"We started the in-house development team a couple of months ago and we're starting with downloadable content because the team is still small," explained the studio's US president John Yamamoto. "All formats – Xbox Live, WiiWare, PlayStation Network – are all viable formats for us"

The LA studio will also be investigating middleware solutions, after successfully using the Unreal Engine 3 for The Last Remnant. "I want to [...] evaluate lots of middleware," said Yamamoto, "because western middleware is much more advanced compared to Japanese middleware. So we will study and feed back information to Square Enix in Japan."

Square Enix LA studio to focus on digital titles [GamesIndustry.biz]

If you're a programmer with a Bachelor's Degree, a proficiency in C/C++, a nose, and at least one Xbox 360 game under your belt, they're looking for you. Just think, you could be working on The Bouncer 2!! Let's hope not, but that's a potential nightmare scenario you should think about.

Square Enix [Gamasutra Jobs via GameSpot]

We're still learning what players want online, and what the "typical" behaviors are. But, it's evolving quickly, and I don't think that we can ever look at a particular online behavior and say that's typical. It's just, lots of people want to play lots of different ways, and we try to make games that will accommodate as many of them as possible.

But I think our community helps us out in a big way, because that is our direct access to the people who are playing games. We can get their opinions on what they want, very quickly, versus having to go into a game and listen to the chatter.

We're seeing those posts on the forums; they're emailing us, or sending us PMs and saying, "Hey, Insomniac, we want X, Y, and Z." And so, we can discuss those requests and decide whether or not to change the game around the next time, or include new features in our patches, etcetera.

A somewhat lengthy interview that's worth a looksee, especially if you're into any of the Insomniac franchises.

Peeking Inside Insomniac: A Conversation With Ted Price [Gamasutra]

You may not particularly care about Sonic, but the problem reaches beyond a solitary blue hedgehog. Visible pockets of fans can easily be mistaken for commercial opportunities, and developers are always under pressure to follow the money. Consider a future where Valve paid heed to the most unbalanced aspects of fandom. In this grim world, the Portal sequel is 12 hours of twee comedy songs played by a sexualized companion cube - where the end of every torturous utterance rhymes with "cake" or "triumph." Half-Life 2: Episode 3 becomes an extended anime-style romance between Gordon and Alyx (while her creepy dad watches), and Left 4 Dead is a tale of four hardy neck-beards battling a legion of flying ninja-monkey-zombie-pirate-samurai.

My first instinct is to say 'Oh, come on' — of course passionate fanbases with money to spend may have some sway, but I have a hard time seeing developers trawling through hundreds of pages of badly written fanfiction in order to cater to the whims of excitable fans. We could also argue about what constitutes the 'most unbalanced aspects' of fandom. Fanaticism doesn't appeal to all of us, but I really think there are bigger fish to fry in the industry than fanatics who have access to a tablet and a word processor.

Fast-Track to Fanaticism [The Escapist]

Gamasutra recently sat down with that new head, Hitoshi Hasegawa, to talk about the future of the team. In the interview he touches on a couple of interesting things, including their take on Wii development. And where they stand on the Xbox 360 and PS3.

On developing for the PS3:

For the PlayStation 3, we do not believe that we've seen the fullest of its potential from any standpoint: from a developer standpoint, and also a consumer standpoint — and just in products in general.

The developers have been releasing products, but there is a bigger potential. There is greater potential, and we see that possibility the most in the PlayStation 3. It's going to be up to us developers and Sony to make sure that that does happen.

On whether Team Ninja will ever do a Wii game:

Internally at the company, we have a lot of knowledge, and I think we've mastered most of the components to make a very compelling and entertaining product using the console.

We will continue to work in that path. We have a lot of Wii console fans within the company, so hopefully there's something that we can work on.

Hit up the link to read the full four-page interview.

Team Ninja Ready For More [Gamasutra]

Game developers have created nearly 1,700 games for the iPhone since its release, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times today. That’s more than twice the number available in the App Store’s second biggest category.

The article goes on to quote Neil Young, who left EA to form an iPhone gaming start-up which recently released MazeFinger and Topple.

"I found that my iPhone was never very far away from me," Young said. "I was constantly checking e-mail, downloading apps, playing games, browsing the Internet. My personal usage was measurably different from any phone or game machine I've ever had before. It led me to think that there was a dramatically new market opportunity for gaming on a unique mobile device."

While I’m a long-time supporter of the iPhone and its many ingenious games, I do think they’re quickly approaching the same problem Microsoft ran into with the Xbox Live Arcade. It’s great to have every developer on the planet wanting to put games out for your platform, but if you don’t have some sort of filter it won’t take long before it’s impossible to find the proverbial needle in the haystack of bad games and rip-offs.

Hopefully Apple will wake up to that issue before it’s too late.

IPhone users love their video games [LA Times]

Gallagher praised Texas for passing an incentive package last year that was aimed at the movie industry but contained a provision for game companies to receive up to $250,000 per project.

But Gallagher said he didn't like the free-speech restrictions in the law, including "a content requirement about not disparaging Texas."

"Those types of speech restrictions in general are not viewed in favor by the courts. They tend to lead to a lot of problems down the road," he said.

