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Shadow Government tries to combine real-world policy with casual gameplay
Shadow Government was probably the most fascinating game I saw at GDC. I should probably clarify that: I didn't see much of the game in action, but what I did see showed off an excellently designed UI and some good looking (if a little complicated) Farmville-style game mechanics. The most fascinating thing about Shadow Government isn't what it does, but what its developers hope to do. Nicholas Fortugno is the game's main designer, and though he's still fairly young, he has a number of solid iOS and award-winning game credits to his name. He's also a teacher of game design, and with Shadow Government, he says he's aiming to not only bring up the level of these Farmville-like social freemium games, but also help players to take a long, hard look at the effects of real-life issues. That may sound a little nuts -- it certainly does to me. But Shadow Government isn't just driven by Fortugno's freemium engine. It's also driven by a number of simulations from a real-life group called The Millennium Institute, a think tank that does hardcore policy analysis for a number of corporations and countries around the world, setting up models as accurately as possible that will predict the given effects for any number of real life decisions. What if the price of oil goes up, or agriculture is de-funded, or minimum wages in a certain company go down? The Millennium Institute models situations exactly like that, and Fortugno has been given access to all of those simulations in order to model this game. On the surface of Shadow Government, you're placed in control of the future of the real-life United States and given a set of freemium tools to make decisions for the country. Do you build up industry by building a factory, or grow education by building a school? Underneath that relatively simple interface, the Millennium Institute's simulations are running. If you want to, you'll be able to dive into the background of the app and really see the effects all of your decisions have. Fortugno hopes that the game will actually teach people how certain policies work by dealing with real-world issues in this very social, casual way. The policies and analyses that Fortugno talks about and that the Millennium Institute researches are extremely complicated affairs, some that I'm sure would require multiple degrees of study to really research and understand fully. But Fortugno is convinced that even given the relatively simple interface of a freemium game, he can at least get people interested in making these decisions. Seeing the effects of those decisions might push people to educate themselves further. Shadow Government's not necessarily an educational game. As Fortugno told me, it wouldn't help to market the game that way, and it's not necessarily meant to be an experience built around numbers and simulations. But Fortugno says it is meant to be a title "for people who don't play games in contexts that they don't play games about." In other words, Fortugno's trying to take Farmville and actually use it to make people think about and even understand the real world around them a little further. Shadow Government is currently being worked out in a closed beta, and it's set to come out later this year. Fortugno certainly has the chops for a project like this, and as I watched him animatedly talk at GDC, it became apparent very quickly that he wants to make it work. The game's idea and ideals are both quite fascinating, so I hope Shadow Government pulls it off.
Big Fish Games scores a hit with Fairway Solitaire
My meeting with Big Fish Games' Patrick Wylie was one of my last meetings at GDC, but it was also one of my most satisfying. It turns out I'm not alone in my esteem for the great Fairway Solitaire app this company has put together; "This game is growing our audience," Wylie told me. That's quite a big statement. Big Fish has been around for a while making PC titles designed for a very casual audience, usually hidden object games and other casual time management fare. It's been trying to break out in the iOS market for about the past year and a half. Before Fairway Solitaire, the company hadn't really had a hit on this level, and I'd argue it was because the company was playing around with its standard casual titles rather than digging in deep. It makes sense when you consider this game's rocky past. Back in 2008, Wylie says Big Fish Games had one of its biggest PC hits with a hidden object game, and one of the developers got the idea to do a solitaire game with a golf framing on it. However, the decision was that Big Fish should catch a wave with hidden object titles and ride that trend for all it was worth. Fairway Solitaire got put on the back burner, and Big Fish went on to build its reputation on casual gaming. Last year, as the company was trying to gain ground on iOS, Fairway Solitaire showed up in development again, and I actually saw a very early version of it at GDC 2011. But while the game was technically complete last October, Wylie and company decided to go back to the drawing board and spent five months "tuning a game that was already done, just trying to get the