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E3's video game art picks include 'No Man's Sky' and 'Witcher 3'
The Into the Pixel jury has chosen the 2016 winners for its E3 art collection, and it's clearer than ever that video games can inspire artwork you'd be proud to hang on your wall. The 14 selections are mostly from titles where visuals not only play an important role, but set the tone for the entire game -- the sci-fi novel look of No Man's Sky gets its due, as does The Witcher 3's brooding fantasy atmosphere and Unravel's miniature world. There's even art from a virtual reality game (Insomniac's Edge of Nowhere) breaking some ground. Most of these pieces are concept art or models rather than what you'd see while playing, but they're worth a look if you've ever felt that game art is just as creative and thought-provoking as what you'd find in a gallery.
The Strong Museum opens a DICE Awards exhibit
The Academy of Arts and Sciences (AIAS) holds its annual DICE (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) awards to recognize outstanding video games and the individuals who bring them to life., Basically, they're like the Oscars of the gaming industry. Today, they're opening an interactive exhibit at The Strong's National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY to showcase winners and significant titles across gaming history.
Watch the 2016 DICE Awards right here!
The invite list to what's essentially gaming's Oscars is pretty exclusive, but thanks to the magic of Twitch you won't need to call in any favors to watch the Academy of Interactive Arts and Science's annual award show from the DICE summit in Las Vegas tonight. Starting at 10:30 PM ET/ 7:30 PM PT, you can catch what some 22,000 members of the game development and publishing community thought were the best titles released last year.
DICE Awards nominate 'Fallout 4,' 'Ori' and more for GOTY
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has revealed its finalists for the 19th annual DICE Awards, with Rise of the Tomb Raider and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt leading the pack at eight nominations each. Finalists for Game of the Year are Bloodborne, Fallout 4, Ori and the Blind Forest, Rise of the Tomb Raider and The Witcher 3. On the other side of the development spectrum, the DICE Sprite Award recognizes innovative games from small studios -- nominees this year are Her Story, GALAK-Z, Rocket League, Undertale and Kerbal Space Program.
'Metal Gear' mastermind Hideo Kojima will be a Hall-of-Famer
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences will induct Hideo Kojima, father of the Metal Gear franchise, into its Hall of Fame at the 19th DICE Awards on Thursday, February 18th in Las Vegas. To put this honor in perspective, the AIAS is like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the organization behind the Oscars), but for video games. Kojima is the Academy's 21st Hall of Fame inductee, joining Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, Valve Software founder Gabe Newell and Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney, among other notable figures.
E3's 'Into the Pixel' celebrates video games as art
I've been checking out Into the Pixel since my first E3. Seeing video game concept art in a gallery setting is an excellent way to unwind and get a minute or two of respite from the madness of the show floor. It's also a chance to appreciate the downright beautiful art in a format that isn't just a rote, diminutive art book that comes with the "special edition" of a video game. In the video below, Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences president Martin Rae explains what Into the Pixel is and we take a bit of a tour through the space. The standout piece this year? It's from Far Cry 4 and right above this text.
2015 DICE Award nominations led by Shadow of Mordor
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for this year's DICE Awards, recognizing a total of 56 games. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor received nine nominations, including the Game of the Year award. The other Game of the Year nominees are Destiny, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Far Cry 4 and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. Far Cry 4 received seven nominations, one being for Action Game of the Year. Destiny and Hearthstone each had six nominations, whereas Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Monument Valley received five apiece. The 18th Annual DICE Awards ceremony will be held at the The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas following the 2015 DICE Summit, which runs from February 3 through February 5. The event will be livestreamed on DICE's Twitch channel, starting at 10:00 p.m. ET (7:00 p.m. PT). Head past the break for a partial list of nominees; the full list can be found on AIAS' website.
Hit List Q&A: Treyarch head Mark Lamia
In the "Hit List" from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the video game industry's top talents describe their current gaming addictions, their most anticipated releases and more. This week: Mark Lamia, head of Treyarch. At Treyarch, Mark Lamia leads a studio with more than 250 world-class developers who have created some of the biggest hits in gaming, including Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, which continue to rank as two of the best-selling and most-played console games in history. Lamia is a 20-year veteran in the industry who worked his way up from the ground floor in both the development and studio-side publishing organizations within Activision. Prior to Treyarch, he worked with numerous development teams to create and oversee some of Activision's most successful games and franchises, including Call of Duty since its inception. At the 2015 D.I.C.E. Summit Lamia will be speaking on "Treyarch's Zombies: Following the Fun to Win Hearts ... and Brains." Treyarch broke the mold with their inclusion of Zombies in Call of Duty: World at War, creating a wholly new co-op experience for the Call of Duty franchise. Join Lamia as he explores the highly unorthodox development process behind Zombies, as well as the incredibly unique creative dialogue that the studio has with its global audience of Zombies fans.
