Joystiq

ESA holding student competition, winners to be shown at E3

Mike Schramm — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 23:00:00 EST

The Entertainment Software Association is launching an E3 College Game Competition this year, designed to spotlight some solid student game creations at the upcoming E3 convention in Los Angeles. Over 400 schools have been invited to submit "story details and content assets" for a video game they might make, with the ESA (along with the help of industry veterans and professionals) planning to choose the best five by May.

Those five finalists will then be offered the opportunity to present at this year's E3, and get their games and ideas in front of the media and some of the biggest game developers and publishers in the world. IndieCade has been able to show off some of its games at E3 for a few years now, but this competition is designed to honor student work in the same way.

ESA president Mike Gallagher says the group "intends to honor student achievement and provide a deserved spotlight at E3." Interested teachers who haven't yet been contacted about the contest can find out more by emailing the ESA; you can find more info in the press release below.

Continue reading ESA holding student competition, winners to be shown at E3

ESA holding student competition, winners to be shown at E3 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 04 Feb 2013 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Shigeru Miyamoto on how the Wii U could change games

JC Fletcher — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 09:00:00 EST

The Wii U is designed to enable new gaming experiences, through the combination of motion controls and a small, personal screen. At E3, Nintendo showed games that rely on "asymmetric gaming," or giving different players different experiences; it showed games that use the Wii U's new controller as a touchscreen interface for a game on the TV; and it showed games being played on the WiiPad for situations when the TV is in use.

I wondered which of these would become the central message of the Wii U, the feature that would become emblematic of the system. For Shigeru Miyamoto, Senior Managing Director and General Manager, Entertainment Analysis & Development Division, it's none of those. "For me, personally, what's most important is the idea that when the family goes into the living room, that the first screen they'll interact with will be the Wii U screen," Miyamoto told me in an interview directly following Nintendo's E3 2012 press conference. "Whether they're doing that for social elements, or for watching television, or for games, that to me is the most important element of this new Wii hardware."

Continue reading Shigeru Miyamoto on how the Wii U could change games

Shigeru Miyamoto on how the Wii U could change games originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 13 Jun 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Excerpt: Rise of the Videogame Zinesters

Anna Anthropy — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:00:00 EST

Anna Anthropy's forthcoming book Rise of the Videogame Zinesters is about the personal potential of games -- how simple tools allow all kinds of people to tell their own stories interactively. But it's also a clever, thoughtful examination on game design, and why the medium is important and interesting. In this excerpt from chapter three, "What is it Good For?," Anthropy examines games as "performances" and discusses the advantages computerized chance gives.

THE WORLD'S A STAGE AND WE ARE PLAYERS

Often, games -- particularly digital games, with their use of video and audio -- are compared to film, probably because the videogame publishing industry strongly resembles the Hollywood studio system. But I don think this comparison is particularly constructive, in that it gives us little insight into what the game, as a form, is capable of. Film tells a static story; what exciting about the game is that it allows the audience to interact with a set of rules. This doesn't mean the game can't tell a story: in the role-playing genre, the players aren't merely watching a story but playing the roles of the characters within the story.

A better comparison than film is theater, which is where a lot of our game vocabulary ("the player," "stages," "set pieces," "scripting") comes from. A play defines the roles, events, and scenes of a story. An individual performance of those roles and scenes will always be different: different actors will perform the same role in different ways. Every performance and interpretation of a particular play is different -- sometimes in minute ways, sometimes in radical ways -- but we consider the play itself and the scene itself to be the same.

Continue reading Excerpt: Rise of the Videogame Zinesters

Excerpt: Rise of the Videogame Zinesters originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

AI system programs a game with a suspicious theme

Jessica Conditt — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:40:00 EST

All right; we're done. Throwing in the towel, getting the heck outta Dodge and all that. The robot apocalypse is coming to a head faster than we thought, and it's time for us to move to our safe-hut deep in the jungles of Malaysia. Goodnight, everyone!

Michael Cook, a computer scientist at Imperial College London, has created an AI system that designs games -- clever, complex, slightly sadistic games -- and he has named it Angelina. Angelina has used "co-operative evolution" to make Space Station Invaders, an 8-bit platformer about a scientist trying to escape a space station full of aliens and homicidal robots. Cook provided the graphics and sound effects for Angelina, but still, we have to wonder how comfortable he is with that particular in-game scenario.