experience as exactly right as possible." All that work apparently paid off; Fairway Solitaire has huge conversion rates for Big Fish, and its players are among the most engaged players on the whole App Store. Wylie says he would have liked to see this success sooner, but he doesn't really regret all of the work done on the game before release. "I'm glad we actually did wait," he told me. Big Fish is very excited about the success of Fairway Solitaire, and just like its earlier hidden object games, Big Fish plans to take full advantage of that popularity. Up first on the iOS game, there's a spring update coming with a brand new pack of maps for players to play through. Big Fish has another Fairway Solitaire-based title planned, and we can expect a summer pack as well, with lots more content and features to come. "We're going to service this forever," says Wylie, or at least as long as the game's players are willing to play. "I don't know where it's going to stop," he says of Fairway's rising sales. Big Fish's next game will be called Lifequest, a freemium RPG title designed around performing real-life tasks like getting a job, working, or even eating out or buying a pet. Lifequest has been Big Fish's "best performing non-hidden object adventure game" on the PC and Mac according to Wylie, so he has big hopes for how it will do on Apple's touchscreen platforms. Another big title due soon is Plunder, a pirate-based puzzle game in which you guide a set of pirate ships through dangerous watery grids by propelling them forward in the right order and at the right time. Plunder's been under development on iOS for awhile, and it's not quite as complicated as Fairway Solitaire, which itself isn't all that hard. Big Fish isn't giving up on hidden object games; the company is also releasing the latest version of the popular Mystery Case Files series, called the 13th Skull. It's jam-packed with full motion video, letting players interact with live action characters as they explore a haunted house and have to find all sorts of items and solve simple adventure-style puzzles. These games tend to appeal to a very specific audience more than anyone else, but Big Fish hopes the production values make it stand out in an already very packed market. Big Fish is very excited about Fairway Solitaire, and we can expect to see much more of that game coming in the future. I've always been a proponent of more complicated games, even for casual players. While many developers on the App Store are racing for a lowest-common denominator style of super casual freemium gameplay, Fairway Solitaire shows that with a quality, compelling gaming experience, you can attract engaged gamers from all over.
Tatem Games goes freemium with Dream Gym and more
I last talked with the folks of Tatem Games at last year's GDC. The Ukraine-based developer has had a few hits on the App Store already, and this year Tatem Games tells me it's headed onto other platforms. For example, the popular Carnivores game is heading to Android and aiming for release on a major traditional console very soon. On iOS, Tatem has also been caught up in the freemium trend and is working on an engine to develop its own original freemium titles. The first one of these is called Dream Gym, and I got to see a few nonplayable demos of it. It's a freemium time-based title, very similar to Farmville and other popular games, but instead of growing a city, farm, or community, you're growing muscles. Dream Gym is a workout title where you level up both a character and the gym itself, doing various exercises over time to earn XP and money. Tatem has some interesting plans for monetizing the game beyond players as well. There is advertising built in to Dream Gym, and Tatem is hoping to get some in-game advertising funds, perhaps by selling space on in-game billboards and posters. The "workouts" in the game were also all designed by a real-life exercise trainer, so players could follow their 3D avatars and do the same exercises to work out for real. Doing so could lead to real-life rewards; Tatem's rep suggested the game might offer a gym membership for leveling up or similar partnership ideas. If you're not a fan of the freemium farming games, you might not like Dream Gym, but the gym and fitness tie-ins should be interesting. It's set to come out by May or June this year on iOS. Tatem is also planning to publish a completely free title called Fill the Bag: Crazy Catering, a simple arcade game originally developed as a prototype for the company. It's a simple but addictive game where you fill the trays of a series of schoolkids just by tapping on the ingredients each one asks for, then tapping on the kids themselves. It's cute and fun, and Tatem says it will periodically update the app with season-styled skins, both as a gift for fans and to promote the company's other games. Tatem has a few other plans in place for the future, including publishing an iOS game called Epic Stand. It was originally developed for Flash (and you can see it in action online), and it should be out on iOS sometime in April. Clearly, Tatem is keeping busy. We'll keep an eye out for Dream Gym and see how the next few titles from this already quite experienced foreign developer turn out.
Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft: three very different takes on portable gaming at GDC 2012
Tim Cook says the darnedest things. Why, just last week Apple's head honcho suggested that iPad users are ditching their home consoles in favor of Cupertino's favorite slate. Bold words, ones that can't be sitting well with the gaming industry's big three. Steady thy rifle, hardcore gamer, Cook has a point: the console wars have shifted irreversibly. Gone are the days of bickering over somewhat similar 16-bit consoles and their supposed lack of "blast-processing"; today's gaming armies wage war with wildly different artillery. In the pursuit of your mobile gaming dollar, Nintendo toed a traditional line with a new twist. Sony, on the other hand, seems to have bundled every input method it could get its mitts on into its next-generation portable. Microsoft, however, puts the "mobile" in mobile gaming, echoing Apple's own approach with an Xbox Live platform that eschews dedicated hardware to float across Windows Phone devices as a "feature."Take a step back, and suddenly it seems like the major players of consumer gaming aren't even driving on the same track. This war isn't about the "most powerful" console anymore; it's about creating the right experience for today's gamer. We ducked under the unspoken truce of last week's Game Developer Conference to get a bead on Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony's portable gaming strategies. Read on to see what they're doing to differentiate themselves from the competition.
Fishlabs sets the Galaxy on Fire with Valkyrie update
Fishlabs Entertainment is a German-based gaming studio that scored a hit with the Galaxy on Fire series for iOS. The latest, most popular iteration is Galaxy on Fire 2, which Fishlabs has kept fresh with updates and extra content since launch. Players fight pirates, loot, mine asteroids and perform several other Elite-style tasks. The latest update is called Valkyrie, which debuted as I chatted with Fishlabs at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco last week. The HD update makes the game look stunning. Even iPhone owners will benefit, as those with the standard version get Valkyrie's HD graphics for free. Valkyrie meets fan requests like larger ships and a new storyline, which Fishlabs says will run as long as the game content is available. Galaxy on Fire is a gorgeous game, and Fishlabs says it's ready for the new iPad. As soon as they get hands on the new hardware, they'll "optimize the assets" and be ready to go. They are excited about the new quad core processors, but for Galaxy on Fire itself, Fishlabs probably won't add any extra features. Instead, they'll just make the game look better. "We'd rather use the hardware to improve the visual quality," I was told. Fans can expect another DLC pack coming soon. Supernova, which will have its own unique storyline and graphical updates. By the year's end, Fishlabs expects to release another new game they're not ready to discuss. "A free-to-play title set in the Galaxy on Fire universe" is all I was told. Fishlabs is doing quite well. Space-trading simulators have a limited audience. While Galaxy on Fire is an excellent game, it might not appeal to casual gamers. But Fishlabs continues to prove that as long as you have a dedicated and interested audience, you can assemble a successful franchise on Apple's platform.
