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GDC 2011: ARGO Online pits nature against technology
If imaginative fiction has taught us anything, it's that the fun doesn't really begin until the world ends. Post-apocalyptic games are all the rage these days, from Earthrise to Fallen Earth, so it's not surprising to see another company throw its hat into the ring. Burda:ic may not be a household name, but it's hoping that its upcoming MMO, ARGO Online, will be. Achim Kaspers, the managing director at burda:ic, was overflowing with information about ARGO's unique look and business model. ARGO is planned to be a free-to-play title, although Kaspers is well aware of the stigma that typically goes along with that. He admits that many F2P games are lacking in content or are grind-heavy, fates he hopes ARGO will avoid with thousands of quests, fluid combat animation and plenty of places to explore. Billed as a "post-apocalyptic steampunk MMO," ARGO features a futuristic Earth divided between nature and technology. The Noblians are all over cool-looking steampunk devices and vehicles, while the Floresslah have united with nature to become its champions. We've been following ARGO since last year, so we're excited to hear that the title is scheduled to start its open beta tomorrow. Hit the jump for more of the good word on ARGO from GDC as well as a special treat for Massively readers! %Gallery-118525%
GDC 2011: TERA Smuggler's Hideout video details party dynamics
GDC 2011 has come and gone, but the next week promises to bring a ton of additional coverage from the recently concluded show. GameTrailers has weighed in with its new video recap of En Masse Entertainment's TERA presentation, which took the form of a demo party running through the Smuggler's Hideout dungeon. You may remember Smuggler's Hideout from our own GDC coverage last week, and now you can feast your eyes on the visuals as well as a few of the party dynamics that TERA brings to the table. The gameplay is narrated by associate producer Stefan Ramirez, and he highlights the different class roles, paying particular attention to the Priest character he's controlling. TERA's action combat features a bit of a learning curve if you're used to traditional MMORPG healer classes. You can't tab target your group mates and spam heal buttons, and you'll need to move around quite a bit in order to maximize your AoEs and avoid taking damage. Check out all the details after the break.
GDC 2011 reaches record attendance, GDC 2012 scheduled
Wondering exactly how many people you need to be supremely jealous of, thanks to the fact that they got to hang out with and generally become best buds with Eric Chahi, Clint Hocking, Peter Molyneux and other gaming inudstry legends at GDC 2011? According to the event's official blog, this year's conference was attended by a record 19,000 gaming professionals, who attended over 450 lectures, tutorials, keynotes and friendship bracelet craft circles. Want to help add to that number next year? Well, check your calendars -- the Game Developers Conference is going to roll back into San Francisco like a brisk wind March 5 - 9, 2012.
GDC 2011: BioWare's Damion Schubert on designing for loners
Nothing stirs up a good MMO debate like the age-old question of whether or not the genre should cater to solo players. BioWare's Damion Schubert, lead systems designer on the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic, recently added a bit of fuel to that particular fire during a presentation at last week's GDC in San Francisco. Schubert's talk focused on loners in the massively multiplayer space, and while it's no surprise to anyone that TOR is being built with the solo player in mind, it may come as a bit of a revelation that BioWare isn't aiming to "dumb down" the MMORPG as some fans have suggested. On the contrary, Schubert states that MMOs feature "hardcore stuff. This is hardcore gameplay, and we have to figure out how to get the solo player in a position where they want to take part in this, where they feel comfortable with the social circles, where they feel like they can be contributors."
