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XNA Challenge: Abdux
Andre Furtado isn't an artist, as he's quick to tell me when showing off the somewhat simple drawings and animations of his XNA Challenge entry Abdux. But while visual art might not be his specialty, Furtado's work shows a certain artistry in the simple, natural input it uses.Furtado first made his mark on the XNA development world with a speech recognition modification to the platform's built-in Space War game. The mod used simple spoken commands like "move" and "fire" to control a pair of helper ships and won Furtado a Brazilian XNA competition. He hasn't gotten similar speech commands into his new alien abduction game yet, but he says he plans to let people create plagues like earthquakes with just the sound of their voice. "Perhaps in the future we will be made fun of for using keyboards and mice and gamepads to control games," he tells me.Furtado isn't in the competition for personal glory, but for experience and knowledge that he can take back to his fellow students in Brazil. "With technology like XNA, students and organizations can easily build a roadmap to game development without much knowledge of programming," Furtado said. Check out some early video of his latest creation after the jump.
GDC 07: Major Nelson and his Sony swag bag
Make no mistake, covering a conference is mind bending work. Getting a chance to stop and chat is a welcome respite. While waiting for the Microsoft RPG Panel to begin, we ran into Larry Hryb, better known as Xbox Live's Major Nelson. We had time to shoot the breeze about what's happening at GDC, including the super secret feature in Fable 2 (patience, it's coming). Before we ran off to do our blogging duty, we made sure to snag a picture of him holding his newly acquired and highly fashionable Sony swag bag. What was in it we can't say (a golden PSP perhaps) but we sure like those snazzy logos. Much to our shock and delight, Larry asked us why he hadn't been given the honor of appearing on the Xbox 360 Fancast. Soon, Major, very soon.
XNA Challenge: Final Stand
Josh Butterworth is probably better known to NeoGAF readers as Ghost, the author of XNA space shooter Last Alarm. The game got him noticed not just by the NeoGAF community but also by Microsoft, who invited him to take part in the XNA Challenge to create a game from scratch in four days at the Game Developers Conference.Butterworth's creation is Final Stand, a "static-screen shooter" that he admits draws lots of inspiration from Geometry Wars, right down to the dual stick control scheme. Where Final Stand tweaks the formula is in its multiplayer mode, which will allow four people to work together to kill as many of the swarming yellow enemies as possible. The game is intended as a co-operative exercise, but Butterworth said he'll be leaving friendly fire on so "if you're losing in the scores and have two seconds left and have a missile in your pocket and you see your friend over there, you can feel free to shoot him." Think of it as Space War meets Geometry Wars.Butterworth is impressed with what he's been able to get out of the XNA environment after only a few months of experience, but he isn't really trying to compete with his more experienced challengers. "It's not really a competition," he said. "It's about showing what's possible on XNA." Watch a video of the work-in-progress after the jump.
GDC 07: The Black Corsair
GDC offers a chance for unproven games, new IPs, and new development teams to get a chance in the spotlight. Nearby Tiki Games' Galaxy's End booth was The Black Corsair, from an Italian game development team, Virtual Identity. This action adventure game combines platforming and multiple fighting styles in an imaginative pirate-inspired world. Although the game is headed to the PSP, the developers are trying to make it anything but small: supposedly, there will be over 100 NPCs to interact with, and over 40 minutes of cutscenes. The supposed 80 hour playtime seems inflated, but it would be incredible if this team is able to pull it off.The Black Corsair certainly looks interesting. Although I didn't get my hands on the game, it's great to see independent studios try to do something new for our handheld. To find out more about the game, visit the game's official website.
GDC 07: Makeup and Japanese housewife sims
Forget being a lawyer. Or a surgeon. Two new games from Studio Nocturne, a Thailand game development team, are going to make you experience the horrors and trials of being a Makeup Diva and a Housewife Superstar. Ai Housewife Superstar appears to be a celebration of pre-suffrage femininity: various mini-games will take you through what looks to be quite the Cinderella story.More exciting was Makeup Diva, and not just because of the mysterious (and unexplained) Nintendo Wi-Fi logo featured on the game's poster. The game has you preparing the ultra-glam looks of faux celebrities. One of the game's developers spoke about a much-too-timely addition to the game: a certain celebrity must recover from a head shaving gone wrong--and only the Makeup Diva can save the day! Each of the scenarios will attempt to parody famous people and movies: "It's a lot like Mad TV," one of the representatives said.The concept is certainly exciting, but hopefully the game will deliver the gameplay to make a truly insane, fun experience. Writing of Phoenix Wright caliber would do wonders for a game as quirky and unique as this one. Hopefully, we'll see more of Makeup Diva (and Housewife Superstar) in the future.