DeepWorld is a 2D Minecraft-alike coming to Mac and iOS
If you threw a bunch of gaming catchwords in a hat and then pulled them out one by one and put them in order, you might have an approximate description for the upcoming Deepworld. It's a 2D, steampunk, post-apocalyptic sandbox MMO, with Minecraft-style creation, and block graphics that open up to a quite varied and vast game world. Deepworld is almost a game that sounds too good to live up to its promise, but its developers Bytebin (consisting of three guys who have a ton of experience in server architecture, but not quite as much in game development and design) understand they're promising a lot. But the version they kindly showed me at GDC last week definitely lived up to that promise, as least as just two of their characters wandering around the world together. Deepworld's graphics may not look great in screenshots (they're ... "stylistic", you might say), but as you explore more and more of the world, there's a charm there that can't be denied. Only after a makeshift shelter was built, complete with lanterns spreading pools of light, and a storm began in the background, with lightning flashing across the sky and acid rain coming down hard, did the game's beauty really make itself evident. There's a lot of beauty in the various mechanics, too, though. One of the devs describes the title as "a game based on a sort of scarcity," and that scarcity refers to all of the various resources in this originally barren world. As you dig down, lava can be found, which creates steam, which can then be transferred into pipes and used to power technology. There is a crafting system, but unlike Minecraft (where items have to be discovered and built), the game basically just offers up a menu of what's available to build from the various resources you've collected. The interface is nice as well -- you can build whatever you want just using the cursor on the Mac version, and while the iOS version is still under development ("There's a few kinks with touch," Bytebin says), being able to "draw" creations on the iPad's screen will be nice. The biggest issue with Deepworld probably isn't in the game, however: It'll probably be with keeping the servers up. The title is subdivided into 1200x800 block "zones," and the devs are hoping to limit those zones to a certain number of players (and maybe eventually even charge players to customize and save those zones). But there will be a metagame of sorts in "improving the ecosystem" of each zone, so it's not hard to see that Bytebin may run into trouble, if the game turns out to be uber popular, in keeping its servers afloat. Bytebin understands the concern (and again, the team's background is in running large servers for corporate software, so they have a fighting chance at least), but we'll find out for sure how they do when the game goes for an open beta later on this year. Alpha is set to take place "in a few weeks," and there's a beta signup for the game available now. Deepworld looks really fascinating, and it's a title we will probably be proud to have on Mac and iOS.
EA previews titles from Chillingo and Firemint: New Flight Control, Burnout Crash, more
EA had a large suite set up at GDC last week to show off its various new and recent offerings. Here's a quick roundup of what the company is working on for iOS, including among all of its recent acquisitions: PopCap, Firemint, and Chillingo. PopCap was up first -- the popular casual games developer has just released Zuma's Revenge HD on the App Store, and it's a very faithful port of the old arcade title originally released on PC. There's not much new to say about this one -- if you liked it on PC, you'll like it on Apple's iOS devices. I did ask PopCap's about Bejeweled 3 as well. That game has been out on PC for a while, but we haven't really seen a port of it on iOS just yet. But there was no news to report -- PopCap is taking its sweet time working on new titles, and is instead mostly just concerned with putting its popular catalog on as many titles as possible. We may have to wait a while to see another original title arrive on iOS. Next up was a game that a lot of Flight Control fans will be surprised to hear about: Flight Control Rockets. The space-age follow up to the extremely popular Flight Control title was developed by Firemint, but I'm sorry to say that I found it not quite as elegant as the previous version. The title has gone freemium, and you now earn coins as you play, which can then be spent on all sorts of upgrades for your station and skills (or, of course, purchased via in-app purchase). There are some good new ideas in the game, like a combo score that builds up as you line-draw ships of the same color into your station, and lots of new ship types, including ships that break off into two, ships that speed up after being guided home, and even a "snake ship" that is actually a series of ships that will follow each other wherever you draw the first one. There are also "robot helpers" that you can hire, three maximum for each time you play, that will either make things easier for you (by helping you score higher or guide ships in automatically), or change up the gameplay (there's one called a "hardcore bot" that will turn off all of your warnings, but give you more XP as you play). In addition to the player's XP, you can also level up each of your bots, and unlock extra abilities for each of those as well, and there are also "power crystals" you can buy via IAP to earn XP faster. If that all sounds complicated, you're right -- as I said, the first game had a sort of understated elegance to it, and this version is a lot more complex (and maybe even burdened, you might say, by the various in-app purchase possibilities available). But we'll see what players think -- Flight Control Rockets is due out later this month. EA's also working on a World Series of Poker app that even the company's rep admitted was very similar to the already-available Zynga Poker: It's completely online, a freemium title driven by microtransactions, and includes a lot of social fuctions (and even a subscription "VIP" service, if you're so inclined). Unless you're already interested in Zynga's social poker offerings, you might not be too interested by this one, but it's worth