We just spent the past 10 minutes playing a game designed by a computer, and we enjoyed it. This is of course all a part of the machines' master plan -- get us complacent, then wham. Lasers everywhere. Either that or we can expect a flood of educational games about adopting children from third-world countries any day now.

AI system programs a game with a suspicious theme originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Reisuke Ishida on why perfect games can't be perfect

Mike Schramm — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 08:00:00 EST

Taito designer Reisuke Ishida devoted a GDC panel to "five techniques for making an unforgettable game," and his most interesting tip for accomplishing that was perhaps counterintuitive: don't make it perfect.

Perfect games, argued Ishida, are boring. In Space Invaders Infinity Gene, for example, he originally experimented with making the invaders more colorful (which you can see on the right in the shot above). But that look made the game "look too 'normal,'" Ishida said. "It didn't really stand out enough for us." He decided to go back to the white coloring of the original invaders, and that helped give the game a unique look.

Those graphics may not be the most aesthetically pleasing to the eye, but Ishida said that helps more than it hurts. "You need a little bit of that quirkiness," he told the crowd, "so it captures your eye and your attention, and it leaves that impression."

And that attention leads to curiosity, which Ishida said will really make a game shine. "People will find that curiosity and they'll want to find out where that curiosity is going to take them," he said. Developers obviously don't want to turn off an audience with disharmony, but Ishida said a great game should have "just a little touch -- something that will trigger someone to think that maybe there's a little more that I need to seek out."

Reisuke Ishida on why perfect games can't be perfect originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 09 Mar 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Sid Meier: modern graphics have lowered the barriers of entry to gaming

Mike Schramm — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:00:00 EST

In this interview with Game Informer, legendary developer Sid Meier says even he has succumbed to the lure of modern graphics. "I used to love to try and challenge the players' imagination," he says, "to show them a few pixels in 16 colors and try and convince them that they're ruling an empire to stand the test of time. But I think today's player is not really willing to make that investment, so we're able to bring the worlds to life in 3D."

But he also believes that beefing up the graphics has brought in a much bigger audience than games could have picked up 20 years ago. "You had to kind of suspend your disbelief and be willing to step into that world," says Meier. "Today we make it a lot easier," and as a result, players who want more than a few pixels on screen can also get their fix.

Meier's currently the creative director of game development at Firaxis, and though he's not participating directly on XCOM it doesn't mean he's not working. Every morning, he says, he comes out of the shower with "about 10 ideas," and is constantly iterating with his team on different prototypes. "Most of them," he says, "just go back into the trash heap." In other words, anyone who wants to make an awesome game should probably go root around in the garbage cans near Sparks Glencoe, Maryland.

Sid Meier: modern graphics have lowered the barriers of entry to gaming originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

New York University introduces MFA in 'Game Design,' starting fall 2012

Ben Gilbert — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:58:00 EST

New York University's Game Center, already a bastion of game development in the Northeastern US, announced this week that it will open a Master of Fine Arts program for "Game Design" in fall 2012. The Game Center's blog revealed the new program this week with a tentative description of the program's offerings and faculty, pinning names like Frank Lantz and Eric Zimmerman to the staff. The two-year program is said to focus on "game design, game programming, visual design for games, and game criticism."

Wait, "game criticism?" According to the MFA program's website, students can focus on criticism for the game design degree, "which means writing about games with a focus on game design and player experience." The site further adds, "A student with this focus will be well-prepared to become a game journalist or critic, a theorist or researcher, or a scholar or historian." There is no mention, however, of the crushing debt you'll be unable to pay with a game journalist's salary. We kid!

Regardless, between creating individual projects and working in groups, the NYU MFA program intends on educating future game devs in a wide variety of disciplines, across a varied spectrum of virtual platforms (from social to console, and everything in between) -- even game journalism, it would seem. Interested parties can find out more info through NYU's graduate program portal, but you'll probably want to read this FAQ first. That thesis sounds like a doozy!

New York University introduces MFA in 'Game Design,' starting fall 2012 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Microsoft holds Kodu game design competition for kiddos

JC Fletcher — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 12:05:00 EST

Microsoft released the full version of game creation utility Kodu Game Lab on PC today, and to celebrate the release of the free software suite, it's hosting a game design competition. Slow down, David Crane -- it's for kids.