WTF?! "Non-disparagement" of an entire state? When, I mean, there is a LOT, no offense — shit, look at King of the Hill.

Look, there's no reason to go picking a fight with Texas, but if Lego: No Country For Old Men comes out and Gov. Perry thinks the minifigs are a little demeaning to Lone Star Stateians, what the hell happens then?

Video Game Makers Lobby for Attention [Austin American-Statesman]

"I hardly play any games, I'm not from that generation, but because of my job, I had to research the industry. The vast majority of my parliamentary colleagues are always wanting to ban the latest game, but they don't know the details of the industry. Few people in this country realise how important it is to the UK economy."

Instead of trivializing or dismissing something he didn't understand, he looked into it and gave it a fair evaluation. It's part of being a representative and a leader, and I wish others would practice it more — and on subjects other than video games, of course.

Foster was noting how the UK games industry had fallen to fourth place overall in world development, and backing UK publishers who need stronger education policy to deliver them trained graduates, and tax breaks to stop the drain of development to nations with lower costs of doing business. Eidos' creative director and head of acquisitions recently said that the mainstream of the UK still treats games makers as "one notch up from pornography," and the government's posture doesn't help. Not sure how effective Mr. Foster will — Liberal Democrats are the third largest party in Parliament — but at least he's showing some support.

UK MP Backs Games Industry [Edge Online via GamePolitics]

He knew the capabilities were there. The early iterations of Spore in the EA Advanced Weapons Labs had showed the way. But the cost... they’d had to nuke an escaped Brian Crecente on the corner of 4th Avenue and Broadway. Only a clumsy Gawker clone and a Sims expansion pack which wiped the knowledge of that intersection from the public mind had ensured the cover up. His favourite noodle house had been on that corner. Really great noodles ....

He wondered if he should arrange another attempt on Stephen Totilo – the wounds from the Desktop Tower Defense debacle were still fresh. But it was the little guys who were causing the real problems: penetration attacks from TIGSource were getting more common every day and Stallman still lived, protected by the Dckx mafia, despite that outrageous price on his head. He could feel the sand slipping through his fingers like goo through a pipe. How could he identify the next big thing if he couldn’t even see the potential in his own staff?

As Doull says in a comment below the 'review,' "Despite what I wrote, this isn't a specific dig at EA or the game industry. It was more a 'isn't it a great opportunity to be an independent developer, because the tools are now out there to not have to worry about the low level stuff anymore'." It's worth a read just for the mental image of a clone Crecente and a destroyed corner in New York City. Long live the indie game.

Review: World of Goo [Ascii Dreams via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Video games are a very simple way to enjoy virtual experience. All you need is a TV, a console, a controller, and the software. This is an easy system for everyone compared with other forms of entertainment.

But like Hollywood, in order to keep the customers paying, the industry is using increasingly exaggerated content. Pressing buttons, moving sticks-these are small actions with grand effects. However, I think it is a slight error of judgment in our industry to believe that actions that in reality would carry great responsibility can be carried out in video games without thought for responsibility.

The Wii has come and put a cat amongst the pigeons of this unbalance. The harder you swing the remote, the faster the baseball bat moves. This more organic relation between imagination and reality is easily absorbed.

At the same time we understand that game designs that, for example, require the player to shake the Wii controller strongly to rotate a Tetris block, are unsuitable for input methods like this. The Wii requires a tighter connection between actual and virtual actions. But think! How can we improve on these kinds of obvious connections? That is the hint to make more advanced games.

It's a bit all over the place, but it's hard to fault Matsuura for that — it's a really interesting piece and wonderfully engaging, and certainly worth reading. Sure, it's only one take on the state of games today and he says many things that I'm sure many gamers would vehemently disagree with, but it's one (very passionate) side of the debate on where we are and where we're going.

A Sense of Fun: Anybody Could Be Your Player 1 [Gamasutra]

Pacini worries that the current model of game development is becoming far too unwieldy, and believes that a more distributed, less centralized system — similar in some ways to that of the film industry — could become the norm.

"The model in which games are made — with a staff of people upwards of 100 people a lot of the time — is kind of outdated now," he says.

"It costs so much money to maintain that staff. What do you do with that staff when the game is done? You get these mass layoffs. You don't hear that when a movie's over. Everybody who was on the movie is gone — but there was no mass layoff, it's just that everybody was a contractor just for that project.

"I think in the future, a lot of game development will move towards that," Pacini continues. "Contractors now are being used more efficiently than they've ever been on game projects, and it's become a more valid way to staff up your project. Rather than being looked down upon as a company that doesn't want to hire somebody, it's more fiscally responsible of the company to hire contractors, not to staff up and have a mass layoff at the end."

They point out that development costs are going up, up, up, and the business model the industry is founded on isn't helping matters; will we start seeing a shift in the way games are developed? Armature has already staked their claim on a "lean, rapid prototype development that doesn't get bogged down in the ways traditional development often does" and reliance on a 'distributed' development team.