saying that EA's app also includes Omaha play, and a few nice metagame options, like the opportunity to quest for a WSOP ring. The poker game is due out early summer. Finally for EA's core lineup, the company is also porting the popular downloadable console title Burnout Crash to iOS, and developer Criterion Games has made quite a few improvements just for this platform. Most notably, the controls are now all touch and swipe based -- rather than going with an odious virtual stick layout, players now swipe their crashed cars around the screen, trying to line up as many explosive and destructive combos as possible. The game looks great (and will probably look even better on the new iPad), and there are new tweaks to the various game modes (Road Trip is now called Road Block) and a lot of nice features (Autolog has been implemented in full) to play with. Burnout Crash is a paid title that should be out later this month. EA recently purchased Chillingo, and that company's titles were on display at GDC as well. The most interesting offering was a really gorgeous flying game called Air Mail, which seems quite well crafted by N-Fusion Interactive, and just looks terrific on the iPad's big screen. The company did go with virtual buttons and a joystick for the default controls (though they are rendered beautifully anyway), but the most interesting feature of the game are the "Advanced Mode Controls," hidden in the game's menus. For that scheme, players use two thumbs on the screen to control either one of the plane's wings, and then can move the iPad or iPhone around in real space, using the gyroscope and accelerometer to guide the plane. It's hard (and I crashed quite often while using it), but once you get the hang of it, it's not only very exciting, but you can also do some pretty spectacular stunts. Air Mail offers a full campaign of more than 20 missions, but I'm most excited about the Explore mode, which just lets you fly around the game's amazing environments at will for as long as you want, finding and collecting various objects. Among Chillingo's other offerings is an interesting title called The Act, which is basically an animated romantic comedy movie that you control at certain times. The premise might be a little strange, and I found the "controls" a little confusing (at one point, I was supposed to swipe towards a woman to try to get my character to be attracted by him, but (as in real life, I suppose) the feedback on whether she was interested or not was a little unclear). Still, The Act's animation looks very well-done, and it's a project that's quite a few years in the making. We'll have to see how it comes out later on this year. Obviously, EA and its various mobile acquisitions are really hitting on all cylinders lately. There's definitely a big trend towards freemium and microtransactions, and I worry a little bit that some of the titles (Flight Control Rockets, especially) are going a little too far in that direction, and away from the core gameplay that really makes the absolute best iOS titles so popular. But we'll have to see how players respond going forward: If a title that heavily relies on the trappings of freemium games doesn't do as well as expected, maybe we'll see a return to a more subtle approach.
Imangi finds success, and more choices, with Temple Run
Imangi Studios' Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova have been making solid games on iOS for years now, from their original hit Harbor Master and their charming dual-stick shooter Max Adventure. But it wasn't until Temple Run this past year (which I first saw in an off-the-record prototype form at GDC last year) that Imangi really hit it big. The freemium game has over 40 million players already, and it's consistently sitting up among the top-grossing spots on the App Store. Imangi's perfectly happy with that success, if not a little overwhelmed by it. "This is ridiculous, what is happening," says Luckyanova. Temple Run actually came at a great time for the couple -- they've just purchased a house, and they have a baby on the way, so they'll definitely be busy ove the next few months, even without a new game. And Shepherd says that's the plan: While Imangi has "a lot of ideas, they're all on the back burner for now." The current goal is to push Temple Run as far as it will go. First things first, that means an Android release -- Imangi has announced the game will arrive on that platform on March 27. After that, says Shepherd, you might see Temple Run in a few other places, including the Mac App Store, and somewhere on the web, in a browser-based form. The couple has also had requests for versions of the game on PC and Facebook, so they're considering those as well. The issue with having this kind of success on the App Store, however, is that once you get a popular game up and running, your inbox starts to fill with all kinds of offers: Merchandising, porting, offers for other markets, and different amounts of money that come with each. Imangi says they're considering all of these, but their main goal is to stay as independent as possible. "We like being independent," says Shepherd. The couple have always had an artist working with them as a third developer, and have since brought on a few more people to help with support and other tasks, but "we're not trying to grow," they say. And that's the biggest issue with selling the company itself. Certainly, they've had offers from bigger publishers, but "if we were to really sell the company," says Shepherd, "we'd have to grow the team a lot." And while they admit extra resources might be nice, Imangi still seems perfectly happy as a core team of two. On iOS itself, Temple Run is getting an update in the next few weeks, with more objectives to take on, possibly more environments to run through, and some "powerup stuff" as well. But outside of that, Imangi is taking a well-deserved breather on development at the moment, and focusing on simply growing all of the business they have. What advice do they have for other developers searching for freemium success? "You need to start with solid work," says Luckyanova. Imangi's been putting good games together on iOS for a while, and so it was probably only a matter of time before one of their titles was able to pay off.
