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What Killzone looked like before it was Killzone
The E3 2005 trailer for Killzone 2 quickly became well-known (infamous, even) for its supposedly unatainable levels of in-game graphical prowess. But the initial trailer for the game that would become the original Killzone has been much less well known ... until this past week at GDC Europe. Guerilla Games Managing Director Hermen Hulst showed off the circa-1999 concept video in a keynote speech in Cologne earlier this week, calling it a "showcase of technical competence" prepared for their first meeting with Sony. Even though Hulst admits there's "nothing really 'Killzone' about it" at this early stage (for instance, the Helghast and their glowing eyes don't even make a cameo appearance) we thought it was an interesting look at the pre-history of one of Sony's biggest exclusive franchises. To see the video in full, follow us past the break.
GDC Europe 2010 reports record attendance, 2011 dates announced
We've had plenty of news out of Gamescom this week, but don't forget about that other European games conference that went down recently. GDC Europe, which took place earlier this week also in Cologne, Germany, reports that it experienced record attendance. This was the second year of the conference, and organizers have already announced that the show will be back again next year, the same week of Gamescom on August 15-17, 2011. Warren Spector gave the keynote at the conference this year, and while next year's keynote speaker hasn't yet been announced, we're putting our vote in for Ubisoft Creative Director Jason VanderBerge and his trusty cane. That's a show we'd pay to see live again.
David Cage on his 'benevolent dictatorship' over Quantic Dream
For most developers, creating a game is a constant struggle between the design-based decisions of the creative team and the marketing-based decisions of the business team. Not at Quantic Dream, where David Cage's role as both CEO and lead designer means that "game design guides everything" at the company. So when Cage says "the game designer decided this, and I fully agree with it," he's actually referring to himself both times, as he pointed out at a talk at GDC Europe this week. Cage said developing a game like Heavy Rain just wouldn't work in a more democratic development environment, where everyone on the team has equal power and the majority rules on major decisions. "When you want a strong vision, you need a vision holder, you need someone who has the final cut," Cage said.
Remedy MD: episodic Alan Wake release would be 'interesting experiment'
Alan Wake was one of the victims of Red Dead Redemption's retail shootout earlier this year, but Remedy's Managing Director Matias Myllyrinne isn't bitter about it. Speaking to Joystiq at GDC Europe, the studio head expressed, "RDR is a fantastic game, due credit to Rockstar, they deserve it. For us, Wake clicked with gamers and a lot of the reviewers out there. I think it will continue to sell as folks learn about it." Myllyrinne expressed hope that the world of Wake would be something that Remedy could continue building on in the future. He couldn't make any announcements on future plans for Mr. Wake, but after seeing the strong reaction from the audience to the game, he feels Remedy established the key things it wanted to do with Wake -- "as a form of entertainment and art." Speaking directly to the numbers and the cost of Wake's five-year production, he said, "Commercially, the numbers will make sense in the end." The internally episodic narrative of Alan Wake would lend itself well to online distribution (perhaps following in Fable 2's footsteps), and Myllyrinne told us, "I don't think there's anything technically stopping us from doing that. I think those will be business decisiions we'll make together with Microsoft. I think it would be an interesting experiment." He also told us the next piece of DLC, dubbed "The Writer," is "not too far away" and that, in terms of gameplay, will feel more "surreal," like "Salvadore Dali does Alan Wake." When pushed on whether Remedy would take a break from Wake after the second DLC episode launches, he couldn't get into specifics. Myllyrinne said he had promised some folks that he wouldn't talk, but that Remedy would announce its next project "in a few months."
Red Steel 2 director unsure on Kinect, Move potential
In developing Red Steel 2, Ubisoft Creative Director Jason VanderBerge learned quite a bit about Nintendo's optional Wii MotionPlus accessory (and how people use it). So he seemed like a good person to ask about the potential of Sony and Microsoft's impending motion control accessories, the Move and Kinect. When we did just that, catching up with VanderBerge after his talk at GDC Europe this week, he was a bit ambivalent about the subject.
Preview: SingStar Dance and SingStar Guitar
A music game that's just about singing? That's so 2003. Or if you're the SingStar franchise, it's so, um, today. Sony's PlayStation karaoke series has proudly focused on grading vocals for years now, but that's about the change with this fall's release of both SingStar Dance and SingStar Guitar. I got a chance to try both of these games at Sony's pre-GamesCom press event, and have written up some quick initial impressions after the break.
