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

OCTOBER 2010 | #110 | £4 / e7 / $13WWW.DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET

PLUS

What makes Ken Levine tick?

Singapore spotlight

The secret formula that built Angry Birds

Epic’s Unreal Engine arms the studios looking to do battle on the App Store

CUTTINGEDGE

plus extreme games development • moshi monsters • introducing ukie • scaleform

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48 Dev106_final 20/5/10 17:20 Page 1

ALPHA05 – 11 > dev news from around the globeIan Livingstone leads NESTA and Sillset’s independent industry skills survey, wetalk to Moshi Monsters about being a UK online superstudio, and examine motioncontrol mega-hit Just Dance

14 – 21 > opinion and analysisNick Gibson on the pitfalls of 3D in social networking games, Billy Thomson looksat the proud history of Dundee development; David Braben dissects the real issues in pre-owned games and Ben Board discusses the Christmas crunch

BETA29 – 30 > rovio’s secretThe Angry Birds’ studio believes it has a magic formula for a surefire iPhone hit.Develop decided to try and find out what it was

32 – 35 > epic goes mobileHow will Epic’s Unreal Engine power the next generation of mobile gaming?

41 > singapore up closeThe wealthy city-state of Singapore is a rising star in international video games development, and its resident developers are proud of their achievements.

49 > interview: ken levineIrrational Games’ boss Ken Levine explains why he builds beautiful visions of extreme societies, blows them up, and then lets players in

BUILD56 > key release: cryengine 3.2Crytek director of global business development Carl Jones explains why theCryEngine is going 3D

64 – 65 > art: f-zero gxWe pull apart the art of a racing classic

66 – 67 > tutorial: xdgSilverball Studios explains its Extreme Game Development methodology

CODA80 – 82 > an offbeat look at the industryNick Clegg plays the Wii, the debut of the Devipedia, a look back 20 years in development time; and designer Jane Jensen answers our FAQ

ContentsDEVELOP ISSUE 110 OCTOBER 2010

71 – 79studios, tools, services and courses

29

08

32 36

2422

41

49

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DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET OCTOBER 2010 | 05

Livingstone seeks supportfor industry skills surveyNESTA and Skillset’s review aims to hammer home proof that games are a key UK employer for graduate talent

Eidos life president IanLivingstone has made anappeal for developers to takepart in an ambitious skillssurvey that hopes to show themassive value of gamesindustry employment.

The independent Review ofSkill for the Video GamesIndustry is being handled byNESTA in collaboration withSkillset, and has beendesigned to position thesector as a valued employerand hotbed for gamesproduction talent.

The initiative sets out notjust to engage with theGovernment, but also withteachers, parents and youngpeople, with the ultimate goalof raising the visibility of theUK industry on the globalstage, and establishing thecountry as a destination forgraduates and talent.

“If we are going to convince[the Government and public]to change the way oureducation system operates, weneed to make as robust a caseas we can,” said Livingstone inan open letter to the gamesindustry published exclusivelyon www.develop-online.net.

“In order to achieve this,” headded, “we have tasked ourteam at NESTA with anambitious programme to get

under the skin of the problem,and to gather a robustevidence base on the whole ofthe talent pipeline, fromschools and into universitiesand the industry.”

Following a request fromCulture Minister Ed Vaizey, thereview hopes to attract inputfrom every facet of the UKgames industry, includingemployers and staff. Whileemployers are to be contacteddirectly by Livingstone, those

employed can visit the officialsurvey websiteskillsforgames.com. It is hopedthat those developers currentlyout of work will also becontributing, so as to representas broad a range of sectorvoices as possible.

“We will be reporting in theNew Year,” confirmedLivingstone in his letter.

“Until then, we will beworking hard to deliver ablueprint for change in the

UK’s educational system, sothat our companies can accessthe kind of talent they need tostay on top, creatively andcommercially. Please help usto accomplish this with yourparticipation in our surveys.

If successful in its goals, thesurvey could do much tocounter the famed ‘brain drain’drawing UK talent away tointernational hubs of the likesof Canada.www.skillsforgames.com

ADVENTURES IN GAMES DEVELOPMENT: NEWS, VIEWS & MORE

“A lot of people don’t realise justhow many studios have been

formed in Dundee over the years.” Billy Thomson, Ruffian Games, p14

Anatomy of a

BlockbusterNews, p8

Business lawexplained by

Salans LLPNews, p21

Excitementbuilds forLGC 2010

News, p24

by Will Freeman

We will beworking

hard to deliver ablueprintfor change.

Ian Livingstone

05 Dev110_final 23/9/10 16:21 Page 1

06 | OCTOBER 2010

ALPHA | NEWS

THERE’S A LOT of talk amongst developers about thehaven of self-publishing and how it will lead to thedestruction of cash rich publishers. It’s easy to see why –online distribution platforms have helped a number ofstudios realise that long-held dream of getting a game tomarket on your own.

But a lot this talk is complete guff.Yes, the new routes to market have blossomed like a

flower, but that hasn’t necessarily meant the publishershave gone away. If anything, they’ve muscled into thesemarkets quicker than even the nimblest studios.

Just look at Xbox Live Arcade: already a controlledsystem thanks to Microsoft’s role as gatekeeper, it is nowovercrowded and densely packed with games that werenannied into existence by publishers. It’s so busy Microsoftis having to create crude promotions like ‘Summer ofArcade’ and ‘Game Feast’ that highlight the better games –and all the while Xbox Live Indie Games exists as somekind of ghetto to keep the microteams at bay.

And the App Store? It’s a beacon of creativity and amegaphone sputtering out a white noise of apps. Thedesigns of a company like Epic on that space will onlyenhance that.

It’s the same across physical and the more open onlinePC sales channels, too. Distribution, whether digital orphysical, becomes more complicated and naturally (orunnaturally, depending on your point of view) favoursbig spenders.

So I can’t think of anything worse than companies tryingto shut themselves off from the potential partners undertheir noses (some rich in knowledge, some just rich, someboth), and trying to go it alone. It’s a recipe for disaster.

Even the companies that have made it through ontheir own know that doesn’t always make sense. MoshiMonsters, for instance, acknowledges that it can’t build aDS team in house for its console play, but will work witha partner. Or Ninja Theory (p21) – a studio which haslong talked up its ambition to own its own IP but hasn’tever managed to forge the deal to do so.

It’s blasphemy to say it, but development doesn’t alwayshave to be about pioneering on your own – sometimesthe best stuff comes from collaboration, not obliteration.

Editorial

Michael Frenchmichael.french@intentmedia.co.uk

Stop. Collaborate. Listen.

THE COLLAPSE OF RealtimeWorlds may have cast doubtover the UK’s ability to buildonline games businesses –but British firms can bepioneers on the digitalfrontier, says London studioMind Candy.

And it’s got the stats toprove it.

The studio is responsiblefor kids’ virtual pet and onlinegame Moshi Monsters, one ofthe fastest growing sites inthe world. In just two years ithas secured over 27m usersfrom ages four up to 14 in theUK, USA and Australia/NZ.

Mind Candy’s in-houseresearch claims 1 in 3 UKchildren have designed theirown character in-game.

The stats came as the firmrevealed an aggressive planto further boost its businessby co-producing books andother merchandise based onthe Moshi brand, and self-

funding a move intopublishing games forNintendo DS and 3DS.

Moshi will become “one ofthe biggest entertainmentproperties in the world” saidCEO Michael Acton Smith –while at the same timechanging perceptions aboutthe entrepreneurial power ofBritish game studios.

“We’re taking the fight toSilicon Valley,” he told Develop,adding that by moving into itsown books and consolegames the firm is “disrupting alot of industries – games, toys,licensing”.

Smith specifically wants toprove Moshi Monsters’ youngaudience that games are stillan exciting business, andinspire the potential gamesbusiness men of tomorrow.

“I have spoken at a numberof schools since Moshibecame so popular and thinkthere is a real case to bemade about educatingchildren about being an

entrepreneur, and having a career doing somethingyou are passionate about, like games.

“We need more rolemodels for the businessmenof tomorrow – at themoment we have RichardBranson and a few Dragons.That’s not good enough.”

Smith also said that the UKneeds to develop a healthierattitude to the ups anddowns of business – and startcourting a more proactiveinvestment community likethe one found in the US.

“There’s a different culturein the US,” he said. “There aredifferent circumstances thatunfortunately mean overhere the new IP, the goodnew IP, doesn’t always bubbleto the surface.

“And also in the UK thefailure culture is so different.In America if you form acompany, and it fails or itsproduct doesn’t work, thenyou move on, without shame.

‘We’re taking the You don’t need to be an American media giant to create the world’s

by Michael French

06-07 Dev110_final 24/9/10 15:36 Page 1

DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET

NEWS | ALPHA

“Failure is no big deal. TheAmerican Dream is to try andtry again to achieve yourgoal. In the UK, doing that isalmost taboo.”

It’s a telling remark whenthe UK development scene isstill reeling from the collapseof Dundee outfit RealtimeWorlds, which burnt throughover $100m investor cash inthe road to build itsambitious MMO APB, wentinto administration less thantwo months after the much-delayed game finally made itonto the market.

Smith said that suchnightmare stories don’t helpinvestor confidence – andwere a warning for everydeveloper out there.

“Hindsight is a great thingwhen commenting onsomething as sad as theRealtime Worlds situation –but I think it’s clear thatoverspending and a delay inrelease is the pitfall for onlinegames. You do yourself lots of

favours if you release quickand early and refine alongthe way. Investors like thatthese days.”

Smith is all too familiarwith investor reluctance.Mind Candy built the Moshiempire with just the $1m leftover from the firm’s over-ambitious Perplex Cityalternate-reality game – andnext to no support from thetraditional games industry.

“For us if we had no cashleft after Perplex City wewould have been laughedaway for good,” said Smith.

“We have felt a bit unlovedby the games industry – butin the last 12 monthssomething has changed, andI think it’s clear the industry isapproaching online muchmore head on and openly.

“But I guess they’re goingto do that when a companylike Zynga can appear out ofnowhere and make $100mdollars very quickly.”www.mindcandy.com

fight to Silicon Valley’ most popular online games properties – just ask London studio Mind Candy

Mind Candy is shying away from workingwith a traditional publisher as it turns toproducing its own DS games.

The firm had originally pursued atraditional licensing deal with a publisher– “but the model didn’t look right to us”.

“We saw the success of Club Penguinand thought Why not? We’re not going tospend years doing it, we think we can do itrelatively quickly.

“Initially we spoke to publishers. But westarted to rethink it when we saw thenumbers. It wasn’t worth our while tolicence it out. Instead we can publish itourselves, and find a distributor who cantake a small cut, and have much morecontrol over the product – and much moreinput in its creation.

“We want to really be a part of makingMoshi work on DS – it’s a reallyimportant format to our young players;the most asked question they put to us

is ‘When is the DS game coming out?’“And why farm that out to a

publisher when we are alreadyexperts in marketing and have

lots of game developmentexperience already?”

Instead, Mind Candy wantsto closely manage andcontrol the production of thegame itself, and make itconsistent with the onlineworld, so that the portablegame links back to it throughoffline play.

“We want something really decent that is linked closely to the Moshisite – and Pokémon is theobvious comparison to thekind of market we want toappeal to.”

POCKETMONSTERS

OCTOBER 2010 | 07

Mind Candy is preparing to expand itsonline game with anumber of goodies soldat retail, such as thisgift packWe need more business

role models for the studios of tomorrow – at themoment we have Richard Bransonand a few Dragons. That’snot good enough.

Michael Acton Smith

06-07 Dev110_final 24/9/10 15:36 Page 2

THE SENSATIONAt a time when the public and media were obsessedby Modern Warfare 2, few were paying mind to JustDance. Placed at 100 in the All Formats sales charts inits first week of release, it looked like something of anon-event for developer Ubisoft Paris.

Then, something happened, and within six weeks ithad taken the number three slot, and was showingno signs of stopping. A bat of the eyelid, and JustDance did the unthinkable, and stole the number onespot from Infinity Ward’s giant of hype and marketingspend. Modern Warfare 2 had met its match – and ithappened on the dancefloor.

THE GAMEA Wii exclusive, Just Dance has become a stalwartgame for the competitive post-pub clique. Itsconcept is simple; it offers a collection of popularmusic new and old and turns the player’s entire bodyinto the rhythm action controller. The game actuallybegan life when its creative director Gregoire Spillmannspotted a minigame in a Raving Rabbids Wii releasethat he realised had potential as a full boxed title.

Something of prelude to Kinect and Move, JustDance has proved that with the rightimplementation, the Wii remote can deliversurprisingly accurate, convincing results.

It has also spawned a sequel, due out in the middleof this month.

THE STUDIOFounded in the capital of its parent company’s homenation, Ubisoft Paris is most famous for RaymanRaving Rabbids 2, Red Steel, Red Steel 2, and XIII. It iscurrently at work on the forthcoming MichaelJackson game for Wii.

UNIQUE SELLING POINTAt launch it wasn’t the first dance game, but while thelikes of Dance Dance Revolution required unfurling aplastic matt or trip to the arcade, Ubisoft’s effortsimply demands one Wii Remote per player. At a timewhen expensive peripherals were the last barrier toentry for rhythm action – Rock Band being a case inpoint – Just Dance offers an affordable, space savingalternative.

WHY IT WORKSFundamentally, Just Dance was a quality product welltargeted. Despite some observer’s assumptions thatmany Wii’s have been left to gather dust, and thefamily audience’s fate as the demographic relegatedto endure endless party game compendiums, UbisoftParis’ creation proved that with the right productthere was still a huge audience eager to buy games. Itwas no secret that Ubisoft was surprised by the game’s

success, and if anything Just Dance’s stealth attack onthe charts also proved the value of word of mouth.

It thrived because it made for good conversationthe following day. Gone are the days when non-gamers’ experiences with an arm-waving minigamingrelease hold much value as novel water coolercurrency, but “that night we all danced to Deee-lite’sGroove Is In The Heart and Simon fell over the sofa”;that’s going to get people down the shops in theirlunch break.

TRY IT YOURSELFDon’t patronise the casual gamer. Their penchant foraccessibility and family friendly chuckles doesn’tmean they don’t have taste and standards. Justbecause they haven’t played Psychonauts and Rezdoesn’t imply they can’t spot a Wii Sports clone in an instant.

They crave laughter, and the fact is that the sameold jokes wear thin fast. They also want novelty, butthat doesn’t mean you need to obsess over originality.Just give them what they want to do in a new way.

It’s no more a coincidence that Just Dancetriumphed at a time when dance acts weredominating TV talent shows than it is that the life of adancer is an aspirational one at present. There’s awealth of desirable lifestyles and activities out therethat wouldn’t ask too much of the consumer lookingto play out their day dreams in the living room, andmany of them remain largely untouched by developers.It’s a fact ’movie karaoke’ title Yoostar 2 – which letsplayer talk along with favourite scenes – is banking on.

Finally, look to your back catalogue, and bear inmind that Spillmann’s observation about RavingRabbids was the spark that lead to the moment JustDance toppled the mighty Modern Warfare 2.

08 | OCTOBER 2010

ALPHA | NEWS ANALYSIS

ANATOMY OF A BLOCKBUSTERJust Dance

PUBLISHER: Ubisoft

STUDIO: Ubisoft Paris

FORMAT: Wii

PRICE: £29.99

www.ubisoftgroup.com

A new monthly dissection of a recent hit game...

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ALPHA | WORLDVIEW

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

10 | OCTOBER 2010

DEALS

USA/SOUTH KOREAAUTODESK SIGNS KOREANTOOLS DEALSAutodesk has signed two Kynapse licensingdeals with Korean firms MAIET Entertainmentand WeMade Entertainment for upcomingtitles from both studios.

“We needed a middleware solution for theUnreal Engine that provided efficient datageneration processing for path finding, solidAI for nonplayer characters and light run-timesearch costs,” said WeMade MD Joseph Ryu.

“Autodesk Kynapse AI middleware was theobvious choice.”

Autodesk VP Marc Stevens was enthusiasticabout the potential for many similar deal inthe future.

“Our middleware helps reducedevelopment time and costs by offeringsolutions to common run-time challengesand minimising redundant efforts. It alsoenables studios to deliver more compellinggames by allowing them to focus on whatmakes the game fun and unique,” he said.www.autodesk.com

CANADAKEY HIRES AT WARNER BROS.MONTREAL STUDIOEntertainment empire Warner Bros. addedtwo experienced industry professionals to itsgrowing start-up studio in Montreal.

WB Games Montreal will now be led bynew studio head Martin Carrier and executiveproducer Reid Schneider.

Warner Bros Interactive president MartinTremblay said he wants the new studio willemploy up to 300 staff. The group will bewoking on various projects based on the DCComics franchise.

“WB Games Montreal has begun to takeshape with many new hires and theappointments of gaming industry veteransMartin Carrier and Reid Schneider to lead thestudio,” said the firm’s development vicepresident Samantha Ryan.

“Martin and Reid both have all of theinteractive experience needed to lead theteam in making quality games utilising ourmajor properties. They will continue to buildup the team and are currently hiring manynew talented developers.”www.wbgames.com

FRANCEATARI APPOINTS NEWDEVELOPMENT SVPJohn Hayase has been appointed as the newSVP of Product Development at Atari,reporting directly to his employer andcompany CEO Jeff Lapin.

In his new role Hayase will focus on theoverseeing of Atari’s studio including LosAngeles, Cryptic Studios and Eden Games. Hewill also manage Atari’s upcoming slate oftitles including Test Drive Unlimited 2, TheUndergarden and Blade Kitten.

“John joins Atari during an essentialgrowth period in which we continue totransition our business toward the online

space while maintaining a focus on retail,”said CEO of Atari Jeff Lapin.

“His strong background leadingdevelopment teams to produce free-to-playMMOs, digital and retail console productswith some of the industry’s most respectedpublishers, will serve Atari very well as wemove forward.”www.atari.com

UKPITBULL ANNOUNCES DEBUTCONTRACTPitbull Studio Limited, the studio formed byRobert Troughton from the remains ofMidway Newcastle after it went intoinsolvency last summer, has announced itsfirst project.

The contract is for “a circus game using thenext-generation motion controllers”, whichPitbull says will utilise new technologydeveloped by the studio in-house.

“This project is allowing Pitbull to workwith some next-generation technology that,otherwise we wouldn’t have access to,” saidPitbull MD Troughton.

“We were awarded the project because ofthe level of expertise we have within thecompany – for something like this ourpartners, who we can’t reveal just yet, neededto be sure that they chose the right peoplefor the job.”

Pitbull’s first title is expected to be releasedearly next year.www.pitbullstudio.co.uk

NINJA THEORY GETS NEXT DMCGrowing UK independent studio Ninja Theory has signed a majornew deal with Capcom to develop the next Devil May Cry title.

The Cambridge-based outfit will continue to specialise inbuilding third-person action titles, with the DMC game followingdirectly on from Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and Heavenly Swordprojects. The former is §set to be released this month.

The deal means that in the last five years Ninja Theory has builtbusiness relationships with SCEE, Namco Bandai and now Capcom.

Yet, with the studio remaining independent of its publishers, thegroup is yet work on its own self-owned IP.

The deal continues Capcom’s collaborative operation withWestern developers, a ongoing policy brought to light when thepublisher’s star exec Keiji Inafune infamously claimed thatJapanese game development “is dead”.

The DMC project was described by Capcom as being a‘collaborative’ effort between the two groups.www.ninjatheory.com

Capcom is to buyBlue Castle Games.

Audio outsourcingfirm Media Mill hassigned a deal withThe CreativeAssembly forShogun 2: Total War.

PopCap has formeda partnership withpublisher NCsoft.

Emergent isbolstering its techworkforce bystriking a deal withinde studio Krome.

Epic Games ismodifying its UDKengine to includesupport for iOS andAndroid.

Codemasters hassigned anagreement withSega to bring itsGrid franchise toarcades.

CLARIFICATIONSPage 86 of the 2010Develop 100incorrectlyattributed MyFitness Coach(developed byUbisoft Barcelona)to Respondesign(#71 on theranking).

On page 31 ofDevelop #109, aninncorrect imagewas used for DanNeil of FreeStyleGames. He doesn’tlook like that at all.He looks muchmore like this:

10-11 Dev110_final 23/9/10 09:23 Page 1

DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET

WORLDVIEW | ALPHA

OCTOBER 2010 | 11

SAY WHAT?!FOR THE LATEST NEWS...

FINLANDRED LYNX MOVES INTOWIIWARE Finland based developer RedLynx is dippingits toes in Nintendo’s digital service, WiiWare.

The developer – which won fame for itsXBLA stunt title, Trials HD – is building asimilar side-scrolling physics-based racer forNintendo’s flagship home console.

The new game, entitled MotoHeroz, willfeature daily online competitions as well as alocal multiplayer.

“With this game, we are taking ourexpertise in downloadable content, addictivegameplay, and the racing genre, andadapting it to the strengths of the Wii,” saidAntti Ilvessuo, creative director of RedLynx.

“The result is a unique, appealing gamethat combines racing game thrills withplatformer charm,” he added.www.redlynx.com

UK/CHINABEAUTIFUL GAME PARTNERSWITH CHINESE STUDIOEidos’ Beautiful Game Studios is partneringwith a Chinese games operator in a new bidto make an impact in the Asian territory.

The Championship Manager team willexplore opportunities with China’s ShandaGames, looking at the best ways to introducethe football management brand into theAsian market.

“Football is hugely popular in China,especially the European teams, so we are

delighted to be partnering with one thebiggest entertainment companies in theworld to bring the Championship Managerbrand to Chinese gamers and football fans,”said Beautiful Game Studios general managerRoy Meredith.

He added that the studio has been“working closely with Eidos Shanghai, ourstudio in China, we have already commencedwork on a co-development project withShanda Games”.www.bgstudios.co.uk

NETHERLANDSGUERRILLA CO-FOUNDERSFORM NEW STUDIOThe two original co-founders of GuerrillaGames have reunited and formed a newstudio focused on online and digital games.

Martin de Ronde and Michiel Mol willspearhead their new studio, which they havenamed Vanguard Entertainment.

The studio is a merger of productioncompany Karami and PSN/XBLA developer W!Games – of which the pair had interests in.

De Ronde and Mol want the new studio towork between the social and traditionalconsole gaming spaces – two sectors that aremerging, the pair believe.

“Over the past few years, we have beenclosely following the rapid rise of socialnetwork games, browser based games andnew online business models associated withthese platforms,” said de Ronde.www.wgames.biz

BUNGIE BUILDING NEWPROPRIETARY ENGINEHalo studio Bungie is edging into production onnew internal tech for its next ten-year Activisionproject, the studio has confirmed.

Studio communications manager Brian Jarrardrevealed in an interview with Develop that thestudio will not be licensing a third-party engine todevelop its new game.

Instead Bungie will build new tech from theground up for its next ten-year franchise – one thatwill, presumably, weather the turbulence of anindustry shift to the next generation of consoles.

“I think it goes hand-in-hand with ourindependent spirit,” Jarrard said.

“Just like we don’t want to develop a game offsomeone else’s IP, we want to push our owntechnology in the same way. That’s going to be ourposition for the foreseeable future

“The new engine is actually in development, it’sin a stage where technically we’re still at the end ofa pre-production mode,” Jarrard said.

“But now that Reach is done the full weight ofour team is rolling into this engine project. Realwork is getting underway.”

