A group of developers have released a video showing the results of reverse engineering the Nintendo Wii U GamePad. The little experiment shows how the GamePad communicates with the main console system and notes that it isn't a very secure device. Speaking at length with Eurogamer's Digital Foundry one of the developers involved in the project - Pierre Bourdon - says that "The GamePad is actually not a very secure device...

Digital Eel has turned to Kickstarter to fund the follow-up title to its wonderful rogue-like space adventure games Strange Adventures and Weird Worlds. The new game is called Sea of Stars and features the same kind of lunch-break-length space adventures complete with randomly generated worlds, space exploration, turn-based space combat and the kind of quirky humor that the previous titles are known for.

InXile has managed to raise over $2.1 million dollars in just a few short days for its spiritual sequel to the hit RPG Planescape: Torment. Initially the company was looking to raise $900,000, but that number was surpassed in the first six hours of the crowd funding campaign. Torment: Tides of Numenera is a single-player role-playing game based on designer and writer Monte Cook's new tabletop role-playing game, Numenera. The game will be distributed DRM-free for Windows (PC), Mac, and Linux and will be available in English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Spanish.

Temple Run 2 has been downloaded over 50 million times on iOS, Android and Kindle devices, according to developer Imangi Studios. The latest game from Imangi Studios reached that milestone in just 13 days, breaking the previously set record for the fastest growing mobile game (Angry Birds held the previous record with 50 million downloads in 35 days in April of 2012).

Polygon has confirmed that Epic Mickey developer Warren Spector is no longer a part of Disney's games business. He along with everyone else at Junction Point Studios is now out of work.

Hugo Smits, founder of indie developer Goodbye Galaxy Games has responded to the concerns of developer Jools Watsham who lamented about the potential uptick in 3DS piracy after a hacker claimed that he was able to load pirated software onto Nintendo's hand-held. Goodbye Galaxy Games has developed a number of games for DSi-Ware including Flipper, Flipper 2, Ace Mathician and the upcoming game Color Commando.

Sony Online Entertainment CEO John Smedley wants cheaters to know that he will hunt them down to the ends of the earth and ban them from the recently launched first-person sci-fi online shooter PlanetSide 2. Smedley took to Twitter to let the community know that he will not let cheaters ruin the game for everyone else.

007 Legends maker Eurocom has been forced to lay off an estimated 150 of its 200 employee strong workforce, according to a report from GamesIndustry International. A statement from Eurocom studio director Hugh Binns to the publication confirms the number and a drastic restructuring of the company.

While Ethereal Entertainment's Faceless has been a top vote-getter on Steam Greenlight since the platform's launch in September, Valve has decided not to publish the game on Steam because of copyright concerns, according to Joystiq.

Vancouver-based developer Silicon Knights is being ordered by a U.S. court to recall and destroy all unsold copies of games using Unreal Engine 3, including Too Human and X-Men: Destiny. The new ruling on post-trial motions for the case between Silicon Knights and Epic Games also saw Epic's jury award upped from $4.5 million to over $9 million, much to the chagrin of the troubled studio.

A Kickstarter for a space in Los Angeles where independent developers can get together is being pitched today as the "LA Game Space." The idea of the project - should it get the $250,000 in funding organizers are asking for - is to transform an old warehouse in the Arts District of Los Angeles and turn it into a hot spot for game design and independent titles. They plan on hosting workshops, exhibitions, research labs, public events with guest speakers, and space where indie game makers can set up shop. Think of it as a sort of indie game commune, if you will.

Indie game studio Checkpoint has filed a lawsuit against Japanese publisher Marvelous AQL in a California court claiming that the company tried to initiate a hostile takeover and steal its employees in order to avoid a $2.5 million payment. The news comes from an extensive report on the case over at Gamasutra.

After dealing with a child sex scandal earlier this year, Sulake - the owners of the social teen hangout Habbo Hotel - had to make some serious changes and win back the trust of the community. With that controversy mostly behind them (the company changed much of how it handles communications within the virtual world and added other features that protect its young members), the company says that it wants to make Habbo Hotel a place where third-party developers can launch their own game titles.

While we often point out the failures of crowd-funded games like Haunts: The Manse Macabre, it's always good to bring you a story where a game has been successfully funded via a Kickstarter campaign and ends up being available for purchase.

