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Joystiq and Engadget live at Nintendo's 2007 GDC keynote
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Live_Coverage_of_Nintendo_s_GDC_Keynote_2'; 10:07 a.m.: We're sitting at the Miyamoto keynote. We count five screens of nine Wii logos apiece, totaling 45 Wii logos. That's a lot of Wii! The podium glows blue with a white Nintendo logo and the background shows an effervescent blue cloud that fits accordingly to the inoffensive electronic beats. 10:08 a.m.: More Daft Punk, just like yesterday's Sony keynote -- only this time, it's the original. Perhaps it's a subtle allusion how Nintendo and Sony view each other -- old-school originality vs. technically proficient remixing. Yes, we went there.10:20 a.m.: A GDC helper, um, person informs us to make more efficient use of our seating positions. "The place is going to be packed," he says. People nod right before averting their eyes from the garish green shirt he's wearing. 10:25 a.m.: People continue to pour in and fill up the cheap seats. Luckily, prestigious press people like us get reserved space up front. Suckers!
Eyes-on impression: Icuiti iWear
Roaming around the North hall expo floor, we stopped by Icuiti to check out their iWear 3D goggles. Although Marketing Rep Adam Travers explained that their primary audience was not necessarily gamers, for demonstration purposes they were running the headset with Unreal Tournament 2004. (For clarification purposes, Travers explained their audience would also be business people conducting and attending interviews in a virtual environment akin to Second Life.)There were two models at the floor: the AV920 and the more premium VR920, which is being touted as the "first interactive Video Eyewear for gamers." The difference between the two models was $50 (as quoted by Travers, at least), a microphone and an accelerometer for motion tracking. The 3D portion when playing UT 2004 worked on multi-floored rooms where you could see all the floors, though the impact does not compensate for the price. Wearing the headset was surprisingly comfortable. When we added our glasses to the mix, the headset dropped a bit but still managed to work decently. At all times we could divert our eyes downward and clearly view the keyboard and mouse.
GDC 07: No Gravity looks for publisher; offers playable demo
Like Galaxy's End and The Black Corsair, No Gravity is a PSP game that's looking for a publisher. Unlike the other two efforts, however, the developers of No Gravity are asking PSP homebrew users to download and try their game. This 3D space shooter comes from a team called Realtech VR. The final version of the game has a planned 55 missions, "with diverse objectives ranging from destroying enemy ships or base, escorting allied ships, clearing the mine field, etc."To download the homebrew-only demo, and learn more about the game, visit their website.
Wii is two duct taped Gamecubes and other publisher rants
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Wii_is_two_duct_taped_Gamecubes_and_other_publisher_rants'; The developers rant is typically a highlight of the Game Developers Conference. This year, to mix things up a bit, there was a heapin' serving of publishers rant. Eric Zimmerman emceed the event and this is what the publisher had to say:Alex St.John (CEO and co-founder of Wild Tangent): The former Microsoft employee went all out against Vista. Speaking about how most games ended up being broken. Essentially it all came down to that Vista's security is so tight that it views "everything as dangerous." St. John said that Vista moves everything around to the point where he says, "It's the only self-breaching security system I've seen in my life."Richard Hilleman (Electronic Arts): This is where the theme for the rest of the rant came about. Leadership, leadership, LEADERSHIP! Although offending some people who believed that alpha males do not help, it was an issue across the board that a stable and competent leadership is lacking in the industry. Hilleman said that people in the industry want to think vision is more important, or reaching for that shining light on the beacon hill. But he says that the people he is seeing and teaching are not capable of providing the leadership for the million dollar projects that come their way. They can't lead beyond groups of three. Once again, the overall theme was leadership, leadership, LEADERSHIP!
GDC 07: Phantom Hourglass multiplayer mode demoed
Ever since The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass made its debut at last year's GDC, the project has essentially been hidden within a solar eclipse. Now, on the celestial zenith anniversary of that momentous day, Nintendo has felt fit to show off another little part of the game: a multiplayer mode.IGN has some hands-on impressions; one player controls Link, attempting to gather pieces of Triforce scattered about a (now classic) hedge maze, while the other draws paths on the touchscreen for three guards to follow and intercept. There appears to be some strategic elements as well, and for those a bit skeptical, remember this: the last Zelda title to feature a "bonus" multiplayer mode turned out to be good enough to spawn its own title, Four Swords Adventures.
