Develop - Issue 86 - August 2008

GRANDTHEFTAWARDSSHOW

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

AUGUST 2008 | #86 | £4 / e7 / $13

inside splash damage • ubisoft reflections • ds dev tutorial • tools news & more

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Rockstar grabs four Develop AwardsFull report and pictures insidePLUS: Sam Houser interviewed

DEVELOPMAG.COM

ALPHA05 – 08 > dev news from around the globeUbisoft argues the case for a UK games tax break, saying it could employ 1,000in the country; Blitz details new XBLA partnership; and Zeemote courtsdevelopers to make games for its mobile phone peripheral

10 – 16 > opinion & analysisOwain Bennallack says UGC is still a minority interest amongst developers; ourdesign expert argues the case for more socially relevant games; Rick Gibsondetails how to compete in online games development; and our legal expertoffers advice on the rights and wrongs of reverse engineering

20 > ip profile: burnoutThe history of Criterion’s genre-busting and car-smashing IP

22 > stats & studio sales chartThe past month’s deals and details, plus our exclusive sales chart listed by studio

24 > education spotlightA round-up of five tools firms offering free (or cheap) apps to students

BETA28 > grand theft auteurLooking back at ten years of Rockstar Games with president Sam Houser

32 > making a splashHow Splash Damage went from bedroom mod team to Develop Award winner

37 > the best of the bestCOVER STORY: Pictures and round-up of last month’s Develop Awards

BUILD46 – 52 > tools newsLooking at the latest tech releases and updates

55 > epic diariesMark Rein details an innovative new TV project built using Unreal Engine 3

57 > heard about: race driver gridJohn Broomhall goes behind the scenes of Codemasters’ latest racer

58 > tutorial: ds development Exient’s top brass offer tips on how to best develop for Nintendo’s handheld

GOLD74 > byronicman Simon Byron is App in arms about the quality of iPhone games

ContentsDEVELOP ISSUE 86 AUGUST 2008

61-72studios, tools, services and courses

28

05

24 58

32 37

AUGUST 2008 | 03

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Managing EditorLisa [email protected]

Contributors Tasheer Bahir, John Broomhall,Simon Byron, Charles Chapman,Nick Gibson, Rick Gibson, DaveHawkins, Neil Hutchinson, MarkRein, and The Alpenwolf

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DEVELOPMAG.COM AUGUST 2008 | 05

Edmondson: ‘We can challengeMontreal – just give us a chance’Government support could see huge UK expansion of workforce in the North East, says Ubisoft Reflections boss

Ubisoft Reflections studiohead Gareth Edmondson hastold Develop that Ubisoftwould be happy to add anextra 1,000 members to itsteam in the North of England– echoing its activity inMontreal, Canada – if only theGovernment would supportthe UK games industry.

Edmondson, who is part ofthe Games Up campaigngroup lobbying for a tax breakfor games developers, told us:“Whenever I meet Lord DigbyJones, my line is ‘would youlike to create 1,000 jobs inNewcastle?’ We’d love to behuge, but we’ve got a verylimited number of vacancies,because other Ubisoft centresare more cost effective.”

Ubisoft’s Montreal base isone of the biggest singlegame development sites inthe world, with over 1,600developers at its largeQuebec office. The Canadianteam has plans in place toincrease its staff headcount to3,000 by 2013.

Ubisoft Montreal alsorecently expanded in the areaby acquiring 80 person-strongvisual effects house Hybride,behind films such as 300 andSin City, as it looks to bring

film effects knowledge into itsgame teams and also expandits game properties into thefilm and TV space.

Newcastle-basedReflections, meanwhile, has110 staff all currently hard atwork on the next Driver game.

“We have to outsourcequite a lot of art, but we keepthe core – the technology, thedesign, the innovation – in-house,” added Edmondson

“We’re safe as we are, butwe’d love to have another

1,000 staff, to expand likeUbisoft Montreal. I mean, Ilove making games – at themoment, we have the resourcesto be working on one or twotitles at a time, but I’d love tobe able to work on more.”

Much of sister studioMontreal’s expansion comeswith support from localgovernment: Ubisoft worksclosely with Quebecauthorities to achieve itsambitious plans for the studio.Government support has also

been the catalyst behind thefurther development ofUbisoft’s Casablanca studio inNorth Africa, which isplanning for another 150 staffin the coming years, and itsestablishment of a new studioin Singapore, which aims tohost 300 people.

Similarly, many of Ubisoft’srecent studio openings havebeen in low-cost areas, wherethe company cansimultaneously develop assetsfor less money as well as tapinto new local talent pools.Within the past year, it’sopened a studio in Sao Paulo,Brazil, hoped to be at 200staff within the next fouryears; one in Kiev, Ukraine,started with 12 people andaiming to ramp up to 50within its first year; andanother in Chengdu, China,

looking to have 200 peoplewithin twelve months.

Answering the often-heardargument against tax breaks,Edmonson added: “It’s easyto pick a successful game likeAssassin’s Creed and say that,in hindsight, it would havedone fine without tax credits,but would it have even beenmade without those taxbreaks? While it was hugelysuccessful, it needed to be –it was a massive project, witha massive budget.”

While Montreal-stylegrowth would in the NorthEast of England would beideal, Edmonson admits thatthe 110-man strongReflections isn’t going to falterwithout Government support– but it might not reach its fullpotential: “I don’t think thatthe UK games industry isgoing to collapse without taxbreaks, but it certainly isn’tgoing to be as good as itcould be. I’m really passionateabout creating jobs up here inthe North East.

“Games Up is about theopportunity that there oughtto be for huge expansion inthe UK, but it’s not going tohappen without Governmentsupport. That’s why Ubisoft issupporting the initiative.”www.ubisoft.com

WORLDVIEW GLOBAL NEWS > p08

ADVENTURES IN GAMES DEVELOPMENT: NEWS, VIEWS & MORE

“The largest recent financingrounds have focused on studioswith strong online presences…”

Rick Gibson, p10

Blitz’s newChain of

CommandNews, p06

The history ofBurnoutIP Profile, p20

Power List: Our exclusivestudio ranking

Chart, p22

“The UKindustry won’tcollapse, but itcertainly isn’tgoing to be as good as itcould be…”

by Ed Fear

06 | AUGUST 2008

ALPHA | NEWS

Maybe it’s cruel, but a good way to judge the success

of last month’s Develop Awards is by gauging the level

of disappointment in the room amongst those who

didn’t win when the victor on each was announced.

And, boy, were there some disappointed faces.

There were people who expected to win; always,

frankly, an arrogance-fueled mistake. And there were

guests who just really, really wanted to win; always a

sign that the prizes have become more and more

coveted, and harder fought too. Something also

proven by the record-breaking 600 people that came

along to see the winners named.

But best of all were the people who honourably told

me during the after-Awards festivities that, even

though they lost out, the votes were all correct, and the

right teams had been named as winners.

So congratulations once again to all the winners and,

indeed, all finalists: you are still the shining stars of our

corner of the world’s best creative industry.

Along with all the pictures from the Awards (starting

on page 37), this month our features turn the spotlight

on two of the key winners, and they couldn’t be more

different. On the one hand, you’ve got Paul

Wedgwood, the upfront, outspoken founder of Best

Independent Developer Splash Damage – a man who

said at the Develop Conference he had no respect for

people making licensed games. On the other you have

Sam Houser, the well-known, but publicity-shy co-

founder and president of Rockstar Games, which took

home the Visual Arts, Audio Accomplishment and Best

In-House Developer prizes, plus the Grand Prix.

You’ll notice in our interviews with both, however,

that they share qualities and views that can power a

development company – be it one that employs 600 (in

Rockstar’s case) or 60 (in Splash Damage’s) – to Award-

winning greatness.

That’s things like vision, having strong enough

willpower to use such vision creatively, and then

supporting all of that with shrewd and narrow-minded

(in a good way) business sense. Sure, all easy enough

to put on paper, but these are the people that put it

into practice, and as such should be listened to.

Editorial

Michael [email protected]

Highly prized

UK independent studiostalwart Blitz Games hassnapped up the rights

to develop a game based onone of the much-praised Dareto be Digital student projectsand has signed young, newstudio 3rd DimensionCreations to develop the ideainto its next XBLA, PSN andPC game.

Headquartered inMiddlesbrough, 3rdDimension Creations hasbeen in business for less thanfour years. It was one of thefirst studios to come out ofthe University of Teesside andMiddlesbrough Council’sDigitalCity project, which aimsto help graduates get mediabusinesses off the groundthrough subsidised officespaces, tutelage from industry veterans and business support.

The game it is working onfor Blitz has a similar youthfulslant – ‘conga line’ action titleCodaChain (see ‘Chain ofCommand’) was a recent Dareto be Digital finalist.

“One of our strengths hereat Blitz is that we hireindividuals straight out ofuniversity because we canspot talent. These guys areenthusiastic, and they’retalented,” Blitz CEO PhilipOliver told Develop.

“They’re smaller, andtherefore less experiencedand have less infrastructure,but we bring that - they’reworking on our technology.”

Indeed, Blitz’s in-houseengine BlitzTech is being usedto build the game for asimultaneous XBLA, PSN andPC launch. The uniquepartnership is feeding backinto the development ofBlitzTech as well – 3rdDimension’s worry overmemory footprint, forinstance, has seen Blitzimplement ambient occlusioninto the engine for them.

Blitz has, however,otherwise kept its new partnerat arms length, allowing theteam to build and design thegame in its own time. 3rdDimension CCO Sean Crooksis full of praise for the waythings have been run,describing the game as a“dream project”.

“The relationship we havewith the people at Blitz isincredible,” he said. “They’veput a huge amount of trust inus, and yet they’re notprecious at all – there’s norigid design doc, it’s a fluid

two-way process. If we’ve gotany trouble, even things notrelated to the project butabout the studio, they’re thereto give us advice andpointers.”

Ed Linley, project managerat Blitz, explains things fromtheir side: “We came to themwith quite a defined gamedocument, and a frameworkof what the levels were goingto be, but we welcome anyinput they have, and theyhave this great system of allsitting down to play the gametogether, making copiousamounts of notes. I’m in touchwith them every single day,bouncing ideas back and forththe whole time, so it’s been afantastic relationship fromboth sides.

“We both egg each otheron to greater heights, whichcan sometimes be missingwhen you do things internally;you don’t look at it fromoutside and see if this is asgood as it can be. Becausewe’ve got two groups at theopposite ends of the countrybouncing things backwardsand forwards in betweenthem, it creates this greatfeeling of making a game asgood as it can be, and it’sbeen working really well.”

CodaChain is just one ofBlitz’s recently announcedquintet of games to bereleased under its Arcadelabel, and is one of three thatis developed out-of-house.Oliver adds that the label wasset-up to not only capitaliseon download channels, but

Blitz supports a Innovative partnership sees long-running UK studio entrust new digital

“Smaller gamesare easier to

put externally,which gives usflexibility…”

Philip Oliver, Blitz Games

by Ed Fear


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also foster a newsubcontracted developmentmodel: “The business planbehind Arcade is to dosmaller games. Part of thereason of doing it is creativity:new, fresh, original gameswithout having to sit within aconstrictive licence.

“But the other part is thechance that it gives you:smaller games are easier toput externally, which gives usflexibility.”

Given that someindependent studios have lefttheir initial Xbox Live Arcadeambitions behind due todisillusions over the newroyalty share and higher-than-anticipatedbarriers to entry, should Blitz’s initial Arcade onslaughtprove a success it couldherald a brand new accesspoint for smaller, less provenstudios that get the help,support, and most importantlymuscle, of a bigger developer.www.3rddc.co.uk

new ‘Chain gang download IP to small-scale independent studio in the North East

CodaChain is described as being ‘based on a congamechanic’, tasking the player to rebel against themysterious music-hating Silencers and bring back music tothe city. Picking up civilians dotted around the game’s largelevels causes them to join your conga line, affecting yourabilities (joggers make your line faster, for example, andbuilders giving you the ability to push heavier items away)and also dynamically altering the music. Solo, thesoundtrack is little more than tinny headphone percussion,but add a Love Walrus and you’ll have a deep soulful basslayered on top; add a Granny for some humming or abuilder for more defined beats.

It’s clear that the extended development time has let theteam heap on additional touches to the game, the origin ofmany of which are no doubt rooted in the company’s ethosof letting everyone get involved in every aspect of thegame’s creation. “People like dabbling,” says Crooks, “andwhile they might not be the best at it, it’s good to let themtry out different things. I don’t think there’s anyone at theteam who hasn’t scripted at least one puzzle in CodaChain.Everyone has full input on everything - no-one is ignored.”

In all, the experience is certainly a unique one, feeling likea wider-appeal Katamari Damacy with a Saturday morningcartoon aesthetic. The story-based single-player mode willwin fans, but it’s the online multiplayer, which lets playerssteal members from other people’s conga lines, is where thereal laughs could lie – especially if 3rd Dimension’s play-focused organic design process pays off.

CHAIN OF COMMAND

ABOVE: The3rdDC team.Front row (leftto right): Chris Hodgson(3D artist),Pete Bones(networkprogramming),Neil Holmes(producer),Caleb Lowe(animator).Back row (leftto right): James O’Hare(3D artist),Tom Chambers(3D artist),Sean Crooks(CEO/CreativeDirector),Martin Wright(programming),Dave Allanson(CEO/technicaldirector).Not pictured:Simon Halliday(3D artist)

DEVELOPMAG.COM08 | AUGUST 2008

ALPHA | NEWS

GCDC 2008August 18th to 20thLeipzig, Germanywww.gcdc.eu

GAMES CONVENTIONAugust 20th to 24thLeipzig, Germanywww.gc-germany.com

CEDECSeptember 9th to 11thTokyo, Japancedec.cesa.or.jp

WOMEN IN GAMESSeptember 10th to 12thWarwick University, UKwww.womeningames.com

AUSTIN GDCSeptember 15th to 18thTexas, USAwww.gdconf.com

TOKYO GAME SHOWOctober 9th to 12thTokyo, Japantgs.cesa.or.jp/english/

CASUAL CONNECT KYIVOctober 22nd to 24thKyiv, Ukrainekyiv.casualconnect.org

CASUAL GAMES FORUMOctober 30thLondon, UKwww.tandemevents.co.uk

GAME CONNECTIONNovember 5th to 7thLyon, Francewww.game-connection.com

MONTREAL GAMES SUMMITNovember 6th & 7thMontreal, Canadawww.sijm.ca/2008/

IGDA LEADERSHIP FORUMNovember 13th & 14thSan Francisco, USAwww.igda.org/leadership/

GAME CONNECT: ASIA PACIFICNovember 19th to 22ndBrisbane, Australiawww.gameconnectap.com

CASUAL CONNECT KYIVFebruary 10th to 12thHamburg, Germanyeurope.casualconnect.org

DICE SUMMITFebruary 18th to 20thLas Vegas, USAwww.dicesummit.org

GDC 09March 23rd to 27th, 2009San Francisco, USAwww.gdconf.com

GAMES GRADS 09 - SOUTHMarch 24thLondon, UKwww.gamesgrads.co.uk

GAMES GRADS 09 - NORTHMarch 26thManchester, UKwww.gamesgrads.co.uk

august 2008

september 2008

october 2008

february 2009CASUAL GAMES FORUMOctober 30th London, UKwww.tandemevents.co.uk

A new event from the organisersof the Develop conference andexpo, the Casual Games Forum isa one-day event during theLondon Games Festival focusedon the emergent casual market.

CEDEC September 9th to 11th Tokyo, Japancedec.cesa.or.jp

OK, so the conference is in Japanand will be in Japanense – but thecream of development talent istalking at this event, includingNintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto andCapcom’s Keiji Inafune.

DEVELOP DIARY YOUR COMPLETE GAMES DEVELOPMENTEVENT CALENDAR FOR THE MONTHS AHEAD…

IF YOU THOUGHT THAT Zeemote’s JS-1wireless mobile gaming controller(previously featured in Develop issue 80)was little more than a gimmicky peripheral,think again – it has won over many of thetop studios in the mobile developmentspace, with a number of heavyweightstudios making games for the peripheral.

The likes of Gameloft, Digital Chocolate,Sega of America, iPlay, Glu, and UK teamsFinblade and Tag Games are all makinggames that utilise the Bluetooth joystick.

Speaking to Develop, Zeemote’s vicepresident of worldwide sales Jim Adamssaid: “We now have 13 of the top 15mobile developers signed up to makeZeemote ready games. We’re thrilled tohave so many great development partners.”

The company is also soon to launch itsZeemote Ready branding for games, whichlets players know that the game has beenthrough a rigorous quality control programand will function seamlessly with the JS-1.The programme isn’t a requirement fordevelopers, says Adams, but acts as a

partnership to make sure that the gamesembed Zeemote functionality to thehighest potential – and developers will getfree promotion when Zeemote launches itsnew games portal.

The controller, which features ananalogue stick and four customisablebuttons, also now has its first release date.A deal has been struck with Sony Ericssonto bundle together the device with SonyEricsson W760i Walkman phones and twoZeemote Ready-certified games acrosshundreds of retail stores in Hollandbetween August and October. NorthAmerican and Asian launches are plannedfor 2009.www.zeemote.com

Zeemote courts top mobile studiosMomentum builds for Bluetooth mobile gaming joystick

by Ed Fear

“We’re thrilled to have so many greatdevelopmentpartners…”

Jim Adams, Zeemote

november 2008 march 2009

10 | AUGUST 2008

ALPHA | OPINION

by Rick Gibson

How online games development changes everything

MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS

Some of the biggest financialtransactions involving gamescompanies in recent years have

been by traditional media companiesbuying studios in the online space. Bigmedia firms moving into games havetended to stick with what they know –mass market entertainment. In parallel,most of the recent large financingrounds in the UK’s games industry havefocused on businesses with strongonline presences – Jagex, King.com andRealtime Worlds. Demonstrating steadyrevenue flows plus a hands-on approachtowards customers reassures investorswith fingers burnt from backing studiostrying to create elusive hits on consoleplatforms via third party publishers.

