Popfly Nominated for C|Net WebWare 100!
Feb 26, 2008
Kudos to the Popfly team for being nominated to C|Net’s Webware 100! If you like Popfly, as John mentions, go out and vote for them
Session Notes: Life on the Bungie Farm: Fun Things to do with 180 servers and 350 processors
Feb 22, 2008
**Speakers: **Luis Villegas, Sean Shypula from Bungie Distributed client/server system split up, runs it in parallel * processes user submitted tasks in parallel * 180 rackmounted machines 300 processes * can use * Advantages speed up time consuming tasks - (rendering goes from day to a few hours) * see results of work more frequently which means more iteration which enables adding more polish * Automates complex processes and reduces human error, ( * click a button and get email when job is complete Main processes on the farm…more
Panel: Future of MMOs
Feb 21, 2008
**Speakers: ** MC of event, Jon Wood - Managing Editor MMORPG.com * Jack Emmert - Founder, Cryptic Studios, Champions Online, City of Heroes/Villans * One other person, Mark Jacobs or “Matt” from Cryptic * Ray Muzyka - General Manager of Bioware, haven’t released one yet * Min Kim - Free-to-play, Cart Rider, * Rob Pardo - SVP of Game Design at Blizzard, Lead designer of WoW Format: Panel and audience questions…more
Keynote: The Next 20 Years of Gaming
Feb 21, 2008
Speaker: Ray Kurzweil [Aside: One of the best talks I’ve ever been to…ever] Rough notes below Acceleration of Progress Studying exponential growth of technology * Games are the cutting edge, VR will be more competitive * VR advantages - become someone else, Ray became 25 year-old female named Ramona Perspective of next several decades Study last several decades to make forward looking predictions * 1980’s book, predictions tracked very well (Arpanet doubling) * Predicting world wide web connecting world * Chess supercomputer doubling power and beating machines * Decentralized electronic communication - effect on Russian totalitarian control * Democratizing tools of creativity - Kid in dorm room can build full HD video * What are the trends?…more
Session: Star Wars, The Force Unleashed
Feb 21, 2008
**Full Title: **Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: How LucasArts is Building a Game Development Team and a Technology Pipeline…at the same time Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a new, upcoming title **Storyline: **Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, between episodes 3 and 4 Designing the Game Big 5 questions - What’s the story, what thing is going to always be fun (using force powers) * unchecked ambitions * Concept art - Lots of images and they’re beautiful, some landscapes look like Wow’s Outland concept art * Pre-Vis work * Rapid prototyping - If I had to do it again, I would have devs prototyping gameplay planning and scope - Add a step to milestones to cut off scope - we shot for the moon, it was too hard, make it decreasing scope a part of every milestone.…more
Top 10 Interesting Nuggets from the Microsoft GDC Keynote
Feb 21, 2008
The US video game industry revenue is now $18 Billion and continues to grow. 2. Games have not only surpassed the movie industry, they have also surpassed the music industry (source: Jupiter Research) 3. 7 different Xbox titles sold over 1MM units in the 2007 holiday season 4. Xbox has the highest number of games rated > 80 by Metacritic 5.…more
Session: WiiFit: Creating a Brand New Interface for the Home Console
Feb 20, 2008
Speaker: Takao Sawano WiiFit Examples Family weighing themselves and tracking health * Father doing push ups on balance board * Mother doing yoga on the board * Games: Kid taking headers playing soccer goalie * Games: Grandfather using ski-jump * Games: Mother walking on a tightrope Sold over 1.4 million units Europe: April 25th * US: May 19th Wii Fit Package Contents Balance Board and software Not born of strategic process,…more
Session: Rules of Engagement: Blizzard's Approach to Multiplayer Game Design
Feb 20, 2008
Speaker: Rob Pardo, Blizzard Entertainment Rough notes below Game Balance solo to max level important role in a group, raid, and group PVP Starcraft - Race totally different Better players can win games fast Offense over defense (don’t want Starcraft 2 as a Sim City simulator) Creative strategies Every unit has a counter Be fun Game Balance…more
Session: Taking Xbox LIVE Arcade Games to the Next Level
Feb 20, 2008
Note: I’ll be regularly blogging on session at GDC (Game Developer Conference) _Rough _notes Speaker: Scott Austin: Xbox LIVE Arcade, Microsoft I just interviewed Scott and we’ll be posting the video on Channel 9 in the next few days Games N+ - Level editor * P2P versus server (doesn’t need to be policed) * RezHD Input Achievements GeoWars * Pacifist - 60 seconds of living * Drives different behavior * Tetris Splash * Every unlocked achievement adds new fish to your fish tank * Small Arms * Buzz around non-descript achievement * You had to play against someone who had the achievement * Then play against someone who has the achievement * Indirectly played against someone that has the achievement (2 devs had it and achievement spread from there) * Braid * Coming out soon * 65 levels * Uses time as part of the game mechanic * Parallel time stream, distort time, reverse time * Meta story - find the meaning of life * Similar to bioshock * Ikaruga * Polarity - Black or white * Black kills white * White kills black * White ship shooting white actually helps you * Schitzoid - * Co-op - only black can kill black, only white can kill white * Every Extend Extra Extreme (E4) * Allows you to integrate your music into the game, not allowed to integrate your music into rhythm game, (ex: can’t do guitar hero with your music) * Rip music off your DVD - E4 will figure out rhythm and analyze the music automatically * Texas Hold ‘Em - Statistics * Analyze win/loss, flop, turn, bankroll, hands you’ve received * Undertow * Art/graphics to a new level for an arcade game * Cut scenes in-between levels, immersive experience * 16-person multiplayer game * Double Dragon (retro games) * Extras section - read storyline, original artwork, hints and trips * Take away * Innovation is really important to us * Innovate in any direction * Push the envelope * Questions * Statistics - Do we have stats on how many games are selling?…more
DreamSpark: Free Microsoft software for students
Feb 19, 2008
DreamSpark is a new program that launched today (Feb 18th) at Stanford Univ. with Bill Gates giving the keynote. If you’re a student you get Windows Server 2003 Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition Microsoft Expression Studio including FrontPage Expression Web, Blend, Design and Media A one year subscription to XNA Game Studio Creator’s club For full information, check out https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/ and watch Max Zuckerman’s interview with Bill Gates…more