The challenges and philosophies of Crush
At yesterday's Experimental Game Design lecture, Alex Butterfield discussed his latest project, the mind-bending PSP title Crush, billed as a "revolution twist on the puzzle platform." Butterfield's presentation focus on the challenges of making a game that seemingly transitions from 2D to 3D without effort. Crush is designed so that your character, who is under hypnosis to cure insomnia and forced to find a way through 40 dream sequence levels, can only "crush" (transform 3-dimensional space into 2-dimensional platformer) horizontally and top-down. Of the challenges discussed, Butterfield talked about the shortcut challenge, whereas the clever player would be able to use the crushing ability to move from the beginning of the level to the end without effort. Thus, the team devised three different blocks whose behavior differed when crushed: ghost block (insubstantial), solid blocks (impassible) and hollow blocks hollow block (somewhere in between). Other issues include disorientation, which Butterfield tried to fix by way of camera work and the placement of prominent landmarks to help the player. There were two design flaws that the dev team worked to solve. The creation of cut-zones let the developers section off part of the level so that one does not accidentally crush themselves next to a horrid enemy without prior knowledge. A safety feature was also implemented so that a crush process does not cause the character to fall helplessly to their doom; "an explanation as to why you failed the puzzle" will be shown instead. Many of these problems were also solved, of course, through countless QA and debugging. Following the talk of problems and problem solving, Butterfield moved into the realm of conjecture, philosophy and other higher-order thought. What if you were allowed to crush at any angle? What if you could crush outward into four dimensions (with time being the 4th candidate); i.e. a block could become a bridge, a cockroach would crush into a centipede, etc. How about multiplayer? Butterfield suggested separate realities for each character, whereby only you control the crushing in your reality and only your movement would be reported to the other player's screens. There's no clean-cut solution, but some of these problems give us an idea of the far future of platform puzzlers. Crush is looking good and the game's twist well-executed. The game is slated for release later this year on the PSP.
DS Daily: On the GDC
So far, we've got serious games, makeup divas, and cowboy pigs out of the GDC experience, and that's only the beginning. We've still got a moment with Miyamoto coming this afternoon, as well as tons of other coverage. What's your take on the news thus far? Anything that excites you, or something you think is overhyped -- no matter what it is, if you have an opinion, we want it.
Fancast Xtra: the Microsoft blogger's breakfast
Microsoft has made the blogger's breakfast something of a tradition at GDC. Joystiq's Chris Grant attended last year, and this year I was proud to include myself in the same company. The blogger's breakfast is essentially a question and answer session for (you guessed it) bloggers. In attendance from Microsoft were Shane Kim, managing director of Microsoft Game Studios, and Chris Satchell, general manager of the Microsoft games group. In between bites of eggs and bacon, the two execs were bombarded with questions ranging from user created content and Xbox Live Arcade, to Peter Jackson and episodic content. We captured audio of the event for you all to hear. You can download the MP3 by hitting the "read" link. Subscribers to the Fancast will receive the audio automatically. Download and enjoy, but keep in mind you'll have to tune out the sounds of furious keyboard tapping, clinking plates, and the crinkling plastic of bloggers trying to unwrap delicious maple syrup.
