Idle Media Inc. announced its completed acquisitions of three online properties: free-to-play, browser-based RPG Prison Block, female-targeted gaming portal ChixRus (iKissed Souljah Boy), and Twitter profile customization site TweetVibe.
The online entertainment firm believes that purchasing these three properties will help expand its offerings and reach new audiences. With Prison Block (pictured), which currently has more than 50,000 users, in particular, it plans to expand the jail RPG's membership base and take advantage of virtual currency transactions.
Idle Media points out that these three purchases were transacted in cash and are "non-dilutive to the company's shareholders". Just two months ago, the company acquired the source code for Facebook game Backyard Buddies, also announcing plans to dedicate resources to developing cross-platform social titles for smartphones, mobile handsets, and social networks.
Founded in 2008 and based in Leesport, Pennsylvania, Idle Media has several other non-gaming properties, such as online mixtape community DatPiff and rap music site Hip Hop Early. The firm didn't disclose specific financial terms for its new acquisitions, but it promises that more information will be available in its upcoming SEC filing.
"Social media gaming is absolutely blowing up," says Idle Media Inc.'s president and CEO Marcus Frasier. "... These types of applications have massive revenue potential if exploited correctly, and we are working quickly to position ourselves solidly within this genre.
Frasier predicts, "We think it is inevitable that the social media platforms will take over online gaming at some point, it's just a natural synergy."
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
Mafia II Makes Strong Sales Debut In UK
2K Czech's Mafia II debuted on top of the UK sales charts for the week ended August 28, pushing last week's strong debut title, Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days into second place. Tracking firm Chart-Track announced that Mafia II saw the strongest UK debut since Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption, and topped the list despite Kane and Lynch 2's 33% sales increase from last week. Mafia II is an open world game inspired by the ...
League of Legends Leads Finalists For The First Annual Game Developers Choice Online Awards
GDC Online Awards organizers have revealed Riot's League Of Legends atop nominees for the first-ever awards, with We Rule, Champions Online, Dungeon Fighter Online, and Nightclub City all majorly nominated.
GDC Online Reveals Host Of iPhone, iPad Summit Lectures
Organizers of this October's GDC Online (formerly GDC Austin) have announced key speakers for its iPhone and iPad Gaming Summits, including Words With Friends/We Rule's David Bettner, Pocket Legends' Cinco Barnes and more. The two new Summits, focusing on Apple's portable gaming devices, take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 5th-6th in Austin, Texas alongside the larger GDC Online event, to provide a lexicon of key facts and advice for all those working in the ...
Gamasutra Hits 1 Million Monthly Readers, Adds Parkin, Morris, Orland To Editors
As sister site Gamasutra reaches the milestone of one million unique monthly readers and nearly 450,000 registered users, the leading video game art and business site is announcing notable new contributors including Simon Parkin, Chris Morris and Kyle Orland.
Cementing its position as the largest, most-trafficked website in the game development and business space, internal Omniture traffic numbers for July 2010 revealed over 3.3 million page views from more than 1 million unique readers for Gamasutra.com alone -- with hundreds of thousands of others reading related sites such as GameCareerGuide.com and IndieGames.com.
In addition, following the departure of editor at large Chris Remo to become Community Manager at Irrational Games (BioShock Infinite), the site has added multiple new contributors to bolster its cutting-edge coverage of all facets of the video game business.
Joining existing core staff -- including news director Leigh Alexander, senior news editor Kris Graft and features director Christian Nutt -- will be Simon Parkin as the site's European editor, providing UK-timed news and original reporting for the site. Based in the UK, Parkin is a veteran journalist and video game producer who has contributed to -- or is currently writing extensively for -- outlets including Edge magazine and Eurogamer. He was nominated for Best Writer in both the 2009 and 2010 British Game Media Awards.
Also joining Gamasutra as an editor at large, and contributing multiple weekly interviews, trend and analysis pieces is Chris Morris. Chris has covered consumer technology and the video game industry since 1996, including CNNMoney's well-known 'Game Over' commentary column. He also currently writes for Variety, Official Xbox Magazine, CNBC.com, Yahoo! Games and more.
Finally, being added to other Gamasutra contributors such as Colette Bennett, Tom Curtis and Game Developer magazine EIC Brandon Sheffield is Kyle Orland, who joins Gamasutra as a contributing news editor. Orland is a veteran freelancer who has previously written for outlets including Electronic Gaming Monthly, National Public Radio, GameSpot, Joystiq, and The Escapist.
These new journalists are significantly additive to Gamasutra's extensive developer-written content, with featured columnists including Ian Bogost and Ernest Adams, and regular high-profile technical, design articles and postmortems from leading companies in the space, from Naughty Dog through CCP to 2K Games and beyond.
The Gamasutra blogs section, which any readers are welcome to submit to, also includes user-created posts from professionals and Expert Bloggers such as Adam Saltsman (Canabalt), Scott MacMillan (Slam Bolt Scrappers), Arinn Dembo (Sword Of The Stars II) and Andy Satterthwaite (Shatter).
In addition, Gamasutra continues to receive highlights and crossposted content from Gamasutra sister submarket site editors such as Eric Caoili (running online game business-centric site WorldsInMotion.biz, plus alt.game weblog GameSetWatch), Christian Nutt (for game education-related site GameCareerGuide.com), Danny Cowan (for iPhone/iPad game-specific site FingerGaming), Ryan Langley (for console digital download site GamerBytes), and Tim W. and Mike Rose (for independent game site IndieGames.com).
"These impressive new statistics show that Gamasutra continues to be the most-read outlet for game industry news and inspiration", said Simon Carless, global brand director of the UBM TechWeb Game Network. "We're also delighted to welcome our new contributors, as we continue to provide the highest quality writing about the art and business of games -- from both journalists and game creators -- to a worldwide audience."
Cementing its position as the largest, most-trafficked website in the game development and business space, internal Omniture traffic numbers for July 2010 revealed over 3.3 million page views from more than 1 million unique readers for Gamasutra.com alone -- with hundreds of thousands of others reading related sites such as GameCareerGuide.com and IndieGames.com.
In addition, following the departure of editor at large Chris Remo to become Community Manager at Irrational Games (BioShock Infinite), the site has added multiple new contributors to bolster its cutting-edge coverage of all facets of the video game business.
Joining existing core staff -- including news director Leigh Alexander, senior news editor Kris Graft and features director Christian Nutt -- will be Simon Parkin as the site's European editor, providing UK-timed news and original reporting for the site. Based in the UK, Parkin is a veteran journalist and video game producer who has contributed to -- or is currently writing extensively for -- outlets including Edge magazine and Eurogamer. He was nominated for Best Writer in both the 2009 and 2010 British Game Media Awards.
Also joining Gamasutra as an editor at large, and contributing multiple weekly interviews, trend and analysis pieces is Chris Morris. Chris has covered consumer technology and the video game industry since 1996, including CNNMoney's well-known 'Game Over' commentary column. He also currently writes for Variety, Official Xbox Magazine, CNBC.com, Yahoo! Games and more.
Finally, being added to other Gamasutra contributors such as Colette Bennett, Tom Curtis and Game Developer magazine EIC Brandon Sheffield is Kyle Orland, who joins Gamasutra as a contributing news editor. Orland is a veteran freelancer who has previously written for outlets including Electronic Gaming Monthly, National Public Radio, GameSpot, Joystiq, and The Escapist.
These new journalists are significantly additive to Gamasutra's extensive developer-written content, with featured columnists including Ian Bogost and Ernest Adams, and regular high-profile technical, design articles and postmortems from leading companies in the space, from Naughty Dog through CCP to 2K Games and beyond.
The Gamasutra blogs section, which any readers are welcome to submit to, also includes user-created posts from professionals and Expert Bloggers such as Adam Saltsman (Canabalt), Scott MacMillan (Slam Bolt Scrappers), Arinn Dembo (Sword Of The Stars II) and Andy Satterthwaite (Shatter).
In addition, Gamasutra continues to receive highlights and crossposted content from Gamasutra sister submarket site editors such as Eric Caoili (running online game business-centric site WorldsInMotion.biz, plus alt.game weblog GameSetWatch), Christian Nutt (for game education-related site GameCareerGuide.com), Danny Cowan (for iPhone/iPad game-specific site FingerGaming), Ryan Langley (for console digital download site GamerBytes), and Tim W. and Mike Rose (for independent game site IndieGames.com).
"These impressive new statistics show that Gamasutra continues to be the most-read outlet for game industry news and inspiration", said Simon Carless, global brand director of the UBM TechWeb Game Network. "We're also delighted to welcome our new contributors, as we continue to provide the highest quality writing about the art and business of games -- from both journalists and game creators -- to a worldwide audience."
ACER ADOBE SYSTEMS ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR ENGINEERING ALLIANCE DATA SYSTEMS
Monday, 30 August 2010
Epic Games Releases August 2010 Unreal Development Kit Beta
Epic Games, Inc. has released the August 2010 UDK Beta, the latest version of the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), the free edition of Unreal Engine 3 that provides uncompromised access to the award-winning toolset used in blockbuster video games, 3D visualizations, digital films and more.
Epic is committed to providing the UDK community with regular software releases at no charge, and the latest beta is available now at http://www.udk.com/download.
Are you creating something great with UDK? Drop us a line in the Project Show-Off forums, where links to tech demos, gameplay videos and screenshots are always welcome.
You can see many of the top UDK games and applications at http://www.udk.com/showcase. This month we would like to congratulate Teotl Studios on their upcoming commercial release for The Ball.
It?s easy to sign up as a commercial UDK developer online. Our FAQ can help you determine which type of license is right for you.
This month?s beta release includes many upgrades, such as:
* Scaleform pipeline improvements
* Improved motion blur
* New detail lighting view mode
* Recompile materials directly from Content Browser right-click menu
* New character indirect lighting controls
* Better hair lighting
Plus, new documentation like the Scaleform workflow, introduction to FaceFX and camera technical guide will be helpful to those getting started with UDK.
Here?s the full list of improvements in detail:
Scaleform GFx
* Scaleform GFx 3.3.85 is now merged in and all UDK UI is GFx-based.
* Made many improvements and fixes to the Scaleform import pipeline.
Point Light Shadows
* Whole scene shadows for point lights are now supported.
Precomputed Visibility
* Precomputed visibility allows occlusion on platforms that don't support hardware occlusion queries.
Motion Blur
* The quality of Motion Blur has been significantly improved without a performance loss.
New Detail Lighting View Mode
* Replaces diffuse and specular color but keeps all other material parameters like normal map, opacity mask, two sidedness, etc.
* Useful for viewing lighting without material diffuse color influence.
* Lighting-only view mode is still useful for looking at lightmap artifacts and compression.
Character Indirect Lighting
* Added new controls for fine-tuning runtime indirect lighting settings on characters.
* Added distinct controls for both lit and shadowed environments.
Hair Lighting
* Implemented a new, single-pass technique for translucency lighting.
* Previous technique relied on multiple passes, which over-brightens on multilayered objects, such as hair.
* The single-pass technique uses about half the number of shader instructions as multipass lighting, so hair will be much cheaper.
Normal Maps, Indirect Lighting & Lightmaps
* Normal maps are now taken into account for indirect lighting with simple lightmaps.
Other New Stuff
* Can now recompile materials directly from the right-click menu in Content Browser.
* New texture streaming system saves memory and prioritizes textures more effectively.
* Added limited support for importing non-power-of-two (NPOT) textures into the editor. MIP maps are not allowed, and image dimensions must be divisible by four for DXT compression.
* Vertex normals are now correctly saved with static meshes exported as OBJ files.
* Terrain export now supports holes.
* New ContentComparison commandlet helps optimize content.
* Lightmass static shadows now have texture space filtering on by default, which smoothes out aliasing.
* Material editor Undo and Redo are now much faster.
* Added multiple camera offset support for particle modules and camera offset support for mesh emitters.
* Spawn at bone/socket now allows rotating mesh particles to the orientation of the bone/socket.
New Documentation
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CameraTechnicalGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ScaleformWorkflow.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/EditorConsoleCommands.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentAuditCommandlet.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PrecomputedVisibility.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/RadialBlur.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MovieTexture.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/IntroductionToFaceFX.html
Updated Documentation
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentBlog.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitBuildUpgradeNotes.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitGettingStarted.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitProgramming.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitContentCreation.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKProgrammingHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKContentCreationHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKLevelCreationHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKCommunityLinks.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKCustomCharacters.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Scaleform.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ScaleformImport.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CreatingCinematics.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UnrealEdUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CascadeUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/AnimSetEditorUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/StaticMeshEditorUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TaskBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TextureStatsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ReferencedAssetsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/AttachmentsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GroupsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/SceneManagerReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/LevelBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ActorsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/FractureTool.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/SettingUpTerrain.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ModularEnvironmentCreation.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MeshPipeline.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ColorPicker.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ColorGrading.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/VisualizeTexture.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TranslucentHairSorting.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Lightmass.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MotionBlur.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/VisibilityCulling.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PhysicalMaterial.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MaterialsCompendium.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MaterialsTutorial.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/NavigationMeshTechnicalGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PostProcessTechnicalGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UnrealScriptReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/StringsInUnrealScript.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CompilingNativeClasses.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CommandletList.html
Community Links
UDK Forums: http://www.udk.com/forums
UDK Developers on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2493123
UDK on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/UDK/183744733429
Epic Games on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/EpicGames
Epic is committed to providing the UDK community with regular software releases at no charge, and the latest beta is available now at http://www.udk.com/download.
Are you creating something great with UDK? Drop us a line in the Project Show-Off forums, where links to tech demos, gameplay videos and screenshots are always welcome.
You can see many of the top UDK games and applications at http://www.udk.com/showcase. This month we would like to congratulate Teotl Studios on their upcoming commercial release for The Ball.
It?s easy to sign up as a commercial UDK developer online. Our FAQ can help you determine which type of license is right for you.
This month?s beta release includes many upgrades, such as:
* Scaleform pipeline improvements
* Improved motion blur
* New detail lighting view mode
* Recompile materials directly from Content Browser right-click menu
* New character indirect lighting controls
* Better hair lighting
Plus, new documentation like the Scaleform workflow, introduction to FaceFX and camera technical guide will be helpful to those getting started with UDK.