The Kodu Cup 2011 is a competition for students aged 9-17 (divided up into two age groups), in which kids use the software to design their own game, for submission by May 10. Prizes include $5,000 awards for both individuals and schools, along a trip to NYC, laptops, Kinect bundles, and a Zune HD out of the warehouse.

Microsoft holds Kodu game design competition for kiddos originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 12:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original GTA developer says game was 'almost canned'

Mike Schramm — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 23:00:00 EST

Gary Penn was a developer at DMA Design way back when the British company was working on the very first Grand Theft Auto game -- the top-down, PC-based version, not the 3D console hit you know and love today -- and says that it was "almost canned." Not because of any Hot Coffee-style shenanigans, mind you. Just because (and we're paraphrasing here) it sucked.

It was incredibly unstable and "it was awful, it was too sim-y," says Penn. It wasn't until the developer found a bit of fun by turning up the police aggressiveness that it finally landed on the gameplay that's sustained the series to this day: GTA creates a much more manic, amped-up version of the world we actually live in.

Once the dev figured that out, it moved on to things like mowing down 2D Hare Khrishnas (Penn's right -- it was really satisfying, moral qualms aside) and just enjoying the world. Penn goes on to say that the series is "stagnating" for him, perhaps because of its success. "It's anything but a lazy game," he says, "but they don't have the pressure if no one else is doing it anywhere near as well as they're doing it."

Original GTA developer says game was 'almost canned' originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Levine: Game industry 'star-struck' by Hollywood

James Ransom-Wiley — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:30:00 EST

Filed under: Weird But True, Opinions, New In Pop Culture

You wouldn't blame Ken Levine for having a chip on his shoulder when it comes to Hollywood. After all, as Develop recounts, the respected game designer "failed spectacularly" in his first career as a scriptwriter. So, when Levine was offered an opportunity to make a game with, in his words, "a very talented film director," it's not much of a stretch to imagine he experienced more than a little satisfaction in turning down the offer.

"My feeling is why?" Levine questioned. "Why would any game designer want to do that?"

Aside from any personal justice he might have enjoyed, Levine answers his own question with another: "Why would I want a film director to help me make a game, any more than they would want me to help out with their films?" And he takes it further: "I think there's a sense in the entertainment fields that video games are seen as the junior varsity," he said. "There's this feeling of 'oh one day you can come up to our league.'"

"In our industry there's too many people star-struck of the movie world, jumping into deals with some big movie director just because they're big film directors." No, Levine isn't taunting del Toro, he's just reflecting on the obvious clash between how great games have been made (hint: rather anonymously) and the looming cult of celebrity eager to pervade the game industry.

But hey, Ken, at least they asked you to work with a movie director -- just about anything passes as a star these days. Who would you rather (make your game with): Bristol Palin or The Situation?

Levine: Game industry 'star-struck' by Hollywood originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

The past and future Pac-Man

JC Fletcher — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 09:35:00 EST

Filed under: Weird But True, Opinions, New In Pop Culture

Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani brought a rather incredible historical artifact to the recent NLGD Festival of Games in the Netherlands: a notebook full of sketches from the original design of Pac-Man. The thirty-year-old sketches show that Iwatani had a pretty good idea of how the mazes and Pac-Man sprite would work even in the pen-and-paper stage of the game design (although, note that the drafted maze lacks the warps at either side). You can also see how casual Iwatani is about carrying around a priceless, irreplaceable document. (See more pictures at Control.)

After the break, for comparison, you can see what's new with Pac-Man. At last week's E3 party, Namco Bandai debuted the pilot for a new 3D computer-animated cartoon starring a child Pac-Man and an army of evil ghosts. GameTrailers recorded the footage from one of the party's TVs, so you can see it now. It's a bit blurry-looking due to the 3D effect. It also totally lacks Marty Ingels.

Continue reading The past and future Pac-Man

The past and future Pac-Man originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 09:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Sid Meier's life, career and a 48-hour game design contest packed into documentary short

Griffin McElroy — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:35:00 EST

Regardless of whether or not you've played any of Sid Meier's games, or whether or not you find yourself curious as to how he became a gaming luminary, or whether or not you've got 24 minutes to kill -- you've got to watch Motherboard's latest documentary. Its focus is on the history of Meier's game development career, as well as his participation in the 7th Annual Wolverine Soft 48 Hour Game Design Contest held at his Alma Mater, the University of Michigan.