We often hear that online is the future,but what does it take to operate in theonline space? How easy might it be tomake the transition? A quick peek atonline companies reveals fundamentaldifferences between firms with offlineand online models. Some of these deep-rooted differences are listed to the right.

A fundamental difference between thetwo models is the way that they treat IP.For traditional studios, hit games IP istheir raison d’etre; for online studios, IP isoften secondary to running the servicethat delivers it. Each company rides thehit-driven nature of the games businessdifferently. Services often hedge their betsby placing them on a wide variety ofgames, so that the high ratio of hits tomisses plays in their favour: more gameswith long tails deliver value over aprotracted period of time. Offline studioseffectively place larger bets on a smallernumber of games, leaving them at themercy of the same hit:miss ratio, usingcommercial models that rarely deliverroyalty upside and often result in workingfor hire on someone else’s IP.

To make this exercise more useful, I’vedeliberately raised the contrast levels tomake the differences stand out. And thereare companies that comfortably do both.But making the transition from offline toonline is far from easy, requiring a majorreorientation in strategy, and restructuringof resources and finances. It’s a far-reaching leap that may explain why thereare so few dedicated online gamesstudios in the UK. Arguably it’s a leap thatmany UK studios will have to make to staycompetitive and keep pace with territoriesthat are producing some of Europe’sfastest growing and most profitablegames companies – which also happento be online, service-driven ones.

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

METRIC OFFLINE STUDIO ONLINE STUDIO

Resources and technology

% staff in development 95-100% of staff work to createa handful of games/year

25-60% of staff work on creatingcontent that is released continually

% staff in support0-5% work in finance, admin, HR,

often these are outsourced

40-75% of staff work in customersupport, finance and billing

(Blizzard has 75%, Jagex 50%)

TechnologyMix of 1st and 3rd partymiddleware and tools

Mostly proprietary tools, servers, customeraccount and relationship management tools

PartnersPublishers are the primary partner,with hardware manufacturers and

outsourcers for development

More evenly spread between portals,aggregators, serving, support,

payment companies

Commercial and marketing

Who funds development/earns most upside?

Publisher takes financial riskand lion’s share of upside

Online studios commonly self-funddevelopment, and takehighershare of upside

Commercial model1 dominant model - advance + royalty.

Few variants are accepted by publishers

Varies widely between subscription,premium download, advertising

and micro-transactions

Likelihood of overages

Rare and unpredictable (12% oflargest studios’ revenues in 2006);bigger development costs = lower

chance of royalties

More common and predictable,with frequency increasing as per

title production costs fall

Revenue flow

Lumpy: advances at milestones,royalties 3-18 months post-launch(if lucky), with short-medium term

longevity in all but a few cases

Continuous: revenues start at launch(if self-managed service), may trickle

in at start but can be very longlasting indeed

Marketing responsibilityand methodology

Publisher spends $millions on traditional above & below the

line marketing campaigns

Service provider cuts distribution dealswith portals for placement and

affiliate revenue shares

Finance

Ability to raise financeLow. The few funding sources are usuallyreliant on publisher agreements and VCsrarely back traditional studios any more.

Medium-high. Self-publishing and controlof customers brings steadier revenues

from a growing market, driving aninvestment bubble

Valuations5-10 times profit – offline studios have

been acquired for £2m-£40m5-10 x turnover – online studios have

been acquired for £50m-£350m

Revenues / staff member£45,000 is an average for UK independent

studios (large sample group)£185,000 is an average for UK

online studios (small sample group)

Success metricUnit sales with strong correlation

with average review scoresActive monthly user volume and

average revenues per user

Strategy

Highest risk pointfor the company

Collapse between projects aftergrowing too fast or betting thatpast success = future success

User churn following poor serviceprovision, infrequent content refresh

or poor serving following too rapid growth

Levers of successStrength in execution including

IP creation, gameplay, technologyand production management

Strength in customer & communitymanagement, building portfolio of games &

services and partnerships

Primary company goal Create smash hits and sell to a publisherCreate scale (millions of users/month)

and sell to a private equityor big media company


OPINION | ALPHA

by Owain Bennallack

Why isn’t everyone copying Will Wright?

VARIABLE DECLARATIONS

Consoles are connected, we’reall on Facebook, and WillWright’s Spore has a

development team of thousands.Other developers should wake upand take the hint.

Will Wright expected Sporecreature creators to produce 200,000beasties in a couple of months. Inreality users took 22 hours to create100,000. Within a week themenagerie numbered one million.When Wright spoke to E3 last month– 18 days after the launch of hisSpore content creation tool – theSporepedia boasted 1,756,869species, or more species than onEarth. All this for a game that isn’teven out yet.

If user-generated content (UGC)mania can surprise Will Wright, whatchance for the rest of us? Not only isthe Maxis founder a genius, he alsosaw with The Sims how engagingand empowering a community tookoff. Paradigm shifts are scary.Perhaps it’s safer to work on a first-person shooter with a deathmatchmode, and wait for someone else toinvent the future?

SOCIAL CUESThe positive news is that awarenessof social networking and UGC’spotential in games has blossomed.

Speaking to developers in late2006 about making Web 2.0-inspiredgames a key theme at Develop inBrighton in 2007, we were met withpolite bemusement. The next 12months saw Media Molecule’sLittleBigPlanet wow E3, GDC go bigon Web 2.0, Microsoft’s ChrisSatchell keynote the Brightonconference on the same subject, andFacebook sign-up most of the UKindustry for a summer of clickingthrough pictures of their colleaguesdrinking with old university pals.

Now everyone gets it, to theextent that Web 2.0 is a hackneyed,faintly embarrassing phrase, andFacebook no more exciting thanHotmail. Yet we’re still not seeingthe push from the industry I’dexpect, given the proven power ofnetwork effects and UGC to engagegamers, as is being amplydemonstrated by Spore.

The console makers’ E3 keynotesname-checked the user-drivenphenomenon, but were light on

announcements. On socialnetworking, developmentsamounted to a Swap Shop of eachother’s best platform communityfeatures (for instance: Microsoft’s 360Avatars), and hearing yet again howcool PlayStation Home will be…eventually. Where were the big first-party projects putting networkedsocial gaming and UGC to the fore?

Sony proffered LittleBigPlanet,again, and Nintendo hinted thatAnimal Crossing: City Folk mightenable more UGC sharing. Microsoftconcentrated on its Xbox Liveoverhaul, and its new Communitychannel – interesting, but not aboutgames. More pertinent is the XboxLive Community Games service,which brings Kongregate-style usermoderation to XNA output. It wasrevealed back at GDC and wasbarely mentioned at E3.

Electronic Arts’ press conferencewas more on-target. It boastedShawn Fanning, the infamousdisruptor behind Napster, discussingRupture, his game communityservice that EA acquired for$30million. EA already has a sort ofproprietary gamertag system inproduction called Nucleus. ButRupture is an open system. Anydeveloper or publisher can use it toenable their gamers to follow theirfriends across Rupture-enabled titles.

While EA doesn’t have a greattrack record of collaborating withexternal companies (Renderware,remeber?), Rupture makes greatsense. Why wouldn’t I want myPlayStation 3-owning friends to seemy achievements on Xbox 360?Why should a FIFA-owning pal beleft out just because he bought adifferent console?

A cross-platform social networkingservice puts the emphasis where itbelongs – on gamers, and games.You can appreciate how concernedEA must be about hardware makersgetting too chummy with ‘its’gamers. Other publishers should beequally nervous, which may bodewell for Rupture’s future.

ALL TOGETHER NOWAs for bona fide social networking or UGC-inspired games, well, certainstudios are making progress.Criterion’s Burnout Paradise was asmart Web 2.0-ish evolution of theracing genre. Relentlessincorporated user-generated quizzesinto the new online PS3 version ofBuzz! (harder than you might think).And Sports Interactive’s FootballManager Live should be worthwaiting for.

Some start-ups are focusing oncreating social games for MySpaceand Facebook. Founded by mobilegames veterans, Playfish is ‘workingon combining the best elements ofcasual games, social networks,MMOGs and virtual worlds to createentirely new, more social ways ofenjoying great games together’. It’sreleased three titles, all of which arein the Facebook Apps top ten.

Games had a headstart long ago with MMOGs, of course; thelikes of Second Life and Eve Online are way ahead in exploringthese opportunities. Still, I thinkwe’ve only just begun. We won’t be shocked in a few years bythousands of enthusiasts creating content for games likeSpore, but rather that in 2008 Will Wright was so lonely inchampioning them.

“We’re still notseeing the push

behind user-generated content

that I expectedfrom the

industry…”

Owain Bennallack is executive editor of Develop. He edited the magazine from its launch until its February 2006 issue. He has also worked at MCV and Edge, and has providedconsultancy and evaluation services to several leading developers and publishers. He is also chairman of the Develop conference advisory board.

LittleBigPlanet is aposterchild for UGC games;but it’s still just one of thefew which boast user-generated content functions

14 | AUGUST 2008

ALPHA | OPINION

by The Alpenwolf

Social Mood de la mode

DESIGN DOC

The Alpenwolf is a professional game designer who has been active in the industry for 17 years and designed games for some of the largest American and Japanese publishers. He has been known to visit Ironforge in the company of a large white wolf. [email protected]

If you subscribe to the DevelopDaily email list, then you’ve surelynoticed the announcement of

studio closure after studio closure. The retail market is being shaken

up too; Funcom may have been oneof the first game publishers toannounce their future shift toexclusive digital distribution, butthey will almost surely not be thelast. And just because the gamesindustry is relatively recession-proof,thanks to its unusually high value perpound compared with otherentertainment options, doesn’t meanthat what is taking place in the worldoutside our electronic escapes doesnot have some effect on the gamespeople want to play.

It is a fairly well-known fact thatskirt lengths tend to correlatesurprisingly well with the stockmarket. During bull markets, skirtstend to rise with the price ofequities; the all-time market highs ofthe recent past happened tocoincide with the appearance of thebooty shorts that have decoratedmany a racing game cover.

On the other hand, when themarkets are being ravaged by thebear and prices have fallen, longskirts that keep the ankles chastelycovered tend to be in vogue. Manyreaders are probably too young toremember the last serious recession,which took place during the earlyThatcher years, but if you look atpictures from that era, you willquickly see that no one was flashing any whale tails from beneaththose skirts that could have easilyserved as frigate sails in anemergency at sea.

This is but the most famousexample of the budding youngscience of socionomics, which is thestudy of social moods and theireffect on economics. The jury is stillout on its practical effectiveness, buta large body of evidence has beengathered which strongly suggestscertain correlations that are likely tobe useful when contemplating howdifferent sorts of games are likely tobe received when they come tomarket. Because the game industryis so young – it was still in its firstblush of youth when the last bigeconomic expansion began – it’shard to draw any useful conclusionsfrom the games of the past. But, I

suggest that by looking at thepopular historical trends in films andbooks, some interesting correlationsbecome apparent.

Compare some of the mostpopular novels of the GreatDepression with those of thebooming late 1990s. The bestsellingnovels of the 1930s include: AnthonyAdverse, It Can’t Happen Here,Gone With the Wind, Rebecca, and

that cheery, happy tale, The Grapesof Wrath. In contrast, the best-sellersof the late 1990s mostly consisted ofDanielle Steel’s romances, TomClancy’s odes to military hardware,and John Grisham’s stories aboutlawyers making lots of money. Whileone might well argue that beingforced to read the latter collection ismore likely to inspire a literate manto kill himself, there’s no questionthat the social mood implied by theformer group is much darker.

It’s much the same with movies.Think of the difference between theBritish films being produced byHammer during the postwar periodcompared with the Merchant Ivoryproductions of the more prosperousEighties and Nineties. In America,the recession of the Carter years sawthe birth of numerousslaughterhouse franchises such asHalloween and Friday the 13th; untilvery recently, the only horror filmsbeing made were parodies such asthe Scary Movie series.

So, what does this indicate forgame design? If we are entering a

period of economic contraction, thenthe social mood will darken andthereby inspire a taste for darkerthemes in entertainment. This meansgames that have more in commonwith GTA IV and Age of Conan willlikely do better than expected, whilemore light-hearted games such asDiner Dash and Super Mario Galaxywill tend to disappoint. Games withart that is more somber and shadowyshould do better than those withbright-colored, cartoonish styles.Musical themes will likely inclinetowards the more gothic and heavyrather than sprightly and cheerful.

Now, there are always exceptionsto the overall trend, so it’s entirelypossible that the bestselling game of2010 will be a brightly colored side-scroller starring a little girl in pigtailswho collects puppies, kittens, andbutterflies to the tune of ‘Wake MeUp Before You Go Go’ by Wham!But a much better bet would be aterrifying design revolving aroundthe werewolves of London, or ahistorical simulation set inWhitechapel entitled Jack.

“Just because thegames industry is

relatively recession-proof doesn’t meanthings taking place

in the worldoutside games

doesn’t matter…”

It’s a big hit at the moment,but would Super Mario Galaxyhave been poorly received ifthe socio-economic climate wasmore dismal?

MOBILE.DEVELOPMAG.COM16 | AUGUST 2008

ALPHA | LEGAL

The rights and realities of reverse engineeringExternal specialists can bring big benefits to game developers, but both sides need to protect their futurebusiness interests before they start working together, says Tahir Basheer, partner at media law firm Sheridans…

Twenty years ago, a lone programmercould create a video game. Today 50 to100 people often isn’t enough, with

developers contracting skilled outsiders to workon specialist problems such as network supportor rigging animation.

This adds another layer of complexity to theproduction of modern video games. Create agame in-house, and it should be protected bythe IP obligations in your employment contracts.With an external company – typically requiring in-depth access to your game-in-progress – you’llneed new provisions to ensure IP is protected.

What if you’re the specialist, contracted toenhance a third-party’s content, and you want todevelop a similar product in future? Will youface onerous restrictions? While you’ll certainlyneed to consult your lawyers to ensure your sideof the bargain is adequately protected, thereare general principles and laws that cover bothparties’ interests.

RESTRICTIONS TO WATCH OUT FORIf your intended product is going to beproduced completely independently of thethird-party’s content, without using any

information obtained in your dealings withthem, then you’re normally free to produce asimilar product. However before you’re allowedto start work on the software, the third-partymay ask you to agree to some terms such that: ■ You may not decompile, disassemble or

reverse engineer their product.■ Their product or any documentation may not

be copied or otherwise reproduced.■ You enter into confidentiality provisions

lasting at least the length of the agreementand for a period after the agreement. Tradesecrets must stay confidential for as long asthey qualify as trade secrets under the law.

These contractual restrictions will apply to you ifyou intend to produce a product bydecompiling, copying or adapting the third-party content. There may also be potentialpatent issues if your new product encroaches onany patents applied for or registered by thethird-party.

THE RIGHT TO REVERSE ENGINEER If you’re contracting an external firm to work onyour project, you might well consider furtherclauses to restrict its ability to capitalise on its

access to your content. However, the ECSoftware Directive – implemented in the UK byamendments to the Copyright Designs andPatents Act 1988 – prevents certain rights ofsoftware licensees from being excluded bycontract, including: ■ The right to decompile (or effectively reverse

engineer) a program if, broadly, it is necessaryin order to operate with another program.

■ The right to make a backup copy if necessary(as opposed to prudent) for its lawful use.

■ The right to observe, study or test thefunctioning of a computer program in orderto determine the ideas and principles thatunderlie it.

None of these can be excluded by contract.

MUTUALLY ASSURED CONSTRUCTIONCollaboration is a feature of modern softwaredevelopment. To benefit, both parties need toconsider their arrangements with each otherwith respect to what is fair and reasonable toprotect their current assets and any futuredevelopments that they might want to work on.In short, a working relationship based on mutualtrust – backed up by a strong legal framework.

Tahir Basheeris a partner atSheridans, theentertainmentlaw [email protected]

What tools areyou using?

HeroEngine™

heroengine.com

www.heroengine.com

HeroEngine™

heroengine.com

www.heroengine.com

20 | AUGUST 2008

ALPHA | IP PROFILE: BURNOUT

GREATBRITISHGAMES

BurnoutNick Gibson buckles up for a high-speed tour of the UK’s most destructive games IP…

ESTIMATED TOTAL UNIT SALES:16 million (console and PC)

GAME RELEASE TIMELINE1997: Sub-Culture(Criterion’s first internally-developed game,UbiSoft)2000: Burnout (Criterion Games, AcclaimEntertainment), RenderWare 3 created2002: Burnout 2: Point of Impact (CriterionGames, Acclaim Entertainment)2004: Burnout 3: Takedown(Criterion Games, Electronic Arts)

2005: Burnout Legends(Criterion Games, Electronic Arts) 2005: Burnout Revenge(Criterion Games, Electronic Arts)2007: Burnout Dominator(EA UK, Electronic Arts)2008: Burnout Paradise(Criterion Games, Electronic Arts)

CREATOR: No single individual credited

NUMBER OF ITERATIONS:Seven games

BURNOUT – THE STATSGAME INCEPTION AND GROWTHBurnout was created in 1999/2000 by the internal gamesdevelopment division of Criterion Software Group. It madeuse of RenderWare 3, at the time the most recently releasedversion of the company’s core middleware software and wasused by Criterion to assist in the development ofRenderWare 3 and its marketing and sale. Althoughreworking the well-known racing genre, the game wasinnovative in that it was designed as an arcade-style carracing game with a greater emphasis on ease of use andinstant gameplay gratification rather than the accuratemodelling of car dynamics and less immediate gameplayfeatures in contemporary franchises of the time such as GranTurismo and Colin McRae.

Unlike most of the successful racing games of the period,Burnout was set on urban and country roadways (ratherthan dedicated racing tracks) amongst non-racing traffic aswell as other racing competitors. Such ‘illicit’ gameplaymirrored Grand Theft Auto in enabling gamers to do thingson screen which they would not be able to do (or would beprosecuted for doing) in real life. Players were rewarded forsetting time records, finishing ahead of opponents and,uniquely, for driving aggressively. As the Burnout seriesprogressed, more emphasis was placed on the lattergameplay concept and the accompanying slow-motionreplays that allowed players to show off their driving stuntsand recklessness in a highly cinematic format.

