Joystiq

Microsoft's Gosen warns of 'thin line between gimmick and great gameplay'

Ludwig Kietzmann — 2008-08-07T18:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, Business

Look, it's not that Microsoft's Xbox VP, David Gosen, dislikes the Wii and its parade of people-friendly peripherals. "What Nintendo have done with the Wii is truly fantastic - there is no question about it." No question at all -- but there is a but. "But I think sometimes there is a thin line between gimmick and great gameplay." And there's no question that said but refers to that thing that lets you play games with your butt.

Speaking at a Gamefest UK keynote and later to the folks at Develop, Gosen admitted that while different interfaces, whether they be video cameras or plastic guitars, are important in bringing new players into the market, they need to serve a "truly game changing experience." Gosen went on to cite research which found Wii Fit players abandoned their "digital bathroom scales" quite quickly. "They are not good if they are gimmicks. There is a challenge for us to make sure that all new user interfaces are deep and are rewarding to the end user."

And how do you do that, exactly? Gosen offers, "So we have to get the balance right, because what we are doing is bringing new consumers into the market for the first time in their lives sometimes - and we have to treat them with respect." Get the balance of game design right, huh? Sounds like the perfect Wii Fit game, no?

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Rockstar and GTA IV honored at Develop Awards 2008

Ludwig Kietzmann — 2008-07-31T14:50:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360

As if those billions upon billions of sold copies weren't reward enough, Rockstar has now had its efforts in Grand Theft Auto IV recognized by the Develop Industry Excellence Awards, the UK's annual ceremony which doles out awards for ... excellence. In the industry.

Rockstar's excellence was acknowledged with four awards -- Rockstar North received gongs for "Visual Arts," "Audio Accomplishment" and "Best In-House Developer", while Rockstar Games walked away with the special Grand Prix prize, "not only the commercial and creative powerhouse Grand Theft Auto IV, but also Rockstar's much-envied studio network which regularly pushes the creative boundaries of gaming."

Award recipients which didn't bully said boundaries include Lost Winds for "Best ~~Sedative~~ New IP," LEGO Indiana Jones for "Best Use of a License" (to make money!) and Nintendo for "Publishing Hero." Check out the complete list of winners after the break, and the complete list of whiners in the comments.

Best New IP:

Lost Winds (Frontier Developments)

Best Use of a License:

Lego Indiana Jones (Traveller's Tales)

Visual Arts:

Rockstar North (Grand Theft Auto IV)

Audio Accomplishment:

Rockstar North (Grand Theft Auto IV)

Publishing Hero:

Nintendo

Tools Provider

Epic Games

Technical Innovation

NaturalMotion / Image Metrics (Grand Theft Auto IV)

Creative Outsourcing

Richard Jacques Studios

Services

Babel Media

Recruitment Company

OPM

Games:Edu New Talent Award

University of Abertay & Dare to be Digital

Business Development

Realtime Worlds

Best Mobile Studio

Ideaworks3D

Best In-House Developer

Rockstar North

Best New UK/European Studio

Doublesix

Best Independent Developer

Splash Damage

Grand Prix

Rockstar Games

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Heavenly Sword packed with 10 GB of sound data

Ross Miller — 2007-08-15T14:25:00+00:00

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Action

Ninja Theory's Heavenly Sword has some beautiful music -- anyone with the demo can testify to that. An interview with lead audio Tom Colvin has quantified the developer's focus on aural satisfaction: 10 GB of sound data is included in the game, according to Develop.

That sizable number includes approximately three and a half hours of music, sound effects and 4,500 lines of dialog. "There's an hour and a half's worth of cut scenes in eleven languages," said SCEE's Garry Taylor.

A dual layer DVD disc has an 8.5 GB capacity; will Sony be touting that its competition couldn't even fit the audio onto their discs? We'd be surprised if they showed restraint.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

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Loco Roco sequels planned for PSP as well as PS3

Christopher Grant — 2007-07-30T11:05:00+00:00

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PSP

Last December, Sony's Phil Harrison said they'd "bring LocoRoco back in a couple of new ways with some new friends in the future." Then, at the PlayStation Premier event in Tokyo this month, they showed off Buu Buu Cocoreccho! by LocoRoco, a sequel that is "LocoRoco, but it's not ... a peculiar extra chapter." So that takes care of PS3, and we have our suspicions about a mobile version, but what about the most obvious platform of all, the PSP? We had a chance to speak with Loco Roco's director Tsutomu Kouno at the Develop conference and, when asked if there will be a Loco Roco 2 for the PSP, he responded, "Yes, there will. I'm thinking about a sequel for the PSP right now. I got a lot of feedback from players that they bought a PSP just to play Loco Roco so I feel like I have to make a sequel for them.

Though we don't have any fancy video footage of the PSP-bound sequel, there is some footage of the PS3 release from Develop, tucked away after the break. And check back later in the week for our full interview with Kouno-san.

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Sony leads Develop Industry Excellence Awards in UK

Alexander Sliwinski — 2007-07-26T14:48:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Sony PlayStation 3, Action

Sony Europe won the Grand Prix award at the UK-focused Develop Industry Excellence Awards held in Brighton, England for "capping 12 months which have seen the firm deliver a new hardware format that has inspired developers around the world to make cutting-edge next generation games." Sega won for being the industry's "Publishing Hero" and Motorstorm won "New Console IP accolades." And apparently, although we can't quite confirm this, the event was neither a roast, nor was the Hasty Pudding theatre company anywhere to be found.

