At the GDC I got a definite sense of a "sea change" occuring in the industry, with a shift from single-processing, single-threaded, single-core programming to at least a preparation for multi-core, multi-threaded, multi-processing environments. In addition, I sensed an increasing emphasis on middleware and specialization, which I think makes perfect sense, with several vendors showing off technologies for very specific aspects of game development: Bionatics' natFX and SpeedTree for foilage, Criterion's RenderWare for rendering, some small company with a nice booth near us for physics (their demo had you crash in a car, with spectacular ragdoll animations of the driver flying out of the convertible, as well as some really nice audio).

So the challenge for us, with our mission (note: this is NOT GameDev.net's mission statement!) to be the premier resource for game development, is how we provide meaningful resources for the increasing numbers of aspiring and current game developers for this environment. In addition, an examination of our current setup indicates that we have a weakness in terms of bringing beginners along, up to basic competence.


Profile-Driven Resources

I'm experimenting with the idea of a profile-driven "learning path," in which each member answers a number of questions that help us determine his/her current and target skill levels, and formulate a sequence of knowledge to be presented to him/her. In addition, we can then track the progress of each individual and present supplementary resources as he/she advances. This approach also lets us more specifically recommend texts, etc.

I just want to put the idea out there and get some feedback, so please post your comments. Thanks.