Burnout 3: Takedown was a pivotal release, whichcondensed the kernel of aggressive gameplay at the heartof the game into the main game mechanic. The first gamepublished by Electronic Arts, Burnout 3 placed the conceptof causing your opponents to crash spectacularly anddriving as recklessly as possible at the heart of thegameplay, with a ‘burn meter’ encouraging players to drivehead-on at incoming traffic or corner at great speed. Thecombination of the two dramatically opened up the NorthAmerican market, a territory in which the previous Burnouttitles had failed to make a critical or commercial impressionunder the auspices of Acclaim Entertainment. This trendwas continued with Burnout Revenge, Burnout Legends andBurnout Dominator (the first to be developed outside of

OWNERSHIP HISTORY

1993: Criterion Software founded as awholly-owned subsidiary of Canon Inc. tospecialise in the development of graphicsrendering technology.

1997: Criterion forms internal gamesdevelopment studio to help developmentand marketing of its struggling middlewarebusiness.

1999: Burnout rights secured by Acclaim.

2002: Burnout 2: Point of Impact publishingrights secured by Acclaim Entertainment.

2004: Burnout 3 publishing rights acquiredby Electronic Arts.

2004: Criterion Software Group acquired byElectronic Arts for $68m in cash. AcclaimEntertainment goes into liquidation.


Criterion) which incorporated varying elementsfrom all three previous games.

Burnout Paradise, the latest in the series,represents a relatively radical departure fromthe traditional Burnout gameplay moving thegame from constricted road-based courses toopen world design in which players aregranted more control. Burnout Paradise alsorepresents the most comprehensive embracingof network technology not just for multiplayerinteraction but also for the maintenance of astrong online Burnout community and thedissemination of substantial new content andgameplay updates by Criterion.

The Criterion-developed Burnout gameshave consistently been well received by thegames media and Criterion remains one of themost respected studios in the market. Burnoutitself remains a key driving franchise for EAsitting surprisingly successfully along side itsother major racing franchise, Need For Speed,a series that had increasingly begun to mimicBurnout for gameplay features and game style.Criterion’s Burnout team remains focused onevolving Burnout Paradise having announcedtwo major new updates due in the second halfof 2008 as well as the PC version.

COMPANY INCEPTION AND GROWTHCriterion Software, a wholly-owned subsidiaryof Canon Inc., was formed in 1993 by DavidLau-Kee, who had previously founded andheaded up Canon’s European researchdivision. It was established to continue theresearch and development of graphicsrendering technology begun a few yearsearlier and which was originally designed totake advantage of Canon’s computer andimaging hardware. Criterion began to moveinto games shortly afterwards and began to re-focus its RenderWare software towards 3D andgames rendering but met with limited success.

Criterion would undoubtedly have failed if ithad not been for the patience and deeppockets of its parent company. The companydecided to complement its strugglingmiddleware business in 1996 with theestablishment of a full games developmentstudio in an attempt to diversify its revenuestreams and gain a more detailedunderstanding of the challenges of gamesdevelopment. However, its first three foraysinto full games development, despite steadilyimproving critical and commercial reception,failed to propel the studio into profit.

The turning point for Criterion came in 2000with the release of RenderWare 3, a completemiddleware solution catering to, amongstother games platforms, the recently releasedPS2 console. At that time, many developerswere struggling to manage the technologyleap from PlayStation to its considerably morecomplex successor, and a technology solutionto solve some development issues found animmediate market. RenderWare 3 obviated theneed for extensive technology developmentby providing a ready-made engine aroundwhich, in theory, almost any style of gamecould be built. Developed in parallel to thiswas Burnout, Criterion’s fourth internally-produced game.

With Canon’s balance sheet to support it,and with extensive reliance on the RenderWare3 technology, Criterion was able to self-financethe development of Burnout and managed toretain the full brand as well as technology IPRwhen it sold the publishing rights to Acclaim.The game’s success in Europe, in particular,

gave rise to a sequel which was also signed toAcclaim on improved terms and developed injust eight months, a potent advertisement forRenderWare.

Despite combined sales of 2m units, theBurnout titles, however, had not fared well inthe USA. This was compounded by the factthat Acclaim was experiencing a restrictedfinancial position and it simply lacked thefinancial muscle to provide proper marketingand sales support in its home territory.

Around the same time, Criterion had begun toreceive approaches from EA, interested in bothits middleware as well as its games (Burnout 3and a new IP called Black). This led to Criterionjumping ship from Acclaim to sign the publishingrights to both IPs to Electronic Arts. As the valueand quality of the IP quickly became clear, laterin the same year EA completed an outrightacquisition from Canon of Criterion’s games andmiddleware businesses for $68m in cash plus theassumption of Canon debt.

ANALYSISAlthough Electronic Arts’ acquisition ofCriterion brought in both games IP,development teams and market-leadingmiddleware technology, it could be arguedthat Electronic Arts’ decision to acquireCriterion Software was based more on thepotential of the Black game, then in early-stage development, and the desire to bringthe well-known and already successful BurnoutIP in-house than to acquire the RenderWare

technology and staff. By the time of itsacquisition, Criterion was comfortably themiddleware market leader. The market’sreasonable expectation was that Renderwarewould dominate the PS3/360 cycle too.However, the RenderWare licensing businessquickly (and unsurprisingly) died after theacquisition as third parties decided againstrelying on their largest rival for a core part oftheir development. Plus, EA reduced thirdparty support for the technology. Although themiddleware division was intended to form theheart of EA’s next-gen technologydevelopment, EA scaled back this ambitionand even went on to licence other third partymiddleware (such as Epic’s Unreal Engine 3).The RenderWare division is now part of aglobal EA Technology division with its maincentres in Vancouver and Guildford.

The value to EA of the acquisition ofCriterion’s middleware business was thereforeas much its market-spoiling effect (it forcedmany of its rivals to find alternative tech) as itsutility as an technology platform, both of which

are difficult to measure but likely to be limitedcompared to the value gained from theacquisition of Criterion’s games developmentbusiness and its accompanying IP. ElectronicArts has only recently formally revealed salesfigures for the Burnout franchise although weestimate that Burnout 3, Burnout Legends andBurnout Revenge have together accrued over6m unit sales whilst Black went on to achieveover 2m unit sales. This would haverepresented over $200m in very profitable(given Criterion Games’ relatively lowdevelopment costs) revenues for ElectronicArts in the two years following the acquisitionof Criterion. Electronic Arts had already seenthe potential of the Burnout series with 2million units recorded by their poorlyperforming and financially hamstrungpublishing rivals Acclaim Entertainment andwould have been very confident ofconsiderably greater sales success for thefranchise. As such, Criterion’s acquisition is atypical example of an acquisition driven bysuccessful triple-A IP.

The Burnout franchise succeeded because ofa combination of reasonably novel and highquality games design and the support of itstwo owners, Canon and Electronic Arts. Formany years Criterion, as a subsidiary of Canon,was a heavily loss-making division that reliedentirely on the financial support of its parent.This was critical also for both the subsidisationof the company’s games development business(for whom the creation of a hit product was justone of a number of business goals) as well asits ability to retain its games IPR when securinga publisher. Electronic Arts, on the other hand,provided the platform from which the Burnoutfranchise was able to expand its appeal andsubstantially increase its sales.

CONCLUSIONS● The original game had a short learningcurve, instant gameplay gratification and mass-market design appeal● It offered the novelty of aggressive driving gameplay features but also the use of roadspopulated with non-participating (but fullyinteractive) traffic● Quality of cinematic visual style for replaysand use of blurring to add to sensation ofspeed● Distribution, marketing and sales might of EA backed Burnout 3 and subsequent releases● Use of RenderWare middleware allowed developers to focus on design and gameplayenhancements (rather than technology development) for the first Burnout titles

“The value to EA of theacquisition of Criterion

was as much its market-spoiling effect

as its utility as atechnology platform…”

Games Investor Consulting is a specialist games industry consultancy founded in 2003 toprovide independent games research and corporate finance consulting to the gamesindustry and financial community. Headed by Rick Gibson and Nick Gibson, GIC is one ofthe industry’s most trusted sources for market intelligence, has generated a number ofindustry-standard reports, and has consulted on games strategy and research for numerousgames and media companies as well as trade and governmental bodies.

IP PROFILE: BURNOUT | ALPHA

22 | AUGUST 2008

ALPHA | CHART

THEDEALS

GAMESHASTRASCEE has signed up Indiandeveloper Gameshastra tomake a game specifically forthe Indian market. It willfeature traditional Indiansports which the studio sayshave ‘a rustic appeal to them’.“We feel the market hasreached a level where a newconcept like this can be tried,”said Jim Ryan, COO of SCEE.www.gameshastra.com

SPLATTERHOUSEBottleRocket has chosen touse Gamebryo for severalupcoming titles, including theremake of classic propertySplatterhouse. The SanDiego-based studio pickedEmergent’s engine due to itseasily-extendible architectureand the ability to quicklyprototype and deploy themacross multiple platforms.www.bottlerocket.com

CARTOONS IN FREEFALLGrigon Entertainment hasutilised the Unity engine tomake Cartoon Network’s firstever MMO. Cartoon NetworkUniverse: FreeFall puts playersin the midst of an alieninvasion of the CartoonNetwork world, letting themteam up with each other andwith classic CN characters todefend the land.www.cartoonnetwork.com

POPQUAPThe DS version of the Peggle,PopCap’s pachinko-cum-pinball game, is being puttogether in association withJapanese firm QEntertainment, the studiofounded by Sega Rallydesigner Tetsuya Mizuguchi.Q will design new levels forthe game, anticipated to hitretail by the end of the year.www.popcap.com

WARNING: DEADLINEWarner Bros Interactive hassigned up Denmark-basedDeadline games to make antwo episodic games based onthe critically-acclaimedWatchmen graphic novel. Thefirst will be released alongsidethe film next year, and thesecond will be timed for theDVD release.www.deadline.dk

UNIVERSAL GRINNINGMore licence news: Swedishdeveloper Grin has beensigned by Universal to make agame sequel to hit movieWanted. Fellow HollywoodersWarner will distribute.www.grin.se

DEVELOPER CHART(MAY 25th – JUNE 28th)

590LAST

MONTH

RACE DRIVER: GRIDBEST SELLING GAME:

XB360, PS3, PC

Cars: not exactly rubbish without guns, just notnearly reaching their potential. Thousands woulddisagree, though, given Codemaster’s stellar rise upthe charts this month. But just remember: the moreguns on cars, the more chance of Jeremy Clarksonhaving a freak accident.

CODEMASTERS

12LAST

MONTH

WII PLAYBEST SELLING GAME:

Wii

GTA IV may be enough to displace Nintendo, butonly temporarily: here is a boat unpeterbed by thehighs and lows of the stormy sea. Those surprisedby Wii Play being the most popular of the Japanesegiant’s games need only repeat the sacred mantra:free Wiimote, free Wiimote, free Wiimote.

NINTENDO

221LAST

MONTH

LEGO INDIANA JONES:ORIGINAL ADVENTURES

BEST SELLING GAME:

WII, PS2, DS, XB360, PS3, PSP, PC

Given the tabloids’ reactions to Formula 1 honchoMax Mosley’s alleged orgies, you might think thatwhipping Nazis was low on the list of Joe Public’slikes – but then this comes along and provesotherwise. Take our advice, Max: it’s only acceptiblewhen you’re in tombs. Now there’s an idea…

TRAVELLER’S TALES

34LAST

MONTH

METAL GEAR SOLID 4:GUNS OF THE PATRIOTS

BEST SELLING GAME:

PS3

Looks like suicidal old men just don’t gel with thepublic as much as we predicted they would, withKonami’s biggest release of the year only enough tohelp it hobble up one place. We’d much rather itwas that incessant Xbox 360 port rumour that’dshove a gun in its mouth, though.

KONAMI

41LAST

MONTH

GRAND THEFT AUTO IVBEST SELLING GAME:

XB360, PS3

ROCKSTAR NORTH

“I’m Neeko Belliiik!” we say. “No, aii am NeeekoBelliick!” they say. If Rockstar North has nothing elseto be proud of, it can take solace in the fact thatnever before has a game inspired such passionedEastern European impressions between gamers.

AUGUST 2008 | 23

CHART | ALPHA

Ed [email protected]

ChartTrackcharttrack.co.uk

ELSPAelspa.com

CHART DATA EXCLUSIVELY SUPPLIED BY

ChartComment

OUR MONTHLY RANKING OF THE WORLD’SSTUDIOS BASED ON UK GAMES SALES

SEGA

MARIO & SONIC AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES

Wii, DS

3LASTMONTH

7 SORA LTD

SUPER SMASH BROS: BRAWL

Wii

-LASTMONTH

8 EA CANADA

FIFA 08

PS2, XB360,PS3, PSP,WII, DS, PC7LAST

MONTH

9 DIGITAL ILLUSIONS

BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY

XB360,PS3

-LASTMONTH

10 INFINITY WARD

CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE

XB360,PS3, PC,DS5LAST

MONTH

11 UBISOFT (MONTREAL)

TOM CLANCY’S RAINBOW SIX: VEGAS 2

XB360,PS3, PC

6LASTMONTH

12 NEVERSOFT

GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK

Wii, PS3,XB360

15LASTMONTH

13 TEAM NINJA

NINJA GAIDEN II

XB360

-LASTMONTH

14 A2M

IRON MAN: THE OFFICIAL VIDEOGAME

PSP, PS2,WII, DS,PC8LAST

MONTH

15 HARMONIX

ROCK BAND

XB360

11LASTMONTH

16 HUDSON

SPORTS ISLAND

Wii

39LASTMONTH

17 FREE RADICAL DESIGN

HAZE

PS3

12LASTMONTH

18 FIRAXIS

SID MEIER’S CIVILIZATION REVOLUTION

XB360, PS3

-LASTMONTH

19PC

9LASTMONTH

20 PAM DEVELOPMENT

TOP SPIN 3

PS3, WII,XB360

-LASTMONTH

While the top spot might have reverted back to its pre-GTAIV holder, there’s a surprising amount of movement in thecharts, especially from smaller studios.

Warner-owned Traveller’s Tales predictably fares well fromreleasing its Lego Indiana Jones game concurrently with thefilm, cashing in on the hype surrounding everyone’s favouritewithering archaeologist. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the wideappeal of TT’s Lego series makes the game appeal beyondthe usual movie tie-in buying audience, either.

Also riding high in the charts, and jumping a whopping 85places, is Codemasters, thanks to the commercial and criticalsuccess of Race Driver: GRID.

It’s also a good month for new entries into the charts, with

a whopping five fresh-faced studios enjoying their moment inthe (UK) sun. Japanese independent Sora, whose first game –the massive Super Smash Bros. Brawl – has been extensivelypromoted by Nintendo, gets this month’s Highest New Entrygong as it punches its way to seventh place.

EA DICE has been a Bad Company this month, butnevertheless has done well to come in at number nine, whileTomonobu Itagaki’s resignation from Tecmo wasn’t enough todent enthusiasm for gory hack’n’slashing, with Team Ninja’sNinja Gaiden 2 sneaking into 13th position. And let’s notforget Firaxis, Hudson and Pam Development, all of whichenter (or, in Hudson’s case, re-enter) the top 20 this month.

“There’s a lot of movementamong smaller studios…”

CHART KEYNEW ENTRY

INDEPENDENT

UP

DOWN

NO MOVE

6

MAXIS

THE SIMS 2: KITCHEN & BATH DESIGN STUFF

24 | AUGUST 2008

ALPHA | EDUCATION

FREE FOR ALLWhile some are quick

to criticise coursesand universitiesteaching games as development

‘irrelevant’ or ‘out oftouch’, one part of

the industry islooking to change

that: technologyproviders. Here

Michael French runsthrough five of the

major academicprograms which offerfree or cheap accessto well-known tools

and apps…

MICROSOFTMicrosoft has several programmes inplace designed to get software intothe hands of students and academicsfor free, the firm’s academic developerevangelist Ed Dunhill tells us.

MSDNAA is a subscription availableto technical departments at schools,colleges and universities whichprovides a number of Microsoft appsfrom Vista and Server through todeveloper tools. Most institutionsalready take part, but those alsolooking to sign up can register athttps://registermsdn.one.microsoft.com/msdnaa/aa/newstep1.aspx or [email protected].

Dreamspark, meanwhile, is a yearold project for Higher Educationstudents to get access to MS apps forfree. Head to dreamspark.com formore info – all students need to do isverify their student status. The likes ofServer 2003, Expression Studio, SQLServer, Visual Studio Pro 2008 – and,yep, XNA Game Studio – are allavailable at no cost.

MSDNAA and Dreamspark also offerfree subscriptions to the XNA CreatorsClub for those looking to furtherexplot the .NET XNA platform.

Dunhill adds that Microsoft also hasan offer for free Windows Server based

web hosting for Higher Educationstudents. More details can be found athis blog – blogs.msdn.com/edunhill.

LUXOLOGY3D modelling package Modo vendorLuxology is a newbie to the educationsector, having only just announced itsplans last month, but is taking themove very seriously. “Luxology istrying to make Modo very accessibleto schools and students alike. We wantto break 3D out of the classroom andmake it easy to use Modo not just in alab but also on a laptop that might beanywhere. Modo runs on Macs andPCs, which provides for moreflexibility,” explains Immanuel Martin,sales director at Luxology.

Elements of Luxology’s EducationProvider Program include: reducedpricing of Modo for faculty membersand labs, including floating licensesand blanket site licences; automaticaccess to app updates; reduced pricetraining; and technical support.

Martin describes the pricing as‘inexpensive’, the program effectivelyreducing the seat cost of Modo tounder $100.

Colleges around the world arealready signed up. In the US thatincludes The Academy of Art,

Cogswell College, Art Institute ofWashington, Florida State University,Michigan State University at Ann Arborand the Columbus School of Art andDesign. Plus, the Fukuoka DesignSchool in Japan and University inMaribor, Slovenia are recent additionsto the program. If you want to jointhem, send an email [email protected].

