Develop - Issue 106 - June 2010

G A M E D E S I G N | C O D I N G | A R T | S O U N D | B U S I N E S S

JUNE 2010 | #106 | £4 / e7 / $13

plus develop awards: the finalists • dutch games industry • tools news & more

WWW.DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET

In-depth investigation into the latestdevelopments in games technology

DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET

ALPHA05 – 11 > dev news from around the globeTrain2Game survey shows severe industry skills crisis, as Skillset launches gamescensus; the Develop Awards finalists are revealed; plus all the big headlines

12 – 15 > opinion and analysisRick Gibson on the iPhone’s embrace of freemium games; David Braben evaluatesthe Activision/Infinity Ward fallout; Ben Board looks at the magic of creativity; andBilly Thomson offers 10 tips to make a best-selling game

BETA20 – 23 > game changersWe profile 15 of the companies that are reshaping video games

24 – 25 > independents’ dayRogue tiny teams are all the rage – and the indie scene is exploding in the UK. We talk to a handful of them to find out what’s inspiring them to go it alone

28 – 30 > going dutchAn examination of the games industry in Holland, plus profiles of its biggestgames firms Guerrilla and Playlogic

32 – 33 > cave storyJapanese shmup developer Cave refuses most interviews – except when Developcalls. In a rare Q&A, the team discuss why they are so excited about iPhone games

BUILD38 – 50 > engines of changeCOVER STORY: In-depth look at the evolution of middleware technology

53 > epic diariesHow Unreal Engine is being harness by Zombie Studios for games and film

54 > sounds goodJohn Broomhall explains why you can’t miss the audio track at July’s Develop Conference in Brighton

CODA66 > forward plannerYour guide to upcoming issues of Develop

ContentsDEVELOP ISSUE 106 JUNE 2010

57-64studios, tools, services and courses

38

05

12 28

32 14

JUNE 2010 | 03

Develop Magazine. Saxon House, 6a St. Andrew Street.Hertford, Hertfordshire. SG14 1JAISSN: 1365-7240 Copyright 2009Printed by The Manson Group, AL3 6PZ

Tel: 01992 535646 Fax: 01992 535648www.develop-online.net

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Editor-in-ChiefMichael [email protected]

Deputy EditorWill [email protected]

Staff WriterStuart [email protected]

Online EditorRob [email protected]

Advertising ManagerKatie [email protected]

Advertising ExecutiveAlex [email protected]

Production ManagerSuzanne [email protected]

DesignerDan [email protected]

Sub-EditorGemma [email protected]

PublisherStuart [email protected]

Managing EditorLisa [email protected]

Contributors Ben Board, David Braben, JohnBroomhall, Rick Gibson, ThomasGrove, Billy Thomson, Mark Rein

Enquiries, please email: [email protected]: 01580 883 848Charges cover 11 issues and 1st class postageor airmail dispatch for overseas subscribers.

Develop is published 11 times a year,reaching 8,000 readers throughout the UKand international market.

the international monthly forgames programmers, artists,musicians and producers

If you would like to work with Deep Silver and find out more about any publishing opportunties we can offer you please contact Stuart Chiplin - Head of Publishing

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a healthy alternative

DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET JUNE 2010 | 05

Survey says: student skills crisisTrain2Game research shows the next generation of industry entrants lack relevent training, as Skillset opens census

Research performed by openlearning provider Train2Gamein association with Develop hashighlighted a lack of relevantskills among recruits to thegame development industry.

The survey aimed toexamine the gamedevelopment industry’sattitudes towards educationand recruitment. Its findingssuggested that over half ofindustry respondents perceivea considerable gap in skillsexisting within their areas ofbusiness – with over 80 percent citing a lack of experienceamong prospective employeesas the main barrier to theirrecruitment.

Elsewhere the survey’sfindings suggested that: 68.4per cent of industryrespondents hired a maximumof just two entry level staff peryear, with 56.4 per centoffering work experience orinternships to students.

Attention to detail, creativityand team playing were namedas the most valuable skillspeople look for in entry levelstaff. 55.8 per cent ofrespondents agreed stronglythat developers need to bemore involved in ensuringstudents have relevantindustry skills.

52.5 per cent of thosesurveyed stated that entrylevel staff could expect toprogress to a more seniorposition within 18 months ofstarting at a company.

Fair starting salaries fordifferent entry level positionsin the industry were quoted by

the highest percentage ofrespondents as around£16,001 to £19,000 fordesigners, £18,001 to £20,000for programmers and £19,001to £22,000 for animators

“Companies involved in anindustry as dynamic and fast-moving as game developmentclearly need a steady flow oftalented new recruits to ensurethey can keep up with thecompetition,” Train2Gamecourse director Tony Bickley ofDR Studios said.

“The results of our surveyhighlight the need for aspiringgame developers todemonstrate a good level ofknowledge and expertise intheir chosen field, in order tohelp fill the perceived skills gapand really make an impressionon potential employers.”www.train2game.com

ADVENTURES IN GAMES DEVELOPMENT: NEWS, VIEWS & MORE

“Whatever happens now, InfinityWard as it was, is dead.”

David Braben, p14

DevelopAwards: the

finalistsNews, p6

Tim Schafer:ready forBrighton

News, p16

Freeing the

iPhoneOpinion, p12

by Stuart Richardson

Skillset wants to put together the most comprehensiveprofile of working life in the UK’s creative media industries –and the education authority needs your help to do it.

The 2010 Creative Media Workforce and Employer Surveys– launched last month – will help Skillset compile the profileand assess how the UK industry is faring in the currentglobal economic climate.

Contributors will be asked about their skills needs,experience of training and recruitment, future plans andworking patterns. Findings will be used to inform Skillset’songoing efforts to help the creative media industries remainas important tomorrow as they are today.

The results of the survey will be published exclusively byDevelop at the end of the year.

Skillset will use the survey to pinpoint future trainingsupport, issues affecting the sector and spot trends thatcould lead to skills shortages or over-supply.

To take part, visit www.skillset.org/playyourpart. If youwould prefer to be contacted by phone, [email protected].

Skillset launches creativeindustry censusCompanies

involved indevelopmentclearly need asteady flow of newrecruits to ensurethey cankeep up.

Tony Bickley,

Train2Game

They may besmiling now, but

the future maynot be everything

these graduatesare expecting

06 | JUNE 2010

ALPHA | NEWS

THE HUGELY varied list of finalists vying for the 21Develop Awards up for grabs in 2010 is a testamentto the game development field’s increasingsophistication, expansion and innovation.

I feel like I say that every year, as we are alwaysstriving to keep the Develop Industry ExcellenceAwards both relevant and focused on genuineexcellence. But it really is true: while these twopages are about our awards, our awards are aboutgames development and its many strengths.

The Develop team went through hours ofdeliberation and reasoning to produce the final listyou see to the right. The fact that gamesdevelopers in Europe continue to impress andastound with gaming experiences that entertainthe masses year on year made it quite thechallenge. Compressing a longlist of 160companies down to the shortlist was not easy.

There are four new awards in the Develop line-upthis year – Best New Download IP, Micro Studio,Audio Outsourcer and Visual Outsourcer – that areemblematic of the ways we have seen the biggestchanges. On the one hand, more and more tinyteams are disrupting the status quo. On the otherbig budget games continue to expand and call onspecialist third parties to succeed.

And don’t just take the Develop Awards’ word forit – in this issue you can see the industry basicallychange before your eyes. Our indie roundtableproves that the bedroom coder is alive and kicking(p.24); the increasing sophistication of middlewarehas come to support any business interested ingames, not just those with big wallets (p.38); andour Game Changers list shows that both giants andminnows (some of which, incidentally, are DevelopAward nominees) are shaping the business.

80 companies. 14 countries. 21 awards. 24 differentgames. 13 original properties. Whichever way youlook at it, the 2010 Develop Awards recognise thehuge variety of talent in the games industry.

Congratulations and good luck to those who arenominated. See you on the night.

Editorial

Michael [email protected]

A night to rememberDevelop Awards: Over 80 companies from across Europe competing for key prizes at

Over 500 games industryexecs are expected to attend

July’s event, hosted by theexcellent Rufus Hound (below

left). Media Molecule (below)were the big winners last year

TINY TEAMS and giant 200-strong studios will battle itout for 21 accolades at nextmonth’s Develop IndustryExcellence Awards.

The finalists for thepopular summer awardsshow for European gamesdevelopers are now unveiled(see full list, right), and over 80companies from acrossEurope are competing.

Indie developers,outsourcers, in-house teamsand technology firms will viefor awards like Best New IP,Technical Achievements andVisual Arts at the event whichtakes place at the HiltonMetropole Hotel in Brighton.

Sony leads the charge withnine nominations for itsvarious teams in Europe,from R&D Research to itsXDev publishing supportteam in Liverpool.

Elsewhere there are fivenominations for Split/Second

and its developer Black Rock,plus four apiece for HeavyRain/Quantic Dream, Batman:Arkham Asylum/Rocksteady.

Top comic Rufus Houndwill host this year’s event, and Autodesk has alreadysigned up as Exclusive Drinks Sponsor.

With four new awardsadded in 2010, the DevelopAwards seek to recognisedevelopers of all shapes andsizes from tiny teams youmay not have heard of yet,such as Hello Games andDistractionware (nominatedfor Best New Download IPand Micro Studio) andindustry giants like Sega orMicrosoft (Publishing Hero).

Now the finalists arenamed, an expert panel of100 games developmentexecs will vote on who theythink should win.

Develop will also name thewinners of the Development

Legend and Grand Prixawards on the night of July14th. Recipients of thesespecial prizes are chosen bythe Develop team aftersoundings from the industry.

To book your place at the event [email protected], or call 01992 535 646.

Until June 7th there arediscounts as big as £500 on tables and 25 percent on seats. After then theprices change to: Gold Table of10 – £2475 + VAT; StandardTable of 10 – £2290 + VAT; andSingle Seats are £235 + VAT.

There are also a number ofpromotional possibilities atthe event that includecategory, award and partysponsorship. [email protected] for more informationon how you can get involved.www.developawards.com


NEWS | ALPHA

the finalists are revealed July 14th event ● New prizes for outsourcers join updated Download and Micro Studio awards

CREATIVITYBest New IPBlur (Bizarre Creations)Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)Alan Wake (Remedy Entertainment)EyePet (SCE London Studio)Backbreaker (NaturalMotion)APB (Realtime Worlds)Split/Second (Black Rock Studio)

Best New Download IPAngry Birds (Rovio)VVVVVV (Distractionware)Chime (Zoe Mode)Machinariam (Amanita Design)Orbital (BitForge)Blue Toad Murder Files (Relentless Software)Joe Danger (Hello Games)

Best Use of a Licence or IPBatman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Games)Metro 2033 (4A Games)Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Climax Games)Doctor Who: The Adventure Games(Sumo Digital / Revolution Software)LittleBigPlanet PSP (SCE Cambridge)Aliens vs Predator (Rebellion)

Visual ArtsMachinarium (Amanita Design)Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Games)Alan Wake (Remedy Entertainment)Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)EyePet (SCE London Studio)Split/Second (Black Rock Studio)

Audio AccomplishmentBattlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA DICE)Blur (Bizarre Creations)DJ Hero (FreeStyleGames)Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising (Codemasters)Split/Second (Black Rock Studio)Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Climax)Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Games)

Publishing HeroSegaSony XDevBigpointMicrosoftChannel 4BBC

TECHNOLOGY & SERVICESTechnical InnovationHeavy Rain (Quantic Dream)Sony Augmented Reality (EyePet/Invizimals)UnityBigpoint Split/Second (Black Rock Studio)Hustle Kings (VooFoo Studios)

Tools ProviderAutodeskScaleformHavokHansoftSCEE (R&D/SN Systems/PlayStation Home)AudiokineticDolby

EngineUnityUnreal Engine 3Gamebryo LightspeedCryEngineTrinity Vision

ServicesBabelAudiomotionCatalystTestologyUniversally SpeakingTestronic Labs

Audio OutsourcerOutsource Media UKSIDERichard Jacques StudiosNimrodMedia MillAudio GuysHigh Score Productions

Visual Outsourcer SPOV TVAxis AnimationImage MetricsRealtime UKImagination Studios

Recruitment CompanyNatural SelectionAmiqusOPMAardvarkHandleSpecialMove

STUDIOSBest New StudioLightning FishVooFooHello GamesSix to StartWonderland 4A GamesNaturalMotion

Micro StudioStartfruitMobigameAmanita DesignBinary TweedHello GamesTag GamesDistractionware

Handheld StudioRovioRockstar LeedsNovaromaSCE CambridgeIdeaworks Game StudiosDigital Goldfish

Business DevelopmentAvalancheSony XDevEutechnyxBlitz 1UPX2 Games – ExientNDreams

In-House StudioRocksteady GamesBizarre CreationsBlack Rock StudioSCE London StudioSports InteractiveCreative AssemblyCodemasters

Independent StudioQuantic DreamSumo Digital Remedy EntertainmentJagexRed LynxRealtime Worlds

SPECIAL RECOGNITIONDevelopment LegendGrand Prix

THE FINALISTS

ALPHA | NEWS & EVENTS

THE DEVELOP CONFERENCEJuly 13th to 15thBrighton, UKwww.develop-conference.com

The Develop Conference is where theEuropean dev community comes togetherto learn from each other and shareexperiences, be inspired by worldrenowned experts, get up-to-date with thelatest tools and techniques, make newcontacts and catch-up with old ones.

The conference will open on July 13with the Develop Evolve track – revealingthe latest emerging game markets, frommobile to social, digital to casual games.

Following this, the event adopts atraditional approach, covering some of theissues facing the industry today and someof the most promising titles on the radar.

Over the last four years the DevelopConference & Expo has rapidly establisheditself as the leading event for gamesdesign and development professionalsacross Europe.

DEVELOP DIARYFESTIVAL OF GAMESJune 4th to 5thUtrecht, The Netherlandswww.festivalofgames.nl/site

APPLE WORLDWIDE DEVELOPERSCONFERENCEJune 7th to 11thMoscone West, San Franciscohttp://developer.apple.com/wwdc/

E3 2010June 15th to 17thLos Angeles, USwww.e3expo.com

WORLD OF LOVEJune 25thLondon, UKwww.worldoflove.eventbrite.com

GAME HORIZON 2010June 29th to 30thNewcastle, UKwww.gamehorizon.net

ANIMATION 10 - AWARDS NIGHTJuly 9th Manchester, UKwww.cs.manchester.ac.uk

GAME HERO 2010July 10thGateshead, UKwww.gatesheaddigitalsummer.com

DEVELOP IN BRIGHTONJuly 13th to 15thBrighton, UKwww.develop-conference.com

DEVELOP AWARDSJuly 14thBrighton, UKwww.develop-online.net

CASUAL CONNECT SEATTLEJuly 20th to 22ndSeattle, USseattle.casualconnect.org

SIGGRAPH 2010July 25th to 29thLos Angeles, USwww.siggraph.org/

DARE PROTOPLAY August 13th to 15th Edinburgh, Scotlandwww.daretobedigital.com

GAMESCOM 2010August 18th to 22ndCologne, Germanywww.gamescom-cologne.com

EDINBURGH INTERACTIVE 10August 25th to 26th Edinburgh, Scotlandwww.edinburghinteractivefestival.com

CEDEC 2010August 31st to September 2nd Yokohama, Japanhttp://cedec.cesa.or.jp/2010/en/

TOKYO GAME SHOWSeptember 16th to 19th Tokyo, Japanhttp://tgs.cesa.or.jp/english/

june 2010 august 2010

YOUR COMPLETE GAMES DEVELOPMENTEVENT CALENDAR FOR THE MONTHS AHEAD…

july 2010

“Sitel’s Game Masters ensure that consistent high quality service is always provided to the EVE community.”

“Sitel’s Game Masters ensure that consistent high quality service is always provided to the EVE community.”

september 2010

ALPHA | WORLDVIEW

WorldViewOur monthly digest of the past month’s global games news…

10 | JUNE 2010

DEALS

USAEMERGENT DEAL FOR LEGOUNIVERSEEmergent has revealed a licensing deal withthe studio building the upcoming onlinegame LEGO Universe.

The Gamebryo engine vendor signed anagreement with Colorado-based studioNetDevil, allowing the studio to useEmergent’s LightSpped engine to build theLEGO MMO.

“The best part about Emergent’s tech wasthat we were able to get the artists producingactual content within the first month of thethe beggining of the project,” said NetDeviltechnical director Erik Urdang.

He added: “We evaluated other enginesand chose Gamebryo for its render pipe andmemory management features, in addition tothe significant engineering support whichallowed us to optimize the technology.”www.emergent.net

UK/INDIALIGHTNING FISH TO OPENSTUDIO IN INDIABanbury based Lightning Fish will beopening a development studio in Pune, India.

The new studio will open with five seniormanagers: the studio head and thedepartment leads. Lightning Fish has said ithopes to have twenty staff in Pune by the ofthe year. The studio will employ environmentand UI artists, tools and Actionscriptprogrammers, motion editors and QA staff.

The new studio will support the firm’s UKdevelopment teams as Lightning Fish seeksto build on the expansion.

Simon Prytherch, CEO of Lightning Fishcommented: “When we started Lightning Fishwe planned to be a dominant force in thedevelopment of motion tracking games. Wealso wanted to build the capability todevelop three titles simultaneously. 2010 isthe year that we achieve both these goals”.www.lightningfishgames.com

USATHQ UNVEILS PARTNERSDIVISIONTHQ has unveiled a brand new division calledTHQ Partners.

Like EA Partners, THQ Partners offersdevelopers “access to THQ's global retail andonline publishing network”.

The division will be led by VP Tim Walsh,who joins THQ from in-game ad firm IGA.

“I'm extremely pleased to join THQ andlaunch THQ Partners,” said Walsh.

“I'm looking forward to working with aselect number of world-class developers andpublishers to distribute their great gamesthrough our global network.”www.thq.com

NETHERLANDSKILLZONE 2 WINS IVORNOVELLO AWARDKillzone 2 has been award the Ivor NovelloAward for best original video game score.

The soundtrack to the Guerilla Games title,composed by Joris de Man, won theinaugural games-facing award at the eventwhich rewards song writers and composersfor their work in various fields.

It was lobbying from famed gamescomposer Richard Jacques that saw IvorNovello add a games award this year.

Killzone's award was handed out at anevent in London that also featured stars likeLily Allen and Paolo Nutini.www.guerilla-games.com

USAGAIKAI SCORES SECONDFUNDING ROUNDA group of venture capitalists have pumpedover $10 million in the upcoming cloudgaming technology service Gaikai.

The service will allow gamers to play adiverse range of videogames throughnumerous devices and platforms via itsonline streaming.

Gaikai also offers online and remote accessto games installed on Gaikai’s farms ofpowerful computers and servers, which arenow being set up across the globe.

The likes of Rustic Canyon Partners,Benchmark Capital and Triplepoint Capitalhave participated in the investment round –now Gaikai’s second phase of private funding.An anonymous investor has also fronted cash.

“Gaikai offers video game publishers andretailers an innovative cloud-computingsolution that enables the acquisition of new

EUTECHNYX SECURES £6MINVESTMENTEutechnyx has secured a £6m ($9.25) investment from Amsterdam-based veture capital firm Prime Technology Ventures.

Eutechnyx has said that the investment will help to finalise thedevelopment of upcoming racing title Auto Club Revolution.

The firm also aim to use the money to develop their free-to-playinfrastructure before a larger move into casual online games.

“When we saw what Eutechnyx was working on, we knew wehad to be involved, particularly given Eutechnyx’s track record,design heritage and jaw-dropping technology,” said PrimeTechnology Venture’s general partner Monish Suri.

Eutechnyx CEO Brian Jobling said that he was thrilled to havesecured the investment.

“As an independent developer, this infusion will help us tocontinue to forge our own destiny within a rapidly changinggames industry.”www.eutechnyx.com

Indian studioSwadeshAnimation haslicensed fourXaitment AI gametools for use inupcomingMMORPG OnlineTales.

Facebook andZynga haveentered into a “five-year strategicrelationship” thatwill see anexpanded use ofFacebook Credits inZynga games.

Korean studioAnipark haslicensed EpicGames’ UnrealEngine 3 for twoseparate projects, abaseball title and aMMORPG.

Online publisherFuncom has signedan agreement withSweedish start-upStunlock Studio topublish upcomingtitle BloodlineChampions.

Korean studioGorilla BananaEntertainment haslicensedEmergent’sGamebryo platformfor in-developmentMMORPG RedBlood.

Activision hasannounced a dealwith translation firmXLOC to allow forEuropeanlocalisation ofracing title Blur.