Vicious Engine envisions creative Wii FPS controls
While at the Vicious Cycle booth, we got a chance to view at Vicious Engine, now working on the Wii, and how the team sees to implement controls for first-person and over-the-shoulder titles. Essentially, only the nunchuk is used for camera and movement. The top joystick moves and strafes your character, while left and right rotations trigger the accelerometer and rotate the characters perspective left and right and a forward / back roll with cause the camera to look down / up, respectively. In play testing the control scheme, using the accelerometer control to move the camera feels awkward, and the rotations seem to move in 15 degree spurts (as opposed to fluid movement). After a few minutes, however, the movement became more intuitive. With the simplification of movement in one hand, the other hand (and, more importantly, the infrared motion sensor) is free to control whatever -- sword-fighting or off-of-middle cursor positioning. Level Designer Bryan West told us, rather bemused, that with how the control scripts are implemented in the engine that even he could build a game with what's available. Visually, the engine looked slightly better than Red Steel, especially the character model we saw. West talked with us and lamented about the common trend of ignoring Wii's graphical capability and simply upscaling textures used for PSP titles. We're assuming, then, that we won't be seeing the same issue with Alien Syndrome, a PSP and Wii title using the Vicious Engine. West also told us that they are working on a Wii game internally that involves the Vicious Engine but cannot currently discuss at this time.
Warren Spector tells us some game stories
Three years ago, Deus Ex creator Warren Spector spoke about the sad state of narrative in the then-current crop of games and challenged the industry to makes some changes. Three years later, Spector today told a packed GDC auditorium that they had made some progress, but there was still a lot of work to be done.Spector broke game narratives down into a few basic forms. There's: The rollercoaster: An exciting story that gives the illusion of a lot of exciting twists and turns, but inevitably ends up going in more or less a straight line. Spector said the influence of this type of game story is weakening, but it will never go away completely. The "Will Wright": Like archetypal games SimCity and The Sims, these games build stories with the player's input rather than overpowering them with a narrative decreed from above. These games are built on the idea that players can share better stories with each other than the ones told to them by developers. Procedurally generated stories – Games like Facade that can alter the story on the fly without following pre-defined paths. These games offer a "terrifying amount of freedom," and provide a great way to "explore the innerspace of personal relationships as much as the outerspace of the game world," as Spector put it. While game stories have made progress on issues like structure and character graphics, Spector said stiff character interaction and animation remained the biggest obstacle to creating engaging stories in games. He also chastised the industry for not offering enough ways to interact with a game story without killing things. "I want the opportunity to play a game and not play the part of Vin Diesel," he said. Spector also encouraged developers to build fully explorable worlds, not simple, flimsy movie sets that are "just an excuse to shoot stuff."Fixing these problems is going to take some major time and effort, Spector said, as well as a willingness by developers to fund something other than better graphics. It also take a fundamental change of perspective for many game writers. "Get over yourself," Spector told the audience. "Your story isn't that interesting. Trust the players a little bit ... let them off rails. ... This is as much a design issue as a technology issue at this point."
Osu! Tatakae! Ouenden sequel information trickles out
Keiichi Yano, VP of development for iNiS Corporation showed off some concept art, a few screenshots, and offered morsels of information about Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashi. Prospects of the Japanese sequel to Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan had recently trickled out of Nintendo. Yano said that the title, due this year, will include new features and characters, including rival Ouendan. He also confirmed that those characters will be playable, saying, "From the screenshots, you can gather that you will be playing them. You're not only playing them. That's all I can tell you." Yano also said, "I can't tell you," when asked about plans to use the DS microphone and WiFi in the new version. Yano didn't confirm an American version of the new game, saying, "I know it's going to be an import for most of you. If you do get a chance, please try to check it out." Making no Wii announcements, Yano confirmed that that platform is an interest. "Yes, we are talking to Nintendo [about the Wii], and hopefully we'll have something to talk about soon." %Gallery-1975%
Digital distribution panel: Retail and downloads work together
Newsweek's N'Gai Croal hosted a GDC discussion about digital distribution, featuring panelists from Bioware, Valve, Microsoft, Telltale Games, and GameTap. The session interested us most for its comments on how retail and digital distribution work together and thoughts on the media's lack of digital-only games coverage.Valve's Jason Holtman said, "The myth of digital distribution cannibalizing retail sales isn't true. ... The first couple times we ran [free weekends for games], we found out they increased retail sales as well [as digital sales.]"Holtman later said, "We love selling our boxed products. We like selling our digital products, too. ... Retail is going to be here to stay. It's a great channel for games. Digital is also a great channel for games."Ray Muzka of Bioware said, "They're incredibly complimentary. ... You can get research, you can get data from your digital distribution to make better games."Dan Connors of Telltale Games described how his company's games benefit from initial digital distribution. He said, "By the time it gets to retail, it's a known quantity. ... It was thought of from the ground up that we're going to launch online and [move to retail.] ... I think we've managed to take revenues from a range of places."Near the end of the session, Croal asked if he and other journalists had covered digital distribution enough. Rick Sanchez of GameTap vehemently said that the press hadn't and that they don't know how to treat his game-download service. The other panelists thought their projects were getting enough coverage, although they echoed the slow recognition of their digital projects.Other than Microsoft's Xbox Live games, GameTap represented the only company with a digital-only distribution method. Could that affect GameTap's recognition, because the public -- and journalists -- still need a boxed copy to take notice?