McGonigal's new ARG looking for answers to oil crisis
At her Serious Games keynote this morning, Jane McGonigal, ex-lead designer for alternate reality game big shot 42 Entertainment, announced her new ARG, World Without Oil. McGonigal calls the game -- which lets players share their ideas for better life during an international oil shortage -- a way to shift from alternate reality games to games that alter reality. The idea behind the ARG is something called Collective Intelligence, the idea that together we can come up with better solutions to problems than we could alone. In citing examples of CI, McGonigal mentioned games like I Love Bees, even science-fiction novels, but for a great example, just think of Wikipedia. Who, all on their own, would ever know the population of Argentina and the gestation period of a Humpback whale?
GDC 07: Galaxy's End hands-on
Lead designer Kevin McCann loves the PSP, and he's going to incredible lengths to show his undying affiliation for Sony's portable. Sure, Galaxy's End could be made for other systems, such as PS3, but the game was "created from the ground up" for play specifically on the PSP. Although Galaxy's End still doesn't have a publisher, the prospects for one seem better every time we see the game: after today's hands-on demonstration, it's clear that this game has what it takes to succeed.The graphics look quite nice on the PSP's screen. The game is surprisingly colorful, and features a good deal of animation. Of particular note: the flora looks especially nice; it all comes ot life through some great animation. The number of enemies on screen can be quite plentiful, but there are clearly a few things that need to be fixed later down the road: explosions need a good deal of work, and pop-in was a regularity thanks to the fog of war.It'll be months before the game ever comes out (if it does), but even at this early stage, the controls felt solid. The basic controls involve simply pressing the X and Square buttons to select troops and target enemies. Moving with the analog nub felt precise, thanks to tweaking done by Tiki Games. The simplistic nature of the controls made it incredibly accessible, in spite of some problematic AI glitches (which should be fixed later on). With solid controls, and a meticulously detailed design document, It's clear that a lot of thought and effort has gone behind this game. Expect to see more on this title soon.
Microsoft's four-day XNA Challenge
Game developers are used to tight deadlines and pressure-packed schedules. Even so, Microsoft's XNA Challenge at this year's Game Developers Conference pushes the idea of quick turnaround to a ridiculous extreme. Four "teams" (two of them are single people) have been thrown into GDC's crowded, noisy Moscone Center North lobby and given four days to put together a game from scratch using Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Express.While the entries will be judged and a winner will be named on Friday, the six competitors seemed more concerned with learning from each other than showing off their l33t programming skillz. Each participant we talked to was more than willing to talk about how impressed they were with their efforts of their adversaries, and the teams apparently commiserate about the lessons they've learned during breaks.Despite the common development environment, the four games being developed for the contest couldn't be more dissimilar. There's an overhead shooter, a collection-based platformer, a speech-controlled alien abduction simulator and a two-player, first-person, 3D dungeon crawl. We'll be taking a closer look at their efforts in future posts, but for now, enjoy the intensity of the above-pictured competitor Andree Furtado and be glad that you're not under such a tight deadline (and if you are, stop reading this and get back to work).
GDC 07: Lost Odyssey 2007 worldwide launch
We mentioned it briefly in "Sakaguchi part one," but we felt it worthwhile to post separately as well, so here it is: Hironobu Sakaguchi announced today that Lost Odyssey will launch simultaneously worldwide this holiday. That's right, a game that most of us weren't expecting until 2008 will be spinning in our Xboxen before Christmas. Once we shake off the head asploding nightmare that is liveblogging, we'll post our impressions of Lost Odyssey in "Sakaguchi part two."
Beer makes even mobile gaming more attractive
Mobile gaming? Eh. Free beer? Hooray! Thus was born the Mobile Game Innovation Hunt, yesterday's closing event for the first day of GDC's Mobile Games Summit. 15 mobile developers, including Digital Chocolate, got three minutes each to show off their "innovative" designs, which then got ranked by games press judges holding up big, unforgiving score cards. On top of beer, audience members were also handed GDC plastic clappers -- those amazingly annoying, amazingly fun, hand-shaped noise makers that turn a crowd of game developers, educators, and press in business suits into a sea of jerks. When Duke Nukem Mobile took a minute and half just to load, the game nearly got clapped off the stage. Wait, alcohol makes us honest? From here on out, I demand that all review copies of games come with complementary six-packs.