Bungie’s workforce now stands at over 180 staff.www.bungie.net

HEAD TO WWW.DEVELOP-ONLINE.NETOur online resource features news, analysis and commentaryposted daily, and is available via the web, mobile, RSS and dailyemail and news alert blasts.

“It’s almost silly; wehave teams

perpetually recreatingthe wheel – working on

the same walkinganimations with every

new project.”

Mixamo’s newest advisory boardmember Ed Fries wants modern

methods of animation to change...

“I remember telling myagent before the

Disney meeting that Iknew they’re not goingto be interested in this

stuff.”

Warren Spector had some last-secondnerves before pitching Deus Ex to the

Disney group.

“It’s called a Wii. Youspell it W - I - I.

Nintendo make it.”

The Develop team sells the gaming lifestyle to an eager, if

slightly green, PR.

“We don’t need anymore Fart apps.”

Apple’s new App Store ReviewGuidelines now make quality control

rather clear.

10-11 Dev110_final 23/9/10 09:23 Page 2

12 Dev110_final 21/9/10 10:37 Page 1

INDUSTRY ANALYSISSPONSORED BY

DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET

OPINION | ALPHA

OCTOBER 2010 | 13

Many equate evolution in the gamemarket with a process of constanttechnological innovation and

improvement, but the reality is messier andimperfect. This month I’ll analyse the wisdomof companies planning to use 3D gameenvironments to solve what are seen as thedeficiencies of the largely 2D social and othercasual games markets.

I remember a phase back in the mid-90swhen I received a number of business plansfor companies claiming they wouldrevolutionise the internet with 3D web sites,3D shopping and so on. Whilst thetechnology was interesting, the plans werefundamentally flawed because 3D addednothing of value to end-users and indeedactually made the browsing and shoppingexperience more cumbersome, complicatedand annoying. Over the last year I haveexperienced déjà vu from a wave of businessplans claiming companies will revolutionisesocial network gaming and other forms ofcasual gaming with 3D technology and‘advanced’ 3D games. Whilst not as hopelessa concept as 3D e-commerce, the businessplans all fail in my eyes because they arepredicated on the erroneous belief that allgames markets are destined to evolvetowards high end gaming experiences,growing ever more sophisticated andtechnologically advanced.

TRUE BELIEVERSThis is a belief that is held almost exclusivelyby life-long hardcore developers who havewitnessed what they believe is an inevitableevolutionary process in the hardcore console, handheld and PC games habitats.‘Just imagine FarmVille, but with a propergames engine, decent graphics andexperienced games designers’ is the sort ofrefrain I have heard old-school gamesdevelopers say on more than one occasion.Likewise for casual download games such asDiner Dash and Cake Mania, never regardedas ‘real’ games by hardcore games developers due to their 2D VGA resolutiongraphics and simplistic designs. Such criticsare completely missing the point. Thesegames neither need, nor do their playerswant, sophisticated 3D graphics.

Over the last ten years, the casual PCdownload market has spawned dozens ofcompanies with turnovers in the tens of

millions of dollars and around half-a-dozenwith sales over $100m such as Real Arcadeand Big Fish Games. Despite the vast sumsgenerated by this market, a comparisonbetween today’s best selling games withthose of a decade ago would reveal onlymodest increases in gameplay depth andlittle more than minor cosmetic andfunctional user interface improvements. Thisis a market that is populated by older playersin their 30s and above, mainly women. Forthem, cute, clean and intuitive interfacescombined with fun gameplay are paramount.99 per cent of the best-sellers, as a result,remain to this day 2D and low-res.Developers continue to try 3D titles but these,with a tiny number of exceptions, flop. Notonly do they cost more to develop but theysell in significantly lower numbers comparedto 2D titles. I would wager that this statusquo will be the case in another decade.

Several large-scale surveys of socialnetwork gamers this year have quantifiedwhat the leading companies in the spacehave been saying anecdotally for the last 18months; that the core of the social networkgames market also comprises older, femaleplayers. One survey put the typical socialnetwork gamer at 43 and female. Just aswe’ve found in casual download games,these gamers have little interest in 3D,especially if playing a 3D game necessitates aplug-in or application installation. There isnot a single 3D Facebook title in the top 50games and none of the leading developershave 3D titles. This is not because there hasnot been a supply of them; dozens of Unityor other 3D-engine powered games havebeen released on social networks. It is simplybecause 2D and (isometric) 2.5D are perfectlysufficient. I am not suggesting that there will

never be demand for them (we believe thatthe younger and male gamer demographic isseriously under-served by social networkgames developers – but that is for anotherarticle), only that trying to tempt playersaway from cash cows such as FrontierVilleusing 3D is a fast-track to failure.

2D DEMOGRAPHICSThe other major demographic that is notsubject to graphical arms races is youngchildren. One of the first children’s virtualworlds was Disney’s Toontown, a cartoonmassively multi-player 3D environmentaimed at children under ten. Despite greatfanfare during its early years, Toontown waseclipsed by a later title, Club Penguin, thateschewed 3D for the most basic of 2D worldsdeveloped with a production budget afraction of that of Toontown.

Club Penguin triumphed because, not inspite, of its simplicity. Post mortems of failed3D virtual worlds targeting this age grouphave repeatedly revealed how youngchildren are easily confused locating objectsin and navigating around 3D environments.

So, the next time you look at a successful2D or 2.5D game and think, I can improvethis with proper 3D, take a close look at thegame’s user base and ask yourself whethertheir players actually want such a game.

You may well have the skills andtechnology to do cool-looking 3D but that isnot sufficient rationale for making it andcould lead to a painful lesson in Darwinianevolution. If you want to make a game for themass casual audience, invest instead increating something that is simple and fun.And 2D.

Above: Games likeFarmVille have little togain from a significantgraphical upgrade

3-Dimensional

Pitfalls

COMMENT: BUSINESS

You may well havethe skills and

technology to do cool-looking 3D, but that couldlead to a painful lesson inDarwinianevolution.

Nick 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

by Nick Gibson, Games Investor Consulting

13 Dev110_final 23/9/10 09:25 Page 1

DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET

Billy Thomson is the creative director of newly-formed developer RuffianGames. Billy has over 13 years experience of designing video games,including design roles on Grand Theft Auto and GTA2, before working aslead designer on Realtime Worlds' celebrated Crackdown.www.ruffiangames.com

14 | OCTOBER 2010

The City of Dundee has been the hub ofthe game development community inScotland for the past 20 years or so. It

could be argued that DMA Design started itall off, as it was the first of the games studiosin Dundee. DMA made a name for itself as asuccessful games development studio whichattracted a lot of big name publishers to takea look at the city to see if there were anyother talented people ready to set up astudio and make great games.

This paved the way for Visual Sciences – setup by ex-DMA employees – and VISEntertainment to start up studios and bringthe game development workforce in Dundeeto over 300 employees. For the past decadethe owners and employees from those threestudios have steadily influenced and grownthe game development community in theScottish city.

A lot of people don’t realise just how manystudios have been formed in Dundee overthe years. It’s a long list, considering Dundeeonly has a population of around 140,000.DMA Design 1988, Visual Sciences 1993, VISEntertainment 1996, Denki 2000, RealtimeWorlds 2002, Dynamo Games 2004, 4JStudios 2005, Tag Games, Proper Games andCohort Studios all 2006 and then there’s us,Ruffian Games 2008. I’m almost certain I’vemissed a good few off this list too, soapologies in advance.

DARK TIMESBased on this level of growth across anumber of different studios you would expectthe game development community inDundee to be thriving, but the past few yearshave seen a lot of these studios in theunenviable position where they have had torestructure, making a portion of theiremployees redundant to keep the studioalive. And others have not been quite solucky and had to completely close their doors,making their entire studio workforceredundant and then selling off their remainingassets to try to come out of the wholebusiness without accruing major debts.

The first to be affected was DMA Designwhen it had to make a section of its staffredundant back in 1998. The next to be hit bywas VIS Entertainment when it went intoadministration in 2005 and closed shortlyafterwards. Then it was the turn of VisualSciences which was no more by mid-2006.

More recently Denki had to make the vastmajority of its staff redundant in April 2010.And then RTW – the largest gamedevelopment studio in the history of Dundee– went into administration in August 2010.And incredibly only a few days later CohortStudios also had to make around half of itsstaff redundant. And while this must havebeen a terribly difficult decision, it at leastmade it early enough to ensure that thestudio avoided administration.

This reads like an entirely miserable courseof events, and when you’re in it yourself, it is.For some these closures were disastrous totheir personal lives, to others they presentedfantastic opportunities that may not havebeen obvious to them before. Over the pastfew weeks Dundee has seen the biggestpublishers on the planet send theirrecruitment teams to the city to talk to thehundreds of people who had been maderedundant and many of those guys now have

multiple job offers at fantastic studios.

POSITIVE THINKINGSo while it looks like a disaster there arenormally some positives that come fromthese unfortunate events. Some people willmove away to other studios outside Dundee,others will join the existing studios still doingwell in the city, and some will be luckyenough to start their own studios and see ifthey can make a success out of this fickleindustry. I also heard that Realtime Worldsmay have a speck of light at the end of thetunnel, with rumours flowing in aboutMyWorld being bought by Ian Hetherington –former chairman and chief strategy officer ofRealtime Worlds – and also the possibility ofAPB’s fantastic customisation tools beingworked into an already well known engineand franchise in the States. Admittedly bothof these are unconfirmed rumours, but manyof the negative rumours over the pastmonths have painfully turned out to be true.So I’ve got my fingers crossed that thesemore positive rumours also turn into fact.

The Dundee games developmentcommunity has taken a battering over theyears, but it always comes back stronger andI see no reason to believe that this trait willnot continue into the coming years.

The city of Dundee hasseen more than its fairshare of ups anddowns as far as thedevelopment industryis concerned

A newbeginning

COMMENT: DESIGN

The Dundee gamescommunity has

taken a battering over theyears, but it always comesback stronger and I’m surethat it will happenagain this time.

by Billy Thomson, Ruffian Games

INDUSTRY ANALYSISSPONSORED BY

ALPHA | OPINION

14 Dev110_final 23/9/10 09:26 Page 1

19 Dev110_final 13/9/10 10:02 Page 1

© 2010 The Codemasters Software Company Limited (“Codemasters”). “Codemasters” ® is a registered trademark owned by Codemasters. The Codemasters logo is a trademark of Codemasters. All Rights Reserved.

Southam [HQ] | Guildford | Birmingham

Be part of the big picture Recruiting in the UK

www.codemasters.com/jobstwitter.com/codemastersjobswww.facebook.com/codemastersjobs

Vacancies include:LEAD AUDIO DESIGNER: Birmingham EXPERIENCED AUDIO DESIGNER: Birmingham AUDIO PROGRAMMERS: Southam & BirminghamSENIOR AUDIO DESIGNER: Southam & Birmingham

67 Dev109_final 16/8/10 10:26 Page 1

INDUSTRY ANALYSISSPONSORED BY

DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET

OPINION | ALPHA

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 his next title,The Outsider. He is also closely involved with Skillset. www.frontier.co.uk

OCTOBER 2010 | 17

There have been all sorts of statementsabout so-called pre-owned games, andquite a lot of people spouting

hyperbole. To be honest I have been one ofthose people, but that doesn’t mean thereisn’t a truth to it.

We see more and more developers andpublishers speaking out against pre-owned,while more and more retailers – evensupermarkets now – are getting their wide-bore snouts deep into this trough. But, apartfrom speaking out, we are really doing verylittle about it.

Since I last wrote about it nearly a yearago, little has changed, other than my fear (aplethora of type-in codes and ‘memberships’)having largely come to pass. The deck issloping, the band is playing, and we areshouting and gesturing angrily to each otherabout the iceberg. One or two people arebuilding rafts, but no-one is plugging thehole. We’re all waiting for someone else tomove first.

If you don’t believe pre-owned is causing ahuge dent in our sales, then look at thefigures: In the US in 2008/2009 42 per cent ofGameStop’s profits (as the biggest specialistretailer in the US) came from pre-ownedgame sales, and gross profit on pre-ownedalone climbed to just under $1 billion. It is nowonder supermarkets and corner shops arejoining in the plunder.

We need to look at it sensibly – we need tothink not just of developers and publishers,but players and retailers too.

PLAYERSThere is a strong argument that players wantthe prices of games to come down, whichsounds obvious enough – and that iseffectively what pre-owned does, if youreturn the game after playing it. Ourfragmentary response to the problem, one-time codes and so on, is in danger ofreducing the incentive to keep them anyway,devaluing a collection if it is bound tonumerous different accounts and codes, withno certainty that in the future these codeswill continue to work.

RETAILERSHigh Street retailers were having a hard timeof it before they started with pre-owned –new games are rarely sold for anything close

to the RRP these days, going for not a greatdeal more than the trade price in some cases(especially online). So retailers’ margins arenow very slim on new games. This process ofmargin erosion is starting to happen to pre-owned too, and will increase as thesupermarkets get up to speed.

Such a decrease in the profit from pre-owned to retailers makes it less valuableto them, so may make them rather lessresistant to change.

It is not completely bleak; pre-owned does– effectively – put some money back on thetable, as the cost of goods is saved each timea game goes around the loop. Butfundamentally there is now less money to goaround as retailers have educated gamers tothink that a lower price is what they shouldexpect.

It would be possible for retailers to pay aslice of the pre-owned revenue to publishersand developers, but I can hear the callsalready: ‘Why should we?’ Perhaps they areright. The inaction of our industry so far hasessentially given them the go-ahead. Thereneeds to be a real likelihood of thingschanging imminently right across theindustry for any action to be taken.

ACTIONThere are six ways we can go:

1. Carry on with the array of ad-hoc one-time codes, online ‘passes’, DLC, to tilt playerstoward new purchases.

2. Introduction of cross-industry serialnumbering of discs. This shouldn’t mean thecomplete freezing out of pre-owned – itwould be up to developers and publishers

what to do – but it does give the option of awhole range of possibilities, including onescurrently covered by the one-time codes.

3. Industry participation in pre-ownedsales. This has to be with the retailers’agreement, but this may come, as long asthere is an upside to them, and that upsidecould be as part of holding off on the worseexcesses of (2).

4. Bring in ‘Not for Resale’ SKUs. Why isthere no parallel with DVD sales? It isbecause they do not allow resale or rental –and in fact have special ‘for rental’ SKUs at asignificanly greater price.

5. Make the discs just data discs costingsay, £5, perhaps containing an extendeddemo, but requiring online validation tobecome a full game (eg by withholding theexecutable file), even for the first user.

6. Move to online-only. This is where theretailers seem to want us to go after all, soperhaps it’s time to make the jump.

Whatever the tactic, let’s do somethingsoon, and stop all the shouting about theunjust iceberg.

Is it time to stop talkingabout pre-owned, andstart doing somethingabout it?

Is pre-owned going

to kill us?

COMMENT: INDUSTRY

by David Braben, Frontier Developments

The inaction of ourindustry so far has

essentially given retailersthe go-ahead. There needsto be a real likelihood ofthings changingimminently.

17 Dev110_final 23/9/10 09:27 Page 1

INDUSTRY ANALYSISSPONSORED BY

18 | OCTOBER 2010

ALPHA | OPINION

Christmas. Bodhi Day. Yule. Hanukkah.Festivus. Eid. Samhain. Winterval. SolInvictus. Kwanzaa. The Feast of Winter

Vale. It seems every culture has a ring aroundsome part of the winter calendar.

I don’t know how many of those festivalsfeature the giving and receiving of gifts butenough, it seems, to make that periodoverwhelmingly the focus of the year forpeople who make the things other peoplelike to unwrap. Even if your December 25th isjust a day that you can’t get a pint of milk, ifyou work in European games productionthere’s a pretty good chance that your late-summer days are long and hot for reasonsother than the position of the sun.

And it’s certainly frantic for us. We makethis sort of video games console, you see –the Xbox 360, as I think we’ve established –and you guys make games for it, using a fewhouse rules to encourage those games to bemade in a way that’s consistent, secure, legaland so on. And we ask to have a look at thegame when you’re done with it to make sureall is peachy. So come this time of year theCertification dept are up to their scalps insubmissions. Some of their compliance workis right now taking place in rows of ersatz,soundproofed living rooms in Slough, byburly Cert technicians wearing wigs anddresses. Now there’s taking one for the team.

FEELING FESTIVEThis holiday is Xbox 360’s sixth, and a littlecrunchier than usual, with the launches ofboth the Xbox Live-capable Windows Phone7, and Kinect, of course, just a month away.The preparations for the former included asoup-to-nuts upgrade of our submissionspipeline that’s just gone live in the form ofour new Game Developer Network portal,GDN, which replaces XDS, Xbox 360/Gamesfor Windows Live Central as-was.

Naturally the switch is going without ahitch. A hitchless switch, smooth as a baby’sbottom, hardly any wrinkles. Okay, somewrinkles, but the new system is a big stepforward in useability – a single portal forsubmitting and tracking content,development and publisher documentation,hardware ordering and the rest. If you’resubmitting in the next few months it’s wortha pre-emptive practice run now – lean onyour Account Management team for supportwhile you get to grips with it.

Who’s my Account Management team, yousay? As you’ll know if you follow this column,or are reading the hardbound stocking fillerCollected Writings Edition, Xbox is constantlyevolving. New technical developmentsenable new platform features for devs touse. New commercial initiatives createmoney-making opportunities for publishers.

The AM team is the interface between theplatform team and the rest of the ecosystem, making sure that evolutionhappens in partnership with the peoplemaking the games.

For those asleep at the back, I’m adeveloper account manager, and I work inXbox’s Third-Party Publishing group (3PP) inEurope. Charlie Skilbeck and new arrivalWilliam Leach complete the EMEA DAMteam, and our role is to be the conduitbetween Xbox and dev studios, available tohelp any Xbox developer trying to getsomething done on our platforms. So whilewe’re dev-facing and talk development andtech, our colleagues the AMs are the platformcontact point for publishers, and their focusis on commercial and strategic matters.

SWORN TO PROTECTEach publisher also has a marketing manageron the platform for any promotionalcollaborations, and the fourth corner of theXbox v-team for each title is your RM, orrelease manager. When you submit your titleto cert, or are planning to, they’re your contactpoint and the person from whom you’ll hearprogress reports; and just like QA leads theworld over, this time of year you can often findthem hidden inside a cloud of swearing.Contact gamesrep@microsoft.com to findyour AM team.

An unusually busy holiday season for youand us, then, but that’s no bad thing: It’s notoften you’re working on two platformreleases simultaneously, in addition to 360titles of ever-increasingly quality – indeed,some at a level where the rest of the crowdpart to make way. We’re even starting to seethose ripples extending further, with bigtitles once slated for a winter release movingto spring, where in turn they displace smallertitles into the summer. Meanwhile the scaleand cost of these ever-bigger blockbusters isencouraging some superb developers, longon experience but more modest of means, tofocus on digital games, where entertainmenttrumps extent. But whether it’s XBLA, IndieGames, retail blockbusters, controller-freegaming, or Live premium-quality mobilesnacks, not to mention the options on otherplatforms, I think the scale and breadth ofopportunities for devs large and small thisholiday season are better than ever.

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.

It’s the nightmarebefore Christmas fordevelopers – andCertification execseverywhere

Givinga DAM

COMMENT: TECHNOLOGY

by Ben Board, Microsoft

The DevelopAccount Manager

(DAM) team is the conduitbetween Xbox and studios.We help developers tryingto get things doneon our platforms.

18 Dev110_final 23/9/10 09:27 Page 1

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experience counts

world-leading developer of console and PC download games

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now recruiting: programmers and producers - see website for details

Xbox 360 | PS3 | DS | PSP | Wii | iPhone | iPad | PC | download | boxed productXbox 360 | PS3 | DS | PSP | Wii | iPhone | iPad | PC | download | boxed product

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20 Dev110_final 21/9/10 10:40 Page 1

Why do you think Capcom choseNinja Theory to work on one ofits biggest IPs?

I think there’s a few elements. Firstly we havea reputation within the fighting genre, andfor telling a compelling story with goodcinematography and believable characters.Those two things are key to telling the nextstory of Dante. I think there was a lot ofsynergy between us and Capcom – what theyare looking for is what we love doing.

This being your third big project, you’re stillnot producing a game from your own IP.[Laughs] True.

And the studio has in the past talked ofthe importance of owning IP.I think with Devil May Cry, [the deal] was agreat opportunity. It is a beloved franchiseand for us it was a very good fit – it’s all aboutthe things we love; high energy fighting andcool cinematics.

It was also a project that wasn’t an originalIP, which we’ve never tackled before. Thisdeal was of course a no-brainer for us.

Are you still pursuing projects where youown your IP, or does Ninja Theory need tocontinue on a work-for-hire basis?I think it’s more complicated than that. Ifyou’re owning your IP it is incredibly valuable.It’s something that we’re pursuing.

That being said, if someone else is fundinga project, then having key creative rightswithin that IP is also important, from abusiness perspective as well as a creativeperspective. If you’ve spent as many years ofyour life conceiving something new andexciting and it’s your baby and you want it tobe treated really well.

Do you want Ninja Theory to remain anindependent studio?You know what, it’s really fun being anindependent developer. It really is. We get tochoose our projects. We get to work on stuffwe like. There’s a really good vibe here.

I get the impression Capcom’s given youan uncommonly high amount of freedomwith the project. Is that so?Yes they have. Capcom came to us becausethey felt we could add something to thefranchise that hadn’t been seen before; thatsomething would reinvigorate it. But theyalso knew that we would also respect theDNA of Devil May Cry.

Capcom are a very empowering company.They have a very clear idea of what they wantto do, and they give us a lot of freedom totake the game’s vision forward.

I think we’re bringing a new look and feelto the franchise, because it’s important tohave the franchise appeal to a broaderaudience. Obviously the franchise has veryloyal fans.

Of course.[Laughs] And we hope that in due coursethat they would love what we’re doing too.We are respecting the true DNA of thefranchise. At its core, Devil May Cry is a high-octane fighting game that makes you feelvery, very cool.

That’s what we fundamentally need DevilMay Cry to be, but we’re brining it in to a

visualisation that is a little more down-to-earth, a little more urban and has more of ageneral western appeal. We’re also going tobe pushing on the storytelling aspect, andthe engagement with the characters.

What was Capcom’s response when youshowed them Ninja Theory’s originalconcepts for Dante?The concepts for Dante went through a lot ofdifferent iterations – they went all over theplace – we went really far out with some. Thefirst time we sent our initial concepts to

Capcom Japan, they said no, no you need topush it way further.

Because, obviously, Dante is a bigcharacter for Capcom, we stuck fairly close tothe original design template. But Japan saidwe needed to go much further, go crazy withit, and so we did.

Does it still matter to be an independentUK developer – or is the industry far toomuch a global enterprise for nationality tobe relevant?I think game development, absolutely,operates on the world stage.

I’m very pleased to be here in the UK. Thereis a huge amount of talent here. There isobviously the concern that a lot of of a lot ofthat talent is moving overseas to placeswhere it’s more economical to developgames, and I do think that is a problemgenerally for studios across the UK.

But I would also say that outside ofwhether the industry gets support for theGovernment – for the record I by and largedon’t approve of tax breaks, where ever theyare implemented.

Businesses should be profitable withouthaving to rely on the help of the state. Ifyou’re not profitable you shouldn’t really bein business.

Regardless of my personal opinion, I thinkthe UK industry now should get tax breaks –simply because it now is competing on aworld stage with other countries that do. TheUK is at a disadvantage and needs thatbalance addressed.www.ninjatheory.com

Better the Devil you don’tDante’s use of hair dye may have sparked an internet civil war, but Ninja Theory is still buzzing from taking control ofa vital Capcom IP. Development boss Nina Kristensen talks to rob Crossley the new deal, and the studio’s future...