Armature Founders On 'Unsustainable' Biz, Plans [Gamasutra]

By far the biggest — for this grim 'n' gritty 90's comic book fan's money — is the option to not have your character dress like a total idiot. In a bold swing away from other Superpowered games, characters in Champions online will be able to completely customize their look and dress in normal street clothes rather than compulsory star-spangled tights, underwear-pervert chic and flappy cloaks.

If capes are your thing, though, Cryptic are happy to confirm the option of "long scarves, torn cloth and cowls". They have also been hard at work implementing attacks with chains, whips and mummy bandages - which gives some insight into the kind of bizarre details a game like this requires.

Ask Cryptic [Champions Dev Blog]

"Personally, I think the consoles are a problem," he told GamesDeveloper.bizGameDaily, "Years ago I was excited about consoles, but anything that makes development more expensive, rather than better, faster, cheaper, I think is a step backwards."

"I'm more excited about what I see happening on PC because I see it allowing for more smaller games to be sold that can be delivered to anyone who's connected at much lower price points."

I think what he is getting at is that you can just write a game for a PC and release it — you don't have to negotiate with LIVE or PSN, for example — and use the Internet to get the code out to whatever niche audience you like.

This may be the case, but if you are developing a big title (like, say, a new Oddworld game) surely the big money sink is in the creative side of the IP? All that artwork, music and writing — plus the code, of course. Is the open nature of the PC that much of a boon when you have multiple graohics cards to support?

'Consoles Are a Problem,' says Lorne Lanning [GameDaily]

"There's an expectation now that there would be a LEGO game per year, and we certainly feel that one or two games would be the right amount per year, otherwise there'd be a saturation of LEGO games and they'd lose the charm...We're also conscious that we're making games for young kids. We don't want to take the piss out of the consumer and end up making any old rubbish. We're hoping people feel our games are of a high standard and we want to continue doing that."

Thank goodness I say. Games like Lego Caligula and Lego Schindler's List need to stay in my imagination, for the good of all mankind.

TT not going to "take the piss" out of LEGO-game fans News [Eurogamer]

I don't know if I'd describe it as "interesting" as much as exhausting...As a company we've found ourselves spread very, very thin - because the World of Warcraft community has a voracious appetite for content. That development team is 130 people, they're working on content patches, they're working on an expansion set, they've got their hands full - and then we've got the other development teams that we need to continue to support as well.

Incidentally, the question Frank is responding to is "How interesting has it been for you to watch the success of World of Warcraft?", a question a lesser man might have answered with "pretty interesting" and then moved on to the next, hopefully better question.

Blizzard's Frank Pearce [GamesIndustry.biz]

I'd like to think that gaming is still in its infancy stage and will have a chance to grow. I just think there are a lot of factors against that happening. As an interactive medium, there's really nothing else that's comparable. Sports perhaps, and I think there's an argument to be made that some sports or sporting events can be considered art, but again, I'd like to think that gaming is deeper than just competition.

I do think the day will come where games as a medium can be considered art, but we're going to have to solve some pretty big issues before that happens. We need to find ways of financing games other than through the traditional publisher/developer relationship. He who controls the money controls the power, and all too often that power is tied up into market research whitewashing innovation or making copy-cat titles that chase the latest hot trend and not with the creators trying to put their ideas on the screen.

The rest of the interview — on starting a new studio, developing Critter, and talk about the studio in general — is an interesting and reasonably quick read.

Interview with Epicenter Studios [GameCritics.com]

After throwing out 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, The Bourne franchise and Brutal Legend, the company has seemingly let the sequel to Scarface: The World is Yours slip down the back of the development sofa as well.

It isn't a huge loss, it has to be said — there isn't exactly a shortage of a gangster-themed games around at the moment — but it still seems a shame that we haven't yet seen a version of Tony Montana on the latest console hardware. Chainsaws may be old hat, but I'll bet the PS3 could really render the living heck out of a line of blow.

There is still some hope — Ghostbusters managed to slime its way back in, after all.

Scarface 2... another Sierra game killed by Activision Blizzard [Variety's The Cut Scene]

"We need to help retailers," Braben said. "In fairness, they're probably doing it because they're struggling. But there are ways of tracking and deterring pre-owned sales."

His ideas: Unique codes on boxes, similar to those used for PC online games, to ensure the games can't be sold. Or, special content that can only be unlocked with a scratch-off card containing a one-use code.

But most likely, small developers will look to the downloadable channel as the way to go, Braben says. This will certainly become more viable in future generations of consoles, meaning devs still must cope with retail markets for the forseeable future.

Braben Questions Game Prices [Develop, via Destructoid]

To build a meaningful game, a narrative designer joins together and balances these disciplines in game development so that the story can shine in a game. When done successfully, the game expresses themes that connect to audiences. It becomes more than simply a game, but a meaningful experience ....

By espousing this multidisciplinary approach to narrative design, developers can elevate the art of game development as well as increase the bottom line. Meaningful games require advance planning, but players benefit much from the integration of story, art, gameplay, sound, and music. Using themes, narrative designers ensure that each play experience is not only immersive, but also a meaningful one.

