Category: Game Developers

DICE 2002 Flashback: Funny Cliff Bleszinski Pictures

Since I’m feeling all inspired and invigorated from DICE 2012, I’ve decided to revisit some old DICE panels from 2002. It’s going to be fun checking out the attitudes, predictions, and stances on gaming with the benefit of a retroscope. Before I get to the smart stuff, let’s take a look at some old photos of an old friend of mine. Ever wonder what Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski looked like 10 years ago? Here are some photos from the DICE 2002 brochure to appease your wonder.

Cliff’s bio pic looks a bit scary. He looks like a charming felon or someone you wouldn’t want around your teenaged daughter. Perhaps both. Probably both. Okay, definitely both.

Thankfully (for everyone), he looked much better during his DICE 2002 panel. Of course his career has skyrocketed over the last ten years and I’m immensely proud of everything he has accomplished. That said, the photo reminds me of a simpler time that felt more innocent and carefree. Cliff was getting ready to kick all kinds of ass and he hadn’t yet discovered the joys of human growth hormone (rumor). He would also return my phone calls back then (*joke*). When did the world and life get so complicated?!? (You weren’t supposed to see that last sentence.)

Anyway, I’m going to dive into some DICE 2002 panels. Let me know what you think of 2002 Cliffy B when you have a chance (please!).

DICE 2012: TJ Gaida is Highly Questionable

The most controversial or divisive talk at DICE 2012 was held by EA senior CG supervisor TJ Gaida. His session was called “Nonlinear Story Telling: Crafting a New Genre” and it had one of the most heated post-panel Q&A sessions. Gaida was pushing episodic gaming as the future, making comparisons to the episodic nature of television. He got off to a rough start by using Fight Night Champion as an example. I love the Fight Night series and talk to a lot of hardcore boxing fans that love it, but we couldn’t care less about the game’s story. It was just a poor choice to illustrate a point about story.

Gaida went on to tell the crowd how simple and easy it was to make games episodic. This didn’t go over too well with the audience. I distinctly recall a gentleman from one of the major console companies blurting out, “This guy has no idea what he’s talking about.” The Q&A session at the end was an all-star interrogation of people claiming that episodic gaming is anything but easy and looking for examples of successes. Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price, Schell Games CEO Jesse Schell, and SMU Guildhall executive director Peter Raad provided some interesting counterpoints to Gaida’s presentation. It was certainly one of the most heated and interesting discussions at DICE 2012.

Check out the video above and let me know if you’re on Team Gaida or…uh…Team Everyone Else. *joke* Seriously though, I do believe that episodic games have a future, but I also believe that it’s extremely difficult and there are a lot of unknown factors. Aside from Telltale Games, I don’t know anyone else that’s doing well with episodic games and it’s not like Telltale is a huge company. What kind of future do you see for episodic gaming?

DICE 2012: Tomonobu Itagaki on Aerosmith and Carver

My second-favorite DICE 2012 session was held by Valhalla Games co-founder and chief technical officer Tomonobu Itagaki. It was called “What we talk about when we talk about games”. A lot of you know Itagaki from his days with Tecmo’s Team Ninja (Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive). He’s known for dressing like a rock star and wearing sunglasses at night, while his games are famous for gorgeous graphics, crazy violence, and large breasts. With all of that in mind, this talk was not at all what I was expecting. It was sensitive, personal, and very revealing.

Itagaki talked a lot about American literature and how it influenced him. Poet and short-story writer Raymond Carver was and still is a huge deal to him. I’ve interviewed Itagaki several times over the last 15 years and had absolutely no idea he was so well read. Hearing about his knowledge of American literature was definitely cool. It was also a bit embarrassing to learn that a Japanese game developer would completely school me in modern American literature.

The second half of his talk discussed a completely different influence: the song “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith. Itagaki talked about a huge conflict he had with Tecmo and how it drove him to an alcohol-fueled depression that affected his work, his family, and his friendships. Hearing the song in the movie Armageddon moved and inspired him. It made him clutch his daughter as he cried. He cited the song as snapping him out of his depression — saving his life, his family, his friends, and his company.

While I appreciated how revealing and honest Itagaki was being, I have to admit that I was not thinking of Armageddon, but rather Blades of Glory. I’m pretty sure that movie hasn’t had a profound impact on anyone. Anyway, please check out Itagaki’s talk and let me know if you enjoyed it as much as I did.