Social gaming giantPlayfish has signeda deal with EA todevelop aFacebook gamebased on popularfranchise FIFA.

DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET

WORLDVIEW | ALPHA

JUNE 2010 | 11

SAY WHAT?!FOR THE LATEST NEWS...

video game players at a dramatically reducedoverall cost,” said Nate Redmond of RusticCanyon Partners.www.gaikai.com

SWEDENRIOT GAMES OPTS FORHANSOFTSweden-based management tools vendorHansoft has revealed a licensing agreementwith League of Legends studio Riot Games.

The LA-based Riot says it decided to useHansoft’s project management tools afterlooking for a pipeline solution that was both“flexible enough to handle agiledevelopment”, and able to offer “the depth ofreporting we need at Riot Games”.

Mark Franz, director of development at RiotGames, said Hansoft has “dramaticallyreduced” the studio’s planning overhead.

He adds: “It has given us much greaterclarity around how quickly we’re progressingtowards our goals, as well as the flexibility weneed to support the fast paced developmentat Riot Games”.www.riotgames.com

CHINAZYNGA ACQUIRES CHINA-BASED XPD MEDIAFacebook gaming giant and Farmvilledeveloper Zynga has acquired Chinese socialgaming company XPD Media, paving the wayfor the former to establish a presence in thelucrative Asian market.

“As the largest Internet market in theworld, China is at the vanguard for virtualgoods based gaming innovation,” statedZynga's Robert Goldberg, VP of corporatedevelopment for the firm.

“We expect our new office in Beijing andthe incredible talent in the local market toplay a strategic role in our mission to createthe best social gaming experiences availableanywhere in the world.”www.xpdmedia.com

USA/UK4MM GAMES IN BID TO OPENUK STUDIONew York-based 4mm has outlined plans toopen a UK studio.

Early in May the firm expanded its businessto Europe by launching a sales and marketingoffice in London under the leadership ofadvisory board member Geoff Heath.

“Opening a UK studio is absolutelysomething we’re looking at,” said Heath.

4mm believes that a British dev base willbe the final piece in the puzzle to becoming a‘global digital publisher.’

“The UK has a tremendous talent pool andhistory in games,” said Heath.

“We will be watching closely to see if thenew Government follows through on its pre-election proposals.”

4mm is currently preparing to release newsocial game franchise Def Jam Rapstar lateron in the year.www.4mmgames.com

INSOMNIAC SIGNS WITHEA PARTNERS

Insomniac Games - the PlayStation studio responsiblefor key Sony franchises Ratchet & Clank andResistance - is to embark on its first multiplatformproject thanks to a deal with EA Partners

The firm is working on a new 360/PS3 title whilealso continuing its work with Sony.

Insomniac will get to retain ownership of the gameIP, while EAP will handle sales and distribution.

The deal with EA represents a change indevelopment direction for Insomniac. The 200-strongstudio is known for its slate of PlayStation-only games– and amongst other developers for its database ofPS3 technical documentation.

Speaking to Develop before the deal was unveiled,Insomniac CEO Ted Price said:

“Our relation ship with Sony remains strong.“However we looked around and talked with many

partners who have global publishing power andexpertise across multiple platforms – but EA is clearlyvery strong globally and, more importantly, EAPartners works with independent developers whoown their properties.

Price added that the game itself will be unveiled“when we’re ready”. www.insomnicgames.com

HEAD TO WWW.DEVELOP-ONLINE.NETOur online resource features news, features, analysis andcommentary posted daly, and is available via the web, mobile,RSS and daily email and news alert blasts. “With iPods, iPads,

Xbox and Playstation -none of which I know

how to work -information becomes a

distracation.”

Not so much ‘Yes We Can’ as ‘No YouShouldn’t’, Barack Obama. Man, you used

to be cool.

“For the last few yearsit’s all been about

graphics performance.We are entering a

period where that is asolved problem.”

Really, Gabe Newell? No moreimprovements at all? I mean, stuff looks

good right now, but... you know...

“I think we can name acompany that is a fruitthat is in the news a lot

about theirarrogance.”

Whoever could you be reffering to, SCEAustrailia’s Michael Ephraim? Orange?

Blackberry? Apple? Apricot?

“It’s not based onanything we have

heard about.”

The Daily Mail explains the complexmethod used to work out the $100m

budget it cited for Red Dead Redemption.

INDUSTRY ANALYSISSPONSORED BY

12 | JUNE 2010

ALPHA | OPINION

There’s no question that the iPhone hashad a huge positive impact on mobilegaming since launch in 2007. The

iPhone gaming market is growing healthilyand has attracted crowds of independentslooking to go ‘direct’ (through Apple). But asthis market has matured, major potholeshave killed many plucky start-ups. Thispotted history will evaluate whether thepitfalls outweigh the benefits.

JAVA CRISISFew games markets are more broken thanJava mobile gaming. Most indie developerswork for hire with no royalty, keeping themsmall and cash-strapped. Poor audienceprofiling means developers have little ideawho they are developing for, resulting incopious games for boys when the averageJava gamer is a woman in her mid-twenties.The cost of porting to thousands of handsetsoutweighs initial development costs forpublishers, driving down quality. Hundreds ofcompetitors on operator decks drovedecreasing numbers of viable large publishersto pay ‘marketing fees’ for placement. WhereJapanese operators triggered massiveinnovation by taking 30 per cent of atransaction, Western operators take 40 to 50per cent, constricting the market. Consumersare overcharged for downloads, and buy Javagames in brief spurts, shortening most games’viable shelf lives. Below five per cent ofWestern mobile subscribers actually buygames, a figure gradually falling.

Enter iPhone. Apple solved many of theseproblems by creating a desirable device witha great UI and a smooth buying experience.Low handset variation has largelyextinguished porting. Development is easierand faster. The App Store made games moreprominent, and Apple sensibly shares 70 percent with developers. They take no paymentsfrom publishers for placement, so the chart’shigher reaches feature many more originalindependent IPs. Most significantly, Appleentirely bypasses operators and ensuresinternet is bundled for free. iPhone’spredominantly male users love buyingpremium games apps made by boys for boys,and well over three times as many buy iPhonegames versus Java.

The contrast between these two is stark.While Java declines, iPhone has reinvigorateda market that had got stuck at around $1bn in

the West, and will take the lion’s share infuture, despite having a relatively tiny installedbase (only 5m in the UK). With so many oldhandsets still in use, Java gaming will linger onfor several years but it won’t be pretty.

iPhone had a bright childhood, aboundingwith breathless reports of bedroomprogrammers making millions. In its first year,a number of early movers made substantialrevenues from quick little games. By mid-2009, the App Store passed 10,000 gamesand Apple’s tiny editorial and approval teamscreaked under piles of new applications.Average unit sales, prices and returns for newIP were falling fast. Despite experiencedwork-for-hire studios like Distinctivereporting that any iPhone game costing over$40,000 would not break even, an arms racehas been fought by studios raisingproduction values over $1m to counter risingcompetition. Little studios reliant onpremium app sales started to go out ofbusiness, while bigger studios started

marketing heavily to keep their brandedapps in the charts. The market now consistsof a thin layer of big publishers and top-tieriPhone studios but few studios at scale belowthem. Older studios could port existinggames to iPhone for low cost and still dowell, but original IP struggles to be shine in amarket with over 35,000 games.

Early mover Ngmoco watched this changein the market with concern. Lots of low qualitygames at low prices felt like Java all over again.To make a business at the scale demanded byinvestors, it calculated they needed a game inthe top five all year round. The premium appmarket looked unsustainable before Apple’s U-turn to enable freemium, in-app purchasing.Ngmoco went free in July 2009, acquiringseveral freemium studios and making itspremium games free. These are monetised by

selling virtual goods, advertising and offers,optimised by data mining. It radically changedproduction methodology to build only theminimum required to live-test player retentionlevels and refine their game designs. Ngmocohas even found way around Apple’s ban onthird party premium currencies by sellingservices and not items. Ngmoco estimates itmakes four times more money from freemiumthan premium, and is thought to be grossingwell over a million dollars each month.

While iPad steals media attention, Apple andFacebook have signalled mobile gaming’sfuture through recent announcements. Apple’sforthcoming Game Center is a social networkplatform that provides a viral marketingchannel for studios to exploit players’ social ties.In parallel, Facebook has sneaked in referenceto location-based services in its latest API,which means that mobile app developers, likeFoursquare, may be able to map a FacebookFriend list to its mobile players’ locations.

Anyone who has read our previous columnswill not be surprised to hear us saying that freeor social network gaming are excitingopportunities, but iPhone’s transition to thesemore sustainable, higher value commercialmodels could trigger huge innovation. Socialgaming on iPhone will be held back until eitherthe ban on third party premium currencies isfully reversed, or Apple introduces its owncurrency, much like Facebook’s controversialCredits. Whatever happens, iPhone gaming hasdiscovered a new kind of highly lucrative andsocially relevant mobile game.

Rick Gibson is a director at Games Investor Consulting, providingresearch, strategy consulting and corporate finance services to the games,media and finance industries.www.gamesinvestor.com

Ngmoco’s We Rule isjust one of its freemiumgames that hasupended expectationsof how iPhone gamesmake money

Freeing the

iPhone

COMMENT: BUSINESS

by Rick Gibson, Games Investor Consulting

The contrastbetween Java and

iPhone is stark. While Javadeclines, iPhone hasreinvigorated a market thatstuck at around$1bn in the West.


DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET

OPINION | ALPHA

Billy Thomson is the creative director of developer Ruffian Games. Billyhas over 14 years experience of designing video games, including designroles on Grand Theft Auto and GTA2, before working as lead designer onRealtime Worlds' celebrated Crackdown.www.ruffiangames.com

JUNE 2010 | 13

I’ve been looking into the key areas that Ibelieve a top quality game needs todeliver to all but guarantee commercial

and critical success. Looking at the games that have dominated

the top ten over the past few years you’ll findthat the majority of them – with theexception of Wii games – will do a good jobof about three-quarters of the top ten list Ihave created below.

The USPThis is generally the first thingthat a publisher is looking forbefore they sign a game. Every

game needs a hook, the better the hook theeasier it will be for the publisher’s marketingteam to really get behind your game and sellit to the gaming public – more on this later.

Striking visualsAt the moment it seems that ifyour game doesn’t look as good asGears, Assassin’s Creed or

Uncharted it’ll get slated as ‘looking like ass’. Itdoesn’t matter how much is actually going onin the scene, the average gamer simplydoesn’t care how difficult it is to renderthousands of buildings, characters andvehicles and keep the quality of visuals high.They just want their games to look ‘awesome’rather than ‘ass’.

StoryOne of the best ways to pull aplayer through a game is to givethem an engaging story that

unfolds as they play. The best ones actuallyallow the player to alter the course of thestory depending on their actions in game. It’sa really difficult art to get right, but if you dothe player is far more likely to play to the endand be left with a real sense of closure andaccomplishment. If it’s a franchise, you’rebuilding a lot of players far more likely to buythe sequel if they actually finished the firstgame, too.

Tight, intuitive controlsThe most important of the ten forme, if the game doesn’t play wellthen nailing all other nine would

still only serve to make the game the shiniest,most polished of turds. The player’s directconnection with the game will always be

paramount for me, if you get this rightplayers will keep coming back again andagain to have fun playing the game.

Challenges and rewardsPeople love to be challenged andeven more so they expect to berewarded for their efforts. If you

can supply varied challenges that providenew rewards on completion then use thoserewards to set new more testing challengeswhich unlock yet new rewards you have theperfect system.

High production valuesTen years ago only a handful ofdevelopers consistently deliveredthe highest production values.

These days more and more games have

extremely high quality production which hasset an equally high level of expectation fromthe gaming public. We all love our games tolook and sound amazing, but the financialcosts are frightening. It’s a vicious circle.

Game progressionWhether it’s upgrading a playerability or item of equipment,getting to the next cut scene,

unlocking the next level – whatever it may be– progression is one of the biggest reasonsthat players continue to play any game. Themore ways your game teases the player toplay a little longer to get that next item thelonger they’ll keep playing.

Memorable momentsMost games have moments thatyou can’t wait to talk to yourmates about, whether that’s a

scripted set piece, a storyline twist, a new

ability or an item of equipment. Good gamestend to have a couple of them, the greatgames manage to constantly deliver themagain and again throughout the course ofthe game.

Live featuresGenerally this will manifest in one of two ways, an onlinemultiplayer game mode or a DLC

pack. One of the best ways to keep peopleplaying your game is to keep adding newcontent and new experiences to support thegame after release.

MarketingUnfortunately, without goodmarketing even the very bestgame can be overlooked by the

gaming public. This means we have to spendmillions on making sure the gaming publicknow everything we want them to about thegame. This is money we’d all prefer to spendon development, but needs must and all that.

So that’s my recipe for guaranteed gamingsuccess sorted out, all we need to do now ismake a game that delivers all ten. In theory ifwe can manage that the review scores willfollow suit. If they don’t I’ll be doing a door-to-door ‘Jay and Silent Bob job’ on the reviewers.

Steps to a

Top 10 Game

COMMENT: DESIGN

by Billy Thomson, Ruffian Games

The average gamersimply doesn’t care

how difficult it is to renderthousands of buildings,characters and vehicles andkeep the quality ofvisuals high.

01

02

03

0408

07

06

05

09

10


14 | JUNE 2010

ALPHA | OPINION

Most of us in the industry have beenwatching the unfolding situationbetween Activision and Infinity Ward

with a form of ‘rubber-necking’ horror, as thisdepressingly spectacular train crash unfolds inslow motion. The quiet period we’re in now,and going to court or settlement, can be ananxious time. It is especially unpleasant forthose directly involved, but many areconcerned whether it will be damaging for thewhole industry.

Personally, I suspect the long term outcomewill be positive for the development side of theindustry as a whole, and quite possibly forZampella and West, though they will have ayear or two of misery beforehand, for whichthey have my sympathy (lawsuits are alwaysunpleasant, even when you win in the end).

CORPORATE HARMONYAt the root of this is the implication that theboard level management of Activision don’tvalue their development teams, or evenunderstand what it is those teams care about. Isuspect the success of Treyarch with their ownCall of Duty games has cemented an opinionamongst the Activision board (and perhapsinvestors) that it is the brand ‘they’ (i.e. theboard) created with marketing which sellsgames, and not the quality of the gamesthemselves. The brand or sequel effect clearlydoes make a big difference, but the reason itmakes that difference is the expectation ofquality created by a previous game or brand.

The alternation between Infinity Ward andTreyarch producing CoD games in the past wasvery effective at capitalising on this effect andspreading the ‘fairy dust’ initially created byInfinity Ward. At the start of this process,Treyarch was very much in the shadow ofInfinity Ward in terms of quality (apologies tothose involved), but with time they haveimproved hugely, in my opinion, and I imaginethey can now carry the CoD brand successfullythemselves going forwards, and the great bulkof players that don’t follow gaming news siteswill simply not notice.

Having said that, woe betide the brand ifTreyarch goes the way of Infinity Ward –though to be honest, that seems unlikely. I'msure those at Treyarch have nervouslywondered what the future might hold forthem if they want to work on something elsetoo. I suspect it will be different, though,and they will be treated as Activision's new

best friends, at least until another potentialtorch-bearer is in place.

Nevertheless, there is a wider point here.This whole saga is not about people movingon after a project – it is about corporatedisloyalty. It is about giant organisations notfully appreciating where their long-term valuecomes from. They have let some of their'seedcorn' go, and the impact won't show ontheir bottom line for a fair while, probablybeyond the short-term window many listedcompanies are forced to operate within, but ithas certainly damaged their reputation insidethe industry. EA, however, have been verysmart in their response and in a couple ofyear’s time I suspect Activision will rue the day.

Whatever happens now, Infinity Ward as itwas, is dead. The 'brand' may live on, but acompany is the sum of the talents and efforts

of its staff. Without the key senior staff whohave left it is now a different company, and atthe very least will need those people replacing– either by promotion from those remaining,or from outside. That is not to say that thoseothers might not do a really good job ofmaking it work, but it will have a differentmindset, a different approach, a differentbalance of experience. Tools and tech will carryover, but a company is a lot more than that.Give me Respawn, any day.

The positive long term effect I think it willhave for development is in the eyes ofinvestors. Hopefully what has happened will beseen (with hindsight) as a mistake byActivision, irrespective of the narrow rights andwrongs of the case itself, and it will encouragebetter treatment of development in the future.The more interest in development thoseinvestors take, the more care companies willshow. EA’s response has been very positive,even if part of the reason was to put one in theeye of Activision. I (as I’m sure many others do)hope that Respawn’s first game is aconspicuous success, as that will help all of usin development.

Good luck to them!

David Braben is the founder of Cambridge-based Frontier Developments.Best known as the co-creator of Elite, Braben has contributed to, designedor overseen a number of other projects including Frontier: Elite II, Dog’sLife, Thrillville and LostWinds. Frontier is currently developing its next title,The Outsider. Braben is also closely involved with Skillset. www.frontier.co.uk

Activision’s battle withthe founders of thestudio that created Callof Duty is painful – buthas potential to provea point aboutdevelopers’ talents

I suspect the longterm outcome to

Activision’s legal battle with Infinity Ward’sfounders will be positive for all developers inthe industry.

Activision vs.

Infinity Ward

COMMENT: INDUSTRY

by David Braben


DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET

OPINION | ALPHA

Ben Board is European developer account manager at Microsoft,supporting all studios working on games for Xbox and Games ForWindows platforms. He previously worked as a programmer and producerat the likes of Bullfrog, EA and Lionhead.

JUNE 2010 | 15

At the heart of creative industries likeours lies a wonderful paradox. Wecreate by taking away.

We take a tree of infinite possibility andprune off vast pieces until our brain sees ashape it likes. Some of these shapes, thesepleasing structures, we’ve learned before, andseek out with our secateurs. Others wediscover on the way. Some are fashionableand fleeting, and some are ancient.

I've been downhearted baby, ever since the day we met/

I've been downhearted baby, ever since the day we met/

Our love is nothing but the blues – baby, how blue can you get?

To be clear these are B. B. King’s domesticproblems, not mine. The Blues is one of theworld’s most enduring musical genres, butfrom the limitless harmonic options it picksjust three chords, and from the set of allpossible English sentences available for linetwo, he just repeats line one. Shakespeare’spreferred structure was the five da-dums ofiambic pentameter:

Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?If music be the food of love, play on

Creativity is not restricted by restrictions. It’sa result of them. Art without rules is just noise.

Cryptic crosswords are, at their best, highlyartistic, as they impose intriguing rules on thevast domain that is English. Rule zero: providea set of clues whose solutions are wordswhose letters interlock in a grid. Then hidesolutions behind clues of different types,which you need to learn. In one, the clue has asurface meaning if you read it as a sentence.Elsewhere, one section of a clue is the literalmeaning while the rest, if correctly analysedand deconstructed, directs the solver to findsubstitutions or anagrams that whencombined satisfy that meaning. In the bestclues the surface meaning relates to theanswer, and the very best puzzles havethemes which all the solutions follow.

Here are some examples – the answers areat the end:

1. ‘Throw shoe! Bugger invaded Iraq!’ (6, 4) 2. ‘They give tender loving care’ (10)

3. (3,3,3,1,4)

What makes a rule? It’s hard to say. Musicalrhythm could be physiological, and harmonyis grounded in physics, but melody?

Colour theory may arise from human optics,but the painter’s rule of thirds and preferencefor rectangular frames, and the storyteller’suse of metaphor, allegory, and the three-actstructure come from somewhere else.

Art becomes possible when structure isimposed on enormous domains, like thecolour palette, or the English language, or theaudio spectrum. So, can games be art? Hellyes. We have the two crucial ingredients:practically infinite domains (softwareflexibility, visual art, human experience etc),and a huge and growing bag of rules tochoose from, and not just in the ludic sense:genres, mechanics, IPs, target demographics,analogue sticks, system memory and GPUthroughput are all types of limits, rules thatdirect our creativity.

We are developing an amazing library ofrule sets, some enduring and well explored,others emerging and passing all the time. Indesign terms, some can be stretchedcreatively, some not. Players don’t like brokenrules: enemies spawning in places theycouldn’t, or this door opens while thatidentical one doesn’t; if I can fire lasers frommy nostrils then I ought to be able to climbover that wall. It’s a game, so you can have agravity gun – but if it’s a good game, if it picksup this box then it must pick up all boxes likeit. A crossword might be frivolous andentertaining, but if there are eight boxes forthe answer, the answer needs eight letters.

By all means rebel against the rules – afterall, they were born from experimentation –but while doing so, recognise that you’re stillusing them. You can’t ignore somethingwithout being conscious of it. Even John

Cage’s 4’33”, his three-movement piece of thatduration during which the orchestra isfamously instructed not to play theirinstruments at all, is interesting preciselybecause of its deliberate flaunting of everysingle rule of music. Poet Elliott Moretonknows the score:

A cardiac patient named FredMade a limerick up in his head.