Liveblogging Microsoft's "The Evolution of RPG Development" panel
We're at Microsoft's "The Evolution of RPG Development" panel, ready to liveblog the goings on. The panelists are Ray Muzyka (Bioware, Mass Effect), Hironobu Sakaguchi (Mistwalker, Blue Dragon), and Peter Molyneux (Lionhead, Fable 2) and is moderated by GameHead's Geoff Keighley.4:35pm PT - Keighley starts by asking these RPG icons what the difference is between older and newer RPGs, and how they've evolved. Sakaguchi: The graphics allow for players to see the true emotion behind the character.Molyneux: RPGs are the first game I ever played, Wizardry on the Apple. I lost my first girlfriend to it. The graphics have changed. It's not simple and is much more significant, though the structure has not changed. There have been some evolutions but they're still recognizable back then and now. There are opportunities for changes. "I don't know who's going to do it."
GDC 07: Sakaguchi part one: Blue Dragon
A jet-lagged but amiable Hironobu Sakaguchi gave us a first look at the English localized version of Blue Dragon. As luck would have it, we also got a firsthand look at the localized version of Lost Odyssey. That statement is actually a little misleading, as Sakaguchi informed us that Lost Oddyssey will launch simultaneously around the world this holiday. That's right, this holiday, not holiday 2008. But, back to the preview. The first game up was Blue Dragon.
Blue Dragon in US this August, Lost Odyssey worldwide by X-mas
1UP recently scored some face time with Mistwalker head Hironobu Sakaguchi, squeezing some vague release dates outta the man who's brave enough paid enough to develop rpgs for Xbox 360. Word is, Lost Odyssey will launch simultaneously in Japan and the US 'round Christmas time (mid- to late-December) worldwide 'round the holidays, a favorable deviation from the release strategy currently being employed for Odyssey's cutesy predecessor Blue Dragon. While Blue Dragon was released in Japan last December, US audiences are still waiting -- and according to Sakaguchi's estimates, they'll be waiting till August. But Lost Odyssey is apparently being developed with an eye toward Western aesthetics; even the lip-syncing will match English voice actors (the Japanese version will be dubbed). As for Europe, well, we didn't forget about y'all, but Sakaguchi must have. No word on when Mistwalker's rpgs will go PAL. Update: Blue Dragon's European release is scheduled for September. The original Japanese voice tracks will be available in the US release (unconfirmed for PAL version). Sakaguchi has also revealed plans for an unspecified pre-order bonus (more Zippos?). %Gallery-1935% %Gallery-1932%
Blue Dragon gets rough North America release date
Blue Dragon, the only Xbox 360 game Japan cares about, will be coming to the Americas later this year. Microsoft just announced that Blue Dragon will see a North America release sometime in August. We also learned that upcoming RPG Lost Odyssey will have a worldwide release sometime this Fall. And remember kids, our culture isn't as familiar with blue dragons, but it is common knowledge in other parts of the world that they are indeed calm creatures. That is until they are cornered, told they are bad Japanese games, and that the color blue is so last year ... then they will hurt you.[Thanks, dpcough]
Five new XBLA games shown, no Mizuguchi
Serious cat is looking to make some more appearances in the future for XBLA Wednesdays. For as much as Wednesday is supposed to be all about Microsoft and arcade, we just haven't seen it. In a behind closed door meeting with Microsoft Casual Games' group manager, Bryan Trussel, and product unit manager, Chris Early, they showed off what's coming to the arcade. The Microsoft Casual Games' division name is a bit of a misnomer. With the expansion of 50 MB to 150 MB, the door opens to less-than-casual games, with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night being the prime example. Chris Early says, "From a player's standpoint it's about quick access ... I guess the way we look at a casual or arcade title is more about approachability, not a question of game length. It's do you need a manual to get into it, is it something you can get into and start playing relatively quickly ... something you can get gratification from instantly?" New games coming to the system were Jetpac: Refuelled, a graphically enhanced version of the classic game Jetpac. Minigolf Adventures, which plays like a quirky arcade golf game and certainly has the expansion possibilities already built in. Eets: Chowdown, a port of the PC puzzle game and Pinball FX -- a pinball game. And, of course, Boom Boom Rocket (800 points). BBR is DDR for your fingers. There is a line at the top of the screen and when the fireworks shooting from every direction reach the line you hit the corresponding button and it explodes. Looks great and addictive. Per usual, other than BBR's price, no other talk about cost or announcement on release dates. Although confirmed, Miziguichi's port of Every Extend Extra to XBLA was not discussed. (Image galleries after the break...)