Clearly this is geared towards games that have a real narrative to weave the other elements around, but not shirking any of these smaller parts in creating a grander whole would add to any game. It's a shortish essay that's worth a quick read — Chen's piece is nowhere near as pedantic as some of these 'narrative design' essays can be.

Towards More Meaningful Games: A Multidisciplinary Approach [Gamasutra]

From there he explores the process of achieving that goal, including constraints (will the changes overpower the Heavy/Medic team?), entertainment value (will the new tools be interesting?), and weighing the changes against the basic skillset of a successful Heavy. It's an intriguing look into the process behind making Team Fortress 2 a better game, and a great read overall.

A Heavy Problem [TF2 Official Blog - Thanks Overcow!]

Danks introduced the concept for PlayStation-edu — "It's mostly about getting schools hardware, to learn how the actual platform works. Not for research and development, for computer science and engineering, and not for art. The goal is to reach the people who care about the metal — engine level coders who like to write in assembly."

"Consoles and multi-core are here to stay," continued Danks. "Beyond that all things change and you need to learn the basics at the low level. So Assembly is here to stay!"

"A lot of schools are treating game education like trade school," argued Danks. "Too many students can’t explain a pointer, can’t explain memory caches, can’t explain bus contention, can’t explain how a complier works, cant explain a software rasterizer, can’t explain a race condition…"

He goes on to talk about the legal agreements that will be required and the three tier structure of the program. Sounds like a promising idea, but academia is very hard to change — and slow to come around in many cases. We'll see how long it takes this idea to take root.

Sony's Danks Details PlayStation-edu Initiative [Gamasutra]

“We’re deeply impressed by NVIDIA’s commitment to push physics to new levels of fidelity and performance, and their investment in development and support infrastructure across all platforms,” said Torsten Reil, CEO of NaturalMotion. “NVIDIA’s PhysX technology provides a robust, high-fidelity foundation for our advanced character animation algorithms and tools. Through our close collaboration, we will help game developers bring fully interactive and believable characters to a wide range of games.”

It's two great tastes that taste real together! Hit the jump for more details on the partnership between physics powerhouses.

NaturalMotion and NVIDIA Bring a New Level of Realism to Games

Companies Team Up to Integrate Animation, AI and Physics Technologies

SANTA CLARA, CA and OXFORD, U.K. - June 11, 2008 NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies, and NaturalMotion Ltd., the developers behind the highly acclaimed euphoria motion synthesis technology, today announced that the companies have teamed up to offer game developers and publishers easy-to-use, highly integrated solutions for adding animation and physics in next-generation games.

Starting with the upcoming release of NaturalMotion’s morpheme animation engine, NVIDIA’s PhysX technology will provide rigid body dynamics functionality across its product portfolio, supporting both console (PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii) and PC platforms. In addition, PC titles will benefit from GeForce GPU acceleration for both PhysX and future versions of morpheme, bringing additional motion fidelity to the PC game experience.

“We’re deeply impressed by NVIDIA’s commitment to push physics to new levels of fidelity and performance, and their investment in development and support infrastructure across all platforms,” said Torsten Reil, CEO of NaturalMotion. “NVIDIA’s PhysX technology provides a robust, high-fidelity foundation for our advanced character animation algorithms and tools. Through our close collaboration, we will help game developers bring fully interactive and believable characters to a wide range of games.”

“The introduction of NaturalMotion’s AI and Adaptive Behaviors is the next big breakthrough in gaming,” said Roy Taylor, Vice President of Content Relations at NVIDIA. “This technology takes us into a new level of immersion as characters roll, jump, duck and react to the players’ actions and the environments around them. We are delighted to be working with NaturalMotion to bring this new level of character animation to the world.”
For more information, visit www.naturalmotion.com.

Currently, there are about 100 games in development for WiiWare at various stages of completion.

The main saving grace here that will keep you from having to buy too many SD cards for backup storage, is that odds are not all of them will be worth purchasing. Of course without demos going up before hand we've no way of knowing for sure, but at least we'll have a revolver with a very large bullet capacity when we feel like playing a little WiiWare roulette. Hit up the IGN link below for a full interview with Prata.

Nintendo: 100 WiiWare Games in Queue [IGN Wii]

This interview sounds like it's taken from the Big O & Dukes radio show on WJFK-FM in Washington. It's a long and in depth talk with Michael Hollick, the voice actor for Niko Bellic in Grand Theft Auto IV.

There's a little too much hero-worship from the hosts, but hey, Hollick is not a controversial guest, I suppose. He gives a really good look at the development of the game, and how the actors match their lines to the motion capture, which sounds almost impossibly hard to manage and remain in character. Newfound respect for this kind of work.

Other highlights: He auditioned originally for motion-capture; the game he was told he was auditioning for was called "Frozen." And he had days where he came in to work to find a script that was "50 pages of just screaming. In these you're jumping off of something, in these you're shooting someone, in these you're being burned alive."

GTA 4 Niko Voice Actor Interview [GameTrailers user Grave, thanks reader Raivis R.]

So here's a question I wanted to put to the gaming community here: How important is momentum to finishing or playing a game? I'm wondering if, in the timeline of developing, we've reached a tipping point. The 50-hour gaming experience is upon us. In sports simulations stretching an entire season, it can be even longer. How, if at all, can a developer create and sustain momentum in players to complete something that long? Because these campaigns are only going to get longer, not that it's necessarily a bad thing.