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning preview: The path of promises
Curt Schilling and company made a lot of promises last year about Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, the first title from 38 Studios' long-awaited IP. He said that we'd see "combat that keeps you doing combat" along with a "deep quest narrative" and old-school RPG tropes brought around to match up with action gamer tendencies. "I don't know a way to tell you," Schilling said at the time, that "'Hey, we're taking God of War and marrying it with Oblivion.'" That's a tall order, made even taller by 38 Studios' origins -- while there are a lot of veterans working on this game, this is the first time they've all worked together, and certainly there's enough pressure and hype on the project that it seems like it could very well fall apart in disasterous fashion. And then we saw the game running in full motion for the first time this week here at GDC 2011. Sure, it's only an hour of directed gameplay, and sure, there's lots of work yet to do on the title. But there's this: All of Schilling's promises were up there on the screen, and it seems more likely than ever that 38 Studios might just pull this off. %Gallery-118445%
Mega64 and Yu Suzuki reveal Shenmue's conclusion at last
During his GDC panel, Yu Suzuki dropped the world-changing news that he might possibly, maybe, be able to make a third Shenmue game, if he can find the money. But in case this rock-solid guarantee doesn't go through, Mega64 cornered Suzuki and asked him to outline the end of the story, in order to provide us the closure we've craved since 2001. We don't want to spoil the ending of Ryo Hazuki's saga ourselves, so we'll just tell you to go past the break and let Suzuki tell the story of the vengeance-obsessed teen's trans-Pacific ride on a levitating sword, with live-action performances of key scenes by Mega64 and a special guest. Perhaps we've already said too much. It'll be entirely our fault if the story lacks dramatic impact.
TUAW's Daily App: ZombieSmash
Our own Michael Grothaus really enjoyed ZombieSmash when it came out around this time last year. Last week at GDC, I had a chance to speak with Matthias Hoechsman, creator of the game and CEO of gamedoctors, about the title. An upcoming update, which is due out in just over a month, will essentially double the size of the game, bringing 31 new days of stages to play through. Since it's at a prison called "Camp Nowhere," there will be new zombie types to take down and new weapons to kill them with. The update is adding a few new social features as well, including the ability to tweet and share killshots, showing friends how you take out the last zombie in each wave. ZombieSmash will finally get a long-awaited Retina Display update and Game Center integration as well. The update isn't out yet, but the game's available right now for US$1.99 on the App Store. There are already 31 days of waves to defend against, plus an Endless Siege mode and a Sandbox mode to just play around with. If you pick up the game right now and play through a level a day, you'll be ready for the big update right around the time it hits. Seems like a good deal to us.
GDC 2011: Nexon goes kart riding on the iPhone
Nexon is a South Korea-based publisher that's basically helped create and define the idea of free-to-play, microtransaction-based MMOs around the world. While microtransactions have become popular in all kinds of game genres in the last few years (including in quite a few apps on the iPhone), Nexon pioneered the business model with popular MMO games like MapleStory and Combat Arms. The company's been saying for a while that it plans to move more into the social and mobile game spaces in the West (it already has quite a stable of mobile games in Korea). At GDC 2011 this past week, I got to see the company's first entry on the iPhone in America, a game called KartRider Rush. KartRider Rush is based on an MMO called Kart Rider that has never been brought to the West before (except for a short run in beta on the PC), but is well established in Korea. It's a cartoony kart racing game in the vein of Mario Kart, with customizable characters racing around a set of tracks. I enjoyed the game, though it is fun and simple. KartRider Rush accelerates for you, so you can either drive with a set of on-screen buttons or change the option to tilt the device. There are power-ups, like speed boosts and attacks, and races can be chaotic, with players quickly switching positions over the ride.
GDC 2011: Spacetime Studios returns to Blackstar
I last spoke with Spacetime Studios' CEO Gary Gattis last year at GDC Online in Austin, and when I saw him then, he told me his company was commissioned to create a PC MMO for NCsoft called Blackstar. Spacetime spent months and months of work on the project before it was abruptly canceled, leaving the company in the lurch and requiring it to make cutbacks until it got to work on what was supposed to be a much smaller project. That project eventually became Pocket Legends, an MMO that's now thriving on the iOS App Store. The game has seen over 3 million downloads across both the Apple and Android platforms (somewhat surprisingly, the game is more popular on Android, where Gattis says he's seen "more numbers and more money" coming in), and is an unqualified success. It's so successful, in fact, that when Spacetime thought about what to do for its second game, Gattis and company decided to go back to their origins and recreate Blackstar on the mobile platform.
Guild Wars 2's GDC presentation now available on video
At last, we know why ArenaNet and NCSoft haven't realeased too many gameplay trailers for their upcoming MMO, Guild Wars 2 -- they were just waiting for GDC 2011, where they'd reveal enough video from the game to drown the internet. Check out four clips from their presentation below!