Hit List Q&A: Nathan Vella, co-founder of Capy
In the "Hit List" from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the video game industry's top talents describe their current gaming addictions, their most anticipated releases and more. This week: Nathan Vella, co-founder of Capybara Games. Nathan Vella is co-founder and president of Toronto-based independent game developer Capy (short for Capybara Games). Perhaps best known for collaborating on Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Capy also recently developed Super Time Force and has created many other games for consoles, handhelds, PC and mobile. Vella is presently working on Below, Capy's upcoming game about exploration, survival and discovery. At the upcoming D.I.C.E. 2015 Summit in February, Vella's will explore the rewards of collaboration, and he'll share key lessons on why and how it works best.
Hit List Q&A: Monument Valley designer Ken Wong
In the "Hit List" from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the video game industry's top talents describe their current gaming addictions, their most anticipated releases and more. This week: Ken Wong, lead designer of Monument Valley. Ken Wong served as lead designer on ustwo's recent mobile hit Monument Valley. An Australian living in London, his previous work also includes the art direction of Alice: Madness Returns at Spicy Horse and his solo indie project, Hackycat. Wong will be presenting at the upcoming D.I.C.E. Europe conference in a session titled, "Games without gamers." He will discuss how core gamers have supported the games industry and pushed it into new territory for decades, but fresh opportunities and challenges await if designers try to attract new audiences. In creating Monument Valley ustwo sought to create a meaningful, rich experience for audiences beyond the 'gamer' by replacing tropes and overused patterns with a focus on user experience.
Hit List Q&A: Watch Dogs creative director Jonathan Morin
In the "Hit List" from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the video game industry's top talents describe their current gaming addictions, their most anticipated releases and more. This week: Jonathan Morin, creative director of Watch Dogs. With over fifteen years in the industry and thirteen of them at Ubisoft Montreal, Jonathan has held various roles in Game Design, Level Design and Art on games such as Peter Jackson's King Kong and Far Cry 2. For the past couple years, Morin has worked as Creative Director on Watch Dogs. In university Morin studied Human Science, Computer Science and briefly considered a career in mathematics education but chose to apply these skills in an environment that would be a bit less predictable. At the upcoming D.I.C.E. Europe conference, Morin will be speaking in a session titled, "Mind the Gap - Igniting People's Sense of Wonder." Morin tends to see games like musical instruments built for players to blow our minds with their creativity. It's an apt analogy but bringing everyone in a development team to think this way is challenging. After all, every brain is different. Working on a game as big as Watch Dogs made Morin realize that no matter how big the game is, or how many people are involved, or in how many countries, often the biggest borders he faced are hidden in an inevitable "gap" between two minds. "Mind the Gap" is a session that explores the importance of listening to others and challenging your own creativity. In this session, Morin will look at how these perception gaps impacted every aspect of his reality: his interactions with executives, the team, marketing, press, and ultimately how players play. In the end, Morin feels the hardest borders to cross are the ones we create in our own minds.