INTERVIEW: NINJA THEORY | ALPHA

The concepts forDante went through

a lot of iterations. The firsttime we sent our initialconcepts to Capcom, theysaid ‘No, you need topush it way further’.

Nina Kristensen, Ninja Theory

Nina Kristensen (inset)and her colleagueshave benefitted from agreat deal of freedomwhen working withCapcom on DMC

OCTOBER 2010 | 08

21 Dev110_NEW_final 24/9/10 15:00 Page 1

ALPHA | EVENTS

THE MONTH AHEADA look at what October has in store for the industry and beyond…

OCTOBER 5TH TO 8TH:GDC Online takes a look atthe world of social, free-to-play and MMOs. And yes, ittakes place in the real world.

OCTOBER 8TH:The DevelopFootballChallengekicks off. A rarechance toboot yourrivals’ shinsand swearaggressivelyat yourcolleagues.

OCTOBER 10TH:World ConkerChampionships:proper old schoolgaming.

OCTOBER 14TH:The GamesMedia Awards.The video gamejournalists thatdeserve it getrecognised fortheir efforts

OCTOBER 15TH:Chart-toppinghardcore titleshave reason tobe nervous –Just Dance 2hits retail.

OCTOBER 20TH:The UKgovernment willdeliver thenews on itsSpendingReview. In other words, thedate to stop thinking abouttax breaks altogether.

OCTOBER 22ND:DJ Hero 2 gives a newwave of middle aged men intheir living rooms a chance toimpersonate middle agedmen playing in clubs.

OCTOBER 26TH:The Sims 3 finallymakes its outingon consoles. Wecan whip out thehackneyed term‘virtual doll’shouse’ again.

OCTOBER 29TH:Lionhead’s FableIII is set to seerelease, wrappingup an impressivelyswift (well, swift for Lionhead)devevelopment timeframe.

OCTOBER 29TH:Continuing a busy month forperipheral manufacturers,Rock Band 3 takes tothe stage. Put it upto eleven.

OCTOBER 31ST:The clocks goback (UK) atmidnight. Anextra hour in bed,unless you’re intesting,programming, orcrunch, in which caseyou get and extra hour at yourdesk.

OCTOBER 31ST:Halloween. A career

spent at a monitorfinally pays off,

as coders’ paleskin becomeschic – for onenight only.

NOVEMBER 4TH:The London

Games Conferencelooks at survival and profit in achanging industry, and is setto be damn insightful.

Sony Computer Entertainment isto deliver a special keynote atthe Develop in Liverpool

conference. The session will seesenior director Mick Hocking give anoverview of the past, present andfuture of stereoscopic 3D in games.

The session, titled ‘Seeing isBelieving: 3D a New Creative Mediumfor Games’, will be presented in full 3D.

Hocking, who heads up the WWSStereoscopic 3D team and is groupstudio director for Evolution Studios,SCE Studio Liverpool and BigBigStudios, told Develop: “My talk willemphasise that the success of the 3Dgames market depends on theavailability of high quality 3D games.In order to explain what I mean by‘high quality 3D’ I will look at casestudies of some of the 3D titles wehave created so far to demonstratewhat 3D looks like when it’s done well.

“I’ll also address some of some ofthe common pitfalls when

developing for 3D, how to avoid themand also the solutions that we haveused to solve some of the genrespecific challenges in convertingthese games to stereoscopic 3D.Examples will be given in full 3D sothat the audience can see liveexamples of good – and bad – 3D.”Hocking will also look at the potentialfor innovation with 3D games tech.

The keynote will kick off at 9.30amat the Odeon cinema in LiverpoolOne, just round the corner from theNew Hilton, where the rest of theconference is held.

Develop in Liverpool takes place onThursday November 25th at a venueyet to be confirmed.liverpool.develop-conference.com

SONY TO OUTLINE 3D VISION AT DEVELOP LIVERPOOLSCEWW’s senior director Mick Hocking to present conference keynote in full 3D

22 | OCTOBER 2010

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DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET

EVENTS | ALPHA

OCTOBER 2010 | 23

LONDON GAMES FESTIVALOctober 1st to November 4thLondon, Englandwww.londongamesfestival.co.uk

The London Games Festival is backfor its fourth year, with moreexciting events for both consumersand industry professionals alike.

Conceived as a culturalcelebration of everything gaming inthe UK - the series of events runs forover a month.

Spanning a number of keyLondon locations including TheBrompton Hall, BAFTA and ExcelLondon - the festival includesevents like the Eurogamer Expo,which brings together consumersand industry, the Golden JoystickAwards, the Lonon GamesConference and London MCM Expo.

More information can be foundon the event website.

DEVELOP DIARYEUROGAMER EXPO 2010October 1st to 3rdLondon, Englandexpo.eurogamer.net

LONDON GAMES FESTIVALOctober 1st to November 4thLondon, Englandwww.londongamesfestival.co.uk

GDC ONLINEOctober 5th to 8thAustin, Texas, USwww.gdconline.com

DEVELOP FOOTBALL CHALLENGEOctober 8thLondon , Englandwww.develop-online.net

PCR FOOTBALL CHALLENGEOctober 15thLondon , Englandwww.pcr-online.biz

CASUAL CONNECT KYIVOctober 21st to 23rdKyiv, Ukrainekyiv.casualconnect.org

LONDON GAMES CONFERENCENovember 4thLondon, Englandwww.develop-online.net

MONTREAL INT. GAMES SUMMITNovember 8th to 14thMontreal, Canadasijm.ca/2010

NEON 10November 8th to 14thDundee, Scotlandwww.northeastofnorth.com

UNITE 2010 CONFERENCENovember 10th to 12thOld Montreal, Canadaunity3d.com/unite

GAME CONNECTIONNovember 16th to 18thLyon, Francewww.game-connection.com/events

ME AWARDS 2010November 18thLondon, Englandwww.mobile-ent.biz

ITALIAN VIDEO GAME DEVELOPERSCONFERENCEDecember 3rdRome, Italywww.ivdconf.com

GDC CHINADecember 5th to 7thShanghai, Chinawww.gdcchina.com

EVOLVE IN LONDONNovember 8thLondon, Englandwww.evolveconference.com

MCV PUB QUIZDecember 9thLondon, Englandwww.mcvuk.com

october 2010 november 2010 december 2010

FOR THE LATEST EVENT NEWS...WWW.DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET/EVENTS/NETWORKINGOur online events guide features all the information needed topick the world’s best shows, and provides a detailed synopsis ofglobal conferences, regional gatherings and networking dates

Playfish CEO and co-founderKristian Segerstrale is tokeynote the Evolve conference,

which takes place in London for thefirst time this year.

Taking to the stage to deliver asession titled ‘Social gaming: After therevolution’, Segerstrale is set toaddress the challenges of trying tokeep pace with the world of socialgaming, and will offer advice for thoselooking to catch-up with a sector ofthe industry once viewed assomething of a curiosity.

Also confirmed to speak at theconference is ngmoco CEO NeilYoung, who will explore lessonslearned by the arrival of the iPhone.Under the heading ‘How what welearned on iPhone will change allgames forever’, Young will analysehow many of the predictions made

about the digitalrevolution weremisguided, andlook at what canbe learned.

Previously apopular track atthe BrightonDevelopConference, thisyear marksEvolve’s first appearance as an eventin its own right.

The day-long conference takesplace on December 8th at a centralLondon venue, and is aimed atproducers, designers, developers andother professionals involved in theexpanding crossover of TV, socialnetworking, mobile devices andconsoles.www.evolveconference.com

PLAYFISH CEOTO KEYNOTEEVOLVE’SLONDONDEBUTCasual and social event alsoset to welcome Ngmoco boss

Your complete games development event calendar for the months ahead…

22-23 Dev110_final 24/9/10 11:54 Page 2

LONDONCALLINGThe global London Games Conference will welcome luminaries from theindustry to talk new business models. Here’s our guide to the event...

24 | OCTOBER 2010

The London Games Conference has been made possible with support from its select sponsors. The event isbacked by platinum sponsor IGN, and gold sponsors The Hut, AGI, InComm, Multiplay and Virgin Gaming.

THIS YEARS’ LONDON Games Conferenceis bringing together some of the biggestnames from a host of innovativecompanies spanning the entire sector.

The event is set to examine thechallenges faced by an industry that isbeing driven more than ever before bydigital distribution, online play, socialnetworks and the concept of ‘games as aservice’.

This year, the conference’s theme is‘Survival And Profit In A ChangingIndustry’. The evening will be closed bythe Minister for Culture Ed Vaizey.

LONDON GAMES CONFERENCEDate: Thursday, November 4th, 2010

Time: 5pm – 8pm

Venue: BAFTA, Piccadilly, London

Passes: £269 + VAT(contact Jodie.Holdway@intentmedia.co.uk)Telephone +44 (0)1992 535 647

www.londongamesfestival.co.uk

WHAT’S ONPhil Harrison is set chair a panel starring ShujiUtsumi of Q Entertainment, Ben Cousins ofEasy (EA), Kristian Segerstarle of Playfish andFloris Jans Cuypers of Spil Games. Thediscussion will explore how the industry isevolving as a result of the rise of web, socialand mobile gaming, and address theemergence of cloud technologies. The panelwill also take an in depth look at theexperiences of these successful companies, asthose on the stage examine overall markettrends and potential futures.

In a separate session Develop and MCVeditor-in-chief Michael French will discuss newroutes to market and emerging lines ofcommunication with consumers. French will bejoined by a number of leading opinion formersincluding Chris Petrovic, senior VP at retailerGamestop and Simon Osgood from InComm.

Eurogamer TV’s Johnny Minkley is to hostthe final panel session, which will examinewhat currently constitutes a platform. He willask if the writing is on the wall for physicalconsoles, and investigate what is causing theshift. Confirmed panellists include Dave Perryfrom Gaikai, Jasper Smith from PlayJam andDavid Reeves from Capcom, providing apublisher’s view of the new order.

Screen Digest’s chief analyst Ben Keen willalso present new research into the outlook forthe games industry, examining how digitalsales and other new business models willimpact boxed product sales.

ALPHA | LONDON GAMES CONFERENCE

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DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET OCTOBER 2010 | 25

TALKING SENSESpeakers and panellists attending London Games Conference to talk about their digital experiences include:

Heiko HubertzFounder and CEO, Bigpoint

Shuji Utsumi CEO, Q Entertainment

Ben CousinsExecutive Producer,EA Dice

Kristian SegerstraleCEO, Playfish

Dave PerryCo-Founder and CEO,Gaikai

Phil Harrison Co-Founder and GeneralPartner, London VenturePartners

Chris PetrovicSVP and GM,GameStop Digital Ventures

Ian ChambersInternational Vice President,Direct2Drive

David ReevesCOO, Capcom Europe

Floris Jan Cuypers Business Development Director,Spil Games

LONDON GAMES CONFERENCE | ALPHA

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NEXT MONTH’S MONTREAL InternationalGame Summit’s status as Canada’s biggesttrade-specific video game conference doesn’tjust make it an event of national significance.

Thanks to the Canadian authorities’progressive attitude to tax incentives and thecountry’s subsequent establishment as aglobal game development hub, the show –better known by its acronym MIGS, stands asan gathering of international significance.

Now in its seventh year, in 2010 MIGSpromises to be a highlight of the increasinglybusy events season calendar, offering ahealthy variety of speakers, networkingopportunities in the business lounge,workshops, social events, and a sizeableexhibition hall.

Thanks to the breadth and scope of thecontent offered, including seminars andsessions that look beyond the boundaries ofthe games industry alone, MIGS remains ahighlight for developers, coders, designers,tool and service firms, and all those in thebusiness of making games.

To the right we’ve picked some of thehighlight sessions from over 80 speakerspoised to address attendees, which last yearnumbered 1,400. MIGS is organised byAlliance Numérique, the interactive digitalcontent industry business network of Quebec.

The MIGS PictureAs Canada’s largest dedicated games industry show draws close, Will Freeman brings you theessential information you need to get the most out of the Montreal International Gaming Summit…

26 | OCTOBER 2010

KEYFACTSDateNovember 8thto 9th

VenueHiltonBonaventureHotel, Montreal,Quebec, Canada

PriceIndividuals: $405- $625 (members),$505 - $785 (non-members)Groups: (perperson) $460 -$530Students: $275(Early birddeadline haspassed)

Websijm.ca

Create Your Own Path: From Design toArt in Prince of Persia: the ForgottenSands Wii

Track: Arts and VFXSpeakers: Steve Beaudoin, technical artdirector, Ubisoft Québec, ThierryDansereau, art director, Ubisoft Québec■ This session will address the variousissues and challenges identified on theproduction of Prince of Persia: TheForgotten Sands for Wii, and will cover thedebate about design versus art.

David vs. GoliathVille: Sage Advice forIndie Social Game Designers

Track: DesignSpeaker: Scott Jon Siegel, game designer,Playdom ■ As the social gaming space isincreasingly dominated by industry giants,the sector runs the risk of stagnation inthe emerging fields. Intended as a call toarms for indies, this session aims to dispelthe myths surrounding what successmeans in social game development.

Building a Global Technology StrategyWhen East Meets West

Track: TechSpeaker: Julien Merceron, worldwidetechnology director, Square Enix Group ■ A look at what can be gained whencompanies from the East and West joinforces as a single entity, and howcontrasting cultures can be aligned withina business.

Leaderboards Can Suck It: Seven BetterIdeas for Visualising Player Data for Funand Profit

Track: BusinessSpeaker: Todd Northcutt, generalmanager, GameSpy Technology ■ Northcutt will argue that Leaderboardsare boring, discouraging and lazy, and askwhy they are so popular. Attendees candigest seven better ideas for engagingplayers with amazing data.

Investing in Talent: A Formal Approachto Studio-Wide Training

Track: BusinessSpeaker: John Nash, studio designdirector, Blitz Games Studio ■ Nash explains why the studio’s mostvaluable asset is people. Nash will arguethat the happier, more motivated andskilled a workforce is, the better studiosare able to develop games andsubsequently achieve a healthier bottom-line.

SPEAKING OUTDevelop picks a selection of the most interesting sessions, takingone from each of the five MIGS tracks...

ALPHA | EVENT: MONTREAL INTERNATIONAL GAMES SUMMIT

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DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET OCTOBER 2010 | 29

Region focuson the city-

state ofSingapore

p41

Ken Levinetalks brokenutopias andinspiration

p49

Epic on thefuture of

Unreal - and allgames

p34

DEVELOPMENT FEATURES, INTERVIEWS, ESSAYS & MORE

“I take my job seriously because Iknow publishers and developers useMetascores as a measure of quality.”

Marc Doyle, Metacritic, p39

Flying HighAngry Birds’ creator Rovio thinks it has crafted an equation for making

an iPhone hit, but what is its secret? p30

29 Dev110_final 23/9/10 15:44 Page 1

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BETA | ANGRY BIRDS

Rovio’smagicnumbers

Can there really be a rigid equation for making ahit game? The studio behind iPhone sensationAngry Birds says it has one. So what is its secretrecipe? Will Freeman tries to find out…

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DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET OCTOBER 2010 | 31

ANGRY BIRDS | BETA

If you’ve played Angry Birds you’ll knowthat it’s far from formulaic. It is a gamewith character, spirit and energy, all of

which are hard to quantify with numbers and conventions.

However, Angry Birds’ status as one of themost successful titles on the iPhone is noaccident, says its developer. Finnish studioRovio is sure it has crafted a magic recipe formaking a hit game; that fabled equation forcreative triumph that has long eluded thoselooking to make catchy pop tunes and goodreads with mathematical precision.

Of course, Rovio’s equation for success ishighly tailoured. It is about making populargames on the Apple portables, and it hasevolved over time.

30-32 Dev110_final 23/9/10 09:28 Page 2

The formula is one that sets the perimetresin which the Rovio team can play with ideas,and provides focus on what makes a gamepopular with players.

Getting at why Angry Birds itself was so wellliked by consumers is not rocket science.Simple, immediate and satisfying, the action-puzzler game costs just 59p, and as theprovider of numerous free updates it offersdozens of hours of gameplay. The game,however, is not just the result of the eqaution.It is part of the sum’s formulation.

Rovio’s secret for success is an ongoingproject, and apparently goes a little deeperthan the fundementals of what makes AngryBirds one of the perennial poster children ofApple’s new gaming model.

A NEAR HITIn fact, the reality of developing a secretrecipe for making a hit came as anunexpected benefit for the studio, and AngryBirds itself almost went unmade.

When the youthful Finnish team beganwork on Angry Birds, they had just onescreenshot, a headcount of 12, and a slightlyuncertain vision of what the game would be.

“We didn’t understand what the game wasreally about at that point,” admits Rovio COONiklas Hed. “We wanted a way to come upwith some easy to understand gameplay forthe screenshot, and it got forgotten about fora few months.

“Then we started discussing how we couldtake the luck out of the equation whenmaking a game. We wondered if there wassome kind of common pattern we could use.Then we started defining a requirement list ofthings every game should have.”

At that point, Hed and his colleagueslooked back to Rovio’s early history, and a timewhen they worked as sub-contractors forNokia. The studio had fleshed out 50 gamespreviously, and went on to create two iPhonetitles – Darkest Fear and Totomi – all of whichlet it build its equation.

“We then combined that list – thatequation – to the screenshot, and that wasthe starting point for the game,” says Hed. Asa result, Rovio has what it believes is a genreagnostic rulebook it can apply to its futuretitles on the iPhone.

Of course, the equation alone wasn’t themaking of Angry Birds. It also took a greatdeal of skill, time and play testing, and theresult is a title with a finesse that has made itfamous. Still, the secret recipe born from the

development process has become avaluable asset for the studio.

Hed is keeping his magicformula a closely

guarded secret, andthere is little point in

trying to get him toreveal its nuances,but he does admitthat some of thefactors on the listof criteria areobvious; simple

details like buildinga creation that doesn’t

require a tutorial.So just how did Rovio

craft its clandestine recipe?

“It’s hard to explain,” says Hed. “It’seasy enough to make anequation for the outline of agood game, but with making areally good game there is thismagic in it that you can’tdefine so easily. We havenew people joining theteam, and in a waythe requirement –the equation – setsthe sandbox wherethey can play. It’sabout setting up aplace where you canfind the spark needed.”

Summing up the approachas something of ‘beauty’, at apush Hed will admit it ispossible to reverse engineersome of the equation fromRovio’s games.

The notion of pullingRovio’s formula from AngryBird’s is a nice one in theory, but it wouldrather miss the point. What Hed and hiscolleagues have created is a equation thatworks for them, with their games. What canbe learned from the Rovio case is that manystudios may already be sitting on theelements that will form a customisedequation for them. Taking a clinical look atback catalogue – and successes and failiures– may hold the secret to defining success inquantifiable terms. It’s obvious, but crucial.

CORNER THE MARKETIn forming the basis for Rovio’s perfectformula, the Helsinki-based outfit alsodedicated numerous hours to market

research. Hed also confessesthat Rovio’s ‘disasterous’ first

iPhone games also helped forge theequation, and is happy to agree thatthere’s is plenty more that can bedone before it is complete.

“It is only one part of what makesa game be successful,” concludes

Rovio’s COO, adding: “But it issomething that we are

guarding. That’s whyI’m so glad we have

an equation like this,because we know whywe made Angry Birdsas successful as it is.”

www.rovio.com

Angry Birds remainsone of the mostsuccesful and prolificgames on any of theiOS platforms

We wondered ifthere was some kind

of common pattern wecould use. Then we starteddefining a requirement listof things everygame should have.

Niklas Hed, Rovio

32 | OCTOBER 2010

BETA | ANGRY BIRDS

30-32 Dev110_final 23/9/10 10:00 Page 3

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

+44 (0 ) 1256 385 201s.chiplin@kochmedia.com

a healthy alternative

41 Dev109_final 17/8/10 15:57 Page 1

34 | OCTOBER 2010

BETA | UE3 ON MOBILE

“This changeseverything. Again.”

The slogan for Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices may be unbearably smug – but it’s alsomassively accurate. And now Epic Games is taking the initiative to push the platform

forward further with the cutting-edge development software usually reserved forconsoles. Michael French finds out what this means for the rest of the industry…

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DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET

UE3 ON MOBILE | BETA

Can you believe it has only been twoyears since the iPhone App Storecomprehensively upended the games

industry status quo? By inspiring an apprevolution from the grassroots of developersupwards, Apple's impact on games was swift,if unexpected.

The iPhone has made millionaires out oftiny teams almost overnight and changed theperceptions of what mobile gaming can do,all while attracting new audiences. Its well-curated interface and mostly-free distributionpipe has no doubt given the likes of MicrosoftSony, and Nintendo serious pause for thought.

So what an earth is the world’s mostpopular console game engine firm doing onthe most disruptive games platform of all time?

Epic Games finally unveiled the iOS versionof its popular Unreal Engine 3 last month,showcasing the technological oomph of UE3on iPhones through free demo downloadEpic Citadel and upcoming game ProjectSword. The company was a centrepieceshowcase as part of Apple’s annual Septemberproduct hooplah – a rare enough occurrencein itself; few in the games industry have beenallowed to share the stage with Apple CEOSteve Jobs. And the message couldn’t beclearer: mobile gaming has come of age.

CLEAR VISIONThe sales pitch behind Epic’s move to mobileis obvious.

“In the mobile games space maximisingproductivity is even more essential to beingprofitable,” says Mark Rein, the Epic Games VPin charge of the firm’s engine business.“You’re going to need technology that candeliver a triple-A quality game, but do itefficiently. That’s the advantage UnrealEngine 3 has compared with othertechnologies currently out there for makingmobile games.”

And the factors that have enabled Epic tooffer its technology on iOS are just as clear.

“Thanks to OpenGL ES2 and powerfulhardware we can do things like specularhighlighting, bump-mapping, normalmapping and lots of other great techniquesyou don’t expect to see on a mobile device.The 3GS achieved a large adoption rate, andnow iPhone 4, 3rd Gen and 4th Gen iPodtouch, and iPad are pushing it even further.So the installed base is there, and it runs ourtechnology well. It just made sense for us tobe there.”

Rein says that the move is a labour of loveas well as a great business move.

“We love gadgets and technology,” he tellsDevelop – virtually everyone at the studioowns a smartphone devices already.

But there really is more to it than Epic andRein’s usual swagger. The firm is moving ontomobile not just because it makes goodbusiness sense and is a technical fit – butbecause the rate of change is so fast ongames-ready mobile devices. Rather than beleft behind the way classic format-holdersand publishers are, Epic is getting in on thetrend early.

ITS A SMALL WORLDBut hang on. The big headline successes oniPhone are Angry Birds, Flight Control, andDoodle Jump, all sold for just 59p and madeby tiny teams.

What place does a company like EpicGames – famed for the powerful UnrealEngine 3, enabler of high-end games withequally high budgets – have in that world?

“I love Angry Birds, Flight Control andDoodle Jump but there are lots of successeson the iTunes App Store beyond those typesof games,” says Rein.

“For a long time, Call of Duty was one ofthe top iPhone grossing games. It might nothave as many users as Angry Birds, but I’mwilling to bet it made more money and itproves there’s a market for all kinds ofgaming experiences on the platform – thereis no right or wrong on these platforms.”

Rein says that historically, all media haveproven that people are generally willing topay for higher quality content.

