gdc-europe-2011
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Seen@GDC Europe: Epic Games president Mike Capps' adorable laptop wallpaper
Hello Gears of War! As seen above, Epic Games prez Mike Capps has a taste for the ironic in his desktop wallpapers. So, what do we call this adorable little symbol ... COGKitty? Perhaps Hello Kitty of War? She'll chainsaw right through you with a lollipop!
GDC Europe 2011: GamersFirst on the difficulties with transforming APB: Reloaded
GamersFirst is practically a household name these days, and a recent panel at GDC Europe played host to COO/CTO Bjorn Book-Larsson speaking up about the difficulties the company has had bringing once-dead APB into the realm of free-to-play. In the interview at Gamasutra, Book-Larsson talks about how it wasn't as easy as GamersFirst had hoped to turn the failed MMO into that diamond in the rough. Although the tools and ideas of the game are impressive, it was the design that caused roadblocks in the resurrection. Players would literally get lost in the original game, and GamersFirst set out to fix that as much as it could. "People would just run around in an endless loop and never realize they had to ready up to get a mission," Book-Larsson said.
Why Epic Games hasn't made Shadow Complex 2 (but 'never say never')
When Shadow Complex was released in 2009, it received critical praise and became a commercial hit. After Epic Games announced that Chair's next game would instead be an iOS title named Infinity Blade, many were curious as to what had happened to the obligatory, post-success sequel. "The reviews were great, it was a record seller for a single-player game on the platform, but at the same time we've got this mobile gaming push that's coming in strong," Epic Games president Mike Capps explained this morning during his GDC Europe keynote. "And the big thing for me was that we were looking what the iPhone could do, and the games that were on iPhone, and we thought there was a huge gap, so we put our engine team on the problem, and that's where we came up with Infinity Blade," Capps said. "We were thinking about the sequel [to Shadow Complex], we were ready and 'Maybe we should start working on this,' and instead stopped everything and went and made Infinity Blade." Capps expanded on the possibility of a Shadow Complex sequel when I followed up with him after his presentation. "Never say never," he offered. Of course, when Chair head Donald Mustard answered the same question earlier this year, he said that such a sequel is "a question of when, not if."
Five games in development at Epic Games, none from the Gears of War franchise
During an Epic Games culture-heavy talk this morning at GDC Europe, company president Mike Capps briefly noted several projects that are currently in some form of development at his company. According to a slide entitled "So what's our next story," there are currently "five new games at various stages of prototyping and development" at Epic Games. "We didn't multiply our team size by five, so you can assume they're smaller games," Capps said. While he's "not ready to announce anything" just yet in terms of consoles or what studios are working on said prototypes (People Can Fly? Chair? Internal?), he said that the PC is now the company's target platform, rather than a recipient of ported console games. I followed up with Capps after his talk, where he added that both People Can Fly and Chair are part of Epic's "big happy family," though wouldn't put any of the projects to one particular label. He also confirmed that the recent job listing on Epic's website is relevant to these five unannounced projects in development at the studio. The "Samaritan" tech demo, however, is not one of them.
Silent Hill: Downpour 'not missing out' without Yamaoka, says Vatra dev
Vatra Games design director Brian Gomez doesn't feel that his studio's upcoming survival-horror title, Silent Hill: Downpour, is being too adversely affected by the absence of longtime series composer Akira Yamaoka. "I was worried when we lost him, we lost him really early on in Downpour. But I was a big fan of Dexter already, so I'm happy we got Daniel Licht," Gomez told me this morning after a GDC Europe panel on the SH franchise. "It was the closest to Akira but also brought something new to it," he added. Back in 2009, Downpour producer (at Konami) Tomm Hulett told us, "If Akira's music isn't there, it just doesn't sound quite right. And I'm sure that there are people out there who could emulate the sound and try to get it close, but there would be something missing." But time heals all wounds, and Gomez thinks the game will still fall in line with the franchise's established standard of audio. "As much as I would've loved the honor of working with Akira, I don't feel that we're missing out by not having him." That said, it's clear that Gomez wants Yamaoka back at Konami, and back on the Silent Hill franchise. Speaking to the ongoing friction between Yamaoka and his formeremployer, Gomez added, "I think this whole feud between he and Konami is just fucking stupid. Everyone needs to calm down, and bring him back in, and do something." Gomez had yet to play Yamaoka's latest work, the critically acclaimed (but commercially ignored) Shadows of the Damned from Grasshopper Manufacture and EA. "I've just been too busy with Downpour, unfortunately."
Magicka sales near 800K, Vietnam expansion a financial success
Last we heard, Paradox Interactive's publishing deal for Magicka with Arrowhead Games was working out pretty well. This morning, just after a GDC Europe presentation by the niche Swedish publishing house, Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester further added to the game's history of financial success, when he told me that the title has now sold nearly 800,000 units. "It's gonna pass that [sales milestone] in the next week, week after or so," Wester said. "We're still doing between five and seven thousand a week, so it's a great sales number." He also added that Paradox hopes to pass the one million sales mark by the end of 2011 -- a major achievement for a small team like Arrowhead. As for the much-loved Vietnam expansion, I wondered if it had achieved the same success that both Paradox and Arrowhead had hoped for. "It's done a few hundred thousand, so the attachment rate is really high," Wester explained. With those kinds of numbers, it's clear why Paradox is interested in fostering and furthering the relationship with Arrowhead. Back in May, Wester told me that sequels for Magicka are a lock.
'Notgames Fest' to fill IGF-sized hole at GDC Europe [update]
Between GDC Europe and Gamescom in August, you've got more than enough gaming news to read about in the coming months. But Germany's Notgames Fest organizers clearly disagree, with the Cologne Game Lab creating an indie (or "Notgames") festival during the first two days of GDC Europe (August 15 and 16). Like the Independent Game Festival at GDC's main annual gathering in San Francisco, NGF at GDC Europe will feature indie developers showing off their wares, talking to other devs, and giving demonstrations to attendees. Also like the IGF, developers who hope to bring their games must apply ahead of time, only rather than a panel of IGF judges, Tale of Tales' Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn will be "curating" the event. If all that weren't enough for you, the event's organizers promise "BBQ and beer in an open air atmosphere." Sold! Head to the NGF main page for all the pertinent details (like ... uh ... where it is in Cologne). Update: To be clear, the Indie Games Summit takes place at GDC Europe, and the Notgames Fest is not associated with GDC Europe, it just takes place during the event. Head over to the official GDC Europe page for more info.
Richard Garriott to deliver Game Developers Conference Europe keynote
Are you planning to venture to the wilds of Europe for the upcoming Game Developers Conference Europe? If so, you're in for a treat, as the father of Ultima will be delivering the keynote speech. That's right, the one and only spacefaring game developer Richard Garriott will give a presentation at the conference discussing social gaming, its future, and what mark it may leave on the gaming industry as a whole. Garriott is perhaps known best for being the creator of the Ultima series (and the victim of assassination in the early days of Ultima Online), but his most recent foray in the industry came in the form of Portalarium, a social gaming company. Frank Sliwka, event director of GDC Europe, notes that "there are few developers with Richard Garriott's history, pedigree and vantage point, having been a defining force in the realm of traditional hardcore games, birthing the RPG and MMORPG genres, to now helping lead the way within the world of social games," so the speech will almost certainly be enlightening for anyone with an interest in the subject. GDC Europe will be taking place from August 15-17, so if you're looking to make the journey to gaming mecca, go ahead and start making plans!
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.