Here?s the full list of improvements in detail:
Scaleform GFx
* Scaleform GFx 3.3.85 is now merged in and all UDK UI is GFx-based.
* Made many improvements and fixes to the Scaleform import pipeline.
Point Light Shadows
* Whole scene shadows for point lights are now supported.
Precomputed Visibility
* Precomputed visibility allows occlusion on platforms that don't support hardware occlusion queries.
Motion Blur
* The quality of Motion Blur has been significantly improved without a performance loss.
New Detail Lighting View Mode
* Replaces diffuse and specular color but keeps all other material parameters like normal map, opacity mask, two sidedness, etc.
* Useful for viewing lighting without material diffuse color influence.
* Lighting-only view mode is still useful for looking at lightmap artifacts and compression.
Character Indirect Lighting
* Added new controls for fine-tuning runtime indirect lighting settings on characters.
* Added distinct controls for both lit and shadowed environments.
Hair Lighting
* Implemented a new, single-pass technique for translucency lighting.
* Previous technique relied on multiple passes, which over-brightens on multilayered objects, such as hair.
* The single-pass technique uses about half the number of shader instructions as multipass lighting, so hair will be much cheaper.
Normal Maps, Indirect Lighting & Lightmaps
* Normal maps are now taken into account for indirect lighting with simple lightmaps.
Other New Stuff
* Can now recompile materials directly from the right-click menu in Content Browser.
* New texture streaming system saves memory and prioritizes textures more effectively.
* Added limited support for importing non-power-of-two (NPOT) textures into the editor. MIP maps are not allowed, and image dimensions must be divisible by four for DXT compression.
* Vertex normals are now correctly saved with static meshes exported as OBJ files.
* Terrain export now supports holes.
* New ContentComparison commandlet helps optimize content.
* Lightmass static shadows now have texture space filtering on by default, which smoothes out aliasing.
* Material editor Undo and Redo are now much faster.
* Added multiple camera offset support for particle modules and camera offset support for mesh emitters.
* Spawn at bone/socket now allows rotating mesh particles to the orientation of the bone/socket.
New Documentation
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CameraTechnicalGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ScaleformWorkflow.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/EditorConsoleCommands.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentAuditCommandlet.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PrecomputedVisibility.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/RadialBlur.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MovieTexture.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/IntroductionToFaceFX.html
Updated Documentation
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentBlog.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitBuildUpgradeNotes.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitGettingStarted.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitProgramming.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitContentCreation.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKProgrammingHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKContentCreationHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKLevelCreationHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKCommunityLinks.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKCustomCharacters.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Scaleform.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ScaleformImport.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CreatingCinematics.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UnrealEdUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CascadeUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/AnimSetEditorUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/StaticMeshEditorUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TaskBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TextureStatsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ReferencedAssetsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/AttachmentsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GroupsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/SceneManagerReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/LevelBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ActorsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/FractureTool.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/SettingUpTerrain.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ModularEnvironmentCreation.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MeshPipeline.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ColorPicker.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ColorGrading.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/VisualizeTexture.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TranslucentHairSorting.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Lightmass.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MotionBlur.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/VisibilityCulling.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PhysicalMaterial.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MaterialsCompendium.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MaterialsTutorial.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/NavigationMeshTechnicalGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PostProcessTechnicalGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UnrealScriptReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/StringsInUnrealScript.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CompilingNativeClasses.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CommandletList.html
Community Links
UDK Forums: http://www.udk.com/forums
UDK Developers on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2493123
UDK on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/UDK/183744733429
Epic Games on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/EpicGames
Is the smartphone gaming challenge real?
Competition from smartphone games could hurt traditional handheld game machines, analysts say. But Nintendo, Sony execs say they aren't worried.
Nintendo - Sony - Video game - Games - Console Platforms
Nintendo - Sony - Video game - Games - Console Platforms
COGNIZANT TECH. SOLUTIONS COMCAST COMMSCOPE COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS
Video games bring mom, son together ? in jail
New Hampshire police have charged a mother-and-son team with the theft of more than $1,600 worth of video games from a Best Buy store.
New Hampshire - Video game - Best Buy - United States - Shopping
New Hampshire - Video game - Best Buy - United States - Shopping
UNISYS TRIQUINT SEMICONDUCTOR TRIMBLE NAVIGATION LIMITED TRIDENT MICROSYSTEMS
Namco Bandai Releasing Two Original Titles, Portal To Facebook
Video game publisher Namco Bandai announced its increased focus on Facebook with two new and original titles launching for the social network, as well as an upcoming Portal Fan Page.
The two releases, City of Football and Treasure Abyss, both are still in beta and offer microtransactions systems powered by ISAO Corporation. Namco Bandai plans to eventually release the two games to iOS devices, as its strategy is to develop titles compatible with both iPhones and major social networks.
City of Football is a soccer team management sim in which players take on the role of team owners, acquiring and releasing athletes in a stock market-like system. The game uses data taken from English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Liga Espanola, and UEFA Champion League.
Treasure Abyss is a role-playing game in which players can explore dungeons with the avatar data of their friends. Namco Bandai says it designed this title for gamers to "play easily in a long time", and that it will regularly release new character jobs, dungeons, weapons, and more.
The company also revealed its plans to create a Portal Fan Page on Facebook, where it will take advantage of "new promotion techniques" offer news on its traditional games, mobile releases, and social network apps.
The two releases, City of Football and Treasure Abyss, both are still in beta and offer microtransactions systems powered by ISAO Corporation. Namco Bandai plans to eventually release the two games to iOS devices, as its strategy is to develop titles compatible with both iPhones and major social networks.
City of Football is a soccer team management sim in which players take on the role of team owners, acquiring and releasing athletes in a stock market-like system. The game uses data taken from English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Liga Espanola, and UEFA Champion League.
Treasure Abyss is a role-playing game in which players can explore dungeons with the avatar data of their friends. Namco Bandai says it designed this title for gamers to "play easily in a long time", and that it will regularly release new character jobs, dungeons, weapons, and more.
The company also revealed its plans to create a Portal Fan Page on Facebook, where it will take advantage of "new promotion techniques" offer news on its traditional games, mobile releases, and social network apps.
APB Lessons, Habbo, Cow Clicker Talks Added To GDC Online
Organizers of this October's GDC Online (formerly GDC Austin) are rolling out more major new talks, including ex-Realtime Worlds exec Joshua Howard on 'self-inflicted wounds' in game creation, Sulka Haro on the $500 million Habbo Hotel economy, and Ian Bogost on his satirical Facebook title Cow Clicker. The Austin, Texas based GDC Online conference is focused on the development of online games, including free-to-play titles, social network games, and traditional MMOs, with a veteran online ...
LIBERTY GLOBAL LM ERICSSON LOGITECH INTERNATIONAL MEMC ELECTRONIC MATERIALS
Newgrounds Documentary Director Creates Flash Game To Promote Fundraising
Though director Nathan Kuruna has already managed to well exceed his goal of $12,000 in pledges for his documentary about Flash portal Newgrounds, I still think it's worth pointing out the game he created and released to the site to promote his fundraising efforts.
The little Flash game, Indie Jones, takes some obvious inspiration from Indiana Jones and the opening scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, featuring a fedora-wearing adventurer snatching up gems as he runs away from a giant, incoming boulder.
Kuruna says this is the first promotional tie-in video game for a project on donation-ware platform Kickstarter, and it's managed to pick up a lot of attention for the fund, what with it being featured on the front page of Newgrounds and Kickstarter's blog.
With all the money Kuruna's raised so far, he now has enough to edit more than a hundred hours of videos into a documentary about "Newgrounds and the online cultural trends it helped create and drive over the last decade or so", telling the story of "how the web became fun as well as functional and a tool for creative people of all kinds."
If you want to receive some of the pledge incentives from the project, like a DVD copy of the film or a personal tour of Newgrounds' office, you can still donate some money until the end of the month.
[Via Nobuooo, Kickstarter Blog]
The little Flash game, Indie Jones, takes some obvious inspiration from Indiana Jones and the opening scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, featuring a fedora-wearing adventurer snatching up gems as he runs away from a giant, incoming boulder.
Kuruna says this is the first promotional tie-in video game for a project on donation-ware platform Kickstarter, and it's managed to pick up a lot of attention for the fund, what with it being featured on the front page of Newgrounds and Kickstarter's blog.
With all the money Kuruna's raised so far, he now has enough to edit more than a hundred hours of videos into a documentary about "Newgrounds and the online cultural trends it helped create and drive over the last decade or so", telling the story of "how the web became fun as well as functional and a tool for creative people of all kinds."
If you want to receive some of the pledge incentives from the project, like a DVD copy of the film or a personal tour of Newgrounds' office, you can still donate some money until the end of the month.
[Via Nobuooo, Kickstarter Blog]
Sunday, 29 August 2010
GDC Europe Reveals Key Business, Social Gaming Talks For August Event
GDC Europe organizers are highlighting a number of key new talks at the GamesCom-colocated Cologne, Germany developer event this month, including business & production advice from LucasArts, Double Fine and Foundation 9, plus online/social game analysis from leading studios in the space.
In the past few days, a number of notable business, production, and social game panels have been confirmed for the 2010 Game Developers Conference Europe event, which will take place August 16th-18th, and is an easy additional stop for GamesCom visitors, being located in Cologne, Germany alongside the leading European trade and consumer show.
Looking more broadly at the business and production of games, a notable new panel called 'Multiple Paths of Success for the Independent Developer' features veterans like Foundation 9 VP Chris Charla, Double Fine's Zack Karlsson and Bigpoint's Nils-Holger Henning discussing new methodologies and routes to success in the increasingly competitive independently-run game studio market.
A similarly expansive production panel, called 'Extreme Producing: Order & Chaos in The Game Development Process', features figures like LucasArts' Marianne Monaghan, 2K's Lulu LaMer and ThatGameCompany's Robin Hunicke discussing "specific examples of some the extreme highs and lows they have experienced in controlling the often chaotic process of making games", with plenty of practical takeaway.
With a plethora of major social/online game lectures -- from leading companies in the space like Playdom, RockYou, Bigpoint, Digital Chocolate, Tencent and Playfish -- already part of the overall GDC Europe schedule, several other lecture and panel additions around non-social network online games have fleshed out the program. These include a panel on browser-based vs. client-downloaded online games with Gamigo, GamersFirst and IGG representation, plus a case study on localizing Asian online game Runes Of Magic for the West.
In the past few days, a number of notable business, production, and social game panels have been confirmed for the 2010 Game Developers Conference Europe event, which will take place August 16th-18th, and is an easy additional stop for GamesCom visitors, being located in Cologne, Germany alongside the leading European trade and consumer show.
Looking more broadly at the business and production of games, a notable new panel called 'Multiple Paths of Success for the Independent Developer' features veterans like Foundation 9 VP Chris Charla, Double Fine's Zack Karlsson and Bigpoint's Nils-Holger Henning discussing new methodologies and routes to success in the increasingly competitive independently-run game studio market.
A similarly expansive production panel, called 'Extreme Producing: Order & Chaos in The Game Development Process', features figures like LucasArts' Marianne Monaghan, 2K's Lulu LaMer and ThatGameCompany's Robin Hunicke discussing "specific examples of some the extreme highs and lows they have experienced in controlling the often chaotic process of making games", with plenty of practical takeaway.
With a plethora of major social/online game lectures -- from leading companies in the space like Playdom, RockYou, Bigpoint, Digital Chocolate, Tencent and Playfish -- already part of the overall GDC Europe schedule, several other lecture and panel additions around non-social network online games have fleshed out the program. These include a panel on browser-based vs. client-downloaded online games with Gamigo, GamersFirst and IGG representation, plus a case study on localizing Asian online game Runes Of Magic for the West.
Reminder: GDC 2011 Lecture Submissions Open Until August 25th
Game Developers Conference 2011 organizers remind that submissions for lectures, panels and roundtables for next February's historical 25th annual show are still being accepted through August 25th.
MICRON TECHNOLOGY MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY METHODE ELECTRONICS MENTOR GRAPHICS
Game Connection Debuts Details For November Event In Lyon
Game Connection Europe, an acquisition-oriented game industry trade show, has announced four new featured events for this year's gathering, with a focus on building relationships between members of the industry, investors, game companies and more. The first of the new events, called Game Connection Selected Projects, will allow twenty nominated companies to show their products to key representatives from the Game Connection network. The event is open to any original project as long as it ...
TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE SYNTEL SYNTAX-BRILLIAN SYNOPSYS
Gameforge To Publish KingsIsle's Wizard101 In Europe
Developer KingsIsle Entertainment announced a licensing agreement with German online game publisher Gameforge to localize and release free-to-play MMORPG Wizard101 in Europe.
Launched in North America in September 2008, Wizard101 has more than 10 million registered players. Though the client-based 3D game is free to play, it has a microtransactions system and subscription options ($9.95 per month) allowing members to access all of the areas, ranked player versus player combat, extra content, and more.
The 'tween-targeted MMO has players creating and customizing student wizards (picking from different schools of magic, like Fire or Death), completing quests in a wizardry school, battling monsters and each other with collectible card game-style duels, raising virtual pets, and more.
Wizard101's European launch is scheduled for late 2010. Texas-based KingsIsle Entertainment says this release will be "an important first step" in its strategy to expand the MMO beyond the U.S. market and reach international audiences.
"Wizard101 has proven to be a high-quality MMO that appeals to a large audience of all ages," says Gameforge CEO Carsten van Husen. "We are very excited to partner with KingsIsle in bringing this great game to the European market and expand its audience globally."
Launched in North America in September 2008, Wizard101 has more than 10 million registered players. Though the client-based 3D game is free to play, it has a microtransactions system and subscription options ($9.95 per month) allowing members to access all of the areas, ranked player versus player combat, extra content, and more.
The 'tween-targeted MMO has players creating and customizing student wizards (picking from different schools of magic, like Fire or Death), completing quests in a wizardry school, battling monsters and each other with collectible card game-style duels, raising virtual pets, and more.