“What we’re seeing with the success ofMadden, GTA and Call of Duty on iPad andiPhone is that big brands and big marketing,combined with high production values,creates mindshare that lets them stand out ina crowd. It’s a natural evolution. When theaudience size and expected sales justify apublisher like Ubisoft to spend $15m on a TV

We can do thingslike specular

highlighting, bump-mapping and lots of othergreat techniques you don’texpect to see on amobile device.

Mark Rein, Epic Games

OCTOBER 2010 | 35

“Console style gamingis going mobile,” saysMark Rein

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36 | OCTOBER 2010

BETA | UE3 ON MOBILE

advertising campaign for their latestAssassin’s Creed mobile app, they will. This willhappen. The great indie games will still bethere – but the big games will get bigger justlike they have on other platforms.”

That’s one of the reasons UE3 is so rapidlyrelevant to mobile. The engine became thego-to source for so many publishers duringthis generation because of the immediatelook and feel it offered – the quintessential‘next-gen’ chunky-sexy flavour that RainbowSix, BioShock, Mass Effect, Batman: ArkhamAsylum and hundreds of other renownedgames embodied.

For those games’ developers, using UE3made them immediately competitive –something which will be attractive in theovercrowded App Store.

BADLANDSIt’s probably going to irk some of the smallerfirms that have embraced and exploitediPhone and want it to remain an unpolicedWild West of video games. Rein reckons that

the supposed ‘destruction of publishers’brought about by more open digitaldistribution is a complete myth.

“It’s nonsense,” he says. “If we’re going to continue to have triple-A

gaming experiences, which I’m convinced wewill, then publishers are going to continue toplay the key role in bringing the majority ofthem to market. They might cede distributionto online marketplaces like the iTunes AppStore, but somebody still needs to finance,develop and market the games. Imagine if afew years ago filmmakers all decided theblockbuster was dead. We wouldn’t have TheDark Knight and Avatar – two recent moviesthat made the list of all-time money-earners.”

He’s got a point. While Angry Birds andDoodle Jump are the aforementioned posterchildren of the App Revolution, they rose tothe top through quality of gameplay – andquality of their marketing (the best marketingtool out there: word of mouth). For everyAngry Birds and Doodlejump there’s hundredsof awful, cheap and nasty games no one talksabout. Or worse, cash-ins like Angry Pigs andDoodle Army that try to fool those using theApp Store’s crude search.

So as the platform gets busier the need forinvestment to make better games withenhanced marketing, increases significantly.As much as some developers and pundits areloath to admit it, many publishers are good atthat stuff. Most importantly they providefinancing for large risk projects, which aregoing to become more and more commonon iOS and other mobile platforms.

ON THE MOVEEpic’s mobile play is also part of a wider beton the direction the entire industry isheading in.

“A lot of gaming is going mobile and Ibelieve that console-style gaming is goingthere as well,” says Rein.

“Imagine a future Xbox 360 that is actuallya tablet you carry around. It will have morepower than 360 does today, with technologylike Kinect built right in. Imagine walking intoa bar with some friends, propping it up onthe table and playing games like DanceCentral or Kinect Adventures anywhere you go.

Then when you get home that same devicewill use technology like AirPlay or wireless

HDMI to connect to your big screen,you’ll pick up a wireless controller, or

use your phone as controller, to playgames like Gears of War.

“It feels like there’s a greatopportunity for game consoles tocease to be something you plug intothe wall and rather become

Below: Both ProjectSword and Epic Citadelgive a tantalisingglimpse of the future oftriple-A on mobile

Imagine a futureXbox 360 that is

actually a tablet you carryaround. It will have morepower than 360 does today,with technology likeKinect built right in.

Mark Rein, Epic Games

NOT THE ‘DROID WE’RE LOOKING FORMOST OF THE noisearound mobile-ready UE3 focuseson iOS – and forgood reason. It’s thebiggest smartphoneplatform at themoment. And whileEpic is keenlywatching all mobiledevices, it’s not soldon rival platformAndroid just yet.

Although UE3 hasbeen up and runningon Android for some time, it’s not up toiPhone quality standards, says Rein.

“I think they still have a long way to go. I’malso worried that every Android phonevendor seems to have a different userinterface than the other. It is unclear whetherGoogle will step in and straighten it out orcontinue to let it grow out of control.

“Another problem with Android is thecarriers run wild with the OS and are addingall kinds of bloatware and not-so-greatcustom user interfaces. Some companies aretaking the open nature of OS to an extreme –can you imagine how happy Google was tosee Verizon replace all Google Search withBing on one of their Android phones?Hopefully that kind of shenanigans will wakeGoogle up a bit. I couldn’t imagine Appleletting any carrier hijack the customerexperience to that sort of extreme. Apple isout there fighting the good fight on behalf ofits end users and delivering a prettyconsistent, and great, user experience aroundthe world.”

Instead of Google, Rein tips Microsoft asthe dark horse in the mobile race.

“Microsoft could be a major disruptor here.One of the unique things they’re doing iscreating a proper first-party gamesorganisation for Windows Mobile 7.

“They’ll be making serious investments inhigh-quality exclusive games for theirplatform like they’ve done with the Xboxconsoles, and they’re bridging the socialgaming aspects of the 360 and mobileplatform through Xbox Live.

“If they combine that with the bestExchange integration, real Microsoft Officeapp compatibility and software on thephones and tablets then they could beserious competitionto Apple. Plus, theyhave a huge amountof cash and a desireto not let mobilepass them by. Theone thing they’re notdoing yet is nativeapp support, whichmeans we can’t playon their platform.But both Apple andGoogle shipped withthat constraint andfixed it later.”

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DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET OCTOBER 2010 | 37

UE3 ON MOBILE | BETA

something you take with you. Of course it willbe more than just your game console; youcan have your productivity apps, yourdocuments, and your media collections on itas well.”

It’s a bold theory from the kings of high-end game technology – the company whichis so intrinsic to what the feel of current-genconsole games became.

But Rein says it’s not a dream – this shift isalready happening with iPad and otherdevices in the works, and often new deviceswhich were once solely more low-endproductivity pieces are built withentertainment in mind.

“Lately it feels like Apple is spending moretime and energy marketing games than thegaming console manufacturers are,” he says.

“Today the companies making thehardware going inside phones know thatgames are important – they are incorporatingprocessors that suit games and are aspowerful as a PC or console. We’re turning acorner with GPUs and CPUs that support theintensive gameplay functions we need.

“So we’re going to see really powerfulsmaller machines emerge – they will be morepowerful than a 360. To Epic that’s where ourinterest lies. We’re not interested in simple 2Dgames or games for the original iPhone or 3G;we want to bring high-quality, high-fidelitytriple-A games to mobile. Epic Citadel woke alot of people up – they realised it’s real andcan be done.”

BEYOND THE HANDSET‘Mobile’ technology is already propagatingbeyond handhelds into all kinds of devicessuch as TVs and set top boxes; Apple TV usesthe same A4 chip as the iPhone 4, for instance.Intel and Nvidia have made huge strides inmaking cheaper PCs more game-capable.

“The phone is just the start – we’ll belooking at other mobile-derived devices aswell, as we go down the road. The sametechnology being used in mobile phones isalso finding its way into set top boxes, Blu-rayplayers, TV sets and other embeddedapplications. Google TV is a good example –they’re going to have an Androidmarketplace for their devices.”

And then, Rein postulates, is when theindustry comes full circle: games have spreadlike a virus across all these new hardwaredevices, switching on users to the potential of

interactive entertainment. And the triple-Agaming, the broad and rather clunky termthat really just means ‘expensive-lookinggames’, becomes something viable andattractive on all platforms. Of course Epiccleans up – its engine is the essence of thatexpensive triple-A luxury feel – but so doeseveryone else, Rein assets.

“Triple-A isn’t going away – it’s goingeverywhere. The definition of what triple-A ismight morph a bit in the mobile space, butEpic and our licensees will be able to deliver abona fide high-quality experience with thesame kind of production values as theindustry’s best developers are doing onconsoles today,” says Rein.

“We’re not just trying to bring the samekind of experiences users are already playingbut rather give them something breathtakingthat makes them clamour for more of thishigher quality mobile entertainment ourengine excels at providing.”

ON THE CONTRARYSo much of what Epic and Rein see as thefuture of games is contrary to conventionalwisdom. Right now, very vocal voices reckonthat gaming is going online to live on theweb and in browsers, dismantling consolesand destroying publishers along the way. Thesuccess of Facebook, Epic’s closest rival Unity,and the shadow overcast by cloud gamingmake broad points in this direction.

But the games industry is harder to predict.After all, three years ago who’d have thoughtthat Apple’s move on the mobile market wasgoing to move the target away from voiceand music to apps and entertainment?

“The App Revolution caught everyone bysurprise,” says Rein. “I don’t even think Applecould predict how incredible it would be.

“For years everyone tried to say thatgaming on the web was the way forward –but not so fast, folks – apps are way betterand now there’s a huge installed base ofcustomers hungry for the best ones. Appsdon’t bind you to clunky plug-ins orconfusing interfaces in browsers. Appsimmerse you into an experience. Apps getcloser to the hardware’s capabilities. In shortapps trump the web. People are consumingthe internet through apps more and morebecause the experience is better.”

Free app Epic Citadel, which showcasesUE3’s capabilities on iPhone – and which thefirm is not embarrassed to admit is just a techtaster – has been downloaded over a milliontimes. That itself shows there really is aninterest in that high-end content.

Just imagine what will happen when Epic’sChair studio finally releases the forthcoming

Project Sword, the resulting RPG based inthe same citadel environment.

In short Epic is well armed for the mobiletransition, and wants to be the one handingout the weapons.

Rein concludes: “Eventually these deviceswill be your consoles – and we’re the king ofconsole game technology.”www.epicgames.com/technology

For years everyonetried to say that

gaming on the web was theway forward – but not sofast, folks – apps are waybetter and there’s ahuge installed base.

Mark Rein, Epic Games

TOUCH OF CLASSFOR A COMPANY like Epic, so entrenched in the PC and console worlds,the move to marrying its high-end, hardcore engines with the morecasual touchscreen interfaces is still a learning experience, Rein admits.

But Epic Citadel ships with three different control schemes to letusers toy with and figure out what works best.

“You can tap on the screen to move to a particular location or youcould use the left joypad to navigate. Both of these modes supportswiping with your finger to look around. The third mode is the moretraditional dual-joypad mode where one joypad moves you and theother looks around much like an Xbox 360 or PS3 controller,” Rein says.

“It is great to be able to experiment and get feedback from the users as to what they like best. With Project Sword, the game wedemoed onstage at the Apple Special Event, we’re adding additionalcontrol schemes. You can drag your sword across the screen or useicons to cause your knight to perform actions. A touch screen offershuge flexibility and the change for users to determine what works bestfor them.

“I expect that there will be all of kinds interesting and differentcontrol designs, both from us and our licensees. You can tailor thosedevices to suit all kinds of needs. Dragging, tapping and swiping –these haven’t been part of triple-A games design before the iPhonecame around.”

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38 | OCTOBER 2010

BETA | GAME CHANGERS: FOURSQUARE

Foursquare offers aninnovative spin on thealternate reality game

In its simplest form, Foursquare turns reallife into a game. If you don’t know theformat, it’s relatively easy to understand;

at a rudimentary level it is a mobileapplication designed to help users explorecities, and combines social networkingelements with an achievements system.

The map-based app’s current three millionusers can level up with a visit to a particularrestaurant or landmark, and dominate avirtual underworld stretched over real worldtowns and cities as they carry out their day-to-day activities.

In many ways Foursquare is anembodiment of the increasingly popularconcept of gamification. It’s an easy term toturn one’s nose up at, but behind the excessof syllables is a process that has the potentialto embrace vast new audiences. Applying thetheory and mechanics of gameplay to non-gaming experiences could become

increasingly important for studios looking todiversify their work and up the number ofsectors from which they draw revenue.

Foursquare is today forming a boldtemplate for that future, and with asignificant userbase already enthralled by itswork, is undeniably a Game Changer.

HIP TO BE SQUAREFoursquare founders Dennis Crowley andNaveen Selvadurai sketched out the first draftfor their shared idea on a kitchen table inNew York in 2008, and today base theirbusiness in the city’s iconic Village Voicebuilding, where a team of 30 reside.

With over 15,000 venues alreadyexperimenting with running deals throughFoursquare, the social networking app hasproved very popular with businesses, and isgathering pace as more get on board.

The ‘game’ is also proving itself as a worthyplatform for external developers, and alreadycourts a number of titles built using theFoursquare API. Designed for studios largeand small, the API not only caters for the

creation of meta-games built through theexisting Foursquare platform, but letsdevelopers monitor the data generated bythe app’s community.

The API also lets creators retrieve playercheck-in history using a system where feedsare available in RSS, KML and iCal formats.

Already a number of games, plug-ins andmobile tools exist built in the API, butFoursquare’s creators have not drawn a lineunder the platform yet, and are welcoming their industry contemporaries tohelp craft the definitive version of thedeveloper interface.

ARG-Y BARGYFoursquare’s innovative spin on the alternatereality game not only offers a unique and

customer-friendly experience in a spheredominated by notoriously inaccessible titles,but provides developers with a distinctalternative to the overcrowded platformsoffered by web and specific mobile devices.

Presently the installed userbase ofFoursquare has a limited range of apps tochose from, meaning studios still have agood chance of making a hit on the platform.And with Foursquare available across iPhone,Android, Palm, Blackberry and other devices,the potential for an expanding audience isquite staggering.

Forward thinking, developer-empatheticand happy to step outside the boundaries ofwhat defines the industry, Foursquare isevery bit a Game Changer.www.foursquare.com

Forward thinking,developer

empathetic and happy tostep outside the boundariesof what defines theindustry, Foursquareis every bit a GameChanger.

Four’s companyContinuing our ongoing Game Changers series looking at the companies realising a new vision of thedevelopment industry’s future, Will Freeman finds himself on Foursquare…

IN ASSOCIATIONWITH...Amiqus Games is aleading provider ofspecialist talent tothe video gamesindustry. Thecompany recruits forsome of the world’spremier studios forartists, animators,producers,programmers,designers andexecutives such asstudio heads anddirector level roles.

38 Dev110_final 23/9/10 09:30 Page 1

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GAME CHANGERS: METACRITIC | BETA

Above: Co-founderMarc Doyle takes hisjob seriously “because Iknow that publishersand developers use ourMetascores as ameasure of quality.”

Founded in 2001 by siblings Marc Doyleand Julie Roberts, plus friend JasonDietz, the Metacritic review scores

aggregation system had until recentlyremained on largely the same technologyand design template.

That alone is a testament to the websitecreators’ forward thinking vision; almost adecade after inception, Metacritic in itsfundementally original form is still relevantand contemporary.

More than that, it has become a keystoneof the industry. Like it or loathe it, Metacriticscores are a subject of fascination not only forconsumers, but PR departments, publishers,marketers, and even developers. Expectedand average review scores have long been apoint of tension as publishers and studios inkdeals, and Metacritic has become therecognised standard for that process. Truly,the website has changed the ecosystem ofthe industry at almost every level.

SCORES TO SETTLE“We were fortunate to have a strong vision ofwhat we wanted to achieve right out of thegate,” says co-founder Doyle of Metacritic’sacceptance by the industry.

“By selecting the most respected critics ineach industry, and by presenting theirreviews and scores in an easy-to-digestformat based on a sound and consistentscoring system, we enabled our users tomake the most of their entertainment dollarsby ‘consuming’ the highest quality movies,games, albums, or television shows.”

As early as 2003, the first of the big gamepublishers began publically endorsing‘Metascores’ as a de facto gauge of quality,clearly recognising Metacritic as a reliable,robust platform. Much of the website’squality can be attributed to the fact that itisn’t automated, and that it constantlyrefreshes its list of relevant critics andpublications. To a certain extent it holds notonly the quality of developers to account, butalso the work of the critics that ultimatelymake or break a game.

POWER-UPThat considered, Doyle is in a powerfulposition, but he is acutely aware of hisresponsibility.

“I’ve always welcomed suggestions frompublishers, developers, and other creativepeople in the industry, and I have beenpersonally available to these people toanswer questions about our process, whichhas been appreciated, even if they don’t

always agree with our point of view,” insiststhe co-founder.

“I take my job extremely seriously becauseI know many of these publishers anddevelopers use our Metascores as a measureof quality, to be considered alongside saleswhen assessing the ‘success’ of a game.”

Listening to feedback has lead to aconstant refinement at Metacritic, which sawthe site’s core technology platformcompletely revised in August this year.Thanks to a new powerful backend users, cannow search through a far more integrateddatabase, browsing ‘career’ scores ofpublishers, writers, film directors and evenrecord labels. If that notion is unsettling, fearnot, as critics and publications can now alsobe monitored and compared.

PRESS ONOf course, the very media Metacritic monitorsis in its own state of flux and, thanks to thewebsite’s proximity to print and onlinepublications, it is well positioned to lookforward to the future of the relationshipbetween games and the press.

“I can only hope that with the decline inthe number and influence of traditionalmedia outlets there will still be critics comingup in the tradition of Pauline Kael of The NewYorker or Joe Morgenstern of The Wall StreetJournal – critics who produce reviews whichare viewed as works of art in and ofthemselves,” opines Doyle, who clearly adoresthe craft of criticism.

“It is the quality of analysis which hasalways been the most important element of areview, and the ability of a critic to draw fromprior works and from culture at large inanalysing a new work truly makes his or herwork important.”

As its 10th anniversary nears Metacritic isdeveloping, expanding its remit and evolvingits concept. That is big news for thedevelopment sector, because whenMetacritic changes, the wider industrychanges.

As it absorbs and delivers more cross-referenced data from the business’ fourcorners, it looks set to become an even moreimportant and influential resource.www.metacritic.com

Review scores aggregation website Metacritic has become one of the most influential resources in the industry.Will Freeman investigates the website’s rise and rise…

To a certain extent,Metacritic holds not only the quality

of developers to account,but also the work of thecritics thatultimately make orbreak a game.

IN ASSOCIATIONWITH...Amiqus Games is aleading provider ofspecialist talent tothe video gamesindustry. Thecompany recruits forsome of the world’spremier studios forartists, animators,producers,programmers,designers andexecutives such asstudio heads anddirector level roles.

Know the score

39 Dev110_final 23/9/10 09:31 Page 1

Championing the interests, needs and positive image of the entire UK video games and interactive entertainment industry

Join UKIE today

from just £500

UKIE is here to ensure that video games and interactive entertainment businesses have the right environment to thrive. UKIE (formerly ELSPA) offers all its members the same high level of service and benefits. UKIE:

speaks to government and big industry partners provides exclusive access to unique UK sales information and research connects video games businesses through networking sessions promotes its members’ careers and businesses offers IP protection support

So if you are a video games or interactive entertainment business you can take advantage of UKIE membership today – from just £500 a year. Join UKIE today - contact sam.collins@ukie.info

40 Dev110_final 16/9/10 10:32 Page 1

DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET OCTOBER 2010 | 41

SINGAPORE SPOTLIGHT | BETA

CITY-STATE OF PLAYSingapore is a powerful Asian centre of business,and an emerging force in games development.Stuart Richardson finds out why… The beautiful city-state of Singapore has served as a de

facto crossroads of the Eastern and Western worlds forthe extent of its – at times tumultuous – existence.

Founded on the spot where a legendary lion passed aprince while he was hunting (yes, really), the region sawvicious fighting during the Second World War as a troops ofthe British Empire were beaten into surrender by Japaneseforces. Following the later Japanese surrender, Singaporejoined the Federation of Malaysia in the early 1960s, anddeclared full independece back in 1965.

Since then the country has faced down terrorist threats,financial meldowns and an outbreak of SARS, going on tobecome the fourth wealthiest country in the world, and thefastest growing economy. For a nation containing only 246square miles of land, this is no mean feat.

The pull of this titanic economy on the interntional videogames development industry is also a significant one.Singaporean official bodies themselves are hugelywelcoming of the business development studios can bring.The national media regulatory body, the Media DevelopmentAuthority, actively seeks to expand on the substantialexisting workforce in the Sigaporean video games industry,as does government agency Contact Singapore.

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42 | OCTOBER 2010

BETA | SINGAPORE SPOTLIGHT

“The Singapore Government has identifiedthe interactive and digital media industry as akey growth industry,” says deputy executivedirector of Contact Sigapore Kee Ee Wah.

“The games industry is one of the keyinteractive and digital media sectors that weare seeking to grow, as we work towards ouraim of becoming an Asian capital of digitalmedia from which original content is createdfor global consumption.”

It is telling that those involved in gamesdevelopment in Singapore aim as high asthey do. The nation in which they liverepresents the perfect example of a pluckyunderdog story, blighted by every possiblesetback and not only surviving but comingout in better shape than many of the biggerneighbours that surround it.

MR BLUE SKY“Singapore is a relatively new player in thegames industry, but it has a lot ofgovernment support in funding startups andexperimental projects,” suggests Robin Tan,creative director at critically-lauded XBLA titleArmor Valley’s studio Protégé Production.

“Also, we have warm, sunny weather allyear round.”

It’s an aging gag, but there is feeling that itrepresents something significant here.Singapore is a small but busy place with a

growing multinational communityestablishing itself around gamesdevelopment. There is an open, friendlyatmosphere that is reminiscent of a very flushand well-equipped version of the bedroomcoders of old.

“There is a strong sense of communityamongst studios both local and foreign,”agrees Siddharth Jain, founder and creativedirector of casual and learning-based gamesstudio Playware Studios Asia.

“There are frequent industry meet-ups.Most studios know each other well andbusiness and contacts are often shared.Aggressive poaching from other companies isnot a norm and usually avoided by everyone.Competition is friendly since the market is solarge and diverse.”

Sian Yue Tan, producer and studio head atnearby Ratloop Asia, shares this sentiment,

pointing out the involvement of bothinstitutions and the local community inhelping new and established businesses andbusiness models to expand and grow.

“IGDA Singapore regularly organises get-togethers, where they’d arrange interestingtalks and presentations, followed by drinks.

“These meets are well attended and it’sgood to see more and more people at thesegatherings every time we go. People arehelping out in their spare time, whether aschool offering its building as a venue, orpeople helping to organise, or speak at theevents. This shows a tremendous amount ofwillingness from the community to shareinformation and make things work.”

Of course it is nigh-on impossible toopertate as a closed-circuit in a globalisedworld, and as outmoded as it may seem in2010, there are occaisions where size matters.

Singapore’s dramaticskyline reflects itsgrowing economy

PROTÉGÉPRODUCTION

A Microsoft BizSpark startup incorporatedin 2008, Protégé Production is an indiestudio best known for its well-receivedXBLA title Armor Valley. Following thesuccess of its debut game, the studio isnow hard at work to following up on thereputation it quickly forged for itself.

“We are working on a launch title forWindows Phone 7, an Armor Valley port,”explains creative and technical directorRobin Tan.

“The original Armor Valley wascompleted late last year, and went on towin the IGF China 2009 Award for bestaudio, as well as being a top 20 finalist forDream Build Play 2010. All of this wasmade possible by MDA startup funding atthe start of our business.”

And it doesn’t end there. ProtégéProduction, as seems to be the standardwith all Sigaporean businesses, has its

eyes firmly set on the things that it stillhopes to achieve.

“We are planning on developing thesequel to Armor Valley, and to keepgetting bigger and better from that point,”Tan says.