How Project Dust's world-building world was built
We're still not entirely sure what kind of game lies underneath the virtual-sandbox-with-lava of Eric Chahi's Project Dust, but after a GDC Europe talk today, we do know a little bit more about the underlying system that makes that sandbox work.
Overheard@GDC: Seeing red in Mirror's Edge
Did you ever stop to think that red was an odd choice for the guiding Runner's Vision in Mirror's Edge? Well, the first-person parkour game's level designer, Elisabetta Silli, used to think so. At the "The Tao of Level Design" panel this morning, she said, "Red is an odd choice because it means danger or stop." She mentioned that when she first played the game she got to a red door and stopped. Of course, now she can't imagine it being any other way: "Red is perfect for Faith, I wouldn't change it." Silli is currently working on the Battlefield franchise, but she couldn't get into specifics when asked about which title (hmmm). When asked about a potential sequel to Mirror's Edge, she said she "can't talk about it, sorry." Asked how she would change the design for a sequel, she opened up to say that she'd focus on navigation and letting the player get a better idea of what's coming next, instead of relying on the red flashes to point the way. She would like the path of the player to be clear from the beginning. On whether she'd like to work on a sequel, "Yeah, I would love to work on a sequel." You want it, we want it – let's just do this thing, EA. %Gallery-17126%
Guerrilla Games working on new PS3-exclusive IP, not related to Killzone
During his just-concluded GDC Europe keynote presentation, Guerrilla Games Managing Director Herman Hulst confirmed that the company has started work on a new IP not related to the Killzone franchise. No further details were given about the new project, but Hulst said the company was looking to broaden their abilities to create not just Killzone but "any game we want to make." Hulst said he hopes the new project would bring back the "level of scope and ambition" they had when they were a startup company. To that end, Hulst said they're building a brand new studio and scaling up their team by hiring new talent. Speaking to Joystiq after the presentation, Hulst added that the project -- in "very early days in terms of conceptualizing what we're doing" -- is intended to be exclusive to PlayStation 3.
Cage: Heavy Rain sold four times more in US than Sony had anticipated
We already knew Heavy Rain was an immediate success in the UK and a moderate hit in Japan. But with the game's quick disappearance from the NPD's monthly top ten in the U.S., we've been wondering whether the game's sales on this side of the ocean (which NPD pegs at just over 400,000 units so far) have lived up to expectations. Well, "lived up to expectations" might be a bit of an understatement. At a GDC Europe talk this week, Quantic Dream CEO David Cage said Heavy Rain ended up selling "four times as many copies" as publisher Sony expected. "They were shocked. 'Oh my god, what happens?'" Cage said in his charmingly stilted English. These unexpected sales presented a bit of a problem, Cage said, because the marketing spend for the game was based on the lowball expectation, not the surprisingly strong actual sales numbers. Still, Cage said Sony did a great job pushing the game in the States, especially considering the game's unorthodox concept and lack of a big franchise name, which led to some reluctance from distribution channels. Cage said Heavy Rain has already sold 1.5 million copies (up from one million in April) worldwide and the game is on track to sell two million units by the first anniversary of its February release.
Achtung! How to find Germany's list of edited games
Australia may get the press for censoring games, but Germany's been doing it for a while and it's a relatively common practice required to release most violent games in the country. At GDC Europe, the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbskontrolle (USK), gave a very detailed explanation on how the organization goes about rating (and banning) games. As the rules are government-enforced under criteria determined by the BPjM (German Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons), any game that is judged by a panel to have extremely gross depiction of violence against human-life enemies, "autotelic" violence, complete lack of non-violent gameplay elements, unsanctioned killing or serious injury of innocent bystanders or children automatically gets the non-rating banhammer. The USK representatives themselves clearly recognized the system isn't perfect, but noted that they have to follow the government rules; therefore, before ponying up the couple thousand Euro submission fee, many publishers preemptively provide an edited version of their games to the board. To check out the list of edited games yourself, go to USK.de, click on the last option in "Alterskennzeichen" and type "dt. version" under Titel.
