gdc-2009
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Progressive drop rates
Jeff Kaplan has said some interesting things at this year's GDC (expect a full account from us soon). One of them concerned a new technology that debuted in Wrath of the Lich King which I, for one, had not heard of before: progressive drop rates for quest items. Pre-Wrath, if you're on a collection quest, whatever you're trying to collect will drop at a constant rate (35% was apparently the standard). Overall, this averages to a predictable amount of kills per quest. But probability being the way it is, it was altogether possible to have terrible luck and have to kill 100 foozles to get your four gizmos, or to have great luck and get your gizmos in only four kills. It was the bad streaks that the devs were particularly concerned about, as those are very memorable and never fun. In Wrath, according to Kaplan, drop rates for quest items are progressive - the more foozles you kill, the higher chance each one has to drop a gizmo. The standard quest item drop rate has been raised to 45%, and each kill you make raises that drop rate by some amount. Kaplan said that it can eventually reach 100%, at which point every kill would drop your item. This puts a hard cap on just how frustrating a collection quest can be. Seems like a smart idea to me. I hadn't really noticed Wrath collection quests being easier, but then, I wouldn't - I simply wouldn't have bad-luck streaks, the absence of which might not be easy to notice. [via Shacknews]
GDC09: Applied RMT Design with GoPets and Live Gamer
Massively sat in on a GDC 2009 session this week titled Applied RMT Design which was part of the Worlds in Motion Summit. Andrew Schneider, Founder and President of Live Gamer and Erik Bethke, CEO of GoPets, Ltd. presented a case study on balancing a game's primary and secondary markets, using GoPets as an example of how it can be done. The market for virtual goods in massively multiplayer online games and virtual worlds is worth billions. Not all of this is grey market, and more games are now being designed with microtransactions in mind. Live Gamer aims to bring greater legitimacy to microtransactions through a regulated secondary market providing benefits to companies as well as the players themselves. Thus far they've worked with EverQuest II, Vanguard, and GoPets, with Acclaim's 9 Dragons on the way. Bethke and Schneider kick off their talk by explaining the fact that RMT in MMOs is inevitable, explaining how developers can be proactive about incorporating RMT into their titles rather than having it exist outside of the game. Live Gamer works with developers to create a legitimate system for trading virtual items for real money, one that's safe and secure. Of course, legitimizing RMT can also stir up controversy. %Gallery-48454%
GDC09: Dead Rising 2 will have most rendered characters ever
During a GDC presentation about the bolstered graphics engine powering Dead Rising 2, Izmeth Siddeek, the game's character art lead, made a fairly startling proclomation: "Dead Rising 2 deals with the rendering of the greatest number of characters ever seen in a video game," he said. In other words, the massive amounts of on-screen zombies featured in the original Dead Rising will apparently increase by a huge margin in the sequel.The enlarged zombie processing power can be attributed to developer Blue Castle's implementation of new visual technology called Mental Mill, which is capable of rendering large groups of characters without sacrificing graphical quality. Mental Mill product manager Laura Scholl claimed the new software will allow over 6,000 zombies to appear on-screen, providing undead multitudes that will be easy on the eyes, but rough on our formerly uneaten brains.
GDC09: Catching up with Global Agenda
Last year, we had the opportunity to visit Hi-Rez Studios to get one of the first press hands-on looks at Global Agenda. While the game is still in the alpha test now, closed beta is about to begin soon. In order to gear up for these next stages of development, Hi-Rez brought Global Agenda to the GDC audience to try it out for themselves. This is actually the first public hands-on of the game at GDC, so it was a key moment for the team.So what has changed since our tour in October? Well, quite a bit, actually. This public showing brings out some exciting new developments from the Hi-Rez team, including brand new upgraded face customization and an improved tutorial. In addition, the AI, UI and graphics have all experienced quite a bit of tightening and polishing. With Hi-Rez implementing their own in-house motion capture studio, the character animation is among some of the best you'll see in an MMO. What hasn't changed? Well, I still get my butt kicked in the game quite frequently. But I love a good challenge.