Wizard101's European launch is scheduled for late 2010. Texas-based KingsIsle Entertainment says this release will be "an important first step" in its strategy to expand the MMO beyond the U.S. market and reach international audiences.
"Wizard101 has proven to be a high-quality MMO that appeals to a large audience of all ages," says Gameforge CEO Carsten van Husen. "We are very excited to partner with KingsIsle in bringing this great game to the European market and expand its audience globally."
LSI LINEAR TECHNOLOGY . LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS
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Click to play the game Bumble Tumble now. We offer the best free games and add 10 new games every day of the week.
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Phantom Fingers: The Series -- Part Five: Myths and Legends
[Phantom Fingers is a new GameSetWatch-exclusive column on 'the growth and curious development of that relationship between the gameworld and the player' by writer and game theorist Eric-Jon R�ssel Tairne [aka Eric-Jon Waugh]. Following looks at Pong, Breakout, Space Invaders, and Pac-Man, he now examines the inexorable rise of Shigeru Miyamoto, from Donkey Kong through Mario Bros to Super Mario Bros.]
It is 1981. Somewhere between testing and mass release, interest in Nintendo?s Space Invaders clone Radar Scope had cooled. It?s not that the game was poor. It?s just that six months earlier Pac-Man had changed the arcade landscape, and in the narrowing landscape for Invaders clones there was only room for excellence. Do we order Radar Scope, or do we order Galaga? Easy choice.
Enter the slacker art school kid who was only ever hired as a favor to his family. Shigeru Miyamoto was told to recoup losses by designing another game for the returned Radar Scope hardware, preferably aimed at US audiences. Inspired by Pac-Man, Miyamoto took pretty much all of Iwatani?s new ideas of scenario, character, empathy, and play narrative, and pretty much built a whole game on them without the traditional clutter.
?How High Can You Get??
Whereas half of Pac-Man?s appeal lay in its character dynamics, Donkey Kong is nothing but character dynamics. You?re an everyman in a fairy tale, saving a damsel from not so much an evil as a misguided antagonist -- rather like Pac-Man?s ghosts. If anything, Donkey Kong is less violent than Pac-Man; any hazards are inanimate, and even the final confrontation is curiously indirect. The game has been stripped of nearly all mechanics and concepts except getting from point A, at the bottom of the (vertically-oriented) screen, to point B, at the top. This also makes the game much more linear than Pac-Man -- essentially you follow a predefined route, making the vertical progression more of an inevitability than a choice -- so to counteract this we have four different levels, each with slightly different objectives or hazards while retaining the same basic mechanics.
To show the height, the game shows us a side-on view. Aside from walking, the only real mechanic is jumping -- which reflects the game?s vertical construction. Curiously enough, Miyamoto only even added the jump because the Radar Scope cabinet had an extra button to use and, on reflection, he felt it solved a few logistical problems.
Gone are the bricks, or Invaders, or dots to clear. We still have Pac-Man?s power pellet, in the form of the hammer. The parasols and purses are the bonus fruits. Aside from the power-up and items, the player never really touches anything. Donkey Kong is more about avoiding contact. The biggest element of touch is aspirational -- the straightforward desire to reach the goal, be the hero, save the girl. A dream of, or quest for, touch.
Miyamoto met with the same kind of bureaucratic problems as Iwatani before him. Why, his bosses asked, is there nothing to clear away except distance? Why waste resources on four levels, when one is plenty for other games? Luckily his boss Gunpei Yokoi was ready to fight for his ideas. Result? Nintendo had its first successful arcade game.
Donkey Kong followed on the cultural coattails of Pac-Man, carving out a similar, if smaller, niche based on its own characters and premise. On its own the game may not have brought videogames to a new audience, or changed the course of future design. Videogames were never equated with Donkey Kong the way they were with Pac-Man or Space Invaders, and it didn?t inspire whole industries like Breakout. What the game did was it elevated Nintendo to the same league as Namco or Taito, and so broadened the spectrum a bit. That, and it sowed some seeds that would take another four years to sprout.
Pipe Dreams
For all of Donkey Kong?s success, Yokoi had some reservations about some of the design choices. The jumping mechanic is intriguing, but it?s curiously undeveloped. The move was wedged in at the last moment, and it sort of feels like it. It?s also maybe a shame that Mario dies after falling just a short distance. Yokoi suggested to a none-too-pleased Miyamoto that he knock together a game demo, maybe using Williams? Joust as a template, to flesh out this Jumpman character and what he can do.
Although Mario Bros. (1983) does away with Donkey Kong?s overt story and linear design, it does put some energy into its protagonist. Whereas the hero?s mustache, overalls, and cap were a result of technical limitations, Miyamoto decided his appearance made him look like a plumber. By now Nintendo?s American offices had provided the name Mario. And the Joust-inspired arena format called for a second player. Thus the palette-swapped brother, Luigi. We also have some new thematic elements, in sewers and drain pipes and coins and fireballs and enemy turtles.
The game?s real point, though, is the mechanics; this is a game about jumping. There is never a penalty for jumping or falling. The mechanic has further been overloaded, to make it more meaningful. At Yokoi?s suggestion you bang ceilings to knock out enemies, and then kick the monsters to clear them away. As such, the player?s role is less passive than in Donkey Kong. Instead of relying on a power pellet or hammer for defense, success lies in strategic interaction with the environment.
Since the goal is to clear the level, we?re sort of back to Space Invaders territory, or a version of Pac-Man where the object is to devour the ghosts. This structure may seem like a step back, but mind that Mario Bros. is more a case of experimentation than of inspiration. The point is not so much the whole as it is the particulars.
The game was influential in a limited way, starting a whole genre of cute hop-?n-bop platformers, some of which -- like Bubble Bobble -- went on to find their own glory. It was not, however, a huge financial or cultural success.
Super Mario Bros. (1985)
Around this time a couple of things happened. One, Nintendo chose to blaze an almost unknown trail for a Japanese developer -- the consumer market. For Nintendo it was more like returning to a comfort zone. They knew cards and games and toys. At about the same time, the North American console market imploded. Though arcades and computers kept puttering on, popular consensus was that the fad was over; videogames were done. On to the next hula hoop.
Meanwhile back in Kyoto, Miyamoto was becoming irked at what he saw as creative theft, or at least a mindless reflex in the industry. He popularized a jumping mechanic; everyone else began to include jump buttons. So to reestablish his claim, Miyamoto hunkered down with the nuts-and-bolts minded Takahashi Tezuka to make the ultimate jumping game. Or, to be more specific, the ultimate Miyamoto game.
This project would be enormous. It would have to incorporate everything original that Miyamoto had established to date, and it would slot it all together so it made sense as a cohesive statement. To give the young men some elbow room, management granted them a whole new development studio.
So, okay. What has Miyamoto said to date? He wrenched Pac-Man?s story elements out wholesale and straightened them like a spring. He got rid of the clutter-sweeping design of earlier games, in favor of destination-based goals. He made a narrative point of exploring the height and width of the screen. He made a point of a true level progression, both architecturally and in terms of goals, in place of a repeating screen. There?s the jumping business. There?s interacting with the level geometry to affect adversaries or collect rewards. And there are all the specific character and story and scenario details around this Mario fellow.
Miyamoto had always wanted Donkey Kong to scroll, so clearly that was on the to-do list. Perhaps in part to keep from blinding any dark arcade denizens, most games of the time had black backgrounds. Miyamoto was more of a blue-sky fantasist, and a cheerful presentation would immediately set the game apart -- so that was in. One of the biggest appeals to Donkey Kong was its variety, so here every level would be different.
Donkey Kong had four levels, so how about eight worlds, each with four levels? The levels would scroll, be enormous, and so cover lots of ground. The character would go on a real journey, or quest, over all kinds of terrain -- land, sea, and air. A quest for what? Well, back to Donkey Kong: a damsel in distress. What else do fairy tale heroes aspire toward?
Now we?ve got an enormous and varied canvas. How do we fill it? Well, with jumping. With reasons and excuses to jump. Each level would be a series of jumping exercises where Miyamoto could show off every nuance and ramification of jumping as a game mechanic, on his own terms. Likewise, bit by bit, each exercise would demonstrate, or teach, the player some new principle. The goal is for everyone to appreciate, and have the opportunity to master, the nuances of Miyamoto?s manifesto.
Down to the dots
Good. Broad structure; declaration of everything that Miyamoto stands for (whether throug his own notions or through persuasion). Linear progression through large, varied worlds filled with jumping exercises. At the end, some brute who has kidnapped the girl. Now what about the moment to moment design? What pulls in and retains the player?s attention?
Well, we can litter in a few Breakout tiles to smash or Pac-Man dots (coins) to collect, but that can?t be a major goal. The whole point of the game is to move forward and pursue an ideal. Likewise we can litter the game with monsters -- though they would have to be more incidental, like Pac-Man ghosts, than the Space Invaders aliens -- or indeed the Mario Bros. creatures. We can still use the turtles and whatever; they can?t hold long-term importance.
Come to think of it, how does the jumping work, exactly? Do we still attack as in Mario Bros.? If we?re looking for forward momentum, maybe it?s a bit picky to force players to line up underneath monsters, then jump, then find a way up to dispose of them. Maybe the original plan works better here; just knock them off the screen when bumped from below. What if the player faces them on the same level, though? Well... jumping, again. Why not further overload it, and just let players pounce on enemies? It would take some precision, and give some symmetry: attack from above, or below.
All very entertaining. How, then, amongst these long levels littered with jumping challenges and monsters (which are also jumping challenges), how do we keep players motivated to press forward? How do we strike that balance between immediate tasks and the ultimate, more abstract goal? Well, we can add a time limit. But what if the player physically doesn?t have enough time to finish the level? Well, we?ve got two buttons; let?s use the other to run. There?s momentum for you. And actually... there?s momentum for us. All the more complexity for the jumping.
Since we?re reusing everything, what about the power pellets? In Donkey Kong we had the hammer, but it just made Mario stand around: no jumping, no climbing. Well, it?s not ideal but maybe -- could Mario throw the hammer? No, that?s too violent. Perhaps he could toss one of those bouncy fireballs from earlier? That sort of works, but it still doesn?t quite fit. Whatever the major power-up is, it should involve the nature of Mario and jumping and enhance it or flip it around, the way that the power pellet deals with the nature of Pac and eating.
There are two previous versions of Mario: the tiny one from Donkey Kong, and the larger and more detailed one from Mario Bros. Though Miyamoto envisioned this new game with a big character, he also thought it would be neat to include a small version of Mario. After some fiddling, he realized it made sense to actually start with a small Mario and then allow him to grow. Thus both versions of Mario were merged, which is about as symbolic of the game?s mission as you can get.
The small Mario more or less got the familiar Mario Bros. powers: bop platforms from below; modest jump height and distance; one hit and you die. The bigger Mario, then, got an enhanced power set: bigger jumps, the ability to survive a blow, and the ability to smash right through some Breakout tiles. Now we?re not just traversing the level geometry; we?re changing it. Making a mark. And now things are really starting to get serious.
Head in the Clouds
Pong offered only indirect control over a single packet of information, that would bounce around in the environment on the other side of the screen according to pre-established physics. Breakout gave the player an overt objective and a complex environment to affect. Space Invaders cut out some abstraction and let the player choose targets to reach out and affect. It also contained a threat, and a persistent narrative scenario outside the player?s control. Pac-Man broke the player free to roam around and clear dots by exploring, and also enhanced the focus on character, scenario, and story.
It took a few drafts, but finally Miyamoto had something new to add to the pile: scale. Previously, objectives had generally been right in front of the player. The typical objective was tied to the game?s basic mechanic. Pac-Man eats, so in his game the goal is to eat everything. In Space Invaders you shoot, so the goal is to shoot everything. Even the games that weren?t about clearing or destruction, like Donkey Kong, put their goal on the other side of the screen. Get from here to there, and you have beaten this wave. Every moment you play, you are playing to that ultimate goal.
Miyamoto is an old-school storyteller at heart, and a good story is more about the journey than the destination. What makes The Hobbit interesting isn?t the chests of gold that Bilbo sets out to find, but his misadventures with the trolls and Gollum and the wine barrels, and the things that Bilbo learns through his trials.
By framing his quest so large, Miyamoto pushed the goal so far out of sight that it?s not worth fussing over. Although it?s a persistent driving force, the goal is more of a MacGuffin to ensure that the player keeps moving on, keeps aspiring. There?s always a friction: all you can effectively worry about is what?s in front of you, yet you know that what?s in front of you is never as important as what comes next. You can see this kind of mentality -- dealing with what is while dreaming of what might be -- in the game?s scenario, in its structure, and in its mechanics.
Structurally, every beat of every level has something new to teach -- and most of what it has to teach is curiosity and wonder. There could be something behind any brick or inside any [?] block. Even empty space could hide anything. Any pipe could be a passage, any level could hide a warp zone. Everything that you find suggests possibilities of things that you have yet to find. The point is not so much in what?s tangibly in front of you as in what else could be out there to find, uncover, and emotionally own through the basic tools and abilities provided.
Unlike most earlier games, in Super Mario Bros. the central mechanic isn?t so much an attack (though it can function as one) as a means to bodily explore and prod and alter the environment. The major power-up mostly serves to enhance the player?s navigation, and most of the incidental pick-ups are rewards for exploration. And then the game?s secondary button allows, and urges, the player to keep running; to keep moving forward to see what?s around the next bend.
The result of this aspirational design is an unusual narrative structure and a fanciful sense of cause and effect. Super Mario Bros. is a traditional fairy tale where nothing really matters unless the story, the plot decrees it. By plot in this case I mean the intricately contrived world established for the player to chew up and absorb as he plays through it. Although the player?s actions will have immediate bearing on the player?s following actions, there?s no waiting around for real consequences to set in. By story I mean the MacGuffin, which the game uses to lend the player?s actions an illusion of greater meaning or reason.