More importantly, this short film contains all the requisite components of a gripping piece of cinema: hardship, confrontation, self-improvement, triumph, and the imbuing of a lingering desire to go back and play all of the Civilization games again. Seriously, go check it out.

Sid Meier's life, career and a 48-hour game design contest packed into documentary short originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Naughty Dog invents the missing Uncharted chapter at PAX East

Griffin McElroy — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 21:00:00 EST

Though the original Uncharted was a well paced and cleverly written experience, it wasn't without its share of largely inoffensive faults. For instance, the game's stealth aspects weren't well publicized to the player, leaving Nathan Drake's instant kill abilities unused for most playthroughs. The game's main antagonist, Navarro, wasn't really demonized in the first half of the game. There were also small plot omissions -- like, for instance, how did Elena and Drake get to their plane after the exciting conclusion of Chapter 3?

Naughty Dog recently rectified these three issues during a presentation at PAX East by creating a new, "third-and-a-half" chapter for Uncharted, in which Elena and Drake had to sneak onto an airstrip filled with Navarro's goons, and escape unharmed. With a little help from the audience, the Naughty Dog developers in attendance were able to create a framework for the new chapter, and even bestowed it with yet another clever moniker: "Strip Search."

Continue reading Naughty Dog invents the missing Uncharted chapter at PAX East

Naughty Dog invents the missing Uncharted chapter at PAX East originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 28 Mar 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

WarioWare D.I.Y. intermediate tutorials: a micro-class on microgames

JC Fletcher — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:30:00 EST

While you wait for the release of WarioWare D.I.Y., why not get your learn on? Following the beginner-level tutorials released last week, Nintendo has put together a series of intermediate guides to the microgame creation process. Study these and you should be able to hit the ground running, translating your ridiculous ideas to ridiculous games in no time.

Actually, F.Y.I., D.I.Y. forces you through a tutorial when you first begin the game, so you'll be familiar with this material no matter what. But you might as well learn how it works now and start planning your game designs in advance!

Continue reading WarioWare D.I.Y. intermediate tutorials: a micro-class on microgames

WarioWare D.I.Y. intermediate tutorials: a micro-class on microgames originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

GDC: How Sucker Punch built inFamous' big city with a small team

Griffin McElroy — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:20:00 EST

Last year's shockingly awesome superhero title inFamous boasted a massive sandbox world known as Empire City -- a playground full of climbable, grindable, shootable objects. It was an impressive environment, made all the more impressive by a startling piece of information revealed by Sucker Punch's Nate Fox during a recent GDC panel: The whole city was created by a team of just 12 artists.

Fox explained that this feat was accomplished with the liberal reusing of the game's catalog of environmental assets. For example, there were only two types of cars in the game, differentiated by hue shifts and decals. The map was partitioned into a hexagonal grid -- the inspiration for which came from the popular board game Carcassonne, Fox explained. Edges of each hex were designed to effortlessly fit together, allowing designers to make minor changes to each compartment, and paste the location into another chunk of the city.

This might sound like a cheap tactic for a developer to employ, but Fox explained that a developer's time and resources are limited. By swiftly executing the creation of a game's setting, the developers are given more of an opportunity to focus on designing "evil lairs" and other memorable landmarks. Oh, and according to Fox, the industry term for these outstanding structures is "Weenies." Yes, for that reason. Yes, that is wonderful.

Gallery: inFAMOUS

GDC: How Sucker Punch built inFamous' big city with a small team originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Pixar, Molyneux and Schafer also giving talks at GDC 2010

Ben Gilbert — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:45:00 EST

Worried that you're only gonna get one legendary game developer speaking at this year's GDC? Well quit it, because it turns out that March's pontification festival will also feature the likes of Double Fine's Tim Schafer, Lionhead/MGS Europe head Peter Molyneux, Square Enix FFXIII director Motomu Toriyama, a couple of "Pixar notables," and fantasy wordsmith R.A. Salvatore.

