Following company layoffs, former Valve employees Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson are continuing their work on one of the company's defunct projects: augmented reality glasses called CastAR, The Verge reports. CastAR operates through four main components: a pair of mini projectors, a retro reflective projector screen, active shutter glasses that filter images for both eyes and a built-in camera that uses infrared LEDs. This allows software to adjust in real time, meaning users can look at objects that aren't actually there, according to The Verge. Ellsworth and Johnson reportedly worked on the project for more than a year while at Valve. The two were let go in February of this year for reasons undisclosed by Valve. At the time of layoffs, Gabe Newell issued a statement that the...

The Denius-Sams Gaming Academy, a new certification program at the University of Texas in Austin, will attempt to bridge the growing gaps between the industry's creative teams. Led by Austin native Warren Spector and Blizzard chief operating officer Paul Sams, the program's faculty will impart studio leadership skills to just 20 selected applicants; a skillset which Spector believes is under-taught in game development schools across the country. "There's a segment of the video games education world that doesn't serve a particular need the industry has, which is well-trained creative and business leadership," Spector told Polygon in a recent interview. "Production and creative direction are not actually well-served by the other, very fine game development programs in the United States....

In The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, players take on the role of a hero who builds and fortifies a castle, which stores the treasures and loot they collect. Players then venture out to attack castles that belong to others in the hope of looting their treasure vaults. The game operates on an attack and defend loop: players use their coins and gems to buy creatures and traps to stop enemies from penetrating their castle and accessing their treasure and, in turn, players have to navigate through other people's castles that are also filled with creatures and traps. Speaking to Polygon, Ubisoft Montreal's Matt Zagurak said the studio wanted to make a game that was competitive and based on user-generated content because it thought it would be a fun idea to have "hundreds of thousands of...

Dust: An Elysian Tail, the hand-animated action role-playing game from creators Dean Dodrill and Alex Kain, will be released on Steam May 25, according to the game's Steam listing. The co-creators announced the Steam port earlier this year at PAX East, when they were hoping for an April release. Next Friday's Windows PC version will support Steam Achievements and Steam Cloud, and Dodrill wrote on Twitter that he'll be "looking at 'possible' Mac/Linux ports in the future." For more on the game, you can read Polygon's Dust: An Elysian Tail review of the Xbox 360 version and our feature chronicling the game's four-year development.