A little less confusing is that Traveler's Tales won "Independent Developer" for their work with Lego Star Wars and Realtime Worlds won the "Innovation Award" for the "thrillingly original" Crackdown. (While we love us some Crackdown, nobody who isn't on their third glass of Cabernet is going to call it "thrillingly original.") But we shouldn't be so mean, the Develop Awards - judged by 100 "industry experts" - are focused on UK and Euro companies so the pool is intentionally narrowed. Check out the full list of those winners by following that Read link.

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Richard Garriott calls for MMO devs to innovate

Ross Miller — 2007-07-25T12:55:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Online, RPGs, MMO, Business

Speaking at the Develop Conference, game designer Richard "Lord British" Garriott (Ultima series) called for innovation in the field of MMO games.

"Game design has not changed over 10 years. Fundamentally the gameplay is unchanged," he said, referring to his 1997 Ultima Online title that arguably laid the framework for modern-day MMOs. He later added, "We owe it to consumers to provide new kinds of gameplay."

Garriott lamented on the prevalence of level grinding in current titles and emphasized the importance of artificial intelligence as the genre moves forward. We can think of at least nine million people who enjoy the current state of MMOs. Garriott has laid down the gauntlet; time will tell if his latest project, the oft-delayed Tabula Rasa, will advance the genre.

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Crackdown earns 7 nominations for Develop Awards

Ross Miller — 2007-06-08T15:25:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Business

Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds have been nominated for seven Develop Industry Excellence Awards, part of the Europe-centric Develop Conference. The studio was a finalist for best new console/PC IP, best use of online and innovation, among others.

Rare (Viva Pinata), Evolution (MotorStorm) and SCEE Studio Liverpool (Formula One Championship Edition) all earned three nominations apiece, as well as indie darlings Introversion (Defcon).

The awards ceremony takes place July 25 at the Hilton Metropole in Brighton. Registration for the Develop Conference is currently open.

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Develop 2007 dated, detailed: July 24 to 26 in Brighton

Ross Miller — 2007-04-05T12:55:00+00:00

Filed under: Business, Mobile

Develop Conference organizers Tandem Events have announced new information regarding the 2007 edition, which is taking place July 24 to 26 in Brighton, England. The conference, which is the British equivalent to US-based Game Developers Conference, will purportedly include 45 sessions and over 70 speakers. Currently known speakers include Lionhead's Peter Molyneux, movie special effects expert Peter Chiang and LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule, according to Gamasutra.

The sessions are spread over seven tracks: design, production, coding, business, art, audio, and newcomer world vision. The latter category is intended to provide European developers an international perspective and give them the chance to learn from their global peers.

Running alongside the conference is the Develop Expo, which will serve as a venue for hands-on demoing of the latest developer tools, technology and very likely a few games.

The first day of Develop is being set aside for Develop Mobile, focusing on mobile development, and GAMES:EDU, focusing on serious and educational games.

Registration is now open. Develop Mobile and GAMES:EDU is will take place Tuesday, July 24, and the Develop Conference and Expo will be July 25 and 26. Currently, there is no schedule of events set and the keynotes have not been announced.

[Via Gamasutra]

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Sony unveils new tools to live on the Edge

Ross Miller — 2007-03-07T13:31:00+00:00

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3

Empowering the development community, Sony has unveiled the PlayStation Edge: advanced graphics tools and technologies for PlayStation 3 development. A meeting on the tools is taking place later today. From the lecture announcement:

"Three first party technology teams within Sony -- the WWS Europe Advanced Technology Group, WWS America ICE team, and WWS America Tools and Technology group -- have combined to create PlayStation Edge, a set of cutting edge technologies for imminent release to all PlayStation 3 developers. Rather than overarching engine, these teams have chosen to create specialized systems that demonstrate best practices of SPU and RSX utilization. A unique tool for RSX performance analysis, extensively used in the turning of first party titles, will also be presented."

Those without technological backgrounds should find Wikipedia helpful. A video of Killzone 2 was shown last night to showcase the Edge technology. We'll be at the Edge presentation, hosted by Vince Diesi, Jon Olick and Mark Cerny, later today.

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Hype begins and ends with the gaming press

Conrad Quilty-Harper — 2006-07-20T09:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Business

Wanna see a hype fest? Do you? You do?! Well just head over to Eurogamer, where the site decided to give Peter Molyneux a free license to hype up his unannounced projects.

In an "interview" that in fifty years will be regarded by scholars as the definitive example of hype creation, Eurogamer asked Molyneux "what's your next game, and when are we going to find out about that?" The rest of the interview consists of Molyneux spouting hyped, fluffy nonsense about how he can't tell us what the game is about, but that it'll definitely be awesome+1 to the max!

I just can't blame Molyneux for this mess -- if you give one of the game industry's most savvy game developers/marketers an open microphone, it's practically a law that he will use it to hype his product. Since Molyneux didn't actually say anything about his next game that might not be included in the game (like what happened with Fable) Molyneux is totally covered. The real blame lies with Eurogamer. This goes way beyond them failing to rein him in; they've gone out of their way to construct hype out of the interview. The accompanying article is dedicated to encouraging readers to guess the word that defines Molyneux's next project. Do they think that the average Eurogamer reader is five years old?!

As Winston Smith says in 1984, "if there is hope, it lies in the ~~proles~~ gamers", so it's encouraging to see commentators calling Eurogamer out on this trash. Stoatboy says "Oh ffs - that was a terrible interview. Love him or loathe him - that interview said NOTHING above any beyond "it'll be GREAT", which is the very least anyone would say about any game they happened to be working on."