EMERGENTEmergent only formally startedworking with universities a year ago,although it had relationships withsome colleges prior to the July ’07founding of its academic program. Keyto the offer is the fact that it providesuniversities with completely free use ofits Gamebryo engine, asking only thatinstitutions provide feedback on whatprojects the middleware was used for.

“We want toempower the

games developersof tomorrow…”


EDUCATION | ALPHA

“We want to empower the gamesdevelopers of tomorrow and what betterway to do that than provide them with atriple-A game engine and tools so theycan use ‘real world’ technology,” a reptold Develop. “In addition to the freeuse of our engine we provide technicalsupport to the professors and theirstudents. We hold technical seminarswhere we train the teachers how tobetter use Gamebyo and share ideas onhow to incorporate it into their classes.We’re also working ontraining/classroom documents thatshould be out this year for professors touse in the classroom.”

20 schools across North America,Europe, Australia and New Zealand arepart of the program including Universityof Derby, University of Ulster, Universityof Central Florida, and North CarolinaState University. To sign up head towww.emergent.net/programs/academic.

SOFTIMAGERelaunched last year, Softimage’sEducation Program now consists of twoparts – the Education Partner Program,which offers partnership opportunitiesfor education and training facilities, andthe Certified Instructor Program, whichoffers professionals interested inteaching Softimage the chance to

become certified. “We launched ournew Softimage Education Program lastyear, in 2007, after an extensive surveyand evaluation with many industryeducators, and overhauled ourEducation Program to make it easier toapproach, much more compelling andattractive to educators who wish toteach XSI in their classes, and helpfulto students and graduates after theycomplete their XSI training,” acompany rep told Develop.

In terms of costs, eligible students,teachers and institutions can purchasepermanent or one year subscriptionlicences of XSI Advanced AcademicEdition for $295 and $175 respectively.

Art schools already teaching XSIinclude NAD Center (NationalAnimation and Design Center) inMontreal, Fashion Institute ofTechnology (NY), Flashpoint Academy(Chicago), Vancouver Film School(Vancouver, B.C.), University ofSouthern California (LA), FilmakademieBaden Wuerttenburg (Germany),ESCAPE Studios (UK), Daikin Industries(Japan) and Whistling Woods School(Mumbai, India).

Find out how to sign up at:softimage.com/education/default.aspx.

AUTODESKLast, but not least is Autodesk’s long-running education tools scheme whichhas seen its Max and Maya tools soldinto Universities for a number of years.

Perhaps most alluring to educatorswill be Autodesk’s supplied summaryof the cost reductions: “Academicpartners can choose from a variety ofsoftware solutions, at deep discountsoff of suggested list (from 70 to 95 percent off list price), and gain access toadditional resources includingtechnical support, self-paced learningsolutions, curriculum developmenttools, professional programs, onlineproduct training and more. Studentscan also take advantage of deepdiscounts and access the samesoftware that the professional use intheir daily work lives.”

UK universities signed up includePortsmouth, Coventry, Bournemouth,and Teeside. And colleges the worldover are part of the program.

Elsewhere, the Autodesk program iswell structured to include all aspects ofteaching use of its software. It offers anEDU portal for students atstudents.autodesk.com and also runsthe EDU Strategic Partner programwhich looks to help support theexplosion of CG animation and gamedevelopment courses around theworld by helping big companies likeSony Imageworks, EA, Ubisoft andLucas Film interface with colleges. Thefirm’s Autodesk Professional Excellenceprogram meanwhile looks to certifyeducators and support the careers ofthose looking to teach how to useAutodesk products.

COURSES AVAILABLE:GAME DESIGN + DEVELOPMENT

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Develop Awards Special

DEVELOPMENT FEATURES, INTERVIEWS, ESSAYS & MORE

“We are only scratching thesurface of what is possible in

this medium…”Sam Houser, Rockstar Games, p30

Q&A: Sam Houser, president of Grand Prix winner Rockstar, p28PROFILE: Best Independent Splash Damage, p32

REPORT: Pictures and highlights from the Awards, p37

28 | AUGUST 2008

BETA | SAM HOUSER

GRAND THEFT AUTEURAs co-founder and president ofRockstar Games, Sam Houser is –along with brother and creative VPDan – the guiding light for a set ofstudios which have unquestionablyhad a huge impact on the gamesindustry. In this rare interview, hespeaks with Michael French to lookback at the company’s first ten years of industry-changinggames development…

GTA IV tells the story of two relatives whotravel to America to make their fortune. Wasthe hint of autobiography in writing thestory intentional? (And if so, which one ofyou is Roman and which is Nico?)A lot of people have asked that question! No -it was not intentional or conscious, although Isuppose any migrant can relate to their story insome ways, and migration is a verycontemporary theme. They are only cousins,not brothers, and we like to play around withfamily relationships in the games as much aspossible as they instantly provide complexityand depth to relations that everyone can relateto. In a game like GTA in which the protagonist

meets so many new people, you need somepeople to feel anchored to.

As for who is the bumbling trouble makerand who is the war weary psychopath, isn’t itobvious?

The Rockstar business is famed for beingbuilt on the same principles as a recordlabel. What qualities from the music industryhave you tried to capture with Rockstar? Doyou think you’ve succeeded? Rockstar was built with the idea of consistencyand quality that the best record labels embody,in which you associate a label with a qualityand style. We understood early on what our

goals were, whatever the product we wereworking on. A combination of accessible butinnovative gameplay and high productionvalues, with gameplay mechanics and settingswe found appealing and unique. In this way, Ithink we have at least stuck close to what weset out to do. If we succeeded, well, thatdepends if people like the games or not.

In what ways has the business side of Rockstar remained different from a music label?As an environment, all creative industries areunique, but games bear a somewhat closerresemblance to a combination of movieproduction and book publishing, I guess, but itis a mercifully unique environment. The team isthe most important unit in game developmentand the size and diversity of personality typesand skill sets is something unique to gamesand something we cherish at Rockstar.

Rockstar has expanded by about one studio every year in the last decade. Has therebeen a specific strategy for the way you’ve grown the Rockstar business? No – this was pretty random, to be honest!When we found kindred spirits, or people wehoped could become kindred spirits, we triedto bring them into the family.

How will it grow further?We don’t want to get too much bigger in termsof teams, because the games need to have thepersonal touch and production values that arein them, and we can’t do that at a much biggerscale, but we will always look to work closely

with excellent people when we come across them.

In a management sense, how has theworking relationship between you and Dandeveloped as Rockstar has grown? Hasbeing brothers in charge of the business,working together, helped you?We worked pretty closely together from themoment Dan left university without a clue as towhat to do with himself in July 1996. Thatsummer, he started temping with me andLucien at BMG – Lucien King heads up ourproduct development stuff in the UK – and he’shung around ever since!

The process of producing games has evolvedso enormously since 1996 that of course whatwe do has changed, but the fundamentals arestill the same; help the production and helpimprove the game while getting it done ontime. Dan tends to work in a more hands onway early in a production and me more closely

“We don’t want to gettoo much bigger in

terms of teams, becausethe games need to havethe personal touch andwe can’t do that at amuch bigger scale…”


SAM HOUSER | BETA

HIS-STORY Here, Houser recounts the highlights from hisworking life and Rockstar’s history so far…

1971: Born in London.1989: Left school in London with bad A-level results.1990: Re-did A-levels. Better results.1990: Began summer job sorting mail at BMG Records in London. 1991: Started degree at London university.1991-94: Worked part time at BMG on pop videos and VHS releases.1994: Graduated from university and transferred withinBMG to its interactive division.1996: Became head of development for BMG Interactive.1997: Released Grand Theft Auto on PC and PlayStation.March 1998: As had been clear for a while, BMG got coldfeet on the interactive division (they had lost money, dueto the wisdom of doing things like opening offices in about27 countries – including Ecuador). BMG Interactive wassold for $9 million to Take Two, a small distributor with asmall publishing division in Europe and next to none in theUS. Along with the people, desks and office leases, thedeal also includes rights to BMGI’s games, including GTA.July 1998: Move to New York as head of development forTake Two, with responsibility for starting a publishingbusiness in the US.September 1998: GTA released in the US.October 1998: Released Space Station Silicon Valley onN64 – made by the team who would go on to make GTA III.December 1998: Founded Rockstar Games – a high-endpublishing division of Take Two, with stated goals to focuson progressive gameplay and high production values, asthe company believed that games would come tocompete with movies. Got laughed at a lot! April 1999: First Rockstar release, GTA London 1969.Reaches number one in the UK.September 1999: Take Two buys DMA Design fromInfogrames (which had bought it off Gremlin or someoneelse, now defunct).October 1999: GTA 2 comes out – the first Take Twogame to ship a million units at launch. October 2000: Rockstar has two games ready at thelaunch of PS2 – Midnight Club and Smuggler’s Run.Midnight Club goes on to become the most successful ofthe PS2’s launch title line-up. October 2001: GTA III comes out. Becomes biggest PS2game of all time. October 2002: GTA: Vice City comes out. Becomesbiggest PS2 game of all time. October 2003: Manhunt released. Proves popular withthe Daily Mail. October 2004: GTA: San Andreas comes out. Becomesbiggest PS2 game of all time.April 2005: PSP launches – Midnight Club 3 becomesmost successful launch title on system.July 2005: Residue code found in San Andreas. Hackersmodify it and it turns into scandal known as ‘Hot Coffee’.Get dragged into legal nightmare, ending in trip toWashington in February 2006 to sit in front of federaltrade commission staff – for nine hours.October 2005: GTA: Liberty City Stories comes out –becomes biggest selling game on PSP.April 2006: Release Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis– first next-gen game, showcasing new Rage engine.October 2006: Bully released. Proves popular with theDaily Mail.June 2007: Manhunt 2 refused certification by BBFC.April 2008: GTA IV released.

Other games Rockstar is very proud of, released along theway: The Warriors (2005), Red Dead Revolver, (2004), MaxPayne 1 and 2 (2001, 2003), GTA: Vice City Stories (2006),Midnight Club 2, 3 and Dub Edition (2003, 2005, 2006),Smuggler’s Run 2 (2001).

later on, but it’s very inter-changeable. Ofcourse, being brothers helps, particularly in theexotic world of American corporate life towhich we are occasionally exposed as we are,obviously, very loyal and very straight with oneanother.

How much of what gets written aboutRockstar in the likes of the tabloid press doyou read? I think we probably read most of it – if you turnon a computer this stuff reaches you, usuallyforwarded by an old friend laughing at you.

Do you pay any attention to it?No – I think we are both depressed at howboring we really are and how unexciting eventhe worse fabrications and exaggerations arewhen you read about them. None of it seemsvery rock and roll, so we find it a little sad,

when there are probably better stories thatcould be writtten about both us and the

industry/medium. No sharks,groupies or pounds of coke oranything fun at all. We read likeangry dorks, which might be true,but is certainly not very exciting.

But still, Rockstar has become an easy targetfor the press. Does it concern you that thenegative and misleading coverage canovershadow the innovations and positivecontribution GTA has made back to thevideogaming business and medium? Not really. Most of the people who hate us arepeople it is truly an honor to be hated by –reactionary creeps with strange agendas – andthe Daily Mail. Most people who know aboutmodern pop culture know about GTA and likeor dislike it on its own merits.

Rockstar committed to episodic content forGTA before GTA IV was finished; how didthat impact the way you write and plan forthe first GTA IV game?You’ll see in a few months.

Given all the work that goes into thenarrative and writing and acting in a gamelike GTA IV, as well as the technology, doesit frustrate you that games as a medium arestill less recognised than film?It used to but now, when games are clearlymore vibrant and exciting than movies toanyone who is paying the slightest bit ofattention (most of the critics and detractorsdon’t even play or look at the games), itactually excites us that they are being ignoredas it gives us what we most cherish about thisindustry: the freedom to be innovative anddevelop in a less constrictive environment.

The problem with academia and prizes andawards and all the things the movie industry haswrapped itself in is that it constrains things toomuch. 99 per cent of movies are three acts toldover two hours with very similar plot structures,camera work and so on. We can rip up the rulebook every time we make a game as everyaspect of every process gets reconsidered.Some things may ‘work’ but they are, mercifully,not yet unbreakable doctrine. And that freedomis a direct product of the lack of mass critical andacademic attention the industry receives.

GTA IV asks the players to make a few keydecisions during its story, and we’ve seenanother Take 2 game, BioShock, experimentwith similar ideas. How further can thatmodel be pushed? Is it something you’d

like to take further in future games?All aspects of games can be

pushed a lot further. We areonly scratching the

surface of what ispossible in thismedium. Of allthings, storytellingis one of the areasthat in some wayshas the furthest togo. Using choiceslike that issomething more orless unique togames, but the artis in combining a

strong, cinematic narrative with choices, soplayers get the best of both models – the beststory that feels like it is evolving around themas they play based on their decisions. Ofcourse, we will continue to experiment with it,as we never get anything right first time.

Between the launches of San Andreas andGTA IV there had been a fairly significantgrowth in the games industry, especiallywhen it comes to what people call ‘newplayer demographics’, or casual games, butreally means just more people – and more‘average’ people who aren’t that used togames – playing with and owning consoles.Was that something you took into account asyou oversaw GTA IV?Not really. We always tried to make games thatanyone could pick up and play. They may, overtime, reveal a lot of structural and mechanicalcomplexity, but the first mission of more or lessany Rockstar game is very easy andengaging for a reason – because new peopleplaying the game have to be gently led intothe world of 3D action games, or open worldracing games or whatever. This is the way wetry to cater for a mass market – but we arefocused on making digital worlds that are funto explore and interlaced with rich narratives,that even the most casual player can become apart of, if they want to. The challenge is tomake a game in which ‘depth’ does not resultin complexity the first minutes you play. This isa challenge we’ve always tried to embrace, andI hope we are getting better at it, just as I hopewe are getting better at everything.

Does the success of GTA IV goes to showthat you don’t need to make games for‘casual’ audiences in order to reach themass-market?The division doesn’t make sense to us; goodgames will usually sell and be popular, badgames will struggle – of any type or genre orstyle. But we still believe big, high impactgames will help the industry evolve and furthersurpass the movie industry as the next mass-market story telling medium.

Although Rockstar is famed for gamesenjoyed and designed for mature players,would you want to make games for thismore casual audience that now exists?In order to be successful, we are going to haveto continue to do what we have always done –make games that we would want to play, andhope there is audience for them. We don’tbelieve in focus testing ideas (it’s like asking anaudience what album they want to hear – theydon’t know until they hear it!) or thinking of atarget market or anything like that; it’s ananathema to creativity. We are trying to makecommercially viable art, not sell washingpowder. While people like what we do, we willcontinue to do it to the best of our abilities.When they don’t, we will have to stop and dosomething else. www.rockstargames.com

BETA | SAM HOUSER

“Most of the peoplethat hate us are peopleit is a truly an honor to

be hated by –reactionary creeps withstrange agendas, and

the Daily Mail…”

30 | AUGUST 2008

32 | AUGUST 2008

BETA | SPLASH DAMAGE

MAKING A SPLASHYou’d be forgiven for not knowing much about indie developer Splash Damage – but with aDevelop Award for Best Independent Studio under its belt, the Bromley bunch are ready toemerge into the light. Ed Fear speaks with founder and creative director Paul Wedgwood…

Reading the instructions for getting toSplash Damage’s Bromley offices, you’dbe forgiven for forming preconceptions

before your arrival. “The building is white andblue, and has two entrances,” it reads. “One isfor Bromley Conservative Club, and the secondis ours – with no signage.”

Given the modest setting, and relativelyquiet public image of the studio, it’s temptingto not know what to expect – or, perhaps morehonestly, not expect that much. But, actually,those preconceptions would turn out to becompletely wrong. Inside the unassuming,white and blue two-entranced building – well,above that Conservative Club, anyway – lies astudio with its head screwed on; one of thevery few that has managed to make thetransition from hobbyist mod team to a fully-functioning studio handling triple-A games.

But entering those offices, so different fromthe outside, more questions rise to the surface.How has this bunch of geographically disparatepeople actually managed to all get togetherand start their own studio when so many otherdreamers fail? How do they manage to make

contemporary big-budget games with only 36people? And, perhaps most importantly, howdid the Quake Wars: Enemy Territory developermanage to curry enough favour with Americandevelopment powerhouse id Software to begranted one of its most precious licences?

MOD ROCKERSWhile the Splash Damage story starts officiallyin 2001, in truth it’s several years before thatthe seeds were truly planted. It all started within January 2000 with a Quake 3 mod, Q3

Fortress. Helmed by Paul Wedgwood, with artlead by Richard Jolly and Arnout van Meer asresident code genius – all three of which stillhold senior positions within the company – thedevelopment of Q3F was similar to most mods:a bunch of gamers collaborating from acrossthe world in their spare time.

Unlike most mods, though, Q3F caught theattention of id Software – a company intimatelyfamiliar with its modding scene – after the teammanaged to attract worldwide fansites veryearly on. They were invited out to QuakeCon in2000, the annual gathering for id fans and modmakers in id’s hometown of Mesquite, Texas,and given their own demonstration area. Theypresented their work to anyone who’d look, butmost importantly to id themselves. Recallingthe time, Wedgwood says: “We spent thewhole time networking with other mod teamsand the id guys. We went drinking with them,and were completely awestruck that we were inthe TGI Fridays that id hung out in after work.”

After pitching an idea that was deemed fartoo ambitious for such a small developer, theteam returned and decided to make Q3F into a

“We were completelyawestruck that we werein the TGI Fridays that

id hung out in afterwork…”

Splash Damage with their award.From left to right: StephenGaffney, Richard Jolly, PaulWedgwood and Arnout van Meer.

total conversion by replacing all the artwork,music and sound effects with completely newcontent. Simultaneously, in May 2001 the threeleads formed Splash Damage, which started offworking with Network of the World andGamer.tv to produce a TV show based onQuake 3 Arena, designing maps anddeveloping a TV-friendly HUD and dynamiccamera system.

At the start of 2002, the team approachedBT OpenWorld to make some maps for themultiplayer shooters popular at the time. Oneof these maps, Market Garden, became themost popular third-party map for Return toCastle Wolfenstein. During this period,Wedgwood had been introduced to id co-owner Kevin Cloud, who was impressed withwhat the team had done with id’s engine.