But for now, the question that we here can answer: Is there a period of time where, separated from gaming (a week's vacation, a borked machine, a ton of work or school obligations) you're just unable to get back into it?

I know Bash had a TUD on Friday, but I'm curious here, so Tell Us, Dammit! In the comments after the jump.

The seven titles we owe it to: Doom, Quake, Tribes, Battlezone, Unreal Tournament, Counterstrike and Battlefield.

If nothing else, at least the past two or three years of FPSes, multi- and single-player, have combined to give us standardized controls, which makes picking up a new title infinitely easier to play — especially when it comes to free looking. It's now pretty much left stick = movement, right stick = head, with no fruity switching of camera angles or other unnecessary twists. Also, Y or triangle is use, B or circle is jump, etc. If you think that's a minor gamer assist, ask yourself the last time you used two different copiers or fax machines with the same set of commands.

Ed also argues that single-player FPSes are constantly delivering great new titles, but multiplayers have been "the same old for quite a few years now." I just can't see it that way. Maybe structurally they are the same, but characters, missions, game story, that's what gets me into an FPS now. True, a new gameplay innovation that's widely adopted will beat the best written game for sales, but I ask you, what else could a multiplayer FPS be doing right now?

How 7 Games Created the Modern Team Multiplayer FPS

We're already working on a title that is more than two years out, and because the filmmaker is a game fan who is really excited about how we want to expand on the story of the film, we've been given a lot of latitude. It's been really fun to dig deep into this universe.

Brash Entertainment Signs Multi-Game Development Deal With Factor 5

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., March 13 /PRNewswire/ — Brash Entertainment today announced a game development deal with California-based game development studio, Factor 5. Under the terms of the worldwide agreement, the partners will collaborate on an unnamed title releasing in 2010 to be announced around the E3 Expo in July.

In addition to creating the multi-million selling STAR WARS: ROGUE SQUADRON franchise, INDIANA JONES, CONTRA: THE ALIEN WARS, LAIR and the classic TURRICAN franchise, Factor 5 is well respected for driving the technology of games. Factor 5 was a technology partner in the development of Nintendo's Wii and GameCube consoles, provider of the MusyX sound tools, partner in the Sony PlayStation 3 Edge toolset group, and has pioneered many technological advancements in the areas of audio and visuals in video games in collaboration with Dolby Labs, THX, and AMD/ATI.

"We do our due diligence on potential partners; we want to understand their in-house tech, and get to know their team and its capabilities. Factor 5 has a solid track record in creating licensed games that, in combination with their technology expertise, makes them an ideal partner," said Mitch Davis. "But what really cemented the collaboration was their passion for the IP and the world in which the game will live. Because that's when you are going to get really good games — when the people who are making it are really enjoying the process."

"Typically, there are two issues developers have with making a licensed game. First, they tend to have shorter development cycles. Second, there are often very tight constraints on how you can portray the world of the
IP, its characters and story. The resulting lack of creative freedom can be very frustrating — especially when it's a world you are excited to explore," said Julian Eggebrecht, President and Co-founder of Factor 5. "But collaborating with Brash is much different, we're already working on a title that is more than two years out, and because the filmmaker is a game fan who is really excited about how we want to expand on the story of the film, we've been given a lot of latitude. It's been really fun to dig deep into this universe."

Sega is no good at marketing hardware anymore. Sorry, guys, it's true. The Saturn was a total flop outside Japan, and, while the Dreamcast did pretty good, it got trounced by Sony's PlayStation 2 marketing.

Old consoles had a lot of very custom hardware in them, and you really had to re-learn how to code in a lot of instances. Look at today's console lineup: basically, all PPC cell processors with various combinations of off-the-shelf video hardware and such. Modern arcade boards are more or less just a consumer console crammed into a JAMMA form factor.

So, in that sense, no, I don't expect nor would I like to see Sega return to the hardware scene. I like them doing what they did during the Dreamcast era: making fun games. Hardware is just not all that interesting anymore.

If you're nostalgic for the days of yore, it's worth a read through. It's certainly an interesting look at the pleasures and pitfalls of trying to keep a dead console alive.

Interview: Cryptic Allusion on Keeping the Dream(cast) Alive [The Escapist]

I'm unusual because I'm genuinely interested in the business side of being an indie gamer. I love the whole entrepreneur thing, the setting the right price, getting expenses down and sales up, etc. My fave TV show is Dragon's Den for fucks sake. The vast majority of indie devs are programmers, and the C++ DNA seems to interfere with the DNA that makes people enjoy marketing or business. Most indies who make no money do very little marketing or promotion, because it terrifies them ... Marketing is a big deal. I know that Introversion put a lot of effort into marketing, and you can see the results there too. If you really are the typical shy semi-autistic sunlight-hating game coder, you need to get an outgoing biz/marketing guy to work with.

It's an interesting (and sensible) look at indie development; it's refreshing to read people being bluntly honest and not going off about the moral superiority of those who develop games for purely altruistic reasons.