But before he had timeTo write down the last line

Shakespeare used his pentametric options:using the ‘weak’ ending (‘to be or not to be,that is the question’), or dropping in the oddtrochee or spondee (‘now is the winter of ourdiscontent’), and just about got away with it.

Creativity requires, is defined by, and canonly be measured in terms of limits,boundaries, rules, structure, expectations. It’snot a photo without a frame; it’s not musicwithout rhythm and/or harmony and/ormelody. Colour, composition, cadence, andcontrollers (or their absence) are all skyhooksto lift the creative mind.

Answers to cryptics:1. GEORGE BUSH.(‘Throw’ (anagramise)words two and three,and find a solutionthat ‘invaded Iraq’,while the surfacemeaning is a greatreference to the newsof the time.)2. TREASURERS.(‘Tender’ as in cash,see?)3. HAS NOT GOT ACLUE.

Games are aredeveloping an

amazing library of rule sets, some enduring andwell explored, othersemerging andpassing all the time.

COMMENT: INDUSTRY

by Ben Board, Microsoft

The Freedomof Limits

ALPHA | TIM SCHAFER

What motivated you to head toBrighton for the DevelopConference? What do hope to

take from the event?The people running the Develop Conferencemade me an offer I couldn’t refuse. And theysaid UK audiences are so polite that they willlaugh at my jokes even if they are not funny.Also, they said there was good taffy at theBrighton Pier. So I hope to take some of thataway from the event.

And what topics do you plan to tacklewhen you speak at the DevelopConference?Hopefully I can pull an insight or two fromthe last 20 years of making games that will behelpful to people. Otherwise, I’ll just look likea complete idiot up there. But that could begood, too, because people will be inspired –“If that idiot can make it in the gamesindustry, then so can I!” If all else fails, I knowsome yo-yo tricks.

Brütal Legend’s game world was afantastically rich one, with an interestingcollision between the genre of fantasy and metal LP covers. Could you shed somelight on the kind of design process givesbirth to such a depth of detail?Start with an idea that really inspires youpersonally – for me that was Heavy Metal. Themusic, the personalities, the clothes, and the album covers – it’s a rich source ofmaterial and I love it all. So that motivatedme and gave me most of my ideas for thegame. It’s important to start from a place ofpersonal inspiration, because games are hard to make, and when the going gets

tough you’ll want something you can hang on to and say, “Oh yeah. That’s why I’m making this game.”

What do you think about dynamicstorytelling’s possible renaissance as aresult of Heavy Rain? Do you see it asapplicable to the kind of games thatDouble Fine make?I never thought dynamic storytelling everwent away! Heavy Rain is definitely aninteresting game. It’s nice to see a game tryout something new like that. I think we’ll betrying out new ways to tell stories for as longas we have a games industry.

Can you see yourself getting involved withthe ongoing boom in small-scale iPhoneand browser-based games?Some of the recent downloadable gameshave managed to retain their big-gameproduction values, and I think that is reallyinteresting. Just because you want to play ashort game, doesn’t mean you want to play acheap-looking game. I think there is a bigfuture in small, beautiful, well crafted games. I

can see Double Fine making all kinds ofgames. Give us enough time and we’ll tryeverything.

How do current technologicaldevelopments in games design informyour creative decisions? Does this side ofthe industry still excite you?I am usually more excited by creative ideas onthe design side, and when it comes to techlike new controllers I take more of a ‘wait andsee’ approach. Except I am very excited aboutNatal. I think if Natal is a success, it couldopen video games up to a whole new market.And possibly cause me to lose 30 pounds.

Most of your work is famed for beingfunny. Why do you think it is that themajority of game developers seem to shyaway from comedy?Risk aversion is a big part of gamesproduction now, and adding comedy to agame is always risky. Whenever you write ajoke there is always the risk that people won’tlaugh, and that’s scary. Or maybe they justknow something I don’t.

Do any areas of the games industry orgames design right now make you despair,or are you still optimistic about the sector?I think it is still the case that if you work hardenough you can get any game made youwant, or make any game you’re working on agreat game. And because of that I am stilloptimistic about the games industry. As longas there are new people entering the industryevery year who are willing to challengepeople’s expectations about what a game canbe, then games have a bright future.

Something fineWhat better way for Tim Schafer to prepare for his speech at this summer’s Develop Conference inBrighton than to chat with Will Freeman?

Schafer will talk gamedesign in a rare European showing atthe Brighton DevelopConference, which runsJuly 13th to 15th

16 | JUNE 2010

It’s important tostart from a place of

personal inspiration, because games are hard tomake, and you’ll wantsomething you canhang on to.

Twofour54º_Gaming Insights_DEV_230x315.ai 1 5/10/10 5:51 PM


The rise of theUK indie

developer p24

A rare Q&Awith Japanese

studio Cavep32

15 companiesreinventing

development p20

DEVELOPMENT FEATURES, INTERVIEWS, ESSAYS & MORE

Going DutchDevelop visits Holland to find out how the local

games industry has thrived and grown, p28

There are a lot of lists naming the best ormost powerful companies in games. But salesfigures, success and heritage only tell part of

the story for interactive entertainment’sconstant evolution. In this special feature,

Develop provides a run down of the 15 keycompanies you need to know. Some are

already spurring huge changes, some are onthe cusp of greatness. Some you will know,some you won’t. Some are big corporations,

some are small units. All of them, withoutdoubt, are trying to reshape the games

business in their own special way…

BETA | GAME CHANGERS

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Amiqus Games is a leading provider ofspecialist talent to the video gamesIndustry. The company recruit sfor some ofthe world’s premier studios for artists,animators, producers, programmers,designers and executives, such as studioheads and director level.

20 | JUNE 2010

GAMECHANGERS

Google's onlinetools are

encouraging collaborationand sharing, but best of allthey are free – a real boonfor smaller studios andteams with adistributed workforce.


GAME CHANGERS | BETA

GOOGLE IS MAKING its way, slowlybut surely, into games.

The recent opening of its GoogleApp store, which links bothproprietary elements like its Chromebrowser with fellow ‘Game Changer’(see below, left) Unity was the lateststep. The move was effectively thefull stop in a sentence that has seenthe web leader begin a range ofexperiments from the launch ofmobile OS Android through to

customisable game themes for users’iGoogle homepages.

But it’s actually not these gamesefforts that show Google continuingto facilitate changes in our industry.It’s the more basic services like GoogleDocs (and even the still unproven likesof Google Wave) that are key. Theseare encouraging collaboration andsharing, but best of all they are free – areal boon for smaller teams anddistributed developers.

GoogleNOT ONLY HAS Channel 4’sEducation department reversed thereputation of learning-focused gamesas creative works; it has championedthe potential of innovative UK indies,and courted the approval oforganisations like BAFTA for its effort.

Recognising games as a worthyrival to television in terms ofcurricular potential, the broadcasterhas commissioned daring, hilariousprojects from energetic UK studioslike LittleLoud, Six To Start, and mostrecently Zombie Cow, which isbehind STI-themed sex educationshooter Privates.

Not afraid to address sensitiveissues including mental wellbeingand religion, Channel 4 Education hasproved to the games industry there’s

a lot more to the media firm thanHollyoaks and Big Brother. It doesn’tjust have idealistic aspirations – it hasthe right games in the works to showit means serious business.

Channel 4

IF THERE IS one tech company thathelps define the way gamedevelopment has changed in recentyears, it is Unity.

In just a decade the enginecompany has established itself as afirm favourite for developers largeand small, and arguably it plays theposter boy of the iPhone andmicrostudio revolution.

As well as courting the affection ofover 130,000 registered users (the firm

even runs its own conference, Unite,forthem), Unity also strives todemocratise game developmentwithout sacrificing quality. To that end,the company – which tripled in size lastyear – recently released a free versionof its main engine.

Currently poised to release the thirdversion of Unity, the firm is wellrespected, and continues to work witheverybody from EA and NASA tostudents and hobbyists.

Unity Technologies

UNREAL ENGINE 3 is an industrygoliath. It seems like it is licencedmore than liqour. It’s everywhere andanywhere.

Just think about what we wouldhave had to go without had UE3 notbeen around. Batman: ArkhamAsylum, the Mass Effect franchise, APB,the Gears of War franchise, RainbowSix: Vegas 1 & 2. The list goes on – it’sa who’s who of some of the majorstudios and their titles in recent years,and that’s no accident.

It doesn’t end there, either. UE3has also become a major product inthe film idustry, with some of thelicensees for CG amination includingWarner Bros., Buena Vista, ColumbiaPictures, TriStar Pictures and SonyPictures Entertainment.

What wraps all that up intodirection-changing momentumtoday is the UDK, which makes allthat power accessible to anyone withthe inclination. If Epic gets its way,the indie scene could be just asinfluenced by UE3 as the triple-A one.

The gaming industry wouldn’tcrumble without Epic, but it certainlywouldn’t be the same.

EpicIF GAMES ARE getting bigger all thetime, Allegorthmic is finding ways tomake them smaller and more nimble.

Most renowned for its Substanceprocedural texture renderingmiddleware, Allegorithmic hasproved that highly specialised techand tools can have a significant effecton the entire ecosystem of onlinegame development. Its ProFX andSubstance tools allow game makersto work with texture files between

500 and 1,000 times smaller inmemory size than usual, freeing upresources and bandwidth. Newer toolSubstance Redux bolstered the techhouse’s offering, allowing onlinegame developers reduce downloadsize during beta or even post-release.

Allegorithmic impresses, but don’tjust take our word for it. Partnershipswith the likes of Intel, nVidia, Sonyand Microsoft show it has the ear ofthose in the know.

Allegorithmic

22 | JUNE 2010

BETA | GAME CHANGERS

The Xbox IndieGames Creator

Community – which vetsgames pre-release – is whatreally shows how Microsofthas delivered onLive’s promise.

FOUNDED IN 2008 by industryveterans Simon Prytherch, MikeMontgomery and David Hunt,Lightning Fish specialises in creatingmotion-tracking technology titlesaimed at the ever-expanding familygaming demographic.

What makes the Oxfordshire-basedstudio interesting is its impressive useof video content – a formular alreadymimicked by Ubisoft’s Just Dance.Lightning Fish’ s first game, the NewU

Fitness First was a statement of intentin what has fast become a crowdedgenre – but the upcoming sequel(which will no doubt make use ofNatal and Move) will help cement itsposition as one of the UK’s brightestindependent studios.

And in championing the fitnessand wellbeing genre, Lightning Fishhas proven that a true indie can playrival to Nintendo and its hugelypopular Wii Fit IP.

Lightning Fish GamesBEING A START-UP company ingames business can be a dauntingthing. Established studios look downfrom on high in a market that can alltoo often lean favourably towards theinstantly familiar. Around here you need tocarve your namefast, and you needto carve it well.

nDreams hasbeen showing very little fear since its founding in 2006. Developing and publishing where others fear totread, the company is breakingground in digital distribution andunexploited markets.

Founded by former SCi/Eidoscreative director Patrick O’Luanaighwith a remit of focussing first and

foremost on digital gaming, the firmis currently best known for the world-first, genre-bending single-playeralternative reality game forPlaystation Home titled Xi. Over fivemillion Home users have visited the

Xi spaces so far.But that’s not all, it

is launchingFacebook games like

Spirit of Adventure –billed as the ‘first social networkingsoap opera’ – and is evencollaborating with Reebok and F1star Lewis Hamilton on an ARG.

In an industry known for being atcutting edge of entertainment and itsconsumption, it is good to know thatsomeone has their sights set firmlyon the future.

nDreams

NATURAL LAW DICTATES thatcomplex systems are successfulones. EA gets this, and EA partnerswas born out of it.

An in-house co-publishing armthat distributes titles developed bythird-party developers, it is helpingindependent studios who wouldotherwise be a rival to EA and itsbiggest franchises. Oh, and it’sbringing in a pretty penny for EA inthe process.

Crytek’s Crysis, Valve’s Orange Box,Epic Games’ Bulletstorm. All thesetitles are co-published under the EApartners label. Recently, InsomniacGames also declared that it will bebreaking away from their PS3-focused past to develop a multi-platform title via EAP as well.

EA Partners willalso be publishing

titles with therecently-founded

RespawnEntertainment, formed infamously byex-Infinty Ward heads Vince Zampellaand Jason West.

By condoning IP retention,independence, stable relationshipsand allowing studios to have a say inthe marketing and publishingstrategy behind their games, EAP’sset-up is now being copied by thelikes of Activision and THQ. But it’stoo late for them: the balance ofpower between publishers anddevelopers has already shiftedtowards the latter, driven by the verydeals EAP encourages.

EA Partners

THE XBOX LIVE Indie Games service,which now plays host to over 1,000titles, has afforded fledglingdevelopers the opportunity to seetheir work appear on the mostpopular online console servicealongside a wealth of big budgettriple-A releases.

The channel provides a platformfor games created using Microsoft’sXNA toolset and managed runtimeenvironment. In time it has helped

teams and individuals from all walks– including those outside of gamesdevelopment, even journalists – theopportunity to create games sold toreal consumers for MS Points.

Sure, there are dobuts about an‘indie ghetto’ on the console and theusefulness of XNA, but it’s the value ofthe Creator Community – which tests,reviews and vets games pre-release –that finally shows how Microsoft hasdelivered on Live’s promise.

Xbox Live Indie GamesCLOUD BASED GAMES that can beembed into any website, blog orbrowser and played from a singleserver farm? Sounds too good to betrue. Nevertheless Dave Perry, theman behind upcoming streamingtech Gaikai, knows the industry,knows the technology and demoedModern Warfare, World of Warcraft,EVE, Spore, Mario Kart 64 and AdobePhotoshop all running in a simpleFlash player to prove it.

Gaikai has already procuredmassive investment from big venturecapital firms and tech investors likeBenchmark Capital.

The proof will come in time, ofcourse. And while the potential forcloud services to revolutionise gamingis as massive as the potential for it tofail, it is only with risky ventures thatthe greatest advancements are made.Which makes an ambitious firm likeGaikai one to closely watch.

Gaikai


GAME CHANGERS | BETA

Metacritic is now thegames industry’s

own objective voice; theunflinching global reviewthat publisherscannot touch.

ALTHOUGH PITCHED BY some as similar to Gaikai, philosopicallyOnLive is more Apple to Gaikai’sMicrosoft. It’s a format-holder-like,ambitious cloud gaming service thatlaunches this month with big backing.

Electronic Arts, Take-Two,Ubisoft, Epic Games, Atari,Codemasters, THQ, WarnerBros., 2D Boy and EidosInteractive have all signedup to have their PC gamesavailable on the service,lending OnLive aconsiderable weight ofexperience and inherentquality. Having BritishTelecomm as a minority stake-holderdoesn’t hurt, either.

OnLive matters because, one wayor another, cloud gaming will have aplace in video games. And whateverform this sector ultimately takes, youcan’t deny OnLive has helped kick-start and draw attention to it.

OnLiveBECOMING THE MAYOR of your localStarbucks may sound a little uncool,but in terms of altering the way peoplethink about social networking and itsrelationship to achievement-basedgaming, Foursquare is pushingboundaries.

A location-based social networkingwebsite, Foursquare is not a game byname, but it sure behaves like one.Users check-in at venues using textmessaging or location-aware appsand are then awarded points andbadges. The person who visits anindividual location the most becomesthe ‘Mayor’ of that area.

The idea is simple, but it hasgenerated massive interest. Theservice itself has almost one millionusers and rumours says Yahoo is

offered as much as $125m to buy it.Associated iPhone, Android, webOSand BlackBerry applications areavailable, with a Maemo app in earlydevelopment stages.

Where this line of casual playchanges things is in its special use ofreal-life locations to encouragedevoted behaviour on viral socialnetworking mobile apps. Foursquareis a game that doesn’t need playingand one, if you go by Twitter, a lot ofdevelopers are already enjoying. Itwon’t be long until an actual videogame makes a bid to capture thesame energy and excitement.

Foursquare

APPLE MAY GRAB the headlineswhen it comes to mobile. But thecompany itself doesn’t exactlydeserve a space on this list for justbuilding the train tracks. The realcompanies to champion are thosedriving forward in the space.

Hence our choice ofConnect2Media, a division ofManchester-based Mforma. Thismobile games firm has developed,published and distributed a raft of

titles for iPhone, Android andSymbian. So far so typical.

Yet it’s Connect2Media’s newefforts to launch subscription servicesfor mobile games in the West – likethose available in Japan – that showsreal promise. Key acquisitions earlierthis year are helping it build abusiness that will bring new delivery,micro-payment and business modelsto gaming apps. And not just iPhoneapps – all handsets.

Connect2Media

THE GENUINE VALUE of mass scoreaggregation may be disputable, butthe impact of Metacritic – like it ornot – is undeniable.

Metacritic flies in the face ofassertions that you can’t quantifyclass. It takes the barrage of noisemade by game reviewers all over theworld and condenses it all into aclear, single number.

Providing simplicity amid suchdiversity is the key to its successonline, and in an industry wherehype plays a dominant role,Metacritic has become the industry’sown objective voice; the unflinchingglobal review that publishers cannottouch even with the deepestreserves of money.

The ties between Metascores andsales volumes is not fully established –with the highest-ranking gamestypically enjoying huge promotionalcampaigns from confident publishers –yet when companies base businessgoals on one website’s archive ofnumbers, you know there’s real weightbehind it.

MetacriticTHERE’S NO DENYING digitaldistribution is one of the forcesempowering numerous firms on thislist – and Bigpoint’s gaming portalstands as the best example of howthe future of gaming is online.

The German firm runs one of thetop three gaming portals in the worldand is a publisher, content providerand developer all in one, showingjust how much convergencerepresents the best oppourtunity for

studios to make a profitable businessin difficult market circumstances.

While the likes of EA Partners aredecenteralising the productionprocess, Bigpoint shows a developertaking charge of the whole chain.

As the idea of just what exactly is avideo game, and just who is a gamer,gets harder and harder to define, thefirm is a trail-blazer into differentoffshoots of what was once such asimple business.

Bigpoint

Above: Upcoming HelloGames racing title JoeDanger How did you come to be an indie

developer? Was it throughnecessity or choice?

Simon Oliver, founder, HandCircus: I guessIt’s really a combination of the two. Mybackground is in digital design – for the weband installations – but my passions took metowards game development. I’d spent acouple of years learning, prototyping andtrying to get into an established game studio,but having no previously published titlesunder my belt proved to be a significantstumbling block. 2DBoy with World of Goo,Jonathan Blow with Braid, and the MediaMolecule guys were a huge inspiration,giving me the confidence to go it alone andset up HandCircus. Sophie Houlden, developer of BOXGame: Itwas a choice for me, I originally wanted to gothe traditional route and go to some bigcompany and work my way through theranks to a lead designer position, but atuniversity it dawned on me I didn’t want towait before making the games I wanted tomake, and there was the very likely outcome Iwouldn’t ever get the position I wanted, and Icertainly didn’t want to compete with co-workers for it. Amy Casson, developer, Littleloud:Definitely through choice. After graduating Istarted out as an e-learning flash developerand was soon itching to be involved in morecreative projects. After looking at localopportunities, I realised that Brighton-basedstudio Littleloud produced exactly the typeof high-end content that I wanted to beinvolved in. I’ve currently been with them forthree years.Alex Amsel, CEO, Tuna: We started in 1996essentially as an indie developer. We’veworked on many titles since then but felt thatwe should return to our routes and create ourown IP. This was for both personal andbusiness reasons.Sean Murray, managing director, HelloGames: It was definitely by choice, but Iwould describe striking out on my own assomething I needed to do. It’s something I’vewanted to do since I was a child. Havingworked at much larger companies like EA and

Criterion, it became a raw need to find myown path. I think that’s the same for everyoneat Hello Games.

What do you think are the key benefits ofworking as an indie developer in themodern games industry?Murray: Games development has grown upvery quickly and seemingly settled into a lotof very predictable routines of sequels andlicences. Developers seem to often findthemselves in that work-for-hire cycle,creating games to hit milestones. Beingindependent we can circumvent that. Itseems crazy, but for the first time sincejoining the industry I’m thinking about thekind of features I want to add, for the people

who will want to play our game.Casson: As a result of working in a smallcompany, where I am one of threedevelopers, I am given ownership of theprojects I work on from a developmentperspective. Consequently, I am continuouslychallenged and my learning curve is alwayssteep - I find this set up extremely rewardingand ideal for personal development.Amsel: The key benefit is that we get to workon the products that we want to. In addition,we can work to the methodology that suits usbest rather than the various constraints andtime scales put upon us by clients.Simon: Two of the things that I love the mostabout indie development is the freedom tocreate, and flexibility in the process. Our teamis small, our costs are low, and so we can

afford to take our time in crafting a game thatwe are really happy with. On most occasions,our games have changed significantly duringtheir development lifetime, and in a more

Independents’ DayWith the World of Love indie development conference drawing close, Will Freemancaught up with the independent studios and individuals currently making waves…

I love the freedomand the flexibility.