See also: Joystiq's interview with Peter Molyneux

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Gamer's Room 101: the argument AGAINST balance

Jennie Lees — 2006-07-19T10:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Business

The concept: During the 'Game Design Room 101' session at Develop, several developers brought out props to represent their pet peeves from games. If you've read the novel 1984 by George Orwell, you'll know where the concept comes from. In the UK, Room 101 is a weekly game/talk show presented by Paul Merton, who invites a guest to come on the show who then attempt to convince him that a certain annoyance in their lives should go in the bin, and never be seen again. This seminar (and series of posts) takes a look at certain elements of games that were nominated by the panel to go in the games designer's bin. Conrad and I are going to take opposite positions in the debate.

The point: Jonathan Smith of TT Games brought out a pair of scales to represent his nomination -- balance. Balance, according to Smith, is where a developer expressly sets out to tell the player "you can have this much fun", rationing the pleasure out piece by piece.

My stance: Balance should go.

Conrad's stance: Balance should stay.

You decide.

Balance is something a number of mainstream, cookie-cutter games succumb too -- as the game goes on, players end up doing the same actions, fighting the same enemies, at the same difficulty level. From the first ten minutes to the last, the game is perfectly balanced, and extremely boring to boot -- as players, we feel there's nothing new in store for the next 10 or 20 hours' gameplay, and we abandon the game early on feeling we've seen it all.

In contrast, games that are unbalanced -- less predictable, with difficulty spikes along with twists and turns that surprise the player -- are a lot more enjoyable, especially for those of us with negligible attention spans. We like to be challenged; we like to be surprised. We like the feeling of power that comes from conquering an easy section after overcoming the challenges of an extremely tricky part; we like not knowing whether we'll be able to finish the game or not. The examples Smith gave are Trauma Center and his own Lego Star Wars, as opposed to run-of-the-mill 'balanced' games like Call of Duty 2. While CoD2 is arguably a good game, players know they'll be able to finish it -- should that be the case?

As well as those with mixed balance, some of us even prefer games that are just plain hard, games with puzzles and problems that leave one scratching one's head for hours on end (rather than games which leave one cursing one's clumsy hands for not being as skilful with a controller as the designers expected). So, in balance and let us struggle for once -- reward us with easy sections and give us a feeling of power. That's all we ask.

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PS3 dev kit BSOD... sorta

Conrad Quilty-Harper — 2006-07-14T17:10:00+00:00

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3

For the Develop Conference in Brighton, Sony (who was the primary sponsor of the conference) set up a booth equipped with multiple PSP "pods" and a couple of large widescreen LCDs showing PS3 tech demos. One of the demonstrations was a large shoal of different types of fish swimming around a large space, and the other was a 3D water simulation with semi-realistic waves.

I spent a few seconds playing with the surprisingly light Dual Shake controller -- my first time, I didn't attend E3 -- and pressed select. For whatever reason, and this is why development kits are generally never shown to the public, the demo slowed to a halt, with the nice blue picture jerking away at 3fps continuously in the frame. In a technical sense this isn't a blue screen of death, but it did die displaying a blue screen, so therefore I proudly claim the title of "world's first non-developer to cause a PlayStation 3 to display a blue screen of death". It's certainly the most pretty pseudo-BSOD that I've ever seen.

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Joystiq interviews Rob Kay of Harmonix

Conrad Quilty-Harper — 2006-07-14T15:20:00+00:00

Filed under: Online, Interviews, Competitive Gaming, Rhythm

In our second interview from the Develop Conference in Brighton this week, Jen and I sat down with Rob Kay of Harmonix. Rob was project lead on the cult classic Guitar Hero, a game which is part of a new wave of hyper accessible games that is all about catching the mindset of the mainstream, as well as addicting millions of hardcore gamers. We talked with Rob about song licensing, Konami's recent "Guitar Revolution" trademark and the possibility of a Trombone Hero.

You talked about clones of Guitar Hero in your seminar. Specifically you talked about how other companies are being inspired by the premise of games like Guitar Hero. I don't know if you heard about Konami trademarking a Guitar Revolution game?

Yeah, I read that on the internet. To give Konami props, they started this whole instrument simulation in games thing when they did games like GuitarFreaks which they released in Japan. We worked with Konami on Karaoke Revolution and Karaoke Stage as well. So, I think it's great actually. I'm kind of the opinion that whoever is making these games with us then we're exploring this new ground together. I've got friends who have played Karaoke Revolution, and they wanted more songs so they've gone out and bought SingStar. So I think great, more people are out there playing these types of games.

I believe that Konami has actually applied for the patent "toy guitar controller with video game".

Oh really? Well that's news to me. I'm not able to cover all the implications of this, but it's really by-the-by I think. Really I'm just psyched that they're making music games and that we'll help each other out by making music games.

In terms of the direction with the next-generation. Do you think that the next-generation has less of a focus on entertainment? You talked in your seminar about how people should be able to pick up and play and should be able to get into the game straight away. Do you think that the next-generation is less about the experience and more about the visuals?

I think the next-generation hardware is there to be used. It's up to game makers whether they'll be conservative with that or whether we'll be adventurous with this. I think that there's reason to be optimistic about all of the next-gen platforms. We're certainly taking a look at all three of them and seeing pretty unique opportunities to create games on all of them. Not just in terms of increased content but increased accessibility opportunities; increased processing power is one example that will help improve our type of game.