“After that, I pretty much ICQ’d Kevin everyday, saying ‘Gimme a deal, gimme a deal,gimme a deal,’” Wedgwood laughs. “Theyintroduced us to Activision, and in early 2002they asked us if we’d like to make three mapsfor the RTCW Game of the Year edition.”

Again, one of those maps – Tram Siege –became the most popular first-party map. As aresult, id also signed Splash Damage to developthe multiplayer part of a Wolfenstein sequel.Sadly, development of the single-player elementwas cancelled but, seeing the fun that peoplewere having with Splash Damage’s component,Activision decided to continue development andrelease their work as a free game.

After Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory launchedto much critical success, Splash Damage weregiven their first massive break when id putthem in charge of all of the multiplayer mapsfor the massively-anticipated Doom 3. Fromthere, it’s just a short jump to being givenstewardship of Quake Wars.

CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGEMENTWhile this company history – admittedly alargely condensed one – gives an idea to howthe company has grown, it says nothing of howthe studio’s professionalism has matured. Oractually, maybe that’s why it’s managed tomake that rocky transition. But there are things about the way the studio is run that beliethe hobbyist roots which anchor the SplashDamage tree.

For example: you may erroneously think thata studio with a rabidly enthusiastic mod-teamcore would be pretty lax with regards to lettingdetails slip of its next project – a tantalisinglyundisclosed multi-platform game for Bethesda– but meeting rooms were hurredly stripped ofconcept art before Develop was allowed in.

Similarly, you might think that those earlyyears of zealous all-night coding might carry onto a studio that’s firmly stuck in the old crunchmodel of developing games. On the contrary,not only does Splash Damage work to allieviatecrunch periods to being as short as possible, italso provides all of its staff benefits that mostgames industry employees dream of.

How has it managed to get its head soscrewed on in such little time?

Candidly, Wedgwood admits that thesuccess was borne from much failure. “I’d beenunsuccessful in business a couple of times inthe past. But each time I failed, I’d learnsomething about doing things above board orthat I should pay attention to a certain area.

“So there I was, two or three years before Istarted Splash Damage, in front of the officialreceiver for the third time in a row, thinking Iwas going to get banned as a companydirector. The receiver said to me: ‘Paul,everybody that I know in South London that’sbeen successful in business has been to see meat least three times before they manage to getit right’. It was such an uplifting thing to say,because I was so depressed. I resolved that if I

“Each time I failed atbusiness, I learnt that Ishould pay attention to

a certain area…”


SPLASH DAMAGE | BETA

Practicing forWolfensteinEnemyTerritory atthe ImperialWar Museum(July 2002)

Finally out of the garage – movinginto the new offices (Feb 2004)

Splash Damagegoes karting – oneof many milestonecelebrations(September 2002)

Visiting Ritual Entertainment’s offices – a

rare treat for a mod team (August 2001)

Whatchoo talkin’ about Willis - Thefirst company-wide E3 visit (2003)

Ready for my close-up – Paul’sfirst on-camera interview withthe BBC (July 2002)

A JOURNEY THROUGH THE SPLASH DAMAGE SCRAPBOOK

THE SPLASH DAMAGE SCRAPBOOK (CONTINUED)

34 | AUGUST 2008

BETA | SPLASH DAMAGE

tried again I’d make sure everything was rightfrom day one.”

This meant getting a grant to have amanagement consultant from UK Trade andIndustry come in and help them build a comprehensive model that was based on‘perfection in business’ – as far reaching as todiscuss staff retention before they even had asingle employee.

“Our thinking was that, at the time – 2001 or2002 – I think the British games industry had areputation for being a bit…” He pauses. “Crap.They were working over launderettes, or intheir bedrooms; it was quite unprofessional.There was this image that people in the gamesindustry were society’s dropouts.

“We didn’t like that idea – we’d been to theUS and seen companies like Ritual, Gearboxand id, and to us it seemed like the gamedevelopment industry was seen as better in theUS. People sat in cool chairs in cool officessurrounded by action figures – it was nothinglike the UK’s approach, which was more like aworkhouse.”

So, they sought average salary surveys andmade sure that they paid at least ten per centabove the average. Staff today enjoy astakeholder pension, private medical anddental care, and membership at a local gym.

“That’s just the way we’ve done things, madesure that everything’s been done correctly. Wemake sure we follow employment laws, and getstaff to sign in and out – it’s all just basic

professional stuff that I saw when I was workingfor investment banks in the City, so I didn’t have that unprofessional gamedevelopment background.”

BURNING CRUSADEIt’s this focused approach on management thatprobably meant the Q3F project ever worked inthe first place – dissect any of the thousands ofdissolved mod teams whose concepts and

early screenshots litter places like PlanetQuakeand you’ll see that the vast majority fall apartdue to a lack of proper leadership.

And, while it may seem simplistic to say so,it’s Wedgewood’s burning passion to own astudio that’s lead to it succeeding: thatdesperation to make a studio work meant thatthe team had to jump right into commercialwork, which forced them into professionalism

that they wouldn’t have found if they’dremained hobbyists.

And so, as Splash Damage embarks on itsproject for Bethesda and takes its first stepsaway from Activision and id – a relationship thatWedgwood acknowledges it was extremelylucky to have as a young, unproven studio –and in to the brave new world of its owncreation, does Wedgwood feel any trepidation?

“I loved working with id, and if I had anotherchance to work with them on just aboutanything at all I would jump at it. But Kevin[Cloud] has always said to us that we should becreating new intellectual property, that weshould be careful to not fall into the trap ofproducing endless ports and expansions. Wethought, on the whole, that it would be nice to be able to create something completely original.”

The new project also marks the studio’s firstforay into console development – whichconsoles have yet to be announced, but they’recertainly enjoying experimenting – for which aramp-up will be necessary. Wedgwood stillplans to keep things relatively small, estimatinggrowth to about 60 people, but moving to anew office is on the cards the next few months.

New size, new project, new publisher, newoffices. But one thing’s for sure: that modestsetting, that quiet studio, that ConservativeClub; all those preconceptions are about to become much harder to form.www.splashdamage.com

“In 2001 or 2002, I thinkthat there was this

image that people in thegames industry weresociety’s dropouts…”

Life imitates games at

QuakeCon (August 2004)

Glowy bits andlycra are theorder of the dayat the ETQW mo-cap session in LA(March 2006)

Signing future eBay materialat Activision’s ETQW summit(January 2006)

Paul and Kevin Cloud from id showoff ETQW at one of countlesspress events (May 2006)

The first rule of fight clubis... – id’s Kevin Cloudbriefs the E3 crew in 2005

Splash Damage panel atQuakecon 2006 – From Modsto Mission Packs (August 2006)


DEVELOP AWARDS WINNERS | BETA

MEET THE BEST OF THE BEST

SPECIAL RECOGNITION

THE JUDGES

Grand PrixRockstar Games

Develop would like to thank the following for taking timeout to vote for this year’s winners…

David Amor (Relentless), Toby Barnes (Games:Edu), Ian Baverstock (Kuju), Colin Bell (JuiceGames), Owain Bennallack (Develop), Thomas Bidaux (Independent), Linus Blomberg(Avalanche), David Braben (Frontier), John Broomhall (Broomhall Productions),Martyn Brown (Team 17), Nick Burton (Rare), Simon Byron (Thetriforce.com), Charles Cecil(Revolution), John Chasey (Finblade), Gavin Cheshire (Codemasters), Martyn Chudley (BizarreCreations), Tim Closs (Ideaworks 3D), Ed Daly (Zoe Mode), Jason Della Rocca (IGDA), MichaelDenny (SCEE), Stuart Dinsey (Intent Media), Chris Doran (Geomerics), Andrew Eades(Relentless), Harvey Elliott (EA Bright Light), David Eves (amBX), Ed Fear (Develop), MichaelFrench (Develop), Guillaume de Fondaumiere (Quantic Dream), Rick Gibson (Games Investor),Ian Goodall (Aardvark), Thor Gunnarsson (CCP Games), David Hawkins (Exient), MilesJacobson (Sports Interactive), Richard Jacques (Richard Jacques Studio), Patrick Jocelyn(Autodesk), Dave Jones (Realtime Worlds), Jon Jordan (Develop), Jason Kingsley (Rebellion),William Latham (Goldsmiths), Chris Lee (FreeStyle Games), Ian Livingstone (Eidos), Neil Long(MCV), Jamie MacDonald (SCEE), David Millard (NiKNaK), James North-Hearn (Foundation 9),Patrick O'Luaniagh (nDreams), Patric Palm (Hansoft), Jason Perkins (Curve), Simon Phillips(Gusto), Elizabeth Prince (Amiqus), Mark Rein (Epic Games), Torsten Reil (NaturalMotion), TimRogers (Eurocom), Martin de Ronde (OneBigGame), Nick Rooke (Microsoft), Chris Satchell(Microsoft), Vincent Scheurer (Sarassin), Jonathan Smith (Traveller's Tales), Darryl Still (1CPublishing), Jeff Tawney (Razorback), Antoine Villette (Darkworks), Paul Wedgwood (SplashDamage), Trevor Williams (Swordfish), Richard Wilson (Tiga)

Last month, 600 of you rolled up to the Metropole Hotel in Brighton to find out who the keywinners were at this year’s Develop Industry Excellence Awards. 17 prizes rewarded your effortsin games development over the past year. Here, we celebrate each winner and give you achance to re-live the sights and sounds of the event, hosted by comedian Glenn Wool. Enjoy…

Platinum Partner

Gold Partner

Studio Category Partner

Drinks Reception Partner

Event Partner

Publishing Hero Award Partner

BETA | DEVELOP AWARDS WINNERS

CREATIVITY

38 | AUGUST 2008

Best New IPLost Winds (Frontier Developments)

Publishing HeroNintendo

Best Use of a LicenceLego Indiana Jones (Traveller’s Tales)

Visual ArtsRockstar North (Grand Theft Auto IV)

Audio AccomplishmentRockstar North (Grand Theft Auto IV)

TECHNOLOGY & SERVICES

DEVELOP AWARDS WINNERS | BETA

AUGUST 2008 | 41

Creative OutsourcingRichard Jacques Studio

Tools ProviderEpic Games

ServicesBabel Media

Games:Edu NewTalent AwardUniversity of Abertay& Dare to be Digital

RecruitmentCompanyOPM

Technical InnovationNaturalMotion/Image Metrics(Grand Theft Auto IV)

AND THE OTHER WINNER IS…During the Awards, sponsor Geomerics ran a competition to test the movie knowledge ofthose in attendance. Lisa Harding from the NorthWest Development Agencywas the winner – she gets aniPod Touch.

DEVELOPMAG.COM

BETA | DEVELOP AWARDS WINNERS

STUDIOS

42 | AUGUST 2008

Best Mobile StudioIdealworks 3D

Best In-HouseDeveloperRockstar North

BusinessDevelopmentRealtime Worlds

BestIndependentDeveloperSplash Damage

Best New StudioDoublesix


TOOLS:AI.implant is

back in gamesp47

Unreal Engine3 used to

build TV showp55

KEYRELEASE:

Scaleform GFxp57

THE LATEST TOOLS NEWS, TECH UPDATES & TUTORIALS

“We rejected the predictable‘invisible in-car radio’…”

Race Driver: GRID audio, p57

Hands onadvice

Exclusive tutorial on DS Development, p58

46 | AUGUST 2008

BUILD | TOOLS

BEST KEPT SECRETS

OUR VIEW OF THE UNIVERSE has changedsignificantly over the years, thanks to the effortsof Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo, but it's fair toassume none of those esteemed scientists wouldhave understood the thoughts running throughthe minds of the four speakers at 10:15-ish onthe morning of Thursday 31st July 2008 in theHilton Metropole hotel, Brighton.

Of course, being speakers, we all assumed theuniverse revolved around us, so the rudeinterruption of the fire alarm could only be dueto something we’d done: a PowerPoint slideinvolving the swastika; flicking a light switch; alight clearing of the throat; or the call forquestions. Yes, like the autistic boy who thought9/11 happened because he stepped on a crackin the pavement, us – the speakers – allapparently assumed we had triggered of the fire alarm.

But like the Edinburgh International GameFestival 2006 (or whatever it was called thatyear), it was merely a wakeup call for thesleepers on the back row and the local fireappliances. That dying breed, the smokers, gotanother opportunity to puff away too.

Still, it makes you think. This cutting acrossnormal life in a me-way is the sort of thing thatshould be commonplace in games – after all,games really are designed to be experiencesthat revolve around you, the player. But despiteDevelop being a conference jam-packed withindustry expertise, that fire alarm was probablythe most surprising me-related event during theentire three days, and that includes anothergreat Glenn Wool set.

Maybe next year someone can give a 9.30ampost-awards talk on Karl Jaspers, game designand Existenz? Just as long as it’s not me…

Games shouldbe about me

Jon [email protected]

< coding >

From simple multiplayer tools, GameSpy’s technology now enablessophisticated features such as data mining and in-game commerce

A FRUSTRATION FOR MANY middlewarecompanies is the length of time betweensigning clients and being able to talk publiclyabout the titles their technology is being usedin. When it comes to GameSpy’s range ofonline services though, this is less of a problemgiven that the company provides the backendand networking SDK for the Nintendo Wi-FiConnection, which by definition powers allWii and DS online functionality.

Even with that proviso, director of technologyTodd Northcutt was still revelling in thereflected glory the company received for itsinvolvement with three of the biggest games ofthe year so far: Mario Kart Wii, Super SmashBros Brawl and GTA IV.

“In the span of a month, our technology wasbeing used in games that sold 20 million copiesand was being used by around 10 milliongamers. It’s been pretty amazing and provesonline is just getting more and moreimportant,” he says.

Of course, that’s hardly rocket science. Evensingle player-only games now require onlinefeatures if only in terms of downloadablecontent. But what Northcutt is really enthusedabout is the way the online status of games isshaking up the entire process of development; even the entire process ofmanaging a franchise.

“With GTA IV, in four weeks we’d collectedstats on 12,000 man-years of gameplay,” hesays. “In the past, publishers used thesestatistics purely for public consumption, so itwas things like how many bullets you fired orhow many races you won. Now howeverpublishers are interested in data mining to seehow people play the game and use thatinformation to keep their audience happy, aswell as applying them to expansion packs.These are tools to gather business intelligenceabout what your customers are doing.”

Of course, online games developers havebeen doing this sort of thing for years.Northcutt says he’s seeing the smartesttraditional studios setting up dedicated teamsto use this data.

“It definitely requires a new way of thinking,”he points out. “People have to take a franchiseapproach and look not just at the lifecycle of

individual titles but entire lifecycles. The guyswho are ahead of the curve have online groups,which aren’t focused on a specific title but theonline experience in general. For example,Infinity Ward has an active community manager who talks to their multiplayeraudience and Relic has dedicated guys for itsonline audience.”

GameSpy enables this way of working with itsATLAS system, which received a major upgradeat the start of 2008. In conjunction with theSake persistent database, it can track almostany in-game activity via a simple API. Itencrypts data, which can then be processed invarious ways using a web-based admin tool. Itcan also feed results into other packages suchas GameSpy’s Arena competition platform topopulate ladders and the like.

Other related technologies GameSpy iscurrently working on include the Team SDKsolution, which will enable developers toextend the social aspects of gameplay, as wellas gamers themselves to manage teams bothin-game and via web sites.

“We’re less than a month away from havingthe SDK released. It ties in with all our othertech such as the buddy system, the statussystem and ATLAS,” Northcutt says. “It will alsobe integrated into Unreal Engine 3 so anyonewith a license can access it as a free technologyupgrade. I’d expect it to turn up in gamesshipping in spring 2009.”

Another piece of the puzzle will be revealedas the Direct2Game turnkey commerce tool canbe used in-game. “That’s launching in August ina game from THQ and will let players buy allthe different classes and races they would haveonly otherwise been able to get access to bybuying all the expansion packs,” Northcuttsays. “We’re really excited about seeing howthe public react to that.”

ATLAS,Direct2Game, TeamPrice: Available on requestCompany: GamespyContact: +01 310 280 7803www: www.poweredbygamespy.com

GameSpy’s ATLAS statsystem can beoutputted to webpages such as thiscompetition ladder


TOOLS | BUILD

< coding >

THERE ARE FEW THINGS more likelyto inflame the online ire of consumers– whether music buyers or gamers – asthe perceived heavy-handed use ofdigital rights managements. Just thinkback to the StarForce crusades of2005-2006 or, more recently, theSecuROM controversies concerningBioShock or the Mass Effectreactivation debacle. Frankly it’s notgoing too far to say this sort of thing isnow considered an inalienable, ifcapitalist, human right.

It’s a brave company to enter suchwaters with a new anti-piracy productthen but Glasgow start-up Metaforicseems to display little fear. Set up byAndrew McLennan and Neil Stewart,once of developer Steel Monkeys, it’sbeen quietly working on its patent-pending smarts for a number of yearsunder the auspices of Scottish

technology institute ITI Techmedia.Now it’s ready to launch its product,called Metafortress, into thecommercial world.

“We know from bitter experiencehow soul-destroying piracy can be,”says CEO McLennan. “You spend thelast three weeks of a project in totalcrunch mode and before the game’s inthe shops, most of Russia’s alreadyplaying it for free.”

“Our first thought was theprotection has to be in theapplication,” explains McLennan, ofthe basic approach which has beenreferred to a network of interleavedchecks. “The second thing we decidedwas we’re never going to makesomething uncrackable. What we’retrying to do is make the hackingprocess long enough that thepublisher sees the benefit in terms ofadditional revenue. The third thingwas we didn’t want to get into an armsraces, which is where most anti-piracysoftware ends up. So we assume ahacker will have total control over any hardware the game or applicationis running on, as well as the

application itself.”“None of the technologies in

Metafortress are significantlyweakened when the hacker knows howthey work,” adds CTO Stewart. “Evenif the hacker has the source code withall the protection in it, it would take aslong to remove it from the sourcecode as it would to remove it from theexecutable.”