Deserved Kudos: Positech's Cliff Harris Interview [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

"This is fantastic news for commercial PC game developers as well as the independent game development community, who will really benefit from this move," said Mark DeLoura, creator of the Game Programming Gems series.

Havok Offers Core Physics Software Free For PC Game Developers

Company Seeks to Propel Innovative Game Development by Giving Free Access to Industry-Leading Physics and Animation Tool Suite

San Francisco (February 20, 2008) - Havok™, the premier provider of interactive software and services to digital creators in the games and movie industries, today announced that the company will offer the PC version of its award-winning physics and animation software product - Havok Complete - for download free of charge.

Available for non-commercial use, Havok Complete for the PC will be freely downloadable in May 2008.

Havok's core platform, Havok Complete combines the industry-leading Havok Physics engine and Havok Animation, the company's premier character animation solution. Havok Complete is already the most popular solution in the cross-platform AAA games market, featuring technology used in over 200 games. By making Havok Complete for the PC freely downloadable, Havok will further build on its leading position by completely removing the barriers to entry for the large number of independent developers, academic institutions and enthusiasts in the PC space.

"Havok has an excellent revenue base generated by sales of our three products across multiple platforms and into multiple industries," said David O'Meara, Managing Director at Havok. "This enables us to make an industry-changing move and opens up a much broader market for products such as Havok Behavior - and our new products Havok Cloth and Havok Destruction - that really come alive when adopted on top of our core platform, Havok Complete."

Havok has entered into an agreement with Intel, Havok's parent company, under which approved game developers on the PC platform can execute a commercial distribution license with Havok for free.

"Intel is very pleased to be sponsoring this direction in the PC market. This aligns well with our ongoing strategy of putting the best software tools in the hands of PC games developers," said Renee J. James, Corporate Vice President and General Manager, Software and Solutions Group, Intel Corporation.

With the free PC download of Havok Complete, Havok enables broad non-commercial development use for artists and engineers around the world, which Havok believes will boost creative game development throughout the industry.

"This is fantastic news for commercial PC game developers as well as the independent game development community, who will really benefit from this move," said Mark DeLoura, creator of the Game Programming Gems series. "It's great to see a leading middleware company like Havok show such support for PC game developers by making its physics and animation system freely available."

Havok's overall focus remains cross-platform and Havok will continue commercial licensing of Havok Complete for other platforms and in other industries such as movies and serious gaming. This initiative does not apply to license fees that may be payable to Havok for console versions of Havok Complete or to applications developed for other purposes such as game engines for redistribution, other middleware, movies, training, military or industrial simulation.

Havok's physics software is featured in over 200 AAA games available on stores shelves today. With well over 90 games currently in development to be released this year, use of Havok's ubiquitous software is up 100% over last year at the same time. Best-selling titles featuring Havok physics include: Halo 3, Assassin's Creed, Guitar Hero III, BioShock, World in Conflict, Half Life 2: The Orange Box, and Heavenly Sword. Havok's software will also be featured in the highly-anticipated upcoming games Alan Wake, Indiana Jones, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Starcraft II.

With a broad and deep range of tech partners including AMD, Intel, Nvidia, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft as well as a host of world-class publishers and developers, Havok is well known industry-wide for its excellent customer service.

In addition to the PC software download, Havok also unveiled two new software products, Havok Cloth™ and Havok Destruction™ at this year's Game Developers Conference. Havok Cloth and Destruction provide artists with dramatically increased control over interactive cloth and destructible objects within games. The company also announced several new features and enhancements across its award winning modular suite of run-time technology and artist tools.

Havok also celebrated a number of key entertainment and technology awards in 2007, including a National Academy of Television, Arts & Sciences Award, Game Developer Frontline Award, and a Develop Industry Excellence Award.

While there were 100 developers who made the list, there's no way in hell I'm trawling through it and re-typing all 100 entrants. You'll need to hit the link below if you want to see the hotly-contested battle for 89th place. Instead, I'm just going to skip straight past the chaff and highlight the wheat - ie the top 10.

10: Casey Hudson (BioWare/Mass Effect)
9. Dan Houser (Rockstar/GTA)
8. Yoshiaki Koizumi (Nintendo/Mario Galaxy)
7. Hideo Kojima (Kojima Productions/Metal Gear Solid)
6. Will Wright (Maxis/Spore)
5. Greg LoPiccolo (Harmonix/Rock Band)
4. Rob Pardo (Blizzard/WoW)
3. Jason West (Infinity Ward/Call of Duty 4)
2. Harold Ryan (Bungie/Halo)
1. Ken Levine (2K/BioShock)

NOTE: Next-Gen have based this list on who they believe is "hot" RIGHT NOW. Not in 2006, not in 1996, but NOW.

THE NEXT-GEN HOT 100 DEVELOPERS 2008 [Next-Gen]

Havok Gives Artists Unprecendented Control With Introduction of Cloth and Destruction

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 19 /PRNewswire/ — Havok(TM), the premier provider of interactive software and services to digital creators in the games and movie industries, today unveiled Havok Cloth(TM) and Havok Destruction(TM) at the 2008 Game Developers Conference (ES162, West Hall). Available for the first time in mid-2008, these two products provide artists with dramatically increased control over interactive cloth and destructible objects within games.