You touched upon this idea in the seminar where there's this formula where a game is extremely easy to get into so people just want to pick up and play the game. How do you think this kind of formula is created?

It's something at Harmonix that we tried really hard to work on. Over the course of the games that we've developed we've probably improved the playability of each game that we've developed on each game. So what happened with Amplitude, which was this great music game that made people want to work at Harmonix, was Sony did some research where they got people to look at a screenshot and title of all the games in Sony's catalog and then write down what their first impressions were and how much they wanted to buy it. Then they got to play all those games, and they gave Amplitude and Frequency the lowest scores based on the initial screenshot and logo, but actually got amongst the highest scores once the people played it.

So I think what Sony realized at that point making great games wasn't enough. Making games with a clear role, with a guitar, a guitarist rock star role. That's obvious straight away and we support that with the visuals and all the game mechanics don't get away from the fact that you're a guitarist. That's what you have to focus on if you want instant accessibility.

In traditional genres like first person shooters, the number of FPS games supporting co-op in a couch setting has dropped. Why do think in the last two years the popularity for co-op in games like Buzz! has increased?

I think certain games just lend themselves to co-operative play. In particular, party games have always lent themselves to this style of gameplay. Maybe party games are coming back into vogue through both SingStar and Guitar Hero. I think that helps people want to play party games because in the past party games were often presented as these twee things that people tend not to want to play.

One of the differences that I found between SingStar and Guitar Hero is SingStar you pay £30, and you get two microphones to play co-op. Guitar Hero you play £100 for two copies and two guitars. Even £50 for one copy is a bit steep and I've tried playing it on the controller and it just doesn't work. Do you find that different types of people attracted to these games because of the price point or are you trying to get the same people?

I can't talk for SingStar. They're in a pretty privileged position when it comes to marketing but I think they've done a good job. We're working with Red Octane who didn't necessarily have the financial muscle to put it out any cheaper, but I actually think £50, especially when most games cost £40, is a bargain when you're getting a guitar controller with it. Certainly it was in the U.S. I'm sure.

How has the acquisition of Red Octane by Activision changed the way you're going to produce games going forward?

Well at the moment we're not sure, we'll see. I think that we're expecting that in the short term we have a bigger marketing spend, Activision will put all their weight behind Guitar Hero as it's one of their new properties. They're very much expecting that the brand will become one that everyone goes out and buys.

In the seminar you talked about how the multiplayer mode in the original Guitar Hero was almost not included in the game. With Guitar Hero 2, there's a renewed focus on the teamplay/co-op element of play with the possibility of playing a bass part. Why did you not have the foresight to see the great popularity that co-op Guitar Hero would garner in the first place?

Well actually we always wanted it, and we always knew it would be fun but it was more a budgetary concern. Guitar Hero was made on the type of budget that could be brought from concept to completion with a very small team so we had to take this relentless focus where anything seemed peripheral it came very close to the cut. I think if you see that there are no cut scenes and there are no things that are very expensive to bring into a game. At one stage multiplayer was on the chopping block, but we decided to keep it. Hindsight is a great thing.

One of our readers was worried about the bass section of the co-op in Guitar Hero 2 might be simplified in order to make it accessible to new players or as a result of the difference in playing bass music when compared to lead parts. Can you allay his fears?

Some songs don't lend themselves to being good bass songs, so we will pick the good lead part or the good bass part or the good guitar part. So we'll pick two parts for any one song, and it'll be the two strongest parts. We've got a lot of guys looking out to make sure that this is totally tuned into our song selection process.

So licensing is one of the biggest problem with music games and with the first one you were looking to have AC-DC...

Yeah, we're still trying to see how that turns out. We want all the classics that everyone wants. We want Metallica, Guns & Roses. I don't know if you saw the sub list at E3, and that included some fantastic songs. I think we've got more chance this time round to get the big songs, especially since we were successful with the first game.

With relation to customization, the internet and the next-gen, is there any room for custom games with people making their own music and putting it into Guitar Hero?

In terms of the goal, there are lots of hurdles for making this sort of thing happen. So I don't think that's going to happen in the next year or so, but we would love to give players the ability to put their own music in the game and let others share music and collaborate.

What if they do cover versions?

That would be fine as far as I'm concerned! But I'm sure there are legal viewpoints that need to be looked at. But that's for the future though, I'm sure that's not going to happen anytime soon.

What about more Guitar Hero games, like a Trombone Hero?!

I'd say that Trombone Hero would most likely come after Cowbell Hero, but in terms of other Hero games, I think Red Octane have discussed the possibility of other types of games and expressed their interest in doing so to the press. We'll discuss out ideas with them, but there isn't something signed with them at the moment. Yeah, of course it makes sense that should be more Hero games and not just Guitar.

Do you think that the creativity from the arcades of previous decades is rubbing off on the games industry, specifically with these games that use specific peripherals. Do you think there will be a more large scale adoption of innovative controller designs for specific gametypes?

I actually miss the days of the arcade when there was a new thing in there to play. It seems like those days have gone - it's nice to think that we're now finally plugging that gap on games consoles. So the development of new controllers is something that developers and publishers have their eyes on. It's not like it used to be in that if you bundled a peripheral with a game that it wouldn't sell anymore. There are lots of examples of games with peripherals selling hardly any units.

This goes back to your point you made in the seminar that you can't get too abstract with the concept and peripheral behind these types of games. The reality is that people can just pick up a guitar and they know what it is and the fundamentals of the gameplay. Thanks for your time!

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Joystiq interviews Peter Molyneux of Lionhead Studios

Conrad Quilty-Harper — 2006-07-14T09:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Interviews, Business

Yesterday at the Develop Conference in Brighton, Jennie and I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with the founder of Lionhead Studios, Peter Molyneux. We chatted about the issue of hype, frustrations surrounding PC gaming and Peter's early days in the industry, amongst other topics.

Fable was pretty much portrayed as one of the most open games of all time, but in terms of hype, it failed to meet the high expectations that you gave the game. There was even a forum post where you apologized about this: why did it get to that level?

Well, it started with this fatal line that I made and that was that I wanted to make Fable the greatest role playing game of all time. I kinda still defend that because I honestly don't see the point in making a game that you don't honestly believe has a chance of being the greatest game of all time. I meet the press quite a lot, every 6-8 weeks there's some sort of press interview. The way I work then is to get a system in, play around with it, polish it, make it better. Sometimes I leave it as it is and sometimes I throw it away.

I think what ended up happening was twofold: because I was meeting people so frequently I was talking about features that actually hadn't gone through that process, like the tree example. Actually it was stupid! Growing trees took a lot of the processing power that could have been used for combat. What does growing trees really add for the player?

Do you think this is partially a result of the press misunderstanding your position? Not just you, in terms of everyone who's a developer has this idea about how they want their game to go?

No. It was my fault entirely. It was completely my fault because what I should have said is "we are experimenting with this idea and I quite like this idea" because I don't know whether it's going to work or not.

Was that actually reported?

I don't know really. The only way I do interviews is to talk about what I'm passionate about, and when you're passionate about something it's very hard to shut up about it. That's the problem, but the solution really is to talk about the stuff that I absolutely know is going to be in the game and to say "look, we have some really amazing stuff. I can't show you what it is until I've had a chance to play it and look at it myself".

The other thing is that for the longest time in Fable there was this concept of free roaming. And, in the end, we had a simple choice. We could extend the game development six months and have free roaming, or we could cut free roaming out. The way that we crafted the world, we first crafted the world round the path that you were following, and then we had a plan to craft the rest of the world. But we just simply didn't have the time and we chose in the end to put the game out earlier.

You talked in your seminar about how the industry has shifted away from programmers to designers leading games. Do you think people in management are better suited to leading games than people that have experience in coding?

I would answer that by saying that experience, and being able to appreciate the problems that people have is really important.

Especially in terms of developers.

Exactly, the coders need to know that this idea which I've conceived, which is very easy to imagine, but when it comes to coding an idea from a designer like "well I really want someone to feel like they're alive" you have to say O.K., you've got facial animation, but behind that you've got A.I. and having an appreciation of that is really important. I'm sure there are some designers who have never touched a keyboard in their life, and who've never programmed, but for me it is really useful to think that whenever a thought pops into my head I can find a way to visualize that in code.

Can you say anything about the concept or the genre behind your "secret project" which you mentioned during your seminar? Obviously I don't have my hopes up that you'll be able to talk.

It's going to be the most amazing game ever.

Yes, well you would say that!

Well, it is! I really honestly believe it, because I think that we almost wouldn't think about developing it if it's not. Here's the thing. What is our responsibility? What is Lionhead's responsibility and what should we do as Lionhead?

Your responsibility is to make a good game and make sure it sells well.

Well, kinda, yeah, but I think the position we're in now, and we're owned by Microsoft, and they said to us "make amazingly brilliant games that have never been seen before". And that's our responsibility. We could do another Fable game, or we could do a genre that we feel comfortable in but I don't feel that's what we should do. I think we should be saying "right, how can we get gamers and a wider audience to experience something they've never seen before?" And that's true of Fable 2, by the way. There a very big surprise in Fable 2, which is a fundamental part of the gameplay that no-one knows yet. I've never seen it in any other game before. But the other "secret project" has also never been seen before.

Do you find that, considering the background of you hyping up your games in the past, do you think you run the risk of being the boy who cried wolf? You keep saying "my game's amazing", "my next game's amazing"...

I do, I know that I'm gonna get in trouble, I know you're gonna tell me off and I know that. What I'm saying is that it's such a subjective thing. I can't lie to you; there's no point me saying I'm gonna make a really good game, because that doesn't do it for me. I've made so many mistakes, I've made so many terrible games, and I honestly struggle and strive as hard as I can to try and make the team struggle and strive around this as hard as they can and make the best game that I can. I honestly believe that Fable 2 is going to be the greatest game of all time.

But you said that about Fable 1!

I know, this is the problem. Fable, and this is not an excuse, this is not meant to be an excuse, we had never done a role playing game, or anything like a role playing game before. We had never done a console game before, we're never dealt with a controller before. There's so many things that we'd never done before that this time [with Fable 2] we've done that before, we haven't got those excuses. We've also got this fantastic team that I believe are the smartest people I've ever worked with. Jesus, if this one isn't amazing, we're being stupid somewhere, so when I put that Fable apology out really I should have said "I'm gonna create a great game".

Do you think there's some logic behind getting developers behind blogging and letting them be more open about their projects?

Absolutely, I agree with that. We've got Sam Vantilburgh, who is in charge of our communities, we're thinking about what we're going to do with the communities. I really want to support the idea of more than myself talking and get the team talking. The only problem with all this, and this is why developers are very closed mouth, is there are millions and millions of dollars riding on these things. We're talking twenty or thirty million dollars and that's a lost of risk. Still, I think things like blogs and even diaries are really informative.

I don't know whether you know, but Google has this scheme where they give developers 20% of their working time to work on their own projects of their own choice. Do you think this will eventually become standard within the programming world?

That's what Lionhead has already set up. It's not 20% of their day, because when you're working on a game I think you need people to be totally immersed in it. But when they finish a game, they have 6-8 or even 10 weeks to just play around and experiment. Some people would sit there and say "well I don't know what to do", and some people have a really strong idea about it.

I think this kind of thing is essential. People have said for a long time that the games industry is getting less creative and I think developers need more time to get out and be inspired to write good code.

I think that's true. The games industry is getting less creative, because in a way there's less games around.

Instead of saying there's less games, would you say that there are in fact more big games which are taking away the money and limiting the number of small games produced?

Yes, there are, and that is an enormous shame. But the reality is that, people as consumers, are being very honest. Consumers want to play something that has had fifteen million spent on it.

Some of my most favorite games are indie titles which are either free or are distributed via shareware, I've spent hours on these sort of games.

What was the last triple-A game that you played?

Ah, probably Rockstar's Table Tennis.

Right! God I'm aggravated with Table Tennis!

See, this is the thing! I love this sort of game where you have very little pressure, you have no, or very few cutscenes. I don't understand why the industry is moving away from this sort of thing where the gameplay is the central focus. I wrote this article about playing my sister where she beat me three times in a row on my first game with Table Tennis, and it was because I had this preconceived notion about how the game was supposed to be played, but my sister just picked up the controller and straight away just got the game.

Did she straight away get the game, or get the fact that all you had to do is press the green button?

Yeah, the article was about how she beat me by just pressing the green button.

My three year old son did exactly the same thing and he's never played a game in his life and he beat me and I thought, gee, that's not great. Yeah your point is a good one...

Yes, why are developers spending so much time with established genres, why aren't they creating new genres and why aren't they creating God games?

Because, the consumers buy those big games. They buy Halo and they buy GTA.

Do you think there's a failing in the press in terms of awareness of new concepts?

Well, here's where my hope is. I think online, and Xbox Live is somehow evolving in the way that I'd say television evolved. We all go to the cinema and we all look out for Spiderman 3 or Superman but the fact of the matter is that they are just big moments and I think we're going to have big games like that. But maybe there's a model emerging like live TV where you don't spend upwards of three hundred million dollars on a game and instead spend three million. And you create something which is not so high quality...

When you say Xbox Live, do you really mean Xbox Live Arcade?

Yeah, one of the big problems is that the big publishers are investing lots of money into the big titles and you can't blame them for that because consumers are buying the big titles, they're not buying the small titles. They didn't buy Ico...

...Psychonauts...

...these were just brilliant, excellent and amazing games. They didn't cost as much to make but they were truly inspirational games but they just didn't sell. So you can't blame the publishers for doing that. A lot of it is down to the publishers, and a lot of it is down to distribution and how you get those small games.

The internet is obviously the future of this.

The problem is, with the PC, where do I bloody go to get that stuff? You can go to Reflective or Big Fish Games, and it aggravates the hell out of me that there's no central location.

Do you think that Microsoft is actually dropping the ball here? Because they're doing this games management tool in Vista, but they're not actually producing a place where independent developers can put their work in the same sort of way that the iTunes Music Store has done for music.

I agree, absolutely. I mean, I think on Xbox Live Arcade there should be an experimental section.

But then, it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars even to get a title onto Xbox Live Arcade; but in terms of the PC, it generally doesn't cost anything to get a game out. Do you think Microsoft is focusing less on games in Vista than it should be doing because of Xbox Live Arcade?

Well, this is where I've got to be very careful considering what I say about Microsoft. I do think that the PC and Vista has a huge challenge ahead of it. The PC as a gaming platform has had a terrible two years. And again, just in terms of distribution, don't just blame the publishers. You walk into a gaming shop then you don't see a huge PC section anymore. It's more like The Sims, and just The Sims. It's such a messy format.

So two weeks ago I bought a new PC right? So I went along to PC World, and I said "could I have your bestest PC please?" And they gave me this HP thing...

...with a Radeon 9200 or something?

...and even I said to the guy, look, I don't know about these things. ATI change their line every six weeks. It doesn't mean anything. And I took it home, and I wired it up and it was all the hassle of all the wires and the cables and where they went and it didn't fit and they weren't long enough. You just don't get that on the console. And my son was just sitting down there and at last I thought, I'll turn it on. And I turned it on, and honestly, this hurricane force fan was literally blowing his hair back. That's not the place I want to play my games on. I mean, it's so loud I had to turn up the volume on the game, it's so fiddly. There's spyware, and the anti-spyware got in the way and it took about half an hour to boot. No wonder no-one wants to play games on their PCs anymore.

I'm actually working on a feature about how the Mac is very under-utilized in terms of game development. You mentioned problems about fans and Macs generally have silent/quiet operation, and there's also the fact that the Mac line-up is a pre-set line-up. You know what hardware you've got in a Mac and therefore you only have to develop for a limited set of hardware. Why haven't developers picked up on Mac OS X?

It's a very interesting idea. We've always supported the Mac and we've always done Mac versions of all our titles, and I think that this is a perfect thing (referring to the MacBook on table being used to record interview) and I've never really quite worked out why more people don't support it. I think...

There's this Catch 22 situation where not many people play games on the Mac and therefore developers don't want to make games for the Mac.

