GDC 2010
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Hands-on: The Path of Go (XBLA)
Ready to frustrate yourself forever? Learn the game of Go. It's an ancient Chinese game that's over four thousand years old, and games can last up to 16 hours in tournaments. Sounds just perfect for an adaptation into the frenetic world of video games, right?! Well, your wish is granted. The Path of Go or How We Came Up With A Proprietary Name For The Public Domain Game of Go is being developed in-house by Microsoft at the likewise excitingly named Microsoft Research Cambridge division. We played the game briefly at GDC, and it's actually very robust. It includes a tutorial where your avatar has some faux back and forth dialogue with an ancient Go master, in which he really does teach you the game. I tried reading an old instruction manual for a set of Go I found at a thrift shop once, and was so confused by terms like "ko" and proper stone placement that I just re-thrifted the set. Now, I'm ready to take on Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind and kick his ass. Additionally, the game features single player or two player both locally and through Xbox Live, multiple backgrounds, and full 3D environments where you can control the camera. There's also an actual story mode in here, where you learn the nuances of the game in "beat the situation" scenarios while heading down a path. The ... wait for it ... Path of Go. %Gallery-87790%
Razer and Sixense distribute SDK and FPS shooter utility through Steam
Surely you remember those Sixense motion controls that we caught lounging around at Razer's CES booth, right? Yeah. Today at the Game Developers Conference, both outfits have teamed up in order to distribute the Ultra-Precise Motion Controller SDK and FPS utility library via Steam, which should give devs the ability to create new games and port existing titles for use with the aforementioned sticks. We're told that these new tools will require "require virtually no knowledge of the inner workings of the controller," enabling coders to craft titles that take full advantage of the six degrees of freedom. Will this turn the PC into the next Wii? We kind of doubt it, but at least someone's looking out for non-console gamers who have a secret obsession with Nintendo's Wiimote.
Microsoft shows off XNA games running on Windows Phone, full 3D is a go
Alright, we're going to be straight with you: you're not going to like this. See, Microsoft just showed us a pair of 3D games running on its ASUS Windows Phone prototype and built with its brand new XNA Game Studio 4.0, but wouldn't let us nab a single photo or video of the process. What we can tell you is that they exist, they work, and at least Microsoft tossed us some screenshots to wave in your face. The two titles are The Harvest (pictured), a good looking touch-controlled dungeon crawler with destructible environments, being developed by Luma Arcade; and Battle Punks, a less impressive one-on-one sword fighting Facebook game by Gravity Bear that's being ported over. We didn't get to see any full motion 3D camera moves, since Battle Punks is just composed of two characters duking it out, and The Harvest has a fixed camera and some pre-rendered elements, but there were indeed some real polygons being crunched before our eyes at a full resolution (no upscaling), alpha-rev, choppy framerate, and we were assured that full screen 3D was possible. We also got to see one of our first glimpses of universal notifications on Windows Phone: Achievement unlock notices (also pictured above) that slide down from the top of the screen in a black bar and then slide back, and can't be interacted with. Follow after the break for some more nerdy details, along with a video of VisualStudio in action, and screenshots of the two games are in the gallery below. %Gallery-87820%
GDC: Facebook hasn't found its Mario
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/GDC_2010_Facebook_hasn_t_found_its_Mario'; This year's Game Developers Conference has two new tracks for the new kids in town: the Social & Online Games Summit and the iPhone Games Summit. Facebook's Gareth Davis delivered the keynote for the former this morning, titled "How Friends Change Everything." With 400 million users, 200 million of whom are playing games on the service, it's pretty hard to argue with Facebook's bona fides as a seriously huge gaming platform. With components like Facebook Connect, we're even seeing Facebook functionality penetrate the historically isolated game consoles, like Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and even DSi. While Microsoft trumpets the largely dubious distinction of being the "largest social network on television," it doesn't compare favorably to what most of us consider to be a real "social network." Outside of the Facebook integration, adding friends on Xbox Live is a largely manual process; one obfuscated by aliases instead of real names, the basic litmus test of a social network. Indeed, Davis thinks "real identities" are a major component to Facebook's gaming magic. Playing against real people is "much more compelling than playing against SharkBoy69," says Davis. When it comes to real identity in games, Davis says we're just "scratching the surface."
First Modern Warfare 2 map pack coming to Xbox Live on March 30
Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling has pointed us toward a new self-help website filled with good news: new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 mutliplayer maps are coming to Xbox Live on March 30. While the powers that be at Activision might have ousted the creators of the game, they haven't affected the delivery of eagerly awaited new maps. People afflicted with "mapathy," your cure is on the way. PS3 players ... well, you'll have to suffer a bit longer. Have you spoken to your FAMAS-ist about a prescription? [Thanks Legion!]
