resumeplay writes: "Do we heap an unfair amount of expectations on Nintendo? Hmmm…Perhaps the best way to answer this is to consider the level of expectations you hold for a Nintendo-developed title…Yeah, poor Nintendo…So it’ll be a hard task, indeed, for Nintendo to build a new Zelda title that will please everybody.
So in the spirit of like for our friendly neighborhood huge business, here are a few suggestions for the next Wii Zelda title."
For those interested, we will be covering the whole conference via CoveritLive. We invite you to take part in the polls, and to share your predictions, before the show starts. Remember the conference starts at 4:00 PST. Hit the break for the latest updates.
GDC 2010: COO John Schappert says digital revenue will still be tied to shiny discs for years to come, expresses regret that Modern Warfare 2 developers will be spending time making court cases instead of games.
Who was there: John Schappert, chief operating officer of Electronic Arts, took part in a half-hour “Mythbusting Fireside Chat” with Los Angeles Times writer Alex Pham. The executive was expected to talk about the industry’s migration to digital distribution, the ultimate fate of retail game sales, and how social media and other recent trends will influence that evolution.
What they talked about: Alex Pham started the talk by recapping a bit of Schappert’s history, back when he was a lead programmer for Visual Concepts working on an EA Madden game and FIFA Soccer. Things quickly turned toward the future, as Pham questioned if there were any prospects at all for disc-based games with the advent of digital distribution.
Schappert called it a misnomer that retail discs would be done away with in the small term. He acknowledged that there’s a huge opportunity in digital distribution but pointed out that no matter how successful the current wave of add-ons and downloadable content may be, those business transactions still start with a retail sale of a physical disc. Even when most of the industry’s revenue is drawn from digital distribution, Schappert said he still expects the majority of that money to have been spent on extending and adapting a standard retail game.
Schappert said EA has seen consumers buying fewer games of late. Sales of the top 10 games are representing an increasing amount of the industry’s total take. He added that if a publisher doesn’t have a game in the top 30–and arguably, the top 20–then that company isn’t making money. Hit games are larger than ever, he said, and they’re selling for longer thanks to downloadable map packs and other add-ons. While Schappert stood by the “shiny disc business,” he emphasized that the model has changed, saying the days of “ship it and forget it” are behind the industry.
EA’s faith in retail games doesn’t mean the company is shying away from downloadable titles. Beyond its own efforts, the company has begun teaming with independent developers on digitally distributed titles through its EA Partners program. “It’s simpler than ever to be your own self-publisher,” Schappert said, before adding, “It’s harder than ever to stand out.”
Schappert also touted another EA development, the recent acquisition of Playfish. When questioned if the company aimed to use the company to further EA’s existing brands or launch new ones, the executive said gamers would likely see the developer produce both. Pham questioned if classic arcade titles were among those being considered, and while Schappert evaded the question, he did say it was an area EA was looking at.
When pressed about whether social gaming is a bubble waiting to pop, Schappert clarified that any bubble perception was due to a combination of the space being the “hot” thing right now and having low barriers to entry. As a result, he expects some social entities to emerge healthy, but he won’t be surprised to see others go under.
“It’s the place to be right now, but we’ll see what happens tomorrow,” Schappert said of social gaming.
When questioned about innovation and whether or not it’s the place for huge publishers to be, Schappert pointed to Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect, and Battlefield: Terrible Company. Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge were also name-dropped as Schappert touted the publisher’s track record with its own original products and ran down some of EA Partners’ success tales.
Pham brought up the recent Infinity Ward-Activision flap and questioned if EA is a excellent publisher (”mothership” was the word she used, referencing a Bobby Kotick presentation from last month’s DICE Summit) for developers to team with.
“Maybe you don’t pick motherships that like to litigate that much, or have a legal team that is a revenue-generating team,” Schappert said, drawing a wave of laughter from the crowd.
Joking aside, Schappert said he was disappointed with the situation, calling former Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella two of the best creative people in the industry. He also singled out Modern Warfare 2 as a fantastic game.
“To reckon that they’re going to be spending their time dealing with lawyers instead of making games is a loss,” Schappert said.
Quote/Takeaway: “At the end of the day, online is fantastic. It’s a nice evolution of our space. But it does all start with a shiny disc.”
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Ambitious HD game-streaming service to debut on PC, Mac during E3, micro-consoles to follow; will cost $15/month; 1080p, 60fps service coming 2011.