Our team is small, our costsare low, we can afford totake our time crafting agame we are reallyhappy with.

Simon Oliver, HandCircus

24 | JUNE 2010

Sean Murray,managing director,Hello GamesFour-man team Hello Gamesis already courtingenthusiastic attention for itsfirst game Joe Dangerwww.hellogames.org

Alex Amsel, CEO, TunaAs well as having handledseveral licensed projects,Sheffield indie Tuna is also atwork on claymation run-and-gun Cletus Claywww.tunatech.com

Amy Casson,developer, LittleloudMultimedia powerhouseLittleloud has created ahuge range of licensedgames along with itsanimation outputwww.littleloud.com

Sophie HouldenHoulden is the sole memberof a true microstudio, andhas created a wealth of titlesincluding Unity-builtBOXGamewww.sophiehoulden.com

Simon Oliver, founder,HandCircusEast London’s HandCircus isbehind the renownediPhone game Rolando, aswell as its popular sequelwww.handcircus.com

INDIE SPIRITS

BETA | INDIE ROUNDTABLE


INDIE ROUNDTABLE | BETA

From Left: Tuna’s CletusClay, Hand Circus’Rolando 2, Littleloud’sTronji and SophieHoulden’s Sarah’s Run

traditional project framework, it would havebeen a real challenge to steer the project inthis new direction.Houlden: The obvious one is freedom, I cando whatever the hell I want, take any risk Iwant. If my game sucks; who cares? Each day Ifeel like working on something different,sometimes it’s something pretentious andarty, sometimes it’s cheesy with lots ofexplosions, sometimes it’s totally random andI’m just playing with game mechanics likethey are toys. But they are all valuablebecause of the other main benefit:Ownership. Each and every game I make ismine, and when people are playing with itthey are playing with me personally on somelevel. It’s great to be able to say ‘I made this’instead of ‘I made bits of this’.

Many observers today paint a picture ofthe indie scene as the place to be as adeveloper, but what are the challenges forindies in the sector? Houlden: Personally, the biggest challenge ismoney. It is the root cause of every otherproblem, and I think you feel it a million timesharder as an indie. If money wasn’t a problemI would be able to spend an infinite amountof time on my projects, and I could follow outeach whimsical idea I have to its conclusion.Amsel: Same answer, financial. A one or twoman team has very different financialrequirements than five-to-10 man team. Ifyou’re making console games then one-to-two people usually won’t be enough. Beyondthat, indies have to understand that theyneed to market themselves and theirproduct, yet it can be hard to find the time.Oliver: It’s certainly crowded. One of themost significant challenges is getting yourgame noticed. The sheer volume of high-quality titles being released on the App Storeon a daily basis means that levels ofcompetition are insanely high. The fact thatmost indie games have such small budgets(and resources) for marketing and PRcompounds the problem. The lack ofstructure can also present some difficulties,and it can be a challenge to stay on track andstay motivated, particularly if your team isgeographically separated.

Is it possible to make a living as an indiedeveloper in the current industry andeconomic climates?Casson: Yes, definitely. I’m not able to go onsix-week cruises or buy myself a Porsche, but Ican pay my mortgage and treat myself to aweekly mocha!Amsel: Absolutely, but you may need tosupport yourself for the first couple of yearsat least. It’s risky.Murray: I certainly hope so, but it’sundoubtedly an incredibly risky business. Ourdevelopment is entirely self-funded and tomake Joe Danger, everyone at Hello Gameshas had to make incredible sacrifices, both

financially and personally. More than anydeveloper, we rely completely on the successof our games to allow us to keep doing whatwe’re doing.The fact is that looking down the list of top-selling download titles, the majority arecoming from indie developers. Hopefully thatshows the potential for success. It’s theultimate commercial democracy though, ifgamers like what we do, we can afford to givethem more. If they don’t, we probably won’tbe here next year.Houlden: I can’t really speak from personalexperience, but I know plenty of indies thatdo get by. I’m working on my first commercialgame and my hopes are that I make enoughto not be a burden on anyone, and often I layawake at night thinking my hopes are toohigh, but I wont know unless I try.

While on the subject of finance, how easyis it today to access suitable technologyand tools?Houlden: Really easy, and it’s only evergetting easier. Looking at all the software Iuse for making games, I’ve paid £30 total –not including OS – and that was a personalluxury. You can totally make high qualitygames with just free software. It’s no longer acase of ‘you get what you pay for’ with tools.Oliver: The majority of our tech and tools areeither open-source or created in-house. Theavailability of high quality open-sourcelibraries such as Box2D, Bullet, Ogre, Recasthas been amazing for us and has allowed usto keep budgets down, and given us theopportunity to focus more on game creationthan tech. Commercial libraries and enginesare certainly getting more indie-friendlythough. And hats off to Unity - their platformreally is awesome.Casson: At Littleloud, we assess on a job-by-job basis, the most suitable software that willdeliver the high end quality content we areafter. We mainly use paid toolkits such asFlash and Unity, but these are often used inconjunction with an array of fantastic freeresources that aid and speed up ourdevelopment processAmsel: I don’t think tech or tools areproblematic. Few indies are going to bemaking massive, complex games and thereare plenty of Open Source tools around right

now. Access to console hardware and consoledistribution systems is a much biggerproblem however.

Is it easy to meet and work face-to-facewith your fellow indies? Are you involvedwith any ‘community projects’ that preventprofessional isolation?Oliver: Conferences are obviously great forthis, where you really do get a chance tomeet a ton of people at the same time,though its been fun popping in to see someof the other indie guys nearby. Murray: We try to get involved anywhere wecan. It’s a huge relief just to be able to pickanother developer’s brains, or discuss yourcurrent ball-ache. Something we definitelynoticed as part of the Independent GamesFestival at GDC was that meeting andcollaborating is something the US indies arefar better organised at. There is a very tight-knit community there. As the only UKrepresentative at the IGF, we felt a certainjealousy of that, but it’s something I’mdefinitely keen to see grow here in Europe.Houlden: Sadly I live in a really scenicbeautiful location, great for when I want tolook away from the computer screen, not sogreat for bumping into others who like tolook at computer screens. That said I’ve foundindies online are super tight. We help eachother out at every opportunity; just look atthe credits list on an indie game, you willlikely see a whole bunch of other indies thereunder the ‘thanks’ bit.

Do you feel that modern indie devs get afair amount of recognition for the workthat they produce?Murray: I think we’re very lucky to work in anindustry where there is a very vocal,progressive and seemingly popular collectionof underground websites that go out of theirway to unearth and support the indiemovement. Gamers and the community atlarge are always surprisingly receptive andrespectful of the smaller outfits. Oliver: The prominence of indie scenecontinues to grow, thanks in no small part tothe huge efforts of the IGF committee andmany, many other members of thecommunity. The IGF awards felt enormouslyglamorous this year as well. I think therecognition is definitely out there right now,and the scene is well covered in gamesjournalism, both online and in print.Casson: Fundamentally, in interactive space,there is a culture of indies escaping creditsand appearing faceless. However, this modelis changing as the gap between TV andinteractive content is merging - oftenallowing TV style title sequences andopening credits. The level of recognition wereceive is very much project based. Thisranges from us including these openingcredits down to remaining completelynameless under a white label agreement.

London, UK,June 25thThe first ever World ofLove independentgame developersconference will takeplace at Channel 4headquarters inLondon on June 25ththis year.

Confirmed speakersinclude developerTerry Cavanagh, SeanMurray from HelloGames, creator ofRolando Simon Oliver,and experimentaldeveloper StephenLavelle.

The event willinclude discussions ofthe most importantissues to indiedevelopers today, suchas technology,effective marketing,publishing routes, andabove all, gamedesign.www.worldoflove.eventbrite.com

WORLDOF LOVE

If money wasn’t aproblem I would be

able to spend an infinateamount of time on myprojects, and I could followeach whimsical ideaI have to conclusion.

Sophie Holden, solo developer

Media SponsorMedia SponsorMedia Sponsor

gamesindustry.biz

Great Networking. Top Location. Excellent Speakers.Develop in Brighton - the main event for European developers – is an inspiring place to be! We can promise you a stellar lineup of speakers, a choice of over 80 high quality sessions and fantastic networking opportunities with more than 1,200international developers.

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The Networking

The LocationWhere better to be than by the seaside...

After hours fun includes: Ice Breaker Drinks • GamesAid Charity Poker Tournament •

Booth Crawl • Develop Industry Excellence Awards •gamesindustry.biz Party and lots more…

The Develop Conference is a double espressofor the soul, and a sensual massage for themind. Newcomers and veterans alike will findthe sessions persuasive and provocative, andare guaranteed to meet interesting newpeople.Jonathan Smith, Development Director,Traveller’s Tales

Develop always brings together an eclecticand inspiring selection of speakers. It's oneof the fantastic things about our industrythat we get up and freely share ourexperiences with each other, and there's no better place to participate in that thanDevelop. John Dennis, Design Manager, Team 17

13 -15 JULY 2010

13 -15 JULY 2010

be inspired

Evolve is all about what’s new in game development. Sessionswill explore emerging platforms, new business models and theintegration of Internet services and user-generated content.

Develop Conference will tackle the issues, tools, tricks andtechniques of today’s game development and offer practicaladvice and solutions. The Expo is open both days.

Day 1 Days 2 & 3

Organised byMember Discounts PartnerMedia SponsorMedia Sponsor



Early Bird

Rates until 7 June

Here’s a preview of just some of the sessions:

The Speakers

KEYNOTE

Dr. Ray MuzykaGroup General Manager, BioWare Groupand Senior Vice President, Electronic Arts,and Co-founder and CEO, BioWare

Dr. Greg ZeschukGroup Creative Officer, BioWare Studio Group,Electronic Arts Vice President, and Co-founder of BioWare

The superstar developers and founders of BioWare - the studio responsible for the hugely successful titles MassEffect and Dragon Age, will be making a rare appearance in Europe as they give this year's opening keynote.

Homespun Fun - The Art of Kahoots Ricky Haggett, Honeyslug

Pet Tricks – The Technical Art of EyePetJames Answer, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

Jagex's Indie DNA: How Jagex Did Everything Right by Doing Everything its Own WayMark Gerhard, Jagex

The Lowdown on Downloadable ContentChris Bruce, SCEE

ART

ART

KEYNOTE

BUSINESS

CODING

CODING

KEYNOTE

AUDIO

The Future IS Controller-Free Games andEntertainmentGeorge Andreas, Rare

Enslaved to the Story: When Ninja Theory Met Alex GarlandTameem Antoniades, Ninja Theory

Sex, Brawls, and Magic Duels: Console GameDesign Beyond the Television ScreenDajana Dimovska, Copenhagen Game Productions Lau Korsgaard, Copenhagen Game Collective

Why are Games Sequels So Often Better Than FilmSequels and What This Can Teach Us About theDevelopment CycleTom Rawlings & Ana Kronschnabl, Fluffylogic

The Highly Anticipated Sound RevolutionAdam Levenson, Activision

Source 2.0: What To Do When You Run Out Fresh MaterialBen Minto, Electronic Arts

Dealing with ComplexityPeter Hall, Crytek

Vectors of Performance in GamingSteve McCalla, Intel

Whodunnit: Bringing Dr Who to a PC Near YouSimon Nelson, BBC Vision Sean Millard, Sumo Digital Charles Cecil, Revolution

User Research: Turning Design Vision into Player RealityJerome Hagen, Microsoft Game Studio

Traditional Games Breaking into Social Networks:A View from the FrontlineLouis Castle, Instant Action

An Android Game Post-MortemChris Pruett, Google Japan

A Casual Game in Every PocketDave Bishop, PopCap

DESIGN

KEYNOTE

EVOLVE

EVOLVE

KEYNOTE

PRODUCTION

KEYNOTE

THE DEN

THE DEN

Right: The critically-acclaimed and awardwinning Killzone 2 Received wisdom has it that art and

business are clearly deliniatedenterprises; the artist creates, the

businessman pedals. The entertainment industry has rarely

questioned this notion. The writer isconsidered the artist and the agent, thebusinessman – as with the director and theproducer, the musician and the manager, thedeveloper and the publisher.

For the Dutch, art and business are notmutually exclusive. Historians widely considerthe Netherlands the original capitalist nation;the Amsterdam Stock Exchange was a world-first upon its founding in 1602.

Artists – and in particular painters – were acause of and later driving force behind thisgroundbreaking economy. Johannes Vermeerlived and died by its peaks and falls. VanGough is one of the most influential artists tohave lived, and still one of the most profitableDutch exports going.

All of this bodes well for the video gamesindustry in the Netherlands, currentlygrowing around 50 per cent faster than anyother industry in the region. The blurry linebetween creative enterprise and business isone familiar to everyone ‘in’ video games, butfew peoples can boast the level of experiencewith the it that the Dutch can.

Peter de Jong, founder and CEO ofRotterdam-based casual games studioCodeglue, agrees.

“Traditionally the Netherlands is known forits creative industries. Just look at the designindustry, or all the famous national painters.The Dutch games industry is just acontemporary addition to this,” he enthuses.

“The big advantage of having a Dutchstudio is that you can tap into a huge well ofcreative talent already here.”

Herman Hulst, MD for Killzone studioGuerilla Games, also believes the history ofthe Netherlands points towards a brightfuture for games development in the region.

“Culturally, the Dutch form a non-hierarchical society where people are used tosharing power,” he explains.

“This is ideal for companies that operate inteams, and it taps into the creativity of thegroup as a whole.”

Maarten Brands, the co-founder ofAmsterdam-based MMO and browser games

studio Virtual Fairground, singles out theexcellent electronic infrastructure in theNetherlands as another reason the contry hasa competitve edge on internationaldevelopment competition. All majorworldwide ISPs connect to the AmsterdamInternet Exchange hub.

“The Netherlands is one of the most well-connected countries on the planet today.Despite being a small we are fourth in line for

online spending on games behind the UK,Germany and France,” he says.

“We are growing fast and have a lot ofhands-on experience in online monetisation.”

GOVERNMENT ISSUEEVP of Amsterdam-based publisher PlaylogicRogier Smit says the various supportpackages available to companies andindividuals working in the video gamessector in the Netherlands as a hugecontributing factor to the relative health ofthe industry.

“Development is well supported by thegovernment here. They offer certain taxbreaks, providing support for technology andinnovation and this is known as the WBSO –The Act for Promotion and ResearchDevelopment,” he explains.

“There is also a regional stimulationpackage available called ‘Pieken in de Delta’and this helps fund the Dutch Game Garden,which provides a range of support servicesfor new companies, from finding office spaceto assisting in hiring.”

Harking back to the idea that the Dutchhave historically always understood the tiesbetween business and art, Smit also explainsthe WWIK – a form of income support in theNetherlands for all young artists and

Traditionally theNetherlands is

known for its creativeindustries. The Dutchgames industry is just acontemporaryaddition to this.

Peter de Jong, Codeglue CEO

28 | JUNE 2010

GoingDutch

The land of Guerilla Games and Van Gogh, Overlord and canals, the Netherlands is a noteworthyand expanding force in the international video games industry. Stuart Richardson spoke withDutch developers to find out what life was like making games in the low countries…

BETA | NETHERLANDS FOCUS


designers, including those involved in thegames development industry.

“The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairssupports the ‘Dutch Games Go Global’initiative, which helps Dutch developersexpand into markets like the US and Japan.Subsidies for games development is better

elsewhere, but in the Netherlands there is adeeper understanding of the issues facingdevelopers,” he adds.

Executive digital producer of Media MonksJoris Pol points towards what he sees asstrong links with local education as anotherreason for the continuing good performanceof the Dutch industry. With an estimated1,500 people working across 100 studios,video games have become a significantnational employer.

“Most companies work together withschools on some level. We give regularkeynotes, classes and help out with workplacements,” Pol affirms.

“The biggest challenge for any company inour line of business is finding great people, soit’s imperative to stay connected to newgenerations of developers and designers.”

CCO of Almere-based mobile games studioRough Cookie Erik t’Sas agrees with thatsentiment, but describes the relationship asone that needs to work both ways.

“In the Netherlands there are over tengame-related educational programs acrossthe country. We believe that input from theindustry itself is essential for gameseducation,” he says.

Dittmar Tukker, CEO of Gamedia – anonline games studio located in Altmaar – hashigh priase for what he believes arecongienial relationships between Dutchstudios that foster an overall atmosphere offriendly rivalry.

“I really can’t imagine that there’s anothercountry in the world where the community isas friendly as in the Netherlands. Moststudios are doing great because the gamebusiness is one of the fastest growingindustries here,” he adds.

Tukker also hints that he prefers the idea ofNetherlands developers continuing to workat the level they currently operate at, and notexpanding for the sake of it.

“That positive climate could change overthe years when the industry evolves to amore serious level and the passion for gamesbecomes an obsession for making moremoney,” he warns.

Lead artist at simulation specialists StentecSoftware Daniel Kuik sees the potential

Development iswell supported by

the government here.They offer certain taxbreaks under atechnology actknown as WBSO.

Rogier Smit, Playlogic EVP

LOCATION:AMSTERDAM

HEADCOUNT:110+ (300+ EXTERNAL)

SPECIALITY:LARGEST PUBLISHER IN THENEATHERLANDS

Playlogic are an independent publisher ofentertainment software for console, PC,handheld, mobile devices and otherdigital platforms.

Based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands,the firm publishes titles developed byother studios and through the PlaylogicGame Factory – the firm’s in-house gamesdevelopment facility.

“Finding experience in the Netherlandscan be difficult. Traditionally the firstcountries publishers will look to fordevelopment is the UK or the US &Canada, where games development is amajor part of the commerce and wherethe larger triple-A studios are based,” saysstudio head Olivier Lhermite.

“But there is a great sense ofcommunity. Our industry is so small thateveryone knows each other, and we allmove in the same circles.”

Around 110 permanent staff work atPlaylogic, responsible for distributing,selling, licensing, PR & marketing andproduct development for the company.

“The whole Dutch developmentcommunity continues to grow in bothexperience and maturity,” Lhermite adds.

“At Playlogic the staff are pan-European.We have people here from theNetherlands, France, Belgium, Poland andGermany to name a just a few.”

The Playlogic Game Factory itself, basedin Breda, employs around 80 staff todevelop titles across the currentgeneration of platforms. The PGF is also afirst party contractor for SCEE.

The company’s principal source ofrevenue comes from publishing, with thefirm retaining most of the IP that theypublish after creating or aquiring it.

“The Dutch can be very frugal at times,”warns Lhermite.

“When it comes to budgets and costs,people here will not waste moneyunnecessarily. There is a great willingnessto break out into new areas, however – totest new ideas and concepts and seewhere they take you.”www.playlogicgames.com

PlaylogicEntertainment

NETHERLANDS FOCUS | BETA

From top: Peter de Jong(Codeglue), Rogier Smit(Playlogic), HermanHulst (Guerilla)

Herman Hulst andArjan Brussee, Guerrilla

Games studio heads

Killzone’s Helghastforces prepare for war

Right: Triumph Studios’fantasy-satire RPGOverlord

30 | JUNE 2010

LOCATION:AMSTERDAM

HEADCOUNT:130+

SPECIALITY:LARGEST DEVELOPER IN THENEATHERLANDS

Guerrilla Games is a developer and whollyowned subsidiary of SCEE, based inAmsterdam and headed by managingdirector Hermen Hulst and developmentdirector Arjan Brussee.

Best known for the Playstation-exclusive Killzone series, Guerrilla recentlyconfirmed they are working on a third –and stereoscopic 3D – game in the series,though no release date is yet confirmed.

Guerrilla signed with Sony in 2005, andnow employ around 130 developmentstaff from more than 20 differentcountries. The company headquaters isbased in a 17th Century mansion in thecentre of Amsterdam.

“There isn’t a critical mass of talent herethat you might find in places like theAmerican West Coast or in the greaterLondon area,” says MD Hulst.

“This means that to find specific talentor specific services, a team may have tolook abroad. Development today is aglobal phenomenon.”

The studio frequently espouses itscommitment to “recruiting, developingand retaining the best talent in theindustry make Guerrilla an expert in the‘expat experience’.”

“There is a great sense of continuityhere, though,” Hulst adds.