Since Space Invaders this has been the growing shape of Japanese game design; it just took Miyamoto to put a nail in it. From here, Japanese-inspired design is prepared grist to constantly feed into the mill of the player?s narrow and guided experimentation. Videogames, the theory goes, serve to tell a story, and they do it through meticulously crafted yet disposable content that guides the player around by the nose. Sometimes, when a game lets the geometry and the mechanics speak for themselves, the results are inspirational. After The Legend of Zelda you don?t see much more of that.
Mushrooming success
The game?s tactile nature and tangible sense of wonder were unlike anything seen in an action game, and the world took notice. Nintendo was already doing well in Japan; all Super Mario Bros. did there was propel them even higher, and inspire everyone else to shift to aspirational design structures, never to turn back. This is the last major design revolution that Japan would ever see.
In North America, things were a little different. You will remember that the home market for videogames had basically died. About a year and a half later, Nintendo appeared with a different kind of pitch and games unlike anything seen before -- and suddenly there was a market again. There was, in fact, a bigger market than there had ever been. Thanks largely to Super Mario Bros., Nintendo was the new generic -- as Pac-Man and Space Invaders and Pong had been before. Despite some competition, this mindshare would last for about a decade.
The next time anything interesting happened, the needle would swing back across the ocean and point back to North America. I think, though, we will save that thread for later. With the conclusion of one block of the tale, this seems like a good time to double back. Remember how Breakout sprouted three important streams of design? Well, it?s time to shift to another vector entirely.
Next time on Phantom Fingers: The Series: Asteroids
[Eric-Jon R�ssel Tairne is a writer most recently hailing from Brooklyn, New York. When he manages to detach his brain from his keyboard, he spends his hours concocting bagels and exploring the deep places of the Earth. You can sponge up more of his work at gloaming.aderack.com.]
It is 1981. Somewhere between testing and mass release, interest in Nintendo?s Space Invaders clone Radar Scope had cooled. It?s not that the game was poor. It?s just that six months earlier Pac-Man had changed the arcade landscape, and in the narrowing landscape for Invaders clones there was only room for excellence. Do we order Radar Scope, or do we order Galaga? Easy choice.
Enter the slacker art school kid who was only ever hired as a favor to his family. Shigeru Miyamoto was told to recoup losses by designing another game for the returned Radar Scope hardware, preferably aimed at US audiences. Inspired by Pac-Man, Miyamoto took pretty much all of Iwatani?s new ideas of scenario, character, empathy, and play narrative, and pretty much built a whole game on them without the traditional clutter.
?How High Can You Get??
Whereas half of Pac-Man?s appeal lay in its character dynamics, Donkey Kong is nothing but character dynamics. You?re an everyman in a fairy tale, saving a damsel from not so much an evil as a misguided antagonist -- rather like Pac-Man?s ghosts. If anything, Donkey Kong is less violent than Pac-Man; any hazards are inanimate, and even the final confrontation is curiously indirect. The game has been stripped of nearly all mechanics and concepts except getting from point A, at the bottom of the (vertically-oriented) screen, to point B, at the top. This also makes the game much more linear than Pac-Man -- essentially you follow a predefined route, making the vertical progression more of an inevitability than a choice -- so to counteract this we have four different levels, each with slightly different objectives or hazards while retaining the same basic mechanics.
To show the height, the game shows us a side-on view. Aside from walking, the only real mechanic is jumping -- which reflects the game?s vertical construction. Curiously enough, Miyamoto only even added the jump because the Radar Scope cabinet had an extra button to use and, on reflection, he felt it solved a few logistical problems.
Gone are the bricks, or Invaders, or dots to clear. We still have Pac-Man?s power pellet, in the form of the hammer. The parasols and purses are the bonus fruits. Aside from the power-up and items, the player never really touches anything. Donkey Kong is more about avoiding contact. The biggest element of touch is aspirational -- the straightforward desire to reach the goal, be the hero, save the girl. A dream of, or quest for, touch.
Miyamoto met with the same kind of bureaucratic problems as Iwatani before him. Why, his bosses asked, is there nothing to clear away except distance? Why waste resources on four levels, when one is plenty for other games? Luckily his boss Gunpei Yokoi was ready to fight for his ideas. Result? Nintendo had its first successful arcade game.
Donkey Kong followed on the cultural coattails of Pac-Man, carving out a similar, if smaller, niche based on its own characters and premise. On its own the game may not have brought videogames to a new audience, or changed the course of future design. Videogames were never equated with Donkey Kong the way they were with Pac-Man or Space Invaders, and it didn?t inspire whole industries like Breakout. What the game did was it elevated Nintendo to the same league as Namco or Taito, and so broadened the spectrum a bit. That, and it sowed some seeds that would take another four years to sprout.
Pipe Dreams
For all of Donkey Kong?s success, Yokoi had some reservations about some of the design choices. The jumping mechanic is intriguing, but it?s curiously undeveloped. The move was wedged in at the last moment, and it sort of feels like it. It?s also maybe a shame that Mario dies after falling just a short distance. Yokoi suggested to a none-too-pleased Miyamoto that he knock together a game demo, maybe using Williams? Joust as a template, to flesh out this Jumpman character and what he can do.
Although Mario Bros. (1983) does away with Donkey Kong?s overt story and linear design, it does put some energy into its protagonist. Whereas the hero?s mustache, overalls, and cap were a result of technical limitations, Miyamoto decided his appearance made him look like a plumber. By now Nintendo?s American offices had provided the name Mario. And the Joust-inspired arena format called for a second player. Thus the palette-swapped brother, Luigi. We also have some new thematic elements, in sewers and drain pipes and coins and fireballs and enemy turtles.
The game?s real point, though, is the mechanics; this is a game about jumping. There is never a penalty for jumping or falling. The mechanic has further been overloaded, to make it more meaningful. At Yokoi?s suggestion you bang ceilings to knock out enemies, and then kick the monsters to clear them away. As such, the player?s role is less passive than in Donkey Kong. Instead of relying on a power pellet or hammer for defense, success lies in strategic interaction with the environment.
Since the goal is to clear the level, we?re sort of back to Space Invaders territory, or a version of Pac-Man where the object is to devour the ghosts. This structure may seem like a step back, but mind that Mario Bros. is more a case of experimentation than of inspiration. The point is not so much the whole as it is the particulars.
The game was influential in a limited way, starting a whole genre of cute hop-?n-bop platformers, some of which -- like Bubble Bobble -- went on to find their own glory. It was not, however, a huge financial or cultural success.
Super Mario Bros. (1985)
Around this time a couple of things happened. One, Nintendo chose to blaze an almost unknown trail for a Japanese developer -- the consumer market. For Nintendo it was more like returning to a comfort zone. They knew cards and games and toys. At about the same time, the North American console market imploded. Though arcades and computers kept puttering on, popular consensus was that the fad was over; videogames were done. On to the next hula hoop.
Meanwhile back in Kyoto, Miyamoto was becoming irked at what he saw as creative theft, or at least a mindless reflex in the industry. He popularized a jumping mechanic; everyone else began to include jump buttons. So to reestablish his claim, Miyamoto hunkered down with the nuts-and-bolts minded Takahashi Tezuka to make the ultimate jumping game. Or, to be more specific, the ultimate Miyamoto game.
This project would be enormous. It would have to incorporate everything original that Miyamoto had established to date, and it would slot it all together so it made sense as a cohesive statement. To give the young men some elbow room, management granted them a whole new development studio.
So, okay. What has Miyamoto said to date? He wrenched Pac-Man?s story elements out wholesale and straightened them like a spring. He got rid of the clutter-sweeping design of earlier games, in favor of destination-based goals. He made a narrative point of exploring the height and width of the screen. He made a point of a true level progression, both architecturally and in terms of goals, in place of a repeating screen. There?s the jumping business. There?s interacting with the level geometry to affect adversaries or collect rewards. And there are all the specific character and story and scenario details around this Mario fellow.
Miyamoto had always wanted Donkey Kong to scroll, so clearly that was on the to-do list. Perhaps in part to keep from blinding any dark arcade denizens, most games of the time had black backgrounds. Miyamoto was more of a blue-sky fantasist, and a cheerful presentation would immediately set the game apart -- so that was in. One of the biggest appeals to Donkey Kong was its variety, so here every level would be different.
Donkey Kong had four levels, so how about eight worlds, each with four levels? The levels would scroll, be enormous, and so cover lots of ground. The character would go on a real journey, or quest, over all kinds of terrain -- land, sea, and air. A quest for what? Well, back to Donkey Kong: a damsel in distress. What else do fairy tale heroes aspire toward?
Now we?ve got an enormous and varied canvas. How do we fill it? Well, with jumping. With reasons and excuses to jump. Each level would be a series of jumping exercises where Miyamoto could show off every nuance and ramification of jumping as a game mechanic, on his own terms. Likewise, bit by bit, each exercise would demonstrate, or teach, the player some new principle. The goal is for everyone to appreciate, and have the opportunity to master, the nuances of Miyamoto?s manifesto.
Down to the dots
Good. Broad structure; declaration of everything that Miyamoto stands for (whether throug his own notions or through persuasion). Linear progression through large, varied worlds filled with jumping exercises. At the end, some brute who has kidnapped the girl. Now what about the moment to moment design? What pulls in and retains the player?s attention?
Well, we can litter in a few Breakout tiles to smash or Pac-Man dots (coins) to collect, but that can?t be a major goal. The whole point of the game is to move forward and pursue an ideal. Likewise we can litter the game with monsters -- though they would have to be more incidental, like Pac-Man ghosts, than the Space Invaders aliens -- or indeed the Mario Bros. creatures. We can still use the turtles and whatever; they can?t hold long-term importance.
Come to think of it, how does the jumping work, exactly? Do we still attack as in Mario Bros.? If we?re looking for forward momentum, maybe it?s a bit picky to force players to line up underneath monsters, then jump, then find a way up to dispose of them. Maybe the original plan works better here; just knock them off the screen when bumped from below. What if the player faces them on the same level, though? Well... jumping, again. Why not further overload it, and just let players pounce on enemies? It would take some precision, and give some symmetry: attack from above, or below.
All very entertaining. How, then, amongst these long levels littered with jumping challenges and monsters (which are also jumping challenges), how do we keep players motivated to press forward? How do we strike that balance between immediate tasks and the ultimate, more abstract goal? Well, we can add a time limit. But what if the player physically doesn?t have enough time to finish the level? Well, we?ve got two buttons; let?s use the other to run. There?s momentum for you. And actually... there?s momentum for us. All the more complexity for the jumping.
Since we?re reusing everything, what about the power pellets? In Donkey Kong we had the hammer, but it just made Mario stand around: no jumping, no climbing. Well, it?s not ideal but maybe -- could Mario throw the hammer? No, that?s too violent. Perhaps he could toss one of those bouncy fireballs from earlier? That sort of works, but it still doesn?t quite fit. Whatever the major power-up is, it should involve the nature of Mario and jumping and enhance it or flip it around, the way that the power pellet deals with the nature of Pac and eating.
There are two previous versions of Mario: the tiny one from Donkey Kong, and the larger and more detailed one from Mario Bros. Though Miyamoto envisioned this new game with a big character, he also thought it would be neat to include a small version of Mario. After some fiddling, he realized it made sense to actually start with a small Mario and then allow him to grow. Thus both versions of Mario were merged, which is about as symbolic of the game?s mission as you can get.
The small Mario more or less got the familiar Mario Bros. powers: bop platforms from below; modest jump height and distance; one hit and you die. The bigger Mario, then, got an enhanced power set: bigger jumps, the ability to survive a blow, and the ability to smash right through some Breakout tiles. Now we?re not just traversing the level geometry; we?re changing it. Making a mark. And now things are really starting to get serious.
Head in the Clouds
Pong offered only indirect control over a single packet of information, that would bounce around in the environment on the other side of the screen according to pre-established physics. Breakout gave the player an overt objective and a complex environment to affect. Space Invaders cut out some abstraction and let the player choose targets to reach out and affect. It also contained a threat, and a persistent narrative scenario outside the player?s control. Pac-Man broke the player free to roam around and clear dots by exploring, and also enhanced the focus on character, scenario, and story.
It took a few drafts, but finally Miyamoto had something new to add to the pile: scale. Previously, objectives had generally been right in front of the player. The typical objective was tied to the game?s basic mechanic. Pac-Man eats, so in his game the goal is to eat everything. In Space Invaders you shoot, so the goal is to shoot everything. Even the games that weren?t about clearing or destruction, like Donkey Kong, put their goal on the other side of the screen. Get from here to there, and you have beaten this wave. Every moment you play, you are playing to that ultimate goal.
Miyamoto is an old-school storyteller at heart, and a good story is more about the journey than the destination. What makes The Hobbit interesting isn?t the chests of gold that Bilbo sets out to find, but his misadventures with the trolls and Gollum and the wine barrels, and the things that Bilbo learns through his trials.
By framing his quest so large, Miyamoto pushed the goal so far out of sight that it?s not worth fussing over. Although it?s a persistent driving force, the goal is more of a MacGuffin to ensure that the player keeps moving on, keeps aspiring. There?s always a friction: all you can effectively worry about is what?s in front of you, yet you know that what?s in front of you is never as important as what comes next. You can see this kind of mentality -- dealing with what is while dreaming of what might be -- in the game?s scenario, in its structure, and in its mechanics.
Structurally, every beat of every level has something new to teach -- and most of what it has to teach is curiosity and wonder. There could be something behind any brick or inside any [?] block. Even empty space could hide anything. Any pipe could be a passage, any level could hide a warp zone. Everything that you find suggests possibilities of things that you have yet to find. The point is not so much in what?s tangibly in front of you as in what else could be out there to find, uncover, and emotionally own through the basic tools and abilities provided.
Unlike most earlier games, in Super Mario Bros. the central mechanic isn?t so much an attack (though it can function as one) as a means to bodily explore and prod and alter the environment. The major power-up mostly serves to enhance the player?s navigation, and most of the incidental pick-ups are rewards for exploration. And then the game?s secondary button allows, and urges, the player to keep running; to keep moving forward to see what?s around the next bend.