“The quality of content from Singaporeis constantly improving, and people aretaking notice. Certainly I hope to see theappriciation of what we get up to heregrowing around the world.”www.protegeproduction.com

There is a strongsense of community

amongst studios both localand foreign. There arefrequent industry meet-ups.Most studios knoweach other well.

Siddharth Jain, Playware

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DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET OCTOBER 2010 | 43

SINGAPORE SPOTLIGHT | BETA

“Like all fast growing areas, there is an issuehere with finding the right peoplesometimes, especially on the lead and seniorlevels,” says Allan Simonsen, technical directorand co-founder of Boomzap, the casualgames studio responsible for titles like PiratesPlund-Arrr, out in North America on the Wii,and the oft-discussed casual titles of the likesof Awakening: The Dreamless Castle, whosedevelopment teams reside across the globe.

“You can find them overseas, but thattends to raise your costs. The historical casehas been that the primary markets areoverseas. But with the fall of big Europeanpublishers that tends to be the same foreveryone except the US and East Asia.”

SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREETDespite confessing difficulties, that incurableSingaporean optimism soon finds its way into

Simonsen’s outlook. Asked whetherSingapore is appriciated on the world stage,and in the west in particular, he is upbeat.

“Appreciated is a funny word. I think it’sseen as a growing part of the globalcommunity, though it doesn’t have the sameprofile as Korea or Canada. It’s still finding itsrole, which makes it an incredibly excitingplace to be.”

Sian Yue Tan shares the notion that forSingapore, the plateau of what can beachieved has yet to be reached.

“Some of the major studios like Ubisoft andLucasArts have already set up shop here,proving their faith in the country’sdevelopment capabilities and ecosystem. Ona smaller scale, games created bySingaporean indie studios and individualshave been doing quite well in global gamescompetitions like the IGF, which is a pretty

good indicator of what the local talent poolhas to offer western audiences.

“The last few years, games made inSingapore have consistently made it into thefinals of that competition, which is a veryencouraging thing to see. IGF 2010 saw over3,000 submissions from all over the worldand our game, Rocketbirds: Revolution!,garnered three nominations for excellence inaudio, excellence in visual art and the SeamusMcNally grand prize.”

It really is difficult to find anyone whodoesn’t hold high hopes for the years tocome in Singapore.

“Singapore will definitely become a brandto reckon with on the worldwide stage, intime,” states Playware’s Siddharth Jain.

“Singapore already exports its education toother Asian countries with content producedlocally being highly regarded in China, India,Indonesia, the Middle East and even as far asthe United States. The rapidly-growing gamessector is sure to recognise the value of thisgoodwill in the interactive sphere.”

The enthusiasm that burns at a creativelevel on the island seems to have been builton a stong foundation of faith in both thedevelopment community at large and thenational business models being constantlydeveloped by Singapore’s governmentalorganisations. Both the Media DevelopmentAuthority and Contact Singapore seem to

Some of the majorstudios like Ubisoft

and LucasArts have alreadyset up shop here, provingtheir faith in the country’sdevelopmentcapabilities.

Sian Yue Tan, Ratloop Asia

PLAYWARE STUDIOSASIA

Playware is a double-edged studio thatcreates titles for both the casual andeducational markets. Under the guidanceof creative director Siddharth Jain, thefirm has developed titles as varied as theFacebook strategy title M.A.T, the in-development city-building gameSimplicity and the teacher-trainingpackage Petals.

“We are currently working on twoupcoming Facebook games. Singapore isvery active on Facebook as a nation withnearly 2.5m out of the population of 5mon the network,” Jain enthuses.

“Both games we are currently workingon have a strong local flavour and a lot oflocal cultural nuances. We’re heavilyinvested in games for learning and workclosely with local schools and universitiesto develop commercial, entertainmentgames with a strong learning ethic.”

Playware has crafted a niche that itseems to be getting a great deal of usefrom, and in which something good isbeing done. Clearly it will not be lettingup its efforts any time soon.

“Games for learning is a key area forgrowth locally with a spate of interestingprojects in the education and corporatesectors,” Jain confirms.

“We have been growing quite steadilyin this market and see the continuation ofthis positive trend.”www.playwarestudios.com

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44 | OCTOBER 2010

BETA | SINGAPORE SPOTLIGHT

work tirelessly to generate interest inSingaporean business.

“The success Singapore has enjoyed insecuring a slate of interactive digital mediaprojects and playing host to some of themost exciting industry events in the regionprovides momentum in Singapore’s drive tobecome an interactive digital media capital,”explains Kee Ee Wah. “We will continuecapitalising on emerging trends as we have

done, as well as investing in world class-facilities to the benefit of media players herein Singapore and around the entire world.”

Allan Simonsen has a slightly different wayof putting it.

“Singapore’s a great place, to live in and tohave fun in,” he says.

“The food is fantastic and cheap, theweather is wonderful and the girls are pretty.Come join us.”

The many cultures ofSingapore leave adistinctive mark on theisland

RATLOOP ASIARatloop Asia, the sister-studio to theRatloop based in Austin, Texas andincorporated with development staff in2007, released its debut title RocketbirdsRevolution! last year.

There is no resting on laurels at RatloopAsia, however.

“The game has recently been released viaDirect2Drive and we’re also exploring otherdistribution channels as well. From thepositive reception that the game hasreceived so far we’ve also been able tosecure dev kits and recently startedproduction on the next Rocketbirds game asa download for one of the major consoles,”says studio head Sian Yue.

“We are also looking into expanding intothe Chinese market, and meeting with alarge online games provider there. Weprobably wouldn’t have even consideredthe Chinese market had we been located inthe west. Here in Singapore we are given aunique oppourtunity to test new waters.”

The little studio has achieved a lot in avery short time, and Sian Yue is keen topoint out that, as far as Ratloop Asia isconcerned, this is just the beginning.

“We still have a long way to go, but I thinkwe are on the right track.”www.ratloop.com

Founded: 1998Email: www.contactsingapore.sgAddress: 250 North Bridge RoadRaffles City TowerSingapore 179101

Formed in 1998 by the Prime Minister’sOffice (Singapore), Contact Singapore cameunder the Ministry of Manpower during itsApril 2008 crossover with the EconomicDevelopment Board.

Today, Contact Singapore employs 65dedicated staff focused on drawing peoplefrom around the world to work, invest andlive in Singapore, with the ultimate aim ofboosting national economic development.

The organisation has offices across theAsia-Pacific, Europe and North America. Itpartners Singapore-based employers toorganise career fairs and networkingsessions in cities across the globe, andprovide updates on related businessopportunities and various industrydevelopments to individuals.

Contact Singapore also facilitatesbusiness development and relocation toSingapore by helping investors arrange forentry to the country via business visas andpermanent residency programmes.

“We are a one-stop centre for those whowish to pursue a rewarding career inSingapore, as well as individuals andentrepreneurs who are keen to invest in orinitiate new business activities here,”

explains the organisation’s deputy executivedirector Kee Ee Wah.

“We actively link Singapore-basedemployers with global talent and provideupdates on career opportunities andindustry developments in Singapore.”

Wah is also proud of the video gamesdevelopment talent that has been enticedby the promises of business in Singaporefrom both home and abroad.

“Singapore fosters a vibrant, creativeenvironment in which game developingtalent can meet and exchange ideas, andeven generate more creativity,” she says.

“Today, we have major international andhome-grown game developers such asLucasArts, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, TecmoKoei, IGG, Rainbow, Singapore-MIT GAMBITGame Labs, Softworld, Mikoishi, MatchmoveGames and Ratloop Asia.”

The liasing work that Contact Singaporeputs in is also backed up by considerablefinancial heft on behalf of the SingaporeGovernment proper, as well as many of its

smaller related departments and authorities,as Kee Ee Wah describes.

“As a leading financial centre, Singaporeoffers valuable funding avenues. Thegovernment is a significant source, havingseeded around S$190m (£91m) worth of co-production deals from 2003 ro 2007 via theMedia Development Authority.

“There is also currently over S$1bn(£478m) worth of funds available for mediaprojects and companies, stemming fromprivate capital injected by banks, financialinstitutions and strategic investors.”

A significant monetary enticement is alsoprovided to ensure the region makes stridesas large as possible in the research anddevelopment sector.

“To ensure Singapore remains a tred-setter, the IDM Programme Office was set upto spearhead efforts to boost R&D in theinteractive and digital media industry,backed by a S$500m (£239m) budget fromthe National Research Foundation.”www.contactsingapore.sg

CONTACT SINGAPORE

Above: ContactSingapore deputyexecutive director KeeEe Wah

41-44 Dev110_final 23/9/10 09:32 Page 4

The Interactive & Digital Media (IDM) industry is a dynamic and growing

part of the Singapore economy. Singapore is well on its way to becoming

an IDM capital which generates original content for the global market.

Major international players and homegrown companies such as

www.contactsingapore.sg/jobs

www.contactsingapore.sg

raymond_tan@contactsingapore.sgor julia_rasche@contactsingapore.sg

Internship applications close on

31 Oct 2010

Work, Live and Play In Cosmopolitan Singapore

internship in the art and design industry for a period of two to

Experience@Singapore: Art & Design – www.contactsingapore.sg/artdesign

Singapore

45 Dev110_final 22/9/10 12:27 Page 1

BETA | UKIE

Above: Former ELSPAhead and new UKIEdirector MikeRawlinson

Industry body ELSPA has represented theinterests of publishers since the close ofthe 1980s. Over that time it has achieved a

great deal in the spheres of anti-piracy, salescharts, age-ratings, and interfacing with theGovernment.

However, the organisation served largelyas a representative of publishers, and whilethere was crossover with what ELSPAprovided and developers needed, it was clearthat more was needed to embrace theindustry in its entirety. And so it was that theEntertainment and Leisure SoftwarePublishers Association became theassociation for UK Interactive Entertainment.

“The clue is in the name,” says UKIE directorgeneral Mike Rawlinson of the rebranding.“We were an association for publishers ofentertainment and interactive leisuresoftware. But the market is no longer fittinginto the demarcation of publisher, developer,retailer or distributor – we are no longer insilos, but a more homogeneous market.”

While much of what ELSPA handled willstill be undertaken by UKIE, Rawlinson andhis colleagues are looking at a wider remit,and tackling the issues that matter toeverybody in the trade.

EXPANDED HORIZONSPreviously, ELSPA was unable to speak for theindustry as a whole because of its geneticmake-up; now it is in a stronger position, andshould be able to execute more influence onchange for the better. That considered, it isnow welcoming developers to sign up as fullmembers, while the likes of service providers and educators can sign up asassociate members.

Furthermore, as the industry undergoesperhaps its most significant period of change,the formation of UKIE has allowed it torespond to the the shrinking publisher base,and diversification of platforms.

“The games industry is no longer aboutjust a single physical point of contact – notjust consoles or PCs, it’s MMOs, browser andmobile as well now,” suggests Rawlinson. “It’s

Ringing the changesELSPA has changed its name, its logo, and its remit, and now it is throwing the doors open todevelopers. Michael French caught up with the organisation’s chief to better understand what theUKIE rebranding means for the wider industry…

This is no longer an exclusive old

boys’ club – it is welcomingand requires participationfrom within to makeit what our memberswant it to be.

Mike Rawlinson, UKIE

46 | OCTOBER 2010

EMERGING MARKETSAs part of its expanding remit and newdedication to the wider industry, UKIEwants to help support emergingbusinesses grow their operations in theUK games trade.

That means both external investmentand internal improvement of the businesspractices within the industry.

“I want us to be seen as a resource forour members on information, resource,statistics, services like Chart-Track data,which is now adding digital data, and offer means for the industry to cometogether and share ideas, network, andhopefully open up businessopportunities,” explained UKIE’s directorgeneral Michael Rawlinson.

“A key aim for me is the need to createthe right business environment for thewhole interactive entertainment industry– that’s what UKIE’s key role is.

“I think we’ve got a heritage of skills,expertise and creativity – but we don’tshout about that enough.

“The UK has been a bit too defensivepost-Byron and also on the economicfront. Lots of murmurings about theCanadians and ‘We don’t have whatthey’ve got’ – well, no, we don’t have that,but we’ve got a lot of other things,” statesRawlinson, moving onto business practice.“A business doesn’t just succeed throughtax breaks, but by being a good business –we’re looking at how we can add ways tohelp UKIE members understand that andgrow their business skills,” he concludes.

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DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET OCTOBER 2010 | 47

UKIE | BETA

JOIN THE CLUBAs part of its new strategy to widen the pool ofindividuals and companies it represents UKIE hasintroduced a new £500 membership package.

It’s hoped the low-cost fee will help attract theemerging wave of online, casual, social and mobilegames that the organisation formerly called ELSPAwants to reach.

Like ELSPA, membership of UKIE provides access toUK sales information and research, discounts forindustry events, and contribution to membertaskforces and working parties addressing the issuesfacing the industry.

But the significantly lower fee – which has beenintroduced beneath the higher-level packagesincluding a £2,500 associate industry member price –will help widen the pool of people contributing to therevitalised tradeorganisation.

UKIE director general Michael Rawlinson explains the motivation for introducing a way towelcome new kinds of company to the fold: “Whilstthe physical product market remains strong, theboundaries between traditional developers andpublishers are blurring and new business models are emerging.

“Our new lower membership fee shows that UKIEwelcomes these exciting new interactiveentertainment businesses and is committed torepresenting them and giving them the support thatthey need to thrive.”

Check out the UKIE website (see below) for more.

A SITE FOR SORE EYESELSPA’s rebirth as the UKIE includes a substantiallyupgraded website, which adds updates on campaignswith Government and more regular communicationwith its members to the existing members area andchart database.

The new site also boasts a new forum and theprovision of networking opportunities for individualswhose companies are signed up as members.

Ancillary services like recruitment feeds are alsounder consideration.

“Showcasing is a big part of the website as well,”says Rawlinson. “Every company who is a member ofUKIE will have the opportunity to showcase their workto other members and to the world at large. That couldbe very useful for someone creating content thatmight want to reach out to publishers.”www.ukie.info

a much bigger remit that we want to cover. That’swhy we’re doing it. This is no longer an exclusive oldboys’ club – it is welcoming and requiresparticipation and ownership from within to make itwhat our members want it to be, so we want themto come and join us.”

COME TOGETHERWhat that means is that UKIE will begin thedaunting task of aligning the concerns andambitions of developers and publishers; two groupsoften seen as diametrically opposed.

“The difficulty for each end of the business ismaking the right connections,” explains Rawlinson.“Sometimes developers can feel that publishersdon’t want to see them and they are turned away atthe door – but they must not forget that publisherswouldn’t survive without their content. Whetherthat’s from an internal studio, or a third-party, they

need each other at some point or other, either toservice the goods or the relationship.

“UKIE can add a huge amount to the industry tohelp the wide array of people within it get togetherand network – that will help break down thosebarriers and any fear of resentment of ‘the otherside’, to show that both sides of the business should,will and can work together and be more united forthe good of the industry going forward.”

Perhaps surprisingly, UKIE is also stepping awayfrom the tax breaks issue for the time being. While itwill still build a case for their introduction, it ispresently to shift focus to promoting the UK’sposition as a leader of the games industry, andpromote the nation as a destination for companiesand individuals working in the games industry.

Ultimately UKIE will be sharper, more vocal, andmore proactive than its forbearer, which can onlymean better things for UK developers.

46-47 Dev110_final 23/9/10 09:33 Page 2

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DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET OCTOBER 2010 | 49

INTERVIEW: KEN LEVINE | BETA

Ayoung Ken Levine was spewed likevomit from Hollywood’s intestines.Flushed away with a blank

filmography in hand, an agent who stoppedreturning his calls, a scriptwriting dreamshattered.

Today, some 20 years later, that devastationhas become his muse; the bedrockinspiration of his output as creative lead atBoston-based Irrational Games.

“I’ve actually been thinking a lot about mygame ideas recently,” he tells Develop.

“When I was jogging the other day I askedmyself; why do I keep building these types ofgames? These perfect worlds wheresomething goes wrong? It got me thinkingabout my own life, and how everyone tries tocreate their own little utopias.”

Levine has helped advance the dialogue ofvideo games. Not by their text and certainlynot through cut-scenes, but by buildingliving societies – fantasy worlds – and settingupon them the realities of man: paranoia,greed, corruption. In Levine’s most famousworks Thief, System Shock 2 and hisbreakthrough game BioShock, the player istold stories, usually a series of waxen-wingparables, by interacting with the aftermath.

“You have these dreams, these ideas, thesecreations of how good it’s all going to be, andyou work your life towards those goals.They’re just hopes and ideas, they’re justthings that spring from our heads, but theyhappen to define our whole lives,” saysLevine. “Sometimes, we get stuck on that

idea, that dream. We can’t see the reality ofwhat’s really happening.”

Eight years before he set foot in the firstgame studio he’d ever seen, Levine found hisown Hollywood scriptwriting dreamscrumbling like the walls of Rapture.

It was the late ‘80s. After impressing hisplaywright peers at Vassar College in NewYork, Levine moved to LA with the single wishto become a great film writer. His self-belief –an essential trait for any creativeentrepreneur – had put his work under theeyes of the world’s most powerful movieexecs. The plan failed spectacularly.

Levine quickly found himself strandedfrom the industry he was desperately tryingto be at the heart of; out of money, doubtinghis own talent, and fired from a last-chancewriting gig. He had no choice but to crawlaway from the Tinseltown dream. He wasdejected. But worse, he was without purpose;a sense that his dream goal, though beautifulwhen achieved in his mind, was unrealistic.

Levine’s journey from that world to thegames industry was far from straight,

The Skyis falling

Ken Levine likes to build utopian worlds and have them crash fromcloud nine broken and blood-drenched. Rob Crossley gets insidethe mind of the man at the helm of the BioShock Infinite project...

I love it whendevelopers say ‘in

our game we have 800 linesof dialogue’. I mean,who fucking cares?

49-51 Dev110_final 23/9/10 09:36 Page 1

50 | OCTOBER 2010

BETA | INTERVIEW: KEN LEVINE

scattered as it was by moments ofopportunism, walkouts, failure and hope. Hiscareer seems like it was always just minutesaway from straying elsewhere; a wild goosechase of life’s purpose, where game designwas never the ultimate goal. Not at least untilthe eleventh hour.

He was working at, of all places, a New Yorkcomputer consultancy firm when destinycaught up with him. Screaming out from theopened page of a games magazine was anadvert, a vacancy post.

Looking Glass Studios – the house ofSystem Shock and Warren Spector, theprogenitor of Ion Storm and Irrational Games– just so happened to be looking for a newgame designer. Coding experience anadvantage. Hollywood contacts a necessity.

Today Levine is a rising star of the gamesindustry; an icon-in-waiting. Some of thegreatest craftsmen of the entertainmentindustries see BioShock – built under hisleadership at Irrational Games – as a vital,modern inspiration. Cliff Bleszinski says theindustry “warmed down before Bioshockcame along”. Gabe Newell said he had to banthe game from Valve’s offices. StevenSpielberg was said to be addicted.

“BioShock is our passion at Irrational,” saysLevine. “It’s our consuming life’s purpose, it’swhat drives my life. For five years I’ve workedfor it, and when you do what I do – and Godbless my wife and her patience – there’s notreally a distinction between work and home.My team get emails from me at all hours. Andcalls. It’s our lives.”

PLAY RIGHTBut the designer – despite having built agame of award-winning narrativesophistication – doesn’t agree that story ishigher up the pecking order than gameplay.Levine is not, he suggests, trying to relive theHollywood dream through code.

“I think my games fall into this interestingspace between simulation and scriptedelements. Our narratives are quite unique,

but I can definitely say the story isn’t moreimportant to us than the game,” he says.

“The two mediums are of completelydifferent languages. It’s why I don’t do cut-scenes. Going down that road is dangerous;the focus is the play.

“I love it when developers say ‘in our gamewe have 800 lines of dialogue’. I mean, whofucking cares? That’s a standard? ‘We have600 hours of cut-scenes’. So what? As a writer,bulk is the easy part.”

“Making content is easy. But leavingenough out, looking at everything as aninteractive piece, that’s the real ambition.”

Irrational’s BioShock Infinite, in terms ofconcept, is the most ambitious idea yet tocome from the Boston-based Irrational.Studio Ghibli may have animated it, JonathanSwift may have written it, but Irrational isgoing to build it; a breathtaking city in thesky. One buoyed above the clouds by air-balloons the size of football stadiums. Autopian retreat that somehow lost its civilvalues and, stranded miles above the earth,became a beautiful, ghostly prison.

It can only be said that, when it wasdemonstrated behind closed doors at thisyear’s Gamescom, BioShock Infinite becameone of those rare projects that leaves anindustry unanimously awestruck. Evenexecutives from direct rival companies urgedDevelop to take a look at it. Why? Hard toexplain, they said. You just have to see it.

And yet one of the biggest challenges ofthe project came from how effortlesslybeautiful the flying city of Columbia looks.Levine wants to turn this city, saturated as it isin fierce sunlight, into a vintage horror show.

He agrees it’s an unconventional approach,but the payoff can be striking.

“Our goal with Infinite is to present a worldthat is so different, strange and weird, thatalso has elements of familiarity. The mixturecan be even more effective.

“I was out the other night and saw thisabsolutely beautiful woman, and she turnedher face and on the other side she had a…well, it must have been some kind of birthdefect. What was striking about her is howshe carried herself, because she was

Bioshock Infinite is themost ambitious ideayet to come from theBoston-based IrrationalGames

Our goal withInfinite is to present

a world that is so different,strange and weird, that alsohas elements offamiliarity.

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DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET OCTOBER 2010 | 51

INTERVIEW: KEN LEVINE | BETA

beautiful, but the other side to her face stoodout from it. When you see it, you stop for asecond, it breaks your expectations of herbeing perfectly symmetrical.

“That mixture of the perfect and thestrange really interests me as a game designer.It works so much better than plunging youinto a world that’s completely alien.

“With the first BioShock, everything was adark corridor. Everything was one or two guys– shotgun, electrobolt, shotgun. That was aflaw, I think. We wanted to open up the worldand change perceptions.

“Have you ever seen Blue Velvet? It openson a shot of this beautiful, welcoming greengrass field. And eventually you come to findan ear, sitting in the grass, ants crawling allover it. That’s what we’re going for.

“It’s a huge challenge. But when IrrationalGames start getting comfortable about whatwe are doing, we start getting uncomfortableabout what we are doing.”

DA VINCI CODEBASETechnologically, Irrational is plunged into itsown nightmare. BioShock Infinite is built withUnreal Engine 3, yet – like many studios thathave been exploiting the engine for years –it’s becoming hard to tell. The visualcraftsmanship, and the sheer scale of thegame, is remarkable.

Levine says there’s no code sharingbetween what the studio had with the firstBioShock to Infinite, not a single line.

“It’s because we couldn’t, not with this ideawe had of a city in the sky,” he says.

“Every building actually floats, we’veknocked out a flight structure for them, andobviously the draw distance is a vastimprovement on the first BioShock.

“We’ve also had a tech team build a deferredlighting engine that’s not in Unreal, whichcan do dynamic lighting very economically.”

Levine talks tech with a surprising degreeof comfort. He was, admittedly, completelyoblivious to how games were created whenfirst hired at Looking Glass. It poses the

question that perhaps, while coders andartists are the lifeblood of dev studios, acreative soul is needed at the beating heart.

Levine’s literary and filmic inspirations havea clear common theme too.

“George Orwell is my main influence,” hesays. “Animal Farm is the only book you’ll everneed to read about politics. It’s not the focuson communism itself that I love, but thenotion that these sociological systems willget corrupted.