Creating Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan and its recreation as Elite Beat Agents
Keiichi Yano, VP of development for iNiS Corporation created Gitaroo-man and Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. Americans know him most recently for the conversion of the latter title to Elite Beat Agents. But since the original Japanese rhythm game centered on the rousing Ouendan, at his GDC seminar, Yano explained the process of rebuilding the title for a more American approach with "The Agents." With two Ouendan helpers occasionally chiming in, but mostly standing at attention during the presentation, Yano described the history of his company's titles. He was the game designer and also lead programmer for the company's first game, Gitaroo-man -- "[my ambitious role] was the stupidest thing ever." He hadn't created a game before, saying, "[I] studied pretty hard, read all the books, [and] came to GDC. At the end of the development cycle, we thought we had a really good game. ... We gained a fair amount of confidence." But Gitaroo-man was a retail disappointment. "It sold, like, nothing," Yano continued. "Any confidence that we had built was completely crushed like a fly. At this point, we had kind of lost all confidence in the music genre. ... We really did a lot of soul-searching back then." iNiS went on to prototype a new game and show it off to Nintendo. Yano said, "To make a long story short, they thought our idea sucked. ... We went on and we kept pitching this game [elsewhere]." %Gallery-1974%
Crytek shows CrysisENGINE2, innocent trees shot
Crytek occupies a medium-sized booth space at this year's GDC show floor. The company, showing its CryENGINE2 to developers, announced that it found its first customer in Avatar Reality, Inc. Hoping to land more interest, the company is hosting a series of rotating presentations about its level editor, sound system, character animation, engine, and other features.Harald Seeley, Development Director for Crytek briefly spoke with us about the engine and its outlook, saying that it's at alpha now for the PC, and they'll ship the SDK to AVI in four to six weeks. Seeley said that Crytek is working to bring CryENGINE2 to the PS3 and Xbox 360, but those plans don't mean that Crysis will be released on those platforms.Modders and indie designers should look for a PC version of the development environment bundled with Crysis. Seeley said that the consumer tools offer nearly all of the features of the fully licensed engine, and that modders may be able to work out terms to release commercial software created with the free editor.Seeley thinks that the commercial version of CryENGINE2 will lead other middleware engines because it was developed for DirectX 10 instead of being prettied up from an older version of the API. He said, "This will become the standard. ... [Gamers] won't be willing to settle for titanium trees any longer. If it looks breakable, if it looks like you should be able to pick it up, [you will.]"%Gallery-1976%
Castle Crashers GDC '07 impressions
Castle Crashers is a chaotic storm of spinning swords, overly aggressive primary colors and the occasional (but never displeasing) decapitation -- which is why we like it. Though the GDC demo boasts only a few notable changes from previous iterations, it still warrants a look. A long and loving look accompanied by a forlorn sigh and the formation of a gently sparkling tear. One of the most interesting things about the game is the manner in which it draws your attention. It's even a little conflicting, as if two sets of fingers are snapping in your face in an alternating pattern. When you're not trying to spot your character deep within the colorful anarchy of battle, you're adopting a wider view of all the over-the-top action. It's like a tug of war, and one not too dissimilar from the battle between order and chaos that's at the core of the game.