“Staff turnaround is very low comparedto other businesses and studios. Almostthe entire leadership of the team hasbeen here from the beginning.”

Hulst was also keen to describe acontinuing growth and development ofthe company as a whole, however.

“Over the last few months we havebrought on six interns from a new andextremely ambitious school called theNHTV in Breda. Many schools havecreated games related programs over thelast few years, which is great,” he says.

“Studios must ensure that there issufficient opportunity for new talent toobtain some practical skills by offeringactual time on game projects.”www.guerrilla-games.com

GuerrillaGames

BETA | NETHERLANDS FOCUS

continuing expansion of the games industryin the Netherlands as a much more positivething, however.

“I would definately like to see more studiosopening here,” he confesses.

“The Netherlands has a growingcommunity with great expertise. Our firm hasjust started to expand into the games marketproper, and we would like to see ourselves asa good influence for others consideringtrying the same thing.”

This view seems to be shared across mostperspectives in the industry.

“The development circle here has beenrapidly evolving as more and more skilledpeople flock to the Netherlands,” says RogierSmit of Playlogic.

“We expect to see plenty of new smallstudios opening, closing and consolidating

over the coming few years. In the longerterm, those who previously left theNetherlands in search of opportunitiesabroad will likely see a move back as a viableoption, given the current landscape.”

The annual Utrecht-based NetherlandsFestival of Games is also proving therelevence of the modern Dutch gamesindustry. Last year’s event was sold out, andattracted a range of big development andrelated industry names from across Europe;Habbo, Universal, IAB and MTV Networks toname but a few.

MD of Guerrilla Herman Hulst holds abright outlook for the Dutch industry’s futurein an interntional market.

“The development community is now verymuch a global community,” he explains.

“That is a very good thing.”

‘TEAM UP’Senior Tools Programmers

Senior Build Engineers

VFX Lead Artists

Senior Game Designers

Senior Level Designers

Senior Tech Programmers

GUERRILLA IS NOW RECRUITING FOR ITS UPCOMING PROJECTS

[email protected] | www.guerrilla-games.com

BETA | CAVE INTERVIEW

Cult Japanese developer Cave is far froma typical studio. As one of the world’sfew remaining games makers focused

intently on creating titles for arcade hardware,the ferocious difficulty of its releases is almostas infamous as the high prices its backcatalogue demands from collectors.

Mainly known for its seminal workDodonpachi and its focus on the shmup genre,Cave has concerned itself largely with releasesfor its native market despite being highlyregarded by developers across the globe.

Yet, with the recent international release ofarcade-to-iPhone port Espgaluda II, thecompany is now looking to new horizons as itturns its attention to Apple’s portable, newgenres, and the worldwide audience.

Interested to learn more, Develop caughtup with Cave’s game developer Tsuneki Ikeda,and the mobile contents department’siPhone project producer Yukihiro Masaki andproject director Mamoru Furukawa.

Cave is famed for incredibly challengingarcade games. For that reason the iPhoneseems an unlikely platform for its recent portof arcade shooter Espgaluda II. Is that fair?We can see how you might think that theiPhone is an unlikely platform. When we firststarted porting to the system, we spent a lotof time just seeing what we could do andhow accurately we could reproduce thearcade game. It was within that process thatwe realised we could achieve the level ofreproduction and quality that we were after,and that’s one motivating factor for bringingEspgaluda II to iPhone.

Another reason is that the iPhone/iPodTouch game market is extremely active, and

we wanted a worldwide audience to get toknow and play Cave shooters.

Both of these reasons led us to decidingthat the iPhone/iPod touch was a platform onwhich people around the world could easilyenjoy our games on.

Shooters are surprisingly prolific on theiPhone. Why do you think the platform isso popular with those creating shmups?Shooters are indeed prolific, but we don’tthink there are a lot of authentic shooters outthere, just yet. I can’t say why it’s so popularamong people making shooters, howeverthey serve as sort of an introduction toprogramming, and this may be one reason.

Do you have ambitions to bring moreported or original Cave games to the iPhone?Yes, we have decided to bring more ports andnew Cave games to the iPhone, and in factwe are already working on our second andthird titles at the moment. I can’t tell you the

titles of these games yet, but please watchour official site or follow us on Twitter forfuture announcements.

What were the development challenges ofporting from arcade hardware to theiPhone? Are the two similar in any way?The arcade version of Espgaluda II had alreadybeen finely tuned, so there was the questionof exactly how far to port it. We’re happy tosay that we were able to port the gamewithout cutting any of the source code orgame data, and we think our arcade fanswere very satisfied with the results.

Espgaluda II is one of your first games tosee release on home platforms outside ofJapan. How does considering aninternational audience affect how youdesign a game when first creating it?If by design you mean graphic design,Deathsmiles II and Espgaluda II were bothdesigned with Japanese domestic users inmind, so we went with a design that pressed human characters instead of ‘ships’ to the forefront.

However, if we look at shooting gamessupported overseas – especially NorthAmerica and Europe – we think that stylishlooks like those of Geometry Wars and Rez,should be taken into consideration.

With regards to game design itself,although 2D scrolling shooters are still themainstream in Japan, overseas we see top-down arena shooters with multi-directionalshots, or full 3D FPS and TPS games, as themainstream, and we think it may beimportant to tailor our games towards that direction.

Although 2Dscrolling shooters

are still the mainstream in Japan, overseas we seemore top-down arenashooters with multi-directional shots asthe mainstream.

32 | JUNE 2010

CAVE STORYIn a rare interview with the Western press, a trio of staff from mystery-shrouded developer Cave tell Will Freeman why acompany famed for making notoriously difficult shmups for arcade hardware has turned its attention to the iPhone…


Top: Project directorMamoru Furukawa(above) and prjectproducer YukihiroMasaki (bottom) fromdeveloper Cave

For the iPhone version of Espgaluda II, wedid not really think there was a need to takeinto consideration the differences amongcountries for a shooter where the basics areshooting and dodging. However, we did put alot of time into designing a control interfaceoptimised for the iPhone.

What kind of development technology doyou use at Cave? Is it proprietarytechnology or something provided by anexternal company?Since this was our first iPhone title, we startedby porting the game with the libraries used inthe arcade release. In the future we areinterested in improving our ability to portfrom the arcade to other platforms.

Aside from a small number of exceptions,Cave has dedicated itself to one genre. Iscreative motivation difficult in that context?The Japanese shooting market has a longhistory, and although it may look like there isa lot of demand for major changes to thegenre, we feel that the amount of usersactually calling for such changes are few. Forthis reason, there is not a huge range withinthe game rules that we can change, and therehas certainly been people who have hadtrouble making the same sort of games andmoved onto other projects.

But for me, I find the enjoyment there –within that narrow space, how far can wechange the game’s impressions and feel?There are certainly tough parts in the processbut I’ve never had a problem maintaining mycreative motivation.

Is Cave happy to be profiled as a nichedeveloper, or is that something you arelooking to change?We do not think of Cave as a niche developer.We strive every day to read into the future,and hold a high potential that isn’tpreoccupied with one technology or another.

As a result of having a strong focus, wemight have a reputation of being niche bypeople. We are going to continue challengingourselves on new platforms so that peoplearound the world can feel ‘that’s Cave’ and wecan capture their hearts.

Please watch for our future developments.

Cave’s fans are renowned for their abilities asgamers. From a design perspective, how doyou create games that cater for such talentedplayers? How do you keep perspective onwhat the player is capable of?Since we target different player bases witheach title, it’s hard to speak broadly regardingthis question, however while tuning all of ourtitles, in general we have plotted out difficultand easier areas at critical points of the gameahead of time, and we watch to see if/when aplayer plays through these points, whethertheir play style lines up with our expectations.

With regards to titles which have theirmain appeal in high difficulty, we havecertainly designed the game to appeal tothese talented players, but fine-tuning thegame is always the hardest part.

Often our fine-tuning process plays out likethis: While we adjust the range in which

players can create patterns as well as theamount of random chance and the extent towhich the player can intervene in terms of‘guiding’ bullets around the screen. In the endwe apply a wide variety of predictions of howthe player will dodge bullets and thenconsider what the best way would be tocombine those projections.

When creating and porting a 2D shooter,what elements of the developmentprocess really push the professionalabilities of your team?We really think it comes down to theprogrammer. The reason being thateverything about the game comes down tothe programmer’s ability (taste), includinghow much fun it is, how well it processes, and

how the graphics and sounds we havecreated are implemented into the game.

The inclusion of ‘slow-down’ in your gamesis now something almost unique toshmups. Is that something you simulate,and if so, why do you include it?Cave’s games certainly have their difficultside, wherein there are situations where thereare a lot of bullets on-screen. In thesesituations, we will see slow-down occurwhere the game speed drops and it is easierto find a route through the bullet patterns.

However, it’s not just these situations, norconveying the sense of dilemma when youhave been pushed into the corner while thegame speed has dropped, and although this isa simulated feeling, the player experiences acertain sense of ‘awakening’ and this situationcan transform into something satisfying. Themeaning of slow-down in bullet heavenshooters is accentuating the difficulty of thegame, and containing this potential fordifficult situations to become enjoyable.

Most of the Cave titles experience slow-down from hardware, but some of our gamesdo emulate this via software. With the iPhoneversion of the game, we’ve not ‘replicated’ theslow-down of the arcade version.

The reason that we did not replicate slow-down with Espgaluda II is that the controls(interface) were originally designed foranother type of hardware, so instead of a‘complete port’ we aimed for something thatwould draw out a fun control method tocomplement the iPhone interface.

As Cave’s games reach a wider audience,how do you plan to offer gameplay thatwelcomes new shooter players as well aschallenging your most capable fans?We develop with the aim of creating games togive a wide variety of users the opportunityfor many different types of achievement.

We create easier game modes to givebeginners a sense of accomplishment andfun when they clear the game, but also brutalgame modes aimed at dedicated shootingfans, in which bullet patterns descend on theplayer in raging billows and only a fewmistakes are allowed. It’s this variety of gamemodes that provides a broad palette for ourplayers to enjoy.

We create easiergame modes to

give beginners a sense ofaccomplishment and funwhen they clear the game,but also brutal game modesaimed at dedicatedshooting fans.

CAVE INTERVIEW | BETA

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THE LATEST TOOLS NEWS, TECH UPDATES & TUTORIALS

Middlewaredissected

Develop provides an in-depth look at thechanges facing game technology, p38

Engines of changeA decade after the rise of middleware from niche feild to industry dominating force, Will Freeman takes a look atsector charged with rapidly adapting to and driving changes in the new game development landscape…

BUILD | THE EVOLUTION OF MIDDLEWARE

Above: Unity’s graphicspipeline for bothDirectX and OpenGLcan produce someimpressive results

A few years before the acquisition ofCriterion’s Renderware in 2004 by EA,the middleware sector was still in a

relatively fledgling state, dominated by aclique of high profile tool and engine firms.

That was before the iPhone, Facebook andthe segmentation of the middleware marketinto a state where all manner of offerings –from complete engines and toolsets toweather systems tech – compete for studios’attention. In 2010, the middleware marketlooks very different from how it appeared six-years previously.

As the definition of just what middleware isenters a new state of flux, and the companiesdeveloping tools and tech start to toy withthe boundaries that divide them from servicecompanies, it’s a perfect time to take a longhard look at the sector today, and ask whereit will be in the near future.

“It’s always difficult to get a handle on justwhere middleware begins and ends, andwhat it’s in the middle of,” proposes PaulMayze, COO of Monumental Games, which,when not developing games, offers its ownend-to-end MMO creation solution namedMonumental Technology Suite.

“When the likes of Criterion and Epic tookthe industry from niche to mainstream it allseemed so much clearer – but probablybecause they accompanied a pretty limited

group of genres targeted at a small numberof platforms whose audience was well-defined.”

Now, with middleware firmly fixed in thegames developer’s conscience, its hard torefute the suggestion that non-proprietarytools are as integral to the industry as studiosand the publishers that so many paint as thesector’s villains.

TOOLED UPThat shift from niche to convention is downto one thing; developer attitude tomiddleware. Increasingly the idea that – likesome virtual industrial revolution –middleware is coming to take developers’jobs is becoming a rather archaic notion.

“I think that the attitude of gamesdevelopers towards middleware has changed over the past five years,” suggestsAutodesk’s senior industry manger for games,Mary Beth Haggerty.

“As games have evolved in sophisticationengineers have begun to realise that it is notefficient, or even interesting, to solve allproblems themselves. Using production-tested third-party middleware can free teamsto work on what is fun and interesting in theirgame, rather than concentrate their effortson problems with available solutions.

“Using middleware, developers can focusmore resources on innovative gameplay and less time on just getting basics into their codebase.”

Middleware’s success in winning theaffection of games makers comes primarilyfrom its ability to adapt with the market, andgive developers what they want. Which begsthe question; exactly how is middlewaretoday evolving to meet the want of moderngames studios?

It’s an enquiry that generates a lot ofanswers, and the first comes from Blitz GamesStudios. “The shifts we are seeing in thegames market are changing the scale andspeed of development, making it essential todeploy middleware that provides tools forrapid development and prototyping,”explains the standalone toolset provider’sstudio technical director Richard Hackett.“The ability to make edits in real-time on thetarget console, visual tools so that designersand artists can work effectively and anintegrated tools pipeline are all essentialelements for fast and effective development.”

To many, the issues testing the dedicationof developers today – namely budgets, teamsizes and production timelines – areeffectively exaggerated versions of the veryconcepts that inspired the first generation ofmiddleware. As those trends have becomeever more amplified, so has the pace at whichmiddleware providers need to adapt theoffering they provide.

Using middleware,developers can

focus more resources oninnovative gameplay andless time on just gettingbasics into theircodebase.

Mary Beth Haggerty, Autodesk

38 | JUNE 2010

THE CORE OF THE middlewareecosystem is also the heart of manygames’ very existence; engines andtoolsets. The number of enginesand complete SDKs catering for theever-broadening range of platformsis today quite bewildering.

While the likes of Unreal Engine 3still enhance the process of creatingtriple-A games, the revolution inbrowser and app titles, along withthe return of the microstudio,means that a new breed ofsolutions by the likes of Unity andIdeaworks Labs are fast establishingthemselves as key technologies.

“All of the changes over the pastfive years present newopportunities for responsivecompanies to deliver solutions thathelp developers create engaging,creative new experiences forconsumers,” opines Scott Johnson(facing page), CEO of GamebryoLightSpeed firm Emergent(www.emergent.net).

Johnson also suggests thatdespite the ever-diversifying natureof game development platforms,the core service engine companiesprovide remains unchanged. “Thedynamic is the same – for triple-Apublishers or a solo indie engineer-

designer – by lowering thetechnical barriers to innovation anddemocratising the industry bettergames will be brought to market.

StoneTrip (www.stonetrip.com)CEO Philip Belhassen (right), whosecompany specialises in completemiddleware solutions for appdevelopers is also of the opinionthat SDK houses must be quick torespond to industry fashions.

“Our focus on mobile and webplatforms is a result of the trends inthe industry,” he says. “There’s also alot of interest in social games andwe’re refining those tools withseveral of our customers launchinggames on Facebook and othersocial platforms.”

While keeping an ear to the railsthat stretch to the future is a keyconcern for engine companies,other rather more thorny issues alsodominate. One in particular isintegration. While partnerships canbe the making of single tasksolutions, for those offering acomplete package things are a littlemore delicate, not least because ofkeeping things affordable.

“For BlitzTech(www.blitzgamesstudios.com) wehave integrated with a few key

providers where developers wantedto use familiar tools that were partof their workflow,” clarifies BlitzGames Studios studio technicaldirector Richard Hackett. “Howeverwe do want to ensure that weremain a complete solution for themajority of titles without requiringadditional licensing as this can be ahidden cost for developers.”

“There is a lot of legacy workflowout there; people putting up withproprietary editors because that’sthe way things were done back inthe id Software days,” addsJonathan Nagel, sales andmarketing director of engine forReady at Dawn(www.readyatdawn.com).

“It’s a huge productivity killer andforces teams to deal with really sub-par editing tools compared to,

CASE STUDY: ENGINES AND TOOLSETS


THE EVOLUTION OF MIDDLEWARE | BUILD

Above: Unity in actionin PaperMoon (left)and Fork Particleflexing its muscle(right)

“Middleware will become more importantas development time has to shrink to befinancial sustainable and specialised,”confirms Thorsten-Tobias Heinze, the productmanager of Periscope Studios’ dynamic audiosolution Psai. “Teams of middlewaredevelopers can focus solely on theirmiddleware development as R&D teamsbecome more difficult to sustain fordevelopers. Even in Japan with its traditionalin-house development philosophy, thedevelopers start to turn towards middleware.”

As the East gradually welcomes themiddleware it was once infamously cautiousto embrace, another trend is changing therules closer to home. Social network gamingis here to stay, and with it comes its kissingcousins mobile and indie development.

MOBILISING MIDDLEWAREAutodesk’s Haggerty is quick to highlight thefact that the games industry is nowexpanding, and powerful handheld andmobile models are looming large on themarket’s landscape

“Just because these do not follow atraditional console cycle does not meanmiddleware companies do not need to keepup with constant hardware innovation in thisarea. Autodesk is actively partnering withmobile and handheld hardwaremanufacturers to better respond todevelopers evolving requirements.”

The tech giant isn’t alone in recognisingthat a new breed of developer, working notonly at a different scale, but with an entirelynew ecosystem, is hungry to harness thepotential of middleware.

“Indie or small developer market is a majortarget now for middleware companies,” saysthe CEO of particle effects specialist ForkParticle Noor Khawaja. “I believe we will seemore middleware for mobile devices andonline browser gaming. We have not yettapped these markets but we are keeping aclose eye on them.”

Fortunately for the army of new contentcreators embracing social gaming, barriers toentry for the most ubiquitous platforms, suchas mobile and web, are falling by the wayside.

That’s according to Philip Belhassen, CEOapp middleware specialist StoneTrip:“Middleware will likely continue to evolveand add more features and enable people

without deep technology backgrounds domore with the tools.

“It’s exciting to think of the creative ideasthat people will come up with and then thinkthat we will hopefully be a part of themachieving their development goals.”

With that in mind, it’s natural to think, saysBelhassen, that some consolidation will occuras tools merge and morph to meet studios’requirements. To that end, StoneTrip hasbeen enthusiastically adding app-friendlyplatforms to its ShiVa 3D engine, and claimsto be the first to enable 3D gamedevelopment on iPad, Android and recentlyPalm webOS.

StoneTrip is even readying its tools forFacebook development; something that

would have seemed rather implausible atmiddleware’s dawn

Even more specific discipline-focusedmiddleware offerings, such as the FirelightTechnologies’ FMOD audio solutions, arerecognising the value in the boom in socialand mobile gaming. As well as supportingthe likes of PS3, 360 and Wii, the duo ofFMOD solutions also embrace iPhone, Unityand Android integration.

“For middleware providers, it is essentialthat understandings of new platforms aresecured early and tools provided thatsupport the unique features of the platform,”explains the firm’s sales and businessmanager Martin Wilkes. “As an example here,FMOD worked to provide support for boththe iPhone and iPad. This has been a greataddition for FMOD with some 200-plus titlesand we are working closely with leadingpublishers such as EA.”

Another provider of tech tailoured veryspecifically making itself available todevelopers on platforms traditionally viewed

say, a world class 3D editor likeMaya. We have partnered withAutodesk on this and everyone isvery excited about the directionwe’re going.”

Vision Engine creator Trinigy(www.trinigy.net) describescollaboration with other toolcompanies and developers’ internaltechnologies as critical.

“Long ago we learned our lessonthat game developers often havepreferred technologies for specificprojects, and that thosetechnologies might change from

project to project,” reveals TrinigyGM Felix Roeken. “Therefore ourtechnology had to be versatileenough to support whatever toolsour customers wanted to use.”

For other companies, such asUnity (www.unity3d.com), in acurious spin on the practice ofintegration, tools are being used bystudios for purposes that push theboundaries of their intended use.

“Now we are so well knownpeople are considering using it inmany ways,” enthuses Unity CEOand co-founder David Helgason.

“We fit all kinds of spaces – somejust use us for rapid prototypingbefore switching back to their othertools. Which is fine by me. Of coursea few then end up developing moreand more with actual Unity oncethat prototype is built.”

Elsewhere innovation is aboutsubtlty of approach. Epic’s hugelypopular and prolific Unreal Engine 3(www.unrealtechnology.com) is acase in point.

“Sometimes we don’t have supersexy improvements to show – therest of the time it is incrementalchanges. But we want to be able todo things that some other teammight spend 40 guys and years andyears building,” affirms Epic’s vicepresident Mark Rein.