The result of this aspirational design is an unusual narrative structure and a fanciful sense of cause and effect. Super Mario Bros. is a traditional fairy tale where nothing really matters unless the story, the plot decrees it. By plot in this case I mean the intricately contrived world established for the player to chew up and absorb as he plays through it. Although the player?s actions will have immediate bearing on the player?s following actions, there?s no waiting around for real consequences to set in. By story I mean the MacGuffin, which the game uses to lend the player?s actions an illusion of greater meaning or reason.
Since Space Invaders this has been the growing shape of Japanese game design; it just took Miyamoto to put a nail in it. From here, Japanese-inspired design is prepared grist to constantly feed into the mill of the player?s narrow and guided experimentation. Videogames, the theory goes, serve to tell a story, and they do it through meticulously crafted yet disposable content that guides the player around by the nose. Sometimes, when a game lets the geometry and the mechanics speak for themselves, the results are inspirational. After The Legend of Zelda you don?t see much more of that.
Mushrooming success
The game?s tactile nature and tangible sense of wonder were unlike anything seen in an action game, and the world took notice. Nintendo was already doing well in Japan; all Super Mario Bros. did there was propel them even higher, and inspire everyone else to shift to aspirational design structures, never to turn back. This is the last major design revolution that Japan would ever see.
In North America, things were a little different. You will remember that the home market for videogames had basically died. About a year and a half later, Nintendo appeared with a different kind of pitch and games unlike anything seen before -- and suddenly there was a market again. There was, in fact, a bigger market than there had ever been. Thanks largely to Super Mario Bros., Nintendo was the new generic -- as Pac-Man and Space Invaders and Pong had been before. Despite some competition, this mindshare would last for about a decade.
The next time anything interesting happened, the needle would swing back across the ocean and point back to North America. I think, though, we will save that thread for later. With the conclusion of one block of the tale, this seems like a good time to double back. Remember how Breakout sprouted three important streams of design? Well, it?s time to shift to another vector entirely.
Next time on Phantom Fingers: The Series: Asteroids
[Eric-Jon R�ssel Tairne is a writer most recently hailing from Brooklyn, New York. When he manages to detach his brain from his keyboard, he spends his hours concocting bagels and exploring the deep places of the Earth. You can sponge up more of his work at gloaming.aderack.com.]
Saturday, 28 August 2010
'Angry Birds:' the next video game movie?
The developer behind the hugely popular "Angry Birds" iPhone game has held talks with Hollywood studios and hopes to turn the iPhone game into a fully fledged entertainment brand like "Toy Story" and "Monsters, Inc."
iPhone - Video game - Apple - Handhelds - Smartphones
iPhone - Video game - Apple - Handhelds - Smartphones
Video: 'Halo Reach' impressions
New abilities, map creator, and multiplayer dynamics. Msnbc.com's Todd Kenreck gives his impressions of the game.�(MSNBC)
Halo Reach - Multiplayer video game - Msnbc.com - Video game - Game
Halo Reach - Multiplayer video game - Msnbc.com - Video game - Game
Xbox Indies - Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess
The popular PSP Minis title Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess has now made its way over to the console space -- and unsurprisingly, it's still as fun.
The game plays a little like Doodle Jump on your iThings, but with more combos and a more boss-battle mindset. It's only 240MSP, or $3, so give it a go.
The game plays a little like Doodle Jump on your iThings, but with more combos and a more boss-battle mindset. It's only 240MSP, or $3, so give it a go.
Freeware Game Pick: 5 Colors Pandora (Jordan Magnuson)
Originally created in 48 hours for a Ludum Dare competition, 5 Colors Pandora has now been beefed up a little and given music, which adds a whole new element to the game. You're tasked with exploring the monochrome world, finding a way to fill it with colour.
It's a bit of a slow-starter, but eventually gets really tricky with some clever puzzles. Touching big buttons around each section of the world switches you between levels, and pressing X allows your stickman to turn into a box and float. If you don't have time to play through it, feel free to watch ortoslon's playthrough above.
Otherwise, go give it a download.
It's a bit of a slow-starter, but eventually gets really tricky with some clever puzzles. Touching big buttons around each section of the world switches you between levels, and pressing X allows your stickman to turn into a box and float. If you don't have time to play through it, feel free to watch ortoslon's playthrough above.
Otherwise, go give it a download.
UNITED ONLINE UNISYS TRIQUINT SEMICONDUCTOR TRIMBLE NAVIGATION LIMITED
Sony PlayStation 3 to come with more memory
Sony's Playstation 3 will feature higher-capacity hard drives in North America this fall to let consumers to download more games and entertainment, the company said on Tuesday.
Playstation 3 - Sony - Hard disk drive - Hardware - Video game
Playstation 3 - Sony - Hard disk drive - Hardware - Video game
HEWLETT-PACKARD HIGH TECH COMPUTER HON HAI PRECISION IND. HYNIX SEMICONDUCTOR
GameSetContest: Scott Pilgrim Giveaway Winners
A couple of weeks ago, we teamed up with video game art group i am 8-bit to give away a sweet collection of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World prizes: limited edition t-shirts designed by i am 8-bit, baseball caps, copies of the movie's soundtrack, iPhone skins, and theatrical one-sheets.
As those of you who jumped at the chance to win those goodies will recall, we simply asked readers to comment about their favorite video game allusions (real or even made up) from the Scott Pilgrim comics, film, or PSN/XBLA video game to enter the contest. It was pretty easy stuff, so we got a ton of entries!
Anyway, let's get to what you came here for -- our five randomly picked winners:Pseudonym: "I'm rather fond of the bit in the comic where a save point shows up and Scott panics about saving before the next cut scene happens."Jason C: "My favorite reference was when Scott did a Shoryuken and super canceled into Shippu-Jinrai-Kyaku."Grim Sanro: "Parappa reference book 3... Because in the end don't well gotta believe?"Tyson: "My favourite reference appears in a lot of games (and is a bit more thematic than concrete) but reminds me first of FFII (IV): 'Scott earned the power of self-respect.' This part of Scott's growth is very reminiscent of Cecil Harvey. He fights for Baron without a will of his own. As he says, '[He's] just a Dark Knight with no courage to disobey his majesty.' Scott Pilgrim likewise doesn't do what's right at first (he cheats on Knives and Ramona) and it takes him time to come around. But when he does, he gains awesome powers, just as Cecil becomes a Paladin. Of course, Scott doesn't revert to level 1, so more power to him!"Dave Illustrious Shevlin: "My favorite part is Scott's little Slime from Dragon Quest tee in the last volume."
Congratulations, all! Thanks to everyone who participated, and to i am 8-bit / Universal for making this giveaway possible!
As those of you who jumped at the chance to win those goodies will recall, we simply asked readers to comment about their favorite video game allusions (real or even made up) from the Scott Pilgrim comics, film, or PSN/XBLA video game to enter the contest. It was pretty easy stuff, so we got a ton of entries!
Anyway, let's get to what you came here for -- our five randomly picked winners:Pseudonym: "I'm rather fond of the bit in the comic where a save point shows up and Scott panics about saving before the next cut scene happens."Jason C: "My favorite reference was when Scott did a Shoryuken and super canceled into Shippu-Jinrai-Kyaku."Grim Sanro: "Parappa reference book 3... Because in the end don't well gotta believe?"Tyson: "My favourite reference appears in a lot of games (and is a bit more thematic than concrete) but reminds me first of FFII (IV): 'Scott earned the power of self-respect.' This part of Scott's growth is very reminiscent of Cecil Harvey. He fights for Baron without a will of his own. As he says, '[He's] just a Dark Knight with no courage to disobey his majesty.' Scott Pilgrim likewise doesn't do what's right at first (he cheats on Knives and Ramona) and it takes him time to come around. But when he does, he gains awesome powers, just as Cecil becomes a Paladin. Of course, Scott doesn't revert to level 1, so more power to him!"Dave Illustrious Shevlin: "My favorite part is Scott's little Slime from Dragon Quest tee in the last volume."
Congratulations, all! Thanks to everyone who participated, and to i am 8-bit / Universal for making this giveaway possible!
Friday, 27 August 2010
Irem?s Landmark Arcade Shoot-?Em-Up R-Type Arrives on iPhone
It’s a great day for shooters in the App Store, with Cave’s modern-day shoot-’em-up Dodonpachi Resurrection now joined by one of the genre’s best-remembered hits from the 1980s. R-Type ($1.99) is a port of Irem’s 1987 horizontally scrolling shooter, adapted by Golvellius developer DotEmu and published by Electronic Arts. R-Type set high standards for the [...]
APB Counts 130,000 Users, 'Healthy' Player Spend
As Realtime Worlds enters administration following a lukewarm reception of its online crimeworld title All Points Bulletin, the firm handling the Dundee-based studio's possible sale is speaking up on precisely how the title's been performing -- the numbers have been "healthy", according to a statement.
Since its launch -- June 29, July 1 and July 2 in the U.S., Europe and UK respectively -- APB has gathered some 130,000 registered players, and the average person plays 4 hours a day. Realtime Worlds is seeking a buyer, hoping that any company that purchases the studio will see the value in keeping the project running.
In the wake of the studio's closure, many have speculated it was APB's somewhat controversial business model that led Realtime Worlds into choppy waters.
Players pay $50 (�34.99, ?49.99) for a store-bought or digital download copy of of the game that comes with 50 hours' playtime in the game's "action" districts (the game's social and customization areas are unlimited). When that expires players can purchase additional time bundles, and players can also buy and trade items on APB's user marketplace.
But according to an official statement, the average paying APB player pays $28 per month between time buys and microtransactions in the marketplace, although the studio didn't specify what portion of its 130,000-person playerbase is spending money.
"These are healthy numbers and reflect positively on APB as a ongoing concern," says Paul Dounis of Begbies Traynor, the restructuring firm appointed to handle the administration and possible sale of Realtime Worlds. "They prove this is a very enjoyable game..."
Since its launch -- June 29, July 1 and July 2 in the U.S., Europe and UK respectively -- APB has gathered some 130,000 registered players, and the average person plays 4 hours a day. Realtime Worlds is seeking a buyer, hoping that any company that purchases the studio will see the value in keeping the project running.
In the wake of the studio's closure, many have speculated it was APB's somewhat controversial business model that led Realtime Worlds into choppy waters.
Players pay $50 (�34.99, ?49.99) for a store-bought or digital download copy of of the game that comes with 50 hours' playtime in the game's "action" districts (the game's social and customization areas are unlimited). When that expires players can purchase additional time bundles, and players can also buy and trade items on APB's user marketplace.
But according to an official statement, the average paying APB player pays $28 per month between time buys and microtransactions in the marketplace, although the studio didn't specify what portion of its 130,000-person playerbase is spending money.
"These are healthy numbers and reflect positively on APB as a ongoing concern," says Paul Dounis of Begbies Traynor, the restructuring firm appointed to handle the administration and possible sale of Realtime Worlds. "They prove this is a very enjoyable game..."
LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS LAWSON SOFTWARE LAND SOFTWARE LAM RESEARCH
Epic Games Releases August 2010 Unreal Development Kit Beta
Epic Games, Inc. has released the August 2010 UDK Beta, the latest version of the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), the free edition of Unreal Engine 3 that provides uncompromised access to the award-winning toolset used in blockbuster video games, 3D visualizations, digital films and more.
Epic is committed to providing the UDK community with regular software releases at no charge, and the latest beta is available now at http://www.udk.com/download.
Are you creating something great with UDK? Drop us a line in the Project Show-Off forums, where links to tech demos, gameplay videos and screenshots are always welcome.
You can see many of the top UDK games and applications at http://www.udk.com/showcase. This month we would like to congratulate Teotl Studios on their upcoming commercial release for The Ball.
It?s easy to sign up as a commercial UDK developer online. Our FAQ can help you determine which type of license is right for you.
This month?s beta release includes many upgrades, such as:
* Scaleform pipeline improvements
* Improved motion blur
* New detail lighting view mode
* Recompile materials directly from Content Browser right-click menu
* New character indirect lighting controls
* Better hair lighting
Plus, new documentation like the Scaleform workflow, introduction to FaceFX and camera technical guide will be helpful to those getting started with UDK.
Here?s the full list of improvements in detail:
Scaleform GFx
* Scaleform GFx 3.3.85 is now merged in and all UDK UI is GFx-based.
* Made many improvements and fixes to the Scaleform import pipeline.
Point Light Shadows
* Whole scene shadows for point lights are now supported.
Precomputed Visibility
* Precomputed visibility allows occlusion on platforms that don't support hardware occlusion queries.
Motion Blur
* The quality of Motion Blur has been significantly improved without a performance loss.
New Detail Lighting View Mode
* Replaces diffuse and specular color but keeps all other material parameters like normal map, opacity mask, two sidedness, etc.
* Useful for viewing lighting without material diffuse color influence.
* Lighting-only view mode is still useful for looking at lightmap artifacts and compression.
Character Indirect Lighting
* Added new controls for fine-tuning runtime indirect lighting settings on characters.
* Added distinct controls for both lit and shadowed environments.
Hair Lighting
* Implemented a new, single-pass technique for translucency lighting.
* Previous technique relied on multiple passes, which over-brightens on multilayered objects, such as hair.
* The single-pass technique uses about half the number of shader instructions as multipass lighting, so hair will be much cheaper.
Normal Maps, Indirect Lighting & Lightmaps
* Normal maps are now taken into account for indirect lighting with simple lightmaps.
Other New Stuff
* Can now recompile materials directly from the right-click menu in Content Browser.
* New texture streaming system saves memory and prioritizes textures more effectively.
* Added limited support for importing non-power-of-two (NPOT) textures into the editor. MIP maps are not allowed, and image dimensions must be divisible by four for DXT compression.
* Vertex normals are now correctly saved with static meshes exported as OBJ files.
* Terrain export now supports holes.
* New ContentComparison commandlet helps optimize content.
* Lightmass static shadows now have texture space filtering on by default, which smoothes out aliasing.
* Material editor Undo and Redo are now much faster.
* Added multiple camera offset support for particle modules and camera offset support for mesh emitters.
* Spawn at bone/socket now allows rotating mesh particles to the orientation of the bone/socket.