“In terms of film, actually I’d say Fight Clubis a really interesting one. Not because of its

studenty anti-society stance, but because ofthat great notion of the unreliable narrator.

“There’s a TV series that inspired me aswell. Logan’s Run. I still remember the firsttime I watched it – where this perfect worldwas made under this one condition; everyonehad to die when they were 30. It was just thisamazing utopia with a rotten core. When Isaw that I lost my shit.”

It’s these themes of corruption, of betrayal,of fallen idealised worlds that jump out fromthe cities Rapture and Columbia and into theplayers’ minds. These ideas, and their execution,are central to why Levine has become such akey asset to the game industry.

He is a creative talisman, born to writescripts, who fell in love with an industryvirtually void of good writers. The industry’sexecs should take note; BioShock’s avuncularBig Daddy mercenaries and Little Sister moraldilemmas have not proven to be difficultideas to sell. BioShock is lucrative franchise.

In fact, BioShock was such a bigcommercial success that – in an ironic twist –those Hollywood execs took notice. The boythey once spat out from their incestuousclique now wanted him back. For Levine, itmust have been quite a beautiful moment.

“I was offered the chance to make a gamewith a film director,” he says. “A very talentedfilm director. They said they really liked what Iwas doing and wanted to share it – that thisproject with creative leads from both gameand film – was going to be amazing.”

Join us, would you kindly?Levine said no.

Bioshock Infinite wasdemonstrated behindclosed doors atGamescom – and leftthe industry awestruck

Logan’s Run inspiredme. This perfect

world where everyone hadto die when they were 30.An amazing utopiawith a rotten core.

49-51 Dev110_final 23/9/10 09:36 Page 3

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67 Dev109_final 27/8/10 14:44 Page 1

DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET OCTOBER 2010 | 53

ART: F-Zero from

another anglep64

TUTORIAL:A new way tomake games

p66

KEY RELEASE:CryEngine 3

goes 3Dp56

THE LATEST TOOLS NEWS, TECH UPDATES & TUTORIALS

HEARD ABOUT: Crackdown 2 -mixing a world of audio, p62

A sense of Scaleform

EPIC DIARIES: WHEN THE IPHONE WENT UNREAL P58

Why you should be using the UImiddleware p54

53 Dev110_final 23/9/10 15:33 Page 1

54 | OCTOBER 2010

For many, the notion of Scaleform is abewildering one. Why buy inmiddleware for something as simple as

menus? There must be a better use of timeand money than embracing new technologyfor something so simple?

In reality, the fact is the user interfaces arechanging, and Scaleform does a great dealmore than let you place lists of words intopause screens. The art of UI is in flux, andScaleform provides a tailoured canvas forthat shift.

Sighting titles like ModNation Racers,DeadSpace and Starcraft 2 as prime examplesof creative UI implementation, Scaleform iskeen to point out why good menus andinterfaces can help games expand on theirpotential to engross.

“These teams put forth significant effort todesign a rich UI experience which paid off,and helped result in highly successful titles,”suggests Scaleform’s president and CEOBrendan Iribe. “Although game UI has come along way recently, it still has plenty ofuntapped potential in terms of both designand presentation. Scaleform is committed toproviding game developers with the verylatest and most powerful tools to take theirUI to the next level.”

The rich experience Iribe is referring to isthat seen when UI does more than just

menus. UI can be integrated into the gameworld, so that a player character can interactwith the ammo crates or pockets, rather thanjust pour through arbitrary lists. Even withinthe remit of the traditional menu, there iscapacity for flare and innovation, and crossover with the game world, either throughcontinuity of design in parallel with thefictional universe, or by blurring theboundaries of the separate gameplay andoption screens.

In fact the new school of UI design hasbeen gathering pace for some time, and anever savvy consumer is already gettingcomfortable with developers’ moreinnovative offerings. As gamers’ expectationsrise, user interface creation has become acomplex and challenging problem thatdemands expertise in many areas.

INTERFACE VALUEResponding to the raising bar developers arefaced with, and following years ofdevelopment and working closely withnumerous game studios, Scaleform hassubsequently built what promises to deliveran optimised solution. The result is a tool thatleverages the ever-popular Adobe Flashpipeline; a fact that is the result of carefulconsideration of numerous factors.

“Flash is the industry standard for highquality vector graphics and animation and ispart of the Adobe Creative Suite, whichprovides a complete and provenartist/designer toolset,” says Iribe, explainingScaleform’s proximity with the platform. “Dueto its widespread use, Flash artists and

Above: An example ofthe potential of UIbeyond a traditionalpause screen

Although game UIhas come a long way

recently, it still has plenty ofuntapped potential in terms of bothdesign andpresentation.

Brendan Iribe, Scaleform

In-game menus are just words and symbols on a screen aren’t they? The CEO ofleading UI middleware firm Scaleform tells Will Freeman why that’s far from the case...

A sense ofSCALEFORM

BUILD | USER INTERFACES

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DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET OCTOBER 2010 | 55

developers have the added advantage of analready extensive compendium of referencesand tutorials to draw upon, not to mentionover a million-plus developer base.”

Familiarity, flexibility and power; Flash’striple whammy of assets make Scaleform atool that has besotted many developers.

IN THE HOUSEThe alternative to Scaleform is to create aproprietary UI system, which may temptstudios concerned by the amount of moneylost to securing new tools, but keeping UI inhouse can be tedious, time-consuming andresource intensive.

With Scaleform, artists can harness theever expanding Adobe toolset and worksimultaneously with engineers, enabling ahuge capacity for saving time and money.

“Using Scaleform allows developers tostreamline production through our customUI toolset and pre-built kits. Our tools aredesigned to help create triple-A quality gameUI in half the time, with half the effort,”promises Iribe.

“And, with our new out-of-the-box 3Direndering, developers can go far beyondtraditional 2D UI, delivering new cinematicquality experiences, including fully

stereoscopic 3D interfaces, that were simplytoo complex and expensive for mostdevelopers to create in the past.”

With titles like Batman: Arkham Asylum,Borderlands and Dragon Age: Originsshowcasing innovative UI powered byScaleform, it’s fairly clear what the tech offers.It minimises cost and time drain, whilstmaking menus a potential highlight of agiven title’s design.www.scaleform.com

Using Scaleformallows developers to

streamline production. Ourtools are designed to helpcreate triple-Aquality game UI inhalf the time, withhalf the effort.

Brendan Iribe, Scaleform

USER INTERFACES | BUILD

Scaling UpDeveloping Scaleform hasn’t been awalk in the park by any means, and thetool company president and CEOBrendan Iribe and his colleagues havecrafted is the result of significant hardwork so as to balance flexibility, powerand ease of use. The job at Scaleform isnever done, and the team therecontinue to fine tune and enhance theproduct, embracing newtrends like stereoscopic 3D, and addingfresh features.

“As always, memory andperformance challenges must be solved, and cross platformcompatibility is required for wide spread adoption,” says Iribe of theprocess of building the UI middleware. “In addition to highly optimisedruntime engine, we now provide a complete memory andperformance profiling toolset, Scaleform AMP, which lets developersquickly tune their content, and in the near future, will have full scriptdebugging support.”

PRODUCT: ScaleformSPECIALITY: UIKEY PRODUCTS: Scaleform GFx, Scaleform Video, Scaleform IMEEMAIL: info@scaleform.comADDRESS: Scaleform Corporation. 6305 Ivy Lane, Suite 310,Greenbelt, MD 20770

54-55 Dev110_final 23/9/10 09:37 Page 2

56 | OCTOBER 2010

BUILD | SOFTWARE

CryEngine 3.2

The future is brightCrytek’s Carl Jones has big visions for thefuture of handheld gaming.

“Handheld devices will soon have thepower of current generation consoles; highpowered gaming hardware will becomecommonplace in people’s homes and intheir pockets,” he explains.

“This opens a world of opportunity todevelopers. We’re also waiting for theglobal network infrastructure to be readyfor truly widespread server basedrendering, and it looks like this will happenvery soon.

“Once this is achieved, platforms will nolonger be an issue; everyone will be able tohave the most powerful hardware to rungames straight to your home. At this pointall games will be able to use the highestend, bleeding edge technologies andgaming will never look back. It’ll be likehaving a virtual, five-grand high endgaming rig wherever you want it.”

The third-dimension is verymuch in vogue these days.Gone are trips to the cinema

marked by the understanding thatfor all the entertainment on offer, itwas always going to be a very flatexperience. Now, with a few losecoins exchanged for a pair ofRayban-esque shades that cause theentire auditorium to recite lines fromThe Blues Brothers, the long-elusivefield of depth will show up in all ofthe latest Hollywood entertainment.

The games industry, like manyothers, has taken note of the new 3Dtrend, and has reacted to it quickly.The Nintendo 3DS is almost upon us,and tech and middleware firms likeNvidia and Scaleform haveincorporated 3D tools and servicesinto the products that they offer. Atthe forefront of the expandinggroup of games studiosincorporating stereoscopic 3Dcapabilities into their propriatorytechnology which is being licencedout is Crytek.

Released last month, the 3.2version of the CryEngine 3 SDKincludes full stereoscopic 3Dsupport for all supported platformswith what Crytek has called almostno performance impact orcompromise on graphical quality.Developers are also not required towrite any new code or to changeany assets to take advantage of the3D technology.

The CryEngine 3 Live Createallows for simultaneous editingacross all supported platforms,

running in 3D. The new engine isalso easily capable of handling HD3D, and has multiplatform nativesupport for HDMI 1.4 stereostandard, frame-compatible formatsfor pre-HDMI 1.4 TVs, anaglyphic 3Dand stereoscopic projection.

“We’ve been working on S3D atCrytek for a few years now –probably before most otherdevelopers, because we realisedearly on it would be a key feature forgaming, movies and simulation inthe near future,” explains director of

CryEngine global businessdevelopment Carl Jones.

“So we made a call to spend sometime coming up with a new method

that wouldn’t compromise onquality. The result of our research isScreen Space Reprojection S3D; anew approach that gives us greatstereo 3D with zero compromise,launched in CryEngine 3.2.”

Not yet a year on from its original,3D-free release date, CryEngine 3containins such high-end features asvolumetric, layer and view distancefogging; parametric skeletalanimation, dynamic pathfinding,automated navigation meshgeneration and high speed texturerendering, plans have also been putin place to bring a free-to-useengine version to market.

“Developers using CryEngine 3can be certain that their product willlook great in S3D without themexpending any effort onimplementation or assetproduction,” Jones states.

“We build CryEngine 3 to ensureour developers can spend themaximum time possible on contentcreation. S3D adds a huge amountto interactive entertainment:immersion, depth, emotion andgameplay all benefit from S3D andthe CryEngine 3 solution is displayand hardware independent.”

As for the future, nothing is goingto be left to chance.

“We spend a lot of time and efforton research. We have a freedom atCrytek to experiment with newtechnologies, often ahead of thecurve, as was the case with S3D,”Jones smiles.www.crytek.com

KEYRELEASEPRODUCT: CryEngineCOMPANY: CrytekPRICE: On requestCONTACT: www.crytek.com

DevelopersusingCryEngine 3

can be certain thattheir productwill look greatin S3D.

Carl Jones, Crytek

Hitting its first birthday this month, Crytek’s CryEngine is now available with stereoscopic 3D in the 3.2 SDK. Stuart Richardson caught up with the studio’s director of global business development Carl Jones to discuss the past,present and 3D future of this cutting edge engine...

56 Dev110_final 23/9/10 11:20 Page 1

2010

Delegate Places (strictly limited) Contact: jodie.holdway@intentmedia.co.uk

Survival and Profit in a Changing IndustryThursday November 4th 2010BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London

Confirmed Speakers include:

• Heiko Hubertz, Founder & CEO, Bigpoint• Shuji Utsumi, CEO, Q Entertainment• Ben Cousins, General Manager, Easy (EA) • Kristian Segerstrale, CEO, Playfish & Director, Lovefilm• Ben Keene, Chief Analyst, Screen Digest• Floris Jan Cuypers, Business Development Director, Spil Games• Phil Harrison, Co-founder & General Partner, London Venture Partners• Chris Petrovic, Senior Vice President & General Manager, GameStop Digital Ventures• Dave Perry, Co-founder and CEO, Gaikai• Ian Chambers, International Vice President, Direct2Drive• David Reeves, Chief Operating Officer, Capcom Europe• Ian Livingstone, Chairman, Computer Games Skills Council & Co-Founder, Eidos• Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries

4.30pmRegistration

5.00pm - 8.00pmConference

8.00pm - MidnightNetworking and dinner

Sponsorship opportunities: To ensure your brand is part of the London Games Conference please contact Rob Baker on 01992 535647 or email: rob.baker@intentmedia.co.uk

Supported byPlatinum Sponsor Gold Sponsor

Gold Sponsor Gold Sponsor

Gold SponsorGold Sponsor

57 Dev110_final 24/9/10 09:31 Page 1

To discuss anything raised in this column or general licensing opportunitiesfor Epic Games’ Unreal engine, contact: mrein@epicgames.com

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

This month, I thought I’d venture awayfrom the usual format of talking aboutsome cool things our licensees are

doing. Instead, I’m going to talk about howUnreal Engine 3 is now the most amazingmobile game engine on the planet and how itis already changing the face of mobile gamesforever.

On September 1st, we appeared onstage atthe Apple Special Event to demonstrateProject Sword, our first UE3 game for iOSdevices, and announce to the world that weare making UE3 available to iOS developers. Ifyou did not see the event then I urge you tosearch YouTube for ‘Apple Special EventProject Sword’.

That day, we released Epic Citadel, a freedownload on the iTunes App Store for recentiOS devices. Epic Citadel lets you explore anenvironment from Project Sword but moreimportantly provides a tiny glimpse into theexciting future of triple-A mobile games.

It shows off a stunning parade of visualeffects that you likely have not seen before ina mobile environment, including bump offsetmapping, normal mapping, texture blendingwith painted weight maps, globalillumination and dynamic specular lightingwith texture masks.

In its first ten days, Epic Citadel wasdownloaded by more than a million users.Here’s a sampling of what the media had tosay about what they saw:

“I certainly never thought I’d see graphics likethat on a mobile game.”

“Epic Games opened plenty of eyes with itsbeautiful looking swords-and-castle-exploringgame demo.”

“It’s so exciting, I can’t describe it. My iPhone3GS is suddenly a handheld Xbox 360.”

“Download Epic Citadel right this very secondfrom the App Store. Genuinely speechless... well,apart from all the swearing.”

“If you thought that games on the iPhoneand iPod touch had to be silly-looking glorifiedminigames, Epic Games’ new Project Swordmay blow your mind.”

“Seriously! I have a strange feelingeverything’s just changed.”

I think the last two quotes illustratesomething we at Epic have understood for awhile now – that mobile gaming is quicklychanging. Speaking about Apple TV at theevent, Steve Jobs said, “the HD revolution isover, it happened, HD won. Everybody wantsHD.” I think this sentiment will apply to mobilegaming as well. That doesn’t mean 2D gamesare going to cease to exist but, as more UE3-based mobile games appear, 3D games willneed to deliver higher levels of graphical

fidelity to remain competitive. It is clear thatuntil people put their hands on an app likethis they had no idea how powerful iOSdevices are or how captivating a 3Dexperience they can deliver, and people wantto have more experiences like this.

...THIS INCLUDES UDKThere are now more than 350,000 uniqueinstallations of the Unreal Development Kitand we’re excited to announce that UDK willalso support iOS devices in the near future.For more on this feel free to follow me,@MarkRein, on Twitter.

upcoming epicattended events:GDC OnlineAustin, TXOctober 6th - 8th, 2010

Montreal International Game Summit San Francisco, CANovember 4th - 5th, 2010

IGDA Leadership Forum San Francisco, CANovember 4th - 5th, 2010

Game Connection Lyon, FranceNovember 16th - 18th, 2010

Please email: mrein@epicgames.com for appointments.

58 | OCTOBER 2010

BUILD | GAME ENGINES

Above: Epic Citatel is afree download on theiTunes store, allowingconsumers to explorethe world of upcominggame Project Sword

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

UNREAL ENGINE 3 COMES TO MOBILE

EPICDIARY

58 Dev110_final 23/9/10 11:19 Page 1

develop

Venue:Power League Barnet, Bobby Moore Way,Friern Barnet, London, N10 1ST

Entry fee is £495 + VAT persquad of 10 players.

Inclusive of:* Professional organisation* Qualified matchday officials* Trophies and medals* Lunch and refreshments

Register online at www.topcorner.co.uk/Develop

Sponsorship opportunities available via Katie.Rawlings@intentmedia.co.uk

Friday October 8th 2010GET YOUR KIT ON

★ AT LEAST SIX GAMES PER TEAM ★ GOURMET BARBEQUE

★ TEAM AND INDIVIDUAL TROPHY PRESENTATIONS ★

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59 Dev110_final 22/9/10 15:41 Page 1

UNITYFOCUS

Unity and EA announce three to six-year strategic partnership Building on the positive experiencedeveloping Tiger Woods Online withUnity, EA has decided to adopt theUnity platform for use on multiplefranchises and genres.

The new enterprise licence will giveevery EA studio and developer acrossthe globe full access to the entire rangeof Unity products for web, mobile,consoles and beyond.unity3d.com

Unity announces GPM Studio asofficial Korean reseller We’re super happy to announce thatwe’ve partnered with GPM Studio inKorea. They’ve really shown a lot ofinitiative and our relationship has beengrowing ever closer. They evenorganised a seminar in Seoul last monththat was attended by Unity CEO DavidHelgason, VP of Strategy Brett Seyler,and myself. Also presenting wasYounger Jo, founder of SlimeMarmalade and creator of the hitiPhone game RPG Snake. The seminarhad over 400 attendees, which is abouthow big Unite was last year – Korea isclearly becoming an ever-importantpart of the global Unity community.unity3dkorea.com

Unity 3 ships I can’t say with 100 per cent certainty – Ihave to write these articles about amonth in advance – but in all likelihood

Unity 3 is running loose in the wild andbeing used by 250,000 registereddevelopers. I just installed ReleaseCandidate 1 yesterday and I must saythat it feels really solid. Unity 3 will beshipping with the Boot Camp 3rdperson soldier demo that has been seenin promotional materials; like otherUnity demos, the art, scripts, andshaders will be free to use commerciallyin any projects made with Unity.unity3d.com/3

Unity powers Scion Canada’sPremium Car Configurator Japanese automotive advertisementproduction powerhouse Works Zebrachose Unity for the car configurationtool on Scion’s Canadian website.

Works Zebra’s Jaja Ishibashi had thisto say: “We have been pushing realtime3D for over 10 years in the web spaceand have been creating content back

since VRML. We believe that anexperience is as good as both itstechnology and its authors. We havebeen searching for technology that willtake us that extra mile on the web, andactually have invested millions intocreating our own, but we chose Unityto be our flavour of choice for the web.Unity’s editor and its modularity withcustom shaders was easily adopted byour team – it made prototyping quickand we were able to spend most of ourtime tweaking the experience, wheretypically we are spending 80 per cent ofour time creating and fixing, and verylittle time tweaking.”scionnation.ca

Unite just one month awayIt’s not too late to join us in Montreal forthe fourth annual Unity userconference. The event will be keynotedby the always profound and entertaining

Jesse Schell and will include three daysand three tracks of technicalpresentations, business networking,and post-mortems with some of theworld’s top Unity developers, as well asthe entire Unity staff.

Unite runs from November 10th to12th, directly following the MontrealInternational Games Summit (runningfrom the 8th to 9th).unity3d.com/unite

New Unity books: Unity 3D Game Development by

Example by Ryan Henson Creighton,published by Packt Publishing

Creating 3D Game Art for the iPhonewith Unity iOS: Featuring modo andBlender Pipelines by Wes McDermott,published by Focal Press

New websites: Will Goldstone, author of the first

Unity book (Unity Game DevelopmentEssentials, Packt Publishing), has a newwebsite dedicated to teaching bitesized modules that can be mixed andmatched to solve challenges.unity3dstudent.com

Design3 is a subscription based sitecreated by Noesis Interactive, whocreate professional courseware forUniversities. It has over 200 Unityspecific videos and more on the way.Whether an educator, a student, or abusiness, you can check out their freetrial and see if it works for you.www.design3.com

Global round-upIt’s a busy time of year for Unity. The tech company’s own Thomas Grové brings you a run down of all the latestdevelopments for its engine around the world – and the latest on a wealth of new resources for Unity users…

60 | OCTOBER 2010

BUILD | GAME ENGINES

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62 | OCTOBER 2010

BUILD | AUDIO

When Kristofor Mellroth enrolled atmusic recording school in 1995, heprobably never dreamt that in just

a few year’s time he’d be heading up as hugeand complex video game audio productionemploying a plethora of US and UK talent.

Mellroth came to games via boomoperating, film sound mixing, working as atemp tech repairing original Xbox devkitsand going on the road with Seamus Blackleyas demo guy. In fact, an eclectic combinationof technical, creative and businessexperience set him up perfectly for hiscurrent audio directorial role at Microsoftwithin an audio team deadly serious aboutexcellence. No surprise then that his lastCrackdown project scooped a BAFTA.

Mellroth’s strong passion and highcommitment are self-evident as he enthusesabout Crackdown 2’s audio: “I felt we couldimprove over CD1 making something evenmore memorable. A special focus was theauthoring environment – I wanted ‘best inclass’ tools. Using Audiokinetic’s Wwisemiddleware turned out one of our best earlydecisions and we pushed it to the max usingSoundseed Air and Whoosh a great deal. It’s abig part of why the game sounds the way itdoes. Competition in the middleware marketworks to all our benefit and we have nospecific mandate about tech but as a concept,audio middleware makes a lot of sense to me– fully featured right out of the box with asolution that would take years to developfrom scratch. New features come online asyou make your game and your audioprogrammers can look at game features andnot get bogged down in tech support.”

Mellroth’s team used straightforward logicin scripting extensively within the audio toolsto achieve a vast amount of detail in replay,with the setting up of switches and real-time

parameter controls enabling them tointerpret sound triggers accompanied withadditional game state/event/characterinformation – all in complex ways usingconditional audio choices – and all within thesound designer’s remit and technical control.

TOOLING UPThe game is awash with examples where thishas yielded positive benefits – too many tomention – but the principle is clear. Greattools have allowed creatives to roll up theirsleeves and harness the console’s powerproviding an intricate soundscape without

waiting around for programming staff to adda feature or implement a replay function.

This level of control has been critical indelivery of an improved NPC dialoguesystem. Mellroth says: “Tons of dialoguecategories were recorded for CD1 – some younever heard and some you heard all the time.They had only five variations, duplicatedacross all NPCs – ‘I think I need to pee,’ beingone of the worst offenders. This time all NPCresponses were focused on player actions

letting us circumvent the AI system. Wewatch what the player does and when, andhand out response lines to the NPCs. Theplayer hears quick relevant responses to theirbehaviour creating the illusion of intelligence.”

Audio-wise, the obvious danger of denselyaction-packed games is cacophony. Mellrothand his team gave quality time and attentionto setting up dynamic mix behaviours andthen gathered together key team membersfor a solid period of dedicated mixing andbalancing. Mellroth explains: “It starts withvoice management clamping at master busslevel and then at sub-buss level, limiting howmay sounds an object generates – forexample you don’t want to hear all enemyfootsteps so we clamp to four and kill theoldest. We allow 100 voices in the retailrelease – unclamped it’s 500. Most are culledfor aesthetic reasons – to mitigate thecacophony issue. Then there’s tons of micro-ducking.”