The (Marble) Madness of Mark Cerny
In 1983, game designer Mark Cerny worked on a game that had dynamic 3D environments, including bumps in the floor that would chase your character. It also, at one point, was to use either a touchscreen or a motorized trackball that provided resistance feedback to correspond to onscreen events. Obviously, none of these things worked out at the time. But the game did manage to make it out, if in a less grandiose form than originally intended, and on more modest hardware than the revolutionary arcade board Cerny had in mind. And the scaled-down version found an audience as Marble Madness. During a GDC postmortem for the classic game, Cerny said that the concept came about because the post-crash game market (and Atari) demanded totally unique concepts with two-player functionality. Two players meant twice as many coins per play, after all. And so Cerny set about with a minigolf-inspired game that used new 3D hardware -- which eventually ended up 2D, with a new "budget" arcade board that used interchangeable cartridges and afforded a bit more storage space. Cerny gave an abstract look to the game, with enemies like Slinky creatures and transparent blobs (the transparency was simulated by drawing the floor grid onto the enemy sprite). So he was understandably irritated when the cabinet designers decided to make the trackball controller a smiley face. Eventually, they reached a compromise, with a sort of smiling character on the panel, but not quite a face, and not on the trackball itself. After the year or so of design, Cerny and Atari ended up with a hit -- for about six months. Sales dropped off, he said, because the game could be completed in four minutes. He lamented not spending more time designing levels after getting the tech in place; at eight minutes, it could have remained a hit, he said.
Bleszinski: Marry gamers, don't date them (or: design long-term engagement for fans)
In a candid talk during the Game Developers Conference on Thursday, Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinksi advised attendees to "have an educated gut," and to be cognizant of the value of marketing and long-term relationships with customers. He encapsulated his talk in the "power creative," a project member who is unique, valuable and visibly tied to the game's identity. "This could be anyone," Bleszinski said. With consumers constantly immersed in an information feed -- via social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook -- it's important for game designers to be "surgical" and "devious" in creating IPs that thrive in an always-on, heavily branded world. According to Bleszinski, the market only tolerates games that land on the far ends of the spectrum between freemium or "snack" games and big-budget productions like Gears of War. "I believe the middle class game is dead."
Bangai-O HD Missile Fury preview: Co-overboard
Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury feels a lot more like an Xbox 360 successor to Bangai-O Spirits than it did when I played it at TGS. The demo available in Tokyo seemed a lot more straightforward, more "here are a bunch of enemies for you to shoot" -- in other words, more original Bangai-O -- than the cleverly-designed, semi-puzzle stage design that the DS game brought. But that was just the TGS demo. Most of the elements that made Bangai-O Spirits what it was have carried over into the XBLA game, with a few important changes. Perhaps the most notable change is the addition of multiplayer. You might not think putting one more thing (another player) on the screen in a game about filling the screen with objects would be a big deal, but it doubles the unfathomable insanity.%Gallery-118474%
GDC 2011: Joymax weighs Karma
Imagine a world where World War II -- also known as "That War With All Them Movies" -- never ended. Imagine that while the conflict raged, weapons development continued to advance well into the 1950s. Now imagine that this war-ravaged landscape is your new virtual playground. Joymax, the studio behind Silkroad Online, revealed at GDC that its next MMO will take place in such a world. Code-named Karma Online, this massively multiplayer online first-person shooter will attempt to provide the ultimate PvP battleground for players sick of bows and arrows and futuristic plasma rifles. Karma Online seeks to meld the best of both RPGs and FPSs by introducing a skill tree system that allows soldiers to specialize in preferred weapons and tactics. Although we're not quite sure what Joymax means by this, the studio promises more immersion by requiring the use of both hands for combat instead of just the mouse. The game will also come with the popular Call of Duty-style zombie mode if you want to switch up player-killing for undead slaughter. The shooter is scheduled to go into closed beta this May. Hit the jump to see Karma Online in action and get the skinny on Joymax and WeMade Entertainment's other projects-in-progress! %Gallery-118470%
XBLIG facts: Nazi-killing a no-no, revenue a yes-yes
During the Xbox Live Indie Games panel at GDC, a who's who of XBLIG developers (James Silva, Nathan Fouts, Robert Boyd and Ian Stocker) talked about their experiences, successes and failures self-publishing on the service. Perhaps of more use to budding XBLIG developers are some facts about the service, including the revenue split between Microsoft and the developer, as well as some gameplay restrictions. For anyone who publishes an Xbox Live Indie Game, Microsoft takes 30 percent of the revenue, leaving 70 percent for the game maker. Even more interesting are some of the restrictions for games. James Silva of Ska Studios said it's impossible to have an XBLIG title where the player kills nazis, for example. "That's like an inherent human right that's been taken away from us," Silva said. "We grew up on killing Nazis." Silva then went on to provide an anecdote about a game concept he had, about a burly mountain man who hunts people, but it turns out XBLIG isn't murder-friendly, either. We've followed up with Microsoft for some more information on the guidelines of Xbox Live Indie Games.