GDC10: Hands-on with the Fallen Earth iPhone app
Ever since hearing last November that Icarus Studios was working on an iPhone app for Fallen Earth, we've been starving for details. Count it as a road warrior's dream fulfilled, then, as Massively sat down with Associate Project Manager Dave Haydysch at GDC for a hands-on demo of this beefy application. "My goal was to make this mirror the experience in Fallen Earth as closely as possible without moving around in the game," Haydysch said. "Whatever is going on in the game right now, is going on in the background [of this app]." Designed to keep players connected with the MMO no matter where they may be, the app has an astounding array of functionality for Fallen Earth's players. After logging in through 3G or WiFi, the familiar Fallen Earth UI offers you several options to check out your character, crafting, maps, social, auction house, inventory and help. Hit the jump and we'll give you the skinny on each of these functions!
GDC: BioWare speaks up about Mass Effect 2's localization
"I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel." - English "Jestem dowódcą Shepard, a to jest mój ulubiony sklep na cytadeli." - Polish (machine translation) In a GDC 2010 session entitled "Localizing Large RPGs," which forms part of an ongoing localization summit, BioWare localization project manager Ryan Warden eloquently explored the revered developer's process of adapting a huge, dialogue-driven game like Mass Effect 2 for alternative markets and languages. It may surprise you to learn that BioWare's processes are significantly more elegant than hiring an army of workers to copy and paste lines of text into Google Translate. With 450,000 words and 30,000 lines of voice-over in the English version, Mass Effect 2 demanded an active approach in its translation to eight languages, including Russian, Czech and Spanish. "Trying to manage this scope is almost unfathomable," said Warden. "For BioWare titles, we don't have the luxury of waiting for the title to be fully complete before starting localization." The concurrent process was designed to provide as much information and context to translators as possible, allowing them to focus on the job without having to request further information for each new conversation. BioWare compiled a complete localization kit, complete with a pronunciation guide (that's crow-guhn, not kroggin!), an IP glossary, a collection of translator Q&A documents and an extensive character database. "Any time that a translator spends time asking questions and waiting for feedback ... that's wasted time," Warden added. The goal, he said, was to "eliminate any doubt in the confidence of the translator."
GDC10: Sword of the New World changes detailed
GamersFirst's Sword of the New World is primed for several interesting game play additions. We spoke with Jon-Enee Merriex at GDC 2010 to get the scoop on what's in store for the MMORTS that first launched in 2007. Perhaps most interesting among the list of tweaks are plans to allow players to teleport between colonies controlled by their faction under the game's Political PVP system. If you're a Royalist, for example, you can look forward to jumping between Royalist-owned colonies, thereby saving considerable travel time. The teleportation is one of several mechanics intended to allow players new and old to dive right into what the developer considers the game's primary focus. "The true focal point of Sword of the New World is all about the Political PvP system. It's all about running for office, controlling the colonies, and being a tyrant," Merriex said.
Eliss creator's next game: Faraway
Steph Thirion, creator of the early iPhone standout Eliss, has a new game on the way, from a new company. The first game to be released by Thirion's studio, Little-Eyes, will be Faraway, a project Thiron says "will be about constellations and infinite space travel." Faraway will be on display at the Kokoromi Gamma IV event tomorrow, and should also be playable at the Gamma IV showcase during GDC. At that point, presumably, we'll know exactly what Faraway is and what platforms we'll be able to play it on. Our guess: Thirion's note that Faraway "drastically increases the scale of the play area" (compared to Eliss) could be a reference not only to the new gameplay setting, but a new platform: the iPad. It is, however, worth noting that the Faraway preview image on the Little-Eyes site is presented in the iPhone's display resolution.
GDC10: Taikodom coming to North America
Taikodom is a game that's been around for a while, but not in the US. If you're familiar with the game and have been wanting to give it a try, it looks like you're going to get your wish. Taikodom is coming to the US with a closed beta this summer, and a planned launch for winter of this year. If you're unfamiliar with the game, it's a space-themed MMO that is reminiscent of EVE Online in its economy, combined with twitch-based combat to keep things interesting. Producer Joseph Willmon describes gameplay in more detail: "Let's say that some pirates spawn in an area where there are asteroids that offer a certain type of ore. Because those pirates are there, it makes the ore harder to get, which means that prices on this ore may go up. As the pirates persist in the universe, they may all begin to gather there and begin to expand out further in space, getting so bold to attack a nearby colony. That colony will begin offering missions to the players to go take out the growing pirate threat. If the pirates aren't destroyed from that, then they might build their own colony with a space station in that system and become even harder to kill, requiring a player corporation to go to war with them..." Several structural details for this winter's release are already in place: Taikodom will be running on multiple servers, but the extra ones appear only as needed to keep individual server population up. In addition, there are plans to release the core game first in a free-to-play format and later add more missions and content with a purchase option to build upon the free game. (Edit: Joe Willmon would like us to clarify that none of the content will be for purchase. All content updates to the game will be free.) Follow along after the jump for the trailer video, and we'll keep an eye out for more beta news on Taikodom as it arrives!