New Documentation
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CameraTechnicalGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ScaleformWorkflow.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/EditorConsoleCommands.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentAuditCommandlet.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PrecomputedVisibility.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/RadialBlur.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MovieTexture.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/IntroductionToFaceFX.html
Updated Documentation
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentBlog.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitBuildUpgradeNotes.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitGettingStarted.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitProgramming.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitContentCreation.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKProgrammingHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKContentCreationHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKLevelCreationHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKCommunityLinks.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKCustomCharacters.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Scaleform.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ScaleformImport.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CreatingCinematics.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UnrealEdUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CascadeUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/AnimSetEditorUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/StaticMeshEditorUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TaskBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TextureStatsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ReferencedAssetsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/AttachmentsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GroupsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/SceneManagerReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/LevelBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ActorsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/FractureTool.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/SettingUpTerrain.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ModularEnvironmentCreation.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MeshPipeline.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ColorPicker.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ColorGrading.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/VisualizeTexture.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TranslucentHairSorting.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Lightmass.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MotionBlur.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/VisibilityCulling.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PhysicalMaterial.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MaterialsCompendium.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MaterialsTutorial.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/NavigationMeshTechnicalGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PostProcessTechnicalGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UnrealScriptReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/StringsInUnrealScript.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CompilingNativeClasses.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CommandletList.html
Community Links
UDK Forums: http://www.udk.com/forums
UDK Developers on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2493123
UDK on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/UDK/183744733429
Epic Games on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/EpicGames
Epic is committed to providing the UDK community with regular software releases at no charge, and the latest beta is available now at http://www.udk.com/download.
Are you creating something great with UDK? Drop us a line in the Project Show-Off forums, where links to tech demos, gameplay videos and screenshots are always welcome.
You can see many of the top UDK games and applications at http://www.udk.com/showcase. This month we would like to congratulate Teotl Studios on their upcoming commercial release for The Ball.
It?s easy to sign up as a commercial UDK developer online. Our FAQ can help you determine which type of license is right for you.
This month?s beta release includes many upgrades, such as:
* Scaleform pipeline improvements
* Improved motion blur
* New detail lighting view mode
* Recompile materials directly from Content Browser right-click menu
* New character indirect lighting controls
* Better hair lighting
Plus, new documentation like the Scaleform workflow, introduction to FaceFX and camera technical guide will be helpful to those getting started with UDK.
Here?s the full list of improvements in detail:
Scaleform GFx
* Scaleform GFx 3.3.85 is now merged in and all UDK UI is GFx-based.
* Made many improvements and fixes to the Scaleform import pipeline.
Point Light Shadows
* Whole scene shadows for point lights are now supported.
Precomputed Visibility
* Precomputed visibility allows occlusion on platforms that don't support hardware occlusion queries.
Motion Blur
* The quality of Motion Blur has been significantly improved without a performance loss.
New Detail Lighting View Mode
* Replaces diffuse and specular color but keeps all other material parameters like normal map, opacity mask, two sidedness, etc.
* Useful for viewing lighting without material diffuse color influence.
* Lighting-only view mode is still useful for looking at lightmap artifacts and compression.
Character Indirect Lighting
* Added new controls for fine-tuning runtime indirect lighting settings on characters.
* Added distinct controls for both lit and shadowed environments.
Hair Lighting
* Implemented a new, single-pass technique for translucency lighting.
* Previous technique relied on multiple passes, which over-brightens on multilayered objects, such as hair.
* The single-pass technique uses about half the number of shader instructions as multipass lighting, so hair will be much cheaper.
Normal Maps, Indirect Lighting & Lightmaps
* Normal maps are now taken into account for indirect lighting with simple lightmaps.
Other New Stuff
* Can now recompile materials directly from the right-click menu in Content Browser.
* New texture streaming system saves memory and prioritizes textures more effectively.
* Added limited support for importing non-power-of-two (NPOT) textures into the editor. MIP maps are not allowed, and image dimensions must be divisible by four for DXT compression.
* Vertex normals are now correctly saved with static meshes exported as OBJ files.
* Terrain export now supports holes.
* New ContentComparison commandlet helps optimize content.
* Lightmass static shadows now have texture space filtering on by default, which smoothes out aliasing.
* Material editor Undo and Redo are now much faster.
* Added multiple camera offset support for particle modules and camera offset support for mesh emitters.
* Spawn at bone/socket now allows rotating mesh particles to the orientation of the bone/socket.
New Documentation
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CameraTechnicalGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ScaleformWorkflow.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/EditorConsoleCommands.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentAuditCommandlet.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PrecomputedVisibility.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/RadialBlur.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MovieTexture.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/IntroductionToFaceFX.html
Updated Documentation
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentBlog.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitBuildUpgradeNotes.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitGettingStarted.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitProgramming.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitContentCreation.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKProgrammingHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKContentCreationHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKLevelCreationHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKCommunityLinks.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKCustomCharacters.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Scaleform.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ScaleformImport.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CreatingCinematics.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UnrealEdUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CascadeUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/AnimSetEditorUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/StaticMeshEditorUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TaskBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TextureStatsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ReferencedAssetsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/AttachmentsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GroupsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/SceneManagerReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/LevelBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ActorsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/FractureTool.html
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It's official: Nintendo has sold a whole lotta Wiis
It seems Americans are playing a whole lot of "Wii Bowling." Nintendo has announced that they've sold 30 million Wiis in the United States alone.
Nintendo - Wii - United States - Video game - Games
Nintendo - Wii - United States - Video game - Games
Opinion: Fun Is Important, But So Is Your Business Model
["If a game is built around a business model, that?s a recipe for failure," Realtime Worlds co-founder Dave Jones said in 2009. But with online games that utilize untested price schemes, should building fun really come before establishing a business model? Kris Graft of Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra investigates...]
When reading a recent analysis on Gamesbrief about the collapse of APB and Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds, one quote from studio creative director and industry veteran Dave Jones stood out:
"If a game is built around a business model, that?s a recipe for failure." -- Jones at GameHorizon 2009
There's a part of me that admires that mentality -- in a time where the game industry is becoming increasingly focused on blockbuster hits and monetization of Facebook users, it's kind of nice to hear someone say that if you focus primarily on making money, you will fail.
The implication is if the fun is there, everything will just work out, and it makes sense that the guy that created Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings would say such a thing. Those games became successful and memorable because they were, above all else, fun.
He told me as much in a meeting at E3 in June this year, which turned out to be just two months before Realtime entered administration. I asked if he had any overarching philosophy about game creation, and between sips of coffee the confident, affable red-haired designer answered, "I have very simple goals, and that is just make a game as much fun as possible. So that was our goal with APB."Now let's just admit here first that APB didn't quite nail that goal, according to game reviewers, anyway (I did spend a very limited amount of time with the game -- mainly morphing my custom character into a twisted abomination). So even with a better focus on a business model, APB may not have been all that successful at launch. Also, I should note that judging by comments Jones made to me personally, I don't think that Realtime just blew off consideration of a business model and a month before release said "Hey, let's charge people this way!"
Anyway, Realtime's APB business model is a somewhat controversial hybrid of free-to-play, monthly subscriptions and hours-based paid subscriptions. There's also a user-to-user marketplace for player-created items. Realtime tried to convince gamers the scheme was "flexible," but when some gamers saw that APB was more like a tactical online shooter than a typical MMO, they were critical about the subscription model in any form.
Money As An Afterthought
While I think that Realtime had some solid reasoning behind its pricing scheme, it appears that instead of building game around or atop that business model, Realtime tried to shoehorn a business model into a design (a move that might have been necessary when examining mid-development how the studio would pay back investors). With online games that utilize emerging, untested business models, is this really a wise decision?
Even without picking apart the mistakes of Realtime, which essentially burned through $100 million of VC funding and whatever Crackdown earned over the course of a few years, you can pretty easily argue that some of the best, most successful and fun games take their business models into careful consideration in a game's early stages. How a game will money -- especially one with a recurring fee -- shouldn't be an afterthought if you're making games as a business.
We can go as far back as arcade games in their heyday to see how a business model and "fun" can fit together. In games like Donkey Kong you get three lives, or with Street Fighter you're allotted two losses per match before you have to insert more coins. Did the game designers arbitrarily choose to implement those parameters?
No, they knew the platform they were building on, and that platform was an arcade machine that made money by requiring the user to put in more coins to beat the challenge provided by a very fun game. The designers of these games had a business model in mind; maybe not at the forefront, but it was implemented within the creative process and certainly was part of core design decisions.
Online game models are a different beast and are a bit more complicated than pumping quarters. But again, for the most successful games out there, it's pretty clear that the designers, as much as they focus on a game's fun, have the platform or method of delivery in mind at an early stage. Look at World of Warcraft -- you don't think that the game's designers knew from the start that they had to keep players coming back month after month to pay the subscription fee, designing the quest and leveling system, the expansions, the guild system, the frequency of updates, etc.? Ever hear of the term "sticky"?
But tying a business model to an MMO is not just about getting gamers to pay monthly subscriptions. I spoke with Guild Wars studio ArenaNet about their online franchise in 2007, and from the beginning, the developer didn't want to charge monthly subscriptions, rather aiming to release frequent standalone expansions.
"By adopting the business model we have, not only do we think it will make it very easy for people to get into the game and try it out? but it also allows us as designers and developers to just focus on mechanics that are fun and we don?t always have to have the thought in the back of our mind about whether or not something is 'sticky' enough," said co-founder Jeff Strain at the time. Again, the business model was there right at the beginning, and the developers made successful design decisions to accomodate that.
Also, I think that today's expanding online Asian companies that have seen huge success with their microtransaction-based games would absolutely disagree with the sentiment that a base focus on a business model spells doom. Even smaller developers who release games exclusively on Xbox Live, PlayStation Network or the Wii Shop need to consider that most games on those services sell for $10-$15, and a game needs to be designed according to the expectations established by that price range and distribution method.
And as much as some people like to make social game companies out to be villains for their sometimes overzealous approach of business-over-design, maybe packaged game companies can take a couple cues from these money hoarders before jumping headlong into the online market.
APB's "Real Killer"?
Now it might seem like I'm singling out Realtime and its management, as I look back on the unfortunate disaster from my armchair with 20-20 hindsight (actually that is exactly what I'm doing). To his credit, when I spoke with Jones earlier this year at E3, he in fact did express some business foresight, and did not seem to blow off the importance of a business model when designing a game.
At the time, a spokesperson for Realtime even told me that the game's designers were "heavily involved" in coming up with a business model in the game's "pretty early stages." Jones said that Realtime decided to go with the game's controversial flexible pay model a little over a year before the game's release (a decision that really might have been later in the game than it should have been).
But a credible-sounding post on PC-focused Rock Paper Shotgun had a purported former staffer on Realtime's other project, MyWorld, state that the model was ultimately "out of the team?s hands" and in the poster's opinion, "the real killer" of APB.
"You can?t simply charge what you feel like earning and hope the paying public will agree with your judgment of value," said the poster. "Many of us within RTW were extremely nervous at APB?s prospects long before launch, and with good reason, as it turns out."
Really, even for a great game, the business model for APB would still be a difficult sell. Even the traditional buy-the-box-pay-the-subs model that so many MMOs use isn't all that appealing to many gamers, hence companies' move to low-barrier free-to-play models.
On Tuesday, Realtime administrators Begbies Traynor, which is assisting in selling off the studio's assets, revealed that APB may not have been a complete failure. The game reportedly has 130,000 registered players, with the average player playing four hours a day and the average paying player spending $28 per month between game time and user-to-user marketplace trading. Joint administrator Paul Dounis said the figures "prove this is a very enjoyable game." So maybe APB in its current form could eventually become a viable business under the right guidance. Maybe.
I'm not arguing that game designers should be sitting around deciding what business model to use, I'm just saying that building a game around a business model isn't necessarily a recipe for disaster, and in fact there are games out there that show otherwise. Maybe the creative minds in a game maker can view a business model as a constraint, a scenario that can often bring out one's best work.
Building a game on top of a business model is where a huge chunk of the industry is going, and the practice of slapping a price tag on a box is slowly but surely going away. If you're still resistant to that sea change, at least make sure you're not making games with $100 million of someone else's money and if you are, be absolutely, positively certain that the final product is in fact fun.
[Thanks to industry consultant and Gamasutra expert blogger Nicholas Lovell of Gamesbrief for his Realtime post-mortem and his declaration of "Bullshit" that inspired this editorial.]
When reading a recent analysis on Gamesbrief about the collapse of APB and Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds, one quote from studio creative director and industry veteran Dave Jones stood out:
"If a game is built around a business model, that?s a recipe for failure." -- Jones at GameHorizon 2009
There's a part of me that admires that mentality -- in a time where the game industry is becoming increasingly focused on blockbuster hits and monetization of Facebook users, it's kind of nice to hear someone say that if you focus primarily on making money, you will fail.
The implication is if the fun is there, everything will just work out, and it makes sense that the guy that created Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings would say such a thing. Those games became successful and memorable because they were, above all else, fun.
He told me as much in a meeting at E3 in June this year, which turned out to be just two months before Realtime entered administration. I asked if he had any overarching philosophy about game creation, and between sips of coffee the confident, affable red-haired designer answered, "I have very simple goals, and that is just make a game as much fun as possible. So that was our goal with APB."Now let's just admit here first that APB didn't quite nail that goal, according to game reviewers, anyway (I did spend a very limited amount of time with the game -- mainly morphing my custom character into a twisted abomination). So even with a better focus on a business model, APB may not have been all that successful at launch. Also, I should note that judging by comments Jones made to me personally, I don't think that Realtime just blew off consideration of a business model and a month before release said "Hey, let's charge people this way!"
Anyway, Realtime's APB business model is a somewhat controversial hybrid of free-to-play, monthly subscriptions and hours-based paid subscriptions. There's also a user-to-user marketplace for player-created items. Realtime tried to convince gamers the scheme was "flexible," but when some gamers saw that APB was more like a tactical online shooter than a typical MMO, they were critical about the subscription model in any form.
Money As An Afterthought
While I think that Realtime had some solid reasoning behind its pricing scheme, it appears that instead of building game around or atop that business model, Realtime tried to shoehorn a business model into a design (a move that might have been necessary when examining mid-development how the studio would pay back investors). With online games that utilize emerging, untested business models, is this really a wise decision?
