Develop - Issue 95 - June 2009

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

JUNE 2009 | #95 | £4 / e7 / $13

plus sony’s phyre engine • develop conference • artix • tools news & more

WWW.DEVELOPMAG.COM

OnLive wants to disrupt the waydevelopers serve their audience.

Will it work? Or is it pie in the sky?

ALSO INSIDEGame Engines:In-depth Guide

The FinlandGame Dev Boom

Episodic Games

DEVELOP

AWARDS

FINALISTS ANNOUNCED

Free supplement w

ith th

is issue Head in

the cloud

DEVELOPMAG.COM

ALPHA05 – 11 > dev news from around the globeMiddleware booms in the recession, Develop Awards finalists revealed, Sony pullsthe plug on Net Yaroze, Molyneux promoted at Microsoft Game Studios, plus allthe major news from the global development industry

12 – 17 > opinion and analysisNick Gibson falls for a developer overcoming limited capital, Owain Bennellacktakes a closer look at the recession, Billy Thompson discusses the merits of gooddesign docs, and David Jefferies emphasises the importance of colour banding

BETA20 – 21 > telling talesTelltale talks about turning Plasticine into pixels for Wallace and Gromit

24 > bright thinkingA guide to the new Evolve strand of the Develop Conference

26 – 29 > cloud controlCan OnLive really change the future of the console industry?

32 – 37 > the finnishing touchDevelop reports back on a tour of the Finnish game industry, and details the coun-try’s extraordinary support for developers

BUILD40 – 49 > start your enginesA look over the 10 best game engines currently available to developers

51 > key release: phyreengineSony talks to Develop about the free engine included with its SDK

52 > heard about: 50 cent: blood in the sanSound director Rob Bridgett on Swordfish’s collaboration with THQ

54 > epic diariesThis month Mark Rein looks at Raven Software’s use of Unreal Engine 3 for X-Men Origins: Wolverine

CODA66 > my favourte gameThief 4 producer Mario Aguera on his favourite game of all time

ContentsDEVELOP ISSUE 95 JUNE 2009

57– 65studios, tools, services and courses

26

40

20 51

17 15

JUNE 2009 | 03

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

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Editor-in-chiefMichael [email protected]

Deputy EditorEd [email protected]

Staff WriterWill [email protected]

Online EditorRob [email protected]

DesignerDan [email protected]

Executive EditorOwain [email protected]

Advertising ManagerKatie [email protected]

Production ManagerSuzanne [email protected]

Managing EditorLisa [email protected]

PublisherStuart [email protected]

Contributors John Broomhall, Nick Gibson,Dave Jefferies, Mark Rein, BillyThomson

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

the international monthly forgames programmers, artists,musicians and producers

DEVELOPMAG.COM JUNE 2009 | 05

Middleware booms in the recessionThought the credit crunch might put a squeeze on technology? Think again – middleware is more important than ever

Global software salesmight be flat year-on-year with VC capital

and risk-taking scarce, but themiddleware sector is actuallybenefiting from the recession.

Speaking to Develop in anin-depth guide to the enginemarket, both traditional toolsfirms and developers whichhave turned to selling theirown engines say that start-upsformed out of studio closuresand the pressure to make sure-fire hits means middleware ismore important than ever.

US developer TerminalReality has gone as far as tolaunch a brand newcompetitor into the enginering – the Infernal Engine,which powers the firm’seagerly-anticipatedGhostbusters game – at a timewhen many might beexpected to scale back theirambitions and play it safe.

“The current turmoil in thevideo games industry isactually going to drive enginemiddleware sales,” Joe Kreiner,the firm’s VP of marketing toldUS. “We’re seeing lots of layoffsand companies going out ofbusiness. As these peoplereform into new studios,they’ll be more inclined to useengine middleware, ratherthan try and re-createtechnology mid-way throughthe console cycle. Overalldemand for video games is stillstrong, and games need to becreated to meet that demand.”

Of course, price is still key.And while demand for third-party engines is higher than

ever, so is pressure on cost: “Iwould definitely look atlicensing technology in thisenvironment, but I’d bepushing harder for flexiblepayment terms and biggerprice breaks,” commentedTorque 3D developerGarageGames’ Brett Seyler.

For most studios, especiallynewer ones, investing timeand money into buildingproprietary tech is nowimpossible, he said.

“The build vs. buy questiondoesn’t even merit discussionfor most platforms until you’reat least a couple of hundredpeople. When we made thedecision to develop Torqueinternally, there was nothinglike it below several hundredthousand dollars. Now

there’s competition and better options for developerson a budget. I don’t thinkthere’s ever been a better time to license enginetechnology than today.”

Plus, claims Epic’s Mark Rein,studios are actually looking totried and battle-tested third-party technology to furtherminimise risk: “In thiseconomy, if we can helpsomeone get five pointshigher on their Metacriticscore, that translates intogame sales – those zeroesappear at the end of theroyalty cheque,” he explained,adding that Epic too isencouraging its licenseestowards its flexible pricingstructure for Unreal.

“Most of our deals have aroyalty component so we’rejust as keen to make alicensing agreement work forboth parties. We’ve always hadtotally flexible deals – peoplereally overestimate what the

Unreal Engine costs. I don’tknow who is spreading thoserumours, but it’s nice to knowpeople think it costs so much –but we’re dedicated to drivingvalue. Because that’s whatcounts for everyone in thisbusiness.

“There’s lots of room for lotsof middleware. We invested alot in ours, though – weinvested more in UnrealEngine 3 than some studioshave made in total revenue.Those investment give us anice situation, and we’ve hitcert on so many products thatbuying an engine like ours is asafe choice for studios.”■ Our comprehensive and in-depth look at the engine andmiddleware market starts onpage 40

ADVENTURES IN GAMES DEVELOPMENT: NEWS, VIEWS & MORE

“Thinking that ‘There’s no suchthing as a bad idea’ is bollocks…”

Billy Thomson, Ruffian Games, p15

DevelopAward finalists

namedNews, p06

Net Yarozecomes to an

endNews, p08

New job forPeter

MolyneuxNews, p08

by Michael French

For moststudios,

especially newerones, investing timeand money intobuilding proprietarytech is nowno longer anoption.

06 | JUNE 2009

ALPHA | NEWS

It can sometimes be quite hard to keep up with the fast-changing world of games development.

Who would have thought, for instance, that NamcoBandai would all of a sudden be in the middlewarebusiness? (It now owns Vicious Engine following its moveto buy Vicious Cycle owner D3 Publisher.)

Or that in just than 12 months iPhone would haveupturned one area of the industry, generated millions ofdollars – 70 per cent of which has gone straight intodevelopers’ pockets – and taught an audience of 30mhow to download games?

How about the fact that EA has in just a yearcompletely lost its place at the top of the publisher pile,and is fast looking at ways other than boxed product tokeep its business going?

Sure, this business is unpredictable. But one thing iskeeping up with the changes: the Develop Awards.

This year we debated at length the finalists andshortlist, weighing up the pros and cons of each title and each business, taking into account theirachievements in the fields like visual arts, audioexcellence or technical innovation.

Over 70 companies are in the running for the 2009awards, from those who always make the shortlist(welcome back, Rockstar, Babel, Epic Games, EA, Sony,and Traveller’s Tales) to new companies that are showingthat old guard how to innovate (pull up a pew, Ngmoco,Apple, Hand Circus, Secret Exit and Playfish).

Given the broad remit of the finalists, where one-man‘microstudios’ and tiny teams can stand alongside armiesbacked by major publishing deals, I think we’ve clearlyset an agenda as the most forward-thinking awardsshow out there.

And I’ve been to plenty of gong-shows ceremonies –certainly, there’s no shortage of them in games – but too many of them push marketing men on stage tocollect prizes for generic ‘best game’ awards. That’s notthe case at the Develop Awards – we welcome those atthe coal-face of games development to come along andbe rewarded.

It’s shaping up to be another great event. See you there.

Editorial

Michael [email protected]

Eyes on the prize(s)

July 15th. That’s the daythe cream of Europeangames development will

convene on Brighton’sMetropole Hotel for theDevelop Awards.

As the list of finalists to theright details, the Awardsacknowledge the best workin the games developmentsector, rewarding not juststudios and their creativeendeavours, but the workdone by the publishers,service companies andtechnology firms thatsupport them.

Both traditional consoleand PC games are givennods, as have new fields likeiPhone and Facebook.

Media Molecule andLittleBigPlanet score fivenominations, Rockstar Leedsgets four for GTA: ChinatownWars and its sister studioRockstar North gets twonominations for its DLC TheLost and Damned.

There’s also numerousnods for iPhonedevelopment – Apple isnominated as publishinghero, as is ‘spiritual first party’publisher for the formatNgmoco. Rolando developerHand Circus gets anomination for Best NewStudio, while Secret Exit isnominated as Best HandheldDeveloper and its iPhonegame Zen Bound given a nodfor new IP.

We’ve also added a brand new award this year,Best Engine, to acknowledgethe ever-important rolemiddleware has in the gamesindustry.

A dedicated look at thefinalists for the awards canbe found in the supplementincluded with this issue.

The event takes place onWendesay July 30th at theHilton Metropole Hotel inBrighton, alongside theDevelop Conference.

Jason Manford, one of themost successful stand-ups inthe country, has beenconfirmed as the host of theevent. Also team captainfrom panel show 8 Out of 10Cats, Manford is taking a

break from his nationwidetour to name the winners.

Winners for each of the 16awards will be decided byjudging panel of over 100games development execs,and the victors will benamed on the night. Andthat’s not all – once that’sdone we also reveal who haswon our special recognitionDevelopment Legend andGrand Prix awards.

Seats and tables are already selling out, with over 400 industryprofessionals already set toattend the event.

To book a place [email protected]

Develop Awards Over 70 different companies in the running for our coveted awards

Rockstar and Media Moleculehave scored the mostnominations – but could they betrumped this year by the variousdevelopers at the cutting edgeof iPhone and Facebook games?

by Michael French

SPONSORS SIGN UPFOR AWARDSFive different companies from the games developmentsphere are kindly sponsoring this years Develop Awards.Our sponsors are:

Jason Manford, 8 Out of 10 Cats team captain – and one of theUK‘s leading comics – is host of the Develop Awards this year

■ STUDIO CATEGORY SPONSOR

■ EXCLUSIVE DRINKSRECEPTION PARTNER

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NEWS | ALPHA

finalists named ● Media Molecule leads the nominations ● New award for engines addded for 2009

■ CREATIVITYBest New IPLittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)Mirror’s Edge (EA DICE)Pure (Black Rock Studio)Zen Bound (Secret Exit)You’re in the Movies (Zoe Mode)Burn Zombie Burn! (Doublesix)

Best Use of LicenceLego Batman (Traveller’s Tales)The Chronicles of Riddick:Assault on Dark Athena(Starbreeze Studios)Outrun Online Arcade(Sumo Digital)Beijing 2008 - The Official VideoGame of the Olympic Games(Eurocom)House of the Dead: Overkill(Headstrong Games)Hasbro Family Game Night(EA Bright Light)

Visual ArtsLittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)Grand Theft Auto: ChinatownWars (Rockstar Leeds)Killzone 2 (Guerrilla)Xbox 360 Avatars (Rare) PlayStation Home(London Studio) Pure (Black Rock Studio)

Audio AccomplishmentFable II (Lionhead) Mirror’s Edge (EA DICE)You’re in the Movies (Zoe Mode)House of the Dead: Overkill(Headstong Games)GTAIV: The Lost and Damned(Rockstar North) Empire Total War(The Creative Assembly)

Publishing HeroAppleSegaDirect2DriveCodemastersNgmocoValve

■ TECHNOLOGY & SERVICESTechnical InnovationLittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)Killzone 2 (Guerilla)Grand Theft Auto: ChinatownWars (Rockstar Leeds)Fable II (Lionhead)PlayStation Home(London Studio)Football Manager Live(Sports Interactive)

Best Tools ProviderAutodeskHavokAudiokineticHansoftPerforceScaleformQuazal

Best EngineUnreal Engine 3 (Epic Games)Gamebryo (Emergent GameTechnologies)BlitzTech (Blitz Games Studios)Unity (Unity Technologies)Vision Engine (Trinigy)PhyreEngine (SCEE R&D)

Recruitment CompanyAadvark SwiftDatascopeOPMAmiqusNatural SelectionSpecialMove

ServiesTestologyBabelUniversally SpeakingPartnertransTestronic LabsAudiomotionCentroid

Creative OutsourcingHigh ScoreAxis AnimationOutsource Media UKSide & SidelinesRichard Jacques StudiosNimrodPitstop Productions

■ STUDIOSBest New StudioMedia MoleculenDreamsHand CircusProper GamesPlayfishCrytek Budapest

Best Handheld Game StudioRockstar LeedsExientCurveTraveller’s Tales FusionSecret Exit

Best Business DevelopmentRevolutionGimme5GamesMonumentalPlayfishCrytekBlitz Games Studios

Best Indy DeveloperMedia MoleculeSumo DigitalCrytekAsoboStarbreeze StudioJagex

Best In-House TeamLionheadSports InteractiveBlack Rock StudioEA DICERockstar North Rockstar Leeds

■ SPECIAL RECOGNITIONDevelopment Legend Grand Prix

DEVELOP AWARDS:The Finalists

AFTER 12 years, Sony’s Net YarozeProgramme has come to an end.

Started in March 1997, thePlayStation project was designed withthe goal of making modern consoledevelopment accessible to non-professionals. (For more info seeen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Yaroze.)

For many, it offered a uniqueopportunity to learn about developingfor the most popular console at thetime – indeed, many of the originalmembers used their experiences withthe service as a stepping stone toentering the industry.

Subscribers received special devkitsand access to an online message boardand community site.

But after a dozen years service, theageing Netyaroze-Europe server is atthe end of its life, and SCEE areplanning to turn it off in July, thecompany tells us.

“We plan to make a copy of the siteavailable for our original members,”explained SCEE R&D’s Paul Holman.

He also said that a drinks party tocelebrate the programme’sachievements for its original memberswill be held at either Develop inBrighton or SCEE’s London office.www.netyaroze-europe.com

End of an EraNet Yaroze’s European server is to be terminated in July

08 | JUNE 2009

ALPHA | NEWS

by Michael French

THE DEVELOP QUIZJune 18thSway bar , Holborn, [email protected]

How clever is your studio? Find out bybattling it out with rivals at TheDevelop Quiz, which returns thismonth for its third competition.

Taking place at the Sway bar inHolborn, London on Thursday, June18th, the latest outing for thisessential networking event will pit 20teams of five against each other.

The winners will scoop £2000advertising credit for Develop print oronline, a trophy, bottles ofchampagne and recognition as theindustry’s most knowledgable team.

With plenty of other prizes on offer,and a chance for a great evening out,studios, publishers, QA, recruitmentand localisations companies are allwelcome to attend.

DEVELOP DIARYTHE DEVELOP QUIZJune 18thLondon, [email protected]

GAMEHORIZON CONFERENCEJune 23rd to 24thNewcastle, UKgamehorizonconference.com

IDEFJune 30th to July 2ndCannes, Francewww.idefexpo.com

DEVELOP CONFERENCE 2009July 14th to 16thBrighton, UKwww.develop-conference.com

DEVELOP INDUSTRY EXCELLENCEAWARDSJuly 15thBrighton, UKwww.developmag.com/develop-awards

CASUAL CONNECT SEATTLEJuly 21st to 23rdSeattle, USseattle.casualconnect.org

GAMES CONVENTION ONLINEJuly 31st to August 2ndLeipzig, Germanywww.gamesconvention.com

EDINBURGH INTERACTIVEAugust 10th to 16thEdinburgh, Scotlandedinburghinteractivefestival.com

GDC EUROPEAugust 17th to 19thCologne, Germanywww.gdceurope.com

GAMESCOMAugust 19th to 23rdCologne, Germanywww.gamescom-cologne.com

CHINA GDCAugust 27th to 29thShanghai, Chinawww.chinagdc.com

GDC AUSTINSeptember 14th to 18thTexas, USAwww.gdcaustin.com

GAME CONVENTION ASIASeptember 17th to 20thSingaporewww.gc-asia.sg

GDC CHINA 2009October 11th to 13thShanghai, Chinachina.gdconf.com

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

LONDON GAMES FESTIVALW/C October 26thLondon, UK www.londongamesfestival.com

LONDON GAMES CONFERENCEOctober 27thLondon, UK www.mcvuk.com/events

june 2009

july 2009

september 2009

august 2009october 2009

MICROSOFT HAS promoted formerLionhead boss Peter Molyneux toa new role within its MicrosoftGames Studios.

Now creative director of theformat-holder’s European studios,Molyneux is overseeing the creativedirection of Lionhead – which hefounded and later sold to Microsoftin 2006 – and Rare as well as otherEuropean external projects.

Molyneux took the new role fromMarch 30th, but the move wasn’tannounced until E3 – he continues to be based at Lionhead Studios’Guildford premises.