Forza Motorsports 2 and the lavish encounter
If Forza Motorsport 2 was merely the worlds foremost tire wear and friction monitoring simulation, it would be at the top of its class. Fortunately for those of us who play video games, you get to race around on those tires, though you'll end up obsessing over your tire pressure anyways. Equipped with an impressive four monitor setup (three in panorama and a cute travel monitor posing as a rear-view mirror), the developers at Turn 10 gave us a tour of everything Forza.The content, however, is in place and looking remarkable. With just about every manufacturer imaginable, full damage modeling for all cars and the most in-depth customization and tuning options outside of greasing it up in your own garage, Forza looks to be a massive step up from its Xbox predecessor. Glossing over previously known details, the setup we played on was one that could only be recreated in some sort of country club league for spoiled youth. When we weren't sliding out of control, the response and feedback from the Microsoft racing wheel felt much better than previously experienced with Project Gotham Racing 3. With only six weeks of work left, it still has a few layers of polish to go before it's ready for the races.%Gallery-1658%
GDC 07: Shadowrun hands on
The room is set up with two very large Samsung HDTVs. In front of one monitor is a slick gaming mouse and keyboard. In front of the other is an Xbox 360 controller. We sit through the expected spiel: Shadowrun has magic, trolls, dwarves, all that stuff. But how does it play? Is it fun? Microsoft's Michael Wolf and FASA's Technical Chraracter Designer, Michael Lowrance, sure make it look fun. Finally, we get our shot (that's me and two folks from Game Informer). I'm holding a pad, my foe wields the KB and mouse. I'm a dwarf. He's a troll. Time to ask it again: is it fun?
GDC 07: Every Extend Extra gets more extreme ... but not for us
The PSP puzzler Every Extend Extra was plenty extreme as-is: but that's not stopping Mizuguchi-san and his Q? Entertainment cohorts from amping up the game in an XBLA follow-up to this oft-neglected puzzler/shooter. This is not the first time that one of Q? Entertainment's PSP titles has jumped ship to Microsoft's home console: Lumines released on the digital distribution platform, fueling an incredible controversy over the value of microtransactions.Considering the game's lackluster sales performance on Sony's handheld, it shouldn't come as surprising that the game would move to another platform. The game joins an increasingly growing list of once-exclusive titles that have moved on: Tekken: Dark Resurrection and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories being just a few notable examples.Joystiq Gallery: Every Extend Extra Extreme (E4)
Earthworm Jim fans receive glimmer of hope
Good news for dirt-lovin' annelid fans. Shiny Entertainment founder Dave Perry has hinted that a new Earthworm Jim game will "happen eventually." The development team has been re-formed and is interested in reviving the wiggly space-suit-clad hero for a new generation of gamers.The original run-and-gun platformers were packed with strange enemies, lush graphics (for 1994, anyway), and a wacky sense of humor. After all, when you're launching cows as a worm in a space suit, it's hard to be serious.
Nintendo Wii Fanboy lands in GDC: what to expect
Jetlag won't stop this intrepid blogger from giving you the news you want. Live from San Francisco, Nintendo Wii Fanboy will be giving you the latest GDC news, straight from the show floor! Rumors suggest that Nintendo may be silent at GDC: we say, baloney! We're going to update constantly throughout the week, so stay tuned. Here are some highlights from what we have planned: Thursday, 1:30PM PST: Shigeru Miyamoto keynote speech Live from the GDC Expo show floor: new products on display! Reflections of Zelda: behind-the-scenes info from the Eiji Aonuma. The Sims for Wii: EA demonstrates how they transformed the series for Nintendo's console. Stay tuned to Nintendo Wii Fanboy for your Wii-related GDC coverage. Don't forget to also check out Joystiq for even more.