One year after it was unveiled at the 2009 Game Developers Conference, OnLive finally has a launch date. Company CEO Steve Perlman announced today at his keynote address at the GamesBeat mini-conference at GDC 2010 that OnLive will go live on June 17. The service will initially be available as an application for the Windows and Mac operating systems, with a micro-console that can be attached directly to HDTVs to arrive later on in the year.
OnLive’s launch will be limited to the contiguous lower 48 United States and will cost $14.95 per month. According to the
OnLive Blog, the first 25,000 thousand people to sign up will have the service fee waived for three months. (To apply, sign up on the
official OnLive site.) Multi-month pricing and other promotions will be announced prior to the service’s debut.
OnLive’s monthly fee does not include the buy price of games themselves, which can be rented or bought from publishers directly at a lower-than-retail price. Publishers supporting the service with PC titles include Electronic Arts, Take-Two, THQ, Ubisoft, Epic, Atari, Codemasters, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. At the DICE Summit last month, Perlman demonstrated both Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3 running on the service with minimal lag.
The June launch will only be the start of the OnLive rollout. The service will offer 1080p high-definition gaming at 60 frames per second starting in 2011. An international launch is also plotted for an undetermined date.
For those unfamiliar with OnLive, the service aims to offer lag-free PC gaming via the Web. The company claims that since the heavy lifting of graphics processing will be done on the service’s servers, it will offer high-definition gaming on any PC or Mac, regardless of graphics card or CPU speed.
The addition of the micro-console will also allow the service to be streamed directly onto televisions, without the need for a standard game console. Perlman sees this as a positive because OnLive games will not be tied to increasingly antiquated consoles. He promised that the OnLive servers would receive graphical upgrades every six months in order to provide the latest PC graphics.
For a detailed look at OnLive in action, read
GameSpot’s coverage of Perlman’s DICE presentation or watch the OnLive announcement video below.
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Have you and your squad bought Battlefield: Terrible Company 2 yet? If not, you could save $50 by purchasing the BF:BC2 Four Pack through Steam.
Some gamers are questioning what version of Final Fantasy XIII should be picked up, the Xbox 360 or the PS3 version? There is some info that may swing gamers towards the PS3 version, that involves FFXIV.
Thursday’s Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony and Wednesday’s suspected motion-controller unveiling top coverage of San Francisco event; write-ups of Meier, Pardo, Molyneux, Pitchford, Muzyka, Sakamoto, Yamaoka, Toriyama, and Schafer talks also on tap; full schedule inside.
SAN FRANCISCO–The 2010 Game Developers Conference started today with the Independent Games Summit kickoff, a session on “guerilla” development, and a (very) brief talk by Caleb Arseneaux from Scribblenauts developer 5TH Cell. Tomorrow morning, the main conference will start with a series of presentations, including talks by BioWare co-founder and CEO Dr. Ray Muzyka, Bungie creative director Joseph Staten, and Electronic Arts COO John Schappert.
The event will shift into high gear at 4 p.m. PST Wednesday, when Sony Computer Entertainment will hold a press conference. Though no details are yet public, the company is expected to use the event to show off the PlayStation 3’s motion-control system, widely believed to be called the “PlayStation Arc.” GameSpot will be on hand with both live video streaming and liveblog coverage, accessible from the main GameSpot GDC page.
Thursday will see full coverage of presentations by Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka, Metroid co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto, Naughty Dog’s Richard Lemarchand, Lionhead’s Peter Molyneux, and Blizzard Entertainment’s Rob Pardo. Besides the arrival of the latest NPD report, there will also be a special live GDC edition of Today on the Spot, broadcast from the nearby GameSpot Studios at 4 p.m. PST.
That evening, GameSpot will exclusively stream the Game Developers Choice Awards, hosted by Deus Ex and Thief creator Warren Spector, who is currently at work on Epic Mickey at Disney Interactive Studios. Uncharted 2 will be the most-nominated game at the ceremony, which will also see id Software’s John Carmack take home the Lifetime Achievement Award for over 20 years of work on the Doom and Quake series.
Valve Software’s Gabe Newell will receive the 2010 Pioneer Award for his work on the Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, Portal, and Left 4 Dead series. The ceremony starts at 6:30 p.m. with the Independent Game Festival winners, followed by the main awards show approximately a half-hour later.
Friday morning coverage starts at 10:30 a.m. PST, with GameSpot’s liveblog of GDC keynote speaker Sid Meier, founder of Firaxis games and creator of the iconic Civilization strategy series. Also scheduled are write-ups of presentations by Gearbox Software’s Randy Pitchford and Final Fantasy XIII writer Motomu Toriyama, as well as sessions covering Batman: Arkham Asylum, disabled gaming, and Xbox Live achievement data.