Even without picking apart the mistakes of Realtime, which essentially burned through $100 million of VC funding and whatever Crackdown earned over the course of a few years, you can pretty easily argue that some of the best, most successful and fun games take their business models into careful consideration in a game's early stages. How a game will money -- especially one with a recurring fee -- shouldn't be an afterthought if you're making games as a business.
We can go as far back as arcade games in their heyday to see how a business model and "fun" can fit together. In games like Donkey Kong you get three lives, or with Street Fighter you're allotted two losses per match before you have to insert more coins. Did the game designers arbitrarily choose to implement those parameters?
No, they knew the platform they were building on, and that platform was an arcade machine that made money by requiring the user to put in more coins to beat the challenge provided by a very fun game. The designers of these games had a business model in mind; maybe not at the forefront, but it was implemented within the creative process and certainly was part of core design decisions.
Online game models are a different beast and are a bit more complicated than pumping quarters. But again, for the most successful games out there, it's pretty clear that the designers, as much as they focus on a game's fun, have the platform or method of delivery in mind at an early stage. Look at World of Warcraft -- you don't think that the game's designers knew from the start that they had to keep players coming back month after month to pay the subscription fee, designing the quest and leveling system, the expansions, the guild system, the frequency of updates, etc.? Ever hear of the term "sticky"?
But tying a business model to an MMO is not just about getting gamers to pay monthly subscriptions. I spoke with Guild Wars studio ArenaNet about their online franchise in 2007, and from the beginning, the developer didn't want to charge monthly subscriptions, rather aiming to release frequent standalone expansions.
"By adopting the business model we have, not only do we think it will make it very easy for people to get into the game and try it out? but it also allows us as designers and developers to just focus on mechanics that are fun and we don?t always have to have the thought in the back of our mind about whether or not something is 'sticky' enough," said co-founder Jeff Strain at the time. Again, the business model was there right at the beginning, and the developers made successful design decisions to accomodate that.
Also, I think that today's expanding online Asian companies that have seen huge success with their microtransaction-based games would absolutely disagree with the sentiment that a base focus on a business model spells doom. Even smaller developers who release games exclusively on Xbox Live, PlayStation Network or the Wii Shop need to consider that most games on those services sell for $10-$15, and a game needs to be designed according to the expectations established by that price range and distribution method.
And as much as some people like to make social game companies out to be villains for their sometimes overzealous approach of business-over-design, maybe packaged game companies can take a couple cues from these money hoarders before jumping headlong into the online market.
APB's "Real Killer"?
Now it might seem like I'm singling out Realtime and its management, as I look back on the unfortunate disaster from my armchair with 20-20 hindsight (actually that is exactly what I'm doing). To his credit, when I spoke with Jones earlier this year at E3, he in fact did express some business foresight, and did not seem to blow off the importance of a business model when designing a game.
At the time, a spokesperson for Realtime even told me that the game's designers were "heavily involved" in coming up with a business model in the game's "pretty early stages." Jones said that Realtime decided to go with the game's controversial flexible pay model a little over a year before the game's release (a decision that really might have been later in the game than it should have been).
But a credible-sounding post on PC-focused Rock Paper Shotgun had a purported former staffer on Realtime's other project, MyWorld, state that the model was ultimately "out of the team?s hands" and in the poster's opinion, "the real killer" of APB.
"You can?t simply charge what you feel like earning and hope the paying public will agree with your judgment of value," said the poster. "Many of us within RTW were extremely nervous at APB?s prospects long before launch, and with good reason, as it turns out."
Really, even for a great game, the business model for APB would still be a difficult sell. Even the traditional buy-the-box-pay-the-subs model that so many MMOs use isn't all that appealing to many gamers, hence companies' move to low-barrier free-to-play models.
On Tuesday, Realtime administrators Begbies Traynor, which is assisting in selling off the studio's assets, revealed that APB may not have been a complete failure. The game reportedly has 130,000 registered players, with the average player playing four hours a day and the average paying player spending $28 per month between game time and user-to-user marketplace trading. Joint administrator Paul Dounis said the figures "prove this is a very enjoyable game." So maybe APB in its current form could eventually become a viable business under the right guidance. Maybe.
I'm not arguing that game designers should be sitting around deciding what business model to use, I'm just saying that building a game around a business model isn't necessarily a recipe for disaster, and in fact there are games out there that show otherwise. Maybe the creative minds in a game maker can view a business model as a constraint, a scenario that can often bring out one's best work.
Building a game on top of a business model is where a huge chunk of the industry is going, and the practice of slapping a price tag on a box is slowly but surely going away. If you're still resistant to that sea change, at least make sure you're not making games with $100 million of someone else's money and if you are, be absolutely, positively certain that the final product is in fact fun.
[Thanks to industry consultant and Gamasutra expert blogger Nicholas Lovell of Gamesbrief for his Realtime post-mortem and his declaration of "Bullshit" that inspired this editorial.]
UNISYS TRIQUINT SEMICONDUCTOR TRIMBLE NAVIGATION LIMITED TRIDENT MICROSYSTEMS
Video: 'BioShock Infinite' takes off
2k Games announced today that ?BioShock Infinite? �is in production.� A first person shooter set in 1912 by they same team that brought you the original "Bioshock" in 2007.� Msnbc.com's Todd Kenreck reports.�(msnbc.com)
BioShock - 2K Games - First-person shooter - Irrational Games - Games
BioShock - 2K Games - First-person shooter - Irrational Games - Games
Thursday, 26 August 2010
Submachine 32 Chambers
Click to play the game Submachine 32 Chambers now. We offer the best free games and add 10 new games every day of the week.
I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES Expands To Rock Band And... Hot Topic?
The Xbox Live Indie phenomenon I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES is over a year old now -- and Ska Studios have revealed that the game has sold over 308,000 copies -- but they're not stopping there.
The popular I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1NIT!!!1 song is now available on the Rock Band Network. Ska Studios have also, of all things, got together with Hot Topic for a new T-Shirt, seen here.
The shirt will appear in September -- I wonder if they'll work together on the other upcoming Ska Studios products too?
The popular I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1NIT!!!1 song is now available on the Rock Band Network. Ska Studios have also, of all things, got together with Hot Topic for a new T-Shirt, seen here.
The shirt will appear in September -- I wonder if they'll work together on the other upcoming Ska Studios products too?
AT&T Offering In-Store Rewards For Scvngr Players
Scvngr, a location-based social game for smartphones, has partnered with AT&T to offer rewards and at dozens of the phone company's stores across Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.
Available as a free app to iPhone and Android smartphone owners, Scvngr is similar to other location-based titles that with game elements, such as Foursquare, Gowalla, and Booyah. Players can earn points, unlock real-world rewards, and share their activities with friends by visiting different places and completing challenges.
With this new promotion, Scvngr players can check-in at participating AT&T stores, complete a virtua "Bizz Bizz Buzz Challenge" on the app, and win points that they can exchange for ringtone gift cards, a 20 percent discount on accessories, and a $50 coupon off AT&T's new smartphone, the Samsung Captivate.
AT&T says this campaign is part of its continued effort to "invest heavily in mobile network upgrades and roll out industry-leading mobile capabilities" to its customers. The company adds that allowing consumers to interact with products through Scvngr enables AT&T to engage and reward those customers in new ways.
"It's awesome to have AT&T join in on the fun by building challenges and rewards on Scvngr," said Scvngr head Seth Priebatsch. "We want everyone to build a game layer on top of the world with us -- at every place with fun things to do at those places. Check-in, do challenges, earn points and unlock awesome rewards -- it's social, easy, fun and, especially at AT&T stores, rewarding!"
Available as a free app to iPhone and Android smartphone owners, Scvngr is similar to other location-based titles that with game elements, such as Foursquare, Gowalla, and Booyah. Players can earn points, unlock real-world rewards, and share their activities with friends by visiting different places and completing challenges.
With this new promotion, Scvngr players can check-in at participating AT&T stores, complete a virtua "Bizz Bizz Buzz Challenge" on the app, and win points that they can exchange for ringtone gift cards, a 20 percent discount on accessories, and a $50 coupon off AT&T's new smartphone, the Samsung Captivate.
AT&T says this campaign is part of its continued effort to "invest heavily in mobile network upgrades and roll out industry-leading mobile capabilities" to its customers. The company adds that allowing consumers to interact with products through Scvngr enables AT&T to engage and reward those customers in new ways.
"It's awesome to have AT&T join in on the fun by building challenges and rewards on Scvngr," said Scvngr head Seth Priebatsch. "We want everyone to build a game layer on top of the world with us -- at every place with fun things to do at those places. Check-in, do challenges, earn points and unlock awesome rewards -- it's social, easy, fun and, especially at AT&T stores, rewarding!"
VOLT INFORMATION SCIENCES VISHAY INTERTECHNOLOGY VIRGIN MEDIA VIEWSONIC
NPD: One In Five Americans Has Played Social Games
Around 20 percent of the U.S. population aged 6 and up, or some 56.8 million Americans, has played a game on a social network, according to a new report from market research firm The NPD Group.
The company's "Social Network Gaming" report notes 35 percent of that segment is new to games, and had not played any traditional PC, home console, handheld or other types of video games before trying out social titles.
While the study shows that female and older respondents are more likely to be new gamers compared to other groups, it also found that the gender breakup of social network gamers is "fairly evenly divided" with 47 percent male and 53 percent female.
The firm adds that 10 percent of social gaming respondents have spent real money on microtransactions for those free-to-play titles, and 11 percent say they will likely buy virtual goods and currency in the future.
Those purchases affect their spending habits for other gaming activities, too, as traditional gamers say they spend 20 percent less on gaming overall since they started playing social network titles.
"Although 35 percent of social network gamers are new to gaming, it's clear that a lot of existing gamers have been drawn into the social network gaming arena as well," says NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier.
She continues, "This impacts both the time they spend with other types of gaming, as well as the amount of money they?re spending on gaming. As more players are drawn into these games, the entire games industry is going to feel, and have to adjust to, the impact."
The company's "Social Network Gaming" report notes 35 percent of that segment is new to games, and had not played any traditional PC, home console, handheld or other types of video games before trying out social titles.
While the study shows that female and older respondents are more likely to be new gamers compared to other groups, it also found that the gender breakup of social network gamers is "fairly evenly divided" with 47 percent male and 53 percent female.
The firm adds that 10 percent of social gaming respondents have spent real money on microtransactions for those free-to-play titles, and 11 percent say they will likely buy virtual goods and currency in the future.
Those purchases affect their spending habits for other gaming activities, too, as traditional gamers say they spend 20 percent less on gaming overall since they started playing social network titles.
"Although 35 percent of social network gamers are new to gaming, it's clear that a lot of existing gamers have been drawn into the social network gaming arena as well," says NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier.
She continues, "This impacts both the time they spend with other types of gaming, as well as the amount of money they?re spending on gaming. As more players are drawn into these games, the entire games industry is going to feel, and have to adjust to, the impact."
VOLT INFORMATION SCIENCES VISHAY INTERTECHNOLOGY VIRGIN MEDIA VIEWSONIC
Reminder: GDC 2011 Lecture Submissions Open Until August 25th
Game Developers Conference 2011 organizers are reminding that submissions for next February's historical 25th annual show are still being accepted through August 25th.
The call for submissions to present lectures, roundtables and panel sessions for the 2011 Game Developers Conference -- the historic 25th anniversary show -- is now open through Wednesday, August 25th at the official GDC website.
The main GDC advisory board is looking for submissions in the following game-related areas and tracks: Audio, Business and Management, Game Design, Production, Programming and Visual Arts, to be showcased on the prestigious Wednesday to Friday main conference of Game Developers Conference 2011.
(Submissions for the GDC Summits, including Social & Online, Independent, Serious Games Summits and a number of others will open in the next 30-60 days, and interested parties can submit adapted versions to both Main Conference and Summits.)
A talk abstract is required alongside a more detailed description and speaker information, and the GDC Call For Papers page has multiple annotated examples of previous submissions, giving detailed, precise instructions on speaker criteria and the selection process.
Alongside this year's call for submissions, the GDC 2011 advisory board has been expanded, adding several leading industry figures in the social and independent gaming spaces, part of the team that reviews all GDC written submissions.
In particular, new board members include Media Molecule studio director Siobhan Reddy (LittleBigPlanet 2), EA2D designer/programmer Soren Johnson (Civilization IV, Spore), independent developer Adam Saltsman (Canabalt, Flixel), and Playfish San Francisco GM Dan Fiden. Also added for their art and audio expertise respectively are Undead Labs' Steve Theodore and Microsoft's Scott Selfon.
More information about the Game Developers Conference 2011, will take place in San Francisco's Moscone Center on February 28 to March 4, is available at the official website.
The call for submissions to present lectures, roundtables and panel sessions for the 2011 Game Developers Conference -- the historic 25th anniversary show -- is now open through Wednesday, August 25th at the official GDC website.
The main GDC advisory board is looking for submissions in the following game-related areas and tracks: Audio, Business and Management, Game Design, Production, Programming and Visual Arts, to be showcased on the prestigious Wednesday to Friday main conference of Game Developers Conference 2011.
(Submissions for the GDC Summits, including Social & Online, Independent, Serious Games Summits and a number of others will open in the next 30-60 days, and interested parties can submit adapted versions to both Main Conference and Summits.)
A talk abstract is required alongside a more detailed description and speaker information, and the GDC Call For Papers page has multiple annotated examples of previous submissions, giving detailed, precise instructions on speaker criteria and the selection process.
Alongside this year's call for submissions, the GDC 2011 advisory board has been expanded, adding several leading industry figures in the social and independent gaming spaces, part of the team that reviews all GDC written submissions.
In particular, new board members include Media Molecule studio director Siobhan Reddy (LittleBigPlanet 2), EA2D designer/programmer Soren Johnson (Civilization IV, Spore), independent developer Adam Saltsman (Canabalt, Flixel), and Playfish San Francisco GM Dan Fiden. Also added for their art and audio expertise respectively are Undead Labs' Steve Theodore and Microsoft's Scott Selfon.