Hothead Games looks for a Big Win on iOS
Hothead Games is actually an old company by most iOS standards: As marketing director Oliver Birch told me at GDC last week, the company is actually turning six years old this week. Previously, they mostly made PC and console games (most notably the Penny Arcade Adventures, and Ron Gilbert's Deathspank), but recently, Hothead has been pushing more and more towards Apple's App Store, and Birch says that while Hothead definitely "supports all of the games we've got out there, really, we're all about mobile now." Which makes sense -- between the collectible card game Kard Combat, Jetpack Joyride-alike Sea Stars, and the excellent Gem King (formerly known as Kickin' Momma), Hothead already has a nice run of iOS hits. And the company is now looking to follow all of that up with a new game, out now, called Big Win Soccer. Big Win Soccer is probably unlike any soccer game you've played before -- in fact, it's more of a collectible card game than anything else. The idea is that you have a team of players (represented by cards), and you can activate various stats and abilities on them (also represented by virtual cards). When you play a game against someone else online, you don't directly control the players. Instead, you watch the game play out, and the various abilities and stats you chose to represent your team go into the final outcome. After the game, you can earn coins, which can be used to buy and win even more cards, making your team stronger and better. It's ... an interesting idea, though if you're turned off by the trappings of freemium games, you will find plenty of them here: You have a certain amount of energy to play with per day, and can't play beyond that point, and of course the collectible card system is also driven by (optional, admittedly) in-app purchases. Hothead wants you to spend money, it's clear. While there is a card game to be had here, the strong suggestion to supplant your normal play with money is always there. In its short life on the App Store so far, Big Win Soccer has been a huge success, so much so that Birch says the game melted a few of the company's servers (I don't think it literally turned wires to liquid, but Birch wasn't clear). The overwhelming demand for the game on its server software means that Hothead hasn't publicized the game's launch much, but apparently it hasn't had to, given how many players are trying to log in. Reviews for the title are stuck down around two or three stars only, but most of the reviews talk about the servers going down, not the actual gameplay itself. If the game turns out to be a success, Hothead is all ready to follow up: Birch also showed me Big Win Hockey, and it's probably a safe bet that Hothead will expand the line as much as it can, allowing fans of all sports to play their favorite games through the various card collecting mechanics. Birch also showed off a few other titles, each at various stages of development (including one which isn't quite ready for the press yet, he says). Zombie Air is Hothead's next release -- it's a freemium title that also plays sort of like Jetpack Joyride, but instead of just an endless run game, it actually consists of quite a few different levels, as zombies take to the air to fly in customizable planes across a post-apocalyptic United States. The game has a fun and cartoony look, but the freemium model is very evident here as well -- Birch said Hothead is using a lot of the "learning from Sea Stars" to put this one together. So Hothead clearly has a nice slate of titles ready to go. When the company was working on the console, Birch explained, they used to take twelve to eighteen months to put games together, and these days, "we can make a game now in weeks." Is that such a good thing, though? Deathspank and the Penny Arcade Adventures were both interesting, original titles, not bogged down by the trappings of freemium, and Hothead's latest titles, while very well-produced and colorful, don't skimp on the monetization. Birch agrees the concern is there, but says that Hothead needs to be profitable, and wasn't necessarily so back in the console days. He also admits that the company is learning along with its audience just what works best. "We're trying to work it out," he said: How the audience can really enjoy and appreciate Hothead's games, but also make sure that "we get something out of this as well."