GameSpot will also be covering a panel which will see Pardo, Muzyka, and other industry heavyweights discuss how online connectivity will become more central to games in the future. That afternoon will also see another live edition of TOTS at 4 p.m.
GDC 2010 wraps up on Saturday with sessions focusing on Mass Effect 2, Shadow Complex, and Assassin’s Creed II. Ubisoft Montreal’s narrative director Richard Rouse will give a talk on evoking serious emotions, while Double Fine CEO Tim Schafer will host a panel discussing (what else?) comedy.
For more on these events and all the latest screenshots, videos, previews, interviews, and breaking news, keep your browser set to GameSpot’s ongoing 2010 Game Developers Conference coverage.
GAMESPOT’S GDC 2010 COVERAGE – SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
TUESDAY, MARCH 9
Scheduled Sessions:
–”From Huge Studio to Small Indie: Guerrilla Tactics from Hello Games ” – Sean Murray (managing director, Hello Games)
–”Indies and Publishers: Fixing a System That Never Worked” – Ron Carmel (Co-founder, 2D Boy)
–”5TH Cell: From Mobile to Handheld & Beyond” – Caleb Arseneaux (Producer, 5th Cell)
–IGF KEYNOTE: “Increasing Our Reach: Designing To Grab and Retain Players” – Randy Smith (owner and game designer, Tiger Style)
BioWare CEO Ray Muzyka will share his thoughts on building blockbusters franchises like Mass Effect.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10
4 p.m. PST: SONY GDC 2010 PRESS CONFERENCE, speakers and subject TBA. – Streaming LIVE w/ text liveblog accompaniment.
Scheduled Sessions:
–”Building a Blockbuster Franchise” — Joseph Staten (Creative Director, Bungie), Ray Muzyka (CEO and General Manager, BioWare Corp.)
–Indie Gamemaker Rant! – Various speakers
–Mythbusting Fireside Chat – John Schappert (Chief operating officer, Electronic Arts)
–”The Relentless March Towards Free…and What it Means to the Games Industry” – Kristian Segerstrale (vice president and general manager, Playfish)
THURSDAY, MARCH 10
4 p.m. PST: Today on the Spot LIVE: Special GDC Edition
6:30 p.m. PST: Independent Game Festival Awards – Streaming LIVE!
~7 p.m. PST: Game Developers Choice Awards, hosted by Warren Spector – Streaming LIVE!
Scheduled Sessions:
–”Achievements Considered Harmful?” – Chris Hecker (definition six, inc.)
–”Among Friends – An Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Post-Mortem” – Richard Lemarchand (game designer, Naughty Dog)
–”As Long as the Audio is Fun, the Game Will Be Too” – Akira Yamaoka (Grasshopper Manufacture Studio)
–”Building an Open-World Game Without Hiring an Army” – Nate Fox (game director, Sucker Punch Productions {Infamous})
–”Making a Unique Visual Direction: The Successes and Failures of Making a Near-Future Cyberpunk Setting with a Renaissance Twist in Deus Ex 3 ” – Jonathan Jacques-Belletete (Art director, Eidos Montreal)
–”Epic Games/Unreal Engine 3 Media Briefing” – Speaker TBA
–”From Metroid to Tomodachi Collection to WarioWare: Different Approaches for Different Audiences” – Yoshio Sakamoto (Group manager/software plotting and development department, Nintendo)
–”Making a Standard (and Trying to Stick to it!): Blizzard Design Philosophies” – Rob Pardo (VP, game design, Blizzard Entertainment)
–”Peering into the Black Box of Player Behavior: The Player Experience Panel at Microsoft Game Studios” – Bruce Phillips (User researcher, Microsoft)
–”The Complex Challenges of Intuitive Design” – Peter Molyneux (Head of studio, Lionhead Studios), Josh Atkins (studio design director, Microsoft Games Studio)
–”What Happened Here? Environmental Storytelling”- Harvey Smith (Game director, Arkane Studios), Matthias Worch (Senior level designer, Visceral Games)
FRIDAY, MARCH 12
10:10 a.m. PST: GDC KEYNOTE: “The Psychology of Game Design (Everything You Know Is Incorrect)” Sid Meier (Director of creative development, Firaxis Games)
4 p.m. PST: Today on the Spot LIVE: Special GDC Edition
Scheduled Sessions:
–”Accessibility Arcade: Bringing AAA Game Titles to the Disabled Through Controller Hacks” – Michelle Hinn (Chairperson, IGDA Game Accessibility Special Interest Group), Tara Tefertiller (VP game industry relations, Right to Fun Foundation)
–”Borderlands and the 11th Hour Art Style Change. Or: Kids, Don’t Try this at Home! ” – Brian Martel (Co-Founder & chief creative officer, Gearbox Software), Randy Pitchford (President and CEO, Gearbox Software)