Built on Havok's award-winning modular suite of run-time technology and artists tools, Havok Cloth(TM) and Havok Destruction(TM) will feature out-of-the-box integration with Havok Physics(TM) and Havok Animation(TM), dramatically accelerating the development of cross platform, cutting edge electronic entertainment across all leading game platforms.

"With the release of Havok Cloth and Havok Destruction, the company adds both depth and breadth to our market-dominating suite of physics tools," said David O'Meara, Managing Director of Havok. "Innovative and easy to utilize, Havok Cloth and Destruction are powerful, flexible tools giving art teams more control in the design process, resulting in a more realistic interactive experience for gamers."

David Coghlan, Vice President of Development for Havok said, "Havok Cloth and Havok Destruction will further increase the standard of realism and immersion in games. Havok Cloth enables scalable clothing that will significantly enhance the visual impact of on-screen characters. Havok Destruction will drive high-adrenaline action scenes with unprecedented levels of physics mayhem."

Havok Cloth(TM) is a new performance-optimized development tool designed to minimize the time that game artists spend on animating the behavior of character garments and environmental cloth. It enables increased realism for cutting-edge games, is easily customizable and fits into today's workflow without burdening artists, animators or programmers.

Havok Cloth(TM) features:
— Highly realistic physically-based simulation of cloth and character
clothing with low CPU and memory overhead
— Multithreaded and platform-optimized (including PLAYSTATION(R)3)
— Artist-driven control of the full range of cloth behavioral properties
such as stretching, damping and bending
— Artist-friendly, modeller-based, cloth setup tools

Havok Destruction(TM) is the cross-platform tool for simulation of rigid body destruction. Destruction gives the game artist total control over the simulation, drastically reducing the production time and cost of creating large numbers of realistic destructible game objects. Havok Destruction can create a completely new game play experience by giving additional realism to structural mechanics, graphical effects and game level design.

Havok Destruction(TM) features:
— Dynamic fracture of game objects including: shattering, fracture and
deformation.
— Software Development Kit that is fully multithreaded, optimized for
the PLAYSTATION(R)3 and Xbox 360(R) and makes optimal use of Havok
Physics
— Art Tool Support

Jonathan Newth, Corporate Development Officer of Kuju Entertainment, commented "The US, and San Francisco in particular, is a natural choice for our first non-UK studio. It's a hotbed of development talent, home to many leading publishers and some of the leading US games press.

Kuju America [Official Website]

The Sims is the ultimate story of a triumph of a game designer: being proved right when almost everyone else thought him wrong. So what advice would he give to a fellow developer when considering trying to bring their own, unique, dream project into existence. "Never underestimate the value of persistence," he states, "Even with SimCity, I spent several years trying to convince people that SimCity would be a good game. Around that time it just seemed that it was a battle that could not be won. If you're incredibly persistent, and you really believe, then persistence can overcome any number of barriers."

But besides making my teeth hurt in parts, it's an interesting look at the process of getting a game into development from idea to production.

Making Of: The Sims [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

iD Tech Camps, a sort of summer camp for children interesting in game development and computers, announced today that they will be offering classes on using the Unreal Engine 3 tools to make games to six or seven students this year. The instruction sounds like it will be heavy on the modding, but there will also be instruction on creating original games and environments.

"We've partnered with iD Tech Camps because of their reputation for quality game development instruction for teens," said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. "Unreal Tournament 3 delivers unparalleled game quality that gamers have come to know and expect from Epic Games. We are reaching an audience of gaming enthusiasts who play the game as well as learn to design and mod with our deep set of tools."

This seems like a pretty smart move on Epic's part. It's sort of like Apple giving computers to schools to use in their labs. It hooks kids when their young.

Video Game Camp Uses Award-Winning Unreal Tournament 3 to Teach Valuable Game Development Skills

CAMPBELL, CA - January 3, 2008 - Today's teens are the first generation born into a world completely oriented around technology. Their births were announced on a cell phone and their images growing up were sent to family on the Internet. They have social networking pages and build relationships by calling and texting friends.

So what's the best way to teach technology, and more specifically, the emerging field of video game development, to teens? Campbell, CA based iD Tech Camps, America's largest national youth summer computer camp, thinks it has the answer. Instruction is broken into manageable parts and classes promote hands-on learning in small groups of just 6 or 7 students—a big departure from a typical school classroom of 30. Topics at the camp focus on the interests of teens. And who wouldn't want to make their own video game? The small peer group collaboration and emphasis on experimentation encourage exploration and creativity in the rapidly expanding field of video game development.

"We provide an environment where instruction is personalized and fluid," said Pete Ingram-Cauchi, president and CEO of iD Tech Camps. "Teens choose our computer camp because we have the cutting edge software and tools that are most relevant in the industry. Partnering with industry leaders like Epic Games is vital. They believe in our teaching philosophy. They understand that a key component to offering the best tech courses involves instruction of the industry's leading game engine, Unreal Engine 3, as provided with the Unreal Tournament 3 game."