Forth Dimension's second Replicating Reality concept stuffs Half-Life 2 into a virtual reality headset (video)
GDC might be winding down, but we'd be remiss if we didn't catch up with Forth Dimension Displays, the Kopin subsidiary responsible for all those little microdisplays inside your camcorders and, we're told, specialized military gear. While neither of those are terribly exciting to consumers, the outfit's latest concept is. Similar to last year's E3 demo, the company's new rig is built to highlight the kinds of use cases it would like OEMs to build using its microdisplays. The above jury-rigged setup above consists of a helmet rocking two of the company's SXGA (1280 x 1024) microdisplays which are in turn connected to back-mounted drivers which are then attached to your run-of-the-mill gaming PC. But unlike previous endeavors, when head-tracking happened in the helmet, this year we've got a plastic gun stuffed with an air mouse which controls onscreen movement. It's admittedly hacked together and certainly not flawless -- the cursor tended to bob upwards in our time with it -- yet very immersive and an amazing way to frag combine soldiers in the trenches of Half Life 2. But don't take our word for it, ogle at the gallery below, or watch a video of it in all its glory after the break.
Sony shows off PlayStation Vita's augmented reality chops at GDC, leaves the AR marker cards at home
The PlayStation Vita's current augmented reality mini-games may be anchored to a handful of marker cards, but it doesn't have to be that way. Front and center at Sony's GDC booth was "Magnet," a developer tech demo that shows off the next generation handheld's markerless chops. The application maps out the texture and patterns to create its own marker, which would allow developers to create more natural AR experiences that won't burden players with the hassle of carrying around marker cards. Sony says the tech demo won't be evolving into a full game, but hopes it will inspire developers to build something new and exciting for the handheld. Although staff on hand couldn't say for sure that this is an off-shoot of Sony's SmartAR technology, we think it looks awfully familiar.
Heavy Rain creators produce 'Kara' PS3 tech-demo (video)
Heavy Rain creator David Cage was showing off Quantic Dream's new game engine at GDC, which includes an innovative new performance-capture technology the company's developed. He's directed a seven-minute original short called Kara, which is the story of a female android as she becomes self-aware. Unlike traditional game production methods, this technology is able to record face and body movements at the same time as recording the actors voice -- ensuring natural and consistent performances from the characters. Actress Valorie Curry wore 90 sensors on her face, unlike in, say, Avatar, where the performers wore head-mounted cameras. Cage promises that the short is nothing more than a demo (it was rendered in real-time on a PlayStation 3) and none of these elements will appear in his next game. You can catch the impressive-looking footage after the break with one disclaimer: there's nudity throughout and a reference to adult themes, okay?