–”The Crystal Mythos and Final Fantasy XIII” – Motomu Toriyama (Scenario writer for Final Fantasy XIII, Square Enix)
–”The Art Direction of Batman: Arkham Asylum: Rebooting a Super Hero Video Game IP” – David Hego (Art director, Rocksteady)
–”The Connected Future of Games” – Min Kim (Vice president, Nexon America Inc.), Ray Muzyka (CEO and general manager, BioWare Corp.), Rob Pardo (VP, game design, blizzard entertainment), Brian Reynolds (Chief designer, Zynga), Jason Holtman (Director of business development, Valve)
–”Double Header Analysis: Xbox Live Achievement Data and Intellectual Property Trends in Video Games” – Geoffrey Zatkin (President & COO, Electronic Entertainment Design and Research), Jesse Divnich (Vice President of Analyst Services, EEDAR)
–”The Game Design Challenge 2010: Real-World Permadeath” – Eric Zimmerman (Independent), Heather Kelley (Founder and game designer, Kokoromi), Erin Robinson (Independent Game developer, Wadjet Eye Games), Jenova Chen (Co-founder, thatgamecompany), Kim Swift (Project lead/game designer, Airtight Games)
–”Console Wars Revisited: Are We Breaking the Mold or Reliving History?” – Don Daglow (President & CEO, Don Daglow Interactive Entertainment)
SATURDAY, MARCH 13
–”Designing Assassin’s Creed 2″ – Patrick Plourde (Lead game designer, Ubisoft)
–”Designing Shadow Complex” – Donald Mustard (Creative director, Chair Entertainment Group)
–”Five Ways a Video Game Can Make You Weep” – Richard Rouse III (Narrative director, Ubisoft Montreal)
–”Make ‘Em Laugh: Comedy in Games” – Tim Schafer (CEO, Doublefine), Rhianna Pratchett (Freelance scriptwriter and narrative designer, Independent), Sean Vanaman (Writer & designer, Telltale Games), John Teti (Games writer, The A.V. Club)
–”Rock Band Network: Postmortem” – Matthew Nordhaus (Senior producer: design, Harmonix Music Systems), Caleb Epps (Senior sound designer, Harmonix Music Systems)
–”Where Did My Inventory Go? Refining Gameplay in Mass Effect 2)” – Christina Norman (Lead gameplay designer, Bioware
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GDC 2010: Tiger Style co-owner Randy Smith advocates immediacy, depth as a way to elevate the status of small-scale developers.
Who was there: Tiger Style Games co-owner Randy Smith delivered the 2010 Independent Game Summit keynote address at this year’s Game Developers Conference. Though Tiger Style is perhaps best known for its critically acclaimed iPhone title Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, Smith’s resume includes creative director at EA Los Angeles as well as project director of Ion Storm’s Thief: Deadly Shadows. Smith also served in a designer role at Looking Glass Studios, working on the critically acclaimed Thief: The Dark Project and Thief II: The Metal Age.
What he talked about: Smith’s keynote address was titled “Increasing Our Reach: Designing to Grab and Retain Players.” The veteran-turned-indie game designer offered the congregated masses tips on ways to improve game design and, in turn, help raise the profile and earning potential of smaller-scale games.
But first, Smith cautioned that his design tips don’t apply to all indie games, as many by their nature seek to push the boundaries of what interactive software can be. But, this mentality doesn’t give developers license to design terrible games, he said.
Launching into his talk, Smith emphasized two key design elements that are vital for indie games: immediacy and depth. Beginning with immediacy, he offered the example of Adam Atomic and Danny B’s Canabalt. The game, he said, is a fantastic example of immediacy, thanks to its simple controls and the ease by which players can try again after failure. The game does have a low threshold for failure, though, which can have a negative initial impact on players.
Powerful immediacy can be achieved through solid “affordances,” which are essentially the things in a game that players can do. Explaining this concept, Smith said that a weak affordance would be bullets that bounce off a wall, while a strong affordance would be bullets that can deform terrain. Juicy affordances–such as accelerating and decelerating while running or adding particle effects to certain objects–are also a key element of immediacy, he said.
