It's been a while since the Space Giraffe kerfluffle where Yak Minter threw a hissy fit in his blog regarding poor scores given to the XBLA psychedelic shooter (and the point where it was compared to Joyce's Ulysses, but I came across an interesting piece recently that talked about Space Giraffe in reference to (wait for it) a piece of literary theory known as 'authorial intent.' The post-structuralist conception is (at least in part) that the critic's will and opinion always supercedes that of the author. What does this have to do with Space Giraffe? Well, it's one way to look at why there was such heated discussion over Space Giraffe:

The collision between the Llamasoft's eccentric design aesthetic and the expectations of entire modern internet did not fall in Minter's favor .... At least a couple of online discussions link to a post on Minter's personal blog where he expresses muted optimism at the game's tepid sales after its launch last summer, and another on the game's official development blog where he angrily rebuffs players (and reviewers) who find the game too difficult or unfriendly to "man up and grow a pair", ranting that the expectation of the modern gamer to encounter some easy tutorial levels followed by a steady-but-gentle difficulty curve is more pandering to the masses than a time-tested refinement in game design philosophy.

This alone paints an interesting portrait of a truly old-school game designer discovering the sort of controversy that would arise only as a result of the almost anachronistic insertion into the XBox Live Arcade catalog that Space Giraffe represents - a brand-new, high-definition, surround-sound game that still somehow feels like it's from 1985. What brings it all around to my thoughts on authorial intent are articles like this one, where Minter insists that Space Giraffe is not a followup to Tempest. Except... it totally is. I put forth that not a single person who has played the original Tempest, and who has had no contact with Minter's own thoughts on Space Giraffe's design, will fail to immediately think "Aha! Tempest!" upon seeing the newer game. Furthermore, even if they like the game enough to stick with it and discover all the ways that it's different - and there are indeed many - they will still consider it a Tempest offshoot.

It's not a particularly long piece, and many may cringe at the collision of literary theory and, uh, gaming, but it's not that often we see such a visceral response from an auteur to critics that stretches out over a period of time.

On Authorial Intent and Space Giraffes [The Gameshelf]

"I think it is fair to say that we do not comment on rumour and speculation, especially about games that have never been announced," said SCEE corporate PR manager Nick Caplin.

Caplin did tell us, though, some detail behind why Eight Days and Getaway 3 were scrapped, and why we oughtn't worry about SCEE:

"Regarding 8 Days and The Getaway, we review the progress and viability of games on a regular basis taking into account feedback from within WWS [worldwide studios] and all the RHQs [regional headquarters], and at our latest review, felt that the budget and resources required to complete these games could be more beneficial elsewhere."

Moreover, Caplin said there's no trouble on the European front. "We are still dedicated to our first-party studios and are very excited about the fantastic exclusive titles coming this year, such as LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2 and Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, as well as some very exciting titles coming in the near future."

" Please note that LBP, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift and Killzone 2 are all from European studios," said Caplin.

An inside UK source tells us that Heavenly Sword 2 has been canned by Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe. The game was axed after months in development because it is no longer seen as commercially viable, our source tells us.

The news came during an emergency meeting set up for the Sony Cambridge team which was working on the game.

On a side note, Ninja Theory, who have already said they weren't working on the sequel to their Playstation 3 exclusive, have grown increasingly bitter about their treatment at Sony's hands, our source tells us. I'm told that the development studio, which once had offices in the same building as Sony Cambridge, have started packing up to move to a new location.

I guess when they said they wanted to move away from Sony and get into multi-platform development they weren't kidding.

If true, this marks the third major project, counting Eight Days and Getaway 3, that has been canned by SCEE. Is the Europe arm of Sony in trouble? No clue, but we've asked for comment.

We see an entirely different area of progress: a form of independent production based on real-time game engine technology. We reckon you could do something like Beowulf for 15-20 per cent of the cost... If you are already creating hi-res assets for a game, then sharing these can bring that cost down even further... We have a lot of experience in performance capture, animation, rendering and so on. We can compete in the same way that indie films can live alongside blockbusters.