Exactly. I think it would need Apple to get behind games. There's nothing in their operating system that panders to games at all and I take my hats off to Microsoft. I think they've realized that games are important. And then you have this fantastic thing where they're saying that they'll let you play PC games against Xbox 360 players. Of course that's a nightmare for us designers, because we have to work out how to design games that work on both platforms equally as well.

You said in your keynote about the "pizza days" when you had small teams between 2-5 working on game, would you prefer to go back to these days?

Would you like to going back to being a child again? I mean, those happy 12 year old days skipping through the meadows with little bluebirds sitting on your shoulder?

You know in those days that's what it was like, I smoked more cigarettes, drunk more and did disastrous things to my body. I was a total introvert, the world outside of what I did on my computer became dim, almost psychotically so. But, there was, and I apologize for using this words, there was this orgasmic delight in physically creating something. Now, what you're kind of asking me is to trade anything I've got now -- I couldn't have a family, I couldn't have a son, I couldn't have the ability to inspire people because I'd be obsessed by that. I look back there, and I still work on little projects and some coding at home, and I think yeah it was a great time. But then I also look back at the skipping through the summer meadows with bluebells on my shoulder.

O.K., thank you very much for your time!

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Develop: Everything you know about MMOs is wrong - apparently

Jennie Lees — 2006-07-14T07:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Online, MMO, Business

Thomas Bidaux of NCsoft Europe didn't pull any punches with his presentation at the UK's Develop conference. Instead, the MMO giant's director of product development outlined four major ways in which the MMO world will be turned on its head. Or, rather, the 'online' world -- rather than limit himself to MMOs, Thomas talked about online games as a whole.

Firstly, a platform revolution -- including a push towards console gaming -- brings with it challenges as well as opportunities for online games. Digital distribution and a wider audience are key benefits, but developing a console MMO means dealing with the genre's baggage (keyboard and mouse controls, patches, inter-player communication to name but a few). Community is key to many online games, but achieving that while removing the requirement of PC ownership is another challenge.

Consoles aren't the only platform, however; browser-based games such as Runescape already attract huge numbers of players, and the cross-pollination of casual gaming and MMOs will surely have at least one browser-based bastard child. Handhelds with their wifi capabilities are in a key position to take advantage of persistency, and while the heterogeneous mobile platform is in its infancy according to Mr Bidaux, other audience members disagreed.

Secondly, a cultural revolution can redefine what we mean by 'online' and how we interact with online games. Online isn't just MMOs and a large, persistent world; it's also persistent user data, such as achievements and skill level. It's the ability to push updates to a client and help the game evolve post-launch. It's the ability to play alone with thousands, even millions of people; to find the perfect opponent from a huge pool of possibilities.

Thomas gave the example of a Tekken-style game which could revolve around its online component (rather than having multiplayer added in as an afterthought). Online rankings and tournaments allow players to test each others' boasts and shoot for the moon; persistent characters give the player the chance to evolve, learning new moves and customising heavily; constant content updates keep the game fresh and appealing.

Thirdly, an economic revolution may mean the $14.99 subscription model becomes defunct. Online games suit online delivery; digital distribution at its best. iTunes changed the way music is delivered, and models like micropayments, in-game advertising and the 'no monthly subscription but constant sequels' approach all help redefine the way online games work financially.

Older game distribution economics centres around the game's genre, art direction and the technical canvas; in today's online world, add "what do you pay for?" into the mix. Added value is the key phrase here -- Bob can pay twice as much as Anna, but he gets twice as many character slots. Extending this to ingame artifacts such as money and items is an extremely tricky field, but even without that there are features that scale with cost.

Finally, a lifestyle revolution -- identified by Mr. Bidaux as the advent of Web 2.0 -- means more opportunities for online games. The Internet is constantly evolving; collective intelligence (e.g. Wikipedia) and viral content (e.g. MySpace) provide opportunites for community and collaborative efforts. The dematerialisation of software, as embodied by Google's AJAX ventures, is an example of how persistency has power even outside the gaming world.

Overall, it's an exciting time for online games, but we have to wonder how many of these 'revolutions' will have the impact Thomas predicts. New technologies and platforms such as Live Anywhere may help enable some of these visions, but the risk of investment in novelty means that many points may be a long way off, and changes may be gradual. The most exciting possibilities seem to be in the cross-platform 'casual MMO' browser space, where digital distribution and micropayments can be toyed with by smaller studios such as Three Rings -- an interesting platform to watch. Also, seeing what NCsoft is predicting as the near and distant future is valuable in and of itself.

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Develop: Game design ideas worth stealing

Jennie Lees — 2006-07-13T18:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Business

Game development gets accused of stagnation on a near-daily basis, and yet recent games have all featured innovative steps that can appeal to a variety of players. From minor design choices which somehow redeemed a title, to major decisions shaping the entire nature of a game, it's easier than you might think to make a difference. Margaret Robertson of EDGE gave her top picks from the last year or so's crop of games at the Develop Conference; read on for the lowdown.

Skip the boring stuff. Games such as Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude and Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams allow players to bypass minigames when they become tedious. Letting players set their own agenda rather than forcing them to line up dots for hours means that games can cater to different moods, rather than simply different abilities.

Time spent shouldn't be wasted. Ever run around aimlessly for hours in an RPG only to realise you've achieved nothing? By tying in achievements to measures such as play time or distance walked, as in Dragon Quest VIII and Gradius V, players become rewarded for simply playing the game. Even aimless sessions allow players to achieve something.