He has over 20 years of experience withgames Populous, Syndicate, Theme Park,DungeonKeeper, Black & White and Fable tohis name and “will bring a unique set of skillsand an in-depth understanding of the gamesdevelopment process to this newly createdrole”, says the company.www.microsoft.com/games

YOUR COMPLETE GAMES DEVELOPMENTEVENT CALENDAR FOR THE MONTHS AHEAD…

MORE FORMOLYNEUX

The Net Yaroze devkit kick-started thecareers of several industry professionals

ALPHA | WORLDVIEW

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

10 | JUNE 2009

DEALS

IRELANDBLIZZARD’S AGGRESSIVEIRISH EXPANSIONWorld of Warcraft developer Blizzard hasrevealed the extent of its operations in theIrish City of Cork. Opened in 2007 with an aimto have 100 people by 2010, it today employsa whopping 600 staff, with a collectivecapacity to speak and write in 25 languages.It’s also signed a deal with nationaldevelopment agency IDA Ireland to furtherimprove the studio.eu.blizzard.com

UNITED STATESMIDWAY TO AUCTION OFFSTUDIOS AND IPMidway is hoping to sell off the company’sentire collection of assets within the nextmonth. Warner Bros has already launched a$33m bid to acquire the Mortal Kombat IPand the publisher’s Chicago and Seattlestudios. That leaves the company’s San Diegoand Newcastle studios up for the taking, forwhich it’ll be accepting bids until June 24th.www.midway.com

JAPANTEAM NINJA STAFF FORMTOKYO VIKINGSAfter his resignation and legal battle with ex-employer Tecmo last year, Tomonobu Itagaki– the man behind the Dead or Alive series andNinja Gaiden – has set up a new studio, TokyoVikings, alongside over 20 of his former

colleagues. They told 1UP that they’reworking on a new IP that will depart fromtheir fighting game heritage.www.tecmo.co.jp

UNITED STATESEA UNVEILS BROWSER-BASEDTIGER WOODSEA’s Florida-based Tiburon studio is workingon a new Tiger Woods game exclusively forweb browsers. Called Tiger Woods Online, thegame will require no disc or installation,meaning that the game can be playedanywhere. A multi-tiered subscription modelmay also signify EA Sports’ first foray intofree-to-play gaming.www.easports.com

PARISUBISOFT TO SLOWRECRUITMENT DRIVESeems like not even Ubisoft can keep onexpanding forever: CEO Yves Guillemot hassaid that, after hiring a whopping 1,300people last year, the company will slow downon recruitment this year, saying: “We hiredmore than we planned to last year, so we willdiminish the number of hires this year.”www.ubisoft.com

CANADAPROPAGANDA TO PIRATE THECARIBBEANDisney studio Propaganda, which most recently worked on the reboot of

dinosaur FPS Turok, has been tasked withcreating a new open-world action RPG in thePirates of the Caribbean universe, calledArmada of the Damned – set to feature an all-new script.propagandagames.go.com

SOUTH KOREASOUTH KOREA INVESTS INSERIOUS GAMESThe South Korean government has pledgedto invest 80 billion Won – approximately$63m – into the nation’s growing seriousgames market. It hopes to get the marketvalue of the industry up to $400 million by2012, which it sees as an ‘emerging blueocean’. The initiative is a joint effort betweenthe Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourismand national newspaper Etnews.www.mct.go.kr/english/index.jsp

UNITED STATESZOE MODE OPENS SANFRANCISCO OFFICEZoë Mode has established a new studio inSan Francisco, to be headed up by SonyComputer Entertainment vets Sarah Stockerand Mark Danks. Stocker was previouslysenior producer at Sony ComputerEntertainment’s Studio 5, where she headedup the US launch of the SingStar franchise,while Danks last served as senior manager ofdeveloper relations at SCE and director oftechnology for EA.www.zoemode.com

4 MMINUTE WARNINGRockstar’s founding duo Gary Foreman and Jamie King haveestablished a new independent studio, 4mm Games.

The New York City-based studio will work on non-physical software for the iPhone and various online channels,as well as projects for consoles. Its first product is Def Jam Rapstar,rapping’s answer to SingStar, developed with Def Jam Interactive.

When at Rockstar, both Foreman and King were involved in theproduction of heavyweight games such as Grand Theft Auto, MaxPayne and Bully.

Joining the team will be ex-Image Metrics exec Nicholas Perrett,who joins the group as its new CEO. “It is an utterly unprecedentedtime in the history of videogames,” he said, “as the Web and newbusiness models disrupt the existing value chain.”

Paul Coyne, once a senior adviser to the likes of Def JamEnterprises and Warner Music, also joins the group as executivevice president.www.4mmgames.com

Trinigy hasintegratedxaitment’s variousAI packages into itsVision Engine.

Terminal Reality’sInfernal Engine hasa new customer:Namco Bandai,who licensed thetech for Red FlyStudio’s FoodNetwork: Cook or BeCooked.

Gameinvest haspartnered withRealGames tocreate a piece oforiginal casual IP,which Real willpublish in Europe,the US and LatinAmerica.

Big Huge Gameshas been savedfrom doom by 38Studios, whichhopes to tap thecompany’s skills forconsole titles on itsCopernicus IP.

French indieCyanide hassecured the rightsto George R. R.Martin’s A Song ofIce and Fire series offantasy novels.

Zoo Games haspicked up the IP ofdoomed publisherEmpire, includingthe European-developed Flatoutand Big MuthaTruckers.

Casual game giantBig Fish Games hasacquired multiaward-winningVancouverdeveloper GrubbyGames – thedevelopers ofProfessor Fizzwizzleand Incredibots – foran undisclosed fee.

DEVELOPMAG.COM

WORLDVIEW | ALPHA

JUNE 2009 | 11

SAY WHAT?!?FOR THE LATEST NEWS...

UNITED KINGDOMELSPA APPROACHES THEFINAL FRONTIERCambridge-based independent FrontierDevelopments has joined ELSPA, the UK’strade body for the games industry. Thecompany, which recently dipped its toe intoself-publishing with the WiiWare titleLostWinds, is joining the organisation totackle the issues of piracy, age ratings and theissue of pre-owned games. “We think it’s vitalthat these issues are addressed swiftly, andELSPA is the body through which we will tryto achieve this,” said founder David Braben.www.frontier.co.uk

UNITED STATESTHE DISCOVERY CHANNELENTERS THE GAMEThe latest media giant to dip its toes into thegames space is The Discovery Channel, whichhas inked deals for three branded games. UKstudio Slitherine is working on DiscoveryChannel Trivia Video Game for next-generation consoles and PCs, while two othergames – based on two of the channel’s morepopular shows, Deadliest Catch and Cash Cab– are being developed by Hands-On Mobileand Capcom respectively. It also worked onSony Japan Studio’s Afrika.dsc.discovery.com

HARRISON STEPS DOWNAS ATARI PRESIDENTPHIL HARRISON HAS LEFT his post as presidentof Atari, moving to the role of non-executivedirector of the Group.

The surprise move comes after Develop’s sistermagazine MCV revealed that Atari’s Europeanpublishing operations would, for the most part, beentirely taken over by Namco Bandai in the nextfew weeks.

That looked as thought it would leave Harrisonand Infogrames CEO David Gardner at the heart ofa new, online content-driven Atari: a visionHarrison had espoused at the beginning of histenure at the company, and the impetus behind the publisher’s purchase of US MMOdeveloper Cryptic.

However, Harrison has now left his post –leaving question marks hanging over the hierarchyof the new company.

In a statement, Atari said: “Because of a shift ofbusiness operations to the US, Phil Harrison willmove from the role of President to that of non-executive director of the group. As all Boardmembers, he will continue to assist, support andguide the company’s strategy.”www.atari.com

HEAD TO WWW.DEVELOPMAG.COMOur online resource features news, features, analysis and com-mentary posted daly, and is avaulable via the web, mobile, RSSand daily email and news alert blasts.

“The smartest anddumbest thing I ever

did was to sell mycompany to EA. We

could have stayed inbusiness just on Medal

of Honor alone.”

Movie director supremo Steven Spielbergruminates on his selling of DreamworksInteractive to EA in a Reuters interview

“Getting to the endscreen of Super Mario

Bros. 2 was moreimportant than

anything in the historyof time.”

J. J. Abrams – the man behind Lost, theStar Trek reboot, and most importantlyAlias – admits his secret 1989 obsession

“I played video gamesthroughout my

childhood. One of myfavorites was Super

Mario. I wouldn’t sleepuntil I finished it.”

Much like JJ Abrams, Christian Bale also had a little Mario addiction. Better tolose sleep over that than the Terminator:

Salvation game, we guess

“You can get lost in theworld of Grand Theft

Auto IV, but we’reusing it just to shootpeople and run over

old ladies. We could bedoing so much more.”

Pan’s Labyrinth director Guillermo del Torowants games to mean more. Shame his

Hellboy 2 game involvement lacked that.Top 10 Developers Chart – May 2009

1. Nintendo Japan Wii Fit2. Yuke’s Japan UFC 2009: Undisputed3. EA Canada Canada FIFA 094. Raven Software USA X-Men Origins: Wolverine5. Capcom Japan Resident Evil 56. Game Freak Japan Pokemon Platinum7. EA Redwood Shores USA The Godfather II8. Treyarch USA Call of Duty: World at War9. Amaze Entertainment USA X-Men Origins: Wolverine10. Level 5 Japan Professor Layton

# COMPANY COUNTRY PRODUCT

Chart Supplied By: ChartTrackcharttrack.co.uk

ELSPAelspa.com

12 | JUNE 2009

ALPHA | OPINION

For this month’s column I want to kickoff a new series analysing some of themost interesting and successful

companies operating at the fringes of thegames industry; market pioneers andcommercial innovators redefining what agames development company is and what itcan achieve.

Our first target is Artix Entertainment, acompany that I am guessing many of you willhave never heard of.

Artix develops Flash-based persistentbrowser games which it operates throughbattleon.com, its own games portal. Itsportfolio is centred around four core single,multiplayer and massively-multiplayer gamestitles. All feature classic role-playinggameplay and persistent game state tracking(i.e. your achievements and progress in thegame are recorded on an ongoing basis),even for the single player games. The gamesare all Flash-based and played throughbrowsers on almost all internet-enabledcomputers. They comprise colourful but basicmanga-inspired 2D graphics with largelystatic backdrops and little by way ofanimation. As games aesthetics go, Artix’sgames bear little resemblance to today’sretail console and PC titles.

However, as games popularity goes, Artix’sgames rank alongside any of today’s consoleand PC titles – even the blockbusters. Since itwas founded in 2002, Artix has attracted over80 million player registrations (currentlyincreasing at a rate of some 200,000 perweek) and gets 12 to 17 million peopleplaying its games every month.

Most remarkably, Artix, a family runbusiness, has built this vast online gamesuser base with a headcount that has onlyrecently reached 29 full-time staff. Of this,just 16 are based in its Florida headquarterswith the remaining 13 telecommuting fromelsewhere in North America and Europe.

ONE-OFF WONDERArtix’s business model has matured over timewhilst retaining one constant: completecommercial independence. Beginning withdonations to help keep the servers running, ithas evolved to encompass: one-off playerupgrades, advertising, in-game promotions,retail cards, merchandise sales and, mostrecently, microtransactions and subscriptions.

The one-off upgrade has historicallyformed the cornerstone of the business withplayers able to unlock premium features viaone-off payments of $20 to $30. However,the problem with this model is that the highticket price puts off many gamers, while theone-off nature of the payment caps thepotential revenue achievable per player andcan result in a substantial mismatch betweenplayer revenues and ongoing player costs.Microtransactions, on the other hand, sufferfew of these problems and, as elsewhere inthe browser-based MMO market, have nowbecome a crucial part of Artix’s business. Forits most recent game, MMO AdventureQuestWorlds, Artix has also sensibly replaced one-off upgrades with three to 12 monthsubscriptions costing $4 to $6.50 per month.

Artix has never revealed any revenue orprofit figures publicly. However, in its sevenyear history, it has never raised any externalcapital and, according to its CEO, issufficiently cash generative that it has neverhad a need for external finance havingrejected numerous VC suitors. Artix’spotential for continued player base, revenueand profit growth remains strong. Its gamesare still only available in English and it haslong-term plans to add several Europeanlanguages and Chinese. Additional titles willbe added to the Artix portfolio and may wellfollow the more commercially aggressiveexample set by AdventureQuest Worlds.

Artix is a very private company and existslargely below the games consumer press’radar. Its games are neither previewed norreviewed on the major games editorial sites,despite reaching comparable player numbersto Xbox Live. Artix’s games do tend to attractquite a narrow demographic (the majorityare 13 to 17 year old boys for whom

accessibility, gameplay and community aremore important than flashy graphics) but thisis arguably one of its fortés and one of thereasons why it has grown so effectivelywithout traditional games promotion.

Artix maintains an extremely closerelationship with its userbase, listening torecommendations, implementing weeklycontent updates and running regular playerevents. Its games are therefore highlytailored for this demographic and regularlytweaked to maximise their appeal to them.As a result, word-of-mouth has played acritical role in growing the firm’s customerbase – although this has been supplementedby more conventional web advertisingmethods. However, its direct marketing costsare still low.

Artix is an example of what a gamesdeveloper can achieve with limited capital, asmall team (by traditional developmentstandards), tried-and-tested gameplaydesigns and an extremely strong servicementality. Far from being commercial or evencreative inhibitors, the use of Flash and theweb as technology and distributionplatforms has opened up a broad range ofnew revenue and audience opportunities forArtix. From this relatively modest foundation,it has built a sustainable and rapid growthbusiness model; a low cost-base coupledwith direct consumer relationshipsmonetised via multiple revenue streams,total creative and financial independence,and a sizeable gamer footprint.

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

You might not haveheart of Artix, but in Flash games they are a force to bereckoned withAesthetically,

Artix’s games bearlittle resemblence

to today’s console titles.But in terms of popularityit ranks alongsideany of them.

COMMENT: BUSINESS

by Nick Gibson, Games Investor Consulting

Extraordinary Games:

Artix Entertainment

COMMENT: INDUSTRY

ALPHA | OPINION

Owain Bennallack is executive editor of Develop. He edited the magazinefrom its launch until its February 2006 issue. He has also worked at MCVand Edge, and has provided consultancy and evaluation services to severalleading developers and publishers. He is also chairman of the DevelopConference advisory board.

14 | JUNE 2009

Recessions are a vital part of capitalism.Without these cyclical purges, morebad companies would limp along,

drawing money away from those with betterideas or less efficient operations. Worse, we’dlive in some kind of planned economy, whereevery citizen has two tractors, but no socks.

Such a glib characterisation of a 100-yearold ideological battle may be of little comfortif you’re suffering from the worst downturnsince World War 2. But the flipside is that forstronger companies, recessions present theopportunity to take market share and getpositioned for the good times.

LESS IS MOREFor example, studies have shown thatcompanies who step up their marketing in arecession tend to benefit.

Advertising cuts are easily justified whenprofits are falling, yet marketing money goesfurther in a downturn as rivals slash theirbudgets and rates fall.

Result: a good product can reach moreconsumers for less money.

Cheap advertising is not obviously usefulto many game developers, and nor is anotherclassic recessionary silver lining – High Streetvacancies and falling rents. Very useful ifyou’re looking to roll out a pizza restaurantchain, not so much if you’re a studio makinggames in an industrial park. But the point isthese downward forces are at work across theeconomy, not just in town centres wherethey’re most visible.

HAGGLENOMICSHere are five ideas for ways gamescompanies can benefit from the recession:

1. Everything is negotiableOffice rent, insurance, equipment, salaries,benefits, company cars: drive a hard bargainon anything you need to buy or hire. Dealsare there to be made with landlords for whoma healthy company is a prized commodityafter that flashy big spender went bust lastmonth. Even if you can’t get a cheaper price,you might be able to get tweaks to onerousclauses in long-term agreements.

2. Fire bad staffI’m not qualified to discuss employment law.But what I can tell you is companies and

experts have told me a recession is the timeto cut the dead wood out of a company.

The key, obviously, is to make sure theright people go. Some big games companiesare currently amputating limbs wherekeyhole surgery would seem advised.Dropping a whole team when a project iscompleted delivers fast results forshareholders and might be easier legally, butit represents a lot of recruitment time andpotentially good talent down the drain.

3. Hire great staffSuch short-sighted shedding of staffcombined with studios going bust meansemployers have the upper hand for once in game development. People are scared, and potential employees now value stronglooking survivors, which you can use to your advantage.

And don’t neglect graduate recruitment.With so many experienced staff knockingabout, some studios aren’t bothering withnew blood. But this could be the opportunity

to find really great brains that’ll thank youtwice over for the start.

4. Exploit currency swingsThe pound is still low against the dollar, forvarious macro-economic reasons. Whatmatters for UK studios is they’re morecompetitive than they’ve been for many years(tax incentives and so on aside). I’d hope thiswould be an opportunity for companies tofatten their margins, rather than simplyundercut each other, but we’ll see.

European developers have the oppositeproblem – a strong currency. Perhaps a goodtime to consider outsourcing to a dollar-linked corner of the world?

5. DiversifyLess competition and cheaper staff mean thiscould be a great time to innovate into newmarkets or technologies, such as those we’reexploring at the Develop Conference inBrighton’s new Evolve day on July 14th.

For an illustration, consider the Internetbusiness. After the dotcom implosion,venture capital and advertising vanished andmost Internet companies went to ground(whether dead and buried, or merely hiding).This opened up space for Facebook, YouTube,MySpace, Flickr and the other so-called Web2.0 outfits that emerged during those years.Will we see something similar in games?

Investors are morestony-faced than ever –but there are ways toturn the downturn toyour advantage

For strongercompanies,recessions present

the opportunity to takemarket share and getpositioned for thegood times.

Exploitingthe recession

by Owain Bennallack

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

Right now the Ruffian design team arediligently working away on the designof our current project.

Aside from the final balance and tweakingstage, we’re right in the middle of what Ibelieve is one of the most important stagesof game production. Get this part wrong andyou’ll likely spend the rest of the projectstruggling to keep your team motivated andyour publisher happy – which is a marriagedestined for divorce.

So, while it’s obviously a hugeresponsibility, it’s also that golden time at thestart of a project. You can discuss incrediblyambitious features without fear of yourproducer telling you to go sit on the naughtystep and you genuinely feel like there are nobad ideas – which I should point out is totalbollocks. There’s usually an abundance oftruly awful ideas, but we put them forward allthe same, as a bad idea can occasionally coaxa good one from a creative mind.

This month I’ll discuss how well thoughtout, well presented design documentation isessential to properly manage publisherexpectations, plan the production of theproject, and generate that crucial buzz withinthe development and publishing teams.

MANAGING EXPECTATIONSEnsuring that your own plans as a developermatch those of the publisher is vital if yourworking relationship is going to be asuccessful one. At Ruffian we strive to includethe publisher at every stage of developmentof the game, especially the early high-levelpaper design.

While you’re looking for a contributionfrom the publisher, it is still advisable to gointo this stage armed with a solid paperdesign that explains the core game and thefeature set. Trust me, it will help make thisentire process run far more smoothly. Thisearly inclusion of the publisher in the designprocess can cause tension at times but I cantestify that it’s definitely worth the stress, as itcreates a unity between the developer andpublisher, allowing you to begin theproduction planning stage with everyonefully behind the design and 100 per centfocused on the same set of goals.

PRODUCTION PLANNINGWhen the high level paper design has

publisher approval, you can then begin theprocess of fleshing out the requirementdocuments for the game. Everything must bedocumented – features, mechanics, story,visuals – and for each of these you needdetailed requirements for each discipline:code, art, audio, design. It’s a huge task, but itmust be done properly. These documents arethen reviewed by the developers responsiblefor the work to ensure everything is as itshould be and that there are no obviousissues with the design.

Only when you have gone through thisprocess are you really ready to start planningthe production of the game, which allowsyou to know whether the team you have canmake the game you have envisaged withinthe defined timeframe.

GENERATING EXCITEMENTThis may seem like an odd one, but keepingthe development team excited about thegame can sometimes be a tough job. Yes,they may be working on a great game, butit’s also likely that they’re working on a smallfeature in a game with hundreds of featureswhich can make it difficult for them to realiseits significance or importance in the game.

Thankfully we have talented designers atRuffian who can create designdocumentation that has solid, easilyunderstood content that is also easy on theeye. This kind of high quality designdocumentation allows our team tounderstand the game design and see howtheir own work fits into the bigger pictureand benefits the game.

Ensuring that the development teambelieve in the game is important for morale,but keeping the publisher excited is

absolutely vital. If your game design is wellpresented and excites your publisher earlyon, they will back you all the way: bigmarketing budgets, coverage at the bestpress events, everything your game needs tobe a commercial success. If the excitementisn’t there they will put their weight behindanother game in their catalogue, leavingyour potentially great game with very littlemarketing spend. If this happens, the bestyou can expect is critical rather thancommercial success, and while praise isfantastic it can’t buy you a pint in the pub.

Documenting a game design can be anexhilarating, freeing experience as well as anincredibly daunting time for a designer. Oneday you can feel like the gaming world isyour bump mapped oyster, then the next youfeel completely overwhelmed by the amountof content you’re ultimately responsible for.In the end, the process of defining a game onpaper is ultimately the most important task adesigner is responsible for during thedevelopment of any game.

Proper design docs iskey, as this snapshotfrom Ruffian’sdocumentation shows

Thinking that‘There’s no suchthing as a bad idea’

is bollocks. But a bad ideacan occasionally coax agood one from thecreative mind.

Documenting your

Design

COMMENT: DESIGN

by Billy Thomson, Ruffian Games

OPINION | ALPHA

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OPINION | ALPHA

David Jefferies started in the industry at Psygnosis in Liverpool in 1995,eventually working on Global Domination and WipEout 3. He later movedto Rare where he worked on the Perfect Dark and Donkey Kong franchises.Next came a move down to Brighton to join Black Rock Studio (which wasthen known as Climax Racing) in 2003. On this generation of consoles he’sbeen the technical director of MotoGP’06 and MotoGP’07 before startingwork on new racer Split/Second.www.blackrockstudio.com

JUNE 2009 | 17

Colour banding is an artifact incomputer graphics where the viewercan distinguish between colours that

are meant to form a smooth gradient. It wasvery common in the days when machinescould only display a limited palette such as64 or 256 colours and so the machine had topick the closest matching colours whenattempting a gradient.

But these days all games have a palette of16.7 million colours – so why is it that colourbanding still exists?

Colour banding occurs when the viewer canperceive the difference between two adjacentcolour intensities, and so the first thing torecognise is the relationship between colourbanding and gamma correction, which wetalked about last month.

The human eye is much more sensitive tochanges in dark colours than in lightercolours. So, while it wouldn’t perceive thedifference between adjacent high intensitiessuch as 226 and 227, it would perceive thedifference between adjacent low intensitiessuch as 8 and 9.

COLOURFUL EXPRESSIONIt’s for this reason that we apply a gammaramp to our image that gives more colourresolution to darker intensities than lighterones. So if you haven’t set up your renderpipeline to be gamma correct – andremember the default set-up for DirectX andOpenGL is to be not gamma correct – thenyou’re not going to be giving enoughresolution to the darker colours, and so thesewill cause banding.

A common way to see this issue is toinspect the vignette that a lot of games havethese days. This is a technique that emulatesold movie cameras by darkening down thecorners of the screen. A vignette is normallyapplied in a full screen pass and procedurallyfades the image to black in the corners.

If the render target hasn’t been set up to begamma correct then you’ll notice that thevignette exhibits banding. There’ll be similarbanding artifacts introduced when performingany algorithmic operation on the framebuffer,such as tone mapping colour correction.

The next most common cause of bandingis the DXT compressed textures that theconsoles use. DXT is very popular because itreduces the memory required for a texture

down to at least a quarter of its originalfootprint. However, this comes at a visualcost, because it can be very lossy.

DXT compression works like this (thanksto Shawn Hargreaves for this description):■ Divide the image into 4x4 blocks■ For each block, find the two mostimportant colors in it■ Store these two colors in 16 bit 5.6.5 format■ For each of the 16 texels in the block, storea two bit value indicating how far it liesbetween the two main colors

The problem is the truncation thathappens when converting to 5.6.5 format.The red and the blue values are losing threebits of information giving them only 32possible intensities. The green fares slightlybetter with 64 intensities – it’s favoured withthe extra bit because our eyes are moresensitive to it.

With such a big loss of precision it’s easyto see how colour banding is introduced. Skydomes can be among the worst offendersbecause they tend to take up a lot of screenacreage and have lots of subtle gradients.When these subtle gradients are quantizedinto 32 intensity levels in the blue channelthe banding becomes obvious. One possibletrick is to swap the blue and green channelsin the texture so that the blue channel getsto have 64 intensity levels. Of course, you'llthen need to swap the channels back in thepixel shader.

GIVING IT SOME TEXTUREIf the texture is made up of texels with lowintensities then it’ll be particularlysusceptible to banding because it’s the leastsignificant bits of each colour channel thatare truncated. One common technique is

normalize these textures by brighteningthem up at export time by a scalar and thenusing that scalar to bring them down to theiroriginal intensity in the pixel shader.

This only works if the texture consists onlyof low intensity texels because the highintensity information will be lost. Sosometimes the best solution is just to markthe worst offending textures to not be DXTcompressed and to take the memory hit.

Finally, there’s alpha blending andtransparency. When rendering alpha texelsinto the framebuffer, the effective colourresolution of the framebuffer pixel is reducedbecause the colour values are beingmultiplied by a fractional value representingthe alpha. This can become very obviouswhen layering lots of low intensity alphapolygons on top of each other, for examplewhen drawing smoke or dust. It doesn’t takemany layers before banding starts to appearon these types of objects. Reducing overdrawhelps in these scenarios as does introducinga dither pattern into the alpha’d texture.

A lot of developers ignore colour bandingin the pressure of trying to make a game butthese artifacts, combined with the gammacorrect artifiacts from last month, add up to aserious reduction in visual quality that can beeasily avoided.

A lot of developersignore colourbanding, but these

artifacts add up to aserious reduction in visualquality that can beeasily avoided.

Colour Banding

COMMENT: CODING

by David Jefferies, Black Rock Studio

Colour banding iscrucial to creatingvisuals that don’t breakthe digital illusion


Developerssurveyed

about onlinep24

FinlandTerritory

Reportp32

Profiles of thekey Finnish

studiosp34

DEVELOPMENT FEATURES, INTERVIEWS, ESSAYS & MORE

“We’re not afraid to brag that ourMicroConsole will be cheaperthan competing consoles…”

Mike McGarvey talks OnLive, p26

Tall TalesWe find out why American studio Telltale Games is the only one to

have successfully exploited the episodic games model, p20

BETA | TELLING TALES

Telltale is, some might say, the idealgame development studio. Think aboutit: it’s not beholden to publishers. It

releases its games through its own websiteand self-publisher on digital consolestorefronts. It can work on a genre that itsfounders love – the apparently-no-longer-viable adventure game market. It scores biglicences. And it’s the only firm to actuallyachieve the episodic gaming model, nowworking on three on-going series at once.

The studio’s latest licence, however, veerssharply from the Americana surrealistichumour of Sam & Max and Strong Bad: thequintissentially British Wallace & Gromit.

The first question we ask Dan Connors –the LucasArts alum who left to co-found thestudio and serve as its CEO – is, perhapspredictably, why pick something so British?

“There are licenses that are going to have ashitload of marketing behind their movie,and there are licenses that have built up overtime through great creative work,” he explains.

“Wallace & Gromit falls into the latter, andwe wanted to be associated with it. From anartistic standpoint it’s beautiful, and it’s adifferent look which is great for our artists towork on. It’s a lot different than buildingsoldiers and explosions. Plus, Aardman is theright-sized company for us to be workingwith, because the relationship is more on thecreative side; there’s not a bunch of businesspeople between the creatives. It’s the samewith the Chapman brothers [creators ofStrong Bad] and Steve Purcell [creator of Sam& Max] – it’s a very direct link. We’re not

working with Nick Park directly, but we havea lot of access to Aardman’s creatives.”

CREATIVE COMFORTSWhile such a close relationship with thelicence is what many developers woulddream of, there’s also much more pressure on– and much more emphasis on – getting itexactly right.

Connors admits that, at the beginning,there were some uncertainties on Aardman’sside. “They were a little wary of it not fitting into the franchise, but once they worked withus on the stories and we’d got that right, andengaged the right people for voice actingand writing, it really really started to work.

“The stories were a huge part of it. Oncewe brought on a UK editor to capture theflavour – because it’s not just British, it’s avery specific area – we were able to capturethat voice, that slang.”

Rather than just acting in an approvalcapacity, Aardman also helped Telltalecapture the look as closely as possible,inviting the firm to its Bristol headquarters tosee how it had progressed.

“They were able to tell us how theyachieved certain effects, what particularangles they always used, and even gave ustheir mouth shapes so we could make themanimate perfectly. We brought it to a certainpoint and they’d say ‘You’re really really close,here’s the signature stuff that’ll make itperfect’. The funny thing was that everychallenge that we had in bringing thesecharacters into 3D had sprung up for them

too when working in clay. They helped uswork through a lot of things.”

Aardman couldn’t help them witheverything though, he recalls: “There was oneparticular thing I remember: you know howGromit sometimes walks on two legs andsometimes on four? We were puzzling abouthow he would make that transition, so weasked them. They just said, ‘well, we just don’tshow that.’”

MARKET FORCESLooking at Telltale’s previous work, it’s easy tosee where the company was marketing itself– starting with the hardcore. Sam & Max had ahistory that spoke to gamers. Strong Bad wasimmensely popular on the internet; exactlythe market Telltale was selling to. WhileWallace & Gromit has a significantly strongerpresence across the world than either ofthose two licenses, is it too distinct – and areits customers too retail-focused – to prove aspopular as Telltale’s previous work?

“It certainly creates challenges for us,”admits Connors. “But at this point Telltale hasgot a certain amount of credibility in thegaming space, where if you attach the Telltalename to something they don’t know – likeWallace & Gromit – hopefully our history willmake people want to try it. In addition tothat, there’s the audience of people whoknow Wallace & Gromit, hear that there’s agame out and want to try it.

“I think it does present challenges in lettingpeople know it’s there, and getting the rightmarketing behind it, because we’re not EA;

20 | JUNE 2009

Telling TalesHow does a Californian studio go about capturing the distinctly British humour of the world-famousWallace and Gromit? Ed Fear sat down with the firm’s CEO and co-founder Dan Connors at GDC to talkWensleydale, dream licenses and making in-roads into the UK…


TELLING TALES | BETA

Telltale benefits byworking on licences,says CEO Connors, as itmeans it can focus ongameplay, not fine-tuning IP

we’re not going to put a huge amount ofmoney into blasting it out there. We need tobe really smart in the way in which weexecute that.”

The other point is that Telltale’s shortproduction times and established technologymakes producing country-specific games apossibility. “Our budgets are such that, if itsucceeds really well in the UK, we could keepon doing it forever. We just need to figure outhow to let people in the UK know that it’s outthere. Our big markets are UK, US andGermany, and I think we can hit them strong.”

IP FREELYFor many idealistic designers, artists andprogrammers, the real dream – or, for themore assertive ones, the only reality – isworking on original IP. Wallace & Gromit isonly the latest in a long line of externalproperties that Telltale has worked on in itsfive years – and it certainly won’t be the last.

“It’s work we don’t have to do,” explainsConnors. “It’s already proven successful;they’ve put a ton of effort into building outthese worlds and these characters. For us tobe the ones that take them and make theminteractive is an honour. For us to be workingwith these people, on a very close basis tothe point where they almost become part ofour company during the production process,is such a great thing for Telltale, as we try tobecome better storytellers.

“The challenge of cinematic and visualstorytelling is a big one, and there’s so muchtalent with all these partners who can help usthink about these things. We want to be thebest storytelling company that ever existed.So having all these great storytellers workwith us so closely – there’s just a hugeinvestment in that. So when we do ouroriginal thing one day, we’re going to haulthat education behind. It’s really been aboutbuilding up our skillset.

“If you think of Max, for example, there areclassic signature poses that come from theoriginal comic. If you put an animator on thatcharacter without that knowledge, he’d comeup with different signature stuff, but here we

don’t have to do that – this classic stuff isalready there. Then the animators can puttheir love into the expression, rather thanthinking about what his animations shouldlook like. What [Steve] Purcell did is genius,and now we can make it better.”

TALES OF THE UNEXPECTEDIf licenses are the company’s future, whatlicenses does Connors dream of working on?

“All my ideas get shot down,” he laughs. “Iwant to do The Young Ones, The Big Lebowski– only so you can have White Russians as apowerup – and Spinal Tap would be my third.Maybe if any of those rights owners arereading Develop, who knows?”

But one in particular – one slightly moreplausible, and one crying out for a decentgame conversion – apparently tends to cropup around the studio on a regular basis.

“Doctor Who. We do get e-mails frompeople asking us to make a Doctor Whoseries. Maybe if we can get a channel into theUK with Wallace & Gromit we could talkbusiness with the BBC, that would be reallygood for us. We’ve got some work to do tounderstand the economics – it’s a differentcountry, it’s a different way of doing business.If we can get the lid off there we’d love to doa ton of product there, because it’s always beena great market for our Sam & Max stuff.”

“If we could get the cost down to a decentprice-per-show model, we could do wild, off-the-wall shows to just test it. It’s just aboutoptimising the business model, managing

the development cost and hitting thegameplay experience. So if we wanted to see if people were interested in some spoofof Legally Blonde or something, we could justtry it out.”

We can’t let our time with Connors endwithout asking him about Telltale’s uniqueachievement of being the only company tomake the episodic gaming model work. Isthere anything he in particular attributes it to?

“The difficulties we experienced, and thefact that we got past them, are the reasonswhy we’re the only ones that have reallyinnovated with episodic games. We’re oldguys. We’ve seen a lot, and realised that wedon’t want to do these massive, uncontrollablethings – we’re very focused on what theproduct is going to be. We really focus onscope, we really focus on tools, and we reallyfocus on production processes. We set outwith a target, and that was to deliver gamesmonthly, and we built a team to do that.”www.telltalegames.com

The difficultiesexperienced andthe fact we got

past them is why we’re theonly ones to haveinnovated withepisodic gaming.

Dan Connors, Telltale Games

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24 | JUNE 2009

BETA | SURVEY

The Develop Conference in Brighton isfast approaching. And things havechanged for its fourth edition.

Specifically, the first day of the event has beenset aside for Evolve, a day-long conferencelooking at the changing face of gamesdevelopment across digital distribution, smartphones and social networks.

In anticipation of the day, organiser TandemEvents put together a survey askingdevelopers about new areas of gamesdevelopment. They were asked the following:how will digital distribution, ubiquitousinternet connectivity and/or web 2.0 influencethe games you’re making?

Answers were vast and varied, but werebroadly split into three categories:development, customer and business. Asummary of the top line answers fromdevelopers follows.

DEVELOPMENTAccording to respondents, digital distributionand online connectivity completely shapes theway we will develop games – and today allgames must have online modes to succeed.

This is due to the prevalence of fasterinternet speeds useful for online gaming andcustomer expectations.

But it has also changed expectations withinthe industry. Respondents pointed out thatonline services have effectively changed thenature of games themselves, and designingspecifically for online or digital distribution hasshaped their productions.

Taking online into account is “no longeroptional” said one answer – another pointedout how it also subverts the entire model the

industry has become used to for the past fiveto 10 years.

Online makes it easier for indie/smalldevelopers to develop games and enter themarket, and it increased the chances of theirsuccess, even when the games themselves areof a smaller scale too. It means more casualgames are entering the market, butexperiences that are more in-depth securemore faithful customers too. “We can creategames that can constantly evolve and have alonger shelf life,” said one respondent.

CUSTOMER/AUDIENCEIn terms of finding those customers, onlineactually makes it easier to source them, oursurvey said. Essential customers are able toconnect anywhere thanks to online (and,presumably, the use of a connected platformlike a smartphone, PC or handheld gamesdevice), which enables developers to reach awider audience.

It means a direct dialogue with thoseconsumers too. Online players are morecommitted and vocal, which means thatcontact with customers will help influencefuture games and contribute to shaping theirdesign or content.

At the same time, the easier distribution ofonline and the chance to gain more exposuredoesn’t just give access to a mass market ofonline players – it also allows developers to bemore targeted and “create games designed fora niche market” – meaning that in the onlinespace, there’s usually something for everyone.

BUSINESSAs you can probably predict, a number of

respondents said that online services anddigital distribution was now encouraging themto look at new business models.

For reasons why that was, the predominantanswer was themed around how the businessof games development has, as we mentionabove, been disrupted by online. “We are nolonger bound by retailer needs andpreferences,” said one developer. “We canoperate in smaller teams now,” said another,with other respondents saying their team cannow split down into even one-man unitsdeveloping new games and concepts.

Plus, developers aren’t just in the fire andforget mode of making a packaged disc andhoping it will be a hit – today DLC andplanning for it early not only sets up newrevenue streams, but mitigates risk.

Online activity also has positive benefits forpublishers and developers: specifically, itallows for lower production costs and helps todecrease piracy. “That means more revenuesfor developers,” said one respondent.

But most importantly, is the switch onlinegaming has spurred. Multiple respondents saidthey were now changing their strategy to focuson the lucrative areas of the sector –specifically by producing digitally distributedgames for iPhone and Facebook. In the wordsof one studio, these new platforms “allow us toresearch new game methods”.

■ The Evolve strand at the Develop Conferencewill be examining all these issues and more, withsessions from companies at the cutting edge ofnew forms of games development such asGoogle, MySpace, Playfish, Ngmoco and manyothers. Head to www.developconference.comto find out more.

Bright ThinkingWith the upcoming Develop Conference set to analyse major changes in the industry during its dedicated Evolvestrand, we asked our readers what they thought of how digital distribution is shaping the way they make games…

DEVELOP CONFERENCE & EXPOWHEN: July 14th to 16th

WHERE: Brighton Metropole Hotel, UK

www.developconference.com

LECTURER IN ANIMATION/GAMES ART

For further details and an application form, contact: Human Resources Department, University of Teesside, Middlesbrough, Tees Valley TS1 3BA. Tel: 01642 342200, email: [email protected] or visit www.tees.ac.uk

BETA | ONLIVE

Gizmondo, Phantom – these are the names being uttered in relationto OnLive. When are we going to

see something concrete, such as a closed(or even open) beta that will prove beyonda shadow of a doubt that OnLive is realand works?There has never been a service offering likeOnLive, and we need time to betterunderstand usage patterns and userpreferences before the system is finalised andmade available as a service. Such analysis ishighly complex from both a technology andmethodology perspective.

We are rolling the service out in phases,including several beta testing programs that will focus on getting more informationabout certain aspects of the service. We wantto ensure that we are offering the bestpossible product when we make the servicegenerally available. We expect our closedbeta to begin later this summer with a wider,external beta following a few monthslater. That said, the timing on this will be very

dependent on the feedback we get fromearlier phases of testing.

It seems to us that your tech could workjust as well with consoles as it could withPC. Are there any plans to bring OnLive’stech to the console space?Yes, but not the traditional console. Inaddition to our Internet-based platform thatruns on Mac and PC, we’re also launching ourown console: a sleek, inexpensive devicewe’re calling the OnLive MicroConsole. Aboutas small as a deck of cards, the MicroConsolecan instantly deliver content directly to theTV. Unlike traditional gaming consoles,OnLive’s MicroConsole evolves as gamesevolve, eliminating the need to upgrade thesystem and graphics card and completelyavoiding frustratingly long downloads orinstalls. And unlike current consoles ourMicroConsole is inexpensive to make!

So how much will the MicroConsole cost?We’re not releasing pricing information at this

26 | JUNE 2009

It grabbed headlines (a bunch of them cynical) at GDC, but new cloud-based gamingservice OnLive and its cheap ‘MicroConsole’ plans to totally subvert the gamesindustry model and take developers along for the ride. Can it live up to the hype?Michael French speaks to CEO Mike McGarvey…

Cloud control


ONLIVE | BETA

How it works: OnLive reckons the service, whichisn’t just effectively a new console – it’s console-agnostic given the way it unites TV, Mac and PC –will be easy to use

time, but we’re not afraid to brag that it willbe cheaper than competing consoles. Wehave a lot of flexibility about how wepackage the service and we feel ourconsumer offering will be very competitive.

Can third parties, or developers with anidea for a new game that uses an originalcontroller, make peripherals for it?Yes, most wired USB controllers will work withthe platform. For the best wirelessexperience, however, we recommend thatplayers use the OnLive wireless controller. Asyou know, wireless controllers inherentlyintroduce lag. So, we had to develop acontroller from the ground up that wouldgive OnLive gamers immediate response.

There’s a lot of scepticism about the videoencoding and streaming – what can youtell us about the technology that makesOnLive work? OnLive works by taking input from yourcontroller, keyboard or mouse and connects

the player to the OnLive service. Then, theservice’s custom game servers render thegame graphics. OnLive’s proprietary videocompression technology streams back low-

latency video to the player’s TV via the OnLiveMicroConsole, or to a PC or Mac via a smallbrowser plug-in. A proprietary compressionalgorithm and custom silicon make it

possible for us to deliver games instantly overthe Internet.

Our revolutionary video compressionalgorithm was designed specifically for videogames and can encode and compress videointo data in about one millisecond. A custom-built silicon chip does the actual encodingcalculations at the server end, and thatinformation is decompressed at the gamersend, inside the MicroConsole for thoseplaying on their televisions, or if someone isplaying on Mac or PC, the decompression ishandled within a small software clientdownloaded into a Web browser.

The data delivered from the game server tothe MicroConsole or to a PC or Mac isproprietary and highly tuned to not onlyproduce low-latency HD video, but it isdesigned to tolerate packet corruption, andpass through consumer-grade firewalls,routers and switches.

Surely the idea of a cloud-based servicecan be copied given there is no proprietary

We’re not afraid tobrag that ourMicroConsole will

be cheaper than thecompeting consoles. Wehave flexibility andwill be verycompetitive.

BETA | ONLIVE

hardware like the Wiimote,Sixaxis/DualShock or 360 and you ‘just’need a server farm for it – so what’s to stopa format-holder launching their ownsimilar service in competition?The technology needed to deliver gamesover the internet requires much more than a‘just a server farm’. If that were true, thensomeone would have launched a similarservice years ago.

OnLive was an immensely complexengineering effort, and beyond that, it tookyears of testing in hundreds of homes tomake it work seamlessly.

Beyond the underlying interactive videocompression technology, OnLive’s patentscover the layers of all the technology built ontop of that compression that would benecessary to deliver a practical video gameservice offering.

Given the immense multi-disciplinarycomplexity of OnLive, the time that wasrequired to address the practical executionissues, and the fact we have over 100 patentsand patents pending, we think it is unlikelythere will be another system like OnLiveanytime soon.

How would a cloud-based distributionsystem change the way developersapproach making games?Well, for starters, they no longer have to

develop for the lowest common denominatorof hardware. They can basically assume thatwhen their games release they will berunning on the most technically advancedhardware available. This means that weshould see richer, more robust worlds, bettergraphics, more depth and intensity ofgameplay.

And because it’s all online, the platform isincredibly flexible. So, we expect to seepeople experimenting with the type ofcontent they deliver, so maybe that will resultin episodic games, or maybe that’s how theyhandle pricing.

It’s incredibly efficient and effective todevelop for OnLive – with only one binary toreach PC, Mac and TV – that kind of reach,

and ‘ease’ if you will of reaching gamers – isunprecedented. We think developers arereally going to love it. Their games will beinstantly available to a large market ofgamers – be they PC, Mac or TV based.

Are developers already on board?We’re engaging with developers of all sizes.At GDC, we announced partnerships withmajor publishers like EA, Ubisoft, and TakeTwo. At the same time, we announced apartnership with 2D Boy, the ‘indie’developers that created World of Goo.

The OnLive platform is very easy todevelop for so we think that a lot of smallerdevelopers will embrace it. And, because weoffer a wholly online platform, we think thatthe smaller independents – who have moreflexibility to be creative – will probably do alot of experimenting with new types ofgameplay and new models for deliveringgames. Basically, OnLive offers them anincredibly powerful, very flexible platformthat allows developers to do what they dobest: be creative. There are noboundaries. That’s something I’m really veryexcited about personally.

Do studios need to take anything intoaccount when making games for OnLive?The only thing that they should be thinkingabout is: how do I take advantage of this

OnLive had its fullinterface, driven byvideo and a unique UI,on show at GDC

We expect to seepeople experimentwith the type of

content they deliver.Maybe that results inepisodic games, ormaybe how theyhandle pricing.

28 | JUNE 2009


ONLIVE | BETA

incredibly flexible and powerful system?We’ve set it up so that working with usshould be simple. There is little cost topublishers to get their games running onOnLive; they can port their PC versions in afew weeks.

I think everyone is really enthusiastic about working with us. OnLive has thepotential to completely alter the economicsof the video game industry, offering moremonetisation opportunities and enhancedconsumer touch points. Our aim is to bringthe content makers and consumers as closetogether as possible.

What needs to be re-developed onexisting PC games to make sure they workon OnLive?There are a few changes to the code as aresult of being run on server class hardwarewith no disc drives, but the port is a fairlysimple process that can be done in a matterof weeks.

The current demo shows established bigbrands that have debuted on console aswell as PC – are you hoping to secureoriginal exclusive IP for the OnLiveplatform?In a way we have ‘exclusive’ games for peoplewith Macs and low end PC’s. Crysis is a greatexample. The game isn’t currently developed

for the Mac and doesn’t run on low end PC’syet both of those user groups will be able toplay the game on OnLive, because we do allthe computing in our server centres in thecloud and it just runs on their hardware.

Also, the OnLive platform opens up severalnew avenues for game development anddistribution – episodic games that updatethroughout the year, for example – and we

expect games developed specifically for theOnLive platform to be available in the nearterm. Because we are the only platform that iswholly online, those games would – bynecessity – be available only on our service.

When will it launch in the UK or Europe?Will the UK’s slower broadband speeds

affect the roll out? Will you needinfrastructure partners to launch outsidethe US?For the time being, we’re focused on the U.S.market and our consumer beta program andconsumer launch later this year. Europe is avery important region for us and close to myheart (obviously!) but we need to launch inthe US before we announce specifics plansfor Europe.

Aside from the questions regarding thetechnology, there’s also a big questionmark hanging over the cost of the wholeoperation. Is OnLive going to beaffordable to the masses or more of a ‘core’gaming luxury? Can you give us anyindication of pricing?We can’t say a lot about our pricing strategyquite yet, except to say that games will pay abasic monthly fee for access, and that thecost of the MicroConsole will be much lessthan competitive consoles. With respect tothe games sold on the service, we expectthem to be priced competitively.

Regardless, we’re confident that theeconomics of the OnLive system will befavorable for consumers. Essentially, we’veremoved the reliance on high-end hardware,so gamers will never need to upgrade theirPC or buy another console. So OnLive is verycost-effective, particularly over time.

Our revolutionaryvideo compressionalgorithm was

designed specifically forgames and can encodeand compress datain about onemillisecond.

The Develop Conference is an inspiring place – over 80 great sessions given by a host ofinternational development experts and industry legends, around 1200 developers from 29countries getting together to share ideas, learn from each other and socialise.

Plus this year there’s innovative new content with the launch of Evolve – a newone-day event focusing on developing games for new platforms, new technologies and new markets which will open the Develop Conference on Tuesday 14 July and a new track within the conference on Wednesday 15 July.

14 -16 JULY 2009

14 JULY 2009

evolve

be inspired

Media Sponsor Media Sponsor Media Sponsor Media SponsorMedia SponsorMobile Sponsor International Media Sponsor

Here’s a taste of this year’s programme:

Conference Keynote David Jones - creator of Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto, and founder of Realtime Worlds will share his experiences and talk about his forthcoming title APB

The Evolution of Fable's Challenging HeroIan Faichnie and Si Jacques, Lionhead Studios

Art Directing Customisable Characters for International Markets: A Case Study Comparing South Korea to America Jimmy O’Ready, Realtime Worlds

Guerrilla Tactics: Designing Audio for Killzone 2 Mario Lavin, Guerrilla Games

Real-time Audio: Context Is Everything Kenneth Young, Media Molecule

What the Music Industry Can Reveal About Digital DistributionSimon Watt, Universal Music Group

Bizarre Creations: Evolving a Racing FranchiseChris Downey and Ged Talbot, Bizarre Creations

Driving 3D TV's Using Current Generation Consoles Aaron Allport and Andrew Oliver, Blitz Games Studios

The Wizards of OS: I Don't Think We're in C++ Anymore Doug Wolff, Eutechnyx

It's Time for Music Games 2.0Masaya Matsuura, NanaOn-Sha co., Ltd

Tom Clancy's EndWar: An After Action Report Michael De Plater, UbiSoft

PlayStation®Home - First Term Report Peter Edward, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

User Generated Content - The Legal Consequences Tahir Basheer, Sheridans

How Social Networks and Emerging Platforms and Technologies Will Re-shape Gaming's Oldest Genre Struan Robertson, Gusto Games

Management for Evil GeniusesImre Jele, Blitz Games

Designer mash-ups: David Braben and Peter Molyneux play Populous and EliteMasaya Matsuura and Jenova Chen play PaRappa the Rapper and Flower

On Tuesday 14 July, Games:Edu brings together the games industry and the educators of tomorrow’s developers.

Other companies speaking include:Acclaim • Ariadne Capital • Autodesk • Bigpoint • Bizarre Creations • Blitz Games • Chillingo • Climax • comScore •Creative Assembly • comScore • Crytek • Denki • Disney Black Rock Studios • doublesix • Eutechnyx • Fishlabs •FluffyLogic • Glu Mobile • Google • Guerrilla Games • Gusto Games • Hansoft • ICO Partners • Kerb • Lightning FishGames • Lionhead • Media Molecule • Matmi • Mythic/EA • MySpace • Mediatonic • Microsoft • NanaOn-Sha • ngmoco •Nokia • Playfish • Playora • Pocket Gamer • Rare • Realtime Worlds • Relentless • Rockstar North • SGXEngine • Team 17• thatgamecompany • The Mustard Corporation • Sheridans • Silicon Knights • Sidelines • Sony Computer Entertainment •Splitscreen Studios • Tag Games • thatgamecompany • Traveller's Tales • Ubisoft • Universal Music • Zoe Mode

It's not all work and no play...After hours fun includes the Ice Breaker Drinks, the GamesAid Charity Poker Tournament, the Guardian Pub Quizand the Develop Industry Excellence Awards.

Make sure you stay ahead of the game – come to Develop in Brighton!


KEYNOTE

ART

AUDIO

BUSINESS

CODING

DESIGN

EVOLVE

PRODUCTION

THE DEN

Organised byMember DiscountsMedia SponsorMedia Sponsor

gamesindustry.bizMedia SponsorMedia Sponsor

BETA | FINLAND FOCUS

32 | JUNE 2009

FinnishingThe

The home of Nokia, HabboHotel and Max Payne continuesto emerge as a dominate forcein game development, thanksin part to government fundingof technology companies.Eager to learn more, WillFreeman visited Helsinki toinvestigate the benefits ofsetting up a studio in Finland…


FINLAND FOCUS | BETA

To the casual visitor passing through, Scandinavia’s Russianneighbour certainly feels like a quiet and

peaceful country.With only 5.3 million people calling Finland

home, the huge expanse of northern Europe isthe continent’s second least densely populatedcountry – something apparent as you strollHelsinki’s hushed, spacious streets.

KooPee Hiltunen, director of Finland’sNeogames organisation, which promotes thenation’s games industry, jokes that thepopulation of his homeland thrive in thesilence that other Europeans find souncomfortable. Despite his jovial tone, there’scertainly a modesty to Finnish culture, and ahappily tranquil work ethic that veils afeverishly productive creative sector.

The country is of course the home to mobilephone giant Nokia, and the phenomenallypopular game-based social network HabboHotel, but its tech industry output doesn’t stopwith a duo of high-profile examples.

Finland has a long established tradition ofgame making, in part thanks to a healthyhobbyist scene. Making rolling demos toshowcase technical skill on platforms new andold continues to prove exceedingly popular in

Scandinavia, and the festivals and events thatcelebrate Finland’s ‘demoscene’ output providea fertile and talented pool of young developersfor studios looking to recruit as they expand.

“The games industry has developed fasthere in the past ten years,” enthuses Hiltunen.“In 1999 there were only a dozen gamecompanies in Finalnd, or perhaps less thanthat. Now we have more than 50 companies.This week alone I am meeting with two newstart ups, and I have had discussions withseven or eight start-ups already this year, sothere’s quite a fast pace here.”

As impressive as that growth may be,Hiltunen’s statistical description is perhapsanother example of Finnish modesty andunderstatement. In fact, the country’s gamedevelopment industry is now delivering one ofthe nation’s biggest cultural exports, accordingto Neogame’s weighty report on the region’sindustry in 2008.

With the industry centred in Helsinki, thesales of Finnish-made games are dominated bythe export business, which has recentlydelivered as much as 87 per cent of the sector’stotal turnover.

“Our industry is indeed mainly exports, andthe reason for that is of course because Finland

has quite a small domestic market,” saysHiltunen, who later reveals that in 2007 theFinnish games industry exports reachedaround €69 million, and €75 million in 2008.“When we talk about our cultural exports, wecan say that games are the most significant inFinland, money-wise.”

After an early boom in mobile content, mostof Finland’s studios now produce console andPC games, which usually find their way to theUS and European markets. While games likeMax Payne are among the Scandinavianterritory’s most famous exports, Bugbear’sFlatout 2 offers a more typical example of thedistribution of the country’s games across theglobe. While as few as 14,000 copies of thedestructive racer sold domestically, global salestotalled almost one million units, meaning 98.6per cent of sales took place overseas.

With a healthy export business, and as ahome to companys like Helsinki-based HabboHotel developer Sulake – valued at $1.25 billionand listed as the ninth most successful digitalstart-up in the world – it’s clear that Finland isenjoying a boom in game development.

It’s a little less obvious why, but looking alittle closer at the culture and industry of thecountry that bought the world Formula One

Above left: Neogames’KooPee HiltunenAbove right: Tekes’ Mari Isbom

Touch


34 | JUNE 2009

champions, Moomins and orange-handledscissors, the benefits studios enjoy there isclear. The fact that studio space in Finland costsa quarter of what it does in parts of the US, andthat the country is something of ageographical gateway between Asia andEurope, is just the beginning.

“I think the industry here is in fairly goodshape,” says CEO and co-founder of Helsinki’sRecoil Games Samuli Syvähuoko. “There are acouple of companies that have had problems,but there’s a closeness here. It’s a smallindustry, and everybody knows everybody, andwe have this monthly meeting where prettymuch all the industry in Helsinki goes to a barand talks everything over.”

However, as the industry in Finlandcontinues to grow, the intimacy Syvähuokospeaks of so warmly will soon be lost, and it willtake more than a few drinks at a local bar tofuel the ongoing progress. Thankfully for Recoil and its contemporaries, there’s a steady influx of talent to promote theexpansion in the former Russian Grand Duchy,as Syvähuoko explains.

“There’s a very high standard of livingaround here, and that’s something that hasattracted quite a few great employees to joinus over the years. I think that it helps that it’s abeautiful country as well, and of course wehave great government support too.”

Open streets, friendly inter-studio relationsand a high standard of living are all well andgood, but Syvähuoko has touched on whatmany consider the real reason for Finland’s

success as an emerging developmentstronghold. While government tax-breaks ofthe kind famously enjoyed by Canadian studios are non-existent, thanks to the work ofan organisation known as Tekes, Finnishdevelopers are eligible for various fundingbenefits paid for by the authorities.

PAPER DOLLSThe country’s traditional manufacturing trades,such as paper production and forestry, havelong been on the wane, prompting thegovernment to look to newer industries tobolster a relatively healthy economy. As a resultof that thinking, an organisation by the nameof Tekes was established by the authorities.

“Tekes is the Finnish funding agency fortechnology and innovation, and we areessentially Government organisation forresearch and development in Finland,” saysMari Isbom, Tekes’ senior technology advisorfor its software and digital media division. “Wework with a number of different companies,and game companies are a big part of that.”

Tekes specialises in promoting the Finnishtechnology sector’s more forward thinkingprojects, meaning it can offer selective projectfunding to many of the nation’s game studios.

”We encourage innovative and risk intensiveprojects, and we really are very selective,”reveals Isbom. “We don’t take anything either –just the most innovative and newest ideas. Ourfunds come from a budget at the Ministry ofEmployment and Economy from the Ministryof Trade and Industry.”

Despite providing low-interest loans andgrants for a number of industries distinct fromgame making, a substantial amount is stillavailable to developers. Tekes boasts a budgetin 2009 of almost €600 million, much of whichit can put towards assisting the relatively lownumber of companies designing and creatinggames in Finland. Tekes is a non-profitorganisation, and as such take no equity or IPownership, and has no sway over decisionsthat are part of the creative process.

“Innovation is very important to us,” affirmsIsbom. “So we look at research anddevelopment quite broadly, meaning we canfinance game development, and the likes offeasibility studies and market studies.Additionally, we also finance industrial projectsas well as research projects at universities,meaning we have a great deal to offer.”

In 2008, Tekes supported almost 2000projects with a €516 million budget, meaninggame companies faced strong competitionfrom other risk intensive technology sectorsout to secure financial aid. However, as studioslike Housemarque, Digital Chocolate andSecret Exit continue to showcase the capabilityof Finnish developers and meet withcommercial success and critical acclaim, thegovernment is offering increased benefits to anindustry deemed to be extremely important toprogress in the country.

“Tekes has identified games as a strategically important research anddevelopment area and thus one of the keyfocus areas. Around €10 million were targeted

Sulake CorporationLocation: HelsinkiHeadcount: 300+Brands: Habbo Hotel, IRC-Galleria, BobbaSpecialty: Social Networking

If Sulake’s name isn’t immediatelyfamiliar, that’s because it’s mostprofitable brand is so popular thatit’s hogged all the limelight.

It is hard to dispute Habbo Hotel’ssuccess, which was listed as theworld’s ninth most valuable digitalstart-up in the SAI 25 list, worth anestimated $1.25 billion.

“I started the company in 1999with a friend called Aapo Kyrola,”says Saluke founder and chiefcreative officer Sampo Karjalainen.“It was just a hobby thing and wemade a simple online application fora friend’s band – it was a musicproject and a game as well.

“It was just a meeting place forthe band members and fans whichwe made for fun, but after releasedit grew hugely popular, and weattracted users from outside Finlandand worldwide.”

At that point the work of the twoyoung Finns attracted the attentionof the CEO of advertising companyTaivas. Working with the Taivasgroup’s online arm, in 2000Karjalainen and Kyrola created alight hearted online game thatcombined a simple snowballfighting mechanic, social

networking and a text message-based commerce system.

“Then we formed Sulake in May2000, and built our business planand started to think aboutstandalone services. We made acommercial version of Mobile Discoas Hotel Kultakala. In February 2002we took Hotel Habbo international,and it’s grown from there.”

Grown is something of anunderstatement. By the end of 2004Sulake had spread Habbo Hotel’scombination of gaming and socialnetworking to four differentcontinents, and boasted a workforceof over 160. The company revenue in2008 was around €51 million, andthe employee headcount has risento beyond 300.

Habbo Hotel’s userbase, which isnow somewhere in the region of 129million strong across 31 countries,consists mainly of 12 to 16-year-olds– but Sulake isn’t’t stopping there.

In 2007 Sulake acquiredDynamoid, owner of Finland’sbiggest social networking site,meaning it now holds the attentionof 70 per cent of Finnish populationaged between 15 and 24 years old.www.sulake.com

DEVELOPMAG.COMDEVELOPMAG.COM MAY 2009 | 35


Digital Chocolate SumeaLocation: HelsinkiHeadcount: Not disclosedBrands: Tower Bloxx, Pictoplay, California Gold RushSpecialty: Mobile, PC, Console

By Finnish standards, DigitalChocolate’s spacious Helsinki officeSumea is a relatively noisy place. Thatis, there’s a gentle murmur of activityin the air, and enthusiasticbrainstorming and discussion isoccurring in the many booths thathouse teams working on new titles.

“Our focus since we started hasbeen on creating original, innovative,quality games,” says president ofstudios Ilkka Paananen. “We startedfrom mobile, many years ago, but inlast two years we have been portingour products to other platforms.”

One of those platforms is Xbox 360,which is currently preparing to host anew version of Digital Chocolate’spopular Tower Bloxx IP, but it is iPhonethat is really stirring the huge team’simagination.

“We’re really excited by the iPhoneas it totally changes everything. In theUS market Digital Chocolate has hadfour games feature as the mostdownloaded application. We’ve nowmade it public we’ve made $10million on iPhone,” says Paananen.

Conducting a tour of the Helsinkioffice, vice-president of studios JamiLaes explains: “We’ve got three

studios and Helsinki is the biggest. It’sa reasonably big operation, with eightor nine teams, so we work around aScrum-based development system.There’s a flexible matrix organisationof our teams here. We also keep allour proprietary tech absolutelyinternal, essentially so we can keepthe advantage over our rivals.

“We have regular days where eachteam designs and makes a playablegame prototype in just one day, andwe host many other single-dayinitiatives. Games made in a day oftenmake for easily grasped concepts,which is essential for the kind ofcontent we develop,” says Laes.

Paananen finishes his studio tourwith some advice to others. “The bestway to build your own brand is tobuild success on success consistently,”he says. Easier said than done. DigitalChocolate, which was founded in2003 by EA veteran Trip Hawkins, is ahuge, talented company with enoughreputation to court leading talentfrom across the globe.

Along with offices in Bracelona andBangalore, Digital Chocolate isheadquartered in San Mateo,California.

for game companies in 2008 via the Versoprogramme,” says Isbom.

Verso, towards which Tekes is providing €56million of a €120 million budget, is a market-orientated initiative specifically designed toboost the success of the country’s softwareindustry by networking both businesses andresearch internationally. Its description maysound much like the hyperbole of an excitedorganisational body, but the reality is alreadyproving a number of game companies withsupport, including Bugbear, which worked onits Bugbear Game Framework developmentplatform within Verso.

In 2007 alone Tekes subsidies coveredalmost 30 per cent of the research anddevelopment investment of game studios inFinland, and 24 of the 45 companies surveyedin 2008 by Neogames indicated that they hadreceived Tekes funding for R&D, exports orboth in the two years the study covered.

Along with the Avek digital demo fundingprogramme, support from the Nordic Gameorganisation, and EU Media Programmingfinancing assistance, Finnish developers enjoybenefits some of their equivalents in otherterritories could only dream of.

It’s tempting to paint a picture of Finland as aMecca for developers, untarnished by theproblems all too familiar to other countries, but even in this land of promise there areproblem areas.

While 40 per cent of Finnish gamecompanies are owned in part by investors,Hiltunen confesses that securing cash in the

country isn’t without the problems facedelsewhere: “In Finland it has been very difficultto get the investors for games because it’s still ahit industry, and because we don’t have all theright industry tools.”

“Research and development for games issometimes hard to explain to the FinnishGovernment,” adds Isbom. While the braindrain of the 1990s that saw talent leave thecountry is now a thing of the past, there’s still another problem far more surprising in a country famed for the quality of its forward-thinking education system. According to Hiltunen, at present in the entire country there are only 100 studentsstudying games.

While the impact of games degrees andcourses continues to divide industrycommentators globally, in Finland therelationship between education anddevelopment in something currently in thesights of organisations like Tekes andNeogames, as they sketch out a plan for thefuture of the industry.

“We should concentrate on gameseducation at the same time as investment infunding,” sates Hiltunen. “Looking at theQuebec model, we can see that it takes manyyears before investment and funding has apositive effect, but it is something we continueto try for.

“We are trying to develop our environmentfor game studios so that those companies likewhere they are and want to stay.”

Put like that, it sounds so simple.

Finland’s Neogames has gathered a wealth of information on thefinancial support available to developers in various countries.Using that information, Develop has taken a look at the benefits ofworking in a range of locations.

Finland• Government body Tekes offers grants and loans for gamedevelopment, R&D and export• Finnvera offers non-specific loan guarantees• The Promotion Centre for Audivisial Culture has a small demofund for games• The Verso program helps finance tech companies and supportsinternational networking

UK• Generic R&D tax credits, which Neogames claims typically returnfour to five percent of development expenditure • Modest generic export assistance for new exporters• The government provides around £1.1 million for game R&D andpilot projects

Canada• Generic R&D tax credits with a return rate 20 to 35 per cent.• Some smaller grants from the likes of IRAP support R&D• Famously, Montreal subsidises as much as 35.7 per cent of gamescompanies salaries for five years, while offering loan guarantees,tax credits and income tax holidays

France• CIJV National games production tax credit can cover 20 per centof most production costs on qualified games.• National Video Game Fund funds up to 35% of game prototypes• R&D tax credits rebate up to five per cent of R&D expenditure• Smaller grants, loan guarantees and export grants

(The above information was gathered and provided by Neogames)

FINANCIAL AID AT-A-GLANCE


Secret ExitLocation: HelsinkiIPs: Zen Bound, SpinSpecialty: iPhone and download

Formed in 2006 by Jani Kahrama and JetroLauha, who describe their development skills atthe companies inception as ‘modest’, Secret Exitis one of Finland’s iPhone success stories.

Despite downplaying their ability, Secret Exit clearly is very capable, having enjoyedcritical acclaim and commercial success withiPhone titles Spin and rope-tying game Zen Bound.

“We started with our two person team, andwe spent a year making mistakes and learningwhat to do and what not to do,” admits head ofstudio Kahrama.

In the first quarter of 2008, Secret Exitevaluated all the key platforms while creatinggame concepts, and took a long look atdeveloping for WiiWare. However, as the iPhonearrived, Kahrama and his team decided thatApple’s new platform offered far more potentialfor their output.

“iPhone changed the way people think about mobile gaming, which is fantastic, as our team has a mobile developmentbackground,” says Kahrama. “When it came out,we took a look and decided to go with it. We’re really happy with that decision, and forsome reason it seems that the public likes theidea of bondage.

“We have learned that visibility is very difficultand very important. We figured how to dothings better, and media exposure is reallyimportant, but really we’ve learned that there’snot much that we can do about it.”www.secretexit.com

HousemarqueLocation: HelsinkiIPs: Super Stardust HD, RopeSpecialty: Console downloads

As one of the first game companies established inFinland, Housemarque is a relative old-timer in theHelsinki community, having formed in 1995.

An amalgamation of early Finnish developersBloodhouse and Terramarque that started making Amiga games like Super Stardust,Housemarque now focuses on downloadablegames for consoles.

Having enjoyed early success on Sony’s PSNservice with Super Stardust HD, the Housemarqueteam have carved a niche in designing what theycall small high end games.

“We aim to create games that are small in sizethat are still of triple-A quality,” says CEO and co-founder Ilaro Kuittinen, who is also chairman ofthe board of the Association of Finnish GameDevelopers.

So far Kuittinen’s team have delivered on thatpromise, with Super Stardust HD ranked as thethird best seller on PSN in 2008. Two pieces ofPSN-exclusive original IP are in progress for 2010,as is a multiplatform game for a leading publisher.

Housemarque is also planning on movingtowards self-publishing with Rope – a physics-based game already approved in concept form forPSN. Kuittinen also revealed that his studio hopesto move the game to Xbox 360, and possiblyWiiWare and iPhone.

This may be a bold move as, whileHousemarque will crucially retain completeownership of its IP, it will lose the marketingassistance normally provided for by an externalpublisher like Sony.www.housemarque.com

EveryplayLocation: HelsinkiHeadcount: 5IPs: TBCSpecialty: Social networking

A start-up specialising in games that run withinsocial networks, Everyplay describes itself ascurrently running in stealth mode.

The studio is presently working on a conceptthat combines real world avatars made of paperwith gaming communities based in the likes ofFacebook. While little has been confirmed,Everyplay hopes to allow for interconnected playbetween MySpace, Beebo, Facebook and othersusing microtransactions to fund the concept,which is due for a soft launch sometime soon.

Everyplay’s managing director Jussi Laakkonenis not new to the games industry, having workedfor Bugbear Entertainment, which created theFlatout series of games.

“I’m honestly complete fed up with workingwith publishers,” confesses Laakkonen. “I’ve triedfor four-and-a-half years trying to make it work,and it’s just a really hard relationship fordevelopers, especially today. Unless you’re Bungieor Epic or one of those with financial freedom, it’salways tug of war.”

Laakkoneni is actually a man more interested indevelopment far closer to the grass roots level,and is a proactive proponent of Scandanavia’sdemoscene.

Laakkonen and his colleagues at Everyplay are closely involved in organising Assembly, which attracts over 5000 demoscene fans toHelsinki to share demos, and decide on the bestou put of the year, which is sometimes ofsurprisingly high quality.www.everyplay.fi


Ironstar HelsinkiLocation: HelsinkiHeadcount: 6IPs: MoiPalSpecialty: Social networking

Based in a humble office neighbouring a tattoo parlour, in a secluded courtyarddominated by a huge classic car, it’s hard toimagine you’d find a thriving developer behindIronstar’s front door.

However, this young team – which chiefexecutive officer Joakim Achrén admits is still instart-up mode – is busy establishing itself withan increasingly popular social gaming world.

MoiPal combines social networking with taskmanagement gameplay, and already boasts200,000 users despite the fact that Ironstar wereonly formed in 2006.

Although a direct rival to Habbo Hotel,Ironstar has attracted brands such as EMI tocreate in-game spaces, and has secured severaldeals with celebrities and musicians that, inFinland at least, are exceedingly popular.

Living in the shadow of the mighty HabboHotel of course has its downsides, but Ironstar has managed to make use of sharing the same city as Sulake. “Habbo ofcourse get a lot of the talent as well as a greatdeal of the market share, and so we’ve evenbeen recruiting from schools, but those peoplehave been great, and have some very good,original ideas.”

Ironstar has implemented an impressivemonetisation model, a publically availabledeveloper API, and a trophy system – all ofwhich are far more typical of a substantiallymore sizable and experienced team.www.ironstarhelsinki.com

Sauma TechnologiesLocation: HelsinkiHeadcount: 20IPs: Hours of WarSpecialty: Strategy MMOs

Visiting Sauma’s modern office in Helsinki, you’regreeted by shelves piled high with military boardgames, WWII model kits, tomes listing statisticsof army vehicles and pencil sketches of weapon-clad men in uniform.

It’s clear that the team is working on a fairlyhardcore strategy game, but Sauma is alsoresponsible for Stream Garden – a casual gamebased around creating flowers.

“You could say we’re a little schizophrenic,”jokes the studio’s producer Miikka Lyytikainen,but there is currently a clear focus throughoutthe team on Hours of War.

The game itself is an in-depth and rathercomplex looking combination of MMO, socialnetwork, turn-based strategy title and crossplatform rich-media experience. Players caninvolve themselves at various levels of the battle,and ultimately the studio hopes to cater for bothbrowser users and those with mobile phones.

Despite the game’s conventional theme,Sauma CEO Andreas von Koskull is confident histeam are creating something fresh: “The gamebusiness is certainly a creative space, butincreasingly there is little innovation, which wewanted to move away from.”

“Poor cross-platform mobile gaming and staticbrowser-based strategy games are all toocommon, and we felt it’s time for a change. We’reproud to have secured funding for our game atthe beginning of the year, and we’re looking atbuilding two more related IPs on our platform.”www.saumatechnologies.com

Recoil GamesLocation: HelsinkiHeadcount: 30Brands: Earth No MoreSpecialty: Console/PC games

Recoil is currently working on Earth No More,which was recently embroiled in a lawsuit thathad sadly silenced the studio. However, now thedeveloper is talking about the game again, onwhich it is working with 3D Realms’ offshoot IPfactory Radar Group.

A benefactor of the various Finnish and EUgrants, details about Earth No More are stillrelatively sparse, but the game is neverthelesslooking increasingly impressive.

A visit to Recoil does offer an interestinginsight into the inner workings of Finnishdevelopers. Typical of most studios that haveopened their doors to Develop in Finland, theoffice is silent, with heads buried in computers. “We like to work in silence here,” says Samuli Syvähuoko. “It’s just the way thingsare done.

“We also believe very strongly in avoidingcrunch. We don’t let people do that here thatmuch. Sometimes, but only if it is reallyimportant. In Finland staff are given five weeks of holidays and other vacations on top of that, and we’ll always respect that. So whenpeople are here, they work. And hiring is avigorous process, as you can’t fire people in Finland.”

Recoil continues to work on Earth No More,complete with its internally-developed renderer, and a currently confidential gameengine – more is expected to emerge in thecoming weeks.www.recoilgames.com


The 10 bestgame

engines p42

How 50 Centshaped game

productionp52

PhyreEnginehits new

milestonep51

THE LATEST TOOLS NEWS, TECH UPDATES & TUTORIALS

“iPhone is big, but new mobileplatforms will emerge and

won’t be easy to develop for.”GarageGames talks tech, p40

Engines for change

EPIC DIARIES: UNREAL SHARPENS WOLVERINE’S CLAWS > P40

An in-depth guide to the marketfor third-party game engines, p40

40 | JUNE 2009

BUILD | ENGINES GUIDE

Twelve months ago, when we last took abirds-eye look at the game enginemarket, the focus was very much

smoothing out the pains of cross-platformdevelopment. Epic was focusing all of itsefforts on the PS3 version of UE3, whileEmergent was crowing about its multi-corefriendly Floodgate technology.

One year on and the situation is a littledifferent, both inside the market andexternally. Developers across the world havedownsized, but the public’s appetite forgames remains as fierce as it ever was. Thoseleft behind at streamlined studios still haveto deliver envelope-pushing games withsmaller teams and tighter budgets, and manyof those cast aside need to regroup andstrike out on their own. Now everyone needsnimble, flexible, rapid game engines.

“Developers, designers and engineers areall full of game ideas and innovations thatare just waiting for a chance to beexpressed,” says Emergent’s Geoffrey Selzer,whose new product Gamebryo Lightspeed isgeared towards rapid prototyping.

“Particularly in these difficult economictimes, it’s important to get your ideas in front

of potential publishers or investors as soon asyou possibly can. Solutions that enable gamedesigners to get projects up and runningquickly, and those that provide a flexiblesolution for getting their creative ideas put in

front of publishers faster – so they in turn canget to funding faster – are going to befundamentally necessary. Developmentteams will be refocusing energy on creatingunique, immersive gameplay and findingnew ways to entertain audiences, coupled

with a need to reduce development andbudget risk.”

Each of the 10 engines featured in thismonth’s round-up (starting over the page) has,in its latest release, improved its toolset toenable rapid iteration (if it wasn’t using thatas its USP anyway). Gone are the days oftwiddling your thumbs waiting for the latestbuild to tick along and then almost inevitablyfail; now designers, artists and programmerscan instantly change object placement,parameters and even whole scripts withoutrequiring a recompilation.

MOBILE WORKFORCEAnother growth sector has been in thosetargeting mobile platforms – specifically theiPhone – and web browsers. “These twosectors are still just in their infancy, and havefantastic growth potential,” saysGarageGames’ Brett Seyler.

“Obviously iPhone stuff is very big rightnow, but new mobile platforms are likely toemerge, and they won’t be easy to developgames for. Companies like Zynga and Playfishare doing great with just Flash technology forgames on Facebook. The industry is just

Start your enginesNow that we’re mid-way into the current console generation, what are game engine developers doing to distinguishthemselves from the competition? Ed Fear takes a look at the state of the sector…

Undeterred by theeconomic climate,Terminal Reality isreleasing its InfernalEngine as a newcontender

iPhone stuff is verybig right now, butnew mobile

platforms are likely toemerge, and they won’t beeasy to developgames for.Brett Seyler, GarageGames


ENGINES GUIDE | BUILD

Gears of War 2 was yetanother effectiveadvertisment for Epic’sUnreal Engine 3

starting taking note of this space, but thepotential is pretty limitless.”

Mainly, it’s the more indie-focused enginesthat are exploring this area – Unity andGarageGames’ Torque 3D are the only twoengines with built-in support for runningthrough browsers and the iPhone – but theopportunity for growth in this sector isstrong, especially as potential rivals to thenow-ubiquitous Flash.

“These new technologies are the strongestand fastest growing business models,” saysUnity CEO David Helgasson. “And that’s whatwe’ve geared Unity towards.”

In that regard, it makes sense that thosemiddleware firms targeting indies and smalldevelopers are the ones to address theopening possibilities of in-browser andiPhone digital distribution, given that theircustomers will need access to distributionmodels with low barriers to entry.

RECESSED MEMORIESAsk middleware companies how they’refaring in the recession and you know theanswer already. But, the reasoning is strong:the technological backbone required fornext-gen development is still as precariously

high as it’s ever been for start-ups, butattempting to find a publisher that’ll bankrollyou for a year while you get up to scratch ismuch more unlikely. “Teams should chooseto use a game engine because thetechnology and service deliver what theyneed to make the best game possible,”explains Carl Jones, CryENGINE’s directorglobal business development.

“This rule applies in any economiccircumstances; but clearly using a third partyengine will save you a technologyinvestment to maintain a competitive qualityin your game and reduce the developmentrisk significantly.”

DOWN-TURNAROUNDBut rather than remaining buoyant, some aregoing as far as to say that the economicdownturn is actually a blessing formiddleware companies.

US developer Terminal Reality has gone asfar as to launch a brand new competitor intothe engine ring – the Infernal Engine, whichpowers the firm’s eagerly-anticipatedGhostbusters game – at a time when manyare scaling back their ambitions. “The currentturmoil in the video games industry is

actually going to drive engine middlewaresales,” asserts Joe Kreiner, the firm’s VP ofmarketing. “We’re seeing lots of layoffs andcompanies going out of business. As thesepeople reform into new studios, they’ll bemore inclined to use engine middleware,rather than try and re-create technologymid-way through the console cycle. Overall demand for video games is stillstrong, and games need to be created tomeet that demand.”

GarageGames’ Brett Seyler agrees, butwarns that studios need to make sure thatthe price is right.

“I would definitely look at licensingtechnology in this environment, but I’d bepushing harder for flexible payment termsand bigger price breaks. The build vs. buyquestion doesn’t even merit discussion formost platforms until you’re at least a couple of hundred people,” he adds.

“When we made the decision to developTorque internally, there was nothing like itbelow several hundred thousand dollars.Now there’s competition and better optionsfor developers on a budget. I don’t thinkthere’s ever been a better time to licenseengine technology than today.”

42 | JUNE 2009


Know you want to pick an engine but not sure which to choose? Ed Fear rounds up ten of the most innovative andpopular game engines on the market today…

THE TOP 10 GAME ENGINES

The latest generation ofGarageGames’ Torque engine, theslightly anachronistically-namedTorque 3D, is gearing up to take backsome of the market share that thefirm – admittedly one of the very firstcompanies to dual-target theindie/hobbyist and professionalmarkets – has lost to competitors of late.

With a proven tech backbone that’salready available on multiple consoles– with PSP and PS3 set to join the

crowd later this year – the focus forTorque 3D is the toolset. “It’s beencompletely overhauled, and we’vefocused particularly on the contentpipeline for ease-of-use and iteration,”says the company’s Brett Seyler.

As such, as well as a robustCOLLADA import pipeline, all assetsare updated live in-engine fromexternal tools, allowing for zero-second asset iteration. The worldeditor has also been completelyrewritten, offering advanced editors

for materials, decals and, mostinterestingly, rivers and roads.

That doesn’t mean that high-endgraphical effects have beenoverlooked, though. The lightingmodel has been upgraded to a hybridlighting model which it calls ‘lightpre-pass rendering’ that the firm saysis ‘similar to CryEngine’s’, supportingadvanced effects such as screen-space ambient occlusion and lightrays, soft particles and advancedwetness and precipitation shaders.

Although high-end features are afocal point for Torque 3D, thecompany is still putting as muchfocus as ever on low-end hardware,specifically netbooks, citing goodperformance on Intel 950 chipsets.The mass-market penetration is alsotargeted with the engine’s new WebPublishing features, based ontechnology GarageGames developedfor its InstantAction web portal, which offers native performancethrough browsers.

Developer: GarageGamesPlatforms: PC, Mac, Xbox 360, Wii, iPhone, PS3, PSPBrowser support: YesCost: PC/Mac/Web: $1,000 (indie, unlimitedprojects); $4k+ (studio licence, unlimited projects).iPhone: $500+ per seat. Console: undisclosed.Published titles: Penny Arcade Adventures, FallenEmpire: Legions, Buccaneer, Dreamlords, Marble Blast UltraTitles in development: Unannounced titles fromEA, Bioware, Ubisoft and moreMiddleware integrations: FMOD, PhysX, ODE,Pixomatic, pureLIGHT

TORQUE 3D

It might have an indie-friendly price tag, but that doesn’t mean that Torque 3D only powers low-end games – as the screenshots here attest. The road editor (right) is a high-end feature

CONTACT: 245 West 5th Ave. Eugene, OR 97401, United States Phone: 541-345-3040 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.garagegames.com

Trinigy’s Vision Engine continues topick up pace in the internationalmarket, and is actually leading insome respects (it’s the first engine tointegrate Pixelux’s Digital MolecularMatter, as used in LucasArts’ Star Wars:The Force Unleashed, for example).

Although it might not be a namewith the same clout of Unreal, itsstrongly genre-agnostic structure isclearly finding more and more fans across the industry. Version 7.5 –released earlier this year – adds a

complete DirectX 10 engine thatmakes ‘full use’ of the DX10 featureset, as well as an enhanced PhysXintegration that allows visual editingof physical properties and joints. Theengine’s event and trigger systemhave also been fully integrated intothe editor, and Wii support has alsobeen overhauled.

“The feedback we get from our100-plus licensees is that Vision issimply the best overall package,” saysDag Frommhold, managing parter at

Trinigy. “The engine is completelygenre-agnostic and is flexible enoughto adapt to almost any project’sneeds, whether it’s a casual game or triple-A title.”

Much effort has also been placedinto Vision Engine’s multi-platformcapabilities, with extensiveoptimisations provided for eachplatform. Scenes and models can beexamined live on the actual machinefor instant on-target viewing, whileconsole-specific features – such as

SPU balancing on PS3 and direct GPUto memory export on Xbox 360 –ensure that performance is equal oncomparable targets.

Finally, extensive documentation isavailable, including over 60 sampleapplications – ranging from conceptsas simple as Hello World to efficientuse of multi-threading. A number ofsample scenes are also provided todemonstrate powerful features toartists, and video tutorials can also bedownloaded from the Trinigy website.

Developer: TrinigyPlatforms: PC (DX9 & 10), Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, WiiBrowser support: NoCost: Available upon requestPublished titles: Desperados 2 (Atari), Emergency 3& 4 (Take 2), Warlord (Neowiz)Titles in development: Dungeon Hero (Firefly),Arcania – A Gothic Tale (JoWood), plus unannouncedUbisoft and Neowiz projectsMiddleware integrations: Bullet physics, DigitalMolecular Matter, FMOD Ex, Kynapse, morpheme,NetDog, OpenAL, PhysX, ProFX 2, Quazal Net-Z,Scaleform GFx, SpeedTree, xaitEngine

VISION ENGINE 7.5

Despite our screenshots, the Vision Engine does more than just swords’n’sorcery – one of its major strengths is how genre agonistic it is

CONTACT: Trinigy GmbH, INKA-Businesspark, Arbachtalstr. 6, 72800 Eningen, Germany Phone: +49 (0)7121 986 993 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.trinigy.net

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© 2009 by Trinigy. All rights reserved. Trinigy is a trademark of Trinigy GmbH. All other trademarks are property of their respective owner(s).

Trinigy’s Vision Game Engine offers:

Multi-platform Support: PC, XBOX360, PS3, Wii

Proven Technology: More than 100 titles

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EVALUATING 3D GAME ENGINES?

”Developers need to put Tr in igy on their l ist . ”



If there was ever a good time forTerminal Reality to launch its owngames engine, the run-up to therelease of the hotly-anticipatedGhostbusters game would definitely be it.

Good-looking screenshots aside,the Infernal Engine is built from thedeveloper’s 15 year history in theindustry, during which time it’sshipped more than 30 titles. As such,much of the focus is on streamliningproduction. Take, for example, theintegrated editor: not a major

distinguishing feature on it’s own, butit enables collaborative level design,farms out lightmapping and otherintensive processes to servers, has anintegrated performance monitoringand memory tracking system, andeven optimises the packaging ofgame assets to minimise disk seekson physical media (a whole separatemiddleware area in its own right).

The areas the engine touches arefar wider than just productivity,though: it has its own physics systemcalled VELOCITY that can simulate

thousands of objects at once, as wellas dynamic destruction and clothsimulation. The developer has alsorecently added the dynamic collisionavoidance AI used in Ghostbusters tocope with massively dynamicenvironments, and is close to rollingout ‘dramatic improvements’ in itsanimation system.

Audio is also catered for, with adata-driven engine with support forstreaming on all platforms, real-timeremote connection to tweak soundcues during playback, integrated

positioning, spatialisation andDoppler shift for 3D audio.

The engine’s C++-like scriptinglanguage Dante offers all of thebenefits of a compiled language –quick execution, small memoryfootprint – but, curiously, featuresimmediate feedback of script changeswithout recompilation.

Given its wide platform supportand future-proofed multi-threadedarchitecture, the Infernal Engine could easily be a big player in the market.

Developer: Terminal RealityPlatforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii, PS2, PSPBrowser support: NoCost: Available on requestPublished titles: Ghostbusters (Terminal Reality),Mushroom Men: Spore Wars (Red Fly)Titles in development: The Strike and The Hunt(Piranha Games), Cook or be Cooked (Red Fly), plusunannounced titles from Wideload and moreMiddleware integrations: Scaleform GFx, FMOD,Wwise, Bink, Fonix, Quazal

INFERNAL ENGINE

Particular attention is placed on the engine’s robust physics system, which allows scenes to be destroyed accurately with ease

CONTACT: 2274 Rockbrook Drive, Lewisville, TX 75067, United States Tel: (972) 315-8089 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.infernalengine.com

Although the new name might foolyou into thinking it a new entry inEmergent’s middleware line-up, thecompany is clear on one thing:Gamebryo Lightspeed is very muchthe future for the global firm.

Having succeeded on its previousaims – to bring enterprise-levelengineering to game middleware andto simplify multi-core developmentwith Floodgate – Emergent is nowpushing firmly into designer territory.“It’s the first offering from Emergent

that is focused not only on engineersbut also the needs of gamedesigners,” says CEO Geoffrey Selzer.“It’s an all-in-one system that offersrapid prototyping, rapid iteration, andreal-time, on-target updates.”

As such, Lightspeed adds a data-driven framework to the existingGamebryo tech base, enablingdesigners to iterate mechanics andideas within hours rather than weeks.In fact, given that it features the entireGamebryo feature set under the hood

– the same feature set that’s poweredgenre-diverse games as big as Fallout3 and Warhammer Online – it’s beingplaced as a solution that not only getsyou rapidly prototyping, but can thenfollow with the development cycle allthe way up to mastering up.

The new toolset includes an EntityModelling Tool to control the newentity and behaviour system; a brand-new World Builder that ties into theentity system; an Asset Controller thatautomatically monitors for changes in

assets, hotloading them into the toolsand onto target platforms in real-time without recompliation; anda script integration system that allowsyou to use the scripting language ofyour choice.

Add to that the work it is doing insupporting small start-up developers – the number of smallstudios it hosted on its GDC stand was impressive – andEmergent’s market share is only set to grow.

Developer: Emergent Game TechnologiesPlatforms: Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PCBrowser support: NoCost: Available on requestPublished titles: Fallout 3 (Bethesda), CivilizationRevolution (Firaxis), Warhammer Online (EA Mythic)Titles in development: Unannounced titles fromSquare Enix, Disney, Tencent, Sidhe and ToseMiddleware integrations: Nvidia PhysX and APEX,Scaleform GFx, Wwise, Speedtree, Illuminate Labs,NaturalMotion, Lightsprint, Aristen, Umbra,xaitment, memoraze, Allegorithmic, RAD

GAMEBRYOLIGHTSPEED

Rapid prototyping is the name of Emergent’s game – some of the teams on Emergent’s GDC stand had builtfully-playable, good-looking prototypes in just nine days. Beats a PowerPoint presentation, anyway

CONTACT: 5016 N. Parkway Calabasas, Suite 210, Calabasas, CA 91302, United States Tel: (818) 222-5355 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.emergent.net

46 | JUNE 2009


Those expecting Crytek to mirror Epicin terms of version numbering mighthave been surprised to seeCryENGINE hit version three soquickly, but maybe it’s important tobe on an even playing field with yourpunchiest competitor.

The main addition to v3 is the longsought after console support – theformerly PC-only engine is now fullysupported on Xbox 360 and PS3, withthe developer at pains to point outthat it’s worked the graphics, physics,AI, networking and sound subsystems

to make them ready for the massivelymany-core architectures likely to findthemselves in the next generation of consoles.

Of course, this is CryENGINE, sowhat you really care about is thevisuals. Crytek has seen fit to add ahuge number of high-end graphicalfeatures to the engine, including areal-time dynamic global illuminationsolution fully optimsed for current-generation machines. There’s also anew real-time soft particle system,which can be affected by object

collisions, forces such as wind andgravity, and lighting and shadows;volumetric light beams; screen-spaceambient occlusion support, a uniquedeferred shading solution and a high-level platform-agnostic shaderscripting technology.

The ‘What You See is What You Play’Sandbox editor – which now deployslive to target consoles, giving instantfeedback to scene changes – has alsohad its functionality bolstered, with anew automatic vegetation placementruleset that’ll plant your foliage based

on slope, surface altitude and desireddensity. There’s also dedicated roadand river builders, a specialisedvehicle editor, a facial animation tool,plus automatic navmesh generationunified for inside and outside spacescoupled with the engine’s dynamicpathfinding system. And, as if thatwasn’t enough, there’s a fully featuredaudio offering, AI and game scriptingby Lua or the graphical Flow-Graphsystem, an integrated physics engineand a full suite of performanceanalysis tools.

Developer: CrytekPlatforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC, ‘MMO and next-gen ready’Browser support: NoCost: Available on requestPublished titles: Crysis (CryTek), Crysis Warhead(Crytek), Aion (NCsoft)Titles in development: Not disclosedMiddleware integrations: Scaleform GFx, CRI,FMOD

CryENGINE 3

Even if you’re not looking to make a shooter set on a group of tropical islands, CryENGINE 3 isadaptable to almost any genre – including MMOs

CONTACT: Hanauer Landstr. 523, 60386 Frankfurt am Main, Germany E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.crytek.com

Given the Oliver brothers’ frequentcomments about the horrors ofmiddleware, it was quite a surprise tosee Blitz move into the technologylicensing arena. But all due credit tothem – if you’ve got a platform- andgenre-agnostic offering that’s beenfine-tuned over the past 10 years,why not let other people use it?

Although the internal uses of thetech are diverse – from the next-genDead to Rights to almost all of BlitzArcade’s digital-distribution titles –the company is keen to market

BlitzTech to triple-A developers only.It’s built for large-scale development,with in-built asset management thatsupports remote working and in-builtversion control.

The focus is therefore very much ontools and the asset pipeline tosupport big teams, with the editorallowing designers and artists to workon multiple SKUs – includingtechnologically disparate ones –through one interface. The editor canalso be deployed on the targetconsole to give immediate feedback

and allow users to move objects,change properties and update assetsin real-time.

The engine is also certainly leadingin graphical aspects too, as anyonewho’s seen the amazing-looking Deadto Rights in person will attest. Oneparticular highlight is that it runsentirely on dynamic lights – there areno pre-baked lightmaps whatsoever –on both the Xbox 360 and PS3, which gives better lighting andimmediate feedback for artists. Ofcourse, if you do want to do any

complicated offline baking, theengine’s built-in distributed networkprocessing system will help make it amuch quicker process.

Finally, one of the realdistinguishing features is BlitzTech’s support for truestereoscopic 3D on current-generation consoles. Blitz is firm in its belief that 3D is the future, but is happily licensing out thattechnology now, includingcompatibility for the numerousstandards that currently exist.

Developer: Blitz Games StudiosPlatforms: PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PSP, PCBrowser support: NoCost: Available on requestPublished titles: House of the Dead: Overkill(Headstrong), Power Up Forever (Blitz Arcade),Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol Encore 2(Blitz Games)Titles in development: Dead to Rights Retribution(Volatile Games), Invincible Tiger (Blitz Arcade), manymore TBAMiddleware integrations: FMOD, Kynapse, Bink

BLITZTECH

Ten years in the making, Blitz’s remarkably fully-featured solution is already in use by a number of the company’s external partners

CONTACT: Regent Square House, The Parade, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV32 4NL, UK E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.blitztech.com

9

48 | JUNE 2009


We first covered Unity in these pagesabout a year ago, as it started to makemore of an impact in the indie/low-end development market. For all itsvirtues, though, it was hampered bybeing Mac-only.

Unity 2.5, launched at GDC, finallybrings the Unity toolset to Windowsand all those developers unwilling toswitch to Macs for the sake of a niceengine. The editor differs from manyin being entirely visual-lead – assetscan be imported into projects by asimple drag-and-drop (that actually

opens the host application in thebackground to export with optimal settings) and scripts arelinked visually.

The editor is also now completelyscriptable, meaning that newworkflows and interfaces can quickly be made up. Several membersof the community have made neweditors freely available, including apathfinding module with automatic (and manual) nagivationmesh generation and behaviouraltree editors.

The community is something thatUnity Technologies considers a bigselling point of the engine: the lowentry point means that manyhobbyist and indie developers areardent supporters. As they rationaliseit, when big triple-As like Funcom andEA embark on development, they’vegot a wide (and educated) support base and also a pool ofready-trained talent to recruit from.Parts of Cartoon Network’s MMOFusionFall were developed bycommunity members, for example.

It’s also got arguably the bestiPhone support, with the actualdevice acting as an input method tothe editor to fine-tune accelerometer controls. According tothe company, a new Unity-powerediPhone game is added to the AppStore almost every day.

Other console support is currentlylimited to Wii, but support for Xbox360 and PS3 is firmly within thecompany’s roadmap, as are the MMOfunctionality updates spun out fromthe success of FusionFall.

Developer: Unity TechnologiesPlatforms: PC, Mac, iPhone, WiiBrowser support: YesCost: $199 (Indie), $1499 (Pro), $399+ (iPhone),$15,000 (WiiWare, per title), $30,000 (Wii, per title)Published titles: FusionFall (Cartoon Network),Zombieville USA (mikamobile)Titles in development: Secret MMO by Funcom,other unannounced productsMiddleware integrations: PhysX, Mono, more tocome

UNITY 3D

Unity’s interface is a joy to use, and puts even triple-A focused tools to shame. Not bad for a new contender

CONTACT: Duevej 94 a, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.unity3d.com

BigWorld’s Technology Suite hasproved pretty popular in China andJapan – admittedly the main MMOmarket – but with version 2.0, outtowards the later end of this year, thecompany is integrating a raft offeatures that could see it stake out abigger claim in the face of rivals likeHeroEngine and the MonumentalTechnology Suite.

Version 2.0 offers performanceincreases due to improved multi-threading support on the client side,

various special and post-effects thatenable a wide range of real-timefilters to be applied to the graphicsengine, including sophisticatedmotion blur, depth of field and colourcorrection and distortions. On theserver side, the architecture has beenrolled over onto 64-bit, enablingmuch greater memory addressability– and therefore larger, more complexworlds – and further revisions toserver scalability, reliability andgeneral performance.

In answer to numerous clientrequests, BigWorld has alsoimplemented in-game browsersupport (including JavaScript andFlash) and instant messagingprotocols (MSN, AIM, ICQ, GoogleTalkand Twitter via XMPP) to facilitate thenext generation of ‘always connected’social experience worlds, blurring theline between in-world experiencesand exterior information services andcontent. The firm is also interested inapplications on mobile devices,

community management, and usergenerated content. Furtherenhancements to the client renderingengine – specifically lighting,shadows and physics extensions – areplanned for next year.

The work BigWorld has also donesupporting teams releasing gameshas also forced the company to workwith other partners to fill in the gaps,meaning that establishedrelationships are available for billingand community management.

Developer: BigWorldPlatforms: PC, Xbox 360, PS3, iPhone, PSP, DS,mobile devicesBrowser support: NoCost: Available on requestPublished titles: Hokuto no Ken Online (GungHo),Tian Xia 2 (Netease)Titles in development: Unannounced titles fromGazillion and 38 StudiosMiddleware integrations: BitRaider, Exigent,FMOD, Gni, Hypernia, Scaleform UI, Speedtree,Vivox, Umbra Software

BIGWORLDTECHNOLOGY SUITE

BigWorld is very popular in Asia, where it has powered a number of MMOs. Its first US customers shouldrelease products within the next year to two, apparently

CONTACT: Canberra Technology Park, Phillip Avenue Watson ACT 2602, Australia Tel: +61-2 6162 5120 Web: www.bigworldtech.com



To be honest, Epic’s monsterbehemoth doesn’t really need anyintroduction at all. Now almost anindustry standard in its thirdincarnation, Unreal Engine 3’sdomination of the full-enginemiddleware sector is hard to argue against.

Still, the main criticism levelledagainst it – usually by its competitors,we should say – is that the engine isgeared towards first- (or third-)person shooters. Nevertheless,customers have managed to extend

and rip apart the engine to powereverything from Japanese-style RPGsto open-world action-racing gameslike The Wheelman.

One of the emerging usage groupsis for MMO development. In order togive the engine a better standingagainst dedicated MMO solutions likeHeroEngine and BigWorld, andemerging threats like CryENGINE, Epichas tasked its China office with thedevelopment of Atlas, its persistentworld server technology and MMOcreation and management toolset.

Another new feature is UnrealLightmass, a new global illuminationsolver that can produce lightmapswith smooth bounced lightingwithout the need to use any third-party technology. Generation ofthe lightmaps can also be farmed outby the new Swarm distributedprocessing solution to use idle CPUslocally and across networks.

The new Unreal Master ControlProgram is a new service-orientatedarchitecture based on the Gears ofWar 2 persistent stat tracking system.

It allows developers to track onlinepopulations and even domain-specific data mining such as level-based heat maps to quicklyidentify chokepoints and problemareas in multiplayer maps.

Finally, Epic has enhanced assetmanagement by introducing the newContent Browser, which allows usersto tag assets and then find themeasily with search filters, allowingusers to locate, preview and manageassets regardless of whether they’reloaded or not.

Developer: EpicPlatforms: PC, Mac, Xbox 360, PS3Browser support: NoCost: Available on requestPublished titles: Mass Effect (Bioware), The LastRemnant (Square Enix), Lost Odyssey (Mistwalker),The Wheelman (Midway)Titles in development: Alpha Protocol (Obsidian),DC Universe Online (SOE), Alien Breed (Team 17)Middleware integrations: Fonix, SpeedTree,GameSpy, Scaleform GFx, PhysX, Illuminate Labs,Umbra, morpheme, nFringe, HumanIK, Kynapse,Bink, ProFX, AI.implant, Quazal, DigiMask, Game-Link, Wwise, Enlighten

UNREAL ENGINE 3

New features in the latest version of Unreal Engine 3 include a content browser and level heat maps for metric analysis

CONTACT: 620 Crossroads Blvd, Cary, NC 27518, United States E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.epicgames.com

Ambitious independent developerturned engine provider Vicious Cycleis more than aware that it can’tcompete with Epic in the super high-end AAA stakes. The niche it’s lookingto fill are the smaller developers whohave to move quick in order tosurvive; not those that can take threeyears on a project.

Version one of the Vicious Engine –which is geared to lower-endplatforms such as the PSP, PS2 and Wii– is still available, but what the

company is really crowing about isthe new version, Ve2, launched atGDC 2009. Teased for a number ofyears, the engine takes the ViciousEngine’s philosophy – of enablingteams to rapidly prototype andshorten the development process –and brings it kicking and screaminginto the PS3 and Xbox 360 territory.

The engine provides a fully-rounded toolset, including navmesh-based pathfinding, an easy editor forcreating re-usable hierarchical state

machines, and contextual point-and-click scripting for those who don’t want to get their hands dirtywith code.

Also, according to the developer,the engine will convert your game toPlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC‘simultaneously at the push of abutton’, which is quite the claim. It’salso got an in-built asset managerwith a version control system to makesure that all assets are checked outwhen working on them and to ensure

that assets remain frozen asmilestones approach.

Ve2 also features a robust physicssystem that includes ragdolls, inversekinematics, surface friction, hingeconstraints and object buoyancy. Anew lighting system also means thatplacement, colour and intensity oflights can be quickly prototyped inthe editor without the need to bakelightmaps, but ambient occlusionmaps can still be baked to improvereal-time performance.

Developer: Vicious Cycle SoftwarePlatforms: PC, Xbox 360, PS3 (VE2); PSP, PS2, Wii (VE)Browser support: NoCost: Available on requestPublished titles: Eat Lead: The Return of MattHazard (Vicious Cycle), Dead Head Fred (ViciousCycle), Hilton serious game (Virtual Heroes)Titles in development: Unannounced

VICIOUS ENGINE 2

Vicious Cycle’s Ve2 takes the company’s philosophies to the ‘current-gen’ arena, as shown here in the internal title EatLead: The Return of Matt Hazard. But is it too late?

CONTACT: 3005 Carrington Mill Blvd, Suite 500, Morrisville, NC 27560, United States Phone: 919-370-3000 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.viciousengine.com

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JUNE 2009 | 51

SOFTWARE | BUILD

PhyreEngine

VERSIONTHERAPYBy the time this issue reaches your hands,version 2.5 of PhyreEngine will most likelyhave made it out of the final stages oftesting. The team shows us what’s comingup in version 2.6: a new post-processingsystem for effects, more optimisations, and the ‘release’ version of its impressivefoliage system.

Following on from the team’s work onterrains in earlier versions, the foliagesystem allows artists to freely build trees inthe modelling software of their choice, theconstituent parts of which can then betagged in a special program (to delimit thetrunk, branches and leaves). The system will then dynamically LOD the trees, taking them from the full model toclumped leaves, and then eventually tobillboard clouds.

SCEE tries to release new four newversions of PhyreEngine a year, on a roughlythree-month basis. Ask them what’s beyond 2.6, however, and they’re a little bitmore vague.

“We’re hopefully looking to make abigger jump in numbering next time, sowe’re taking a step back and thinking aboutwhat we could do,” says Doig. “We had thisgraphics focus, but what people want issomething more encompassing; theyexpect more functionality. So we’re lookingat how to adopt other bits of tech that’llmake us more complete as a game engine.”

One of the hot topics at thebeginning of this consolecycle was the thorny issue of

the PS3’s architecture. Developersacross the globe moaned that itsheterogenerous processing modelwas a bit of a bastard, especiallycompared with the Xbox 360.

Sony, in its defence, was quick toreact: making the newly-purchasedSN Systems’ profiling tools part of theSDK and dropping costs to helpdevelopers out. But, in actual fact,plans had already been put in placequite a while before then.

R&DIFFERENCEBack when the PS3 was in its earliestof days, Sony looked to bolster itsglobal research and developmentteams, previously largely focused inJapan. Staff at SCEE’s R&D facilitylooked at what they could add to theSDK to help developers, and theystarted a high-level, cross-platformgraphics engine, then called PSSG.

“The naming meant thatdevelopers had no idea what it wasabout,” says Paul Holman, SCEE’s VPof research and development. “Youcan see that we’re a technologyteam, not a marketing team. It wascompletely lost in the SDK.”

Until last year, that is. Feedbacktold the team that what they reallywanted was a broader, morecomprehensive engine. Hence,PhyreEngine was born – a cross-platform, completely open, totallyfree high-level game engine.

One of the things thatdifferentiates PhyreEngine is that not

only is it open source, but thelicensing terms are probably themost flexible around, explainsHolman: “Because we’re giving awaythe source code, people can dowhatever they like with it – in fact,the license agreement specificallysays that developers can rip partsout, use it, port it, and they don’teven have to credit us. It’s very open.”

So open, in fact, that aside fromthe PC and PS3 support that comesas part of the engine, the group hasno qualms with people porting it toother platforms. “If we makesomething that’s very focused on ourplatform, we won’t get many peopleusing it,” says Jason Doig, SCEE’smanager of R&D. “The broad profileof our developers is that they’redoing cross-platform work, andthey’re not going to adopttechnology that’s not flexible.

“Certainly, PhyreEngine is focusedon PS3, and there is somefunctionality in there that will onlywork on it. There are other bits thatwill work on other platforms, but youmight not get the performance youwould on the PS3. We’re exploitingthe SPUs in the way that they shouldbe used, so we’re bound to get thatslight disparity in performance.”

UNDERWIRE SUPPORTOne thing that Doig is keen to pointout is that, just because they’veprovided the full source code to theengine, doesn’t mean that they’rewashing their hands of it.

“It’s there to give peopleconfidence. We spend at least half of

our time giving direct support todevelopers, and that ranges fromanswering questions to helpingpeople fix things, optimising things –every game has differentrequirements, so it’s impossible for usto be optimal for every case.”

Similarly, because the code isshared, some teams have evencontributed back to the engine. “It’squite common, really,” says principalengineer Richard Forster. “Given thatthey’ve got the source, they can justgive us a patch and then we’ll dropthat in for the next release. Quite alot of teams are willing to keep thisfeedback going because they knowit’ll help future releases.”

Of course, by giving it away, withno need to sign any agreement oreven credit the group, there aregames out there using the enginethat they don’t know about. “They’dgone through the wholedevelopment process and got thegame out there, and they’d not hadto ask us a single question,” explainsDoig. “If they don’t have an issue withit, we don’t find out.”