The final mix phase took place Microsoft’sSound Lab facilities for five solid ten-hourdays. “We split our time between the largetheatre and the smaller, quieter ‘Mix1’ forcomparative listening. The driving force wasto achieve dynamic range – we have 24dBbetween footsteps and very large closeexplosions. As well as the technical basics ofensuring you’re not overloading the sub andgenerally getting a good balance, a game likeCrackdown adds complexity with all thedynamic mixing and also things like radiusthresholds for determining when you start tohear a sound - critical in co-op.”

Crackdown 2John Broomhall talks to audio director Kristofor Mellroth, about the audio in Ruffian’s eagerly anticpated sequel…

John Broomhall is an independent audio director,consultant and content providerdevelop@johnbroomhall.co.ukwww.johnbroomhall.co.uk

Above: Crackdown 2’saudio team went togreat lengths to betterthe superb work on thefirst game

HEARDABOUT

Competition in themiddleware market

works to all our benefit andwe have no specificmandate about tech, but asa concept, audiomiddleware makes alot of sense to me.

Kristofor Mellroth, Microsoft Game Studios

THIS MONTH’SFEATURED SOUNDTRACK:Crackdown 2

DEVELOPER:Ruffian/Microsoft

PLATFORM:Xbox360

62 Dev110_final 23/9/10 11:25 Page 1

KEYNOTE

63 Dev110_final 21/9/10 10:32 Page 1

64 | OCTOBER 2010

BUILD | GAME ART

DEAD END THRILLS

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DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET OCTOBER 2010 | 65

Duncan Harris presents the latest entry in his ongoing series looking atspecially-captured screenshots that showcase game art at its best…

Studio: Amusement VisionPublisher: NintendoYear: 2003Capture format: GameCube (via PC)

GAME ART | BUILD

F-Zero GXFans of F-Zero GX delight in inventing reasons forthe existence and layout of Phantom Road. Is itbeing sucked into a black hole? Is it cyberspace?Was it designed by man or machine? One thing’sfor sure: in a game obsessed with the ‘rhythm’ ofthe galaxy’s fastest and most electrifying racer,this is its purest expression. Recognised as one ofthe best-looking GameCube games, it owes muchto the attention-grabbing demands of its otherplatform, the coin-op, and the Triforce hardwaredeveloped by Namco, Sega and Nintendo.

Tools and tricks we used to get this screenshot:the Dolphin GameCube emulator running alegitimate rip of the NTSC version (EAN:0045496960926), together with the free look hack

of its current OpenGL graphics plug-in. Thegame’s heads-up display was removed by‘blanking’ (making transparent) all of its texturesand a great deal of the title’s text, before injectingthe new ones at runtime.www.deadendthrills.comDead End Thrills is a website and resource dedicatedto the art of video games. It believes this art is tooeasily overlooked thanks to factors includingtechnology, design and the ‘fast food culture’ ofmodern play.

Its galleries feature over 5,500 lovingly taken,watermark-free screenshots which are free todownload and use. Elsewhere, it features interviewswith many of today’s leading artists and designers.

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66 | OCTOBER 2010

Hello, I’m Andy. I’m a game developer,and I’m wrong. I’m wrong aboutwhen the game’s going to be

finished, I’m wrong about how it works, I’mwrong about how it’s going to look, I’mwrong about what features it’s going to have.

I’m frequently wrong to think that mycode is even syntactically valid C++. Wrong,wrong, wrong and wrong.

But you see, it turns out that everybody’swrong at pretty much every level, and if weaccept being wrong and try to makeourselves just slightly less wrong at everystep it turns out all right.

Here at Silverball Studios in Oxfordshire –formerly Fuse Games – we use our ownsystem of Extreme Game Development(XGD), derived from the mainstream ExtremeProgramming (XP) method to deal withbeing wrong. With half a dozen on-budget,on-time, no-crunch games under our belt, itseems to be working.

So where are we wrong, and where couldwe be less wrong?

TO THE EXTREMEFirstly, we’re wrong if we think we’reengineers. Engineers describe what theywant to build, then work backwards fromthere figuring out the steps needed to buildit. This gives an efficient and accurate plan,with a minimum of fuss. Follow the steps,build the thing, job done. While this is asplendid way of building bridges, it’s aterrible way of building games.

Finished games never look like the originalplan. They can’t because you don’t reallyknow how it’s going to play until you play it.So don’t worry about it. Getting it right at thevery start is philosophically impossible,wasted effort, fool’s gold. Instead begin withan idea, some concepts, a kernel of a gameto develop from.

Make it cool, make it exciting, make itinspirational, make it (conveniently) the kindof thing you’d put in your pitch to apublisher; just don’t feel the need to flesh itout too much as it’ll be wrong.

With the kernel decided, we jump straightin. We have to find the eventual game that’sgoing to come out of this idea. To do that, weneed something working and playable assoon as possible. That way we can quicklydiscover which were bad ideas, and whichwere good, and even think up some evenbetter ones along the way. But we’re notcompletely rash, before we start coding weof course do some planning.

Oh, what’s the point? Of planning, I mean.Well, to have a reasonably detailed idea ofwhat you’re making, and how long it’s going

to take. It is a form of peering into the future,and that gets murkier and more wrong thefurther you look. Because of this we split ourplanning into broad-and-vague, anddetailed-and-specific.

BROAD-AND-VAGUELet’s talk broad-and-vague first. Our conceptis divided into individual features, called‘stories’. Each gets its own index card with ashort title. They don’t have to be too detailed(‘multiplayer’ is a perfectly good story)because we can split them up later. Eachstory gets a rough (because it’s wrong) effortestimate called the cost.

HOW DO WE DECIDE WHAT TO DO? This is the job of another member of theteam, the ‘customer’. In traditional XP this isliterally a representative of the person payingfor the system. In XGD it’s typically theproject lead, or producer.

They get a fortnight’s worth of budget tospend on the stories they want to see in thenext, working game in two weeks. Unpickedfeatures go in a pile for future versions. In thisway we concentrate only on the mostimportant features, and are constantly re-reviewing what is essential, and what is onlynice to have.

DETAILED PLANNINGNow we know what we’ll be doing, detailedplanning can begin on those stories andthose stories only. This saves effort doingdetailed planning into stories that may wellnever happen. Each story is split intoindividual tasks of no more than a few hours’work, each of which goes on its own indexcard, with discussion notes and diagrams toflesh out what is needed.

Tasks and time estimates are then assignedin a simple way – each developer grabs a biroand writes their name on the tasks they mostwant to do, adding an estimate of how long

it will take. This results in surprisingly few fist-fights, just the occasional rebalancing. Aseach estimate is only a few hours and ismade by the person who’s going to do thework, it’s as not-wrong as you can hope for.

And that’s planning. It takes somewherebetween a morning and a day, but at the endwe have a chunk of work that we canreasonably expect to complete in the nextfortnight, a detailed spec, and a timeestimate that at least has a good chance ofbeing accurate.

14 DAYS LATER…At the end of every fortnight a polished,playable, bug-free game containing onlythose features listed on the cards, andsuitable for sending to the publisher forfeedback, is produced. This forms the basisfor planning the next two weeks’development, bringing back the untouchedstory cards and adding any new ones we’vethought up during development. This rapiditeration lets us focus on what’s good, andtrim what’s not. Some features never getimplemented and stay at the bottom of thepile for the whole development, but everytwo weeks we’re doing what adds the mostto the game, and at least we know we didn’twaste any time on features that ultimatelyweren’t needed

One other thing comes in to every fewplanning meetings – a retrospective. Thisgives us the chance to reflect on what wentwell, what we could do better, and how weshould adjust our developmentmethodology in future to avoid theseproblems. You could call it a post-mortem,but that would rather unfortunately implythat something had died.

FINE-TUNINGBut don’t think that’s the lesson over – don’tjust grab your task cards and disappear toyour cubicles. That is not what happens next. Just because we know what we’re doingdoesn’t mean we’ll do it right, so XGD has anumber of features to reduce Development Wrongness.

1. Test Driven Development. This onetakes some getting used to, but paysenormous dividends. Before writing afunction in the game we make a littleautomated test that will check that it’sworking. Once we see it failing, which you’dhope it did because we’ve not written thecode yet, we write the code and watch thetest pass. Hurrah. Or not, because ofteneither the code or the test were wrong, but atleast we noticed.

It turns out thateverybody’s

wrong at pretty much every level, and if we acceptbeing wrong and try tomake ourselves just slightly less wrongat every step itturns out all right.

Heard of Extreme Programming? What about Extreme Game Development? Silverball Studios’ Andy Krouwel talks usthrough how he reshaped his coding methodology to form a new discipline for making games…

LIVING WITH BEING WRONG

BUILD | TUTORIAL: EXTREME GAME DEVELOPMENT

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DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET OCTOBER 2010 | 67

Once written that test keeps being run forthe rest of the project. If ever your originalcode stops working – well, you know about itstraight away, not when some unfortunateplayer tries it in several months time.

Writing good tests takes practice. You don’twant every change to a class to need achange to all the tests. We aim to test all ourpublic functions, but trust the private stuff todo the work. In this way we only have tochange the tests when we change the classinterface, and it can implement thefunctionality any way it wants.

It’s important to know that automatedtests do not replace QA and playtesting, butthey make sure you’re building the system onsolid foundations. Reported bugs are tackledthe same way, with a test that exposes thebug first, then the fix. This makes sure itdoesn’t rear its head again.

2. It Always Works. Although we havepolished versions at the end of every twoweeks, we can take a working build at anytime. We have a machine dedicated tobuilding every configuration, and runningevery test all day every day. If your check-instops it working, you fix it immediately. Buildfailure is subtly flagged by a boomingproclamation from an electronic BrianBlessed we keep in the corner.

Bugs are also fixed as soon as they arefound, taking priority over starting new tasks.This constant fixing prevents the large build-up of problems at the end of a project, andkeeps our estimates accurate as bug-fixingtime gets built into the schedule.

3. Don’t Repeat Yourself. In code, this isjust good practice. You don’t copy and pastecode; you refactor into a common function.That way bugs are more likely to be noticed,and when they’re fixed in one place they’refixed everywhere. It’s always worth taking thetime to do something properly.

In wider development terms this meansautomating any donkey work. We haveautocomplete, macros for many commonoperations, shell scripts for art and buildprocessing and so on. The computer is wrongfar less often than a bored developer.

4. Pair Programming. XGD’s most unusualpractice is to have programmers sitting nextto each other at the same developmentstation, working on the same task card. Onehas the keyboard ‘driving’, while the other is‘navigating’ – a process that involves thinkingabout the design, fielding questions, spottingmistakes, using the devkit for testing, findingadvice on the internet and so on.

Pairs swap roles frequently, with onedeveloper writing a test and the otherwriting the code to pass it. During the daythe member of the pair who isn’t signed upfor the current task will swap onto a different task, so developers also movearound the room.

Although this may seem like it shouldreduce productivity, it provides manybenefits. Code has to be clear enough to beunderstood by another person, and manybugs at the design level are caught beforethe cursor leaves the edit line. It is slower toproduce code, but having at least two sets of

eyes look over everything means that yourarely have to come back to it later. You alsodon’t hit a wall; There’s always someone withfresh ideas and a new perspective that canget things moving again.

With each coder on every task, knowledgeof the whole system percolates through thegroup. This stops duplicate code beingwritten, and means that work can alwayscontinue through illness or holiday. Artists also perform pairing, although of alooser kind where they share a desk so thatthey can see what the other is doing and getadvice if needed.

All these techniques reduce our level ofwrongness, and so our risk. The game is ontime and on budget because you can alwaysstop when the deadline arrives and it’ll beworking. It might not have all the featuresyou wanted, but those you do have will be ofproduction quality, not rushed for a deadline.

A subtler, but useful benefit is improveddeveloper confidence and morale. Progress isvisible, tangible. You know you’re going to hityour ship date.

You know the change you just made didn’tbreak the game. It can actually be playedalmost immediately, getting better story bystory. Good ideas can be added at any pointin the process. Involvement in the planningprocess gives a sense of empowered control,rather than detached helplessness.

For similar reasons, the publisher ishappier. They can see the game makeprogress and actually play it.

Corrections can be easily incorporated. Thegame will be ready on schedule, and thereare no nasty surprises.

Sounds like it’s perfect. Well, it is good, and it’s the first system I’ve

used as a developer that feels like it wasmade for software, not circuits or bridges.However, there are some drawbacks.

Some aspects of games are just verydifficult to write tests for. How do you reliablyand quickly test that a random element in afeature is working? Brrr. Still, having sometests is better than none, and it’s importantto remember that you still need QA, it’s justthat they get to find the interesting bugs notthe basic stuff.

Also while it’s a highly efficient system fordeveloping software, other important jobssuch as coming up with new game ideas, orcreative tinkering with better ways of doingthings will be missed unless you explicitlyschedule time for them.

During ‘dead’ times, like a long re-compilation, you generally talk to yourpartner, rather than browse newsgroupdiscussions or the web. While this is

admirably sociable, you can also loseawareness of the wider world.

Scale is also a question. There are a dozenof us in our team, and we all work in in thesame (admittedly large) room.

It’s very easy for each person to interactwith everyone else. Because we swap pairs atleast twice a day, it’s easy for everyone tohave a good idea what’s going on in theirown discipline, and a fair idea what’shappening in the other.

I doubt it would work well if there weretwo-dozen or more of us, or if we werespread across multiple locations. In such asituation it’d be better to parcel up jobs intochunks, then use the XGD method on thesmaller sections.

All told, I love developing with XGD and I’dfind it hard going back to the old hack-it-and-hope, or plan-then-ignore techniques.

I’m still wrong a lot – we all are – but atleast I know that it can be put right, and atthe end of the development cycle I knowthere’s going to be a good game because I’vealready played it. www.silverballstudios.com

XGD’s most unusualpractice is to haveprogrammers sitting

next to each other at thesame developmentstation, working onthe same task card.

EXTREME GAME DEVELOPMENT TIPS & TRICKSPlanning numbersWho is best placed to tell how much effort a story will take? Theperson who is going to do it, so it’s a principle that those with the mostknowledge decide the relative cost of the stories. After a briefdiscussion of the feature and its scope, with relevant points notedevery developer decides on their time estimate by choosing anappropriate card from their planning deck. Cards are then revealed,and if there’s a large range then the lowest and highest estimators getto put their case, often highlighting problems with the story orshortcuts we could take, and the estimating happens again. Numbersquickly converge, and an egg-timer stops the system devolving intoendless debate. Oh, artists and coders give separate estimates as theirtime usage differs so wildly. The numbers on the cards in the planningdeck follow the fibonacci sequence, as the accuracy gets more wrongthe larger the task.

Planning pointsHow many points can the customer spend? Well, it’s a bit of a guess atthe start of a project, but when we repeat this process, as we will everyfortnight, the size of the next fortnight’s budget is the same as thetotal for the completed stories from the previous fortnight. Over time,this compensates for estimation problems, illness, bugs and so on.

Progress trackingThe story and task cards go onto a board in the development area inpriority order. When a task is started, it is moved to the active area soeveryone can see what is being worked on. When complete, it movesto the done column. When all tasks for a story are complete the projectlead reviews it, then the story card is also done. At the end of each dayevery developer adjusts their estimates up or down to reflect howmuch work remains. The total hours left are added up, and this goeson a chart on the wall so we can see if we’re going to get it all done ontime. If not, then the bottom story will get bumped off the chart. It’sbetter to have fewer, complete features than a larger number of buggy,half-finished ones.

TUTORIAL: EXTREME GAME DEVELOPMENT | BUILD

Andy Krouwel is currently lead programmer atSilverball Studios. He has been programmingfor ever, roughly, and has developed games forNintendo, Atlus and Ubisoft

66-67 Dev110_final 23/9/10 15:46 Page 2

To list your company here and online every week please

sourcebooTHE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT AGEN C

AGI MediaTel: 0207 602 9119www.agimedia.com

an.xTel: 0207 785 7156www.anxagency.com

Ark VFXTel: 0114 268 4999www.arkvfx.net

BastionTel: +44 (0)20 7421 7600www.bastion.co.uk

BH MediaTel: +44 (0)1462 456780www.bhpress.co.uk

Biff New MediaTel: 0203 178 3312www.biffnewmedia.com

Eye-D Creative Tel: +44 (0)20 7407 1440www.eye-dcreative.co.uk

FINKTel: 01480 302350www.finkcreative.com

FluidTel: +44 (0)121 212 0121www.fluidesign.co.uk

freeform.LondonTel: 020 7183 6664www.freeformlondon.co.uk

FrontroomTel: +44 (0)20 7729 3033www.frontroom.com

Game FrontierTel: 0870 420 2424www.gamefrontier.com

GFK Chart-TrackTel: +44 (0)20 8741 7585www.chart-track.com

Heaven MediaTel: +44 (0) 1480 420820www.heavenmedia.com

Indigo PearlTel: +44 (0)20 8964 4545www.indigopearl.com

Jelly MediaTel: 08707 506070www.jellymedia.com

KeefTel: +44 (0)20 3239 7563www.keefcreative.com

MaverickTel: +44 (0)20 7291 3450www.mavericklovesgames.com

Outsource MediaTel: +44 (0)207 713 9000www.omuk.com

Peppermint PTel: 0207 240 2645www.peppermintp.com

PMA Digital Tel: 020 7060 4500www.pmadigital.com

Premier PRTel: +44 (0)207 292 8330www.premierpr.com

Rainbow ProductionsTel: +44 (0)20 8254 5300www.rainbowproductions.co.uk

RealtimeUKTel: 01772 682363 www.realtimeuk.com

Side UKTel: +44 (0)20 7631 4800www.side.com

Studio CO2Tel: +44 (0)1483 414415 www.studioco2.com

The Audio GuysTel: +44 (0) 1788 565230www.theaudioguys.co.uk

Über Tel: 0114 278 7100www.uberagency.com

DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION

Arvato Games Task ForceTel: +49 (0)521 80 3074www.gamestaskforce.de

Direct 2 DriveTel: +44 (0)203 077 4000www.direct2drive.co.uk

GAMING ACCESSORIES

AntiGrav MediaTel: 01932 454929www.antigrav-media.co.uk

Hubb AccessoriesTel: 01642 204343www.hubbaccessories.com

I GlobeTel: 0203 0066760www.i-ga.co.uk

IGSTel: +845 600 1676www.igs-group.com

Logic 3Tel: 01923 471000www.logic3.com

Powerplay GlobalTel: 01706 242060www.powerplaygroup.co.uk

CREATIVE AND PROMOTIONAL SERVICES

68-69 Dev110_final 22/9/10 16:08 Page 1

contact rob.baker@intentmedia.co.uk or 01992 535646

k2010N CIES AND SERVICE COMPANIES

Realtime DistributionTel: 01480 435 881www.realtimeonline.co.uk

INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION

Curveball LeisureTel: 01792 652521www.thegamecollection.net

Game Outlet EuropeTel: +46 54 854750www.gameoutlet.se

InComm EuropeTel: 01489 556700www.incomm-europe.com

NJOYit EntertainmentTel: +44 (0)1992 631700www.njoyitentertainment.com

TechlandTel: +48 71 354 46 10www.techland.pl/en

LEGAL SERVICES

Harbottle & LewisTel: +44 (0)20 7667 5000www.harbottle.com

Exobia Legal ServicesTel: +31(0)85 111 0099 www.exobialegal.com

LOCALISATION, QA AND TESTING

BabelTel: 01273 764 100www.babelmedia.com

Enzyme LabsTel: (+1) 450-995-2000www.enzyme.org

Global StepTel: +31 (0)20 312 0508www.globalstepgames.com

Key FactorTel: +49 (0) 6173 999 781www.keyfactor-entertainment.com

Orange StudioTel: +39 051 588 04 50www.orangestudio.it

PartnertransTel: +44 1273 229030www.partnertrans.com

Testronic LaboratoriesTel: +44 (0)1753 653722www.testroniclabs.com

Universally SpeakingTel: +44 1 480 210621www.usspeaking.com

MANUFACTURING SERVICES

OK MediaTel: +44 (0)20 7688 6789www.okmedia.com

Sony DADC AustriaTel: +43 (0)6246 880-0www.sonydadc.com

TechnicolorTel: 020 8987 7829www.technicolor.com

RECRUITMENT

Aardvark SwiftTel: 01709 876877www.aswift.com

AmiqusTel: 01925 252588www.amiqus.com

Avatar Games RecruitmentTel: +44 (0) 1942 527 966www.avatar-games.co.uk

Game OptionsTel: +44 (0)1382 731909www.gameops.co.uk

Specialmove Consultancy Tel: +44 (0) 141 530 4555www.specialmove.com

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

CrytekTel: +49 (69) 219 77 66 0www.crytek.com

GameSpy TechnologyTel: 001-714-460-6732www.poweredbygamespy.com

xaitmentTel: +49 (0)6897 600 800www.xaitment.com

UK DISTRIBUTION AND LOGISTICS

EntaTechTel: 0333 101 1000www.entatech.com

GemTel: 01279 822822www.gem.co.uk

Hive EntertainmentTel: 01706 242070www.hive-entertainment.net

White Room Gameswww.whiteroomgames.com

68-69 Dev110_final 22/9/10 16:08 Page 2

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DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET OCTOBER 2010 | 71

PEOPLE: James Parr

moves to PitbullStudios

p72

TOOLS: OpenFeint’s new

mobilemultiplayer kit

p74

SERVICES: PlaySpan hires

Stevie Case as bizdev VP

p77

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

KEY CONTACTS

STUDIOSEpic Games +1 919 870 1516

High Score +44 (0) 1295 738 337

Ian Livingstone +44 (0) 1483 421 491

Stainless Games jobs@stainlessgames.com

TOOLSBlitz Games Studios +44 (0) 1926 880 000

bluegfx +44 (0) 1483 467 200

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COURSESUniversity of Derby www.derby.ac.uk/develop

University of Hull +44 (0) 1482 465 951

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

Alex.Boucher@intentmedia.co.uk

T: 01992 535 647

71 Dev110_final 23/9/10 15:51 Page 1

studios

72 | October 2010

Epic +1-919-870-1516 www.epicgames.comStudio NewsThis month: Team 17, Pitbull Studio Limited, Zattikka, MTV

Paul Bray and Alan Perrie are the two latest recruitsat Worms studio Team 17.

Bray has become the firm’s finance andoperations director, while Perrie will now serve ashead of global marketing.

The hirings come as part of substantialmanagement shift at Team 17, which has alsoencompassed several in-house promotions.

Debbie Bestwick has been promoted to the dualroles of managing director and sales andmarketing director, and Martin Brown will serve asbusiness development director.

Paul Kilburn has become head of production and John Dennis will serve as head ofdesign, while Mark Baldwin is now community manager.www.team17.com

Pitbull Studios Limited has hired James Parr as its new technicaldirector and Jef Hardy as design director.

The studio, which first opened this July, was founded by formerPitbull Syndicate and Midway Newcastle man Robert Troughton.

Parr and Hardy both worked at Pitbull Syndicate, where Parr wasa co-founder with Troughton. He has over 20 years industryexperience, having worked on the Test Drive series, Ferrari Challengeand Wheelman.

Following the hirings, Pitbull announced its first game contractas a circus-themed game set to use the next generation of motion controllers.

“We were awarded the project because of the level of expertise we have within thecompany – for something like this our partners, who we can’t reveal just yet, neededto be sure they chose the right people for the job,” Troughton said.