20 percent of the cost is dandy and all, Ninja Theory, but would your film have Angelina Jolie? Well.

Make Beowulf [Games Industry]

It's a brutal environment out there for an independent, particularly considering the size of the games that we're developing... But we've now signed up the new game and the future looks pretty rosy for us... our new game is going to be PS3 and Xbox 360.

Ninja Theory co-founder Nina Kristensen says her company may also have a movie in the works, a totally CGI affair "using the game engine alongside the game itself." Sounds interesting. At least more interesting than, say, Final Fantasy: Spirits Within.

Ninja Theory considers CGI movie alongside new multiformat title [GamesIndustry.biz]

Instead of making some stupid cabinet or a DVD shelf like the rest of the class, I decided to make something a little more original...Ironical, I was the first one to get cut by my sword. I let a kid hold it and he got a little power hungry, started swinging it around and cut my in the arm. For a wooden sword, it sure cuts well.

Cake-loving home ec students, we're looking in your direction for a proper rebuttal.

Real Life Heavenly Sword [GameGrep via PS3Fanboy]

They initially asked for video game background, then they had a follow-up phone call asking which games I had played or owned, focusing heavily on Heavenly Sword. There were 3 surveys done on Monday, groups of 6 for the first 2, 4 for the last group (my group). Predominantly males, asking about our impressions on Prince of Persia, God of War, Ninja Gaiden and, of course, Heavenly Sword. Some questions were asked about why Heavenly Sword didn't sell so well, what our impressions were on the gameplay, how the cutscenes were done, combat mechanics.

At the end of the night they gave us a few pieces of paper and asked our takes on the ideas (probably already set in stone). The following are the sheets that they asked our opinions on:

1. Heavenly sword 2 will take place 10 years after the events in heavenly sword 1

2. The main character will be a male with martial arts background

3. The main character will be Kai, but she will be a more mature woman.

4. The game will require you to master different martial arts styles before retrieving the heavenly sword

5. The game will, instead of button mashing, have controls that utilize an analog stick to go through weapons.

6. The game will have downloadable weapons, characters, and enemies to customize your experience.

7. The game will be more interactive with the environment

8. The game will have you on a storyline with replayable missions, as opposed to an open world

Right now we're working on an exciting new concept that has got everyone we talk to buzzing. We can't say a lot except that it's going to be great to work on and should be even better to play! It'll take all the things we loved about Heavenly Sword and make them bigger and better than ever before.

I've had a pet project I've been working on for years, three of them if my memory is right. It started as a simple idea: You can judge a lot from a person's desk. I bet you could judge just as much from their home entertainment system. So I decided it would be fun to try and track down some pictures from the work desks and home gaming set-ups of the people who work in and cover the video game industry. Simple right? Not so much.

Turns out that many of the people are either too busy or too private to want to participate in such a project. To make matters worse, there's always fear that something sitting on someone's desk, that ends up in a photo, could actually be news worthy. Like a secret project or the next big thing. But I didn't give up and about once a year I'd harass a bunch of game developers for photos. Finally, this year, the harassment paid off.

What started as a trickle of photos turned quickly into the collection of galleries you'll find on the jump: More than 40 different photo galleries from 17 studios, seven publications, two industry movers and shakers and a couple of fun surprises.

You'll get to see the desk of such greats as Sid Meier, Peter Molyneux and Tetsuya Mizuguchi along with plenty of others. Remember you can comment both on the next page and on each individual photo if you click on them.

If I find there is interest, I will try to periodically update this gallery of galleries with more developers, journalists and industry movers and shakers. Have fun.