99 Games focuses on time management genre, looks ahead
This week's Game Developer's Conference was, I believe, the second time I've meet up with 99 Games, an independent, India-based studio with quite an iOS library. The company has found an audience with time management games. These ask you to manage virtual customers, moving them from point A to point B as quickly as possible. Prison Mayhem is a popular example from 99 Games's catalog (Diner Dash is another example of the genre, though not from 99 Games). Founder Rohith Bhat says the company has been developing on its own time mangement game engine, which will let them develop games quickly and then port them to Android within "less than a month." That may seem a little mechanical, but this genre is set in stone. The games only require players (who tend to skew female, and sometimes even a little older) to execute a few simple taps and swipes to keep the game going. Therefore, 99 Games can crank these out and appeal to many markets with the same genre. The company's latest title is called Night Club Mayhem. It requires you to move clubgoers through a series of nightclubs, sending them from the entryway to the coffee bar, the "mocktail bar" and finally the dance floor. To play, you simply drag a customer over to a certain part of the screen as requested, and then tap on them to take care of whatever they need. Bhat says he is working on some minigames with a little more action, like choosing the right stamp for the nightclub, or serving the food to customers. However, too much complexity will lose that casual audience that these games need to stay alive. There's both a story mode (in which a young woman needs to build up her father's club empire over time), and an endless mode to play with. Things are very business-as-usual for this genre. Bhat isn't wasting any time putting his engine to work, either. There's yet another time management game due out from 99 in another three months. The company showed me two other games they're working on, both which add just a little more innovation. Tito's Shell is the more intriguing title. It's heavily influenced by physics puzzle games like Cut the Rope, in that you need to make some physical objects interact to try and connect a round turtle named Tito with his circular shell. But the key component here is that objects can be connected together. Once a line is drawn between them, the line will pull them together. Those lines can be used in all sorts of ways. Sometimes Tito can be pulled to his shell, and sometimes the lines keep objects from going off the screen the wrong way. In one level, connected lines open up doors and pull up platforms, pushing Tito and his shell together. Unfortunately, the interface looks a little clunky (which makes sense, given that this is 99 Games' first entry into a genre like this), but there are some good ideas. Tito's Shell should be out next month. Finally, I saw a title called Dream Star that should also be out next month, and it's the company's first entry into social freemium gaming. The idea is that you're building up a character into a movie star. In order to succeed, you'll need to use the game's freemium engine to do all the things movie stars would normally do, like work out, take on jobs as models and actors, get seen at clubs and go shopping. They even get caught by the paparazzi. There are a few minigames too, but most of Dream Star is just customizing your character, and then clicking away on the various activities (at least as long as the in-game energy stat will allow you to). This one seems targeted at a younger female audience. Most older gamers probably won't look twice at it, but 99 Games could build a significant following if the right players find this one out. Bhat has laid claim to his time management titles. They may not appeal to all players (and certainly they're not doing anything too innovative), but there's definitely a place on the App Store for those. We'll have to see if 99 Games' other experiments in various popular mobile genres pan out in the next few months or so.
SoftKinetic brings DepthSense range sensor to GDC, hopes to put it in your next TV
Microsoft's Kinect may have put depth sensors in the eye of the common consumer, but they aren't the only outfit in the game -- Belgian startup SoftKinetic has their own twist on the distance sensing setup. The literally named "DepthSense" range sensor uses infrared time-of-flight technology, which according to representatives, allows it to not only accurately calculate depth-sensitivity in dark, cramped spaces, but more importantly offers a shallower operating distance than its competition. We dropped by SoftKinetic's GDC booth to see exactly how cramped we could get. It turns out the sensor can accurately read individual fingers between four to fourteen feet (1.5 - 4.5 meters), we had no trouble using it to pinch our way through a few levels of a mouse-emulated session of Angry Birds. The developer hardware we saw on the show floor was admittedly on the bulky side, but if all goes to plan, SoftKinetic says we'll see OEMs stuff the tech into laptops and ARM-powered TVs in the near future. In the meantime, though, gesture-crazy consumers can look forward to a slimmer version of this rig in stores sometime this holiday season. Hit the break for a quick demo of the friendly sensor in action. %Gallery-150189% Dante Cesa contributed to this post.
Google plans unified gaming hub for Play, cross-platform titles a possibility
In other non-spotlight stealing tech news, Google's set to chop off some of its gaming arms in favor of a sole download hub as early as next year. Plans for this streamlined service were announced by Punit Soni, group product manager for Google+, at this year's Game Developer's Conference. According to VentureBeat, the company's virtual storefronts, which encompass the likes of Chrome, Android and Google+, will all be tied into a single Google Play-hosted destination that should ease game development, potentially making titles accessible cross-platform. In addition to the creation of this one-stop shop, features such as Native Client, Hangouts and a simplified payment system will also reportedly be integrated into the unnamed site. No immediate changes are on deck for this service overhaul, so it'll be a bit before we can see how this "One Google" vision pans out.