GDC09: 'Rock Band' was almost 'Metal Lords'
This comes as something of a shock to us, but Harmonix actually considered names for Rock Band other than the perfect, obvious Rock Band. Senior designer Dan Teasdale unveiled a series of rejected alternate titles for the music game at a GDC session. The titles included winners like the aforementioned Metal Lords and Power Chords, and some that probably would have affected sales in the negative: Big Band Blowout, I Want To Be A Rockstar! One that, according to Teasdale, was rejected as something that would "never sell": Rock Band: World Tour. Actually, that one deserves its own line.Rock Band: World Tour.
Intel to officially refresh laptop chips next week?
We had a hunch this refresh was coming, and according to information gathered by CNET, it's all going down on Monday. The 2.53GHz SP9600, complete with its 6MB of cache memory and $316 sticker, will reportedly be revealed alongside the 1.6GHz SU9600, which will be pegged at $289. Furthermore, we should see a single-core 1.4GHz SU3500 ($262) with a thermal envelope of only 5.5 watts, which will obviously cater to those really, really low-power applications where horsepower isn't a concern. Interestingly, these newfangled pieces of silicon won't be those rumored CULV chips we heard about in January, as those won't be good and ready 'til summertime. There's also a slight chance that we'll hear a bit more on Intel's reemergence in the GPU field, but we're not holding our breath quite so much on that. Dig in below for lots more, or just be patience and wait for the 30th. Totally your call.Read - Intel CPU detailsRead - Intel GPU details
GDC09: Pardo details why Blizzard has ignored this generation of consoles
Before Metal Gear Solid 4 was everyone's favorite Xbox 360 rumor, it was Blizzard's money machine, World of Warcraft, that was constantly said to be hitting consoles. Blizzard already assured us it wasn't happening ages ago, but during the Luminaries Luncheon, Blizzard's vice-president of game design, Rob Pardo, detailed why his company has ignored this generation of consoles. "There are so many games, like we make at Blizzard, that we don't take to the console because they don't support input devices," Pardo told the attendees. Pardo's comments were made when the panel was asked what they would do if they were in charge of developing the next generation of consoles. Pardo, who hailed Nintendo for creating an input device "that allows new types of games to be made," explained that the lack of device diversity on consoles would only lead to "crappy ports" of his company's titles."If I was them," Pardo concluded, "I'd be sitting around trying to think of 'What's a cool input device that allows all types of new of games that are really fun to play?'"
GDC09: Project Offset reemerges with new media
No, it's not a dream. Go ahead and pinch yourself. After a year of nearly complete silence, the team behind the fantasy FPS Project Offset -- which was acquired by Intel last year -- has redesigned its website and released new media. Specifically, there are two new tech demo videos and some fresh concept art. Embedded above is a video of meteors destroying the environment as they fall from the sky. It certainly looks impressive, though it's unclear if this is dynamic destruction or something pre-defined. Either way, it certainly looks nice. The second video, embedded after the break, shows off a cottage being constructed inside the Offset engine. The cottage is apparently a prefab, which is essentially a reusable asset for game design. Objects are added to the structure and several textures and graphical effects are added on the fly. The video certainly makes it look easy to create objects within the game world, though we'd like to see something made from scratch.Sadly, neither video features any gameplay. There are no giant trolls and stealthy elves this time. Project Offset's Sam McGrath promises there will be "much more" in the upcoming months.%Gallery-48717%
GDC09: Titan Online preview