CASE STUDY: ENGINES AND TOOLSETS



as hosts of small scale productions is userinterface specialist Scaleform, whichfrequently supplies front end solutions fortriple-A games.

“Mobile and social gaming forcesmiddleware vendors to question theirproduct offering and make hard decisionsabout whether or not they should adjust tothese new markets,” reveals Scaleform’spresident and CEO Brendan Iribe. “Stayingfocused is important, but missing a majormarket, especially if competition gets therefirst, can be very costly.”

Middleware needs to help developers takeadvantage of all the available hardware andsoftware functionality, says Iribe, includingmulti-touch, accelerometers, cameras, andincreasingly, stereoscopic 3D. There’s also thecapacity for mobile middleware providers totackle the likes of maximising the memory,performance, and battery life.

MOVING ONOf course, social and mobile platforms aren’tthe only areas of the industry catching theattention of increasing numbers of gamers.There’s also been a resurgence of interest innew controller technologies, which, as BlitzGame Studios’ Hackett highlights, providesnew challenges and opportunities.

“We again benefit from our directconnection to in-house game developmentthat drives this continuous change. To backup our strategy of offering an integrated andcomplete development solution we continueto make substantial investments in newtechnologies as we have with 3D TV andincluding provision of a motion controltoolkit which will be part of BlitzTech asstandard. The new kinds of gameplay and theincreased engagement with ‘non-gamers’made possible by these devices is somethingthat really excites us at the moment.”

Of course, Hackett is referring to both Nataland Move, which each promise to fill the gapsexposed by the Wii’s eventual shortcomings.

“Natal opens the door for new category ofmiddleware that will utilise new peripheralhardware capabilities,” enthuses ForkParticle’s Khawaja, as conversation turns tothe future. “I think we will see middlewarethat does stuff with adjustable intelligenceadded. A ‘Natal-like’ system which takesinteractivity to a new level may trigger thetrend for artificial intelligence and decisionmaking technology applied to gesturerecognition, facial expressions and emotions,

and conversational speech. I think these areonly a few applications and there is room formany more.”

Motion control certainly seems set to testtool and tech companies, but arguably itintroduces no greater challenges than thoselong presented by the PC infrastructure.Middleware providers have long wrangledwith catering for graphics cards changes, andparallels like Direct X updates.

Perhaps that’s the reason Torsten Reil, theCEO and co-founder of human bodymovement experts NaturalMotion, is sooptimistic about the fact that Natal is beingpitched as the alternative to a new hardwaregeneration: “I think everyone will benefitfrom an extended hardware cycle. Forexample, we have a lot of product andtechnology ideas that will run perfectly fineon current hardware. In addition, Natal and

Move itself are opening up very compellingopportunities for technology providers.”

There is reason for caution, though, asNatal and Move threaten to shake upmiddleware before its overall ecosystemsettles. “The danger is that small middlewarecompanies could reach a tipping point,where they are forced to spend more timeensuring compatibility with an explosion ofplatforms than making their core productbetter,” warns Frank Kane, founder of skyrendering experts Sungdog.

“Bottom line, middleware development isgoing to get more expensive. Companies thatcan effectively scale and shield their

customers from this complexity will be thesuccessful ones.”

If that weren’t enough to worry about,Intel’s long promised multi-core future is onthe horizon, as the megahertz raceapparently concludes. According toScaleform’s Iribe the demand for heavilyoptimised multi-threaded software is on the

Social gamingforces middleware

vendors to question theirproduct offering and makehard decisions abutwhether or not theyshould adjust.

Brendan Iribe, Scaleform

Above: SundogSoftware’s founderFrank Kane, and (left)Scaleform’s techproviding Uno Rush’suser interface

TO MANY, AI PROVES one ofmiddleware’s most exciting fields,where new approaches andtechniques are commonplace. One of the most experienced techfirms in the sub-sector is Xaitment(www.xaitment.com), which workson the principle that AI needs tobenefit from the same kind ofinvestment of energy and cash thatgame visuals have enjoyed up untilthis point.

“In the past AI engines onlyincluded pathfinding andmovement as one big monolithicengine,” explains Dr. AndreasGerber, xaitment’s group CEO andmanaging director. “We spend a lotof time in discussion with ourclients - is that really what theyneed? And it turns out – no. Theywant to have smaller products, sothat they can decide which engineto use and not to pay for a huge setof functionalities they only use 30per cent of, which means theywasted money.”

As a result, xaitment has createdits modular AI offering, which offersfive distinct solutions for betterimplementing AI, coveringnavigation meshes, movementbehaviours, NPC AI, world

description knowledgemanagement, and AI rule systems.

“AI developers love the job,”suggests Gerber. “They are lookingfor a job where they can build theAI – the way characters move andbehave – by their own, and they areproud of it. If we sell huge engines,the AI programmer degenerates tojust an integration programmer andthis is no fun and it is the job he isnot willing do to. For that we see abig trend in lean engines andpowerful easy-to-use tools. Andthat is exactly what we do.

Another company providing AItech is of course middleware giantHavok (www.havok.com), whichhas seen an interesting trend interms of the use of Havok AI, whichis now increasingly popular in theMMO space.

Korea’s NCsoft and ArenaNet,which is based in Seattle, both useHavok AI, says the company’s newMD David Coghlan, “because itgives them a foundation for basicpathfinding in their games so theycan get on with the real business ofpathfinding AI”.

CASE STUDY: AI

42 | JUNE 2010


rise, and gaining momentum. Still, it’s not allbad news, if the capacity of investment ofeffort is in place.

“There’s a growing opportunity for toolsand middleware providers to get ahead ofthe curve and start addressing the needs

now, or at least start working on them,”suggests the CEO.

“Efficiently multi-threading a coremiddleware solution that wasn’t originallydesigned for it usually requires a significantamount of architecture and code changes,often a complete rewrite. To complicatethings further, the solution should bedesigned to scale from a single-threadedsingle-core scenario to a heavily multi-threaded multi-core environment.

BACK TO THE FUTUREWith the industry currently defined by itsrestlessness, looking a little further forward atthe prospects for middleware is slightlydaunting, but the future is certainly

enthralling, and if many are to believed, it’salso set to boast impressive depth.

“Stereoscopic 3D is a feature of the futurefor all graphics – whether offline, real-time, ingames, movies or in simulation andvisualisation,” insists Crytek’s director ofglobal business development for CryEngineCarl Jones. “Whilst it is not required for theeffective development of all such projects, itdoes add, well, literally an extra dimension toany virtual environment, so having a solutionthat is efficient and allows instant creationand control will be vital for certain projects.”

Along with the need to take a gamble onIntel’s multi-core plan, the potential rise of 3Dmeans middleware providers must beprepared to spend some hard earned cash inplace of their developer industry-mates. In

the wake of the recent economic crisis, whichsaw the core market risk fewer new franchisesand instead commit to bigger budgets onformulaic entertainment, the financialchallenge is perhaps the biggest middlewareproviders will face in the coming years.

“The impact on the video gamedevelopment landscape is irrevocable and isresetting how games will be made and go tomarket,” warns Emergent’s CEO of gametechnologies Scott Johnson. “The video gameindustry is only now beginning to recoverfrom a rash of studio closures and developerlayoffs, and publishers are striving to findnew models for creating high-quality gamingexperiences with less risk, smaller staffingcounts, and lower overheads.”

From Johnson’s perspective, a tough startnow does mean an increase in the standardsof future tools and tech: “Shorter gamedevelopment schedules and smaller budgetsdemand that middleware solutions drop intogame projects easily and live alongside othermiddleware productively in a contentecosystem that doesn’t care whetherfunctionality comes from middleware orinternal technology. Content creators won’thave to worry about which vendor isresponsible for Tool X or Feature Y, because itwill work, and it will work seamlessly with therest of the game’s toolset.”

Equally optimistic about the pressure onthe middleware sector is Stephanie O’MalleyDemming of XLOC, which offers localisationintegration tools. The company presidentargues a convincing case that seesdevelopers woes meaning more work for tooland tech providers: “As game developmentbecomes more intricate, developers willcontinually look for solutions that take care ofthe standard areas of production, so that theycan focus on the more complicated, creative,core aspects. Allocating internal resources tonon-core functions of game development isexpensive, and as time goes on, developersand publishers will increasingly feel that it’sworth investing in middleware solutions thatalready have technology created andevolving, and that are built to beincorporated into engines or processes.”

INTEGRATED CIRCUITSSpeaking to the experts of the sector, itappears middleware suffered a similar fate tomotion capture in its early history. Initially

Stereoscopic 3D is afeature of the

future for all graphics –whether offline, real-time,in games, movies or insimulation andvisulisation

Carl Jones, Crytek

Above: Studiotechnical director ofBlitz Game StudiosRichard Hackett.Right: HavokDestruction at work.

THE FIELD OF AUDIO middleware isone of the more established, but thatdoesn’t mean it has become staid. Infact, the area is charged withconstant innovation, as methods likedynamic audio become the norm.

Hamburg’s Periscope Studio(www.periscopestudio.de), aptly setup in a converted submarine enginefactory, is one of the most impressiveof the audio specialists. Havingcreated a thesis from its workconverting its property to house apair of recording facilities, the team isnow hard at work introducing its psaitechnology to the world.

“Psai is a solution for creating andcontrolling emotions for games with

music,” explains FinnSeliger, PeriscopeStudio’s, art directorand head of researchand development. “Asimple tool helps thecomposer to create music for thepurpose of interactive playback and amiddleware provides the developerwith an easy-to-use interface in orderto connect the music to the gameplay situation.”

“Our middleware’s aim is to supplythe composer and developer with atool that supports the synergeticmove from movie and games toconverge into one form thusenabling them to deliver an

interactive gaming experience with areal interactive soundtrack to deliverthe tensions and emotions you getimmersed in inside a great movie,”adds psai product manager Thorsten-Tobias Heinze.

Another innovative entrée on theaudio middleware scene is FirelightTechnologies (www.fmod.org),which makes a pair of distinctsolutions; namely FMOD EX andFMOD designer 2010.

“We support all formats from PS3and Xbox 360 to Wii, from PC, Macand Linux to iPhone and iPad,”confirms the company’s sales andbusiness manager Martin Wilkes,.“And yes, we are working with Unityfor the Android platform.”

While FMOD Ex promises toprovide for all audio requirements forvideo game development, FMOD Exis conceived to extend the creativeboundaries of audio implementationfor games and other media. It is alsodesigned to put minimal demand onresources and be fully scalable.

CASE STUDY: AUDIO

In 2007, Ubisoft’s third person action-adventure game Assassin’s Creed vanquished its competition in a manner worthy of its titular hero. Set in both the not-too-distant future of 2012 and the distant past of 1191, the game was an instant success with players and reviewers alike, leaving gamers wanting more.

Ubisoft has used Autodesk® software products in their game pipeline for many years. The powerful combination of Autodesk® 3ds Max® and Autodesk® MotionBuilder® software, together with Autodesk® HumanIK® animation middleware, helped the company create yet another game for the ages.

The ChallengeThe primary challenge to any sequel is to improve on the original while staying true to its spirit. Thanks to a clever backstory taking place in 2012, both Assassin’s Creed games are able to remain firmly in the future while telling an ancient story.

In the original version, 2012 bartender (and player-controlled protagonist) Desmond Miles is kidnapped by a pharmaceutical company to test a new machine capable of reading his “genetic memories” and then placing Desmond himself to simulate the experiences of his ancestors. As a result, Desmond finds himself in the role of Altaïr ibn La-Ahad, an assassin in the year 1191.

For its part, Assassin’s Creed II sees Desmond (still in 2012) escaping the pharmaceutical company, only to enter a more powerful version of the original machine and reliving the genetic memories of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, another assassin, but this time wreaking his vengeance during the Renaissance.

“From the start, we were trying to redefine and improve on the first Assassin’s Creed,” says James Therien, lead programmer at Ubisoft Montreal. “We wanted better

characters, better acting, and a better script, along with the muscular game play and acrobatic fights that players of the first version would be expecting.”

The Ubisoft team wanted everything to be better in the sequel. That is always a lofty goal, but Ubisoft was definitely up to it.

The Solution“One of the most important aspects in our vision of Assassin’s Creed II was a more realistic hero,” says Therien. “There is a great deal of acrobatic climbing, together with fighting, flying, and interaction with crowds. For the climbing, HumanIK middleware was a huge help. It enabled us to create new and better moves through a faster iterative process. With HumanIK, we never had to worry about the quality of the inverse kinematics solving. When a problem with jittering occurred, we could have wasted a lot of time attempting to optimize our compression methods for our basic animation, but by trusting in a stable high- quality package like HumanIK, we never even have to think about the quality of the results. We simply know that the quality and performance will be there.”

To develop an even richer, more believable experience, the Ubisoft team also significantly enhanced the role of nonplayer characters (NPCs) in Assassin’s Creed II.

“The NPCs were limited to chase scenarios in the first version,” says Therien. “In the new version, they are right there in your face, which requires more precise animation. HumanIK was invaluable to removing excess jiggle from the NPC arms, making sure the feet are planted correctly, and that kind of thing. The result was a huge improvement in our cutscenes. We were able to compress much more animation and still deliver great quality.”

The GameSince the release of Assassin’s Creed II, it seems that the Ubisoft Montreal programming team has

accomplished its formidable task. The sequel has been uniformly praised by reviewers while selling 1.6 million copies the first week it was released.

For Therien and Ubisoft Montreal, using Autodesk software has consistently helped them to raise their own expectations and the gaming experiences they create.

“3ds Max is at the core of all our content creation. All the characters, all the meshes were created with the software. We also filter all of our motion capture data used for cut and fighting scenes through MotionBuilder. That is a lot of data, and MotionBuilder handled it all.”

For more information about Autodesk games software and middleware, visit www.autodesk.com/games.

Autodesk, HumanIK, MotionBuilder, and 3ds Max are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2010 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

Autodesk Games Insight The Latest Scoop from Autodesk Media & Entertainment

By trusting in a stable high-quality package like HumanIK, we never even have to think about the quality of the results. We simply know that the quality and performance will be there.—James Therien Lead Programmer Ubisoft Montreal

Assassin’s Creed II. Image courtesy of Ubisoft.

Assassin’s Creed II. Image courtesy of Ubisoft.

Renaissance assassin.



overenthusiastic middleware firms promisedthe world, proposing that their productscould solve developers’ every problem.

“It’s not what we’re seeing right now and alot of people are very bitter with theirexperiences,” suggests Ready at Dawn’s salesand marketing director of engine JonathanNagel. Like many of its contemporaries Readyat Dawn is a developer that has seized thechance to move into the middleware sector.

“There are so many disjointed parts too,”states Nagel. “Something we’re trying to solvewith our integrated approach, where teamshave to license an engine and then choosebetween ten other pieces of middleware tocomplete it if they can get it to all worktogether and play nice.”

The disparate nature of vast swathes oftoday’s middleware market is slowlydisappearing, and every day in the

development community seems to bringnews of a new collaboration or integration.Things are still complicated though, and as aresult a new focus on efficiency and simplicityhas been born.

“We do have new tools to combat this risein complexity,” promises Emergent’s Johnson.“Scripting languages and higher-levelcompiled languages are improving theefficiency of both game developers andmiddleware providers. Open interoperabilitystandards make it easier than ever to sharecontent between middleware products andstudios’ internal technology.”

And the glue between these advances?Improved prototyping toolsets that givegames makers the ability to rapidly iterate ontechnology free from delay. Quite simply,middleware is now better at fusing itself withdevelopers’ own tech.

That’s all very encouraging, but the issue ofan increasingly diverse dev sector remains,meaning the pressure is on for middlewarehouses to keep focus.

“In today’s shifting market, it is very easy toget distracted and to shift your developmentefforts to meet the flavour of the day,” warns apragmatic Felix Roeken, who serves asTrinigy’s general manger, and works with thefirm’s popular Vision Engine. “That approachtends to have the opposite effect oncustomers as tech providers shift resourcesand forget about those customers who made

them successful in the first place. The trick isto respond to changes without losing sight ofyour core competencies.”

Concentrated effort is clearly a prioritythen, if middleware firms are to thrive, butthat must be balanced with the adaptabilityneeded to cater for the expanding range ofnew platforms.

“Recently there has been a resurgence ofdebate on the impact of piracy on the health

Above: Crytek’s directorof global businessdevelopment CarlJones, and (left) CCP’sDust 514 making useof Unreal Engine 3

BADLY IMPLEMENTED NPCS andplayer avatars break the allusion of agame world like no other creativeattribute, save perhaps substandardvoice acting and poor facialanimation. For that reason,middleware designed to ensure moreconvincing character movement is rifewith innovation.

Multiple industry-spanning techfirm Autodesk (www.autodesk.com)is one of the area’s most prolificcompanies, and offers HumanIK, a fullbody inverse kinematics solution formore realistic character interaction

with objects and environments in thegame, and Kynapse, an AI solution fordynamic pathfinding, spatialreasoning, and team coordination.

“HumanIK is a robust full body IKsolver that is a big part of many sportslike FIFA and action games likeAssassin’s Creed II,” says Autdesk’ssenior industry manger for games,Mary Beth Haggerty. “One keyadvantage is a realtime IK solutionspecifically designed to help integratesophisticated animation created usingMaya and MotionBuilder directly intothe game.

“Kynapse is a 3D dynamicpathfinding solution which has beenrigorously production tested in over100 games in the past ten years.Its main advantage is itsability to efficiently andeffectivelyprovide NPCswith the AInecessary for environmentalperception, team coordinationand pathfinding in dynamic 3Denvironments.”

Despite Autodesk’s size, it isn’tthe only organisation pushingthe boundaries of in-game

character middleware. NaturalMotion(www.naturalmotion.com),which recently began the

international roll out of itsinternally developed gameBackbreaker, provides an impressive

pair of technologies; dynamicmotion synthesis engine

Euphoria, and graphicallyauthourable animation

engine Morpheme.“With

Morpheme, we’re

giving people a level of control overtheir in-game animation that is veryhard to achieve with in-house tools,”reveals Torsten Reil, the CEO and co-founder.

“We’re spending a lot of resource onfurther developing the tools andworkflow to get people to work fasterand faster. In addition, Morphemeships with a lot of useful features,including advanced blendingalgorithms, event detection, IK,physics integrations etcetera.”

CASE STUDY: In-gamecharacters and animation

Scripting languagesand higher-level

compiled languages areimproving the efficiency ofboth game developers andmiddlewareproviders.

Scott Johnson, Emergent

and future of PC gaming, and on the oppositeend of the spectrum some pundits have evenquestioned the likelihood of a future consolegeneration,” says Emergent’s Johnson.“The PC and console markets are going tocontinue to thrive, thanks to the vision andpassion of game creators, platform holders,middleware developers and publishersworking together to create entertainmentthat consumers want.”

DIVIDE AND CONQUERIt seems then, that segmentation is anecessity, and something that will define thefuture of middleware. At least, that’s whatXaitment’s group CEO, Dr. Andreas Gerberthinks. “That is the first trend, to haveindependent, smaller and much more flexibleand specialised engines and tools. Butindependent in a way, that all these smallerengines fit very well together, if someonewant to use them all,” confirms the manheading up the team behind Xaitment’s suiteof AI tech.

Few refute that segmentation is thesolution to securing a stable future formiddleware, but juggling the finer points ofdiversity, focus and integration isn’t withoutsignificant difficulties.

“Certainly, segmentation can be achallenge since it requires us to constantly re-think and adjust our products, businessmodel and strategy as the case may be,”admits Trinigy’s Roeken. “However, at thesame time segmentation is a gift since it

46 | JUNE 2010


PHYSICS MIDDLEWARE is perhapsthe most famous tech from aconsumer standpoint. The likes ofHavok Physics (www.havok.com)revolutionised not just the look, butthe gameplay of a huge number of3D games on console and PC.

More recently, physics tech – be itmiddleware or not – has beenintegral to the success of a numberof casual and iPhone games, andthat market is attracting companiestypically associated with high endofferings that push current genplatforms to their limits.

Havok physics is still the mostpopular product from the Irishmiddleware giant, despite thesuccess of tech like Cloth,Destruction and Animation, and hasstarred in a run of sequels this year,including BioShock 2, Just Cause 2,Assassin’s Creed II and Mass Effect 2.

According to Havok’s recentlyinstated MD David Coghlan,sandbox game Just Cause 2 istypical of titles that rely on physicsmiddleware for a great deal morethan visual showcasing.

The game is, Coghlan says: “veryphysics driven – its gameplay

stands out due to the way it usesphysics so deeply”.

“Physics development for us atthe moment is concentrating noton adding new features butperformance – making sure we areoptimised for all formats. We arealso adding new SKUs for platformsyou might not expect, like iPhonefor instance. They are becomingmore important.”