Overheard at GDC: "Greatest moment of my life"
"That was the single greatest moment of my life. He stood in front of me, he smiled, he took my game, he signed it, he shook my hand."-A passerby, talking on his cell phone about a chance meeting with Shigeru Miyamato, shortly after a presentation by game composer Koji Kondo.
Super Paper Mario GDC '07 impressions
If you only saw screenshots like the one above, you'd be forgiven for mistaking Super Paper Mario for an All-stars-style update of the original Super Mario Bros. When you see the 95 percent complete build on the GDC show floor, though, it's easy to see that the game is a true continuation of the Paper Mario series, with a few significant changes thrown in.Everything you remember from Intelligent Systems' two Paper Mario games is here -- the irreverent writing style, the smoothly animated flat characters set in a detailed polygonal world and the items and leveling structure will all be familiar to Paper Mario fans. The now-familiar Paper Mario sidekicks also return in the form of Pixls -- little hovering companions that can perform specialized functions like turning into bombs or grabbing nearby enemies.What's changed is how you interact with the enemies -- through platform-style jumps instead of turn-based battles. It's amazing how the lack of jarring, momentum-stealing battles every 30 seconds transforms the game into a more fluid and much more enjoyable experience.The other major change, as has already been shown in countless online videos, is the ability to switch between a 2D side-view and a 3D over the shoulder view with a tap of the A button. It's interesting to see the familiar 2D environments converted into sometimes-complex, layered 3D environments, though the puzzles that used this mechanic in the demo seemed pretty facile.The Wii's motion-sensitive controls allow for some occasional aerial acrobatics, but for the most part, the game brings back the simple run and jump control scheme of the NES Mario games with little embellishment. Which is just fine by us. Just because the Wii allows for motion-sensitive controls doesn't mean they should be shoehorned in when other, simpler controls work just as well or better.
Joystiq not-so-live coverage of the IGF and GDCA awards
6:20 p.m.: The Joystiq crew walks the red carpet, because we're just that important.6:33 p.m.: Gnarls Barkley's cover of the Violent Femmes' "Gone Daddy Gone" is blasting as we find seats in the press section. Cushy seats with recline-able chairs.6:42 pm: Sam and Max introduce the start for the independent games festival. The mention of projectile vomiting is disturbing, but welcoming somehow. 6:43 pm: Jamil Moledina and Simon Carless march onto stage, noting that the show is being broadcast to the entire world. We sense somewhat sinister undertones.
Seen@GDC: Mocap man! On the phone!
It's hard to tell from the picture, but this man was just standing in the middle of GDC's Moscone West Hall talking on a cell phone in a full motion-capture suit. We'd like to think he was filming an animation sequence for "X-treme Cell Phone Simulator 2: Voice Mail Hell." In our imaginations, the game is going to be released for PS3 and Xbox 360 but, ironically enough, not for cell phones.
Koji Kondo and GDC make beautiful music together
The Game Developers Conference has been trying to get Koji Kondo to come speak about game audio for ten years, according to an introduction by Tommy Tallarico. The wait seemed well worth it, as the famed Nintendo composer's first public appearance in the United States drew a standing ovation from the hundreds-strong assembled crowd today.Kondo, who has worked on the music for the Mario, Zelda and Star Fox series, among others, stressed three main points in making good game audio: Rhythm in game audio is not just having a catchy beat, but matching your beat to the animation and button presses in the game. "If the music doesn't reflect the rhythm of the game, it might as well be piped in from a source outside the room," Kondo said through a translator. Balance in game audio means not just balancing things like sound effect and music volume, but also bringing individual audio pieces in a game together as a single composition, with a defined introduction, bridge and ending. This is why Kondo always submits pieces to his director four or five at a time, so they won't be given equal weight but instead be balanced in the correct way. Interactivity in game music can be as overt as a faster tempo when time is running out in Super Mario Bros. or as subtle as slight phrasing changes in each trip through the overworld in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Kondo stressed that "this ability of the video game medium, which is not possible with CDs, movies etc., is a very interesting and unique feature."