It sounds powerful stuff, butMcLennan says that what’s asimportant as the ability to slow downVladimir and his hacker neo-comradesis making the entire process easy forthe developer to use. A major sourceof badly protected games are quickfavours run off for marketing or PR. Totake piracy seriously, every version of agame that leaves a studio needs to besecure as the final gold master.

“The best way to use Metafortress isto make it part of your build systemusing your IDE,” McLennan says. “Youcan set it up in such a way that everybuild is a protected build so you cannever release something that’svulnerable. What we do is we buildthe protection into the software itself

so you need to run an initial process,which takes about an hour end-to-end,and after that it’s just an additional fiveminutes process per build.”

As for the consumer, they shouldn’teven know Metafortress is being used.“We’re totally transparent to the end-user,” McLennan ends. “They won’teven know we’re there and we caneven protect the system a publishercurrently uses, whether license key oronline authentication, it doesn’t reallymatter so we’re complimentary fromthat point of view too.”www.metaforic.com

BUILDING STRONGER WALLS

Artificial intelligence package AI.implant is available for commercial licensing. Again.

IF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCEPACKAGE AI.implant was a celebrity,it would probably have its own coloursupplement in Heat or Star magazine,such has been the frequency of itsindustry dalliances. Starting as a well-brought up pathfinding tool fromMontreal, it slowly built a solidreputation in both films and games,being acquired by Canadiansimulation company Engenuity in late 2005.

After this came the big timehowever with Engenuity, in turn, beingtaken over by billion-dollar industryand military sim company CAE. Butafter a couple of months, AI.implant’screator left to try his hand at gamesdevelopment while AI.implant becameavailable for game customers under anew licensing agreement thateffectively swapped payment for co-

marketing on finished products. Issuessuch as ongoing support and productdevelopment for consoles were lessthan transparent. Instead, CAE’songoing focus for the product werewell-paying modelling and simulationclients, where it could packageAI.implant with other tools andservices, which it did through itsPresagis division.

But now it seems, the circle hasturned. Once again, AI.implant isavailable for commercial license bygames companies under standardlicensing and support terms for PC,Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.Confusion? What confusion?

“Last year, we announced theprogram to offer triple-A gamedevelopers a version of AI.implantessentially at no cost to allow us togrow the product for the othermarkets in which we sell it, primarilymodelling and simulation,” explainsRobert Kopersiewich, Presagis’ vicepresident of product management.

“The goal was to build up theproduct and generate some marketingactivity with our game customers. This

was very successful and we kept theprogram in place until recently. As aresult, we’ve had lots of requests forusing AI.implant in commercial gamesand so we allow games customers tohave access to the regular commercialversions of AI.implant following ournormal licensing and terms of sales.”

As well as these ongoing requests,Kopersiewich says the growingubiquity of games consoles within thecommercial simulation space alsomakes the move sensible.

“More and more, we find ourmodelling and simulation customersare developing for consoles,” heexplains. “We see a lot of primarycontractors on the military side lookingat game platforms to put an elementof fun into their products, particularlyto appeal to the young users whohave grown up using games.”

Of course, the specific requirementsof the modelling and simulation crowd– who tend to be developing trainingsystems under government contracts –are very different to games customers,but Kopersiewich says somecomponents, such as AI.implant, can

flourishes in both markets. That’s whyCAE bought the technology in the first place, and that’s why the licensesplit between the two markets isroughly 50:50.

The result is the future of AI.implantas a piece of games middleware isassured. “We’re typically releasing newversions on a quarterly basis and thesealways support all platforms so that’sPC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 andUnreal Engine 3,” he says.www.presagis.com

< coding >

The latest Glasgow start-up is all about protecting your crown jewels

MetafortressPrice: Available on requestCompany: MetaforicContact: +44 141 333 6580www: www.metaforic.com

AI.implant v5.3Price: Available on requestCompany: PresagisContact: +1 514 341 3874www: www.presagis.com

He’s called Vladimir and he wants tosteal your game

BACK TO THE FUTURE

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AI.implant is a pathfinding andbehaviour package for gamesand simulation

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AUGUST 2008 | 49DEVELOPMAG.COM

GUIDE | BUILD

Engines to get connectedThe most work-intensive, most risky game projectsdeserve the most flexible, most collaborativedevelopment tools available. Jon Jordan welcomesyou to the www of MMO gaming technology…

These days it’s hard to keep trackof all the online games beingdeveloped. Partly it’s because

there’s quite a lot of them and partlyit’s because a lot of them don’t actuallymake it to commercial release. Thecosts of development are high, but the costs of a failed launch are evenmore disastrous.

So you’d think middleware would bean even more obvious decision, butwhile the likes of BigWorld andHeroEngine are slowly gaining thestatus of production-proved tools, themysteries of separation between clientand server-side technology remainssufficient to stop anyone claiming tobe the sector’s de facto standard. In

fact, it could be argued the likes ofUnreal Engine 3 or Gamebryo are aspopular as anything listed here - atleast in terms of the client-side part ofthe MMO equation.

Whether this state of affairs will everchange remains open to question,particularly following the ‘failure’ of bigcompany projects such as SunMicrosystems’s Project Darkstar.Certainly, at present it seems thatdevelopers-cum-middlewarecompanies continue to have the upper hand with three of the five listedcompanies developing their ownMMOGs in parallel with their work on commercial middleware. Physician,heal thyself.

MMOENGINES

One of the first complete enginesdesigned specifically for the massivelymultiplayer online market, BigWorldcontinues to prove popular.Technology-wise, it’s split into fourbasic components: a dynamicallyload-balanced server infrastructure

that can supply a large, contiguousworld; live server deployment andmaintenance tools; a DirectX 9-classgame client including integratedphysics and AI; and a collaborativedevelopment environment includingworld, model and particle editors.

www.bigworldtech.com

BIGWORLD

Monumental Games takes aproduction-centric approach toonline game development with itsMonumental technology suite. Itoffers a complete tool-chain for rapidcontent creation by artists anddesigners, enabling them to preview

their assets and get them into thegame quickly. The technology usesmany procedural techniques, forboth terrain and characters, allowingfor scalable asset and contentgeneration. It recently signed up tendevelopers for its prototype licence.

www.monumentalgames.com

MONUMENTAL

Built on the back of experience fromtext-based online games,Simutronics’ HeroEngine takes aconsistent approach when it comesto the creation and deployment ofMMOs. Launched in 2006, after fiveyears of work, it provides an

integrated server-client engine anddevelopment system, both of whichsupport a dynamic plug-inarchitecture, enabling collaborativeand ‘always live’ environment forprototyping, building and testing of games.

www.heroengine.net

SIMUTRONICS

HeroEngine is an always-live online gamedevelopment engine

Monumental is making its own game in theshape of Football Superstars

BigWorld was one of the first complete MMOengines

TECHNOLOGYHeroEngineCLIENTSBioWare Austin, ZeniMax Online, ITTerritory, HSC LabsPLATFORMSLinux (server), PC (client)INTEGRATION WITHMany, including AIseek, FMOD, PhysX,Scaleform, SpeedTree, and WwisePRICEEvaluation, prototype, basic and sourcelicences available, price available [email protected]

TECHNOLOGYBigWorld Technology SuiteCLIENTSCheyenne Mountain, Netease, SlipgateIronworks, Vivendi plus over a dozenothers HOST PLATFORMSLinux (server), Windows (client) plusXbox 360, PlayStation 3 and mobile INTEGRATION WITHDiamondware, Scaleform, Spatial Voice,SpeedTree, Umbra, and VivoxPRICEIncludes up-front license, ongoingroyalty and annual support [email protected]

TECHNOLOGYMonumental Technology SuiteCLIENTSAvailable on request PLATFORMSPC (Windows/Linux), Xbox 360, PS3INTEGRATION WITH3ds Max, Diamondware, dPVS, FMOD,GNI, Maya, SpeedTree, VivoxPRICEPrototype, production and commerciallicenses available [email protected]

50 | AUGUST 2008

BUILD | TECH ADVICE

Flowcharts

I’VE BEEN THINKING a lot recently about how data flows around themultitude of different and disparate systems in our games. This has beenprimarily motivated by rumours of the dozens of cores we’ll be dealing with inthe next generation of consoles, but also about how this can help us now.

Data Flow Analysis has been around in computer science for decades andis a technique utilised at instruction level by optimising compilers. Macro DataFlow Analysis, its higher level cousin, has been deployed as a schedulingparadigm in distributed processing. Central to both is the notion of the dataflow graph, and creating one of these as nothing more than a rough paperexercise enables data dependencies to be seen in a whole new light.

What became apparent was that data didn’t really flow at all; sucking, in allthat this implies, would be a more accurate definition. Our code’s reliance onglobal managers for a great many things was largely culpable here. If afunction needed some information from another module it would go and getit via the appropriate manager, with all the implications that has for cachemisses and thread safety. Somewhat naively, this wasn’t of great concern to usuntil our PS3 dev kits arrived when we quickly realised code structured in thisway couldn’t easily be ported to run on an SPU, and with only two cores onthe PPU this just wasn’t going to fly.

Identifying exactly where data needs to be and when it needs to be theremakes it immediately obvious which parts of the code can be executed inparallel and hence where the bottlenecks are. In turn this allows a minimaloperating set of input data for a particular module to be determined whichwill enable it to execute successfully and produce a set of output data. Thisthen constitutes the interface to the module, and it has a correspondingcontroller running on the main thread responsible for marshalling the data itneeds as input and produces as output.

In addition to identifying bottlenecks the data flow graph may alsohighlight similar operations that are occurring frequently but erratically allover the game update. It may be possible to defer their execution and bufferthem up such that they can be computed in a tight loop – maybe on an SPU –in a much more cache friendly way. A typical example might be view frustumtests or bounding box intersections.

Of course, not all code will fit neatly into such an idealistic model no matterhow hard you try, but for code that will it has a very positive effect on codequality, modularity and, most importantly, concurrency.www.blackrockstudio.com

A prime example of a MMOdeveloper that’s built its own toolsand is now offering them on acommercial basis, Icarus reckons themain selling point of its Platform isthat it handles everything fromcontent production and asset

management tools to game systemmodules and a full suite of networkadministration utilities.

New features include an in-game auction system plus enginebuffs such as volumetric fog and light blooms.

www.icarusstudios.com

TECHNOLOGYIcarus PlatformCLIENTSAvailable on request HOST PLATFORMSWindowsINTEGRATION WITH3ds Max, Ageia, FaceFX, IBM, VivoxMilkShape, Motion Analysis, SpeedTree, PRICEAvailable on [email protected]

ICARUS

Icarus is making its own MMOG, Fallen Earth,with its tech

Feeding the Web 2.0 and usergenerated content approaches toMMO development comesMultiverse, which offers a freedevelopment licence for itstechnology, as long as finishedgames are made available within its

Multiverse Network. It’s just releasedv1.5 of its technology which enablesyou to create multiple instances ofworlds, as well as the MultiverseVoice System and a 2.5 timesimprovement in terms of 3D browserperformance improvement.

www.multiverse.net

MULTIVERSE

Multiverse is enabling indie studios to makeMMOGs

TECHNOLOGYMultiverse PlatformCLIENTSOver 10,000 registered teams HOST PLATFORMSWindowsINTEGRATION WITHCOLLADA, Flash, FMOD, SpeedTree,VivoxPRICEFree for development, royalty upto 10 per [email protected]

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Black Rock Studio

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Take control

DEVELOPMAG.COM52 | AUGUST 2008

BUILD | SOFTWARE

Not Flash, Just ScaleformScaleform's Flash-based user interface middleware has hit the industry'ssweet point in terms of price to productivity, Jon Jordan discovers…

More from ScaleformAlways the businessman, CEO Brendan Iribesays: “We’re always looking to expand thebusiness and make more money so we will belaunching more products in 2009.” Several areplanned but he’s uncharacteristic coy aboutgoing into details, at least about one of theplanned extensions. “You can say we’re thinkingabout expanding GFx with other complimentarymiddleware solutions,” he decides. “They will beadd-on products that create complimentarysolutions. We’re never going to make a 3D engine.”

Then he changes his mind. “We’re going tobe doing a localisation product,” he reveals. “Noone does localisation because it’s such afragmented market. But user interface design,fonts, text and localisation go really welltogether. When you localise a game most ofyour efforts and problems concern the text andthere we can offer an affordable, effective,streamlined process that helps manage it. Asimple example. With the click of a button wecan automatically check for overruns in everylanguage. That’s a huge saving right there.”

Maybe it’s a mixture of a lackof ambition and/or invertedpride but you don’t often

hear middleware execs talkingabout how they’re running thefastest growing company in theindustry. Brendan Iribe, CEO ofgame user interface vendorScaleform, has no such qualms.

“We signed over 50 games in thefirst eight months from our launch inMarch 2006,” he says. “In 2007, wesigned 120 games, and this yearwe’re on track to be in 200 newgames. By the end of 2008,between 300 and 400 games will beusing our technology. We’re thefastest growing middlewarecompany out there.”

It’s hard to argue with thosefigures. But, as ever, behind such anovernight success story comes atale of hard work and a certainamount of luck too. Back to thesource. Brendan Iribe met CTOMichael Antonov at college. Bothwere into games, with Iribe on thebusiness and art side and Antonovthe programmer. Originally, theythought about developing their owngame and started to play aroundwith the tools required. But Iribe’sexperience with multimedia fortrade shows and exhibitions, plustheir growing experience of thegames industry, resulted in a morelateral approach.

“We saw there was a deficiency interms of visual tools, so we workedon it for a while and decidedbringing a user interface solutionsuch as Adobe Flash to the gamesmarket would be successful,” Iriberecalls. “Of course, we didn’t know

how hard it would be. After fouryears of attempting to make ourown version of Flash Studio, westarted talking to developers andinstead made a UI engine poweredby Flash. Even then it was another 3years of development before wereleased the first version of GFx.”

Happily, this learning experiencewas funded by personal financerather than venture capital, with thatsource, Iribe’s uncle, eventuallycoming onboard as CFO. Neatly,this coincided with Scaleform’s firstproper year of operations and thesince profitable annual returns.

The icing on the cake was thereputation of the company’s firstclients. “Crytek had looked criticallyat the product for several yearsbefore signing up to use it inCrysis,” Iribe says, as if trying to

play down the story. “As a newcompany, you need a champion – abig game – so Crytek was great,and then we got the call fromBioWare. They wanted to use GFx.We wondered if it would be used inMass Effect. They said they weregoing to use it in all their titles.”

It sounds too good to be true,but in actual fact, this the only waythe sort of low margin, high volumeproductivity tools supplied byScaleform can work. It’s not a UnrealEngine, more a SpeedTree or MilesSound engine. Success only comesif it’s used very widely, as Iribe’sclaim that 16 of the top 20publishers are licensees underlines.

But three years into operations,there are plenty more, highervolume or higher margin, areas forScaleform to investigate. Thecurrent major push is setting up thecompany’s Asian operations withdocumentation, support andwebsite being localised into Korean,Chinese and Japanese. Scaleformwill also have full-time sales staff ineach territory. Then the focus willshift to new technological features(see boxout).

“We’re providing a UI solutionand we need to do it globally,” Iribesays. “It’s fun but it’s not worlddomination. It’s UI domination in thegames space. We’re providing aFlash pipeline, not a Scaleformpipeline. Every game needs font,text and icons. We’ll enable you todo some things you can’t otherwisedo such as animating your UI orputting it on 3D surfaces, but ourfoundation is the efficiency of theworkflow we offer through Flash.”

The GFx IME add-on enables you to offer seamless in-gamesupport so users can input text in East Asian languages

Scaleform Lobby is designed to reduce the overhead of creatingmultiplayer interfaces

“We’re providinga Flash pipeline,not a Scaleform

pipeline. Ourfoundation is theefficiency of the

Flash workflow…”Brendan Iribe, Scaleform

KEYRELEASE

PRODUCT: GFxCOMPANY: ScaleformPRICE: Available on requestCONTACT: +1 301 446 3200W: www.scaleform.com

Brendan Iribe, CEO, Scaleform

www.amiqusgamestalentnetwork.com GAMES


EPIC DIARIES | BUILD

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

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

Mark Rein is vice president of Epic Games basedin Raleigh, North Carolina. Since 1992 Mark hasworked on Epic’s licensing and publishing deals,business development, public relations, academicrelations, marketing and business operations.

Blockade Entertainment is an innovative studioconceived to create compelling animatedexperiences for television, online and film using

modern game engine technology and video gameassets. Founded by Brad Foxhoven, with partnerGearbox Software in tow, licensing Unreal Engine 3 hasbeen a natural step in Blockade’s quest to realising itscreative vision.

With a successful proof of concept and a nationalcommercial already under its belt, Blockade is nowcreating its first animated series, Sacred Road, usingassets from Gearbox Software’s Brothers in Arms series.

“One of the big advantages that Unreal Engine 3brings to developing material for video or any otherlinear medium is the extremely fast iteration time,” saidFoxhoven.

“You can see the effects of changes you makealmost instantly, which allows for very fast fine-tuning ofmany aspects of our work, particularly when it comes tocamera work, post-process effects, and lighting. Beingable to replay your work in real time and adjustlighting, animation, or post-process accordingly savestons of time over a more traditional renderer.”

Foxhoven’s team has relied on many Unreal Engine 3tools, including Matinee, which has been used for all ofthe scene setup and control. Blockade leverages theHDR rendering technology to create a smoother, moreefficient pipeline.

The team also utilises the Cascade visual editor andparticle system as well as the engine’s post-processtools for incorporating motion blur, depth of field, andvarious lighting effects in the show.

“Unreal Engine 3 allows us to be more efficient invarious stages of our production, giving us more timeand resources to be experimental on how we approacheach episode,” explained Foxhoven. “We can stageand edit various aspects of the production, and notlose out on our timeline.”

Foxhoven said the biggest advantage to adaptingUnreal Engine 3 for Hollywood is its speed.

“UE3 allows directors to create multiple takes, andedit those takes on the fly,” he said. “They can seetheir changes when they want them, allowing theproduction to continue to move ahead, and not waitfor extended rendering to occur. Plus, the cost benefitallows for more shows to be produced in this format,giving a broader basis of opportunity with multipledistribution partners.” Despite the lower productioncost, Foxhoven added that he thinks Sacred Road willhave the appearance of the best cinematics in today’smost technologically advanced games. He added thatthe show looks like a fully rendered CG production,and the visual quality is spectacular.

The Blockade production team has already rampedup from 12 people to 50, and in addition to this firstseries, additional 3D shows will be created usingUnreal Engine technology down the line.

“We have now created a very robust pipeline thatallows us to scale up for additional projects relativelyquickly,” added Foxhoven. “The engine enables us tokeep a consistent pipeline on what we bring into thecompany, and how we export the shows and theirmultiple formats. We are currently targeting six serieswith multiple episode orders for each.”

Capcom has entered into its secondagreement with Epic Games to use UnrealEngine 3 for an unannounced project.

”Unreal Engine 3 is a perfect fit for thisproject,” said Keiji Inafune, managingcorporate officer, R&D Management Group,Capcom.

“Not only does the development teamhave thorough knowledge of Unreal Engine3, the general versatility of Unreal Engine 3will fully meet the requirements particularto this project.”

“One of the major advantages is thewell-established support system,” headded. “We are delighted to enter into thislicense agreement, and have strong backupby Epic Games. With Unreal Engine 3, wecan expect high development efficiency as well as high creativity within thedevelopment team.”

upcoming epicattended events:

GC Developers ConferenceLeipzig, GermanyAugust 18-20, 2008

NVISIONSan Jose, CAAugust 25-27, 2008

CEDECTokyo, JapanSeptember 9-11, 2008

Please email:[email protected] appointments.

BLOCKADE ENTERTAINMENT PAVES A‘SACRED ROAD’ WITH UNREAL ENGINE 3

CAPCOMPURCHASESSECOND UNREALENGINE 3 LICENSE

Concept art for Blockade Entertainment’s “Sacred Road”


AUDIO | BUILD

HEARDABOUT

Conquer a living, breathingevolving world of packed grids,devastating damage, intelligent

opposition and unparalleledatmosphere… Racing just got excitingagain. So reads the PR blurb aboutGRID, already backed up byimpressive chart success. As the audioteam reflects on a warm reception toits ten-month production from bothpunters and peers alike, what do theyconsider the most signficant aspects oftheir achievement?

Lead game audio programmer AdamSawkins offers: “The approach to themusic, and the context-sensitivity forboth speech and crowd systems. Wewent for a unique music style that totallyfits the game, rejecting the morepredictable ‘invisible in-car radio’.Composer Ian Livingstone drew onclassic Hollywood car chases forinspiration. The bespoke interactivemusic design and coding enable areactive score (e.g. swelling as you gainfirst place or romp a high speed corner -or dropping down to a moody bassline ifyou screw up). We use two ‘bed’ layersfor each loop, separate percussion andmelody layers introduced when theplayer takes the lead, a heavy basslayer rolled in by crashes, two layers topile on the excitement in the final lap,and a ‘high speed’ layer for feedbackon especially quick driving.”

He adds: “Speech-wise, havingcontext-sensitive reactions as well asco-driver calls dependent on trackposition is a big difference. Forinstance, slip-streaming might draw acompliment or you might be warned adriver ahead is spinning out,identifying them by name. There’smore detailed crowd feedback too –

both positive and negative – hurtleinto a wall and you’ll hear screaming asthe crowd dive for cover!”

With GRID taking DiRT’s audiosystems to a new level modelling 20cars racing simultaneously, the mix wasalways likely to be a key challenge,says Sawkins. “Mixing 760 soundsources for the cars alone, plus music,

collisions, damage, crowds and manyother ambient sounds is obviously aheadache – especially pack racing.We have to be ruthless on the numberof voices playing and dynamically alterthe mix based on cars numbers, gamemode etc. A bunch of those 760 voicesare produced by our granularapproach to collisions deployingunique recordings for every carcomponent (70 per car) split intosmall/medium/large impacts plusscraping, dangling, loosening andremoving. With up to ten variants pertype plus the use of real-time DSP, thevariability is fantastic.”

Vital and foundational to GRID’saudio experience are the audio codingsystems that harness hardware power.Explains principle audio techprogrammer Simon Goodwin: “We useOpenAL on PC and 360 to give us aconsistent API on Microsoft platforms,including PC hardware acceleration,

isolating us from changes orinconsistencies between DirectSoundand XAudio. We use MultiStream onPS3 and ATRAC3 compression, with upto 224 independent 512 band FFT-based MultiStream filters onPlayStation and simpler IIRs on theMicrosoft platforms. There’s customcode to map between them withoutlosing the extra control possible onPS3. The physical voice count is loweron PC and 360 – typically around 120voices – but our dynamic virtual voicesystem ensures correct soundprioritisation.

“Multiple listeners are very handymaking updates more efficient as wellas when balancing the audio – and ourAmbisonic panning works brilliantly in5.1 surround (or ideally 7.1). The oldpanning tricks that work for stereo anda narrow range in front of the listenerfail for sounds to the side and rearbecause they don’t account for theway we all localise sound using relativeinformation from both ears. Pushing airon just one side is unrealistic andconfuses the brain, whereasAmbisonics controls the phase andpressure of sounds all round thelistener. You perceive smoothpositioning and movement of soundsin all directions, rather than the ‘pull tonearest speaker’ holes or diffusioncaused by psychoacoustically boguspairwise panning. The more speakersyou have, the better this works and thewider the 'sweet zone' between them.

Sawkins sums up: “Overall, we feelit’s a great-sounding game and lookingforward, we have a lot of cool ideas forthe next. We know we can take it upanother level given more time andresources.”

Race Driver: GRID FORMATS:Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC (XP/Vista)

DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER:Codemasters

AUDIO TEAM:Audio Manager: Will Davis

Audio Lead: Mark Knight

Sound Design: Mike de Belle,Andy Grier, Ed Walker

Additional Sound Design:Jethro Dunn, Oliver Johnson,John Davies, Stafford Bawler Greg Hill,Technicolour Interactive Services

Lead Game Audio Programmer: AdamSawkins

Game Audio Programming:Giannis Ioannou

Additional Game Audio Programming:Hugh Lawry,Paul Penson, Rob Pattenden

Principal Audio Tech Programmer:Simon Goodwin

Central Tech Audio:Pete Goodwin, Aristotel Digenis

Music: Ian Livingstone

Additional Music:Aaron Sapp, Thomas J. Bergersen

THE NUMBERS:Licensed music: Four tunes – intro FMVsequence, credits, two in the ‘garage’

Bespoke music: Eight multitrack loops(eight layers each, 72 minutes in total)played during races plus eight stereoremixes used in replays; two-minutecrescendo for the finale of the Le Mansevent, and one more ‘garage’ piece.

Sound effects: 2,800

Dialogue: 15,000 lines

TECHNICAL RESOURCES:Xbox360: One CPU core and 24 MBRAM, XMA compressionPS3: One dedicated SPU, 13 Mb RAM,ATRAC3 compressionPC: Around eight per cent of onemodern CPU core, 174 Mb RAM, PCMplus some Ogg Vorbis (2.5 Gb of HDspace for audio alone)

John Broomhall is anindependent audiodirector, consultant andcontent [email protected]

www.johnbroomhall.co.uk

“We rejected thepredictable ‘invisible

in-car radio’…”Adam Sawkins, Lead Games

Audio Programmer

John Broomhall talks to Codemasters’ Simon Goodwin and Adam Sawkins about the making of the studio’s latest racing title…

BUILD | TUTORIAL: DS DEVELOPMENT

Developing for the Nintendo DSis an attractive proposition forstudios looking to work on

relatively low-budget platforms. Whilethe DS might not demand huge teamsand colossal asset creation resources,developing for the platform requires asolid, structured approach and asmuch expertise as other formats. Herewe’re going to share some of our DSknow-how, drawn from years ofworking with some of the biggestpublishers in the industry such as THQ,Ubisoft and Electronic Arts.

GETTING STARTED■ Assign good staff to your DS project

The DS may not be the all-singing,resource-rich monster thatconstitutes a modern home console,but that doesn’t mean it should berelegated to the platform your juniorstaff cut their teeth on. Bear in mindthat handheld development is oftenan exercise in precise optimisationat a very low level and expertmanagement of the resourcesavailable. Your lead coder should beas familiar with the DS and fixed-point math platforms as humanlypossible, right down to being ableto code for the machine in assemblyif you want to get the most out of it.The DS is relatively easy to get into,but getting the most out of it doestake some effort.

■ Design to suit the hardwareThe DS is surprisingly capable and,in some ways, supersedes theoriginal PlayStation. However, yourDS game design should considerthe DS’s capabilities first andforemost. There’s no sense trying tocram a DVD-based PS2 design intothe DS – instead, work out how toadapt crucial gameplay elements to

the handheld’s hardware and makethe most of the platform. The bestDS game designs recognise this.

■ Iterate quickly in the early stagesWith the DS, iteration can andshould be fairly rapid. Look toiterate quickly in the prototypingstage and don’t be afraid to dumpfeatures if they don’t gel early on.You should be able to makefundamental code changes andhave a new build running on nativehardware by the end of the day.Also, commence QA as early aspossible, particularly if you’reimplementing multiplayer,touchscreen control methods ornovel uses of other DS features.Again, don’t be afraid to tear it upand start again if the feature isn’tworking as well as you’d hoped.

ASSET GENERATION■ Utilise existing assets to save time

As is increasingly common, DS titlesoften have bigger brothers indevelopment on home consolehardware. Assets can often berepurposed, with some optimisation,to the DS. Good time-savers aredistant LOD models, which canoften be low enough in poly countto serve as main models with a bit ofcleaning and re-texturing. Bitmaptextures are also easily adapted, ascan be most sound assets. Evenanimation data is reusable, thoughsome keyframes and bones will haveto be trimmed. If your design is 2D,bear in mind that you can oftenrender out sprites and backdropsfrom existing 3D assets.

■ Optimise intelligently from the startThis applies to pretty much all game

optimisation, but optimise based onwhat the user will actually see andexperience. For example, if you’remaking a racing game, rememberthat the majority of the car won’t bevisible, so cull polygon detail fromthe middle and front and focus onthe visible back of the car. The samecan be applied to most assets. Withcode optimisation concentrate ongetting the core experience assmooth and solid as possible, thismay mean you can’t implement allthe features you’d like to, soprioritise what’s important.Somewhere near the top of the listshould be a solid frame rate; yourlatest CPU-heavy AI trick can waituntil the next version if it meansjerky gameplay.

DS DESIGN CONCERNS■ Gameplay is still king, and always

will beThe primary concern of any DSdesign should be gameplay. Itshould not be to make use of thecomplete hardware feature set, orattempting to break new groundgraphically or in terms of controlinterface. None of it matters if thegameplay isn’t up to standard, andwith the DS in particular you cannotafford to be lazy. The DS can’t relyon eye candy or sandbox openworlds to provide entertainment ifthe gameplay isn’t there. However,the DS can interpret the gameplayof a console game where next-genvisuals and physics are not anintegral part of the experience.

■ The DS is played differentlyIt’s easy to forget that the DS isoften played in ‘dead time’ or whilsttravelling, so allow for regular savingand order your gameplay into quickbursts. Aim for no more than 15minutes of gameplay without a saveopportunity. Similarly, bear in mindthat the learning curve of your gameshould not be so steep that a playercannot be making progress in amatter of minutes. You cannot relyon users putting in the same effortthey would with a console or PCgame to get the most out of yourDS title.

■ DS features are great, but only ifyou use them wellEsoteric functionality may look greatin a features list, but they need to

be fit for purpose. Touchscreencontrol methods are incrediblytempting to include in DS designs,but you should be 100 per centcertain that the game conceptrequires it. Mixtures of traditionaland touchscreen controls oftendon’t work, so if it’s best forgameplay, stick to one or the other.

■ Use the two screens sensiblyand intelligentlyTwin displays offer a huge range ofpossibilities, but always bear in mindhow the player is going to use them.The user can only actually look atone screen at a time, so minimisethe need for players to switch focusfrom one screen to the other. Makethese needs logically consistentwithin the game, or well signpostedwhen necessary and never demandthat the player pays attention toboth screens at once. Finally, if

“Commence QAearly, particularly

if you areimplementing

multiplayer, touch-screen controls or

novel uses ofother DS

features…”

Hands on advicetutorial:nintendo ds development

skill level■ everyone

■ intermediate

■ expert

< coding >

The continuing appeal of the DS across a broad range of demographics makes it a tempting platform – butthere’s some preconceptions that might trip you up, explain Exient’s Charles Chapman and Dave Hawkins…

58 | AUGUST 2008

AUGUST 2008 | 59

TUTORIAL: DS DEVELOPMENT | BUILD

you’re using the bottom screen as acontrol surface, avoid putting toomuch critical visual data there,where it could be hidden bythumbs, fingers or the stylus.

■ Some features are more expensivethan othersSome features that seem relativelysimple will cause you headaches.QA for multiplayer is always time-intensive, so be aware, plan for thisif you must include it and begin QAas early as possible. Onlinemultiplayer comes with its own setdesign and technology implications,so don’t expect to be able to add itin towards the end of the project. Itneeds to be integrated from thevery start.

■ Don’t forget that you can design fordifferent audiencesThe DS is both gender and age

group agnostic, so make the most ofthis freedom. Many DS players willnot be familiar with existingmethods of play and may be morereceptive to new ideas, soexperiment with game concepts thatdon’t adhere to traditional gamingvalues and goals. However, youabsolutely need to make sure thatcore gameplay rules are clear andeasy to understand.

■ Study the opposition’s failuresGiven the numbers of very ‘average’ DS titles in existence, you’ll learn more by looking at whatother DS games do wrong than whatthey do right. The key here is not tocopy success, but to learn fromother peoples’ past mistakes toavoid making your own. Of notehere are things like control methods,save points and general interfaceconcerns. A critical aspect to pay

attention to is the first 10 minutes ofplay. It’s very easy to get this wrongand swamp the player withdisruptive tutorials or too much storyexposition.

THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR■ Know your customer’s exact

requirementsMake sure you know the exact ROMand EPROM capacities for yourproject before you start and agreeon the feature set as early aspossible. Bear in mind that yourcustomer may have unrealisticexpectations of the DS and may askfor additional content andfunctionality to be added at a laterdate, so if you can allow forcontingency, do so.

■ Know your TRCs!Reference the DS’s technicalrequirement checklist at the designphase. There’s little worse thanrealising you’ve breachedNintendo’s own guidelines justbefore you go for submission. In-game text is one area to look out for– Nintendo have very specificguidelines for referring to DSfeatures, so make sure any tutorialsabide by the official terms.

■ QA may flag bugs that are‘features’The DS’s quirky hardware willproduce effects that, as a matter ofcourse, appear to be bugs. Beaware of these issues and be sure toinform the QA team, be it internal orexternal, of anomalies that aresimply artefacts of the hardwarerather than coding issues.

■ Test multiplayer functionalitythoroughly and constantlyWith any feature that uses WiFi,make sure you set up a ‘WiFi hostile’environment for testing. This meansfilling the air with electromagneticnoise, so test your code in thenoisiest places you can generate –even if this means bringing in

hairdryers, multiple mobile devices,extra wireless networking hardwareand so on. When testing onlinemultiplayer, make sure you canconnect through though at least twoseparate unique internetconnections – don’t rely on bothmachines connecting to the samerouter or even the same Internetconnection. The more robust themultiplayer code, the more focus QAcan place on multiplayer contentrather than flagging technical orgameplay issues.

Also ensure multiplayer is testedconstantly, from as early in theproject as possible. Finally, bear inmind that multiplayer is the one areawhich can be broken by almost anyother area of the game, so makesure your entire team is aware of any‘gotchas’ and other potential pit-falls when touching any code whichmay be used for multiplayer.www.exient.com

Charles Chapman and Dave Hawkins are,respectively, technical director and managingdirector of NDS, PSP, PS2, Wii, XBLA developerExient. The studio has worked on a number ofbest-selling handheld adaptations of bigfranchises such as FIFA, Tiger Woods, Need ForSpeed and Madden.

“Reference the DSTRCs. There’s little

worse than realisingyou’ve breached

Nintendo’sguidelines…”

DEVELOPMAG.COM

KEY CONTACTS

RATES1/4 page: £450 (or £200/month if booked for aminimum of six months)

To get your company featured here contact:[email protected] T: 01992 535 647


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STUDIOS7 Seas Tech www.7seastech.comAtomic Planet +44 (0) 1642 871 100Blitz Games +44 (0) 1926 880 000Broadsword Interactive 01970 626299Fuse Games [email protected] Soft 01273 872000Oxygen 01933 446 437Razorback Developments [email protected] Worlds +44 (0) 1382 202 821Rebellion +44 (0) 1865 792 201Stainless Games [email protected] Studios +44 (0) 1332 258 862

TOOLSbluegfx +44 (0) 1483 467 200Epic Games +1-919-870-1516Fork Particle 00 (1) 925 417 1785Natural Motion +44 (0)1865 250575Perforce +44 (0) 845 345 0116

SERVICES3D Creation Studio +44 (0) 151 236 9992Absolute Quality +44(0)141 220 5600Air Studios +44 (0) 207 794 0660Datascope +44 (0) 20 7580 6018Enzyme Testing Labs +1 (450) 229 9999High Score Productions +44 (0) 1295 738 337Partnertrans +49 (0) 2104 172 660Philips amBX www.ambx.comSpecialmove +44 (0) 141 585 6491Think Tank +44 (0) 7712 885 934Tsunami Sounds +44 (0) 1483 410 100Universally Speaking +44 (0) 1480 210 621

COURSESGoldsmiths +44 (0)20 70785052Liverpol JMU +44 (0) 151 231 2267University of Hull +44 (0) 1482 465 951

7Seas Technologies Ltd www.7seastech.com

Atomic Planet 01642 871100 www.atomic-planet.com


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Studio NewsThis month: Splash Damage and Black Rock...

Splash Damage has begun its expansion towards multi-platform development,announcing four new recruits and planning for many more.