“Choosing us simply removes the risk for them. For us, it allows us to hit the groundrunning with our new studio.”www.3biz.co.uk/pitbull/

Peter Jones and Joel Breton have joined UK-basedcasual games studio Zattikka as executive producerand EVP of North American operations respectively.

Jones has moved to Zattika from Codemasters,where he served as director of productiondevelopment. He will now be managing Zattikka’sexpanding portfolio.

Breton has worked in the games industry since1994 with Sega, GT Interactive, Bethesda, Take-Twoand MTV Networks.

“Hiring Joel gives us access to his wealth of productand industry knowledge and kick-starts our presencein the US, which is a huge market for us,” said ZattikkaCEO Tim Chaney.www.zattikka.com

Growing social gaming firm Bigpoint is enteringa rapid phase of workforce expansion, with agoal to add 350 to its San Francisco studio.

The German-born company this yearexpanded its office network to the US.

Now just six months later, Bigpoint wants togrow the studio by some 80 staff.

"Coming to San Francisco has helped usquickly enter and begin competing in the NorthAmerican online gaming market," said companyCEO Heiko Hubertz.

Bigpoint currently employs over 500 peopleacross its studio network in San Francisco, Maltaand Berlin.www.mtv.co.uk/games

brought to you by…

High Score +44 (0) 1295 738 337 www.high-score.co.uk

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WWW.DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET October 2010 | 73

studios

Stainless Games jobs@stainlessgames.com www.stainlessgames.com

SpotlightStudio

SCE Cambridge Studio was originallyformed in July 1997 when SCEEacquired the Millennium developmentstudio from Cyberlife Ltd. Roughly 75to 90 people are currently working atthe studio under the long time bossJames Shepherd.

The first titles from the new SCECambridge were the acclaimed andhugely popular MediEvil 1 and 2 on thePS1 back in 1998 and 2000. These werequickly followed-up by C-12: FinalResistance in 2001, Primal in 2003 andGhosthunter in 2004, all of which hadstrong sales and helped the studiobuild up a well earned reputation forhard-work and consistency.

In 2005 the studio returned to itsbest-loved series to date with MediEvil:Resurrection for the PSP. This made wayfor an impressive licence acquisitionthe following year when SCECambridge released the BAFTAnominated 24: The Game, for which itworked very closely with IP owners20th Century Fox.

The studio kept active, and washeavily involved in the PlayTV projectin 2008, which brought a set-top box tothe PS3 that allowed users to watch,pause and record free digital TVthrough their console, and marked amove into a more peripheral andcasual-focussed era for the firm. Thisled on to the Playstation 3 Move titleTV Superstars, out this month.

Today the studio develops titles forall PlayStation platforms, some of thelatest of which include the Developaward-winning LittleBigPlanet on thePSP, and the upcoming TV Superstars,which will utilise the hotly-anticipatedPS Move motion controller. SCECambridge has also worked in closecollaboration with other studios ontitles, such as with Ninja Theory on the

critically lauded Heavenly Sword.The life of SCE Cambridge has been

anything but dull, and when the firmhas taken on quality IP developedeither in-house or aquired externally, itconsitently delivers a profitable andexciting product, and frquently anoutstanding one. Having built up to arun of top-quality output, it hasdefinitely positioned itself as one towatch over the coming year.

CONTACT:SCE CambridgeHills RoadCambridgeCambsUK

W: worldwidestudios.net/cambridge

SCE CAMBRIDGE STUDIO

Ian Livingstone +44 (0)1483 421 491 www.ianlivingstone.net

72-79 Dev110_final 22/9/10 15:19 Page 3

74 | October 2010

tools

Social games platform OpenFeint hasannounced the upcoming release ofPlayTime, a multiplayer technologies setfor mobile developers using the yet-to-be-launched OpenFeint 3.0.

The new suite will come in twoseparate SDK’s, Casual Games and CoreGames, each with slightly differing API’sand architecture for their relativemarkets, and each will support real-timemultiplayer with voice chat across iOSand Android.

The Casual Games PlayTime SDK willinclude drop in widgets for displaying progress, an embedded VoIP client for groupvoice chat, a lobby, a matchmaking system for starting sessions, and a synchronizedevent system for passing data between games.

PlayTime for Core Games is built in partnership with Exit Games and provides arobust architecture for 16 player server authoritative multiplayer games, with a groupvoice chat system for team coordination, as well as a skill based lobby andmatchmaking system.

PlayTime will launch later this year as part of OpenFeint 3.0. OpenFeint will beholding a private beta program in the intervening time.www.openfeint.com

Ansca Mobile has launched apair of new mobile tools in theform of the upgraded CoronaSDK and the Corona GameEdition kit.

Previously an iPhone onlyplatform, the Corona SDK nowlets developers build cross-platform titles for both iOS and Android using the same code set, offering thepotential for significant time savings.

The new Corona SDK also automatically scales graphics for each distinct platform,removing the need for users to tackle rescaling manually.

“Developers now want to build their apps for multiple platforms,” suggested AnscaMobile co-founder and CTO Walter Luh. “With the new versions of Corona, we aremaking it easier, quicker, and less costly for developers to target multiple platformswhile still maintaining utmost quality and performance in their apps.”anscamobile.com

BlitzTech has announced that its middleware anddevelopment tools now include full functionality for Kinecton Xbox 360 and Move for PS3.

UK-based studio Blitz has used its proprietary tech suite onupcoming Kinect and Move-based titles Yoostar2 and TheBiggest Loser: Ultimate Workout, as well as other yet-to-be-announced games.

“Our in-house technology team has always thrived on achallenge. The amazing variety of Kinect and Move titles thatwe’ve signed up over the last year has enabled us to really experiment with thecapabilities of these new devices,” said Blitz Games Studios’ technical directorRichard Hackett.

“We’re incredibly excited about the potential of both systems and we’ve alreadyreceived some great feedback on our work so far.”www.blitzgamesstudios.com/blitztech/

OnLive is offering its SDK and a range of tools to help indiedevs port their work to the cloud gaming platform.

The firm said that OnLive gives developers a uniqueopportunity to release their games simultaneously across PC,Mac and home TVs – with all the game data being streamedusing some highly sophisticated cloud computing technology.

“By leveraging an open PC architecture, game developerscan now release their game on an exciting new platform with aminimal amount of effort,” explained OnLive vice presidentJohn Spinale.

The platform now hosts a range of widely applauded and award winning indie titlessuch as World of Goo, Trine and The Maw.

World of Goo developer 2D Boy had high praise for the new technology.“We’re going to see things with OnLive that were not possible before,” Spinale said.

www.onlive.com

Blitz Games Studios 01926 880000 www.BlitzGamesStudios.com

This month: OpenFeint, BlitzTech andOnLive

Tools News Develop Magazine 01992 535647 www.develop-online.net

GREAT ADVERTISINGOPPORTUNITIES

CONTACT: ALEXalex.boucher@intentmedia.co.uk

Tel: 01992 535647

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tools

October 2010 | 75

bluegfx 01483 467200 www.bluegfx.com

Fork Particle 1(925) 417 1785 www.forkparticle.comDolby 01793 842922 games@dolby.com

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tools

SpotlightTool

READY AT DAWN ENGINE

The Ready At Dawn Engine, a youngengine announced in 2009, is a gamedevelopment platform for consolescomprised of a flexible data-driven toolpipeline and a highly optimised enginecapable of scaling up from handheldplatforms to next-gen consoles. Theplatform contains integrated solutionsfor sound design, user interface andmovie playback.

The engine tool pipeline and editingenvironment is the same for allconsoles and allows the user to decidewhich consoles to output data onto. Italso allows the production of separateassets for the different consoles,allowing the user to optimize eachasset specifically.

Complete access to the source codeof the tools pipeline and engine is alsoavailable. Al updates are distributed viathe Perforce server which containsboth a stable and an unstable branchof the source tree.

The engine also links to externalconsole libraries provided as part of thedev kits for each console and a list ofavailable libraries online.

A complete asset managementsystem is provided, fully integrated intothe editing system and backed by anSCM solution to allow for simpleversioning of the entire game project,code, design and art. The editing tools

also allow you to track asset usage andreferences inside the levels of a game.

The Ready At Dawn Engine providesa modular, task-driven and data-drivengame engine. Ready At Dawn hasstated its lack of faith in scriptinglanguages and existing graphicalrepresentations, aiming instead weprovide easy to use modules which canbe combined inside its editingenvironment by designers and easilyextended/modified by programmers toautomatically generate newfunctionality inside the editor.

Having already powered the popularPSP God of War titles Chains of Olympusand the upcoming Ghost of Sparta, theengine has proved its mettle. As for thefuture, things are looking bright forReady At Dawn, and they certainlyseem ready for it.

CONTACT:Ready at Dawn7525 Irvine Center Drive, Suite 150 Irvine, CA 92618 USA

P: +1949 724 1234E: info@readyatdawn.comW: www.readyatdawn.com

TECHNOLOGY: ENGINE

We engineer AI game tools that go far beyond pathfinding.

Give NPCs the brainpower to challenge even the most seasoned gamer and be-come part of our team.

NOW RECRUITING• Application Engineer USA • Application Engineer Asia• Game AI Developer • Senior Developer

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Havok +1 415 543 4620 www.havok.com

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services

Services NewsMonetisation firm PlaySpan hashired Stevie Case as VP of sales andbusiness development. In the roleshe will be responsible forgenerating new business leads aswell as supporting the sales teamon existing initiatives.

“Stevie is a widely respected figure in the gaming industry and she has acombination of passion, professionalism, and knowledge that is unmatched,” said KarlMehta, CEO of PlaySpan.

Case was keen to enthuse about her new position.“It’s great to be a part of PlaySpan’s seasoned executive team and I am looking

forward to contributing to the company’s overall success,” she said. Case most recently served as the Senior Director of Business Development at

LiveGamer. She was named by Working Woman Magazine as “20 Women to Watch inBusiness Under 30.”www.playspan.com

PayPal, the online payments firm, islaunching new developer toolsdesigned to streamline socialgames transactions. This will befollowed by a micropaymentsfeature next month.

Speaking to Inside Facebook, PayPal VP of product development Osama Bedieroutlined the project’s aims.

“We’re going to have an online shopping experience where you can authorize atransaction on the screen right there in the game,” he said.

The upcoming micropayments feature will allow gamers to pay smaller top-up feesin games instead of larger, one-time payments.

The firm is currently testing both development tool and micropayments featurewith several studios, with plans to launch them at the Innovate Conference in SanFrancisco in October.www.paypal.co.uk

Elitest 0121 706 0463 www.elitest.co.uk

This month: Playspan and PayPal

Partnertrans +44 (0) 1273 229030 www.partnertrans.com

Matinee 01189 584 934 www.matinee.co.uk

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services

78 | October 2010

Testronic Labs +44 (0) 1753 653 722 www.testronic labs.com

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 info@usspeaking.com www.usspeaking.com

Universally Speaking 01480 210621 www.usspeaking.com

SpotlightServices

Spov is a design and animationoutsourcing company located inShoreditch, East London. Serving thefilm, TV and video games industries,the firm has gained a reputation forhigh-quality animation output with aminimum of fuss.

Spov creative services includeconcept development and artdirection, live action production andpost production, motion graphics,branding, CGi and visual effects. Thecompany has provided high-endanimations and cut-scenes for gamesof the likes of Call of Duty 4: ModernWarfare, Transformers: Revenge of theFallen, Call of Duty: World at War, QuakeWars: Enemy Territory and Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2.

The firm espouses a work ethicbased around passion, good humour,and a dedication to producecompelling work that is original inconcept and execution. It enthuses ona commitment to operate on an open,collaborative basis both in-house andin client relationships, and to bring awealth of experience and enthusiasmfrom the design, animation, TV, filmand gaming industries to its clients.

Upcoming Spov projects include thehighly-anticipated Call of Duty: BlackOps, an as-yet-unannounced iPhonetitle slated by Spov as “the best iPhonegame yet”, two unannounced filmopening sequences and a full-lengthanimated feature.

In a recent interview with Develop,Spov’s business development andstrategy man Dan Higgott spoke abouthis belief in convergence as the futureof the games industry as a whole, andsomething Spov would actively seek tobe involved in.

“For Spov it seems an obvious areato focus on,” he said.

“While the company has rightlygained a fantastic reputation for itsgames work over the last three years, itis important to remember that thecreative team come from a film and TVbackground and have brought anarrative skill from these sectors intotheir games work.

“The next trick for Spov will be totake all of the learning that has comefrom its games projects back to filmand TV, positioning itself at the heart ofthis convergence. It is personallyexciting for me as I can see suchpotential for these two seperate mediaareas to learn from each other anddevelop in tandem, creating newimmersive content and IP that can befully passive, interactive or any point inbetween,” he continued.

“For me, the technology is afacilitator, it will be story telling thatwill drive this convergence forward.”

The company plans to launch a 2010showreel soon. Until that time, playingthrough MW2 and COD: Black Ops willtell us everything we need to know.

CONTACT:Spov17b Perseverance Works38 Kingsland RoadLondonE2 8DD

P: +44 (0) 207 739 5862E: contact@spov.tvW: www.spov.tv

SPOV

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courses

Training News

The University of Hull +44(0) 1482 465951 www.mscgames.com

Online development training providerTrain2Game has announced its Incubatorprogramme, with which it hopes toprovide its most talented graduates witha defined route into the video gamesdevelopment industry.

The new scheme will offer financial,logistical, business and mentoringsupport for successful candidates toestablish their own businesses focusedon the development of commercialgaming content.

A series of three-month long industryplacements beginning in October willalso be offered by the scheme, throughwhich Train2Game will provide itsgraduates with time in-house at studiosacross the UK.

The programme is being led by Future Game and Digital City veteran Dave Sharp,who will manage the implementation of the £96,000 worth of support that eachIncubator company will receive. This aid will include office space and equipment,hardware and software, business mentoring, IT and admin support and a monthly cashinvestment in the company.

Incubator candidates will be required to present a business cash flow forecast andcreative proposition to the Train2Game panel before making it onto the scheme, andthe first new company is sheduled to be in business by the early part of December.

“Train2Game’s Incubator programme will act as a conduit for its most capablegraduates to exercise their skills and creativity in a business environment which ifsuccessful will help springboard them into the UK games sector as business owners,”said Train2Game director Clive Robert.

“We’re really looking forward to working with these new companies, helping thembring some fresh new gaming content to market and setting them on track tobecoming part of the games industry innovators of tomorrow.”www.train2game.com

This month: Train2Game, Skillset andBirmingham City University.

Creative media training body Skillsethas launched a new programme tohighlight the top game educationcourses in the UK.

Game universities and courses thathave passed Skillset’s “rigorousaccreditation process” will be awarded the Skillset Tick – a shorthand award to informstudents and developers of the best UK courses.

Skillset’s network of 24 media academies are the first to be awarded the Tick, as havesome thirty courses in the UK covering the disciplines of animation, computer games,screenwriting and film production.www.skillset.org

Birmingham City University will be hosting afour-week games development training campfor artists and coders from November 8th toDecember 3rd this year.

Run by former studio director at SEGARacing Studio Guy Wilday, Gamer Camp: Nanowill include a process of mentoring, supportand coaching from gaming giants Blitz Games Studios, Codemasters and Rare with theaim of finding the next generation of talented gamemakers.

“The Gamer Camp programme is designed to provide graduates with a uniqueopportunity to get real ‘hands on’ experience of developing video games in a‘simulated’ industry environment,” said Wilday.

“After a week of intensive tuition the Nano course delegates are divided into teamswhich will then go onto develop unique iPhone games under the guidance andinstruction of key industry figures. At the end of the course, the games are thensubmitted to the App Store for approval and availability worldwide.”

12 people, eight programmers and four artists, will be given a place on the course.“Having recruited a host of graduates over my career, I’ve found that their skills grow

enormously as a direct result of working through a complete game developmentcycle,” Wilday explained.

“The Gamer Camp programme is designed specifically to provide this experience.”www.bcu.ac.uk

University of Derby www.derby.ac.uk/develop

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80 | OCTOBER 2010

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg got togrips with Nintendo’s console whenvisiting the UKIE stand at the LiberalDemocrat conference. We’d guess he wason the Everybody Votes channel, but asthere’s only a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ option, and noway to select ‘flakey commitment to bothsides’, perhaps we’re wrong. He should geton a game that uses the Balance Board.

20 years ago this month, things were simpler for developers...

Nintendo contactsits licensees bywritten letter, as youdid back then, to tellthem they may maketheir own NES carts.

The Commodore cartridgesystem C64GS appears at CES.Zzap64 magazine touts it as thefuture of gaming. It wasn’t.

Sega’s ProjectMercury is releasedas the Game Gearin Japan. It’s thethird colourhandheld, after theAtari Lynx andTurboExpress. The Internet Movie

Database is launched.

The Mac Classic isreleased: the firstApple computer atunder $1,000. For$999, you got 1MBof RAM to work with.

Ron Gilbert’sThe Secret ofMonkey Islandreaches thepublic. Gilbertdeveloped thegame by writinghis own shortstories andsharing themwith friends.

The Big Picture

CODAA sideways look at the games industry

RewindOctober 1990

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OCTOBER 2010 | 81

Stats can be misleading. Project the trends October’s numbers suggest,for example, and the results show a misguided vision of the future

November 2010Regional Focus: CanadaOur yearly look at the games dev firms operating in BC,Quebec and everywhere in between.

Events:MIGS – November 8th to 9th, 2010

December 2010 /January 2011Regional Focus: London StudiosProfiles of all the studios at the cutting edge of the Englishcaptial’s bustling development scene.

Event:GDC China – December 5th to 7th, 2010

February 2011Recruitment SpecialOur annual look at the jobs market includes: Advice for CVs,portfolios and interviews; per-discipline guidance on getting apromotion; the education sector; our salary survey; 30 Under30 – the rising stars of games development; and much more.

Regional Focus: CambridgeA look at current developments and new stories from thehistoric University Town.

Events:DICE – February 9th to 11th, 2011Casual Connect – February 8th to 10th, 2011

March 2011QA & LocalisationThe final phase of a game’s production can be its most crucialstep to global success – we talk to leading experts in testing,compliance and translation.

Regional Focus: West Coast USA From Seattle to San Diego via Los Angeles and San Francisco,we examine Western game development’s heartland.

Events:GDC – February 28th to March 4th, 2011Game Connection – March 1st to 3rd, 2011

April 2011Mocap & Facial Animation Every facet of character animation examined, from limbanimation to lip-synching.

Regional Focus: Oxford We examine the studios and technology companies in this keyUK cluster.

May 2011With Develop 100 InsertionAudioAnother look at the music and audio for the games sector,including in-house teams through to outsourcers.

Regional Focus: ScotlandStudios from start-ups to commercial powerhouses profiled.

Wrong NumbersThis month: Number of iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad devices activated

Activating 172 billion iPhone devices a year will no doubt provide asignificant challenge for Apple, but the real test will be for developers.By the middle of the century there’ll still only be a dozen good apps,and standing out will be a trillion times more difficult.

TransmediaTrans.med.iaadj & n

What ‘they’ think it means:Delivering narrative “simultaneously through numerous forms of media to give the audience a roundedunderstanding of the creative vision”. Creating“multidirectional content” and “expanding on the gameuniverse by embracing innovative methods andinterweaving plot” through “complementary forms”,including internet, books, comics.

What it really means:Merchandise. Next time you hear about transmediastorytelling, it will likely be a publisher trying to dress up arange of branded extras as some future vision of the alternatereality game. Just because the latest mindless, over-hypedtriple-A release has a mini series of crudley drawn comics anda DLC code hidden on the foot of an action figure doesn’tmean it is pushing the boundaries of narrative.

DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET

Dissecting the hyperbole of games development

DEVIPEDIA

Jun 2007:0 per day

Oct 2010:230,00 per day

Oct 2046:471,040,000 per day

Disclaimer: Develop realises none of these statistics are based on reasonable maths

EDITORIAL enquiries should go through toMichael.French@intentmedia.co.uk, or call him on 01992 535646

To discuss ADVERTISING contactKatie.Rawlings@intentmedia.co.uk, or call her on 01992 535647

F O R W A R D P L A N N E R

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CODA

82 | OCTOBER 2010

Above: Jane Jensen canbe found walking herbulldogs when she’snot at work on her latest game

Who are you and what do you do?I’m a computer game designer. I live inCalifornia and I’ve been designing gamessuch as Gabriel Knight for about 20 years.

What are you working on right now, andwhat stage is the project at?I’m working on Gray Matter, a large adventuregame. It is getting close to final, with ascheduled release date of October.

Which aspect of it do you think willimpress players the most?The story is usually what people respond tothe most in my games, the real-life locationsand subject matter.

What was your first job in the industry –and what game did you first work on?I wrote text and documentation for a PoliceQuest game. The first game I helped designwas Ecoquest: Search for Cetus.

What was the first video game you played?I played an old text adventure first – I think itwas just called Adventure. My first graphicadventure was King’s Quest IV.

What was the last game you played? Didyou enjoy it?Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove – I loved it.

What’s your favourite game ever, and why?I think I’d have to say King’s Quest IV because itwas the first game I’d ever played like that,

and I was fascinated. I also miss being able totype in what you want to do and seeing thefunny programmer responses. That was oneof the last classic Sierra adventures thatsupported text.

How many hours a week do you get tospend playing games?Not as much as I used to. Maybe six to eight.

What area of the industry needs moreinvestment, be it of money or effort?We need to broaden our audience and ourreach. Everyone should spend some timeplaying games. It’s a great mental exercise.

What do you enjoy most about working inthe video game industry?I get to work from home, which I love. I get tomake up stories and playtest games. What’snot to love?

Of all the games you have been involvedwith in the past, what has been yourfavourite, and why?There have been great things about each ofthem, but probably my favourite is GabrielKnight 2 because it was a very cool, dark,erotic story and we worked with live actorson that one. It gave the project a whole othercreative and social dynamic.

What websites do you visit most regularly?Currently I’m hooked on a number offarming/homesteading and cooking blogs –blogs like Homestead Revival and theBarefoot Farmer. I also checkabovetopsecret.com several times a day, andMSNBC and CNN are my news sites of choice.

What does your desk window viewlook like?This:

What do you do in your spare time thatisn’t related to video games?My husband and I have two English bulldogsand we walk them several times a day in alocal preserve. I love hiking and being out innature. I also do a lot of non-fiction reading onthings like the climate, the future, economics.

What’s your favourite book, movie or TVshow, and album of all time?My new favourite book is Animal, Vegetable,Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Currently myfavourite TV shows are True Blood and alsoThe Fabulous Beekman Boys. Finally, myfavourite album is Dark Clad Company by TheScarlet Furies.

Which other games developers do youmost admire? Steve Meretsky, Roberta Williams, Ron Gilbert.

What game would you most like to haveworked on?Heavy Rain.

We need to broadenour audience and

our reach. Everyone shouldspend some time playinggames. It’s a greatmental exercise.

Jane Jensen, game designer

THE FAQ PAGE: Jane Jenson

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

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Editor-in-ChiefMichael Frenchmichael.french@intentmedia.co.uk

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PublisherStuart Dinseystuart.dinsey@intentmedia.co.uk

Managing EditorLisa Fosterlisa.foster@intentmedia.co.uk

ContributorsBen Board, David Braben,John Broomhall, Nick Gibson,Thomas Grove, Andy Krouwel, MarkRein, Billy Thomson.

the international monthly forgames programmers, artists,musicians and producers

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