ChrisHecker
Latest
10 years later, 'SpyParty' hits Steam Early Access on April 12th
Chris Hecker, the creator of SpyParty, is smiling and gesturing wildly over the open lid of a laptop showcasing the game's six new upgraded maps. After 10 years of development, SpyParty is finally going to land on Steam Early Access on April 12th, and Hecker is barely containing a cacophony of emotions -- not all of them bad. "That's fucking crazy and I'm terrified, like literally, abject terrified, and my anxiety level is through the fucking roof," he says. "But I'm excited too, and we'll see. There's a whole bunch of things I'm concerned about with that and excited about that. Like the fact that I have the best online competitive gaming community ever."
'SpyParty' finally looks like a real video game
Yes, after nearly 10 years, SpyParty is still in development. It's an underground kind of independent, competitive game where one player is a spy attempting to complete discreet tasks at a fancy party, and another player is positioned outside, observing the scene through the scope of a sniper rifle. The spy attempts to blend in with a room full of AI-powered partygoers while the sniper tries to figure out which one is actually human (and then shoot that character, of course). And soon, it will all be much, much prettier. Creator Chris Hecker, artist John Cimino and newly hired environment artist Reika Yoshino today revealed five new characters, a professional-looking UI and an updated version of SpyParty's largest map, Veranda. The update isn't live yet, but it's coming in hot and should be available in the game's paid beta late tonight.
Peek behind the developers' curtain with 'SpyParty' slider images
Most 3D games don't begin life as gorgeous, fully animated, shaded and colored products. They start with concept art and placeholder images that allow developers to fine-tune the mechanics and build out a full experience. Sometimes, these placeholder characters are unrefined. Sometimes, they look like a weird hybrid between a Lego man and one of the original Sims. That's the case for SpyParty, an intense game of one-on-one stealth, misdirection and sharpshooting that's been in development for roughly eight years. And, looking at its original art, we do mean rough (though the OG characters are beloved by many early players). In a blog update, SpyParty creator Chris Hecker shows off how his game has changed since its placeholder days, in a set of images with sliders comparing old and new, fancy graphics provided by artist John Cimino.
The curious case of 'SpyParty' and self-funded indie games
Game developer Chris Hecker attended Parsons School of Design in the late 1980s -- his admissions counselor was a fashionable man named Tim Gunn, who accepted Hecker's portfolio complete with a four-foot oil painting of Freddy Krueger, the canvas slashed as if it had been attacked by the subject's own bladed fingers. Hecker eventually dropped out of Parsons and studied computers, picking up jobs at Microsoft and, finally, EA Maxis, building Spore. Now, he's an independent developer and his current project, SpyParty, has been in the works for eight years. Hecker is experienced. He's a veteran developer. He's a relic of gaming's lost AA industry. Or, as Hecker puts it, he's "old and decrepit." "I'm 44 years old, which is old as hell in development," he says.
Readers pick best webcomic: Hecker the Traitor
It may have required some background knowledge of 300 and Chris Hecker to understand, but the Joystiq webcomic lovers chose via parliamentary procedure 2P Start's entry as the best webcomic of last week.Second place went to Penny Arcade and third from Scott Johnson's Extra Life. Thanks to everyone who voted and be sure to let us know of any gaming comics you stumble upon this week!
Another side to Chris Hecker's duct tape rant
If you've followed the Game Developers Conference at all, you probably heard about Maxis programmer Chris Hecker comments that the Wii is nothing more than two GameCubes duct tape together (though, to be fair, that's a 0.5 upgrade from comments that the Wii is "GameCube 1.5"). We're willing to wager that "Product X is just two Product Ys duct tape together" is on track to becoming a popular phrase in gaming circles.Kim Pallister of Microsoft Casual Games has risen to Hecker's defense, which ultimately led to an apology we feel was somewhat coerced by his overlords at EA and Maxis. The major point in Hecker's argument is that having an innovative control system "should not give them a 'get out of jail free card' on the fact that they have delivered an underpowered machine," according to Pallister's interpretation. And by underpowered, Hecker is referring to computations and not the graphics system, which puts his rant in line with what he said last year that the PS3 and Xbox 360 also underperform in terms of computational power while focusing on a graphics-heavy system.We're not going to take sides on his point that Nintendo needs to "recognize and push games as a serious art form," though the statement does make for a great discussion. We will say all three companies have pushed for more involvement with independent developers. (Microsoft has Castle Crashers and Roboblitz, Sony has flOw and LittleBigPlanet and Nintendo has Line Rider and possibly Telltale's Sam & Max.)Don't forget about the heap of praise that the IGDA community gave Hecker just last year after winning the Community Contribution Award. Though, to be fair, that award is just two IGF awards duct taped together.
Complete Flamebait: Hecker says the Wii is a piece of... schmidt
This isn't related to the PlayStation 3 at all... wait, barely. We've already warned you this is flame-bait, so if you're easily offended, uh, rant away. This isn't coming from PS3Fanboy's mouth. First off, let's say this: Chris Hecker, founder of the developer Definition 6, spoke at GDC the other day... not so much spoke as ranted and raved about how crappy things are. Especially the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo's inability to recognize games as a form of art. We mostly disagree, but for the sake of making this guy look even more like an ass, let's go on.Last year, Hecker said the PS3 and 360 had focused their lenses too much on graphics instead of gameplay. This year, he's attacking Nintendo. "At the end I asked the audience, will Nintendo save us? Will they deliver a balanced machine that's fast enough? The answer to that question is the topic of today's rant." He flashes a slide that said 'Fear of the Wii Planet' and ranted on, "Everybody loves the Wii. 'Oh, God, the Wii, we love the Wii so much'... The Wii is a piece of shit. I have uncovered the secret to Wii manufacturing. The way you manufacture a Wii is you take two GameCubes and some duct tape." Heh. Funny, maybe. Crude, sure. True, mostly.He also said: "This thing is totally underpowered... This is not about graphics, more polygons, all that kind of crap. What I want to be able to do is spend CPU to make the machine smarter, more interesting and more automatically intelligent." Which, granted, it is. But... motion-sensing!Hecker used some quotes from Phil Harrison and Bill Gates referring to video games as works of art. He then juxtaposed a quote from Zelda creator Eiji Aonuma: "I don't feel that games can necessarily be considered art. There's nothing wrong with that; our goal is just to make games that are fun." Hecker feels that people shouldn't think like that anymore, that gaming has transcended the frame of making "a fun toy".He said he'd rush Miyamoto at the keynote today, asking two things: "Number one: recognise and push games as a serious art form. Number two: make a console that doesn't suck ass." Ouch. Looks like they'll never be asked to work on a Nintendo platform. What do you guys think? Are games still just toys, or should they be cared for and developed as something higher and more important? I feel, personally, that "fun games" are perfectly fine, so long as there's a proper mix of "artsy-fartsy" games in there too. What I mean is, variety is a spice of life. I don't want to play 100 Shadow of the Colossus style games, nor do I want 100 WarioWare titles. Different games suit different moods. Hecker, you're a jerk. And yes, that is the best response I can come up with. I wouldn't waste my brainpower on thinking up something better.
Joystiq interviews Spore's Chaim Gingold and Chris Hecker
On the first day of the Montreal International Game Summit, Chaim Gingold and Chris Hecker presented a keynote on the topic of "advanced prototyping," specifically as to how it pertains to Spore, the game that currently occupies their time over at EA/Maxis. The same talk, given at the 2006 Game Developers Conference, was rated higher than any other presentation, including Will Wright's, their boss's. Before the keynote, Joystiq had a chance to chat with both Chaim and Chris, and discuss their impetus for joining Maxis, the evolution of Spore, and the relationship between Maxis and EA.You're both at Maxis now. How did each of you get there?CHRIS HECKER: We both started full-time the same day, actually.CHAIM GINGOLD: Yeah. I was at Georgia Tech doing a masters program in integration design and technology, and there was a required internship over the summer. My advisor asked me "where are you going to work?" And I was like "I don't know." She was like "Didn't you have an interest in working with games?" and I was like "It would be fun to work with Will Wright, not that that would ever happen. That would be totally crazy." And then one day I got an e-mail from him, saying "We're looking for interns." And then an hour later I got an email back saying "You got it." And so I got the internship, and at the time there were like four or five people working on Spore. That sort of really small team, and I spent the summer working on that. Everyone was crunching on TSO [The Sims Online], and when I got done they asked me back, so I came back.When was that?CG: I've been there four, five years now.CH: So, I was working in indie games for, like, eight years, and my wife was basically paying the mortgage. She kinda had the high-powered, executive job. And then, we had a baby, and she decided: "Well, I'm quitting. It's your turn to actually work." And I was like "Uh-oh! I guess I'm going to have to make some money." Indie games don't pay that well.