At GDC, we had a chance to take a first look at EYA Interactive's upcoming free to play MMO Titan Online. Already available for play in Asia (as Mo Siang Online), a limited public beta has begun in North America and EYA anticipates a spring 2009 release. There's not a whole lot of information about Titan available, so we'll just explain it in EYA's words: An epic title based on traditional Asian culture, Titan Online is a fusion MMORPG that boasts a unique combination of martial arts and robots that takes place in a spectacular fantasy world. Titan Online is based upon the Korean best-selling novel, "Mo Siang." Set in ancient China, players will experience historic Chinese locales, meet influential figures from various dynasties, experience mysterious aspects of various ancient Asian cultures, all while trying to save the martial arts world by engaging in intense real-time battles. Developed in-house by EYA Interactive, Titan Online offers a very real picture of ancient China with 75 maps of historical sites, including Dun Hwang, Chang An, Kai Feng, Beijing, Shu Zhou, Shao Lin Temple, Chin Shi Huang mausoleum, Hang Zhou, Tai Shan, The Great Wall, and Hwang Her. In order to create the most true-to-life experience, the EYA development team spent time in China researching the ancient and historical cities so they could accurately reproduce them in the game. A historical martial arts game with robots? Our interest is piqued. %Gallery-48434%
Kaplan on being the "Cruise Director of Azeroth" at GDC '09
Jeffrey "Tigole" Kaplan, former WoW Lead Designer who just recently headed off to work on Blizzard's new MMO, held a panel at the Game Developer's Conference earlier this week in San Fransisco called "Cruise Directior of Azeroth," in which he talked about some of the design decisions behind World of Warcraft, where Blizzard got their inspiration for a lot of the gameplay now made famous by the game, and even some of the mistakes they made in putting the world's most popular MMO together.WoW Insider had correspondents there on the site, and they sent back audio of Kaplan's speech. We've paraphrased the salient points, and you can find them all after the break. There's some really interesting stuff in there, including the fact that in the past two years, 80 billion quests have been completed in North America's Azeroth alone, and just who is behind the frustration that is The Green Hills of Stranglethorn (hint: it's Kaplan himself).Hit the link below to see what Kaplan told the crowd at GDC.%Gallery-48658%
Overheard@GDC09: It's a small, small development community, be nice
Sure, the video game industry is a multi-billion dollar behemoth, but behind it all are people -- a few people ... really, not as many as you'd think. So, while discussing his career path to becoming lead designer on Fallout 3, Emil Pagliarulo gave some prudent advice to anyone trying to break in ... or people mouthing-off with an ego: "The game industry is very small. If you're an asshole, they'll remember that when your resume comes across their desk six years down the line." When you talk to enough developers at GDC, you learn how incestuous the industry really is.
GDC09: Rhianna Pratchett says games should forget about making people cry
Rhianna Pratchett, the woman to blame for the dialogue of last year's EA experiment Mirror's Edge, says that game writers (not, erm, us, mind you, but the type that write the stories in the games we all play) are doing the wrong thing trying to make gamers cry. She tells the Guardian's game blog, "As an industry we get very, very obsessed with making people cry. What's so great about crying?!" Rather, she says that they should be focusing on turning those frowns upside down, citing her work on the Overlord franchise. "The world is dark enough, especially at the moment. Overlord, I think, was successful because it made people smile, it made people laugh. That seems to have resonated so much that I say 'Make people smile, don't make people cry.'" It's no secret that we are suckers for the lolz around here, so we're rather inclined to agree with Ms. Pratchett. In the eight minute interview with the Guardian (found after the break), Pratchett also touches on the importance of getting game writers into the development process early enough, calling shoehorned stories in gaming the result of "Weekend at Bernie's" processes, where a plot that doesn't really exist is "made up" to look like an actual plot. Rather than naming culprits, we'll leave the finger pointing to you fine folks -- and we're willing to bet you can name more than a few, no?
GDC09: Highlights from the Game Critics Rant
Though it seems like game journalists have a fine platform on which to project their opinions, it's rare that they get to directly address the game developers they cover. Just such a chance was provided by this year's GDC rant session, which let game journalists talk about games and their own writing about them.Before we begin, keep in mind that we are cherry picking here, and there's a lot of context you miss out on by not being on site. Hopefully, we're at least able to give you a flavor of what was going on.