More information about the Game Developers Conference 2011, will take place in San Francisco's Moscone Center on February 28 to March 4, is available at the official website.
Helicopter game lets iPhone, iPad join forces�
The superb 'Chopper 2' has landed in the App Store and it's just the kind of iPad game I've been waiting for.
iPhone - appstore - IPad - Handhelds - Smartphones
iPhone - appstore - IPad - Handhelds - Smartphones
INTERNATIONAL RECTIFIER INTERNATIONAL GAME TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES (IBM) INTERDIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Round-Up: Gamasutra Network Jobs, Week Of August 20
In an exciting week for new job postings, Gamasutra's jobs board plays host to roles across the world and in every major discipline, including opportunities at Freeverse, SCEA Santa Monica and many more.
RESEARCH IN MOTION ROGERS COMMUNICATIONS SAIC SATYAM COMPUTER SERVICES
Browser Game Pick: Up Down Ready (Sword Lady & The Viking)
Up Down Ready took home the 'Best Design in a Game' award at the recent Freeplay Awards, so it's great to see it finally pop up online. You're given a series of random tasks to complete, which must be won simply using the up and down keys.
Levels start off pretty tame, and eventually border on insanity. There's definitely some which are more fun than others, but all in all it's a lovely little thing. I'm not going to spoil it for you - just go and give it a try. (Source: Rock Paper Shotgun)
Levels start off pretty tame, and eventually border on insanity. There's definitely some which are more fun than others, but all in all it's a lovely little thing. I'm not going to spoil it for you - just go and give it a try. (Source: Rock Paper Shotgun)
L-1 IDENTITY SOLUTIONS KINGSTON TECHNOLOGY COMPANY KEY JDS UNIPHASE
GDC Online Announces Keynote From FrontierVille's Reynolds
GDC Online organizers have confirmed industry veteran and Zynga chief game designer Brian Reynolds will discuss smash hit title FrontierVille and the future of social game design in a keynote at October's show in Austin.
'Play as Taliban' angle controversial in 'Medal of Honor'
Some critics say in the game "Medal of Honor," it's "disrespectful" to allow players to play as the enemy ? in this case, the Taliban ?and shoot back.
Medal of Honor - Taliban - Video game - Game - Electronic Arts
Medal of Honor - Taliban - Video game - Game - Electronic Arts
XILINX WESTERN DIGITAL VOLT INFORMATION SCIENCES VISHAY INTERTECHNOLOGY
NA PSN Store Update - Top Gun And More
Doublesix's downloadable flight action game based on the Top Gun license is now available for $14.99. Doublesix are the fellows behind Burn Zombie Burn and South Park Tower Defense Play, and while those titles were a lot simpler than this, it looks like they pulled it off pretty well -- at least, based on the trailer.
One new minis this week -- Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter ($3.99) and one new piece of DLC -- a new "Jolly" character for PAIN ($0.99)
And if you haven't grabbed Joe Danger just yet, you can grab a demo of it now!
One new minis this week -- Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter ($3.99) and one new piece of DLC -- a new "Jolly" character for PAIN ($0.99)
And if you haven't grabbed Joe Danger just yet, you can grab a demo of it now!
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Superstars V8 Racing Comes To The US Via PSN
Back in June 2009 Italian developer Milestone released Superstars V8 Racing into the European marketplace as a retail title. Seemed to rate okay, but they had difficulty finding a publisher.
Now the smaller publisher Oxygen Games have stepped up to the plate, revealing they will release the racer exclusively to the PlayStation Network in the US, and for $19.99.
If you're in America and as interested in V8 Supercars as much as Australia and Britain are, give this a go in October.
Now the smaller publisher Oxygen Games have stepped up to the plate, revealing they will release the racer exclusively to the PlayStation Network in the US, and for $19.99.
If you're in America and as interested in V8 Supercars as much as Australia and Britain are, give this a go in October.
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
Top-Grossing Game Apps: Monster Dash Rivals Madden, Angry Birds
In this weekly feature, FingerGaming rounds up the top-grossing iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad applications, as current that day on the iTunes App Store. This week’s top iPhone titles are: Angry Birds ($0.99) Madden NFL 11 ($7.99) Monster Dash ($0.99) The Oregon Trail ($0.99) Bejeweled 2 + Blitz ($2.99) City Story (Free) Tetris ($2.99) Plants [...]
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EU Nintendo Update - Furry Legends, Fatal Fury 3, Primrose And More
This week's WiiWare releases include Furry Legends, the rolling platformer from Gamelion for 1,000 Points, and A Monsteca Corral: Monsters Vs. Robots for 500 Points.
DSiWare consist of three releases -- Hospital Havoc for 500 Points, the simple puzzle title Primrose for 200 Points, and 3D Mahjong for 500 Points.
And lastly, a new Virtual Console title! Fatal Fury 3 is now available for 900 Points.
DSiWare consist of three releases -- Hospital Havoc for 500 Points, the simple puzzle title Primrose for 200 Points, and 3D Mahjong for 500 Points.
And lastly, a new Virtual Console title! Fatal Fury 3 is now available for 900 Points.
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Video games bring mom, son together ? in jail
New Hampshire police have charged a mother-and-son team with the theft of more than $1,600 worth of video games from a Best Buy store.
New Hampshire - Video game - Best Buy - United States - Shopping
New Hampshire - Video game - Best Buy - United States - Shopping
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Marcus Fenix Epic Scale Busts Available For Pre-Order From TriForce
TriForce Sales, LLC announced today that it has finalized work on its ?Gears of War 2? Marcus Fenix Epic Scale Bust and the exclusive Gold Lancer edition Marcus Fenix Epic Scale Bust available only at the San Diego Comic Con and http://www.projecttriforce.com.
The piece was sculpted and art directed by Erick Sosa. Paint work handled by Jordu Schell. The Epic Scale bust is a highly detailed likeness of the winner of the Embry Star and hero the COG army. Marcus is presented from the stomach up, in his right hand he holds his Lancer and clinched in his left fist are the COG tags of fallen comrades. From the bottom of the base to the top of the Lancer the piece is an impressive 32 inches in height. The Marcus Fenix Epic Scale Bust will feature LED effects through out the entirety of the piece including the signature COG Lancer Assault Rifle being held. The Marcus Fenix Epic Scale Bust will retail for $350.00 USD and will be limited to a run of 500 units. The Marcus Fenix Epic Scale Gold Lancer Edition Bust will retail for $400.00 USD and be limited to 100 pieces available exclusively at the San Diego Comic Con and http://www.projecttriforce.com.
?When deciding which character to create for our new Epic Scale Bust line, we knew it had to be Marcus Fenix. The facial expression, armor, and Lancer were all sculpted with the utmost attention to detail. We knew we wanted our Epic Scale line to tell a story with each piece. The base itself depicts destroyed beauty and the cherub head from the iconic ?Mad World? trailer are all part of the storytelling aspect created by our design team,? said Drew Seldin, of TriForce. ?We are looking forward to seeing what fans think! The TriForce team is proud to present this to all the millions of Gears fans out there. We hope Gearheads will proudly display Marcus as they take on the Locust Horde.?
?TriForce shares our vision for the Gears franchise, and they realize what we’re going for with each piece they create,? said Epic Games Art Director Chris Perna. ?The attention to detail is second to none and their love for this project shows. The ?Gears of War 2? Marcus Fenix Epic Scale Bust is simply amazing and working with TriForce has been a pleasure, once again.”
The Marcus Fenix Epic Scale Bust and Marcus Fenix Gold Lancer Edition Bust will be on display and for sale online and at our San Diego Comic Con booth number 2601 starting Wednesday night.
About ?Gears of War?
Published by Microsoft Game Studios, the ?Gears of War? franchise has won over 30 ?Game of the Year? awards, sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and redefined the third-person shooter genre for this console generation. The game has also inspired a full line of toys and collectibles, apparel, an upcoming film, graphic novels and a book series by New York Times best-selling author Karen Traviss. The ?Gears of War? series is exclusive to the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system and its riveting multiplayer action makes it one of the most popular titles on Xbox LIVE. More information can be found at http://www.gearsofwar.com.
About TriForce
TriForce Sales, LLC based in New York, NY is a high-end creator of officially licensed 1:1 scale replica from some of the most recognizable video games, feature films, animation, television and comics. TriForce uses state-of-the-art process, equipment, materials and techniques to create the most realistic products available on the market today. To view and purchase products or learn more about TriForce visit us on the web at http://www.projecttriforce.com
About Epic Games
Epic Games, Inc., based in Cary, NC and established in 1991, develops cutting-edge games and game engine technology, including the multiple million-selling, award-winning ?Unreal? and ?Gears of War? series, and the industry leading Unreal Engine 3 game engine, a four-time winner of Game Developer magazine?s Best Engine Front Line Award and Hall of Fame inductee. More information about Epic Games can be found at http://www.epicgames.com.
The piece was sculpted and art directed by Erick Sosa. Paint work handled by Jordu Schell. The Epic Scale bust is a highly detailed likeness of the winner of the Embry Star and hero the COG army. Marcus is presented from the stomach up, in his right hand he holds his Lancer and clinched in his left fist are the COG tags of fallen comrades. From the bottom of the base to the top of the Lancer the piece is an impressive 32 inches in height. The Marcus Fenix Epic Scale Bust will feature LED effects through out the entirety of the piece including the signature COG Lancer Assault Rifle being held. The Marcus Fenix Epic Scale Bust will retail for $350.00 USD and will be limited to a run of 500 units. The Marcus Fenix Epic Scale Gold Lancer Edition Bust will retail for $400.00 USD and be limited to 100 pieces available exclusively at the San Diego Comic Con and http://www.projecttriforce.com.
?When deciding which character to create for our new Epic Scale Bust line, we knew it had to be Marcus Fenix. The facial expression, armor, and Lancer were all sculpted with the utmost attention to detail. We knew we wanted our Epic Scale line to tell a story with each piece. The base itself depicts destroyed beauty and the cherub head from the iconic ?Mad World? trailer are all part of the storytelling aspect created by our design team,? said Drew Seldin, of TriForce. ?We are looking forward to seeing what fans think! The TriForce team is proud to present this to all the millions of Gears fans out there. We hope Gearheads will proudly display Marcus as they take on the Locust Horde.?
?TriForce shares our vision for the Gears franchise, and they realize what we’re going for with each piece they create,? said Epic Games Art Director Chris Perna. ?The attention to detail is second to none and their love for this project shows. The ?Gears of War 2? Marcus Fenix Epic Scale Bust is simply amazing and working with TriForce has been a pleasure, once again.”
The Marcus Fenix Epic Scale Bust and Marcus Fenix Gold Lancer Edition Bust will be on display and for sale online and at our San Diego Comic Con booth number 2601 starting Wednesday night.
About ?Gears of War?
Published by Microsoft Game Studios, the ?Gears of War? franchise has won over 30 ?Game of the Year? awards, sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and redefined the third-person shooter genre for this console generation. The game has also inspired a full line of toys and collectibles, apparel, an upcoming film, graphic novels and a book series by New York Times best-selling author Karen Traviss. The ?Gears of War? series is exclusive to the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system and its riveting multiplayer action makes it one of the most popular titles on Xbox LIVE. More information can be found at http://www.gearsofwar.com.
About TriForce
TriForce Sales, LLC based in New York, NY is a high-end creator of officially licensed 1:1 scale replica from some of the most recognizable video games, feature films, animation, television and comics. TriForce uses state-of-the-art process, equipment, materials and techniques to create the most realistic products available on the market today. To view and purchase products or learn more about TriForce visit us on the web at http://www.projecttriforce.com
About Epic Games
Epic Games, Inc., based in Cary, NC and established in 1991, develops cutting-edge games and game engine technology, including the multiple million-selling, award-winning ?Unreal? and ?Gears of War? series, and the industry leading Unreal Engine 3 game engine, a four-time winner of Game Developer magazine?s Best Engine Front Line Award and Hall of Fame inductee. More information about Epic Games can be found at http://www.epicgames.com.
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GDC Online Adds Major Design Talks From Carbine, Sony Online, Relic
Organizers of this October's GDC Online (formerly GDC Austin) have announced several major sessions for the conference's game design track, featuring speakers from Sony Online Entertainment, Carbine, and Relic. The Austin, Texas based GDC Online conference is focused on the development of online games, including free-to-play titles, social network games, and traditional MMOs, with a veteran online game industry advisory board evaluating and selecting the lectures. There are already more than 70 panels, lectures and ...
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Monday, 23 August 2010
Freeware Game Pick: The Journey Down - Over the Edge (Theodor Waern)
The Journey Down, Chapter 1: Over the Edge is a point-and-click adventure game that tells the story of Bwana and his friend Kito, two individuals who run a gas station but were forced to find other means of making money when the power company threatens to cut their electrical supply off. Fortunately at about the same time a young woman arrives at your doorstep looking for a book, and she willing to reward you handsomely should you be able to help her out with an errand.
Anyone familiar with classic LucasArts games should feel right at home with the controls here. Left clicking on any interactive object examines or operates it, inventory items are located at the bottom of the screen, and moving your cursor towards the top of the window displays the options menu.
You can press the period ('.') key to skip parts of a dialogue quickly, or use the escape key to end an in-game cutscene immediately. Note that there is only one save slot to use, and you might need to fiddle with the setup.exe file a bit to get the game looking as gorgeous as the screenshots posted at the official site.
The first of the four chapters also ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, with the story to continue in the second part (Into the Mist) due out sometime in the summer of 2011. (Windows, 122MB)
Anyone familiar with classic LucasArts games should feel right at home with the controls here. Left clicking on any interactive object examines or operates it, inventory items are located at the bottom of the screen, and moving your cursor towards the top of the window displays the options menu.
You can press the period ('.') key to skip parts of a dialogue quickly, or use the escape key to end an in-game cutscene immediately. Note that there is only one save slot to use, and you might need to fiddle with the setup.exe file a bit to get the game looking as gorgeous as the screenshots posted at the official site.
The first of the four chapters also ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, with the story to continue in the second part (Into the Mist) due out sometime in the summer of 2011. (Windows, 122MB)
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