GDC: Dante's Inferno art show at San Francisco's Hotel des Arts
Wayne Barlow's 'Cerberus' ... gross Held in conjunction with the Into the Pixel and Video Game Art Show exhibitions, San Francisco's Hotel des Arts is dedicating its entire fourth floor to "The Making of Dante's Inferno" through April 2010. We've got a sneak peek at the art on display in the gallery below, but if you want to see the real deal we'd suggest you make your way to the opening night reception being held at the Hotel des Arts on Thursday night, from 6pm to 10pm, smack dab in the middle of GDC week. %Gallery-87800%
2D Boy's Ron Carmel explains Indie Fund
Speaking at GDC 2010, 2D Boy's Ron Carmel discussed the game industry's typical publishing model, why it doesn't work for independent developers, and how the newly established Indie Fund will fix it. According to Carmel, publishers offer too much money to indie developers and take too much in return, relegating developers to the role of "tenant farmers," forced into a constant shift between seeking funding and development "until something goes wrong and you can't find funding and you go out of business." Still, Carmel recognizes that publishers are taking the financial risk on projects, so it makes sense that they would see most of the profits. However, even with the advent of digital distribution, which removes a great deal of risk for publishers, developers still see traditional publishing deals -- along with the minimal royalties that come with them. Asked Carmel, "How do we do for funding what Valve did for distribution?" The answer, according to Carmel, is Indie Fund, which will essentially turn the traditional publishing deal on its head. The Indie Fund aims to differ from traditional publishing deals in a few significant ways. The Indie Fund will offer a transparent submission process, make its standard contract details publicly available and provide a flexible development schedule. Perhaps the biggest bullet point of all, however, is that Indie Fund doesn't seek to own developer IPs or exert any editorial control over the IPs it funds. It's also worth noting that Indie Fund won't actually publish or market the projects it funds. Those tasks are left up to developers, though Carmel noted that the members of Indie Fund would be happy to share their experience in securing distribution deals with services like Steam. Indie Fund's contract details aren't yet available, though the stated goal is for developers to see a much bigger return on projects than they would through normal publishing channels. According to Carmel, the Indie Fund seeks only to recoup investment costs and receive a slice of profits "much, much, much smaller" than traditional publishing deals.
XNA Game Studio 4.0 includes Windows Phone support
Microsoft took yet another step today in convincing us that Windows Phone 7 will be a legitimate gaming platform. The company just unveiled XNA Game Studio 4.0, which, in addition to supporting PC and Xbox 360, will also let designers make games for the new mobile platform. Besides being great news for indies, it also means that you'll be able to use your gamertag and Avatar on the phone, as well as unlock Xbox Live Achievements. You can read more about the technical integration of XNA and WP7 on Microsoft program manager Michael Klucher's blog. Hopefully we'll have even more details for you as the tech is rolled out during GDC.
Microsoft bringing XNA Game Studio 4.0 to GDC this week, does 3D gaming for Windows Phone
We've all had a feeling that Microsoft is holding back some pretty big surprises (or at least completely reasonable revelations) when it comes to Windows Phone 7 Series and gaming, and here at GDC this week it sounds like we're going to get a little glimpse into that. Microsoft is unveiling its new XNA Game Studio 4.0, which lets developers work on games for Windows Phone 7 Series, Xbox 360 and Windows PC. The integration with Visual Studio 2010 that we saw the other day allows developers to build a single project and then make slight modifications to let it run on each platform respectively. Most importantly, Microsoft specifically mentions that 4.0 will include hardware accelerated 3D APIs for Windows Phone 7 Series -- not stunning, giving the fact that Zune can do 3D games (and is supported by XNA), but relieving just the same. Other phone-related tidbits are also telling: there will be fairly deep Xbox LIVE integration, including unlocking achievements from phone-based games and push notifications for asynchronous turn based gaming. Hopefully we can get some real live multiplayer gaming going as well, but there's no mention of that just yet. Microsoft promises "much, much more" will be revealed at MIX 2010, but for now we're gonna dig for all we can here at GDC.
GDC10: Copernicus' Project Mercury being published by EA
If you have been eagerly awaiting news on the top-secret Copernicus over at 38 Studios, you'll be pleased to hear that 38 Studios broke the silence today. "Project Mercury," a single-player title set in the Copernicus universe, will be coming to the PC, XBox 360 and PS3. 38 Studios signed a publishing deal with EA to bring the game to market. "Project Mercury" is described as "an epic single-player role-playing game," and is being developed by 38 Studios-owned Big Huge Games under the guiding hand of Ken Rolston (Morrowind and Oblivion). This will be the first Copernicus project launched by Curt Schilling's team after years of anticipation and heavy speculation. As NASA's Project Mercury set out to test the boundaries of space by putting a man into orbit, "Project Mercury" looks to be testing the waters of single-player RPGs before diving into the realm of MMOs, similar to the approach of fan-favorite Torchlight. Stay tuned to Massively, as we meet with Copernicus' R. A. Salvatore later this week at GDC to pick his brain.
GDC10: Battlestar Galactica MMO coming
German game-maker Bigpoint has just announced its forthcoming MMORPG based on the SyFy Channel's popular Battlestar Galactica reimagining. The company, owned in part by NBC Universal which also owns SyFy and consequently the Galactica brand, plans on releasing the game later this year. Bigpoint representatives broke the news at GDC today. "We believe in the value of IP, and the second thing we believe in is cross-platform," said Bigpoint CCO Nils-Holger Henning. Hit the link to read the full write-up courtesy of Gamasutra's Christian Nutt. Stay tuned to Massively this week as we'll have an interview with Bigpoint and more details as GDC rolls on.
GDC10: PS3 FFXIII gives you an extra shot at the FFXIV beta
Big news for Final Fantasy XIV fans today, especially if you're biting your nails waiting to get into the beta. The official PlayStation Blog has announced that the initial production run of Final Fantasy XIII on the PS3 will come packaged with a special offer for an in-game item, and an extra shot at a potential beta spot for Final Fantasy XIV. While it doesn't guarantee a beta key, anything that increases your chances of playing the game sooner is a good thing. But act now, because once those launch copies are gone, so is the offer.
Sony's free PhyreEngine expands to PSP
In what's becoming a GDC tradition, Sony today announced an update concerning the PhyreEngine, a free, cross-platform middleware tool offered to developers interested in creating PS3 games. First introduced in 2008, the PhyreEngine has since been utilized in games like Critter Crunch, Shatter and Flower. Today, SCEA has announced the expansion of PhyreEngine compatibility to the PSP. "We're very happy to see the continued popularity of PhyreEngine with the global game developer community," SCEI senior VP of technology Teiji Yutaka said. "PhyreEngine for PSP was developed in response to requests from the game developer community, and we hope that the release of the PSP version demonstrates our commitment and support for game developers on all our platforms." The engine will be demoed at GDC this week. The PS3 version of PhyreEngine has been praised by studios like Capybara and Sidhe. Perhaps the PSP iteration will be met with an equal amount of enthusiasm and help bolster the portable development community.
Currently (un)folding: GDC 2010
Nothing says, "We're at a serious gaming event where developers tell us about their innovations and upcoming creations," like a papercraft Wario from WarioWare D.I.Y. And nothing says, "Hey, we're about to write a bunch of news stories about all that stuff," like posting a photograph of a papercraft Wario from the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco. We'll be here all week putting our hands on games, talking to people, sitting in panels, and bringing you all the news. What sort of news, you ask? Expect some LucasArts announcements, a new look at the Sony Motion Controller, and even more Fable 3 news. Stay tuned! %Gallery-87726%
Seven45 Studios ups the ante for music games, intros fully functional six string controller
We've seen "real" guitars made to "work" with existing music-band titles, and we've even seen MIDI guitars play nice with Rock Band, but we've yet to see a company design a game from the ground-up to work with a legitimate six string. Until now. Here at GDC, Seven45 Studios is making a name for itself by introducing Power Gig: Rise of the SixString (for PS3 and Xbox 360) along with a bona fide axe. The newfangled company is a sister firm to First Act -- the same guys who made that guitar sold with your '07 Jetta -- and the instrument debuting here at the show uses proprietary technology "that can distinguish and recognize gamers' input all along the guitar." Better still, the instrument includes all of the innards necessary to make noise through an amp, so you could theoretically use this to rock out in real life as well. If you're skeptical about the game's ability to actually recognize complicated inputs, get a load of this: "Power Gig also introduces the option to switch on chording, or chord play; chording presents the added challenge of playing the game using chords that require specific finger placement on the strings." The tandem is slated to go on sale this fall for an undisclosed amount, and we'll be snagging some hands-on time with the game and guitar here in just a few hours -- stay tuned! %Gallery-87744%