DICE 2012: Tim Sweeney Talks About Future Graphics

My favorite DICE 2012 talk was given by Epic Games CEO and technical director Tim Sweeney. Titled “Technology and Gaming in the Next 20 Years”, the session focused on the future of videogame graphics. Considering Sweeney’s genius, I was greatly looking forward to what he had to say, but I was afraid that a lot of it would fly over my head. Instead, I was surprised by the great job he did at making high-tech concepts easy for idiots (i.e. me) to understand.

Sweeney kicked off the talk by introducing the mother of all graphics receptors: the human eye. From there he discussed how the human eye is the equivalent of a 30-megapixel camera. For tablet gaming, the most the eye needs is a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600. For console and PC gaming, the eye needs 8,000 x 4,000 at most. Using various data points, Sweeney talks about how quickly videogame graphics can get to those points.

I can’t recommend this session enough. It’s highly technical, but also easy to relate to and very enjoyable. I felt smarter just for hearing it. Give it a watch and please let me know what you think!

Watch DICE 2012 and the Interactive Achievement Awards

The fine folks at Gamespot will be live streaming DICE 2012 panels and the Interactive Achievement Awards. Both events are hosted by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. There’s some really, really awesome stuff here and I urge you to watch if you can. Below are the sessions Gamespot will be live streaming and links to the video awesomeness.

(Skyrim) Todd Howard Keynote – February 8, 2012 – 6:30-7:30p Pacific

(Arkham City) Sefton Hill Session – February 9, 2012 – 10-10:30a Pacific

(Twisted Metal) David Jaffe Session – February 9, 2012 – 11:45a-12:15p Pacific

15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards – February 9, 2012 – 7:30p-10p Pacific

If you happen to catch any of these sessions, please share your thoughts on them…and also rate the speakers outfits on a scale of one to five (no halves!).

Shigeru Miyamoto Retiring, Shigeru Miyamoto Not Retiring

Yesterday, my excellent friend Wired Chris Kohler reported that Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto was planning to “retire” or “step down” in order to work on smaller projects. For the last decade or so, Miyamoto has been more manager than creator. On the handful of occasions I’ve gotten to chat with him, he always mentioned that he missed working on smaller teams and having a more creative role.

Nintendo promptly denied the story, chalking it up to a misunderstanding. Some are speculating that the denial had something (everything?) to do with the company’s stock dipping two percent after Kohler’s story spread throughout the Internet.

In my heart, I believe that Miyamoto has been tired of being in upper management for a long time. I believe that he’d love to “step down” and work on a smaller team with a more creative role. What do you think is really going on? Is Nintendo covering its ass due to the stock dip? Or was this really all a misunderstanding? Post your theory in the comments section (please!).

Coffee Talk #422: Happy Birthday Shigeru Miyamoto!

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, stupid Pacquiao fans making ignorant excuses for their man even though he “won”, guessing Lisa Munn’s muff, or Android getting the new Netflix UI before iOS, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Today is Shigeru Miyamoto’s birthday! The legendary Nintendo game designer has been making amazing videogames for decades. Few people in the world perform at such a high level for so long, especially in entertainment. He’s truly incredible. I’m not saying he does it all by himself, but a significant part of what makes Nintendo so great and lovable is Shigeru Miyamoto’s “magic”. To me, he’s the Jim Henson or Steve Jobs of videogames.

Let’s celebrate this gaming treasure by talking about your favorite Shigeru Miyamoto games and what he means to you as a gamer. Fire away!

Ken Levine Talks Occupy Wall Street and BioShock Infinite

The Washington Post has a great interview with Irrational Games creative director and co-founder Ken Levine. Similarities between BioShock Infinite and the Occupy Wall Street movement are discussed. I highly recommend giving it a full read; it’s a fantastic interview with one of the sharpest minds in game development…

The Washington Post has a great interview with Irrational Games creative director and co-founder Ken Levine. Similarities between BioShock Infinite and the Occupy Wall Street movement are discussed. I highly recommend giving it a full read; it’s a fantastic interview with one of the sharpest minds in game development.

