Ah yes - time to go through the top full-length features of the past week on big sister site Gamasutra, plus extra features and Game Design Challenge goodness from fellow edu site GameCareerGuide.

Some really standout stuff this week -- including a super-long Benj Edwards interview with 3D Realms' Scott Miller, the already insanely popular 'Dirty Coding Tricks' piece from Game Developer magazine, plus a great Starcraft II interview, NPD analysis, and lots more besides.

Eels eels eels:

- 20 Years Of Evolution: Scott Miller And 3D Realms
"The shareware innovator charts a path through his origins as a programmer in high school all the way to the future of his work with Radar, his new company dedicated to IP formation and evolution."

- Dirty Coding Tricks
"When the schedule is shot and a game needs to ship, programmers may employ some dirty coding tricks to get the game out the door. Here are nine real-life examples."

- Upping Your Game's Usability
"How do you make your game UI more usable? Developer Glinert takes a look at the four main elements -- learnability, simplicity, efficiency, and aesthetic -- that help game usability to flourish."

- Shooting For The Stars: Blizzard's Sigaty On Developing StarCraft II
"Gamasutra recently sat down with Blizzard's StarCraft II's lead producer Chris Sigaty, and with him delved into the practices and pressures that have lead to the PC RTS, shipping its first chapter in 2010."

- NPD: Behind the Numbers, July 2009
"This closer look at NPD's U.S. video game retail data for July 2009 examines the possibility of a Nintendo DSi price drop, sales of EA's NCAA Football franchise, and the trends that will shape the rest of the year."

- Truly Independent Game Development: A Case For Making Games By Yourself
"Game educator Lindsay Grace argues for "independent independent development" -- the state of relying on oneself as much as one can, creating games that are truly unique and individual."

- All I Really Needed to Know About Games I Learned from Dungeons & Dragons
"Game instructor Pulsipher supplies a simple and effective list of the lessons the venerable tabletop game taught him about game design and playing -- which you can use in your own projects immediately."