Skyhook brings location-awareness to the Sony NGP, including WiFi-only models
The news got a bit overshadowed by some augmented reality demos and a little game called Uncharted, but Sony also talked a bit about the NGP's location-aware capabilities at GDC this past week, which we now know will rely on Skyhook's Core Engine system. What's more, that functionality will apparently be included on WiFi-only models in addition to those with 3G, which means that all NGP users will be able to play location-aware games and take advantage of other various social applications. As explained by Sony at GDC, that could include things like the ability to find nearby NGP users and see what they're playing, and even more elaborate things like real-life treasure hunts -- all of which can presumably be switched off if you prefer to keep your mobile gaming habits to yourself.
Social game devs rail against divisiveness, armchair designers, and s*** crayons
As a response to frequent use of social games as punching bags by the rest of the industry, a group of Facebook, mobile, and otherwise social game-identified creators took part in a series of short "rants" during GDC. During this event, a social game was happening in real time: coins were handed out, and attendees were encouraged to collect coins from each other, with the person who was able to get the most invited up for a mini-rant. The winner's rant turned out to be about the positive mental and developmental effects of games. Longtime game designer and Loot Drop founder Brenda Brathwaite opened with an impassioned refutation of the division of social gamers from other gamers. People told her she was "ruining games" back when she was working on Wizardry, for making an RPG that could be played alone, implying that this attitude was as harmful as the dismissal of social games now. "We stood together," she said, when games like Mortal Kombat came under attack from government and other groups, and when "hot coffee" came to be known not as a "steaming hot beverage but a steaming pile of shit". She urged that game fans stand together now "because we love games." A transcript of Brathwaite's rant has since been posted on her blog.
Bungie admits to MMO hoax
Are they or aren't they? This is the multi-million dollar question for Bungie Studios, who had all but confirmed that it was working on a MMO of sorts. Apparently, this was either a ruse, a goof or a massive misunderstanding, as a Bungie representative clarified David Aldridge's comments at GDC as being nothing more than a tongue-in-cheek joke. Bungie fans, prepare to have your heart broken, in three... two... one: "In rehearsal Aldridge was convinced that everybody got the joke. It was all in the delivery, he assured us, and he was certain it was clear that he was playfully riffing off of the recent rumors. Unfortunately, most people can't figure David out -- they can't process him. And we don't expect them to. You can't process David Aldridge with a normal brain. You'd need tiger blood and Adonis DNA." While the studio tried to laugh off the miscommunication, this is sad news indeed for MMO fans who had hoped that Bungie was jumping into the ring. Last month we heard unconfirmed reports that this alleged MMOFPS was being developed under the code-name of Destiny.
More Battlefield 3 footage captured on shakycam
If you're jonesing to see more of DICE's next, super-pretty shooter Battlefield 3, you should strike while the iron's hot -- by which we mean "before the iron gets pulled from YouTube." Check out some shakycam footage from the developer's GDC presentation posted after the jump.
Bungie: MMO announcement during GDC panel was a joke
In its latest weekly update, Bungie took some time to backtrack on lead network engineer David Aldridge's GDC announcement that the studio's next game would be "massively multiplayer," and similar to "WoW in space." The update explains, "Now, in rehearsal Aldridge was convinced that everybody got the joke. It was all in the delivery, he assured us, and he was certain it was clear that he was playfully riffing off of the recent rumors." Apparently, he was super, super incorrect in that assumption. It's worth noting that the update doesn't flatly deny that the studio is working on a massively online game -- unless, of course, that denial is hidden somewhere among the cornucopia of Charlie Sheen references. We're having a hard time breaking that particular code.