Gradual gratification. By constantly achieving small goals as part of a larger picture, players stay motivated. Jewel Quest has a literal 'big picture' -- an image which is progressively revealed by completing levels -- but even small things like changing the flags of a newly captured town in The Outfit can leave a mark.

Empowerment. World domination is but a step away with intriguing game mechanics that allow players to have an impact on other players -- and their friends, and their friends, and... From zombie outbreaks in Infected to designs spreading around the globe in Animal Crossing: Wild World, viral content (especially easily trackable content) leads to power and greatness.

Easy heroics. Sometimes working your way up the ranks isn't good enough. In Guild Wars, the character builds of the world's top players are available for newbies to try out from the very start; Project Gotham Racing 3 only allows you to race top-end cars, rather than the usual racing mechanic of starting slow and working up. In today's instant-gratification culture, the immediate power encapsulated here is seductive, although games like Guild Wars retain the option to start at level 1 and recreate the glory of the best.

Art and Me. Creativity and self-expression in games? Not just a pipe dream. Pac Pix, Magic Pengel and Okami all combine drawing with games in odd and entertaining ways -- and being able to see your creations come to life and have an effect on the game world is rewarding. The passive nature of this integration (draw once, reap the rewards later) puts it in contrast with other games that actively encourage you to create within the world (such as Animal Crossing and even Second Life).

Showing off. The simple ability to take screenshots within games -- maybe marking particular achievements, or cool moments -- and share them with others is a PC staple, but what about consoles and handhelds? Loco Roco and Rumble Roses recognise that sometimes people just want to record pretty pictures, but being able to save screenshots from consoles is rare.

Smaller design ideas. While Margaret thought these seven ideas were particularly 'stealable', there are also a load of tiny tweaks that make games just plain fun. For example, having a consistent "we're red, they're blue" mentality in multiplayer games; the 'sell useless items for cash while out in the field' feature of A Bard's Tale; the ability to both co-operate with your friends and smash them to a pulp in multiplayer Zelda.

The most stealable idea? Create your own new ideas, design tweaks that fix those problems that get you miffed. Copying other strokes of ingenuity is great, but originality's even better.

Margaret highlighted a wide range of design issues that some gamers overlook and others praise; game design isn't a perfect science, and new shortcuts, tweaks and improvements are continually introduced by new titles. Even innovation on a small scale is innovation; some of the improvements listed above managed to turn unplayable titles into playable ones, so never underestimate the power of a single small design decision.

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Sony's Phil Harrison: "I don't think we're arrogant"

Conrad Quilty-Harper — 2006-07-13T16:55:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Sony PlayStation 3, Interviews, Business

At the end of the final keynote of the Develop Conference in Brighton, Jennie and I walked up to Sony Computer Entertainment big boss Phil Harrison, with the intention of a) thrusting a Joystiq t-shirt into his hands and b), asking him two questions on the topic of the company's perceived arrogance. What he said is below, but the most interesting part for me was what he said off-tape.

What would you say to the suggestion that Sony is being arrogant?

There's always going to be a risk when you are market leader for ten years that we start to lose perspective; and we have to make sure that we don't lose perspective. But I don't think we're arrogant, I think we have to recognize that we're in a highly competitive industry and that anything that we say will be eternally editorialized by professionals and consumers alike. So we're always in the spotlight.

Would you say that recently Sony has been hurting its PlayStation brand? Recently we had someone say...

Jeff Minter?

Yes, who said that Sony is being arrogant. Is PR hurting Sony at the moment? You have things like notable Sony representatives saying that Microsoft copies Sony when in fact I'd say that they feed off each other equally. Do you think that's hurting Sony?

I think you can always take quotes out of context...

But [Kaz Hirai] specifically said "Microsoft is copying Sony".

Well, as I said, quotes can always be taken out of context. They can be put into a harsher light as a result, but that doesn't mean that the PR strategy is one of arrogance. So they're two separate things.

This is where I stopped recording: after the tape was turned off and I said, "that's it, thanks".

Phil then said something along the lines of "well those were positive questions", in a vaguely sarcastic tone.

This got me to thinking, does that mean Phil was expecting "nice" questions? Has the situation got so bad that executives are surprised when journalists ask questions that are hard to answer? If "the face of the PS3" is surprised when a blogger asks him a question that goes beyond "uh, so what's your game like?", then you have a very large, and worrying indicator that something, somewhere is going wrong in terms of the relationship between the press and video game companies. If anything, Phil should have been surprised if I wasn't asking tough questions!

Finally, and let me clear about this; Phil Harrison is absolutely not the primary instigator of this mentality amongst public figures in the games industry. We're talking "endemic" and "industry-wide" here folks.

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Overheard@Develop: Mark Rein - "I need a stiff drink"

Conrad Quilty-Harper — 2006-07-12T10:45:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Business

Mark Rein is currently sitting 3 feet away from me, and is heavily immersed in an interview with a journalist. Only five minutes ago I heard him saying "I need a stiff drink" in not-too-subtle tones as he walked past the press area. The reason? Most likely his supposed "heckling" from developers over his strong opinions cited in the opening keynote of the Develop Conference this morning (UK time). One developer went as far as calling Mark "a dinosaur" regarding his views about the industry's direction.

In the keynote this morning he called episodic content a "broken business" and stated that "Episodic games that offer faster turnaround will inevitably be using a lot of recycled content, walking through the same environments and shooting the same enemies with the same weapons." So that's opposed to the refreshing experience that we get from walking through Unreal game after Unreal game?

At least one thing's on the up: Mark seems to have got something to drink, as the picture above illustrates.

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