DEVELOPERS
2K Games

ASTRO Gaming

Buzz Monkey Software

Capcom

Eat, Sleep, Play

Electronic Arts

Firaxis Games

Flying Lab Software

Gearbox Software

Harmonix Music

Incognito Entertainment

Insomniac Games

Kojima Productions

Lionhead Studios

NanaOn-Sha

Naughty Dog

NCSoft

NetDevil

Neversoft Entertainment

Ninja Theory

Pandemic Studios

Petroglyph Games

THQ

Q Entertainment

JOURNALISTS

Blue's News

BoingBoing

EGM

The Escapist

GameLife

Joystiq

Kotaku

MTV

Slashdot Games

VE3D

VH1

INDUSTRY FOLK

MISCELLANIES
I AM 8-BIT

Penny Arcade

Whorecraft

Video Games Live

If you're a fan of network programming, maybe seeing another repeat of 'Pushing Daisies' or 'Cold Case' will inspire you to finish that level of 'Ratchet and Clank Future' instead.

And then Olin doesn't miss the chance to take a shot at the film industry.

There's a much better relationship between game developers and publishers than there appears to be in terms of all the polemics between the writers, producers and studios.

And while that's probably true, is it really saying all that much?

Video game industry capitalizing on writers' strike [via gamingtoday]

So that was pretty sad in Heavenly Sword when red-headed Nariko croaked, huh? No worries! Just because she's dead, doesn't mean she's dead — especially in a game called Heavenly Sword. Says Nina Kristensen from developer Ninja Theory:

The beautiful thing about inventing a universe like that of Heavenly Sword is that you get to make up all the rules and happily, in the Heavenly Sword universe, just because you're dead, it doesn't mean your life is over ;)

...We haven't announced anything as yet but I can confirm that when we wrote the original story we did write it as a trilogy...

Examining complex processes is never an easy task; thus, approaches that try to divide such complexity into smaller parts that can be more easily understood are necessary. This is called analysis. Analyzing the game design cognition process is a critical part of developing a deeper understanding about how such process works.

Therefore, we propose [a] layered view as a breakdown of the game design cognitive process, where each layer corresponds to a generalization or abstraction of the layers below it, and a specialization or concretization of the layers above it.

It's shortish and well worth a read through if you have the time and inclination.

Game Design Cognition: The Bottom-Up And Top-Down Approaches [Gamasutra]

In general virtual worlds seem often to replicate structures of labour and production - they even support a class hierarchies based on geography, contextual knowledge, time in the given community etc.

At the same time virtual worlds offer the promise of liberating us. Not quite in the old utopian ideal of freeing us fully from pre-existing notions of self but at least opening up new opportunities for self-exploration. What's more should you have access to a virtual world the barrier between roles of consumption and production seems to have been lowered such that both within the context of a virtual space e.g. as a crafter or builder in second life; or outside it, say as a fan fic creator, many can participate in a mixed traditional, amateur and / or gift economy.

The long (loooong) comments section is good to settle down with and read through, and not one mention of Foucault so far in 100+ comments! Bonus points for that.

Do virtual worlds liberate us? [Terra Nova]

So hit the jump for our Frankenreview: the one review that will dictate whether or not the PS3 is good for something other than big screen porn. That is, if you don't consider a beautiful redhead kicking royal ass in skimpy clothing to be some logical extension of pornography.

GameRevolution
I can not remember the last time I cared so much about the characters in an action game, and not just the heroes, the villains as well. Like Gollum, even the bad guys have complex motivations. The facial expressions, body language, and the lip synch are so spot-on it's uncanny. I found myself actually excited for more story exposition, rather than disappointed I was dropping out of the action.

GameInformer
From the moment Nariko chooses to wield the Heavenly Sword, her time with it is limited. As a player, your experience with the sword will also be fairly short; most gamers will probably finish the game in about seven or eight hours. However, that timeframe is dense with non-stop thrills thanks to the game's ability to continually throw compelling new challenges in front of you.

IGN
The game's biggest strength is its combat system, which in large part works very well. Instead of using only face buttons to put together combos, you have three different stances that each has its own set of moves...Unfortunately, in most one-on-one battles it makes most sense to mostly stick with Triangle as it doubles for a move-breaking counter attack. The more often you use Triangle, the more likely you are to unknowingly counter an enemy's attack and come back with an instant-kill finishing move.