Havok Physics is most famous forits capacity for handling real-time

collision detection and physicalsimulation solutions, but it alsooffers impressive scalability, andfeatures a wealth of contentcreation tools for 3Ds Max, Maya,and XSI.

As well as Havko’s famed Physicstech, the company’s AI, Animation,Behaviour, Cloth and Destructionproducts continue to dominate, andpromise to mitigate the overall costand risks of triple-A gamedevelopment today.

CASE STUDY: PHYSICS



creates new business markets, new revenuestreams and – ultimately - enables growth.Hence, segmentation took a key role in thematuring process of our industry in the pastyears and I trust it will continue doing so inthe future – let’s embrace it.”

It’s hard not to warm to Roeken’s optimism,but not everybody takes such an upbeatperspective on the potential pitfallsmiddleware is currently straddling.

“Middleware has to start delivering on itspromises,” advises Ready at Dawn’s Nagel. “Noone is going to continue licensing enginesthat require you to rip half of it out beforeyou can even start or connect it to someother piece of middleware it wasn’t designedto work with. People have learned from theirmistakes and I think the real era ofmiddleware starts now with companies thatwill be smart enough to be honest with theircustomers and make promises that arerealistic and achievable. We’re here to helpthe teams we work with achieve their vision

and make it easier on them, not just to taketheir money and run.”

The future success of middleware also lieswith harnessing the potential of areas outsideof traditional gaming. As the tech behindfilms and games continues to offer newopportunities, so does the expanding worldof serious games.

“We’ve always had strong business in thatsector and it continues to grow for us,”explains Sundog’s Kane. “Middlewareproviders need to be conscious of the specificneeds for applications that aren’t purely forentertainment; physical realism andinteroperability with government standardsare important in that world. I also see thenumber of tools, engines, platforms, andtechnologies that middleware providers needto support continuing to grow over time.”

Another emerging trend in the field ofmiddleware is that of working with thedeveloper, initially to assist with both supportand advice, and ultimately to adapt core tech

in response to a studio’s needs and take thosemodifications to a wider audience.

“This can lead to some fantasticdevelopments that then can be integratedinto tools for other developers,” revealsFMOD’s Wilkes. “A great company for this wasthe team at Neversoft with the Guitar Hero

series. A fantastic game based entirely onaudio, and it was at Neversoft’s request thatFMOD developed many features for thatseries; features that are now available to allFMOD users.”

Whether you view middleware as thesaviour of game development or greet itspresence with suspicion, there’s no doubtthat it is not only here to stay, but it isincreasingly intertwining itself with everyelement of modern game creation. Dividingand streamlining with ferocious efficiency, itis an incredibly adaptive, dynamic sector, andas such, is perfectly placed to encircle thenew fields of social games, extended consolemarkets, and new platform paradigms.

Left: As well as offeringits MMO-focused SDK,Monumental alsodevelops games,including MotoGP09/10

3D DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY HASreared its head several times in recentdecades, but until now, has always feltlike something of a fad. While theindustry still greets the latest drive toestablish stereoscopic technology witha degree of suspicion, the combinedbacking of the film, television andgames industries does suggest that thistime around, the technology could behere to stay.

Like it or not, developers are going tohave to consider making games in 3D,and driven by a need to keep pace withemerging trends, the middlewareindustry is already set to cater for thatpossibility.

Engine giant Crytek(www.crytek.com) already offersstereoscopic support in its tech, but asthe company’s director of globalbusiness development Carl Jonesreveals, it’s not been an easy ride.

“While it is straightforward to getstereoscopic 3D running on a strongPC, it is a serious challenge on consolesdue to performance constraints,especially as CryEngine 3 is a high-endengine, which makes full use of theavailable hardware resources.Nevertheless our R&D team found aninnovative way to make stereo workefficiently on both the PS3 and the

Xbox 360, without sacrificing any visualquality.”

As a result, Crytek’s stereoimplementation supports an impressiverange of different output devices on allplatforms. Thanks to a company mantraof ‘what you see is what you play’,stereo support is fully integrated withinCryEngine 3 Sandbox, subsequentlyallowing previewing and tweakingstereo content during production,without any delays.

Blitz Game Studios(www.blitzgamesstudios.com) is also

committed to substantial investmentsin the area of 3D TV.

Speaking to the company’s that leadthe charge in the engine sector, it’sclear that stereoscopic 3D is playing ontheir minds.

Vision Engine creator Trinigy(www.trinigy.net) has highlighted thetrend as something key to the future ofmiddleware, and others are sure tofollow. The challenge, however, lies inbringing 3D to the broad range ofplatforms currently the target ofmiddleware.

“For high-end PC, as previouslymentioned, stereoscopic 3D is possiblethrough brute force,” explains apragmatic Jones.

“On other platforms; and to achieveS3D in real-time, most people areaccepting compromises onperformance or quality. That is not theCrytek way. As such, we had some ofour clever chaps here in our R&D teamwork at some amazing solutions thatachieve the quality we want to see from3D, but without materially impactingthe performance.”

CASE STUDY: 3D

People have learnedfrom their mistakes

and I think the real era ofmiddleware starts now withcompanies that will besmart enough to behonest .Jonathan Nagel, Ready at Dawn

50 | JUNE 2010


PARTICLE EFFECTSBased in Pleasanton, California, ForkParticle (www.forkparticle.com)specialises in what it describes as‘spectacular’ realtime particle effects.The firm’s tech has been conceived tosimulate – amoung other things –smoke, fire, rain and explosions. TheFork Particle SDK features both anauthouring tool for creating effectsand a runtime engine to simulatethem in-game.

“Fork Particle Studio is an advancedand user-friendly particle effectseditor,” says the company’s CEO NoorKhawaja. “Its 3D viewport providesreal time feedback for efficient editingwhich lets artist utilise their creativeenergies to author their best work.Fork Live Tuner provides live updateso artists can make final adjustmentsto the effects in-game.”

MMO TOOLSETSA developer itself, MonumentalGames has chosen to focus its

middleware offering on theincreasingly lucrative massivemultiplayer market. As the genre itselfmoves over to browser platforms, thecompany has spent three yearsworking to accommodate that trendwith its Monumental Technology Suite(www.monumentalgames.com).

“We realise [MMOs are] moving toconsoles, so we’ve been developingthat too,” reveals Monumental COOPaul Mayze, who describes Steve Jobsrecent rejection of Flash as thebiggest controversy in middlewaresince EA acquired Renderware.

“We’re not a substitute for Unrealany more than we’re a replacement forFlash,” admits Mayze. “But if adeveloper wants to make an MMOthey’ll very likely check us out.”

USER INTERFACESNot content with just the video gameindustry, Scaleform(www.scaleform.com) has alsobecome the leading provider of UI

software for the consumer electronicsbusiness. Based on the Adobe Flashtoolset, Scaleform’s GFx tech allowsdevelopers to build what the firm calls‘user interface environments’ withminimum time.

“The Scaleform GFx engine deliversproven stability, optimisedperformance, a low memory footprint,deep integration with all leading 3Dengines, a rich feature set withnumerous extensions, and highconformance to the Flashspecification, so developers canrapidly and efficiently author content,”confirms Scaleform’s president andCEO Brendan Iribe.

WEATHER SIMLULATIONSundog’s sky rendering and weathersimulation SDK SilverLining(www.sundog-soft.com) is a case inpoint for the potential of highlyspecialised middleware; while thefield it covers is remarkablystreamlined, the potential it offers

developers in terms of time savingand quality is vast.

Enabling studios to tackle real-time,physically based rendering of the sky,3D volumetric clouds, and weathereffects, SilverLining also features anoutdoor lighting engine, letting userreplicate accurate models of the sky atany time of the day.

“Most of the big simulationcompanies for the military are usingSilverLining, which means it meets thestrict criteria used for real flight andcombat training applications,”enthuses SunDog founder Frank Kane.“As a result, it’s very stable and full-featured. Another strength ofSilverLining is its ease of integration.Although you can tie SilverLiningdirectly into your own engine’srenderer, it comes out of the box withOpenGL and DirectX renderers of itsown built-in.”

LOCALISATION INTEGRATIONWhile localisation is typically a serviceoffering, XLOC (www.xloc.com) hascreated a middleware solution thatintegrates localisation into thedevelopment cycle, providing acentralised and standardised processthat incorporates the localisationprocess with main SKU development.

“The creators of XLOC haveextensive experience in gameproduction and development,” statesXLOC co-founder and presidentStephanie O’Malley Demming. “Theteam understands the intricacies ofcreating successful titles and hasdeveloped a system that combines allfacets of the localisation processtogether into one interface. Above all,the architecture of XLOC is an opendesign that allows for specificcustomizations necessary in thecreative game development process.”

The XLOC suite can be leveraged asa stand-alone product or becombined with XLOC’s consulting andsupport services.

CASE STUDY: SPECIALISED MIDDLEWARE

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New Platforms. New Technologies. New Markets.The Develop Conference opens again on Tuesday 13 July with Evolve, a day-long conference focusing on the cutting edge of gamedevelopment. Evolve will explore emerging platforms, new business models and the integration of Internet services and user-generated content.

Media SponsorMedia Sponsor Media SponsorInternational Media Sponsor



Traditional Games Breaking into Social Networks: A View from the FrontlineLouis Castle, CEO, Instant Action Inc.

Opening Evolve on the Tuesday, Louis’ talk is going tocover what he’s been up to recently – “attempting tofree the games industry from the shackles of bricks andmortar and democratizing music games in the process!”

Who’s speaking?

be inspired

Early Bird

Rates until 7 June

KEYNOTE KEYNOTE

Gamification: How Games are EverywhereDavid Helgason, CEO, Unity Technologies

Closing Evolve, David will draw on Unity's rapid rise toprominence in mobile and browser based gaming toanalyse how games are leading the charge on mobile,web, TV and invading social networking platforms.

An Android Game Post-Mortem Chris Pruett, Google Japan

A Casual Game in Every Pocket Dave Bishop, PopCap

The iPhone Developers'Conference Call Alan Yu, ngmoco; Chris James,Pocket Gamer; millsTM , ustwo;Matthew Higgins, Wonderland.

Unity, Flash and the iPhone:Happy Bedfellows?Jeff Coghlan, Matmi

Hats, Loops and Levers: Insidethe Rolando StudioSimon Oliver, Hand Circus

Why Mobile Games WillEventually OutperformConsole Gaming: An Overviewof Actual Smartphone GamingAnd What's Next Michael Schade, Fishlabs

An Explorer's Guide toPublishing on Facebook andOther Digital Platforms Patrick O'Luanaigh, nDreams

Making Free Apps for Fun and Profit: Adventures iniPhone Game Development for a Triple-A Start-up Matthew Higgins, Wonderland

Brand New: Recreating Call ofDuty Zombies on iPhone Russell Clarke, ideaworks 3d

Taking Icy Tower to Facebook Johan Peitz, MuskedunderInteractive

Shock The System: MakingMeaning AND Money withIndie and Social Impact GamesGobion Rowlands, RedRedemption

Games As A Service: Do YouReally Know What It Means? Thomas Bidaux, ICO Partners

How 100 Users Turned into 100 Million - a Browser GameSuccess Story Nils-Holger Henning, BigpointGmbH

5 Things Big Publishers Don'tUnderstand About Small Games Sean Murphy, Hello Games

Yesterday's Games Designers:Tomorrow's Social TechInnovatorsGabe Zichermann, beamME

Panel: Forget Dragon's Den: What Venture Capital ReallyMeans For YouCarlos Espinal, Doughty HansonTechnology Ventures; SeanSeton-Rogers, PROfoundersCapital; Nic Brisbourne, DFJEsprit; Paul Flanagan, AriadneCapital; Tim Merel, BIS Capital

To discuss anything raised in this column or general licensing opportunitiesfor Epic Games’ Unreal engine, contact: [email protected]

FOR RECRUITMENT OPPORTUNITIES PLEASE VISIT:www.epicgames.com/epic_jobs.html

Independent developer Zombie Studioshas been working with Unreal Enginetechnology for almost a decade, shipping

games like America’s Army: Special Forces,Shadow Ops: Red Mercury, and Saw: The VideoGame.

The studio’s latest project, Blacklight: TangoDown, is a fully featured, downloadablemultiplayer shooter for Xbox Live Arcade,PlayStation Network and PC, slated for releasethis summer.

Set 25 years in the future, Blacklight: TangoDown is a covert military action epic basedmore on science-fact than science fiction.

Early buzz has emphasised the game’shigh-quality visuals, complete levellingsystem, Black Ops co-op mode, generouscustomisation options, equipment like HyperReality Vision (HRV) visors and weapons likedigi grenades.

Multiplayer modes support up to fourplayers with the ability to seamlessly jump inand jump out of the action at any time.

Zombie has found certain Unreal Engine 3features to be indispensable for quicklyachieving the team’s creative vision.

“I think Epic’s Lightmass and Scaleform GFxfeatures are my favorites in Tango Down,” saysMark Long, CEO of Zombie Studios.

“Ambient occlusion takes scene realism toa new level. Our environments look stunningafter just a default pass on lighting.

“What used to take weeks before can bedone in hours with Lightmass. The level ofcontrol the environmental artists and leveldesigners have allows us to get under thehood to optimise every element, so these

visual improvements don’t impact framerate.”“GFx is Scaleform’s Flash transcoder for UI

components,” Long adds. “Authoring in Flashand exporting directly into Unreal allows ourinterface artists – and increasingly, our leveldesigners – to rapidly iterate UI designs andto add state-of-the-art motion graphic effectsto our menus, HUD and even mini-games.We’re using almost every feature Scaleformoffers in Tango Down.”

Long explains how Epic’s direct licenseesupport in tandem with the prolificcommunity of Unreal Engine developers iscrucial to his team’s productivity.

“The Unreal Developer Network (UDN) isEpic’s secret weapon,” reveals Long. “There areliterally hundreds of developers sharinginformation in real time on the UDN.

“The support from Epic is great, butnothing beats the support of a peer trying tosolve a similar problem. Epic is way ahead ofthe curve in community tools andcommunication.”

Zombie is pushing the envelope evenfurther with its Blacklight property,expanding the military action adventurefranchise to include movies and comic booksfrom Fox Atomic Studios. And it’s usingUnreal Engine 3 technology in some new andexciting ways.

NOT JUST GAMES: ZOMBIE TO MAKEFEATURE FILMS WITH UNREAL ENGINE 3 “We’re doing something really cool withUnreal Engine 3 that no one has tried before,”continues Long. “Through our partners inBlacklight Transmedia, we’re using Unreal to

produce a live action feature film titledSamurai. We just completed a proof-of-concept that composites live-action actorsshot on a green screen with props andenvironments created in Unreal. “The goal is to share movie and gameproductions, and it is amazing looking.”

Also on the horizon at Zombie is the UnrealEngine 3-powered, third-person survivalhorror game Saw II for PlayStation 3 and Xbox360. Published by Konami, Saw II is scheduledfor a simultaneous release with the Saw VIImotion picture later this year.

For UE3 licensing inquiries email:[email protected]

For Epic job informationvisit:www.epicgames.com/epic_jobs.html

ZOMBIE GOES DOWNLOAD-ONLY WITH UNREALENGINE 3 FOR BLACKLIGHT: TANGO DOWN

upcoming epicattended events:E3 2010Los Angeles, CAJune 15th to 17th, 2010

Develop Conference Brighton,UKJuly 13th to 15th, 2010

Gamescom Cologne, GermanyAugust 18th to 22nd, 2010

Please email: [email protected] for appointments.


EPIC DIARIES | BUILD

Mark Rein is vice president of Epic Games based inRaleigh, North Carolina. Since 1992 Mark has worked onEpic’s licensing and publishing deals, businessdevelopment, public relations, academic relations,marketing and business operations.www.epicgames.com

54 | JUNE 2010

BUILD | AUDIO

Where will you be on the July 15th?I’ll be welcoming some top talentto the 2010 Develop audio track –

and I can’t wait to hear what they have to say.After all, you’d have to go a long, long way tofind such a gathering of senior game audiodevelopers discussing the state of the art atthis level.

And hearing what your competitors have to say from the bleeding edge is nomere jolly – though jolly it will be. In thistough climate, seizing the chance to spend afocused day discovering what industryleaders and pioneers from around the globeare thinking and doing is a no-brainer.Standards are high; expectations are evenhigher as technology is increasinglyharnessed to provide a platform for thepower of creative ideas to differentiate ourproductions. So yes, there’ll be talk abouttechnology. But also about approach,methodology, creativity and inspirationalsound design.

Ben Minto from EA DICE works on gameslike Battlefield. He’ll be talking about (amongother things) finding and managing originalsource material covering location and foleyrecording for DICE’s truly cutting edgeproductions. Meanwhile, Sony London’saudio programming ace, Nicolas Fournel, willshow how audio analysis can be used todefine new gameplays, build better audioengines (using dynamic mixing and audioshaders, for example) and create smartersound design tools.

Celebrated composer James Hannigan willjoin audio director Nick Laviers from LosAngeles to examine how they applied musictechniques from character action style gamesto improve story telling in Command &Conquer, helping make RTS gameplay a moreemotional experience.

Also joining us from the States will beSCEA’s Steve Johnson, who oversawsoundtrack creation for the BAFTA-nominated(Best Use Of Audio) and elegantly enigmaticFlower. Building on that experience, andciting lessons learned from other titles, he willexamine the ingredients and thinkingrequired to go beyond the norm and reallyuse audio as narrative.

Meanwhile, Sony Europe’s audio headhoncho, Garry Taylor, will talk about hispersonal quest to translate traditional linearmixing approaches and methodology intothe world of interactive audio in a sessionexamining the current cutting edge and nearfuture of interactive audio mixing – both thetechnical how and the creative why.

Finally, headlining the day’s proceedingswith one of our most important audiokeynotes ever will be Activision’s AdamLevenson, director of Central Audio & Talent.Joining us from Santa Monica, California hewill discuss his vision for a game audio futurewhere dialogue and music will really respondand correspond to character thoughts,emotions and interactions in real-time with a

high level of adaptability. He will outline howhe believes this brave new world of gameswill sound, and how we might design thecharacter performances and scoring of thefuture. Compelling stuff.

Game audio has come a very long way on afantastic journey. The technical fidelity andcreative prowess increasingly exhibited in theaudio of top-tier titles like Uncharted 2,Batman: Arkham Asylum, Left 4 Dead 2 and thelatest Call of Duty continue to impress anindustry and public who, these days, don’tsee any reason why their video gamesshouldn’t be sounding every bit as good astheir movies.

Despite the economic climate, this is anexciting, vibrant time for audio in games. Withbetter tools and bigger budgets, betterpractice and bigger visions, this generation ofaudio designers can explore new creativeterritory and maybe even rewrite some of ‘therules’. Why shouldn’t sound and music ingames go beyond anything that’s been doneto date in movies or interactive mediagenerally?

If you have any interest at all in the music,sound and dialogue of video games, pleasefind time to join your game audiocommunity, gathered to hear stellar speakersdiscussing the very best of best practice, notto mention exploiting ample opportunitiesfor networking over a cold beer or two.

You can book your place right now atwww.developconference.com

John Broomhall dusts off his bucket and spade. He’s looking forward to another year’s pilgrimage to Brighton’s seafront for a packed day of game audio presentations at the 2010 develop conference…

John Broomhall is an independent audio director,consultant and content provider and will chair the 2010Develop Conference Audio [email protected]

The Developconference takes placefrom July 13th to the15th in Brighton

HEARDABOUT

This is an exciting,vibrant time for

audio in games. With bettertools, bigger budgets,better practice and biggervisions, audio designerscan explore newcreative territory.

The Develop ConferenceAudio Track 2010

JUNE 2010 | 55DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET

UNITY FOCUS | BUILD

UNITYFOCUS

When Valve’s popular Steamdistribution platform wasfinally released for Mac last

month, several Unity games werefeatured as ‘SteamPlay’ launch titles;games which you can buy on Steam andthen download for either Mac or PC, orboth. Those titles included Max and theMagic Marker, Bob Came in Pieces, andGuns of Icarus. Although Steam is fordistributing downloadable titles, each ofthese title’s developers has leveragedUnity’s cross platform publishing – andthe Unity Web Player – to bring increasedexposure to their games.

Unity Content Helps Launch SteamPlayIn the wake of the release of the Mac version of Steam, Thomas Grové talks to Muse Games about its experience of the distribution platform…

■ Game title: Guns of Icarus■ Development time: Five Months■ Team size: Four People■ Distribution: Available on Steam

(Mac and PC), MuseGames.com,Facebook, and Shockwave

www.musegames.com

Is Muse Games a developer or a portal?Both. We believe completely in thefuture of high-quality gaming in thebrowser, and MuseGames.com is ourattempt to realise that future. That said,we feel it’s our duty to set the barthrough our own games. In the end,people are looking to play greatgames, and if they’re no good it’sirrelevant what the rest of theexperience is.