According to Gamasutra's announcement of the speakers, the gentlemen will join "almost 350 other lectures, keynotes, and panels" taking place at the early March event, giving speeches on everything from comedy in gaming (Schafer, of course) to intuitive game design (Molyneux), and even a sneak peek (the first, actually, if we're not mistaken) of 38 Studios' upcoming MMO (with R.A. Salvatore). For all you zipper and chain-clad folks, Toriyama's speech on creating "The Crystal Mythos" might be more up your alley. If none of that sounds exciting to you, then there's always the other 345 or so folks at the event or ... umm ... a bar down the street maybe? Listen, are you alright?

Pixar, Molyneux and Schafer also giving talks at GDC 2010 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

DigiPen expands, increasing graduating class size by a third

Ben Gilbert — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:00:00 EST

[Image credit: Wade Rockett]

Being a premier college for game developers seeking out bachelor's and master's degrees in mind-bending, DigiPen recently announced plans to expand its campus to a larger location in Redmond, Washington. A 100,000 square-foot ex-Microsoft building will house the expanded facilities -- said to include "tiered-seating auditoriums, classrooms, art studios, electronic labs, a large work area for students to study and collaborate on projects, library, cafeteria with a professional kitchen, student recreation room and a general store" -- and the opening is set to take place as early as this Summer.

Redmond Mayor John Marchione points to the school's financial and culture benefits to the region in the press release, saying, "DigiPen is a tremendous asset to the Redmond community, with considerable contributions to education, the arts and our local economy." The Seattle Times points out that this move brings with it an increase in the school's matriculated roster from 900 to 1,200, bringing DigiPen one small step closer to total global domination.

DigiPen expands, increasing graduating class size by a third originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

GDC09: Disneyland's 'The Haunted Mansion' is a first-person shooter

Kevin Kelly — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:15:00 EST

Scott Rogers is a creative manager at THQ, and a former game designer who worked on titled ranging from God of War to Maximo, and he held a panel at GDC called Everything I Learned About Level Design I Learned From Disneyland, and one of our favorite quotes was "Well, the Haunted Mansion is basically a first-person shooter if you think about it. You're directing what the guest sees and has access to, and that's what we're doing with level design."

If Walt only knew! Although not apparent at first glance, once you look at amusement park design and game level design, there are a ton of similarities. We have a lot of goodies coming to you from Rogers' talk which we'll be bringing to you next week. In the meantime, you can reimagine your favorite rides turned into FPS titles. Or you could take the obvious route and just combine a ride and shooter, like Disney already did with Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters.

GDC09: Disneyland's 'The Haunted Mansion' is a first-person shooter originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

SXSW 2009: Game Design Competition rewards elite game designs with Elite Xbox 360s

JC Fletcher — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:42:00 EST

This year's SXSW ScreenBurn Festival was the first to hold a game design competition for amateur developers. The finals in the two categories, Casual and AAA, were held back-to-back, with the four finalists in each category presenting their designs to an audience whose applause would determine their fate, and a panel of judges who would ask questions about the concepts and the possible execution of the games.

Continue reading SXSW 2009: Game Design Competition rewards elite game designs with Elite Xbox 360s

SXSW 2009: Game Design Competition rewards elite game designs with Elite Xbox 360s originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

DICE 2009: Todd Howard on Bethesda's 3 rules of game development

Jason Dobson — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 10:00:00 EST

Some of us had only just recovered from turning back the Daedric scourge in Tamriel before Bethesda took it upon itself to obliterate the countryside altogether in Fallout 3. Destruction of this magnitude takes planning, and speaking during last week's DICE summit in Las Vegas studio director Todd Howard laid out Bethesda's three simple rules for "making excellent games."

According to MTV Multiplayer, Howard's vision for great game design can be distilled down into the following principles: 1) A dev's ability to leave even their favorite ideas on the cutting room floor, 2) the capability to think smaller and keep things simple and 3) being able to define a project "by the experience you want people to have," rather than just a laundry list of features.

During his time on stage, the outspoken director also took issue with the importance of the Wii's overwhelming dominance of the console market, with Gamasutra reporting that Howard said "if install base really mattered, we'd all make board games, because there are a lot of tables." True, but we'd still be hard pressed to trade away our railway rifle and head shots for a pricey monopoly built on the smoldering ruins of Boardwalk and Park Place.