Eurogamer
Now and then Heavenly Sword takes a break from all the hackandslash guff and lets you shoot at things from big cannons...In these hugely entertaining (but rather samey) interludes you can...hold down L1 and effectively steer the missile directly to its target. By default, the game encourages you to use the SixAxis tilt controls, but although it feels rather fantastic when you wobble your pad to your target, it's horribly imprecise. After a few hours of struggling with it, we couldn't quite believe how much easier it was to control the direction with the analogue stick in comparison

Pro-G
If you are looking for a purist's hack and slash that will test you for months, go elsewhere, ideally to Ninja Gaiden Sigma. But if you want a thrilling and cinematic adventure that will give you ample opportunity to show off the muscle of your PlayStation 3 and provide a glimpse of the console's possible future, you could do far worse than pick up this big-budget epic.
Penny Arcade pointed out that Heavenly Sword reviews (specifically 1UP's) read like a struggling game with an 8 tagged on. And while I agree that Heavenly Sword is certainly sandbagging a bit with the PS3's currently high handicap, I think the reviewers were so generous despite length and mechanic issues because of the game's extremely high level of cinematic polish. Either way, the fanboys can dry their tears.

What they don't explain in the article, unfortunately for storage format war purposes, is whether that 10 GB footprint of sound takes up that much space on a Blu-ray disc. Is that the final compressed size? Or is that the master recording data? Semi-official Sony blog ThreeSpeech says says it's the former, so it's possible they took advantage of the extra storage and left much of it uncompressed.

If they're accurate, that's huge.

Heard About: Heavenly Sword [Develop]

This clip was originally intended to be for PlayStation G.A.P. members only, but has thankfully found its way to the internet for us all to enjoy. This first in a series of animated looks at the story behind Ninja Theory's Heavenly Sword, it features some striking, if somewhat familiar, looking artwork. We can only hope that these clips will eventually find their way to the PlayStation Store (and the Heavenly Sword disc, as well).

The reproducible application of psychological manipulation of individuals and groups using software is big heady stuff. In the short term, I would hope that a deep understanding of models like skill chains help us crack open the rigid craftsmanship of existing genres so that we can build better, more potent games. Long term, it will be interesting to see what world changing uses we can find for our ever improving psychological technology.

While it's true that in many fields, the 'academic/research' side and the 'real world' side are frequently at odds and never the twain shall meet, I'm interested to see if perhaps the game development world can bridge that gap a little better and take philosophical research to real world applications in fewer than eighty steps in between.

The Chemistry of Game Design [Gamasutra]

The Ninja Theory folks blog that the demo for Heavenly Sword is finished and now it's just a matter of Sony deciding when to release the thing on the public.

People at home really want to get hands on too. Well, let me just tell you all that the dev team has finished work on the demo.. that's it... it's in the bag... so now it's a case of Sony deciding when they feel is the best time to release it to PlayStation Network.

The team is, according to the blog, now in the "closing stage of development" for the full game meaning that they are fixing bugs and then it's golden.

E3 07 onwards!!!!!!! [Ninja Theory]

I can confirm that we are, of course, going to be releasing a demo for Heavenly Sword...and soon! This will be downloadable via the Playstation Network...so keep an eye out for this in the very near future...and i mean very near future!

Hmm. Say like, next week? Possibly the day after Sony's E3 keynote with the regular PlayStation Store update? I'll put my virtual money on that.

Mat also provides some technical details—the game will run in 720p, will not ship with a special edition SKU, will not feature any platforming—and additional insight in his blog.

Welcome to Ninja Theory! [IGN via N4G]

The Playstation blog entry is a 13 question Q&A about the game and the upcoming E3. In it Ninja Theory co-founder Nina Kristensen talks up the game's storyline and distinctly artistic approach to over-the-top sword combat. A selection:

4. What do you think is the coolest aspect of this game? The super-style moves are the coolest. They're big and dramatic, you have to work quite hard to get them (especially the level 3 ones) and they completely annihilate the enemy. It's just so much fun. My personal fav is the one where you drag a guy massively up into the air, ride him back down, slam him into the floor, and while you're cart wheeling off him, a huge shockwave from his impact with the floor wipes out everyone else.

5. Describe it in five words or less.
Big Sword, Hot Girl!!

The IGN Heavenly Sword blog talks a bit more about play mechanics, in particular they break down and explain the different stances you can use in the game:

In play, your main weapon is the Heavenly Sword itself. It comes in three stances which you can switch between on the fly to create your own combos and fighting style.

Speed Stance has the sword split into two blades. It's fast, technical and has a lot of depth to it. It's good in one-on-one fights against skillful opponents but deeper combos hold the key to unlocking defenses and delivering massive damage.

Power Stance has the sword blades join to form one huge powerful sword. It's slow and powerful and great against tougher enemies or to break enemy defences.

Range Stance has the sword's blades extend from its handles with chains. It's the weakest of the three stances but it covers a large and wide area. It's great for taking out lots of enemies or knocking them into the air for follow-on aerial combos. It can also be used to sweep debris at enemies.

My indifference and concern over the game's progress is steadily decaying. I just hope they deliver at E3.

Game developer Epic learned loads from its smash hit Gears of War. Company founder Tim Sweeney says that the upcoming Unreal Tournament 3 will take that knowledge and put it into practice. And what did Epic learn? Sweeney explains:

The Gears of War experience on Xbox 360 taught us to optimize for multi-core, and to improve the low-level performance of the key engine systems. This has carried over very well to PC... Also, the 360 work we did resulted in an engine that also runs well on low-end and mid-range PCs.

So we're pretty much saying the Xbox 360 is a low-end to mid-range PC? Back-handed compliments all around! Brian Ashcraft

Unreal Learns From Gears [Eurogamer]

Gamasutra has an interesting interview up with Clint Hocking (UbiSoft, best known for work on the Splinter Cell series) on the value of exploration in games.

... In an open-world game, you just don't have the time to make sure with every single tree you have nice God rays shining through the leaves at 6:00 pm and a ship is sailing by or whatever. In a sense, while it is all created by someone, it's created in a much more painterly way ... The player is kind of going into uncharted territory. No one ever took the time to stop and look in this direction from this rock in this forest at 6:00 in the afternoon and see the God rays.

Literature, gender, interior/exterior - all things touched on in the brief interview. Can a totally linear game provide opportunities for exploration, too? I've really enjoyed some games of a more linear type that have allowed the player almost unlimited opportunities to explore and roam at will; I've also gotten very frustrated when, say, an RPG has been a little too open ended at points. I suppose like most things in design, it's all about balance. Maggie Greene

Clint Hocking Speaks Out On The Virtues Of Exploration

GamePro has posted ten new shots of Ninja Theory's hack and slash awesomeness and it's looking better and better every time I see it, making me wonder if the Square-Enix graphics wizards are going to outshine it.

Better than Pixar? No way. Better than Square's abyssmal Final Fantasy flick? Still, no. But heavenly? Definitely. Look at all those people! If that's in-game, color me impressed. Michael McWhertor

Heavenly Sword Week begins [GamePro]

Greenberg appeared on a recent Game Theory podcast to help deflect some consumer rage.

If you compare what we are offering with a real plug-and-play drive the closest thing would be to take a 120 gig self-powered external PC drive and in that case we are seeing those retail at anywhere from $160 to $200 for comparable laptop sized external hard drives.

I know it sounds expensive to a lot of consumers but we are comparable to those types of drives and also we have to go through a lot more testing and security.

It may not sit well with folks looking to upgrade their 360s, but his argument that an off the shelf drive from a hardware supplier is not exactly comparable to what Microsoft is selling has some merit. Then again, I'd have a hard time swallowing that price, too. More PR quoting at Next-Gen. Michael McWhertor

Hard Drive Price is Fair Says Microsoft [Next-Gen]

In-game? No way, you say. But the Ninja Theory folks say otherwise, with one caveat. The screen has been touched up by being "resized a little and with some blurring around the edges so it's perfect as a desktop wallpaper." Interested in using it as such? The 1280 x 1024 full-size shot is linked below.

There's little doubt this game looks good, but we remain suspicious. However, we cannot wait to be proven wrong. Bring it on, Ninja Theory. Michael McWhertor

New HS Screenshot [Ninja Theory Forums]

Viewers of tonight's episode of the NBC hit Heroes ("Like Any Parasite") will have one more reason to geek out, as brand new footage of the upcoming PLAYSTATION 3 game Heavenly Sword will be shown.

About 8 seconds of real-time footage will be shown of Ninja Theory's hack and slash action game, most of it focusing on the timed button pressing cinematic moments similar to Shenmue's quick time events or the boss battles in God of War. How's it look? From what I've seen of last night's early Canadian broadcast, pretty freakin' amazing. YouTube doesn't do it justice.

Thanks for the heads up, Kyle. Michael McWhertor

Let's look at some example scenarios:

Our couple has been trying to slay a dragon for two hours, have died for the 20th time and the last of their armor is broken. Anyone would be irritated at this point, but who is mature enough to laugh it off and show some positive attitude, like suggesting they try again the next day, and instead go on a mountaintop picnic for now? Then again, who is childish or short tempered enough to storm off fuming because it was you that messed up during most of those attempts. Who starts giving sermons about how things are really done?

[...]

In summary: MMO relationships are playing the fast forward button to getting to know someone. As mentioned in one of the articles in the Daedelus project, Inside Out, "you get to know someone inside out".

This article is necessarily bare of the issue of people who roleplay, either for fun, profit, or the joy of deception, as such a tangent would derail the original concept of the piece. Indeed, in my experience, people online are similar to the inebriated: they think they're being funnier, cooler, and more badass than is actually possible, which leads to a sort of fisheye view of their core beings. Eliza Gauger

Better Dating Through MMOs [TerraNova]

Fight, fight! I love when academics dust it up over publications, its so mentally invigorating... and subtlety catty.

Big brain gamer Henry Jenkins of MIT fame takes to task, quite politely, Ian Bogost of Watercooler Games fame about Bogost's review of his new book: Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Collide.

The critique critique looks at Bogost's take on Reality and Fiction, Affective Economics and, God help us, Bogost's use of the word "buttery" to describe the book. The longish, intellectually stimulating counter-point is just part one of what appears to be the makings of another book. Brian Crecente

A Response to Ian Bogost (Part One) [Henry Jenkins]

About five seconds after playing my first game on my new big screen plasma I realized that I had purchased a really big televison without picture-in-picture. And then I cussed for about ten minutes. I was thinking how cool it would be to have a show up on half of the tv and the game on the other half. But it was not meant to be.

Rappateng just posted up his own experiement over on RedAssedBaboon. He and his wife, an avid gamer herself, took to the couch and spent the evening playing games on the Xbox and the Xbox 360 using the picture-in-picture of their 54-inch television. He played Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory on the left side of the television using his Xbox and she played Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter on the right side using the Xbox 360.

The only issue they ran into was that only one game had audio at a time, but thanks to Live chat, that wasn't even much of an issue. Damnit, I wish I had PiP. Brian Crecente

Multiplayer PiP [RAB]

What if instead of weaving fire and ice through giant dragons, MMO-gamers healed, stitched and saved creatures for phat loot? Boing Boing points to bright mind Raph Koster's thoughts on a game that was just that - a healing adventure. From Koster: "Picture an MMORPG just like the ones today, but everywhere you see combat, replace it with healing. A six-man encounter would be a surgical operation that required teamwork. Soloing would be a brilliant doctor doing drive-by diagnostics. Raids would be massive experimental treatments.

Rather than spawning mobs, spawn ill people. Instead of weapons, have medicines. Instead of managing aggro, manage fever. Instead of armors, we have disinfectants."

Koster goes on to explain how the mechanic is basically the exact same way that MMOs are played now, just the way the game is marketed would have to be changed.

What Would an MMORPG Around Healing Be Like? [Boing Boing]
The Healing Game [Raph Koster]