GDC09: Upcoming EA iPhone game list fully revealed, screens and info on Tiger
Just before the deluge of GDC 2009 news started this week, Travis Boatman, VP of worldwide studios at EA Mobile, confirmed the upcoming release of a veritable smörgåsbord of EA franchises coming to the iPhone. Today, we have confirmation from Meghan Rathman (representing EA) of the exact titles on the way to the iPhone/iTouch as well as a handful of screens from Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Unfortunately, according to Ms. Rathman, the rest of the games in development are "still too early" and don't have screens. Considering the turnaround time on iPhone/iTouch games though, we're willing to bet you'll see those shots by the end of the week pretty soon!The full list of games we received from EA is as follows: Tiger Woods PGA Tour, The Sims 3, FIFA, Madden NFL Football, Spore Creatures, Mystery Mania, Wolfenstein RPG, American Idol, Connect Four, Battleship, Need for Speed, RISK, Monopoly and Clue. Differing from reports at the GDC Mobile event earlier this week, we're seeing the addition of The Sims 3 and Need for Speed. In turn, we're losing the first SSX in two years, Red Alert, NBA Live 10, American Idol, Star Trek. But hey, Tiger Woods!The press release from EA on Tiger Woods PGA Tour tells us that the game is of the "touch" rather than of the "shake" variety, comes with achievements and offers a way to compare achievements with your friends. Of the key features listed, notably missing is "playing against friends wirelessly," though it does promise the ability to "affect your ball spin direction" using your finger. Those are comparable features, right? We'll keep on EA and let you know as soon as we find out more on their upcoming iPhone/iTouch assault.%Gallery-48706%
GDC09: Jumpgate Evolution developer video walkthrough
With its June release nearing and beta even closer than that, Jumpgate Evolution was looking pretty hot at GDC09 this week -- although that may have something to do with the game running on three monitors.Much of the information in the video isn't entirely new, aside from the discussion of open PvP which seems to involve the building and defending/attacking of space stations. Beyond that, we get a very close look at the sexy UI that NetDevil has put together. Also, have we mentioned that this game looks downright gorgeous?We're pretty sure that we've mentioned that at least five or twenty times. Check out the second half of the walkthrough after the break.
GDC09: Stalin vs. Martians hands-on
Does it even matter what we have to say about Stalin vs. Martians? Whether we like it or hate it, the base facts will still be the same: You're a force of Russians battling it out against evil aliens. It's already headed towards Game of the Year, and all we can do is get out of the way. In fact, it's billed half-jokingly as the "Game of the Year Edition." It's a silly idea, but there's a real game underneath it all. As publisher Paradox Interactive notes, it's an "action RTS," which, in practice, is somewhere between an RTS and a shooter, pitting waves of colorful aliens against your bright green tanks.%Gallery-21612%
GDC09: Actual Batman: Arkham Asylum gameplay footage, no joke
There's only so much we can say about Rocksteady's upcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum. There's only so much screenshots can convey. So it's pretty nice to finally be able to show you what we've been jabbering on about via the magic of video -- and not just any kind, this is (at last) actual gameplay.Specifically, this freshly released footage is of the "Silent Knight" challenge stage we wrote about in our earlier GDC hands-on. Marvel (er, DC?) as Bats blows up walls, glide kicks and sneaks around all Sam Fisher-like. So, after reading about it and seeing it in action, what do you think?
Joystiq Podcast GDC '09 Special 03
It's our third and (likely) final podcast from GDC and things are just getting stranger. Chris and Justin can't help but name-dropping who they were eating dinner with, and they still can't stop fighting about OnLive. If you've braved the first two editions, it's time to step up to the plate and finish this thing. Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to the Joystiq Podcast in iTunes [Zune] Subscribe to the Joystiq Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace [RSS] Add the Joystiq Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [MP3] Download the MP3 directly Hosts: Justin McElroy and Chris Grant For fans: Joystiq Podcast Facebook group
GDC09: Stardock entering iPhone development, would 'like' to do GalCiv II
During a conversation with Stardock CEO Brad Wardell and Art Director Paul Boyer, the two -- against the express wishes of their PR handler -- brought up iPhone development at the company and the possibility of Galactic Civilizations II on the mobile platform. While Stardock's PR pro sat in a chair facepalming (image after the break), Wardell and Boyer discussed development for the mobile device, with Boyer saying he'd "really like" to do GalCiv II. Just to be clear, after we left, the PR lady had a stern talking with them ... beyond the iPhone stuff, it probably had something to do with the duo openly discussing the unannounced Galactic Civilizations III.
GDC09: Battlefield 1943 rolls onto Iwo Jima
click to Great War size Many of our GDC demos, Battlefield 1943 included, have been of the incredibly brief variety. (Is the industry saving up its really good stuff for E3 or what?) In the case of DICE's return to its classic multiplayer-only, WWII-era FPS franchise, what we saw and played at an event that shouted, "Hey, you! Yeah, you! C'mere! You've never seen this before!" was ... exactly what we'd played before. This time, however, it was on on a new map -- the island of Iwo Jima. %Gallery-48671%