InMotion Software’s I Dig It is a solid example of a game that combines strong and juicy affordances, he said. In it, gamers search for treasure by digging tunnels in the ground. Smith noted the ample feedback that the game provides, as well as the strong affordance of deforming the environment.
One game that doesn’t offer particularly strong immediacy, according to Smith, is 5TH Cell’s million-unit-selling Scribblenauts. In particular, Smith takes exception with the laborious tutorial process, which prevents players from simply jumping into the game by going into intricate detail on the various ways to use its tools. He believes that it is vital to show players the tools but let them figure out how to use them.
Smith then transitioned to the thought of depth in game design. Returning to I Dig It, Smith called out the positive depth mechanics of upgrades and resources, as well as multiple levels and environmental features. One negative of depth for this game, he noted, was that the core mechanic–that is, digging–is always the same.
One excellent strategy for getting gamers deeper into a game, he continued, was the concept of “depth on demand.” Through this design strategy, the game gives players a high rate of success but lets them pursue additional accomplishments to truly master it. To use this design method successfully, he said, it’s vital to inform players about how much of the game they really saw, so they know how much was left behind.
As a way to increase depth, Smith brought up the notions of “low- and mid-level loops.” A low-level loop relies on specific tactics and deals with what players really do to address the problems at hand. Conversely, a mid-level loop requires more strategy and invites players to reckon about what they need to do to accomplish their overall goals.
Depth can also be increased through gobs of content, Smith said, using the example of Backflip Studios’ Ragdoll Blaster. The puzzle game offers nearly 200 different, small levels, and it slowly introduces new features as players progress. The additions are on the shallow side, but their cumulative effect is to provide substantially more depth to the play experience, he said.
Smith then offered two games that he regards as some of the best available from the indie community in terms of combining immediacy and depth. The first, Farbs’ Captain Forever, is an Asteroids-esque shooter that lets players customize their ships from parts salvaged in space. The game features extensive customization that impacts the actual physics of how the ship handles and performs.
As for immediacy positives, Smith said the game features a simple control scheme with clear feedback to players. It also has strong and juicy affordances, namely in the way that ships explode. As for depth, Captain Forever offers extensive and meaningful ship-building, where players are rewarded for being creative.
Because his talk aimed to improve indie game design, Smith then offered some suggestions on what Farbs could have done better. He noted that the immediacy could be improved if there were a more forgiving experimentation process with ship construction or if there were a more defined pause in which players could customize their ships. As for depth, Smith suggested giving players more of a reason to customize their ships, or adding in environmental objects, such as gravity wells and asteroids.
The second game Smith was particularly keen on was Derek Yu’s Spelunky, which is a 2D platformer with an Indiana Jones theme that features deformable terrain. Again, simple controls, clear feedback, and strong affordances were hailed as positive immediacy. As for depth, the game brings many of the design mechanics of the roguelike genre (reckon Diablo) to platforming, so it features random content and varied level layouts. He said that it also has core game mechanics that change frequently, features a strong “depth on demand” component, and has fascinating power-ups, enemies, traps, and scenarios.
As a way to improve Spelunky’s immediacy, Smith suggested a refinement to the game’s control scheme. Also, he felt that the game is currently a bit too hard.
Smith closed his keynote address by stressing that his design philosophy of immediacy with depth is just one way in which game makers can make compelling play experiences. The overall goal, though, is to elevate the indie gaming scene so that those who make innovative software can gain a higher level of recognition and support for their work.
Quote: “What I want: Indie to have more fans.”–Randy Smith
Takeaway: Smith’s design philosophy of combining immediacy with depth could help build an audience for indie games by making more enjoyable, rewarding experiences for players. And even though indie developers are notorious for bucking the “rules,” Smith believes there is still room for making smart game design choices.
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Contract prices for Blu-Ray machines are falling as the industry misses the point about what is putting on the brakes for the technology.
Digitimes reports that Contract-manufacturing quotes for PC-use Blu-ray Disk drives have dropped to $70-80. This is still much higher than the $20 for DVD drives, but is falling quick. But makers of Blu-ray machines are not finding that the gear is shifting at anywhere near the high numbers required for the technology to take off.
Microsoft has recently claimed that this years Electronic Entertainment Expo will feature a showcase of titles from developers that are currently working on games with project Natal capabilities. Microsoft has also recently released a list of developers that are currently working with Natal. This list of developers are the ones that you are likely to see showcasing games with this new technology.