Last week, Haunts: The Manse Macabre game developer Rick Dakan found that he had run out of money after successfully funding his game via a Kickstarter campaign. Obviously backers of the game were not pleased with this news and media outlets were quick to point out what happens to backers when a project they fund doesn't get completed (the general consensus being that they get screwed).

With five days to go, Obsidian Entertainment's Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for its old-school RPG Project Eternity has managed to raise $2,805,528 of its original $1,100,000 goal from 58,780 backers. The company has managed to surpass multiple stretch goals, which in turn has allowed them to add a ton of features and extras to the game that fans will appreciate. In the latest update to the Kickstarter page, Obsidian laid out its plans for the last five days of the campaign.

Looking to clarify some stories that have been written by the media about on-disc DLC found within Resident Evil 6's retail disc, Capcom has taken to the Capcom Unity blog to clear the air.

The man that many consider the face, heart and soul of Epic Games, has decided that it is time to take a breather and leave the company. Epic Games made the announcement last night via its official blog. The split seems amicable enough for the creative force behind the Gears of War series.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has launched an educational Facebook app contest today with 30 prizes worth a grand total of $2.5 million. The 'College Knowledge Challenge' kicks off this week with an "edtech hackathon" at Facebook’s headquarters at 1 Hacker Way in Menlo Park.

Nine of the developers who have games in Humble Indie Bundle 6 have gotten together to answer questions via an "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) thread on Reddit.

In episode 15 of the Super Podcast Action Committee, Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight talk about Harry Potter games, OUYA's Kickstarter success and pre-order, a dehydrated teen, piracy, free-to-play spending, and Nintendo and Sony's trouble getting third-party developers to love their hand-helds. Download Episode 15 here: SuperPAC Episode 15 (1 Hour, 5 Minutes).

The party is over for game developers that use "deceptive names or icons" that cause confusion or blatantly trick consumers into believing that a product represents a particular brand on the Google Play Store. Google has updated its developer program policy agreement for its Google Play Android store with a warning to developers trying to trick customers: "Apps must not have names or icons that appear confusingly similar to existing products."

Polygon offers some details on Critical Path, a documentary that takes an in-depth look at the art of game development using a series of interviews with a who's who of game developers and game industry luminaries. The documentary is being called an "open documentary" project and it is being put together by Los Angeles-based entertainment group Artifact.

Two different developers, two different takes on the practice of including DLC on retail game discs for future sales. The first is Tomoaki Ayano, the producer for Street Fighter x Tekken, who tells GameSpot that he was pretty disappointed in the individuals who hacked the retail game to unlock the 12 DLC characters on the disc.

An odd story on the conservative political news site The Daily Caller corners EA at GDC to ask them about the new SimCity game  and if it was inspired by the recent publicity related to former presidential candidate Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan. EA announced this week that they would release a new game in the city-building game series in 2013.

Android app developer RC3 has decided that it will fight lawyers representing teen heart throb Justin Bieber who sent the company a cease and desist over its game "Joustin' Beaver." The developer has preemptively filed a lawsuit against Bieber claiming that its game is a parody and therefore protected under the First Amendment. 

Hacker Brandon Wilson decided to tinker with Activision's Skylanders action figures to see how they work. In case you don't know, Skylanders uses action figures that are placed on a portal peripheral that makes them appear in the game by reading the bottom of the figure.

A California Superior Court judge has told EA that it must defend itself in the $400 million contract-interference suit brought by Activision over Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vince Zampella.

Develop Magazine's annual list of the top 100 best developers in the world has been released, and some of the top twenty choices are interesting. For example 2D Boy and ZeptoLab break into the top five, While Nintendo takes the top spot and Blizzard comes in at number five behind SCE Santa Monica. The list is available on Develop's web site and in the June issue of the magazine - on newsstands.

Some other interesting tidbits from this year's list: over half are iOS developers, more independent studios made the cut this year, over 30 of the listed studios had major retail hits, and more countries are represented than previous years.

Below are the top 20:

The official call for nominations for the second annual Game Developers Choice Online Awards at GDC Online in Austin are now open. Developer types can nominate their favorite online, social, and massively multiplayer online games for various awards.

The awards include such categories as Online Game Design, Social Network Games, Live Games, Visual Arts, Technology, and Community Relations. To be eligible, nominees had to have been launched during the May 2010 – May 2011 time period in North America. All game development professionals holding an active Gamasutra.com user account can nominate a game at www.GDCOnlineAwards.com.

The full list, along with a description of each, follows: