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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.
League of Legends studio CEO headlines DICE summit
Riot Games CEO Brandon Beck is the opening keynote speaker at the 2015 DICE summit in Las Vegas, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences announced in a press release this week. Beck founded Riot, the studio behind League of Legends, in 2006. He's poised to take the DICE stage on Wednesday, February 4. Also scheduled to talk at DICE is Monolith Design Director Michael de Plater, CastAR co-founder Jeri Ellsworth, Ubisoft's New IP Editorial Director Tommy Francois, Funomena CEO Robin Hunicke, and Twitch COO Kevin Lin, among others. See the full lineup in the below press release. DICE runs from February 3 - 5 at the Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas. The talks and 2015 DICE Awards will be streamed on twitch.tv/dice from February 4 - 5. [Image: Riot]
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Austin Wintory takes inspiration from Banner Saga's exhausted warriors
Austin Wintory doesn't like manipulating people. He could, pretty easily, if he wanted to, because he's a gifted musician with a knack for creating evocative music, but he doesn't have any interest in forcing you to feel a certain way. His approach to scoring a game like The Banner Saga is less about the obvious and more about the subtext – opening a door to an emotional space and letting you decide whether to walk in or not. Which sounds pretty high-minded for a game with giant warriors sporting goat horns, but that's just what's on the surface. Music's job lies in subtext. "The game should already be, for example, sad," he explained to me at DICE. "My job is to make you understand why and add a sense of stakes and weight to what's happening, not to try and make you have this base understanding that 'Now it's sad!' as if you would have missed that." Wintory, who admits to having worked on "not so good" movies, acknowledges that his job as composer is "a lot easier to do" when he's given excellent material to work with. Journey, he said, was so brilliant that he barely had to do anything. He could just "go in there and play" (and get nominated for a Grammy). Stoic Studio's The Banner Saga was similarly inspiring, but first he had to figure out the right way to handle its turn-based-strategy nature. He did at least know what he didn't want to do with it. "How to score the actual turn-based-strategy combat was a big question mark for me," Wintory said. He didn't want to take the same musical route as Banner Saga's most obvious recent comparison, XCOM, which featured fast-paced music. "All due respect to XCOM, I wanted to be the exact opposite of that, where I'm doing this, trying to contemplate the best strategy and I'm hearing pop-pop-pop-pop-pop that's like wailing away telling me 'Isn't this exciting?'"
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.
DICE Europe conference debuts in September
The DICE Summit is spreading its wings with an inaugural European conference, in addition to the annual Vegas get-together. Similar to GDC, DICE's first Euro-venture takes place this fall at the Royal Garden Hotel in London. In terms of speakers, DICE Europe will have one of the industry's most prolific in ex-Lionhead chief and 22 Cans founder Peter Molyneux. Also confirmed are EA Chief Creative Director Rich Hilleman, Wargaming.net CEO Victor Kislyi, and Natural Motion CEO Torstein Reil. The conference itself will play out similar to the Vegas summit, with the first day dedicated to networking and the second for speaker sessions. Registration for the event, scheduled for September 24-25, is open now.
Kislyi calls for 'second F2P revolution' in DICE speech
Wargaming.net CEO Victor Kislyi took the stage at last week's DICE Summit to talk about the ongoing evolution of free-to-play. He's what you might call an expert on the subject given that the company he founded features 1.2 million peak concurrent users as well as 1,400 employees and 12 offices world-wide. Kislyi's 40-minute speech featured World of Tanks, but it also made mention of the firm's recent acquisition of Day 1 Studios. The move was made with an eye towards cornering the console F2P market, something Kislyi says that traditional console makers would be wise to do as well. "They keep their own prejudice and they keep to their old ways," he said. "If they keep holding to their old way, single-player box ideas they may pretty well drop." You can view Kislyi's DICE speech in its entirety after the cut.
Creators of Zork to accept Pioneer Award at DICE Summit, hide WIRED interview behind new text adventure
If you've ever been eaten by a grue, you can blame Dave Lebling, Marc Blank and and a small team of their friends -- Zork, and the notoriously frustrating text adventure game genre that followed is all their fault. The games were challenging, but they were also the most complex narratives told through video games at the time, and their creators are finally getting their dues. Early next year, Blank and Lebling are slated to receive the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Pioneer Award at the DICE Summit. The name implies the details: the award honors those who helped pioneer the gaming industry with their early work, ultimately paving the way for the titles and hardware we enjoy today. How influential was the title? Too young for nostalgic reminisces of "interactive fiction?" Head on over to Wired for a lesson in history -- it's hidden its entire interview with Dave Lebling behind a text adventure of its own design.
Valve's Gabe Newell inducted into AIAS Hall of Fame
Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve, is the 17th inductee into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, earning the title for 2013. Newell joins Shigeru Miyamoto, Sid Meier, John Carmack, Michael Morhaime, Drs. Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuck, and Tim Sweeney, among others, in the AIAS Hall of Fame.Newell will also be a keynote speaker for Thursday's conference at the 2013 DICE Summit. Epic Games President Mike Capps will present Newell with the Hall of Fame Award at the 2013 DICE Awards."Gabe is a living legend of the video games industry, and his relentless focus on customer experience has made our whole industry a better place," Capps says. "Valve's unconventional success is an inspiration for us all, and I couldn't be more pleased to present Gabe's Hall of Fame award."
Richard Garriott discusses ongoing plans for Portalarium
As much as some may poke fun at Facebook and other social media based games, those games have an enormous market share that's still growing. Let's face it: These games attract not only all manner of gamers but also the most casual of non-gaming users, such as your Great-Aunt Martha or partners who generally dislike video games. With that in mind, Edge caught up with Richard Garriott at DICE Summit recently to catch up on how things are progressing with his foray into the social gaming world: Portalarium. While we knew about Portalarium's initial offerings such as the card game, it appears that the company has much bigger plans in store. Garriott discusses the success of many of the titles in the social gaming space and how that relates to his own personal world-building experiences with Ultima Online. Further, he notes that Portalarium's current main title is "not a game about farming... operating a shop... [or] managing your pets." There is also some discussion of making in-game purchases tie to microlending sites like Kiva to benefit projects in other countries, which is certainly worth reading as well. If you're curious about where Portalarium is going or interested in reading some ideas from an industry vet, then pop over to Edge and check out the full interview with Garriott.
BioWare says WoW is the touchstone for Star Wars: The Old Republic
When game developers talk about massively multiplayer games these days, World of Warcraft is the proverbial big man on campus. At the DICE summit keynote panel in Las Vegas, Greg Zeschuk, co-founder of Bioware, stated that WoW was the touchstone for standards in the MMO sphere and for upcoming Bioware MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. Essentially, Zeschuk was saying that breaking rules that World of Warcraft set as industry standards is a bad idea for any up and coming MMO. Zeschuk said: "It [World of Warcraft] is a touchstone. It has established standards, it's established how you play an MMO. Every MMO that comes out, I play and look at it. And if they break any of the WoW rules, in my book that's pretty dumb." What's interesting is how Zeschuk, sitting with Mike Morhaime at the keynote panel, gave WoW the reverence it deserves as the leading industry standard in MMO gaming. Instead of couching his remarks about the specific game he was in the process of making, he discussed how players expect a set of established standards that WoW has provided. Be it a sense of completion of polish, a game mechanic, core concepts, or even art direction and fluidity of art theme, World of Warcraft set the bar very high for other game developers and even Blizzard itself. We know WoW is big, but I think we sometimes forget how important it is as well. Greg Zeschuk and the rest of the video game industry know this and acknowledge that breaking some clear-cut rules is a big mistake.
Blizzard speaks (briefly) about new MMO plans
"To break the mold, sometimes you have to start over," says Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime. Apparently the monolithic development firm's next MMO won't be a World of Warcraft sequel, and In fact, the company expects the two titles to co-exist for a number of years. "We're really trying to leverage all the lessons we learned through the years. Some of which we were able to address in World of Warcraft and others that maybe because of the design decisions we've made, you just can't address. So we're kind of taking a step back with all that knowledge to make something that's completely new and fresh," Morhaime said yesterday while speaking at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas. Specific details were nowhere to be found of course, but Morhaime did hint at the social aspects that Blizzard sees as defining characteristics for the future of gaming.
BioWare: WoW is the "touchstone" for The Old Republic
Debate has raged long and hard in fan circles as to whether or not BioWare's upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG is a "WoW clone." Speaking on the keynote panel at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas, BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk added a bit of fuel to that particular fire by outlining how SWTOR is treading the path laid down by the current king of the genre. "It [World of Warcraft] is a touchstone. It has established standards, it's established how you play an MMO. Every MMO that comes out, I play and look at it. And if they break any of the WoW rules, in my book that's pretty dumb," Zeschuk said. Zeschuk also addressed the social gaming trend, saying that triple-A projects are still alive and kicking thanks to Blizzard's success. "Bigger does work. Big has worked and frankly, WoW is the biggest. On a pure revenue basis it's probably the biggest game ever by a country mile. It generates so much revenue it's an incredible international business unto itself," he said.
AIAS Hall of Famers delivering 2011 D.I.C.E. Summit keynote
So, you've only got a few hours set aside this year with which to absorb illumination from some of the gaming industry's smartest folks? You won't find a more efficient way to satisfy your needs than the 2011 D.I.C.E. Summit keynote panel, which will feature the shared wisdom of a number of Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Famers from years past. (And years current!) Presenters include Blizzard president Mike Morhaime, Grandfather of the RTS genre Bruce Shelley, Cerny Games president Mike Cerny and BioWare co-founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk. If you can make it to the panel on the evening of February 9, we're pretty sure that you'll possess all the knowledge you'll need to create the industry's next big game. At the very least, you'll have some inspiration for some awesome last names for said game's characters.
DICE award nominees announced, Red Dead leads the pack
The nominees for the 2011 Interactive Achievement Awards -- the annual awards ceremony held during the Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain (DICE) Summit -- have been announced. The list includes a number of surprises (including a Game of the Year nod for Angry Birds HD), but, somewhat less surprisingly, Red Dead Redemption leads the pack with nine nominations across the show's various categories. Check out all the nominees after the jump for even more familiar and unfamiliar titles. (Alan ... Wake? That's a game? Never heard of it, bub.)
EA, Vigil, Gearbox hosting D.I.C.E. sessions
The D.I.C.E. Summit announced today that EA's Chief Operating Officer John Schappert, the co-founders of Vigil Games (Darksiders) and Gearbox Games' Randy Pitchford will speak at this year's gathering. They'll be joined by a whole mess of other speakers, including keynotes by Activision CEO Bobby Kotick and Disney Interactive President Stephen Wadsworth. For those who don't know, D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) is the annual Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences conference "dedicated to exploring approaches to the creative process and artistic expression as they uniquely apply to the development of interactive entertainment." However, more aptly, D.I.C.E. stands for "Damn, I C Executives!," as the conference is one giant big-money pow-wow. We'll be there when the conference kicks off February 17 in Las Vegas.
Kotick to keynote DICE Summit Sessions
Last time we heard from Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, he was explaining how terrible one of his company's franchises was. He's previously joked about increasing prices even further. If you want to be there when he issues his next great Quotick, you should go to the DICE summit -- or, barring that, wait five minutes for shocked journalists to pass it along. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences announced that Kotick will open the Summit Sessions with a talk about "how creative talent drives the video game industry." That is, creative talent who is not having any fun. "Activision Blizzard is home to some of the most talented developers in our industry and we are thrilled to have Bobby's insight on how great games are built upon great talent," AIAS president Joseph Olin said. Kotick's talk will take place Thursday, February 18.
Nathan Drake hoping to take home more shiny trinkets at AIAS awards
We're in the thick of awards season, and video games are no exception. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has announced its finalists for the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards ("The 'Racties" -- we're kidding but that's what they should be called), and, as you might have guessed, award hog Uncharted 2: Among Thieves leads the pack with 15 nominations. The rest of the nominees include more of the usual suspects from 2009: Assassin's Creed II with 10 noms, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with nine and Batman: Arkham Asylum with eight. This year's awards also features three new categories, including Outstanding Achievement in Game Design and Portable and Social Networking Games of the Year. You can find a list of selected categories and their nominees after the break, or check out the Academy's full list in PDF form. The awards will be given out at the DICE Summit on February 18 in Las Vegas, where Activision's Bobby Kotick is scheduled to keynote. We can only guess that he'll go all Kanye on the podium if Modern Warfare 2 doesn't win.
DICE 2010 featuring speakers from Naughty Dog, Zeebo
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has announced a few additions to the lineup of speakers for next year's DICE (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) summit in Las Vegas. Naughty Dog game designer Richard Lemarchand, Zynga chief creative officer Brian Reynolds (previously a designer on Civilization 2 and Alpha Centauri), and Zeebo's Mike Yuen will speak at the summit. Hopefully Yuen will discuss the hot topic of what the deal with Zeebo is. Jamin Brophy-Warren, editor of the new Kill Screen magazine, will moderate a panel discussion between writer/director/producer Navid Khonsari, Raven Software lead designer Manveer Heir, and Dmitri Williams, and new media professor Dmitri Williams. Once again, this is DICE, the summit taking place in Las Vegas from February 17-20, 2010. Not the EA-owned developer, in case you were wondering why they were bringing a bunch of speakers in.
D.I.C.E. summit rolling to Singapore in September
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has announced today that its annual D.I.C.E. Summit will be going global. For the first time, the summit with be held in Asia, at Singapore's Suntec Center -- the same venue for Games Convention Asia. D.I.C.E. and GC Asia will open together on September 17.Among those in the industry planning to head out to the Lion City for D.I.C.E. are Masaya Matsuura of PaRappa the Rapper fame and Chris Taylor, founder and creative director of Gas Powered Games. With both events running at the same time, it would seem like a rather good idea for regional game designers to stop by the Suntec Center this year.
DICE 2009: Dave Perry predicts rise of free, online games, death of single-player titles
Continuing the trend of DICE 2009 speakers casting chicken bones and reading crystal balls in order to divine the secrets of upcoming movements in the gaming industry, Dave Perry (founder of the now defunct Shiny Entertainment and all-around industry veteran) possessed a unique, unsettling vision for the future. He explained that as the technology supporting remote storage and processing improves, the need for gamers to own hardware and software will naturally disappear, ushering in a gaming era where free-to-play online titles reign supreme.As totally awesome as a world where all video games are sans-price sounds, Perry cautioned that this scenario means that "the days of single-player games are numbered." Equally alarming is the fact that this new business model would make it extremely difficult for traditional developers to compete against their uncostly competitors. Worst of all, think of the impact the rise of Flash games will have on poor ol' GameStop! That part alone is going to prevent us from getting any sleep tonight.