How long has Muse Games beenusing Unity?Muse has only existed for about 16months, but the core team has beenusing Unity since 2006.

What was the process of gettingGuns of Icarus onto Steam like? Didyou have to do any technicalintegrations? Any loops that youhad to jump through with Valve? Really easy actually. We just showedthem the game and what peoplethought about it and they said yes.

There has been no loop jumpingwhatsoever and we’ve really enjoyedworking with them. Technicallythough, yes, there are implementationdetails. We had to build a compatibility

layer between the C++ of Steam andthe C# of Unity – and that took sometime. If anyone’s interested, we’regoing to figure out how to offer thissolution along with our other API toolsto developers, sometime this summer.

What’s your favourite aspect ofusing Unity?Ease of prototyping and multipledeployment is by far Unity’s killerfeature. However, equally important tothe easy-to-use tool set and API is theability to dig deeper into the programand interact with the application on amuch lower level. We find that Unitydoes exactly what we want 90 per centof the time – out of the box. When weneed to go deeper or changefundamental behavior, Unity doesn’tget in the way or slow us down.

Have you extended Unity’s editor inany way? We’ve frequently used the editorscripts to add small features or tointegrate better with our art pipeline;this includes things like exportingarbitrary textures to files, or changingthe default mesh import settings. Butthere have been a couple of largerextensions, as well. The first is our build

scripts, which have to build multipleversions of the same game for differentdistributors with different integrationrequirements, feature restrictions, andso forth.

We’ve also added game-specificextensions to turn the Unity editor intosomething like a level editor, usingcustom assets and editor tabs, that canintegrate new scenes with our gamecode without a programmer needingto set anything up.

Have you used any othertechnologies like Flash or Unreal?How do they compare?Not really. Flash is a strange solutionbecause it wasn’t originally designedfor game development. It’s been co-opted because of its plug-inpenetration, while Unity was built fromthe beginning to make powerful,modern games.

If we want to change the future ofgaming on the web, we need to look tothe future of gaming on the web. Wedon’t think Flash is the future.

Unreal is a great, powerful tool likeUnity. Just look at the level of gamesbeing made with it. But it can’t handlethe web and cross-platformdevelopment we are focusing on, andquite frankly, the licensing terms arereally expensive for an indie like us.

It’s no secret we favour Unity forthese reasons and more.

Do you have any tips on how to getexposure for your game or how toreach new audiences?Make an original game, and polish it.Gamers, despite their cynicism, are themost engaged and adventurousaudience around. If you makesomething good, they will give you achance. I’m not sure why so manypeople choose to clone games they’veseen countless times before. Don’t sellyourself short. Pretend you’re buildingthe next franchise. If you only had onechance to make a game ever, even ifit’s just in your spare time (actually,especially if it’s in your spare time),what game would you make? Make that game. That will go milesfurther than any marketing you can do.Also, good trailers are really worth it –chances are high the trailer is wherethe potential player will be making ago or no-go decision.

Anything else about Unity that you’dlike to share?Unity makes a lot of what we dopossible – rapid prototyping anddevelopment, 3D on the web, cross-platform deployment. But Unity alone,cannot change the end consumer’smind. It’s up to us developers to showpeople what the tool is capable of.Content sells the platform, and it’sgoing to take all of us to change theface of online gaming.

INTERVIEW: AUSTIN LANE AND BRIANKEHRER, CO-FOUNDERS OF MUSE GAMES


PEOPLE: Jamie Macdonald

hired asCodmasters VP

p58

TOOLS: Brammall andJackson joinUnity Tech

p60

SERVICES: Havok vet Crigler

joins ImageMetrics

p62

The world’s premier listing of games development studios, tools, outsourcing specialists, services and courses…

KEY CONTACTS

STUDIOSEpic Games +1 919 870 1516

Stainless Games [email protected]

TOOLSBlitz Games Studios +44 (0) 1926 880 000

bluegfx +44 (0) 1483 467 200

Dolby +44 (0) 1793 842 922

Fork Particle 1(925) 417 1785

SERVICESAmiqus www.amiqus.com

Elitest 0121 706 0463

Brand Protect +44 (0) 1869 346160

Partnertrans +44 (0) 1273 229030

Testronic Labs +44 (0) 1753 653 722

Universally Speaking +44 (0) 1480 210 621

COURSESFutureworks +44 (0)161 237 7570

University of Hull +44 (0) 1482 465 951

RATES1/4 page: £450 (or £200/month if bookedfor a minimum of six months)

[email protected]

T: 01992 535 647

studios

58 | JUNE 2010

Studio News

Moving on up

This month: Gusto, Codemasters, Tango & Port Plexus

GUSTO GAMES EXPANDSOxfordshire-based inde studioGusto Games has recruited 11 newmembers of staff to reinforce itsestablished development team.

“This year will see the release offour console and PC titles, whichwill be a remarkableaccomplishment for Gusto. Wehave managed to attract someawesome talent to the studioenabling us to complete all of our2010 titles on schedule, as well asbegin development on those earmarked for 2011,” said Gusto development directorSteve Archer.

“Our reputation for delivering quality titles on time and to budget strengthens ouraptitude for expansion and therefore to meet the demand of new opportunities as theyare presented to us,” he added.

From left to right are: producer Matt Molloy; animators Seb Kalemba, Dean Jamesand Sam Bickley; programmers Pawel Karczmarczuk and Rafael Solorzano; artists StuartHansell, Matt Minnitt, James Catterson, Seb Squires and Ritchie Moore.www.gustogames.com

CODEMASTERS SIGN MACDONALD Jamie Macdonald, former SCEE WWSVP, has been hired as the newCodemasters senior vice president ofproduction following investment inthe studio from Reliance BigEntertainment.

The move represents part of whatCodemasters is calling the “building[of a] strategic focus of a futureportfolio” for the firm, starting with a“strengthening of the Codemastersstudio leadership”.

Macdonald said he was honouredto be joining a studio ofCodemasters standing.

“This is an incredibly exciting timeto become part of the Codemastersfamily and I am relishing theopportunity to work across the company’s globally appealing content on multipleplatforms while exploring new delivery methods and revenue models,” he said.www.codemasters.co.uk

NISHIKAWA LEAVES PLATINUM, JOINS TANGOPlatinum Games is set to lose one of its three foundersto a new studio headed up by Shinji Mikami.

Shigenori Nishikawa will depart from the Osaka-based studio that built Bayonetta and MadWorld, andwill likely relocate 250 miles east as he gets set to workat the brand new Tokyo-based outfit Tango.

Tango is headed up by Japanese game designerShinji Mikami, who hopes to see his studio to growaggressively and plans to see its workforce reach 100people within seven years of opening.

Nishikawa has previously worked with Mikami onprojects as high-profile as Resident Evil 4.http://mikami-project.com/

Our monthly focus on a rising development star

Thompson has worked as director of Dreamforge Software and assoftware engineering manager at MicroProse UK, as well asspending time at Codemasters and Simergy. He joined Jagex fiveyears ago, starting out as a programmer and moving on to becomehead of core technologies before his most recent promotion to CTO.

HEIN APPOINTED PORT PLEXUS COOFormer Bigpoint chief games officer Marko Heinhas joined Port Plexus as COO. The Germancompany specialises in the design andproduction of special edition and press editiongames, including those with elaborate packagingand limited runs.

Hein, who has also held senior positions withTHQ, Nintendo and Koch, is now charged withdriving the expansion of Port Plexus’ internationalbusiness and increasing the Schwarmstedt-basedfirm’s future activities in the video game segment.

“The strategic and international expansion ofPort Plexus will be an integral part of thedevelopment of the company within the nextyears” says Port Plexus CEO Michael Jadischke.www.portplexus.com

brought to you by…

Nick Thompson,Moving on up Q&AChief Technical Officer, Jagex

What do you hope to achieve in yournew role as CTO at Jagex?For years now Jagex has lead the free-to-play MMOG market with it’sinnovative browser based technology.From the player’s point-of-view whatthey see is a game that starts up rapidlyand scales to give them the bestplaying experience. In fact, what goeson behind the scenes is very complex.Our game worlds, server/clienttechnology and thin client delivery areall hand crafted with great love andcare. Competition in the market isalways increasing so I am focused onevolving and improving our existingplatform to take it forward to evenbigger and better things whilst alsolooking for new directions and uses forour technology.

Where would you like to be in fiveyears?Jagex has ambitious plans to broadenit’s market penetration and I’m excitedabout being part of that. We are in anage where technology holds untoldpossibilities to entertain and to change

our lives. In five years time I will havehelped steer Jagex to greater thingsand will have persuaded the board thata research office in Monaco is really agood idea.

What excites you about the videogames industry and why?From the time I got my first SinclairSpectrum 48k computer I knew what Iwanted to do as a career. To mecomputers are pure magic with infinitepossibilities and being able to tamethem to entertain people is what I loveto do. The diversity and penetration ofgames has never been greater and it’snot going to end any time soon

What advice would you have forpeople hoping to emulate yoursuccess?Work is not work at all if it’s somethingyou are truly passionate about. Findyour passion, pursue it for more yearsthan you have fingers and toes and benice to people along the way, younever know where or when you mightmeet them again.

WWW.DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET JUNE 2010 | 59

studios

Stainless Games [email protected] www.stainlessgames.com

Epic +1-919-870-1516 www.epicgames.com

Develop Magazine 01992 535647 www.develop-online.net

GREAT ADVERTISINGOPPORTUNITIES

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Tel: 01992 535647

SpotlightStudio

IMAGINATION STUDIOSArea of expertise: ArtOutsourcingImagination Studios is a Sweden-basedart outsourcing studio specialising inproviding art assets and mo-capanimation to the video game andentertainment industries.

The company provides motioncapture of body, face, eye or fullperformance capture as needed withmultiple actors.

Imangiantion works with projects atevery stage of the art pipeline.

Motion capture is performed in ashoot space measuring 8x14x5 meters,allowing over ten actors to worksimultaneously (up to five in highquality real-time), supported by instantplayback, shoot crew, extensive propinventory, database management and

precise reference material. A seperate sound

recording, facial and“vocap” studio is fullyequipped forperformance capture andscalable facial capturewith anything from 50 to 200 markers.

Finally, a fully equipped animationstudio is available with experiencedtrackers, editors and animators.

Imagination has worked on titles likeDICE’s Battlefield: Bad Company 2, EA’sMirror’s Edge, Capcom’s BionicCommando and Remedy’s Alan Wake.

CONTACT:Kungsgatan 30,S-753 11 UppsalaSWEDEN

Phone: +46 (0) 18 - 10 6930Email: [email protected]: www.imaginationstudios.com

60 | JUNE 2010

tools

Engine studio Unity Technologies has boosted its teamwith two key hires. Former Autodesk European salesmanager Andrew Brammall and one-timeGarageGames director of licensing Davey Jacksonjoined as regional sales directors for Europe and NorthAmerica respectively.

“I’m delighted to be joining the Unity team at suchan exciting time in the company’s history,” enthusedBrammall (right). “I’ve been an admirer for a while, andthe combination of cool technology, bright people andan amazing community of users is remarkable.”

“Unity has shown a tremendous commitment todevelopers by creating powerful, accessibletechnology and providing paths for developers tosucceed in emerging game markets,” added Jackson.“I’m happy to be joining the company. The broadadoption of Unity in these markets is helping everyoneparticipate in this growth.”

The pair take on their new roles as Unity 3’s releasedraws near. Brammall brings additional experiencehaving held sales positions at Kynogon SA and Havok,while Jackson can call on his five years growing annualrevenues and building relationships with a range ofeducation, simulation and console developmentclients.

“Unity has grown beyond expectations. We areamazed at how it is being used by ad agencies,educational institutions and game developers,” saidDavid Helgason, chief executive officer of Unity.

Brammall will work in Unity’s UK office in Crawley,while Jackson is to work out of the San Francisco HQ.www.unity3d.com

Blitz Games Studios 01926 880000 www.BlitzGamesStudios.com

Industry vets signed by Unity

bluegfx 01483 467200 www.bluegfx.com

Tools News

WWW.DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET

tools

SpotlightTool

FMOD DESIGNER 2010

Australia-based middleware studioFirelight Technologies has released ofthe FMOD Designer 2010 tools bundle.

The sound design tool is free to usewith any FMOD licensed project, as wellas for students, teachers and non-commercial projects.

Features include an improvedinterface with upgraded layout andworkflow enhancements intended tomake creating game audio easier andfaster. Unreal Engine 3 integration isfeatured, as well as integration withCryEngine, Unity, BigWorld, VisionEngine and Scaleform engines.

Firelight said that the bulk editor alsosupports most commonly usedproperties and provides a graphicalinterface for each; volume and volumerandomization, pitch and pitchrandomisation, reverb wet and drylevels, fad in and out, minimum andmaximum distance, rolloff curve andplayback behavior.

A new graphicalbulk editor isincluded, whichFirelight say wasdeveloped incollaboration withseveral of their users.

A multi-trackeditor is alsoincluded, whichFirelight say allows for the creation oflayerd sound effects. This editor is set toalso support the DSP effects built intothe FMOD Ex API. DSP effects includelowpass and highpass; delay, flange andchorus; tremolo, distortion,normalisation; parametric EQ, ptch shift,compression and reverb.

As well as this, the firm say that aI3DL2 compatible reverb effect built intothe FMOD Ex API allows for the creationof reverbs for all game environmentswith 26 reverb presets that can besimply mixed and matched.

An FMOD live profiler is also included,which Firelight allows developers tomonitor audio levels, performance, andresource usage live. It provides a livevisual representation of both CPU andmemory usage as the game is played, aswell as displaying the DSP routing withinthe FMOD Ex sound engine.

Sound banks are included in FMODDesigner 2010 which break up gameaudio into groups, with the intention ofsaving on memory space. The bundlealso supports several audio formatstandards; PCM; ADPCM, GCADPCM;MP2, MP 3; CELT, XMA and VAG.

FMOD Designer 2010 also supportsWindows, Mac, Linux, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2,

PSP, PS3, iPhone &iPad. Firelight saythe kit can createand managecontent formultiple platformsand markets withina single project.

“For FMODDesigner 2010 wehave worked

collaboratively with our users to developmany interface improvements andworkflow enhancements. We’ve alsoadded in a ‘visual bulk editor’ – it’s verysexy and it will make working with largeprojects much, much easier,” said theFMOD Designer 2010 lead programmerRaymond Biggs.

CONTACT:Firelight TechnologiesLevel 12, 2-26 Elizabeth St.Melbourne 3000Victoria, Australia

E: [email protected]: www.fmod.org

JUNE 2010 | 61

Dolby 01793 842922 [email protected]

TECHNOLOGY TYPE: AUDIO

Fork Particle 1(925) 417 1785 www.forkparticle.com

62 | JUNE 2010

services

Services News

Kevin Dekoninck has joined AmiqusGames, the award-winning video gamesindustry recuiter, as a games resourcer.He will be working from the firm’s HQ inWarrington, UK.

Dekoninck is a French-speakingrecruiter who will be assisting andsupporting the senior management ofAmiqus with the day to day recruitingfor key accounts and talent in the gamesindustry across the UK, Europe, Canadaand the United States.

Dekoninck will also be advisingindividuals with career moves in thetechnology industries and assisting withthe new Amiqus Games website.

“I enjoy helping our clients withinterviews and making sure they go infully prepared,” Dekoninck said.www.amiqus.com

High profile facial animation studio ImageMetrics has appointed former Havok andCriterion man Michael Crigler as its new vicepresident of North America sales.

Having spent 10 years with his previousemployer, Crigler is now charged withoverseeing Image Metrics’ regional salesdirectors, sales operations and customerrelations staff.

"Michael is perfect to lead our sales effortgiven his experience with developers asthey adopt technology-based solutions likerendering, animation, physics, AI and audio,"said Image Metrics EVP Brian Waddle.

“Throughout my career, I’ve been focusedon working with companies that providesolutions for tough challenges in gamedevelopment, which makes Image Metrics aperfect fit for my expertise,” added Crigler.

“Given the difficultly of creatingbelievable faces in games on time and onbudget, I’m excited to join Image Metrics tohelp game developers learn about how the company’s solutions can solve their facialanimation challenges and tell better stories through compelling characters.”www.image-metrics.com

Facial animation firm CubicMotion has appointed EricPeterson as the firm’s consultant.

The move sees Petersonleaving rival firm Image Metrics.

Peterson explained his moveby praising his new employer.

“Cubic’s strength comes fromtheir Ph.D. team’s ability toevaluate the best technicalapproach on a project-by- projectbasis,” he said.

“The company is run byexperts in performance-drivenanimation, an important field toour industry.

“They build custom pipelinesin days with great results ateconomical prices, helping totransform the outlook fordevelopers considering top-quality facial animation.”www.cubicmotion.com

This month: New faces at AmiqusGames, Image Metrics

Amiqus www.amiqus.com

Elitest 0121 706 0463 www.elitest.co.uk

WWW.DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET JUNE 2010 | 63

servicesPartnertrans +44 (0) 1273 229030 www.partnertrans.com

Testronic Labs +44 (0) 1753 653 722 www.testronic labs.com

Brand Protect +44 (0) 1869 346160 www.bptm.co.uk

Specialist Games ServicesLocalisation

» Global network of games specialised linguists » Translators to cover all genres of games

» All languages covered» In game, scripts, paper parts and marketing translations

Quality Assurance» All platforms (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, PC and Mobile)

» Localisation QA» Compliance checks for TRC, TCR and LOT approval

» Functionality QA

Audio» Voice overs across all languages

» Full casting service» Pre and post production including lip synching

» Highly experienced voice directors and engineers

Universally SpeakingPriory Chambers, Priory Lane, St Neots, Cambs., PE19 2BH, UK

Tel: +44 (0)1480 210621 [email protected] www.usspeaking.com

Universally Speaking 01480 210621 www.usspeaking.com

courses

Search for a Star – the new nationwide competition designed to highlight and rewardthe UK’s most promising video games developers – has progressed towards the finalstage. 150 Graduates from 35 Universities were nominated for this year’s award.

The first stage saw those graduates battle with a series of technical questions underexam conditions. The top 10 per cent then progressed to Round 2, a coding project setby Relentless Software.

Five were selected from this stage, Dave Buckley of Huddersfield University, HazelMcKendrick of Abertay University, Henry Golding of Derby University, Petrus Botha ofQueen’s University Belfast and Robert Heywood of the University of Huddersfield.

These finalists will now face a panel interview in a few weeks time with industryprofessionals including Relentless HR manager Sarah Maynard and Senior ProgrammerLizzie Attwood.

The first two stages are identical to the recruitment procedure followed by many UKstudios – so the grads that make it through have the technical skills and attributes tomake the step directly into the games industry.

The successful candidate from these interviews will go on to receive the Search for aStar Award at the Develop Conference 2010, held in Brighton from July 13th – 15th.www.aswift.com

Search for a Star reches final stagesTraining News Futureworks +44(0) 161 237 7570 www.futureworks.co.uk

The University of Hull +44(0) 1482 465951 www.mscgames.com

64 | JUNE 2010

Develop Magazine 01992 535647 www.develop-online.net

GREAT ADVERTISINGOPPORTUNITIES

CONTACT: [email protected]

Tel: 01992 535647

PublishedJuly 9th

BOOK NOWTo reserve your space in Sourcebook 2010 contact

[email protected] or call 01992 535647

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CODA

66 | JUNE 2010

JULY 2010WITH THIS ISSUE: Develop Awards Finalists Supplement

Region Focus: BrightonWe look at how the bohemian town is keeping at thevanguard of the UK’s dev industry

PLUSIssue has special distribution at July’s Develop Conference in Brighton

ISSUE OUT (PRINT & ONLINE):July 2nd, 2010

DEADLINE:Editorial: June 18th, 2010Advertising: June 21st, 2010

DEVELOP IN BRIGHTON

Region Focus: Brighton

Copy Deadline: June 18th

GDC Europe / Gamescom

Region Focus: Mainland Europe

Copy Deadline: July 23rd

AUDIO SPECIAL

Special Focus: Education/Training

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Regional Focus: Asia

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Coming soon in

AUGUST 2010Region Focus: Mainland EuropeDevelopers in the continent – including France, Spain, Italy,Germany, plus the Nordic regions, Russia and more – go underthe Develop microscope

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ISSUE OUT (PRINT & ONLINE):August 10th, 2010

DEADLINE:Editorial: July 23rd, 2010Advertising: July 16th, 2010

Documents

Develop - Issue 106 - June 2010