Baldur's Gate was almost an MMO
reddit_url='http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/08/16/baldurs-gate-was-almost-an-mmo/' Tweet var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Baldur_s_Gate_was_almost_an_MMO_Massively'; For those of you who remember Baldur's Gate, we want you to close your eyes and imagine it as an MMO. For the time it released (the mid-90s), it quite possibly could have been the first MMO, at that. At a recent GDC Europe panel for BioWare, studio founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk had some fun with the audience, reminiscing on what might have been. The original game's title was Battleground Infinity and was pitched to five publishers as a massively multiplayer online game that revolved around mythological gods. Interplay are the ones who pushed the doctors toward the Dungeons & Dragons RPG route, which I'm pretty sure worked out for them in the end.
The Red Steel 2 director's field guide to Wii Remote swingers
If there's one thing Ubisoft Creative Director Jason VanderBerge learned in playtesting Red Steel 2, it's that different people respond to the simple direction "swing the Wii Remote like a sword" in very different ways. At his talk at GDC Europe today, VanderBerge showed off just how different those swings can be, using a cane to demonstrate the movements of the seven major types of Wii Remote swingers he's identified. Besides being highly entertaining, the demonstration showed just how hard it is to train motion control players to perform even simple actions the way a developer expects. We weren't quick enough to get a video of the hilarious, high-energy performance, but we did manage to snap some pictures that show off the intensity of VanderBerge's flailing. Hit the break and see how many of these specimens you've encountered in the wild.
EEDAR: consumers have greater interest in DLC a month after game's release
Click to engraphisizeEEDAR CEO Greg Short previewed a new report today at GDC Europe, indicating that a majority of consumers want DLC one to three months after a game's launch. That detail is just one part of the company's "Deconstructing DLC Report," which should be available later this month (to those with the cash). Comparing data from 2009 and 2010 revealed a significant uptick in the percentage of those who want DLC a month after a game's release, and a decrease in those who want it at launch or a year later. Given the data, Short notes that developers need to make DLC releases "part of the build plan" for games. Comparing when consumers check for paid vs. free DLC for a game, the figures are incredibly similar. The report indicates 35 percent never check for paid DLC, compared to 29 percent of consumers who never check for free DLC before purchase. On the other hand, an average of 20 percent check up on free or paid DLC before purchasing. As for those who check for paid or free DLC during purchase, after purchase or after finishing the game, they all have very similar percentages. It appears that DLC is important to consumers, but whether it's paid or free, they seem to go looking for it at similar times.
Cage: Lack of additional Heavy Rain DLC 'unfortunate' but 'understandable'
With the chances of further downloadable episodes of Heavy Rain's "Chronicles" DLC looking all but nonexistent, we wondered how Quantic Dream CEO and creative head David Cage felt now that his game has been folded up like an origami crane. We caught up with Cage after his talk at GDC Europe today to find out. "I understand why the decision was made," Cage said of the cancellation of the planned DLC. "From a creative point of view it was not my choice. I would have really preferred a thousand times developing the Chronicles. I thought we had a lot to say about these characters, about their background. Things that were just mentioned in the game that had a true explanation in the background, and it's a little bit unfortunate that we won't be able to tell you the full story." But at the same time, Cage said he's looking forward to working on something new. "I didn't want to do everything, I wanted to move on," he said. "I didn't want to spend another two years on Heavy Rain developing Move and Chronicles and stuff. ... So a decision had to be made and it's a decision I respect. Honestly, it's not like I'm upset about it, I would have preferred to do it differently but, you know what, it makes sense." So, to sum up, Cage says he really want to finish the story through DLC, and that it's unfortunate that he didn't get to. But he also says he didn't really want to spend all that extra time on the game, and that he's happy to be moving on. So... that clears that up, yeah?
Red Faction: Battlegrounds announced for XBLA, PSN by THQ Digital
In a panel at the just-kicked-off GDC Europe conference in Germany, THQ Digital creative director Don Whiteford revealed his studio's first major title, Red Faction: Battlegrounds, being built by a core team of just four people. As reported by Gamasutra, THQ Digital Warrington – formerly known as Juice Games – is working on the companion game, due for release on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network before next year's March retail release of Red Faction: Armageddon. THQ's Danny Bilson previously said it would be available "three or four months" before Armageddon, putting the downloadable title's launch somewhere around December of this year. Gamasutra reported that Battlegrounds is a "topdown car, mech and rover combat title [...] with up to four players on the same screen" and offers the ability to "unlock unique elements in Red Faction: Armageddon." As for why a downloadable Red Faction game comes so close to a major retail release, Whiteford said that while " margins were looking very healthy in this space," a key part of the strategy is "building awareness and loyalty for the company's core brand products." And it seems to be working. This is our fourth post mentioning the game and it's only just been announced! [Update: THQ has dropped the press release – found after the break – and it's got some additional details. First, it's due for release in 2011 so, keeping with Bilson's earlier comments, we imagine an early 2011 launch. The game features destructible environments, just like its console cousins, and supports four-player local and online "pick-up-and-play multiplayer." The game is described as "a fast-paced multiplayer-focused vehicular combat game in which fast-attack vehicles, heavy tanks and combat walkers wreak havoc above ground and beneath the surface of Mars." It's apparently playable at Gamescom this week in Germany, so expect some impressions here shortly!] [Update 2: We've got the first trailer and screens from the game here. Or you can always click the handy "screens" or "video" tabs above.]
GamesCom 2010 and GDC Europe expecting more exhibitors, foreign support
GamesCom and GDC Europe are set to be even bigger in their sophomore years when both shows kick off next week in Cologne, Germany. After GamesCom's successful first year, which had about a quarter million attendees, the expo will welcome an incremental increase in the number of exhibitors, foreign companies (up 8.3 percent), foreign exhibitors and "country specific pavilions." GamesCom organizers also note that the show expects 200 "world, European and German premieres" and mention having 100 last year -- though most people likely only remember one. GDC Europe, which is expecting a couple thousand attendees, will start next Monday, leading into GamesCom. Speakers include representatives from BioWare, Remedy, Crytek, Quantic Dream and Sony Europe (among many others). Joystiq will be at both shows and we'll be sure to deliver the latest info, while hyped up on our nutritional Nutella-covered pretzel breakfast.
Warren Spector delivering (presumably) Epic keynote at GDC Europe
Step aside, Will Wright -- there's a new Hollywood It-Girl on the video game industry conference keynote scene. Yes, it seems event planners across the globe are trying to get Deus Ex and, more recently, Epic Mickey creator Warren Spector to come deliver their expo's keynote speech. The ghostly developer is already slated to speak at PAX Prime next month -- but according to a last-minute press release, Spector will also deliver one of the GDC Europe keynotes, titled "What Videogames Can Learn from Other Media ... What We Can't ... And What We Shouldn't," as the three-day event kicks off August 16. The subject of the newly announced speech sounds intriguing, but of course, in an industry as fast-paced and cruel as the video game biz, we doubt Spector's going to stay on top of the keynote game for too much longer. We're betting he's got two more speeches in him before things go sour, and the industry turns its collective attention to a fresh face -- a Bleszinski or a Levine, for example.
Guerrilla Games managing director keynoting GDC Europe
Organizers for the Cologne-based gaming industry get-together, GDC Europe, have announced who will deliver this year's keynote address: Guerrilla Games managing director Hermen Hulst. According to the press release announcing Hulst's keynoting duties, his speech will focus on "how the studio has matured, which obstacles had to be overcome and what some of the ingredients behind the success of the Killzone series are." The presser also mentions Hulst's speech "will be located somewhere in the field of tension between hardware and software." We thought we were familiar with the Cologne Congress Center, but we have no idea where that is. Is it close to the cafeteria? Maybe?
GDC Europe returns to Cologne on Aug. 16, 2010
With America's Game Developers Conference 2010 only a few short weeks away, it has now been announced that GDC Europe 2010 will be taking place in Cologne, Germany again this year. The conference will open its doors on Monday, August 16 and run until Wednesday, August 18. The event will include a new area, the GDC Europe Business Lounge, which will "host a VIP lounge area for GDC Europe Plus members to convene and conduct business." Once again, GDC Europe will be taking place alongside GamesCom, which runs August 18-22. In case you don't remember last year's coverage of the two events, GamesCom and GDC Europe constitute a positively massive gaming event. Expect them to generate lots of late summer gaming news in the lull between E3 and TGS.