The studio, which previously worked on Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, is lookingto almost double its size to 60 people in order to embark on the multi-platformdevelopment of its latest unannounced project, a partnership with Obliviondeveloper Bethesda Softworks.

The new recruits to the SD fold are (above, from left to right): Olivier Leonardi,who joins as art director having previously worked at Ubisoft on Rainbow Six: Vegasand Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones; ex-Criterion employee Chris Sweetman asaudio director; Tim Appleby, previously of Bioware, as lead creative artist; and newproducer Chris Dawson, who has worked on games as diverse as Driver and Evil Genius.

“I couldn’t be more excited about this influx of amazing talent to SplashDamage, especially as we start developing for multiple platforms,” added PaulWedgwood, owner and creative director of Splash Damage.

“Their experience and knowledge are a hugely positive contribution to SplashDamage and will help us further establish Splash Damage as one of the up-and-coming studios in the world.”

New art director Olivier Leonardi added: “I’m thrilled to be working here atSplash Damage. These guys treat each game as a unique creative exercise, ratherthan just going through the motions year after year, and that really impresses me.”www.splashdamage.com

Disney’s Brighton, UK-based Black Rock Studio has scored aracing development personnel coup: the studio has hiredCriterion Games’ former creative manager Paul Glancey.

Glancey takes the role of franchise design director on BlackRock’s second new racing IP for 360 and PS3, currently beingdeveloped alongside new off-road racer Pure.

Glancey started out his games career as a staff writer onbeloved UK games magazine ZZAP! 64 in 1988. He laterbecame associate editor of Computer and Video Games andthen editor of MegaTech, also contributing to MeanMachines, Nintendo Magazine and Sega Saturn Magazine.

After ten years writing about games, Glancey moved intodeveloping them. He joined Eidos as senior product evaluator in 1998.

In September 2000, he joined Criterion as creative manager where he worked onAirblade and the Burnout series of games. He had a significant hand in the designof Burnout 3: Takedown, Burnout Revenge and recent release Burnout Paradise.

Glancey commented on his new role: “It’s a stellar opportunity for me to workwith a team that has such a great track record in the racing genre and has such apassion for pushing the genre further.”

Tony Beckwith, VP and GM of Black Rock Studio added: “Having worked onBurnout 3: Takedown, Burnout Revenge and Burnout Paradise, Paul has a greatpedigree in racing game design and development and is a valuable addition to our studio.”www.blackrockstudio.com

studios

Blitz Games 01926 880000 www.BlitzGames.com Broadsword Interactive 01970 626299 www.broadsword.co.uk

WWW.DEVELOPMAG.COM AUGUST 2008 | 63

studios

NC Soft 01273 872000 www.ncestudio.co.uk

LEADING ONLINE GAMESJOIN US Technical Director

Senior ProducerTechnical Artist

Java ProgrammersDevelopment Studio Technical Liaison

Technical Game Project ManagerFor more information about these and vacancies in other departments, please visit: www.ncestudio.co.uk All interested candidates should send a formal covering letter, salary requirements and CV/resume to [email protected](please quote NCDM06)

© 2008 NCsoft Europe Ltd. All right reserved. NCsoft, PlayNC and all associated logos and designs are trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.


studiosFuse Games [email protected] www.fusegames.com

Razorback Developments [email protected] www.razorback.co.uk

Oxygen 01993 446 437 www.oxygen-studios.com

Real Time Worlds 01382 202821 www.realtimeworlds.com


studios

Strawdog Studios 01332 258862 www.strawdogstudios.co.uk

Stainless Games [email protected] www.stainlessgames.comRebellion 01865 792201 www.rebellion.co.uk

Develop Magazine 01992 535 647 www.developmag.com

GREAT ADVERTISINGOPPORTUNITIES

CONTACT: [email protected]

Tel: 01992 535 647


tools

bluegfx 01483 467200 www.bluegfx.com

Epic +1-919-870-1516 www.epicgames.comTools NewsEmergent is offering free licences to Allegorithmic’s ProFXtexturing tool to all its Gamebryo users.

The offer comes to celebrate the integration of the twoapplications, and is valid until the end of September on allprojects except MMOs.

Emergent and Allegorithmic are also offering trainingsessions that will help Gamebryo customers master ProFXand its authoring tool, MapZone.

“Emergent’s partner program puts the industry’s best tools and technologyinto the hands of Gamebryo developers. The integration with ProFX enablesGamebryo customers to easily take advantage of Allegorithmic’s proceduraltexturing tool to allow more rapid iteration of art assets,” said John Austin, VP oftechnical partners and academics at Emergent.

This deal follows Allegorithmic’s participation in Tech Connection, Emergent’sCertified Partner Program, and echos the similar work between audio specialistAudiokinetic and Gamebryo earlier this year.www.emergent.net

TRUESPACE 7.6 SET FREECaligari has released the latest version of its long-running trueSpace all-in-one 3D app for free.

The company was purchased by Microsoftearlier this year in order to strengthen its VirtualEarth project. In order to give new users a helpinghand with the software, the company has alsomade its library of training videos available for free.

“We are taking the unprecedented step of making these tools available toeveryone for free in order to stimulate content creation for the present and futureonline 3D environments, and so that any artist out there with a dream can fulfilltheir vision without finding themselves trapped by budget limitations,” wroteCaligari CEO Roman Ormandy on his blog.www.caligari.com

ProFX free for Gamebryo licensees

Fork Particle 00 (1) 925 417 1785 [email protected]

Natural Motion www.naturalmotion.com Perforce 0845 345 0116 www.perforce.com


tools

C4 ENGINE

SpotlightTool

Terathon’s C4 engine may have allthe hallmarks of an upper-class indieengine – a cheap-but-not-that-cheapprice tag of $350, a list of high-endfeatures as long as your arm – but it’sthe thought that’s gone behind theengine, and its integrated editors,that really set it apart from thecompetition.

Developed by lone coder EricLengyel, the fully-integrated worldbuilder (which allows levels to beconstructed, not just the layout ofentities) and graphical script editor

reminiscent of Unreal’s Kismet easethe toolchain stress that can so easilybe caused by other contemporary(and cheaper) engines such asTorque. It’s tempting to print thewhole features list, but given thatwe’ve not got three pages we’llsimply mention the funky-soundingsupport for things like Cook-Torrancemicrofacet surface reflection, horizonmapping, real-time cloth and fluidsurface simulation, Doppler shift onsound effects and cross-platforminternet voice chat.

CONTACT: [email protected]/c4engine


services3D Creation Studio +44(0)151 236 9992 www.3dcreationstudio.com

Absolute Quality +44(0)141 220 5600 www.e4e.com

Services News

Indian outsourcing firm ChaYoWo hasestablished a new studio in the countrydedicated to casual games.

ChaYoWo Games’ new dev center and studiois located in Kochi, Kerela, two hours from Indiacapital Mumbai.

The new facility will boast 100 staff byDecember, the company said, saying its gamedesigners, artists, animators and programmerswill be offering development, game art andanimation, and testing outsourcing services tocausal gaming companies in the US andEurope. The new team will be working ondeveloping ChaYoWo’s proprietary gamedevelopment efforts.

“Our new game development center and studio offers our employees aworkspace with state-of-the-art technology and robust collaborate workingspaces to interact with each other to develop games for our clients andpartners,” said Gaurav Mirchandani, co-founder of ChaYoWo Games.www.chayowogames.com

GOOGLE READYING IN-GAME ADVERTISING SERVICE?Google’s AdSense is finally set tobecome a viable in-game advertisingsolution, according to a report fromVentureBeat.

“Sources close to the matter said thatthe company has developed an in-gameadvertising technology that allows it toinsert video ads into games,” says the report, adding that a demo shows in-gamecharacters themselves presenting ads to players with ‘words from our sponsor’-likeintros.

The report adds that Google could move quickly as the technology is finished.Google has been expected to make a move into in-game advertising –

challenging dominating firms IGA and Double Fusion, plus their contemporariesMochiAds and GameJacket – since it acquired AdSense last year, but has been slowto move.

Apparently, Google’s in-game ad tech works with console games, PC games,web-based PC games and mobile games – although it hasn’t been demoed directlyto insiders just yet, the report adds.www.google.com

EA DICE PICKS PRATCHETT FORMIRROR’S EDGEEA’s Swedish studio DICE hasannounced that games writerRhianna Pratchett has been hired topen the script for its upcominggame Mirror’s Edge.

Pratchett previously wrote scriptsfor games such as Heavenly Swordand Overlord and has been writingfor games for over 10 years.

“It was a great experienceworking with the team at DICE tohelp breathe life into [leadcharacter] Faith; her world,relationships and backstory,” saidPratchett.

“My heroines and heroes havealways been the ones who wereordinary, but through the events ofa story, became extraordinary. Faithis skilled, but she’s certainly not asuperhero. She has her flaws, like all of us. In short: she’s real. That’sher appeal.”www.rhiannapratchett.com

Outsourcer ChaYoWoopens own studio

WWW.DEVELOPMAG.COM

services

AUGUST 2008 | 69

Air Studios 0207 7940660 www.airstudios.com

Enzyme Testing Labs +1 (450) 229 9999 www.enzyme.org HighScore Productions (+44) 1295 738 337 www.high-score.co.uk

Datascope 020 7580 6018 www.datascope.co.uk

London 020 7580 6018 www.datascope.co.uk

Chicago +1 312 543 3146 www.datascopeUSA.com

our expertise:our expertise: your development your development

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datascope - recruitment specialists for interactive entertainment

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We are the market leader in recruitment for the interactive entertainment industries. Our position has been won through 17 years of high quality service to clients and candidates. We are based in the heart of London, with an office in Chicago, USA.

Jobs of the monthSenior Producer - Brighton

Our client is a publisher of some of the world's most popular online games. Currently,

they are looking to recruit a passionate Senior Producer to work across a variety of

internal teams. Online gaming experience preferable but not essential.

Contact: [email protected]

Broadband Entertainment Lead Programmer / Software Architect - London

Experienced software engineer needed to take the lead role in the specification, design

and development of our client’s global systems. Experience with ground breaking,

cutting edge systems a must. Contact: [email protected]

Game Designer - London

Experienced Game Designer needed to work on a new football title. Candidates should

have a good understanding of gameplay and design: control, player feedback,

mechanics, game progression, reward and difficulty curves. A passion for football is a

plus! Contact: [email protected]


services

Specialmove +44 (0) 141 585 6491 www.specialmove.com

Partnertrans +49 (0)2104 172660 www.partnertrans.com PHILIPS amBX www.ambx.com


servicesThink Tank 07712 885 934 www.thinktankstudios.co.uk

Ian Livingstone/Tsunami Sounds 01483 410100 www.tsunami.co.uk

FACTFILEArea of expertise: ServiceLocation: CanadaW: www.transgaming.comE: [email protected]

Clients: Electronic Arts (Command and Conquer 3, Spore), Ubisoft (Heroes ofMight and Magic V, Petz series), CCP (Eve Online), GameTap (500+ games)Price: Royalty share with publisher

A Mac version of your game might not have been a big priority several years ago,but the switch from PowerPC to Intel chips and the continuing expansion of theuserbase thanks to the iPod and iTunes have made it more of an interesting platform.Enter TransGaming’s Cider to ease the pain: essentially a wrapper, Cider loads theWindows game into memory and links it to an optimised version of the Win32 API,and maps other Windows APIs such as Direct3D, DirectSound and DirectInput to Macequivalents. No source code needs to be changed, and the whole process – which isdone in collaboration with TransGaming, hence categorisation as a ‘service’ ratherthan as off-the-shelf tools or middleware – usually takes from several hours to a fewdays, with TransGaming helping on specific optimisations as well.

CONTACTTransGaming Technologies Inc.445 King Street WestSuite 201

Toronto, OntarioM5V 1K4 CanadaTel: (416) 979-9900Fax: (416) 979-9908

SpotlightServices

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

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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

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courses

The University of Hull +44(0) 1482 465951 www.mscgames.com

BSc (Hons) Sandwich ComputerGamesTechnology

School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences

Faculty of Technologyand Environment

The Computer GamesTechnology coursein Liverpool JohnMoores University aimsat producing Computer Game SoftwareEngineers with strong skills andexpertise in problem solving andprogramming combined with specialtiesin any of the following areas: advancedcomputer graphics, artificial intelligence,computer vision, console programmingand more. The course has beendeveloped with input from severalleading companies in the games industryand has run successfully for six years.

Several core topics of the course include:

� Programming and Problem Solvingusing C++

� Computer Graphics using OpenGLand DirectX

� Linear Algebra andMatrix Operations� 3DModelling and Animation� GameDevelopmentWorkshop using

Microsoft XNA

The course is run by an academic teamwith strong research activities in

Computer Science and Computer GameTechnology. We annually organise aninternational workshop to give ourstudents early contact with the industrypractitioners and enabling them to learnfirst hand about the challenges ofworking in the games industry.

Other related courses available:

MSc Computer GamesTechnology

BSc (Hons) Computer Animation andVisualisation

For further information on any of theabove courses please contact:

Debbie Parker or LucyWilsonAdmission and Information Officer,Liverpool John Moores University,School of Computing andMathematical Sciences,Byrom Street, Liverpool, L3 3AF

Tel: 0151 231 2267Fax: 0151 207 4594Email: [email protected]:www.ljmu.ac.uk/cms

Liverpool JMU 0151 231 2267 www.ljmu.ac.uk

Goldsmiths +44 (0)20 70785052 www.gamesgoldsmiths.com

Training News

Australian MMO middleware company BigWorld has announced its intent toprovide educators with learning resources and support services for coursesinvolving MMO and virtual world development.

In order to spearhead the move, which the firm says is designed to counter theexclusive use of peer-to-peer networked engines in most contemporary gamescourses, it has hired Adam Shaw as its new education programme manager.

“We have many months of hard work ahead with educational partners to getthis initiative off the ground,” said BigWorld CEO John De Margheriti.

“These games are much more complex to develop for and this is a pro-activeapproach to prevent an industry shortage of experienced MMO developers,particularly game programmers and game designers.”www.bigworldtech.com

Bigworld launcheseducation programme

GOLD

Well, they were right in somerespects: The iTunesapplication store certainly

was a “game changer”. From the off, it had the potential: a

mass-market, licence-free handheld,with no physical publishing costs, theiPhone 3G could have heralded thestart of direct-to-consumer distribution,freeing us from the shackles of thosehorrid retailers. Innovation could thrive.Originality would be king. A newgolden age of gaming.

So within minutes of flinging it openits virtual door, it was clear thosegames really had changed.

Because they’re no longer games atall. The bulk of the iTunes cataloguereads like a Chinese whisper: slightvariations on titles of popular freeonline games, each lovinglycompressed and diluted toaccommodate a control methodpremiered when the French failed tocut our archers’ fingers off.

Double-tap here; tap-drag there.Rotate the screen until you can nolonger see it to move forward – it waslike someone had asked a bunch ofchildren to describe what games theywanted to play, and published themdirectly without bothering to playtest.The commercial efforts I’ve paid andplayed are, without exception, abjectdisappointments, the iTunes

application store proving the gamingequivalent of photographs on a menu.

Yes, Super Monkey Ball looksimpressive, but it’s basically impossibleto play. Anyone who argues otherwiseis deluded, trying to save face afterbeing mugged for £5.99. De Blob isinteresting on paper, but the stutteringframe rate and schizophrenic controlsreinforce the fact that even thesimplest of ideas simply don’t work onthe format.

On the one hand, the iPhone’s lack ofphysical input devices permits bravenew Wii-too control methods. But onthe other hand, the games just don’twork. Try playing one of Namco’subiquitous arcade ports they just don’t

feel right. But still, it did pander to myobsessive compulsive side, whichrequires me to buy a version of Ms Pac-Man on every electronic format, nomatter how inappropriate. ThankfullyNamco’s OCD requires them to providethis, too.

Logitech must be laughing. For afirm that has built its fortunes onshoving game-enhancing features ontoinappropriate consoles – ‘make yourGame Boy Color look like a 50-inchplasma by simply welding this massivemagnifying glass to your eyes!’ –there’s a host of ludicrous add-onsdemanding to be manufactured. Topof the list would be a joystick, followedby some shoulder buttons. If it’s beingtouted as a gaming format, it should atleast behave like one.

Still, with all these obstructions,we’ve been able to embrace the much-heralded second coming: casualgames. The types of games we’re leadto believe housewives are playing allday instead of tidying their homes.

Match coloured blocks, arrangeshapes into patterns, pick out identicalblocks; they’re basically the sort ofactivities we get babies to do in orderto encourage their development, so it’s no surprise these wimmin will passthe time with such gormless activitywhen they’re not gambling away thehouse keeping.

Of course, there are some types ofgames which are suited to the format.Traditional brain-teasers, for example,or pen-and-paper puzzles, without theneed for a pen or paper. Given thepopularity of Sudoku, you’d expectthere to be a few versions released.But 20? Do we really have such apaucity of imagination that 10 per centof games release on day one wereSudoku clones? Clearly…

By concentrating on casual games,we’re alienating the iPhone’s coreaudience: men prepared to spend fivehours queuing in Regent Street just toget their hands on one. Men withmoney to burn. Not women oldenough to drink horse piss.

The iPhone 3G is a great piece ofkit. It’s ideal for games with lowexpectations: advertising-supported orhomebrew titles selling for a couple ofdollars. But raise the price, and youraise expectations.

With Super Monkey Ball sitting highat the top of the charts, it’s clear there’sa real demand for gaming content –but after the poor implementation of pretty much every commercial titleI’ve played, I can’t help feelingcheated. “It’s as powerful as aDreamcast,” we’ve been told. Let’shope iPod Touch gaming doesn’t suffera similar fate. [email protected]

thebyronicman

74 | AUGUST 2008 DEVELOPMAG.COM

“The commercialefforts I’ve paid andplayed are, withoutexception, abject

disappointments…”

DEVELOPMAG.COM

ASIA DEVELOPMENT MARKETS – SPECIAL ISSUEPublication date: September 8thBUILD: User interface tools

Publication date: October 6thBUILD Feature: Face/body

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EDITORIAL enquiries should go through to

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Develop - Issue 86 - August 2008