Hobbyist Game-Related Stuff:


Opportunities to show your results to the world:

·       Imagine Cup: Games  Development Competition. Here is a sample design document (kind of brief) from this site. This is sponsored by Microsoft.

·       Dream Build Play: here is the link. This is sponsored by the Microsoft XNA Team.

·       Independent Games Festival: check this out, there is a whole community of people out there! J.

Miscellaneous information:

·       Gamasutra

·       Microsoft XNA: Check out Opportunities to sell you game for a profit (under XBOX Live Community).

·       IndieGames Site

·       http://www.gamedev.net: Comment from Dan Macdonald: One of the most active game development communities on the internet. Be sure to check out the forums. There are a lot of resources for novice and advanced game developers alike.

·       http://nehe.gamedev.net: Comment from Dan Macdonald: If you are interested in OpenGL game development, this is one of the top sites on the internet for tutorials and getting help from members of the OpenGL game development community.

·       DevMaster.net: DevMaster.net is a game/graphics development website featuring articles, resources, daily news updates, and an active forum.

·       IDGA (international game developer's association): Comment from Gabriel Holmes:
    
o   Seattle Sputnik: This is the local chapter of IDGA

·       http://www.gdconf.com: This is the link to the Games developer's conference (GDC).

Others

·       Games for Health

·       Serious Games Initiative

·       GarageGames: Home of independent games and games maker (TorqueX engine)

 

Graphics sites:

·       http://www.3dcafe.com

·       http://3drender.com

·       http://www.3dsite.com

Engines:

·       Panda3D: http://www.panda3d.org/  

·       Blade3D: http://www.bladegamesworld.com/  

·       GameMaker: http://www.yoyogames.com/

·       Unity 3D: http://unity3d.com/

  

Obviously this list is far from complete, send me your favorite game-related site with one sentence description and I will post it here.