Source -- The Following Colorful Wisdom Is From Todd Howard
Source -- Bethesda's Howard On Supreme Playability

DICE 2009: Todd Howard on Bethesda's 3 rules of game development originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 22 Feb 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

NYU to debut gaming degree program next fall

Jason Dobson — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:45:00 EST

Filed under: Culture

Students at New York University may soon study how to make games instead of simply skip class to play them. A first for any college in New York City, beginning next fall NYU will offer "long-term undergraduate and graduate degrees in the research, design and development of digital games."

With around 70 different game design courses planned, the sure to be popular program will likely fill up quick, with only 10 to 12 NYU students allowed to participate in 2009, with additional Master's and certificate programs planned for an even smaller group beginning the following year. So, do you have what it takes to tighten up the graphics on level 3?

[Via Wonderland]

NYU to debut gaming degree program next fall originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Off the Grid Special: Game Design 101

Scott Jon Siegel — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:55:00 EST

Filed under: Features, Galleries

Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column about card games, board games, and everything else non-digital.

For nearly two years now, Off the Grid has introduced (and reintroduced) Joystiq's readers to some of the best board and card games on the market. The relationship between our modern video games and their non-digital counterparts is very clear-cut. As Gamelab CEO Eric Zimmerman puts it: "a game is a game is a game."

So for those readers who aspire to create games of their own, it should come as no surprise that non-digital games are a great starting place for honing the craft of game design. With no programming skills required, non-digital game design is an easy way to begin thinking creatively about interaction, without the complicated prerequisities of digital game development.

The best leaping-off point for non-digital game design is with the tools. Most gamers probably already have some fantastic equipment in their closets. So let's look at the basic tools of the trade.

Off the Grid Special: Game Design 101 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Eegra hosting 1st Annual Game Makin' Shindig

Justin McElroy — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Business

You may not know this about us (only our closest loved ones do) but we love Eegra.com. It's not exactly newsworthy very often (which is why you don't see us linking to it more) but it's always a great read. So we were delighted to see they were doing something we could pass on to you: Their 1st Annual Game Makin' Shindig.

They're asking contestants to create their own games based around the theme of "Color" (actually, they say "Colour," but we're guessing it's a code). For their efforts, the best entrants will receive some folding cash and the bragging rights of being the best game designer that lives in their house (not applicable if you live in Ken Levine's basement). Your inevitable questions are likely answered in this FAQ. If any of our dear readers want to try their hand, we wish them all the best and hey, try including a quick-time event. People love that stuff.

Eegra hosting 1st Annual Game Makin' Shindig originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Turner Broadcasting sponsors game design competition

Scott Jon Siegel — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 06:58:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, PC, Business

Television and media conglomerate Turner Broadcasting is the latest sponsor of Dare to be Digital 2008, a student-centric game development competition based in Scotland. The media giant joins other sponsors such as EA, Microsoft, AMD, Disney Interactive, and many more.

Since 2000, Dare to be Digital has encouraged teams of UK students to gather, developing games over a ten-week period to be premiered at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival at the end of the event. The competition features prizes for top games across several categories.

Part of the Time Warner group, Turner Broadcasting owns a number of major networks, such as CNN, Cartoon Network, TBS, and TNT. Dare to be Digital is still a relatively small competition, and support from such a wide-reaching conglomerate will only help further promote the event.

Turner Broadcasting sponsors game design competition originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 17 Jan 2008 06:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Game designer talks rebalancing Street Fighter 2 HD

Scott Jon Siegel — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 07:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Fighting

David Sirlin knows fighting games. So when Capcom tapped him to re-balance Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, and make it better than the original, they were putting the game's untarnished reputation into just the right hands.

Sirlin proves his worth in the first of a series of articles on rebalancing Super Turbo HD, revealing new details about the latest Street Fighter II sequel while discussing important decisions made to improve upon the game. Through it all, Sirlin emphasizes the need to retain and improve upon both the feel and the tournament-worthy status of what he considers to be the best in the series.

In short, Sirlin discusses how he aims to make the game more approachable to a larger audience, while rebalancing each fighter to ensure that the title is perfected for tournament play. Purists need not worry: the HD remix will allow gamers to choose to play an unaltered, arcade-perfect version of the original Super Street Fighter II Turbo, which uses the enhanced graphics and sounds but includes none of the rebalancing. The article's a good read for aspiring game designers, Street Fighter fanatics, or just fans of fighting games in general.

[Via GameSetWatch]

Game designer talks rebalancing Street Fighter 2 HD originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 12 Nov 2007 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments