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fmx/09 - 14th International Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Digital MediaGame Republic Student Showcase 2009Independent Game Conference EastLOGIN
 | S W E E T S N I P P E T Simple STL Logging System by Brook Jensen, posted 5/14/09 With programs becoming larger and larger with more and more code, having a detailed logging system can make the difference between hours of searching for code, and knowing the exact place to go to fix a bug in minutes. This article explores the use of the very handy IOStream library included with boost to outfit the familiar clog class with the tools to include as much usefull details as possible, without even changing your code. |  | R E V I E W AnkhSVN by Stefan Maton, posted 5/12/09 Got Visual Studio? Want it to integrate seamlessly with SVN? Don't want to pay any money? Well, this might do the trick. |
 | B O O K R E V I E W Twitter API: Up and Running by John Hattan, posted 5/7/09 Twitter is trendy. O'Reilly has a book on how to leverage Twitter's API so that you can be trendy too. Read about the book here. |  | P R O G R A M M I N G Exporting C++ functions to Lua by Magnus Österlind, posted 5/5/09 This article shows a way to achieve type safe interaction between C++ and Lua. By utilizing the Boost::FunctionTypes library, we’re able to automatically detect the number and types of the parameters in the exported function, making the procedure for registering a C++ function as simple as a single function call with a name and a function pointer |
| Friday, May 15, 2009 | |
| The Daily GameDev.Net | |
| Posted by: Promit Roy at 11:21:37 AM | |
 What the Friday?! I'm writing the Daily today! I hear Trent is on a jet plane. I can only assume he's leaving on it. Time for a Finally Done With Exams GameDev.Net Daily! NOTE: Daily promotion is a special offer, limit one per customer per household per eyeball. Purchase not required to enter unless you want to win.Duke Nukem Forever spent 12 years working towards its eventual failure, but the saga sure isn't over. We've been covering news spilling out of the event all week, and here's the latest: Take Two is suing 3D Realms over the incident. Take Two, who apparently let 3D Realms incinerate $12 million in making the game, is essentially claiming breach of contract by not delivering the game. Hopefully more details will become public soon. Game modding is still game development, and this is most unwelcome news. Avsim, a major Flight Simulator community site, has been completely deleted by hackers. Thirteen years of community work, completely gone. Ouch. Now I'm not one to kick people when they're down, but: Quote:Really? You guys actually thought that's how backing up works? Listen everybody. There are multiple companies who will offer massive amounts of safe, offsite backup space for very nominal fees (like $5/mo). I like IDrive Online. Drew likes Mozy. These are professional services. Use them. There's a new game out called Overlord II, and apparently as part of its marketing campaign IGN has posted a Flash minigame from the developers called Overlord Whack-a-seal. Now I'm not one to morally judge virtual seal whacking, but Joystiq got curious as to what PETA would have to say on the matter. Their response was kind of weird. "Peta-made helmets for baby seals." Seriously. I've been highlighting useful tools lately. One of my favorites is SourceGear DiffMerge. It's the best free diff tool I've ever used. Feature-wise it doesn't quite compare to some of the really heavy lifting tools, but it's still a fantastic piece of software. Read More.. | 10 Comments | |
| Thursday, May 14, 2009 | |
| Bigpoint.com opens a portal for external game developers | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 4:27:44 PM | |
 Bigpoint GmbH, the world’s leading provider of browser-based online games (browser games), is opening its doors to external game providers and developers. With today’s launch of the Bigpoint DevLounge at http://devlounge.bigpoint.com, game developers now have a place where they can go to integrate their browser games on the website http://www.bigpoint.com. Thanks to the introduction of the DevLounge, Bigpoint has positioned itself for the future as a publisher of online games. With over 63 million registered users worldwide, game providers will have new and unique opportunities to distribute their games. The portal Bigpoint.com will develop into the first source for online games and will offer the right game for every target group.Read More.. | 2 Comments | |
| Triangle Game Conference Nearly Doubles Attendance Expectations | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 2:11:36 AM | |
| Leaders in entertainment software, game technology, serious games and games research gathered in Raleigh, N.C. April 29-30 for the inaugural Triangle Game Conference (TGC) hosted by the Triangle Game Initiative, a trade association for the Raleigh-Durham interactive entertainment industry. The conference showcased the region's depth and breadth as the East Coast leader in game development in a two-day event featuring industry-leading companies, including Epic Games, Insomniac Games, Red Storm Entertainment, Atomic Games, Themis Media and Emergent Game Technologies. More than 730 attended the event, nearly doubling attendance expectations of conference organizers. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| GameX Industry Summit Announces Harmonix Design Director as Keynote Speaker | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 1:47:12 AM | |
 The GameX Industry Summit today announced its first confirmed keynote speaker, Chris Foster with Harmonix Music Systems, creators of game phenomenon Rock Band. Co-located with GameX (Games & Media Expo), October 23-25, 2009, GameX Industry Summit is presented by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) chapters in New York, New Jersey, Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia. Chris Foster, Design Director for Harmonix Music Systems and the lead designer in the forthcoming The Beatles: Rock Band, is the first of four featured keynote speakers to be featured at GameX Industry Summit. Game industry professionals are invited to the GameX Industry Summit at the Greater Philadelphia Convention Center for two days of games-focused lectures, panels, roundtables and keynotes from the best and brightest minds in the games business. In addition, GameX Industry Summit attendees have access to GameX, the only major game consumer convention in U.S. supported by a major media sponsor, NBC Local Media in Philadelphia – WCAU TV/NBC 10. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| GES Bringing Top Instructors in Game Education to Carnegie Mellon | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 1:42:48 AM | |
| Many of the most recognizable names in game education, along with industry executives eager to provide input on university programs to train tomorrow’s game industry employees, will be headed to Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) June 16 – 17 for the Game Education Summit (GES). Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| The Daily GameDev.net | |
| Posted by: Trent Polack at 12:00:23 AM | |
| Heya kids! You get me today instead of Drew (since he's somewhere not at his home) and tomorrow you get Promit instead of me (since I'll be on an airplane!). We're mixing things up in an attempt to stay hip and current. Unfortunately for the Daily crew, my English degree, education in Creative Writing, and the fact that I use a MacBook allows me to be the only writer who is able to consistently stay current and hip. Bungie is going to be rolling out a render-to-video service for Halo 3 soon. This new service will allow players to convert their Halo 3 videos into computer-playable videos using a new currency known as "Bungie Points." There are two supported resolutions for these videos: 640x360 WMV (at "about 1Mbps") and 1280x720 WMV (at 6Mbps). Source Shacknews indicates: "Bungie Pro subscribers will automatically earn free Bungie Points, and point packs will also be sold. The public beta, scheduled to run until July 7, is currently open to all Bungie Pro members that registered prior to [the morning of May 12]." DICE was kind of a jerk yesterday and actually admitted that they underestimated console gamers with Battlefield: Bad Company which is a sentiment that I'm amazed anyone was allowed to say aloud. DICE creative director Lars Gustavsson had this to say: "I think one of our biggest mistakes with Battlefield: Bad Company.. was that when we started making it, laying out the plans, the view on the gamer was that it's a console audience, and we need to treat them a bit more gently, since they're less experienced [...] Now, looking at our console audience, we just had this discussion that we should more or less handle them on equal terms." He went on to say: "For a very long time I think the PC audience was seen as the hardcore, the most competitive and dedicated audience, [...] Maybe at one time that was partially true, but now we definitely see a fanatic shooter audience on console." As someone who considered Battlefield: Bad Company to be one of last year's greatest multiplayer games, I'm actually kind of confused as to why DICE is holding this view. I'm tempted to say that it's a way to pander to PC gamers a wee bit to accept Bad Company 2 now that this game, unlike the original Bad Company, will be receiving a PC release along with its 360 and PS3 releases. Chris Remo over at Gamasutra gave a fantastic write-up about a speech given by Dan Lee Rogers at GDC Canada about determining the value of game development studios to publishers. Rogers does this by starting with a simple, well-stated analogy to sports players: ""With sports players, you know about what they're worth, because you knew what the last guy was worth, [...] If Manny Ramirez plus X, the next guy who's a little better, should be worth more theoretically. In our industry, there are a lot of moving parts, and it's a little harder to put it together." This is a lengthy piece with a lot of great information, but one of my favorite aspects of it come from the "Thinking Like a Publisher" segment which provides a few rules of thought: 1) "Publishers don't think like developers," 2) "You are not the center of the publisher's universe," and 3) "Publishers buy developers because they need them, not because they want them." I can't recommend reading this article enough. Electronic Arts Montreal executive producer Reid Schneider had one particular thing to say about Army of Two, one of the studio's previous original games: "what didn't work was really the tone." As fellow GameDev.net moderator, Daily writer, and friend Mike Stedman will tell you from our time playing through the game: Army of Two was a strange combination of poor character development, awkward story-telling, and "buddy movie" chemistry that consisted of a bizarre combination of personal interactions and loathsome treatment of each other in the game's narrative. The game was a cocktail of a number of different thematic and tonal elements. This piece says nothing about that, but it does say one thing which I found kind of strange (via EA Montreal creative Director Alex Hutchinson): "One is that people seemed to feel that the game was celebrating bad behavior, [...] Actually, if you play it, I think it's amoral. It has no opinion. That's really interesting to me from a development perspective, because what it means is the press wants you to punish the bad guys. They don't want you to have no opinion about the bad guys. They want to say, 'No, but they're evil! They need to lose!' And I think that's kind of sad." Okay. As an aside, for anyone who is interested in the next Game Design Round Table: as soon as the piece I wrote following the conclusion of Game Design Round Table 1: The Death of Death hits the front page of GameDev.net I will write up the next Round Table in the Game Design forum the following Tuesday. Sound good? Anyway, I'm scared about my airplane trip. I haven't been on a plane since seventh grade. I do, however, have my MacBook and a bunch of new games on my iPod Touch! And I will probably text messages to my Twitter account every few minutes. Read More.. | 9 Comments | |
| Wednesday, May 13, 2009 | |
| Inaugural GDC Canada Opens Today | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 1:22:30 AM | |
 The Think Services Game Group and Reboot Communications today open the Game Developers Conference® Canada (GDC Canada) at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Center (VCEC). Building off the success of the Vancouver International Games Summit, GDC Canada will be a two day forum for Canadian developers to share best practices for fostering ingenuity and quality games, and featuring sessions with leaders of Canada’s game development community. Unique to GDC Canada is its focus on cross-discipline collaboration during the production cycle with tracks dedicated to: Concept/Preproduction, Production, Finalling and Post-Launch/Analysis.Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| The Daily GameDev.Net | |
| Posted by: Tiffany Leigh Smith at 1:14:10 AM | |
| Last week I put together my daily but didn't manage to publish it, so this week I'm going to post a double daily, as a couple of the items from last week haven't yet been covered. Happy reading. The force that is Apple has begun to descend on to the video game market, "there is chatter that Apple is planning on taking over Electronic Arts." And Forbes points to Apple's recent hiring of two key videogame executives as further evidence the company is preparing a bigger entry into handheld gaming following the successful launch and uptake of the iPhone device. Richard Taversham joins the company from Microsoft, where he was senior director of insights and strategy for Xbox in Europe, in the same week that Bob Drebin, creator of the Nintendo GameCube's graphics processor at AMD, also arrived at the company. IBMs chip designer Mark Papermaster has also recently joined the company as head of the iPod business. The report suggests there are three avenues of evolution for the iPhone and iPod devices, including the integration and improvement of video and still images into games. I can see it now, "Apple, its in the game" Blizzard are preparing an internet stream for BlizzCon. There will be live coverage of the BlizzCon games convention which will be available as an internet stream for the first time, as well as a DirecTV pay per view event. DirecTV coverage was offered for the first time last year and will cost USD 39.95 for this year's event, for a minimum of eight hours of live HD coverage. Viewers of either stream will also receive an exclusive, but as yet unrevealed, in-game item. The convention is due to take place in Anaheim, California on August 21 and 22, with last year's event attracting around 15,000 visitors. Tickets are priced at USD 125 and will go on sale from May 16. After problems last year coping with demand for tickets, a second block will go on sale on May 30. A new first come, first served queue system has also been implemented at the Blizzard Store, as well as a fixed time limit for completing purchases. If you want to go it might be wise to get your tix early! After losing their WOW license, Chinese MMO publisher The9 has launched a website for a new title, World of Fight. Many have drawn immediate comparisons to World of Warcraft, the title The9 previously distributed in China but lost last month after Blizzard cut ties with the company. There isn't much more information at the moment, the game's official website says only that "WoF (World of Fight), a new game by The9, is soon to come,". The World of Fight website is located at wofchina.com, only a one letter difference from the URL of The9's official World of Warcraft site, wowchina.com. Additionally, both the art style and logo shown on the site are arguably similar to those of World of Warcraft. According to the China Journal report, Chinese industry observers "wonder whether The9 is launching a 'shanzhai,' or knockoff, World of Warcraft in hopes of keeping WoW players," with iResearch analyst Zhao Xufeng noting that "with the topic staying in the center of attention, The9 can easily attract attention by doing this." Blizzard officially cut ties with The9 in April, handing over Chinese WoW distribution rights to longtime partner NetEase. The9 will continue distributing the game until its contract officially expires in June. EA have adopted a new bonus scheme which will cover the performance of selected staff from the beginning of July to the end of March and has been implemented with the intention to "attract, motivate and retain talent by providing eligible employees with incentive compensation based upon the achievement of selected performance goals." The plan will be open to "regular status employees... who are chosen solely at the discretion of the Company" and the amount paid will depend on five factors, two of which are the participant's annual target bonus and the participant's individual performance. The article goes on to say that there are various other conditions attached to the scheme, including the amount of bonus-applicable work undertaken, but the plan also outlines the possibilities for staff that overachieve. "In the event a performance measure is achieved above the pre-determined targets, the bonus payable for that component could exceed 100 per cent of the target payment applicable to that component but not more than 200 per cent," reports GIBiz "In the case of extraordinary job performance and with CEO approval, a participant may receive up to a maximum bonus payment of 300 per cent of base salary." Nintendo celebrated the one-year anniversary of its WiiWare launch yesterday. The company says the library is currently at 81 titles from over 40 different studios. Some of the more popular WiiWare titles include 2D Boy's World of Goo, Tetris Online's Tetris Party, and Aksys' Bit.Trip Beat, along with Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King and Mega Man 9, from major publishers Square Enix and Capcom. In the year to come, consumers can expect Nicalis' adaptation of Pixel's Cave Story, Team Meat's indie Super Meat Boy, Bit.Trip Beat follow-up Bit.Trip Core,and Square Enix's sequel to seminal RPG Final Fantasy IV. "The first anniversary of our WiiWare service is a milestone that marks how far the service has come and how much great content is currently available,", says Nintendo of America sales and marketing EVP Cammie Dunaway. "We encourage everyone to get their Wii consoles connected to the Internet so they have access to the full range of WiiWare games.". I agree! And not just because I am a part of Nicalis! ;) An article over at Gamasutra says that the Scratch: Ultimate DJ legal battles are continuing with yesterdays realization that the game's source code will see a court-ordered handover in exchange for up to a $2 million bond. A new LLC formed by Scratch publisher Genius Products and turntable peripheral maker Numark must put up the bond money in order to have the game's code returned to them by developer and Activision subsidiary 7 Studios. Activision, which is developing its own rival product, DJ Hero, has used its mounting legal costs as a basis to ask the court to raise the bond amount -- the publisher has spent $350,000 on the lawsuit to date, and claims its legal costs will reach $4 to $5 million by the end of the process. Activision's willingness to commit this volume of expense is illustrative of the importance of the music genre to the publisher. But Scratch LLC argues that Activision merely wishes to keep the game's source code out of Genius' hands for as long as possible, hoping to prevent the release of Scratch from competing with the launch of DJ Hero. Genius Products and Numark are still currently planning to show Scratch at E3 -- and Activision is also presumably planning to showcase DJ Hero there. And in more legal news, also over at Gamasutra, it turns out that creditors to bankrupt Midway Games filed suit yesterday against several parties, including former Midway majority stakeholder Sumner Redstone, his holding company National Amusements, investor Mark Thomas and former Midway chair Shari Redstone over the November 2008 sale of the company. The suit also names former and current members of Midway's board. The 29-page suit, obtained by Gamasutra, accuses specific defendants of a number of wrongdoings, including breach of fiduciary duty, corporate waste and unjust enrichment. Wow, yet another incredibly complex legal battle. I guess the new motto is, if you can't beat em, sue em! For a vid link today, Steampunk and Cowboys! Read More.. | 4 Comments | |
| Tuesday, May 12, 2009 | |
| Help Contribute to the Second Edition of Dave Perry on Game Design | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 8:33:36 PM | |
 Course Technology PTR and David Perry announce David Perry on Game Design: A Brainstorming Toolbox – officially the largest book on game design ever. Written with best-selling co-author Rusel DeMaria, David Perry on Game Design provides the tools for anyone - professional, amateur, student or veteran – to find new inspiration and resources and to develop innovative new ideas, hooks to sell your games, and never-seen-before game mechanics.And best of all, there’s more to come. And that’s where you come in. We invite ALL our readers to participate in developing the next edition of David Perry on Game Design. The book is not-for-profit, it’s entirely a work of passion, so just come to www.gamedesignbook.org and convince the group to add your ideas. We just completed the first edition and together we’re going to try to raise the bar again. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| fmx/09 in Stuttgart, Germany - A Closing Report | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 8:27:52 PM | |
| In the early hours of Saturday morning, fmx/09 drew to a close as the most persevering guests finally left the closing party. Once again, the 14th International Conference for Animation, Effects, Games and Digital Media gathered an international community of CGI enthusiasts in Stuttgart. Animation has long become a key technology shared across a wide range of media, going beyond animated films to live-action films and television shows as well as computer games and mobile content. This English- language conference addresses aesthetic and technical trends with a structured series of specialized programs. The desired side-effect: these parallel offerings encourage participants to cast an eye beyond the immediate scope of their own profession – to exchange and compare. ”Immersive Design”, for example, was one of the most-used concepts uniting the many disciplines at fmx/09. This year, more than 7,000 visitors from 41 countries participated in discussions, encounters and of course lots of exciting content and new-won knowledge. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Allegorithmic’s Substance Air Now Available to Customers Worldwide | |
| Posted by: Liaison PR at 5:46:34 PM | |
| With more games moving online and digital distribution becoming an increasingly important business strategy for publishers, improving visual quality and allowing user-generated content while containing client size and broadening the audience has become a critical challenge. Allegorithmic, an emerging 3D technology company developing advanced texturing tools for real-time 3D content creation, is filling this immediate market need through the worldwide availability of Substance Air. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| The Daily GameDev.Net | |
| Posted by: Promit Roy at 11:45:06 AM | |
| I wanted to take this opportunity to announce a new initiative here. As you may know, the GameDev.Net Daily started out as just Trent, and later changed to be a couple people sharing the duty. Now, in our third installment we are going to be bringing you GameDev.Net Daily Forever. It will take everything you loved about previous Dailies and make them infinity times better. And we're going to do it right, no rushing to hit schedules. It will be done when it's done. I missed this last week but it's worth mentioning. ArsTechnica's Ben Kuchera talked with Valve VP of Marketing, Doug Lombardi about post-release content. No matter what you think of Valve or their games (or their SDK *shudder*), it's undeniable that they've become a tour de force in the game industry thanks to Steam. This article, however, is about expanding and adding onto games. It's unfortunately a bit short, but still a good read. On the subject of something you definitely haven't heard about, there's still some discussion about just what is happening with the rights to The Duke. I'll be honest with you, though. Having seen the entire plot summary, if there's going to be another Duke Nukem it needs to be rewritten completely, by someone with half a brain. The working plot they had has all the maturity of a 12 year old who has just discovered his first copy of Playboy. Here's another interview, this time with Nicole Hamlette of Cryptic Studios. She's the community manager for the studio, which is a very odd position to have. It means that the whiney, annoying, and downright asinine people who play your game now have someone to talk to. And that someone is you. It's not a perspective that normally gets much attention in game development. I'm on a game development roll today. GamaSutra not only has that interview, but also has an article by designer Mark Davies on pacing in single player levels. If you care about game design, and I don't, you owe it to yourself to read this. Let me explain something -- pacing is everything. You don't notice it when it's done well, but when it's not, you know immediately that it's broken. On the first Deus Ex game, the developers actually brought in people from Valve to help them fix the pacing to work. It's that important. Today's video is the launch trailer for the Burnout Paradise: Cops and Robbers DLC. I haven't played it yet; I would have but my Xbox is IN a box at the moment. Personally, I really appreciate that I bought this game a year and a half ago and I'm still getting regular, major updates. I hope EA keeps it up, because it's a fabulous way to get added value from a game for both developers and gamers. Read More.. | 4 Comments | |
| Monday, May 11, 2009 | |
| 2009 Game Developers Conference Austin Focuses on Connected Games | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 11:45:23 PM | |
| The Game Developers Conference® Austin (GDC Austin) returns this September with three days focused on connected games including online games, virtual worlds, and social networking. Now in its 7th consecutive year, GDC Austin will continue as the mecca for online game developers worldwide to convene and share best practices, new perspectives, and business opportunities in connected games. GDC Austin conference tracks focus on the disciplines of Business and Marketing, Design, Social Networking and Community, Services, Production and Programming. Presented by Think Services, organizers of the industry-leading Game Developers Conference® (GDC), GDC Austin is a four-day event taking place at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas September 15-18, 2009. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| The Daily GameDev.net | |
| Posted by: Mike Stedman at 9:51:39 AM | |
| Welcome to another free-to-play GDNet Daily. If you wish to improve your character's Daily-reading abilities substantially, please submit $19.95 in order to purchase GDNet Points, which can be redeemed for more powerful items and inventory slots in which to keep those items. These items are more essential than ever with our new GDC content expansion, which has felled many brave adventurers who quest to find pictures of scantily clad booth babes. We trust that you will enjoy GDNet Daily, now a wholly owned subsidiary of HanbitSoft. Eidos Montreal announced Thief 4, which will team up with Deus Ex 3 in order to convince us of Eidos' domination of all things formerly Looking Glass. While I love the Thief series, it is not as close to my heart as Deus Ex is, and so I am quite hopeful for its success, even though decreased difficulty and atmosphere is likely and an unavoidable fact of our current gaming climate. Speaking of Origin and friends, Ultima Online is getting expanded. I bet a lot of other MMOs wish their playerbase were as hardcore and dedicated as the UO crew. It's worth pointing out that we've heard more about Duke Nukem Forever in the last five days than we have during its entire period of development, and this continues on to giving us actual game footage (NSFW), albeit as part of an animator's demo reel. You may also be interested in some screenshots dredged up (also NSFW) by a French games blog. In indie news, some things you may want to check out include Today I Die, an updated version of Valve-endorsed Team Fortress parody Gang Garrison 2, and a mirror of the Cactus GDC talk, in case you missed it the first time. Altitude has also been getting some really favorable coverage, and I've been playing it off and on for a few months now. Under Siege is starting to make headway on the PS3. Make sure to also check out the Cockpit Compo games in case you disobeyed me last week. I will not tolerate your dissent at this critical juncture. Before you go today, watch this awesome Punch Out!! commercial. It's the mostest. Read More.. | 5 Comments | |
| New Articles up at IndustryBroadcast.com | |
| Posted by: Ryan Wiancko at 2:53:03 AM | |
 Industrybroadcast.com has 5 new articles up for your listening pleasure:Audio Article #105 - So here’s how many games I sell:Jeff Vogel breaks down the costs/sales figures for one of Spiderweb Software’s games : Geneforge 4: Rebellion. Audiot Article #106: The Economy of Fun:Today we dive into the future of emergent game play, what is really involved in making an experience emergent and why it is so important today and tomorrow in our industry. Audio Article #107(A-B) - The Czar Chart + The Dead Zone: The first section dealing with how to structure the hierarchy of your team to empower each member and boost morale. Secondly we talk about ‘The Dead Zone’ , the period on a production after the creative planning has been finished but before the testing has begun when it feels like nothing is getting accomplished. Audio Article #108 - Dark Ages Politics in Theory and Practice:Ethan Kennerly takes us through the intricate political system that he crafted for Dark Ages. Once again sharing his insight on how he made Dark Ages the incredibly immersive experience that it was. Audio Article #109: Game Design for Social Networks Part 1:Today we welcome the first article from Aki Järvinen Ph.D as he tackles the challenge of forming of design principles into a design framework where interaction, social, service, and game design meet. To design principles that would solve and inspire new design solutions for future games in Social Networks Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Saturday, May 9, 2009 | |
| Weekend Reading: Tales from Journal Land | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 1:34:17 PM | |
| Journal Land Pick of the Week Saga City - sneakyrobot has a mini-article on how to implement a fullscreen toggle in SDL and OpenGL, after getting sick of having to quit the app and then switch to fullscreen and reload. Read More.. | 1 Comments | |
| Friday, May 8, 2009 | |
| Sébastien Deguy LOGIN interview | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 12:26:58 AM | |
| Dr Sébastien Deguy, Founder and CEO of Allegorithmic, speaks in-depth with LOGIN Beat about the art (and science) of procedural content creation techniques. This particular technique offers tantalizing potential in shrinking MMOG bloatware, improving the potential for user generated content and enhancing the end-user experience overall. Read on for much more in this preview of Sebastien’s lecture, Procedural Techniques for Optimized Distribution of Online Games and Large-Scale User Generated Content, only at LOGIN 2009. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Call for Papers for Games Convention Asia Conference 2009 Extended to May 30, 2009 | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 12:05:37 AM | |
| LMI Asia today announced that it has extended its call for submissions for the GC Asia Conference (September 17-18, 2009) in order to ensure the conference presents the most relevant topics related to the current business environment. Until May 30th, local, regional and international game experts can submit speaking proposals for keynotes, lectures and panels via: www.gc-asia.sg. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| The Daily GameDev.net | |
| Posted by: Trent Polack at 12:01:10 AM | |
| It's certainly been an interesting week in our game industry. And how about that 3D Realms and Duke Nukem Forever news? I heard someone on a site I frequent (which site is probably deducible from the number of times I've linked it here) say that the news "came out of nowhere." And that's certainly one way of wording it. Activision posted their quarterly results this week for their financial quarter which ended on March 31st. The short of it is thatActivision had a very good quarter, earning $189 million in profits due in large part to the success of World of Warcraft, the Call of Duty games, and Guitar Hero. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has sold over 13 million units; let's think about that number for a second and reflect on how fantastic it is to see a brilliant game do so well in sales. And now let's counter those good and happy emotions with news about how the Guitar Hero franchise is now worth $2 billion; this number encompasses everySKU of the game released across the Playstation 2/3, 360, DS, and more. To return to my earlier statement: Activision has money. And speaking of money, Nintendo has a lot of it as they record record sales and profits. Earlier this week, Microsoft acquired the Vancouver-based BigPark game studio. BigPark is comprised of game industry veterans who have worked at Distinctive Software and Electronic Arts on titles such as the NHL Hockey, Skate, Need for Speed,SSX, and more. According to the press release that was put out, BigPark has been collaborating with Microsoft an Xbox 360-exclusive title for the last year and is planning on unveiling it at this year's E3. Microsoft Game Studio bossman Phil Spencer had this to say of the acquisition: "We are delighted by the opportunity to welcome the BigPark team into Microsoft Game Studios, [...] The team is composed of some of the most experienced and creative minds working in the industry today. The combination of the BigPark and Microsoft Game Studios talent pools will be an accelerant for growth and innovation." Nexon's MapleStory will celebrate its four year anniversary (in the US) next week on May 11th and, as part of the pre-celebration, Nexon America has announced that MapleStory has 92 million users worldwide (six million of which are in North America). Nexon America marketing vice president Min Kim had this to say of the anniversary announcement: "After four years of service in North America, MapleStory continues to evolve and surprise us all. We are very grateful to our loyal fans and this celebration is for them, [...] MapleStory fans have helped create something special, and we're going to reward them with new, exciting content to enjoy throughout the summer and beyond." Having 96 million users is just a mind-boggling achievement, I can't even imagine it. Well, that's not entirely true; I can imagine it, I just imagine it as 96 million dollar bills all for me. I could finally pay off those student loans and live like a free man. After the implosion of Flagship Studios after the release of Hellgate: London, the status of the then in-development hack-and-slash game Mythos was unknown. As it turns out, the South Korean MMO company, Hanbitsoft , responsible for the rehabilitation of Hellgate: London also plans on giving Mythos a resurrection. Hanbitsoft CMO Yoora Kim says: "Mythos is developed mainly by T3 and supported by Redbana, [...] We are putting the development this way to embrace all kinds of systems that will work globally." Meanwhile, Runic Games is proceeding with the development of Torchlight, their spiritual successor toMythos. I can't help but think that Hanbitsoft is stealing the clothes of a dead guy (Mythos) and then posing as him as they walk around town and attempt to make good with his loved ones. And it's Friday. Let's say that together now: Friday. Doesn't that feel good? You're right, it does. And it's Mother's Day this weekend, so be good to your mothers [optional insert: I certainly was]. Yeah, I kind of went there. Kind of. Read More.. | 6 Comments | |
| Thursday, May 7, 2009 | |
| The Daily GameDev.Net | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 1:59:41 AM | |
| I have to get up in like 3 hours for IGC East and Promit took all the cool news so this is a short and off-beat Daily - but still highly informative! I'm good like that. Feature Highlights. As usual, I've noted a few notable features/editorials/blogs from around the web over the past week. Over at GameCareerGuide there is an article on four ways to write your game design docs. Over at GamesIndustry.biz is an editorial on the end of publishing, or the redundancy of publishers as the digital age progresses. You've heard about Richard Garriott suing NCSoft, now hear it from the point of view of upcoming game attorney Mona Ibrahim. Finally, Jason Della Rocca was at the DigiPen graduation to give the commencement speech, where he told the students to fail fast, and fail often. Surprised? If so, read his speech. More GDC videos. We did a pretty yucky job overall this year of covering GDC - should have just stuck to the Tried and True methods rather than try and be all high-techy. But if you're still pining for some GDC goodness, TIGSource has videos of the Crayon Physics Deluxe and the Cactus talks from the Indie Games Summits. Both were awesome, go watch now. Also, if you shelled out the big bucks for an All Access pass, you can see new videos that have been added to the GDC Vault. Got Windows 7? I don't, I'm still deciding whether I want to bother or just wait until it comes out. I still use XP and am happy as a clown. If you're on the fence and want more information, Gizmodo has a great list of 10 things you need to know about the new OS's release candidate. My fav? The fact that it will shutdown every 2 hours starting March 1st, 2010. And just when I though MS was starting to do things right. Also, if you're wondering what will happen to Vista when Windows 7 launches, Maximum PC has some speculations for you. I found, thanks to Kotaku, the Dawn of War II soundtrack, available FREE from the game's page on Steam. It's some nice, dark orchestrated ambiance for you to work to when you're just in that mood. You know, the one where you want to strangle something. Or someone. God dammit I have to get up in three hours. *plays Dawn of War II soundtrack* Read More.. | 15 Comments | |
| Wednesday, May 6, 2009 | |
| The Daily GameDev.Net | |
| Posted by: Promit Roy at 7:46:29 PM | |
| What's this? A Continuously Compounded GameDev.Net Daily? How bizarre. I was just thinking that I accidentally missed yesterday's post, and today's post also seems altogether vaporous, so maybe I ought to write something up. 3D Realms is dead, they're saying. Yeah, that's the guys who were doing Duke Nukem Forever. The new Apogee is supposedly down for the count too, but that seems to still be in conflict. I could mock them, but it's just too easy. Besides, I already did that in the forums. In yet another round of bad news, more Microsoft layoffs. The numbers seem to still be in contention, but none of the suggested values are anything resembling small. Ouchie. More bad news? Yeah, more bad news. THQ just lost 431 million dollars. Big Huge Games, which is local to my area, was owned by THQ until recently and all but avoided being shut down. They're a mess. But even Rock Band is losing money. Could things get any rougher? Like last week, I'll highlight a cool tool I love. This time around, it's ClipX. I can't stand working without this little guy. My clipboard still behaves completely as usual...except when I hit Ctrl-Shift-V and suddenly I've got a 25 long history. Read More.. | 4 Comments | |
| gDEBugger V5.1 Adds the ability to view Vertex Buffer Objects data | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 3:57:41 PM | |
| Graphic Remedy is proud to announce the release of gDEBugger Version 5.1 for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. This new version adds the ability to view Vertex Buffer Objects (VBOs) data. The Textures and Buffers viewer Data View tab displays the selected VBO's data in a spreadsheet. The user can select the displayed data format, offset and stride. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Tuesday, May 5, 2009 | |
| Paris Master Classes unveil the first list of master classes for June 2009 | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 7:42:36 PM | |
| The list of the first master classes is now available on the event website (www.parismasterclasses.com). Masters from companies like Blizzard, Electronic Arts or SCEE will train 200 to 250 European attendees during this unique event. Other master classes will be confirmed through May. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Monday, May 4, 2009 | |
| The Daily GameDev.net | |
| Posted by: Mike Stedman at 9:17:30 AM | |
| There ain't no party like a GDNet Daily party, like no party I know. In release news, the amazing-looking Arkham Asylum is delayed until late September, hopefully to add more badass ways to heinously abuse people who made poor life choices (perhaps out of poverty or improper upbringing). What isn't delayed (finally) is Jagged Alliance for the DS. I can't wait to pick it up and relive my experiences fighting for liberty and fat stacks of cash in Metavira. We lost a lot of good men there. In news that should surprise absolutely no one, the people at Valve really like their MMOs, to the extent that they've taken a transient multiplayer experience such as Team Fortress and gradually converted it to a persistent universe of engineers and medics, in constant battle. Despite Demigod's rather poor launch and questionable choices in networking design, it seems to be doing fairly well. From what I understand, it is catching on like wildfire among those countries which formerly ran methadone clinics to wean citizens off of DOTA. Indie-wise, the results of the TIGSource Cockpit Competition are in - congratulations to Crackerblocks, whose semi-insane Enviro-Bear 2000 ursine driving simulator makes me more comfortable with the future of humanity in general. Not to be outdone, Cactus has released video of his next project. Also upcoming is Squid Yes, Not So Octopus 2 from oddbob, who is notable (among other things) for a previous shooter involving pregnant goldfishes and a school bus. If you've ever wanted to make a mod, you could be a lot less ambitious than the Nameless Mod, but they've produced something very cool to expand an already excellent game and netted an interview from Gamasutra for their trouble. Fans of Kokoromi/Polytron's Fez will be interested to read new articles about its interesting "trixels" technology that allows you to have mind-bending platforming experiences without leaving the comfort of your own home. Part two is up now, following on the heels of an earlier and more theoretical part one. If you're looking for some righteous indignation, why not join the leagues of nerds getting angry over Edge Magazine's 100 Best Games to Play Today list? The Brit-centric magazine went back and rejudged many games in the harsh light of modern day, and figured out which titles still hold up. How angry will you be? Let's say very, especially if you're a fan of pretentious JRPGs featuring spiky-haired protagonists. Before you go today, check your pockets. How much change do you have? You could buy Saturn. If you do, please send me a free Sky Turbo. Financing is available, for Read More.. | 6 Comments | |
| Saturday, May 2, 2009 | |
| Call for Authors: ShaderX8 | |
| Posted by: Wolfgang Engel at 11:50:28 AM | |
| After the tremendous success of the first seven entries to the ShaderX book series, we are looking for authors for ShaderX8. The upcoming book will cover advanced rendering techniques that run on the DirectX and/or OpenGL run-time or any other run-time with any language available. It will include topics on: Geometry Manipulation; Rendering Techniques; Handheld Devices Programming; Effects in Image Space; Shadows; 3D Engine Design; Graphics Related Tools; Environmental Effects. This time we will additionally have a section dedicated to mathematics for graphics programmers. Proposals are due by May 19th, 2009. Please send them to wolf at shaderx.com. An example proposal, writing guidelines and a FAQ can be downloaded from www.shaderx8.com/ShaderXAuthor.zip. If you already downloaded this package, please download it again. There is an updated ShaderX FAQ in there. The schedule is available on www.shaderx8.com. More info can also be found at http://diaryofagraphicsprogrammer.blogspot.com/ Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Weekend Reading: Tales from Journal Land | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 2:38:04 AM | |
| Yea so, another late edition of Weekend Reading hits the interwebs. I suppose I could have had it done several hours ago before I left to see Wolverine but... my excuse this time is that there was a big fuzzy yellow puppy demanding of my attention. How could I say no? How?? Seriously, that's a 6 month old puppy :) Journal Land Pick of the Week DruinkJournal - Evil Steve has the fifth tutorial posted for his Direct3D 9 series. It covers the ID3DXFont and ID3DXSprite classes, drawing an animating sprite, and a new timer class. Additionally, there's a handy debug assert macro, which can be used for performing some debug build sanity checks. Read More.. | 1 Comments | |
| Friday, May 1, 2009 | |
| The Daily GameDev.net | |
| Posted by: Trent Polack at 12:02:02 AM | |
| I don't even words for how glad I am it is the weekend. Hopefully you can either share that sentiment or put my feeling into words for me. Because, I mean, seriously. Valve is suing Activision and Activision threatens to sue Valve. In what seemed like a strange and sort of random story, Valve is suing Activision (who owns Sierra, former publisher of Half-Life 2) over a 2002 lawsuit regarding cyber-cafe licensing. As pointed out by GamePolitics (and paraphrased by ShackNews) "Valve originally won its dispute with Sierra, and was awarded $2,391,932 in its favor. However, Activision paid Valve only $1,967,796 last week, claiming that the missing $424k had already been doled out over the years." Valve is disputing that the $424,000 had been doled out and, therefore, is taking action and, as threatened, Activision will be counter-suing as a result. Everyone loves litigation. And money. Gee golly whiz, Borderlands looks absolutely amazing. In what is probably the smartest capitalistic maneuver in the game industry in recent memory, Electronic Arts is including a marketplace with The Sims 3 where players can purchase downloadable content for the game. In a game franchise which, in the past, each of the two numbered iterations have released a great deal of expansion packs (all of which are commercially successful), allowing users to quickly and easily purchase game assets is like digitally distributing cocaine to a rockstar via an iPod. "In-game items such as "the must-have new outfit" or "the latest style of plaid furniture" will be sold in The Sims 3 Store for SimPoints--a virtual currency bought in lots of 500, 1000 and 2000 points. Shacknews has contacted EA for the cash-points exchange rate." In short, amidst a poor American economy, Electronic Arts is set to start farming dollermoneys. Started up by a few veteran ex-developers at Blizzard, who were most recently working on Diablo 3, Booyah recently raised $4.1M for its iPhone "life companion". The money is coming from noted investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and will be put towards the release of Booyah's first product, which is described as a "playful life companion," due for release this spring. According to source Gamasutra, "Booyah hasn't yet explained what exactly the software is, but it is intended to work towards such lofty goals as to 'catalyze mass action for causes and other activities.'" I want a playful life companion that lives within my iPod Touch. The Seattle-based casual game company, Big Fish Games, has acquired Grubby Games. Grubby Games has been a finalist in the Independent Game Festival numerous times and is, most recently, known for the physics-based Incredibots. Incredibots was particularly of note in the Big Fish announcement due to Grubby's technology that was used to power the game; "We are not disclosing all aspects of the proprietary technology, but some aspects of it include an engine for procedurally generating interactive content subject to user play, [...] This dramatically enhances replay ability, a critical element for an addictive sim experience." And, oh hey, 4chan released a game. For anyone who is interested in the Game Design Round Table that ended this week, the resulting article was submitted to GameDev.net earlier this week but it may be able to be found elsewhere for now. And for the weekly question: what games are you crazy kids with your berets playing this weekend? I'm still going through Bioshock again and I'll probably try to pick up X-Men Origins: Wolverine (the game). I also got a Wacom Tablet this week, so I'll let my inner artist out all over my tablet. Read More.. | 11 Comments | |
| Thursday, April 30, 2009 | |
| The ioquake Engine has "Gone Gold" with its new 1.36 release! | |
| Posted by: PlatinumArts at 7:42:48 PM | |
| The Ioquake engine has "Gone Gold" with its 1.36 release! Read the full article for all of the awesome features added to this free open source engine! Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| Dean Takahashi Announced as Opening Day Keynote for 2009 LOGIN Conference | |
| Posted by: Evergreen Events at 7:30:32 PM | |
| Dean Takahashi, lead writer for digital media at VentureBeat, is leading the opening day keynote address on Tuesday, May 12th at the 2009 LOGIN Conference. Aiming his talk squarely at entrepreneurs and start-ups in the game industry, Dean Takahashi's address entitled "What’s a Wave and What’s a Puddle?" asks attendees to consider what trends, what risks, what rewards are in play for start-ups in the game industry. With an estimated $935 million dollars invested into game development, social gaming, and virtual worlds companies in 2008, the stakes are very high. For much more information about Dean Takahashi's keynote address and the LOGIN Conference, check out the full press release on the conference website. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
| The Daily GameDev.Net | |
| Posted by: Drew Sikora at 7:25:51 PM | |
| Apologies for the rather late Daily, I know its absence totally ruined the day for all of you. I swear I didn't do it on purpose (this time). Industry Feature Roundup If you're interested in learning more about the history of Square-Enix and Eidos and what led to their recent merger, there is such a feature over at GamesIndustry.biz. If you're interested in social games and want to try to convince a boss or investor that it's a direction worth heading in nowadays, point them to this feature over at Gamasutra. If you're looking for tips on breaking into the industry, GameCareerGuide has a feature from indie developer Tobias Heussner (Radon Labs) on how he got his start. If you're a studio head looking for tips to stay afloat these days, GamesIndustry.biz has another feature, this one on Beating the Crunch (the financial one). Financial News: Midway, Empire Interactive, BioShock/The Witcher. There may be hope for Midway after all, thanks to Warner Bros. interest in the company, as they are still looking for a way to move into the games space after the failed purchase of Eidos. It would be cool if they brought back Gauntlet. Not so good news over at publisher Empire Interactive however, as it's closure is reportedly all but assured. Finally, financial troubles have halted two rather anticipated projects: The BioShock movie has gone into a holding pattern after Universal requested the picture be moved outside the US to reduce the $160 million budget and the popular game The Witcher has been put on hold for console release due to financial disputes with publisher Atari. 2008 Game Developer Survey Highlights Here are some numbers from the 2008 survey, which can be found in the April 2009 edition of Game Developer magazine: Average industry salary = $79,000 (+7% from 2007); Average programming salary = $85,024; Average art & animation salary = $69,532; Average game designer salary = $67,379; Average production salary = $82,905; Average Q/A salary = $39,571; Average audio salary = $78,167; Average business & marketing salary = $102,143. be sure to check out the news report for more data as well. Notable Headlines of Singular Goodness Industry Movers: ESA, Sega, Warner Bros and More This year's GameCity free to attend iPhone Network SGN Opens to Developers IGDA Flash SIG Announces Membership Drive Crave, Koei, Playlogic Join ESA WARNING: If you value any free time you have left, by all means do not download this game. Flight Control is an iPhone/iTouch game that is easy to learn yet challenging to master. It's also a great way to improve your multi-task skills as you guide increasingly-frequent aircraft arrivals to their respective runways. Soon your screen is filled with criss-crossing lines of air traffic until the inevitable mid-air collision occurs. You then realize that as much as 15 minutes has gone by. And you're sweating. How hot is this game? It's already sold over 700,000 units since launching on march 6th. If anyone wants to compare stats, my CloudCell profile is here. Read More.. | 0 Comments | |