Unity, Riot Games co-founders join AIAS board of directors
David Helgason, CEO and co-founder of Unity Technologies, and Brandon Beck, CEO and co-founder of Riot Games, have joined the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Board of Directors. For those just catching up, Unity is engine behind everything from garage development games to the upcoming Pillars of Eternity, while Riot Games is the studio behind highly-successful MOBA League of Legends. Helgason and Beck's addition to the AIAS is effective immediately, as is the promotion of Nexon America CEO Min Kim to Chairman. Ted Price, CEO and founder of Insomniac Games and AIAS vice chairman, congratulated all three men on their new titles. "Min's industry experience, his ability to tackle tough problems creatively and his collaborative approach to leadership will help propel the AIAS forward as it tackles more and more ambitious goals," Price said in a press release." "Furthermore congratulations and welcome to our newest board members David and Brandon. Whether it's through putting games development at the fingertips of every aspiring creator or delivering co-operative and competitive play on an unmatched global scale, Brandon and David have driven major change in our industry. We're honored that they're joining our team and we're excited to work with them in furthering the Academy's mission." [Image: Unity/Riot Games]
Grand Theft Auto masterminds crash into AIAS Hall of Fame
Rockstar heads Leslie Benzies, Dan Houser and Sam Houser are the 18th, 19th and 20th inductees into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, joining previous winners Gabe Newell, Shigeru Miyamoto, Sid Meier, John Carmack, Mark Cerny, Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuck, and Tim Sweeney, among other luminaries. The Houser brothers founded Rockstar Games in 1998 and acquired Benzies' studio, DMA Design, in 1999. It became Rockstar North, the hub of Grand Theft Auto development. Microsoft Corporate Veep Phil Harrison will present Benzies and the Housers at the DICE Awards on Thursday, February 6. "A rare combination of cultural savvy, technical prowess and a deep passion for interactive entertainment has made Rockstar Games a global success story that has helped propel the games medium forward," Harrison says in a press release. "I am proud and honored to present Leslie, Sam and Dan with this award on behalf of the entire industry." AIAS calls out specific franchises as examples of Rockstar's impact on the industry, as both developer and publisher: Grand Theft Auto, Bully, Red Dead Redemption, Manhunt, The Warriors and LA Noire. We'll be running a liveblog of the DICE Awards on Thursday, starting at 7:30PM PT. [Image: Rockstar Games]
Hit List Q&A: Rami Ismail of Ridiculous Fishing dev Vlambeer
In the "Hit List" from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the video game industry's top talents describe their current gaming addictions, their most anticipated releases and more. This week: Rami Ismail of Ridiculous Fishing developer Vlambeer. Rami Ismail is the Business & Development Guy at Vlambeer, a Dutch independent game studio known best for Wasteland Kings, Ridiculous Fishing, Super Crate Box, LUFTRAUSERS, GUN GODZ and Serious Sam: The Random Encounter. At his upcoming 2014 D.I.C.E. Summit talk Rami will present on "No holding back: A look at independent game development during three years of Vlambeer." Rami discusses The Golden Age for independent development, running through the last five years as he learned of the independent gaming scene, founded Vlambeer with co-founder Jan Willem Nijman, and slowly worked his way into a central figure in independent gaming. He will discuss lessons learned and applicable to an ever-changing scene, the importance of technological democratization and the shift in the relation between developers, platforms, consumers and partners.
Hit List Q&A: Kabam Studios President Andrew Sheppard
In the "Hit List" from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the video game industry's top talents describe their current gaming addictions, their most anticipated releases and more. This week: Andrew Sheppard, President of Kabam Studios. Andrew Sheppard is President of Kabam Studios, where he leads the company's game studios in San Francisco, Beijing and Vancouver. With more than a decade of gaming experience from companies such as EA and Outspark, Andrew has pioneered Kabam's unique approach of blending art and science to create mass-market commercial games and has overseen the strategy and development of seven Kabam games that gross more than $1 million per month, including the award-winning Kingdoms of Camelot, a $250 million franchise and games based on iconic Hollywood films such as The Hobbit, Fast & Furious 6 and The Godfather. At the 2014 D.I.C.E. Summit, Andrew will deliver a talk entitled "Unlearning history: Avoiding the cultural pitfalls of traditional entertainment." The recipe for success in today's dynamic industry has greatly changed. New platforms and business models are disrupting traditional methods. The road to success may be unlearning what you thought you were an expert on and having the humility to change direction. In his talk, Andrew will discuss the need to embrace and celebrate transition, in order to achieve creativity, success and prosperity in today's world.
Hit List Q&A: Journey composer Austin Wintory
In the "Hit List" from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the video game industry's top talents describe their current gaming addictions, their most anticipated releases and more. This week: Austin Wintory, Grammy-nominated composer for games such as Journey, Monaco and The Banner Saga. Grammy-nominated and two-time BAFTA-winning composer Austin Wintory's diverse career has straddled the worlds of concert music, film, and video games. In 2012, Wintory's soundtrack for the hit PlayStation 3 game, Journey, became the first-ever Grammy-nominated video game score, also winning two British Academy Awards, a D.I.C.E. Award, a Spike TV VGA, and IGN's "Overall Music of the Year," along with five Game Audio Network Guild awards, and a host of others. Austin's score for flOw made him the youngest composer ever to receive a British Academy Award nomination. An orchestral version of this music has been performed at the Smithsonian Museum as a part of their "Art of Games" exhibit; flOw is currently on display at MoMA in New York City. In his upcoming 2014 D.I.C.E. Summit session titled "Music's Rising Tides," Wintory offers his effusively positive outlook on the future of music in general, particularly in games. He contends, through a look at both history and the rapidly changing present, that music's best days lie ahead, and that it is not a hindrance to progress that anyone can whip up a half-decent tune in about 5 minutes ... which he will do while on stage.
The Last of Us leads 2014 DICE Awards nominations
Nominations for the 17th Annual DICE Awards are led by The Last of Us, which received 13 total nods. The peer-based video game awards hosted by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences spans 24 categories and recognized 61 separate games this year. The five games nominated for the Game of the Year award are The Last of Us, Grand Theft Auto 5, BioShock Infinite, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. Both GTA 5 and The Last of Us are joined by Papers, Please, Tearaway and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons for the Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction award. The awards ceremony will cap off the 2014 DICE Summit on Thursday, February 6 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Head over to the AIAS' site to view the full list of nominees in PDF form.
Hit List Q&A: Gone Home's Steve Gaynor
In the "Hit List" from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the video game industry's top talents describe their current gaming addictions, their most anticipated releases and more. This week: Steve Gaynor, co-founder of 'Gone Home' developer The Fullbright Company. Steve Gaynor is co-founder of independent game studio The Fullbright Company. He was the writer and designer of the Company's critically lauded first game, Gone Home. Prior to this, he worked for a number of years as a designer on the BioShock franchise. At the 2014 DICE Summit, Steve will deliver a talk entitled Strangers in a Strange Time: "We live in a strange time. Is it a golden age, or a gold rush? The landscape is changing – because we're at the crest of the wave of first-generation indie success, and the indies that made those breakthrough games are now about to release their second titles. What does this mean for new indies now entering the field – and for the rest of the games industry?"
Hit List Q&A: EA founder Trip Hawkins
In the "Hit List" from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the video game industry's top talents describe their current gaming addictions, their most anticipated releases and more. This week: Trip Hawkins, Founder of Electronic Arts and CEO of If You Can Company. Trip Hawkins is the Academy's 2005 Hall of Fame game recipient who founded and built Electronic Arts and played a key role in defining the PC industry. Co-Founder and CEO of If You Can Company, a maker of educational games, he also advises game and tech companies including Kixeye, NativeX and Extreme Reality 3D. He joined Apple to work with the founders when it had only 25 office workers and helped grow the company to 4,000 employees. He founded EA in 1982, introduced many fundamental strategies and business practices to the game industry and was the creative and production force behind EA Sports. For his upcoming 2014 D.I.C.E. Summit session he will speak on "Tipping Points," where he will illustrate how several tipping points are challenging the game industry to change and pointing the way toward a golden age for games.
Hit List Q&A: Major League Gaming CEO, Sundance DiGiovanni
In the "Hit List" from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the video game industry's top talents describe their current gaming addictions, their most anticipated releases and more. This week: Sundance DiGiovanni, CEO of Major League Gaming. Sundance DiGiovanni, Co-Founder and CEO of Major League Gaming, is a seasoned executive, recognized thought leader in video game culture, and veteran creative director with more than 18 years of experience in the media, technology and video game industries. Sundance focuses on the global growth of competitive video gaming, expansion of MLG as a digital media property, and the its distribution platform MLG.tv that is bringing this burgeoning sport to an ever-growing community worldwide. The company operates MLG.tv, the #1 online broadcast network for professional level competitive gaming; the MLG Pro Circuit, the longest-running eSports league in North America; and MLG: Play, the largest cross platform online gaming tournament system with 8 million registered users across the globe. At the upcoming 2014 D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas, Sundance will discuss the growth and evolution of eSports, the similarities with traditional sport, how eSports has become the go-to sport for many, and how free to play games are impacting the eSports space. He will also discuss the future of the eSports landscape and how new consoles, new games and a wider global audience will catapult eSports into the mainstream in the next 5 to 10 years.
