games are all under $10, and many of them under $5 (though the really high quality, mainstream games are usually $5-10). I've purchased a number of really good games for only $1 each - if you catch them at the right time (either when they're first released or when they go on sale), you can get really good deals.

In fact, there are now so many games out there and so many released every day, I got a (free) app. that helps me keep track of what's new and the prices of the ones I'm most interested in. The biggest problem of course is that because the games are so cheap, I end up buying a lot of them, and then don't have enough time to play them all! :p

The ones I've been recently playing the mostare: The Quest, Blimp, Defender Chronicles, DarkRaider, Galaxy on Fire, Wolfenstein, Flight of the Amazon Queen, Dungeon Defense, Strongholds, iDracula, Zombieville, Orions, Poker Deluxe, Uniwar, Saucelifter, Stragea, 7Day Mutation.

Apple has definitely done something right for the mobile/handheld market with the iPhone and app store. The funny thing is, Apple doesn't pay much attention to games - I'm not sure they knew how big gaming would be.