One curious aside in the interview is Levine talking about BioShock Infinite getting heat from leftists and white supremacists alike. Check it out:

The games tend to be a Rorschach for people, and I’ve heard both sides of reaction [to the demo]. I had the displeasure of going to a white supremacist site that made a point of saying this game by “the Jew” Ken Levine was about killing white people. But then I went to this leftist site that said this is about discrediting leftists movements. Games, as I said, are a Rorschach, and I don’t want to be making games that are expressing a political or philosophical view.

For some reason, in my head I hear a white supremacist calling him “the Jew Ken Levine” similar to how South Park’s Eric Cartman says “that damn Jew Kyle”. Though perhaps that’s just me….

Anyway, head on over to The Washington Post, enjoy the interview, and let me know what you think (please).

Source

Coffee Talk #417: Developers Setting Their Own Game Pricing

Epic Games president Mike “Busta” Capps is wise, handsome, and charming. In a recent interview with Develop, he proposed the idea of game developers setting their own prices for games and downloadable content. Capps said…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Steve Jobs creating the iPad out of spite, Lindsay Lohan in Playboy, or your favorite streaming television app, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Epic Games president Mike “Busta” Capps is wise, handsome, and charming. In a recent interview with Develop, he proposed the idea of game developers setting their own prices for games and downloadable content. Capps said, “Right now we’re not even allowed to change the prices of virtual content. We’re not even allowed to set the prices. I just don’t think this protectionist approach is going to be successful in a world where the price of virtual items changes on a day-to-day basis. Double-A games will never come back unless we get rid of this notion of a game being $60 or not released. The console manufacturers need to let this happen.”

It’s an excellent idea that could be fantastic…or terrible. Certainly it’s ridiculous that some crap motion game has the same price as Gears of War 3. One argument is that price should reflect a game’s budget and/or quality. The counter to that argument is the movie business. A ticket to a small-budget indie-film costs the same as one to a mega-million Michael Bay monstrosity.

Then there’s the fact that some developers would find a way to screw up game pricing. Certainly larger companies with a lot of experience or smaller companies with savvy executives would find a way to get the most out of flexible game pricing. However, I expect there would be just as many cases of developers setting unreasonable or unrealistic prices because they’re too attached to their creations. Gaming is still a relatively young business and I think that its immaturity would show up if developers could price their on wares. Publishers are often viewed (sometimes unfairly) as an evil force in the gaming business, but the suits have their uses.

What do you think of Capps’ idea? Can you envision a world where game developers price their own software? Would you prefer flexible game pricing over a rigid system? What benefits and perils do you see with having developers price their own games?

DICE 2012 Speakers: Itagaki, Hilleman, Ballard, and More

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has revealed the first batch of speakers for its DICE 2012 Summit. As many of you know, DICE is my favorite event in the videogame business. It’s a relatively small gathering of gaming’s top creators, gaming’s top executives, a few people from outside the industry (oceanographers, movie directors), and idiots like me. The first speakers announced for DICE 2012 are fantastic. Check out their bios from the press release:

  • Tomonobu Itagaki, co-founder and CTO, Valhalla Games Studios Co., Ltd., world-renowned game designer who created the game franchises Dead or Alive the next gen Ninja Gaiden and the forthcoming Devil’s Third to be published by THQ, will be speaking on “What We Talk About When We Talk About Games”
  • Richard Hilleman, Chief Creative Director, Electronic Arts, will be speaking on “Games as Language”
  • Glen Ballard, president, Augury, Six-Time Grammy Award winner and Oscar-nominated producer/songwriter and arranger will be speaking on “Greater Than The Sum: The Miracle of Collaboration”
  • Isaac C. Gilmore, managing partner, 3SJ Tactical Solutions, previously a non-commissioned officer in the United States Navy where he was a member of SEAL Team 7

I’ve met Itagaki several times and enjoy hanging out with him. It’ll be cool seeing him again at DICE 2012 and hopefully we can do another interview where we’re both wearing sunglasses. Hileman is awesome; he’s one of those mad geniuses in the videogame business that makes me feel really stupid. I’m really looking forward to hearing what Glen Ballard has to say. Hopefully I’ll get the opportunity to ask him about the incredible music acts he’s worked with. I’m going to keep away from Gilmore though. I’m scared of SEALs.

Anyway, let me know what you think of the first speakers announced for DICE 2012. If you have time, please leave some questions you’d like me to ask. If I have the opportunity to interview any of these guys, I’ll try to slip them in (giving you credit, naturally).