Midway, a leading interactive entertainment publisher and developer, and world-renowned developer Epic Games, Inc., recently announced that the highly anticipated and award-winning Unreal Tournament 3 game has shipped for PC. Building off of the massive success of Gears of War, the 2006 Game of the Year, Epic Games has brought the world's premiere and multi-million unit selling first-person shooter back to the PC. Students at iD Tech Camps will get instruction on the Unreal Engine 3 tools that ship as part of the Unreal Tournament 3 PC version. This way they are getting training in a world-class professional game engine that has also been used in award-winning, million-selling, games including Gears of War, Mass Effect and BioShock.

"We've partnered with iD Tech Camps because of their reputation for quality game development instruction for teens," said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. "Unreal Tournament 3 delivers unparalleled game quality that gamers have come to know and expect from Epic Games. We are reaching an audience of gaming enthusiasts who play the game as well as learn to design and mod with our deep set of tools."

iD Tech Camps and the iD Gaming Academy use the recently released Unreal Tournament 3 in their curriculum and during NVIDIA-hosted Gaming Tournaments. Students will be able to modify Unreal Tournament 3 by adding new levels, redesigning skins or replacing characters to customize game play through interactive modding tools. They can also create 3D video games and design 3D environments and levels complete with advanced special effects.

The "couch potato" characterization of video game players is being tossed out the window. Players no longer passively play; they build their own environments, characters and strategies. Educators and manufacturers are responding by providing the training, technology and tools that allow users to be more than just players.

Most game developers are "core gamers", well versed in the complex logics of resource allocation. We tend to privilege simplicity and emergence in games, favoring sophisticated experiences that create new challenges each time we play. And perhaps one well-balanced, mastery-style casual game is less financially risky than many throwaway experiences. But such an attitude ignores the pleasures of the fleeting, the transitory, the impermanent. Casual games, perhaps, can do more by doing less.

It's an interesting take on things, but I'm not sure I can see any companies interested in turning a profit finding the one night stands of casual gaming a safe proposition.

Persuasive Games: Casual As In Sex, Not Casual As In Friday [Gamasutra]

I'm sure a lot of you have similar stories to this one: New Publisher Division, first six months: "We need to differentiate ourselves! Let's create radically innovative titles. Let's show the other guys how it's done!" A year later, of the 12 titles released, only one is a hit. Another two have been fairly successful, but with flaws.

Sales steps in: "We're not selling squat!" A coup d'etat ensues. Next year's portfolio is 50% clones, and 50% minor incremental innovations. Sales go up, but churn is high because players lose interest. We need to understand and plan this better. We need to realize that incremental innovation is what most players feel comfortable with. But radical innovation brings new players and renews the interest of existing ones who are done with their favorite genre.

The problem is in striking that healthy balance between "Oh god, not another [Bejeweled/Final Fantasy/insert game of your choice here] rip off" and investing in 'different' games that wind up flopping (see: Okami). That line is obviously going to be different for casual developers vs. studios making games for a 'hardcore' audience, but there's got to be a healthy balance somewhere.

Innovation in Casual Games: A Rallying Cry

£950,000 SEEDA grant ensures NCsoft Europe's growth in Brighton

Wednesday 26th September/...NCsoft Europe, one of the world's leading online gaming publishers, has announced that it is planning to expand its Brighton base and create over 100 new high skilled jobs following a major investment from the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA).

In its first three years NCsoft Europe has grown rapidly employing more skilled staff with every new project, which have included the launch of top games such as Lineage® II, City of Heroes®, Guild Wars®, City of Villains®.

The NCsoft office in Brighton is the European HQ for NCsoft Corporation, the Korean digital gaming developer and publisher. It began its operations in Brighton with three people in September 2004 and now employs 112.

SEEDA is injecting a Selective Finance for Investment in England (SFIE) Grant, ensuring continued sustained development. NCsoft's growth will allow it to diversify following the development and launch of a series of new products.

NCsoft is using SEEDA's SFIE to facilitate the expansion of its current base at Lanchester House, Brighton and support the company's move to the CityPoint development in two years time. 110 jobs at the company will be safeguarded and 116 new jobs are to be created by 2010.

Geoff Heath, NCsoft's CEO explains:

"Brighton is a lively and growing hub for the creative and software sector. Our expansion will stimulate local competition and the exchange of best practice in the region. SEEDA's support of our investment will help grow the business and keep us and Brighton at the forefront of our industry, both nationally and internationally. We'll also be in a position to recruit and further develop the very best talent available."

Jeff Alexander, Executive Director, SEEDA's Global Competitiveness division added:

"NCsoft has attracted national and global attention since its arrival in Brighton. The company is a magnet for highly skilled jobs- this is vital to Brighton and to the region and helps the South-east achieve the goals of the Regional Economic Strategy.

"The news is good for NCsoft and for Brighton and underlines SEEDA's commitment to attracting highly skilled creative employees with computer and language skills to the South East"

NCSOFT EUROPEAN OFFICE EXPANSION TO CREATE OVER 100 NEW HIGH-TECH JOBS [Develop]