That probably makes the team’sinternal estimate of number ofcustomers – they say they’recurrently supporting ‘between 20and 30 developers across all threeterritories’ – likely a gentleunderestimation. But havingpowered games by Codemasters,Doublesix, FluffyLogic,thatgamecompany and Sidhe, it’spretty clear that the team has madethe difference to developers that itwas looking to.

Left:Flower is one of PhyreEngine’ssuccess stories

Right:The new foliage technologyon display

KEYRELEASE

PRODUCT: PhyreEngineCOMPANY: SCEE R&DPRICE: FreeCONTACT: See DevNet for download

Who’d have thought that Sony would include a fully-featured, free engine in its SDK?Ed Fear sat down with the the SCEE R&D team to find out more…

52 | JUNE 2009

BUILD | AUDIO

Sound director Rob Bridgett sums upcan sum up the artistic direction for 50Cent: Blood on the Sand pretty

succinctly: “A hip-hop music video on PCP.”The player takes the role of 50 Cent,

shooting anything that moves, whilst trackingdown a diamond-encrusted skull received inpayment on completion of a world tour –sadly, subsequently stolen during an ambush.Of course.

“Curtis Jackson himself wanted somethingdifferent – no New York ghettos, butsomething more like an adventure comicbook, so preposterous it belongs in one of hismusic videos,” says the game’s sound directorRob Bridgett.

“It’s a frankly insane romp through anunbelievable story giving us plenty oflatitude for craziness. In the openingmoments of gameplay you run throughbombed out buildings with enemies burstingfrom doors; an entire street is ripped up froma mortar attack as you stand in it andeverything’s on fire. The scale of thedestruction is mad, but the real OTT factorcomes from the fact this is 50 Cent… in a warzone.

“The game never takes itself too seriously– there’s a lot of humour in the story and thetongue-in-cheek scenario. We even employ ataunt button feature so you can hear 50 Centscream something obscene at any point.Taunts are upgradable by unlocking newtaunt packs and can be worked into combos,so if you hit the taunt button when killingyou score a multiplier. As well as beinggratifying and hilarious, taunts also feed intothe gameplay mechanics and reinforce theoverall direction.”

With sound design for vehicles, helicoptersand tanks needing to be amped-up to a‘Hollywood on steroids’ perspective, therewere significant demands on the mixingtechnology in order to provide the correctaudio focus. “If you’re running and finding

cover without shooting, music is pushed tothe foreground,” Bridgett explains.

“When you start shooting or being shot at,we very subtly push forward the soundeffects by reducing the music level. For moretightly choreographed close-in interactiveone-on-one combat moments, we really putthe music upfront to create larger-than-lifedrama.

“All our mixing is dynamic, occurring atrun-time based entirely on the events thatare triggered in the game. One uniquefeature in 50 Cent is the ‘low health’ sound,which has a dedicated mixer snapshot withmost sound effects turned down slightly, low pass filtered, and with a little down-pitching of the ambience. As the player’s

health gets lower, we gradually blendtowards the low health snapshot, rather than just switch – it’s a much more non-linear approach.”

Having experienced the ravages of audiocrunch, Bridgett is now careful to promote anintelligent post-production model.

“We carried out one week of sound effectsreplacement in the mix studio at Radical –playing through the game, reviewing theaudio and substituting any sounds that couldbe improved whilst maintaining the exactsame memory footprint,” he says.

“We then spent a week mixing the game –getting the overall volume in line with anacceptable level at reference listening 79dB –

the recommended level for homeentertainment media – plus matching andtesting against relevant competitors’ games.Then it was a case of tuning our variousmixer snapshots. Some are generic andpopulate the entire game, like dialogueducking, and some are specific to uniqueevents and/or missions, making it importantto play through the entire title to find allthese moments and ensure they worked as planned. “

The post production model Bridgett hasadopted in recent years relies on goodcommunication for its success, involvinghimself from day one on the project to liasewith project managers and producers.

“Everyone agrees that audio is always lastand can be a last-minute scramble, so it’s atthis point that I roll out my ‘sound alpha’ and‘sound beta’ dates, which are essentially threeweek extensions for the audio team to do itsfinal quality control and polishing work. Thesound alpha date allows us to get all thecontent in and still react to eleventh-hourlevel design-driven changes, whilst thesound beta dates allow us to carry out ourweek of sound replacement and fortnight ofdedicated, no-distraction mixing in acalibrated environment.

“This doesn’t mean we don’t hitproduction alpha or beta – we make sure wehave the relevant content in to achieve bothgoals – we just know that we’ll work beyondthese dates. Making it official is sensible foreveryone. Throughout the project I over-communicate all this to project managementand the team. I’ve found this model to besuccessful in improving quality, and greatlyreducing the stress of finishing a game.”

50 Cent: Blood on the SandJohn Broomhall talks to sound director Rob Bridgett on Swordfish’s curious collaboration…

John Broomhall is an independent audio director,consultant and content [email protected]

Swordfish’s Rob Bridgett

The game nevertakes itself tooseriously – there’s a

lot of humour inthe story.

HEARDABOUT

DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER: Swordfish/THQPLATFORMS: PS3 and 360

THE AUDIO TEAM:

SWORDFISH STUDIOSSound director – Rob BridgettAudio lead – Mark WillottSenior audio coder – Justin CaldicottAudio coder – Andrew GreenVIVENDI LAVoice director – Eric WeissMusic licensing and supervision – Steve GoldmanRecording engineer – Mike Patterson RADICAL ENTERTAINMENTPost-production sound design – Cory HawthorneMusic & dialogue mastering and editing – Lin Gardiner

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Activision’s Raven Software recentlyshipped X-Men Origins: Wolverine forPC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in

tandem with the 20th Century Fox filmstarring Hugh Jackman. It’s the first UnrealEngine 3-powered game from the studio,although Singularity is coming out, also fromActivision, later this year.

“We had struggled to make Marvel UltimateAlliance next-gen, and then we sawSingularity and we were like, ‘Holy crap, that’sthe type of tech we want to use,’” says DanVondrak, project lead on X-Men Origins:Wolverine at Raven Software.

The new game puts players in control ofone of Marvel’s most popular characters,Wolverine, and offers an array of abilities andattacks ripped straight from the comics.

Vondrak said that during production, UE3allowed the artists to jump ahead of the restof the team. They were able to create hugejungles with sun rays coming through, leavesfloating on the wind, and water puddles.

“Working with Unreal allowed us to adddepth to the game. That’s why we were ableto create a Wolverine model with three layersof regeneration. We have the skeleton; themuscle and skin; plus the clothing on top ofthat. That’s all made possible using Unreal’smaterials and shaders. It’s really powerfulwhen we coupled it with our smart tech guys who put everything together to make it work.”

Vondrak said the designers utilised UnrealMatinee to create the bigger moments from

the game, some of which were original andothers were expanded from the movie.

Matinee allowed the team to create actionsequences featuring moving trucks and flyinghelicopters. While the final animations weredone by animators, Unreal aided them ingetting everything just right – like Wolverine’sperfect landing atop a whirring helicopter in mid-air.

“The Kismet tech is really powerful,” added Vondrak. “When you look at what Epic has been able to do with this technologywith the Gears of War games and then look at Wolverine, you can see the type of meatycombat that translates across genres.

“Kismet allowed us to throw all of thesehuge sequences into our game, which givesplayers a very cinematic experience. All ofthese set pieces – like when Wolverine is inthe air skydiving from helicopter to helicopter – were created by our designersusing Kismet.”

One example of Matinee, Kismet and AI allworking in tandem can be seen in the epicbattle between Wolverine and the 100-foot-tall Sentinel robot.

Players will pit the tiny, but powerful,Wolverine against this monster in a three-pronged battle that starts on the ground andthen takes to the air.

Vondrak said that all of the sequences,including what would have been cut scenes,were made playable thanks to Unreal.

“Unreal Engine 3 was just fantastic to workwith,” said Doug Smith, senior technical artist

on Wolverine at Raven. “One of thechallenges with Wolverine is that we wantedto make a game that’s true to Wolverinewithout spending a ton of time building upour tech. The Unreal Engine was a greatstepping stone to make that happen quickly,”Smith remarked.

“It was a great way to actually givesomething to artists and designers that was mature and fully flushed out. We knew we could make a good-looking game ifwe worked it right, and I loved working with Unreal.”

Thanks to Raven Software for speaking withfreelance reporter John Gaudiosi for this story,which will be posted in full atwww.unrealtechnology.com

RAVEN SOFTWARE SHARPENS WOLVERINE’SCLAWS WITH UNREAL ENGINE 3

upcoming epicattended events:GameHorizon Conference Newcastle, EnglandJune 23-24, 2009

Develop ConferenceBrighton, EnglandJuly 14-16, 2009

SIGGRAPH New Orleans, LAAugust 4-6, 2009

Please email: [email protected] for appointments.

54 | JUNE 2009

BUILD

Raven’s X-Men Origins:Wolverine

Canadian-born Mark Rein is vice president and co-founderof Epic Games based in Cary, North Carolina. Epic’s UnrealEngine 3 won Game Developer’s Best Engine Front LineAward for three consecutive years, and it was inducted intothe Hall of Fame this year. Epic’s internally developed titlesinclude the Gears of War and Unreal Tournament series

EPICDIARIES

Other companies speaking at the Develop Conference include:Acclaim • Ariadne Capital • Autodesk • Bigpoint • Bizarre Creations • Blitz Games • Chillingo • Climax • comScore • Creative Assembly • comScore • Crytek • Denki• Disney Black Rock Studios • doublesix • Eutechnyx • Fishlabs • FluffyLogic • Glu Mobile • Google • Guerrilla Games • Gusto Games • Hansoft • ICO Partners •Kerb • Lightning Fish Games • Lionhead • Media Molecule • Matmi • Mythic/EA • MySpace • Nokia • Mediatonic • Microsoft • NanaOn-Sha • ngmoco • Playfish •Playora • Pocket Gamer • Rare • Realtime Worlds • Relentless • Rockstar North • SGXEngine • Team 17 • thatgamecompany • The Mustard Corporation • Sheridans• Silicon Knights • Sidelines • Sony Computer Entertainment • Splitscreen Studios • Tag Games • Traveller's Tales • Ubisoft • Universal Music • Zoe Mode

14 JULY 2009

evolve

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Resetting the Game.David Perry, Creative Director of Acclaim Games

KEYNOTE

The Long Tail and Games: How DigitalDistribution Changes Everything. Maybe.David Edery, Independent Consultant

KEYNOTE

Moving Games to a New Beat: TheDevelopment of Nokia's Dance Fabulous.Mark Ollila, Director of Technology & Strategyand Head, Nokia

So make sure you stay ahead of the game this year - come to Develop in Brighton and Evolve

Evolve is a new one-day event which will open the DevelopConference on Tuesday 14 July, and a new track within the conference onWednesday 15 July.

Evolve will focus on how to develop games for new platforms includingmobile, iPhone and XBLA, new technologies and new markets like social andcasual gaming. It will help game developers tackle the issues arising fromemerging platforms and digital marketplaces, connected gaming, user-generated content and cross-over between games and Internet services.

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MOBILE.DEVELOPMAG.COM58 | JUNE 2009

Studio NewsThis month: Lightning Fish, Rare and nDreams

Banbury-based independent developer Lightning Fish Games has bolstered itsheadcount with three new recruits as it gears up for the release of its debut product.

First up is Laurence Alexander (pictured left) who joins the company as a designer.Previously of Frontier Developments and Traveller’s Tales, he’ll be working on the design ofNewU: Fitness First Personal Trainer.

Next up is Alan Kemp (pictured centre), former chief technology officer at StainlessGames, who joins Lightning Fish as a senior programmer.

The final recruit is Ben Adams, former assistant producer on Buzz at Relentless Software.Ben will be overseeing production, localisation and QA for NewU.

“We see Alan as key in our expansion plans. He is a valuable addition to the team withhis considerable experience on Xbox 360 and PS3 on titles such as Magic the Gathering,Red Baron Arcade, Asteroids, Battlezone, Warlords and Tempest,” said Simon Prytherch, CEOof Lightning Fish.

“Meanwhile, Ben’s experience on a family-oriented game such as Buzz will be invaluablefor our games.”www.lightningfishgames.com

Rare has appointed Shintaro Kanaoya into anewly-created role as head of business strategyand development.

Kanaoya, who was most recently seniormanager of MMOs and free-to-play at EA, willbe responsible for ‘driving Rare’s franchiseplanning’ and ‘maximising the potential ofRare’s IP’.

Kanaoya started in the industry as ajournalist on The Games Machine and Sega Pro,before joining Bullfrog as a designer. He hasalso worked as a producer at EA Square Japanand on the Harry Potter franchise at EA UK.www.rareware.com

studios

Denki www.denki.co.uk

Blitz Games Studios 01926 880000 www.BlitzGames.com

nDreams continues its expansion drive with four new members of staff.Mike Souto joins as senior producer from Eidos, having spent over ten years in the

industry working on titles such as TimeSplitters 2, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and theCommandos series. Andy Gibson joins as Lead Artist having worked at Gusto, Core andRevolution on projects such as Tomb Raider, A Bugs Life and In Cold Blood.

Peter Nicholson joins as an artist, having previously worked at Lionhead and EA. Finally,Babu Madhikarmi joins as a programmer having worked at Sprite Interactive and GluMobile on over 15 games.

“We’re delighted to welcome on board four talented new team members,” said PatrickO’Luanaigh, nDreams CEO. “Between them, they have almost 40 years experience in thegames industry and demonstrate just how far nDreams has come.”www.ndreams.co.uk

WWW.DEVELOPMAG.COM JUNE 2009 | 59

studiosnDreams +44 (0) 1252 375754 www.ndreams.com

Razorback Developments [email protected] www.razorback.co.uk Real Time Worlds 01382 202821 www.realtimeworlds.com

Lightning Fish +44(0) 1295 817 666 www.lightningfishgames.com

Strawdog Studios 01332 258862 www.strawdogstudios.co.uk


tools

Trinigy is bolstering its own Vision Engine by adding Pixelux’s Digital Molecular Matter(DMM) – the same physics technology found in LucasArts’ 2008 release Star Wars: TheForce Unleashed.

Developed by Pixelux, DMM simulates the physics of objects in relation to theirmaterial properties, as well as governing the deformation and breaking points of thosematerials. The tech’s most famous appearance so far was in the LucasArts game, whereit was touted as a key feature.

Trinigy’s Vision Engine SDK will now include a DMM plug-in where users canmanage deformable and breakable materials.

Dag Frommhold, managing partner at Trinigy, said that DMM is an “amazing piece oftechnology,” adding that Trinigy and Pixelux are working on multiple projects together.

Raphaël Arrigoni, cirector EMEA at Pixelux, returned the compliment by stating that“Vision Engine’s real-time editing capabilities and extensibility are perfectly suited forempowering developers to drive next generation physics development.”www.trinigy.net

Tools News

Digital Molecular Matter integrated intoVision Engine

Stainless Games [email protected] www.stainlessgames.com

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


tools

SpotlightTool

SPEEDTREE 5.0Area of expertise: VegetationHaving managed to grow a new nichein the games middleware market withSpeedTree, you might think that it’d betempting for IDV to rest on its laurels.Not so – the latest version, debuted atGDC this March, is a complete re-engineering of the foliage tech.

The new SpeedTree Modeler gives afar higher degree of control to artistswhen building trees, including theability to set force parameters to guidebranch shape and grow models aroundrocks and other imported models.

Meanwhile, the engine can now beintegrated to various degrees – either afull integration into your game engine,a partial integration, or just simpleexport of models to geometry data.The tech now contains physics data to

interact with your engine’s physicssystem, and has built-in support forNvidia’s PhysX APEX Vegetation Model.

Similarly upgraded is SpeedTree’slevel of detail system, which nowmanages to aggressively simplifygeometry while still eliminating anypop-in during transitions.

CONTACT:Interactive Data Visualization5446 Sunset Boulevard, Suite 201Lexington, South Carolina 29072, USA

Phone: 803.356.1999Fax: 803.356.2129Web: www.speedtree.com

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

bluegfx 01483 467200 www.bluegfx.com


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

Brothers Jorge and Guillermo Badolato – known as Badolatomusic – have provided themajority of the music to Midway Newcastle and Tigon Studio’s blockbuster Wheelman.

The pair created half of the multi-layered interactive in-game soundtrack and scoredmost of the title’s cutscenes, as well as creating music for promotional trailers.

The brothers describe the game’s soundtrack as ‘a high-energy and frenetic actionscore’ featuring a mixture of powerful orchestral textures, techno-electronica,percussion, Spanish flamenco and live electronic guitars.

“Working with Badolatomusic was a complete joy,” said Craig Beattie, audio directorof Wheelman.

“They delivered 50 per cent of the in-game musical scores for Wheelman and most ofthe cutscene music. Their music fitted perfectly with the tense missions and atmosphereof the game. When things got tight and changes to cutscenes where needed they re-scored the music to fit, and they delivered time and time again without one complaint.”

Jorge and Guillermo added: “It’s been a honour for us to work with Midway on thistitle, there has been an excellent understanding with Craig Beattie right from the start.”www.badolatomusic.com

Badolatomusic provides scorefor Wheelman

New signs of life from the Alan Wake project have emerged with developer Remedyannouncing its partnership with motion-capture group Imagination Studios.

Uppsala, Sweden-based Imagination Studios – formerly known as Northern LightStudios – will supply the Finnish developer with motion-capture and animations toassist in the game’s elongated production. The firm has previously worked togetherwith EA DICE, Starbreeze, IO Interactive, and others.

Lasse Seppänen, executive producer at Remedy Entertainment said: “It is with greatpleasure that we can recommend Imagination Studios. Remedy has been extremelypleased with their co-operation and devotion in bringing the characters of Alan Waketo life. Aside from this, the team at Imagination Studios have been a real pleasure towork with, flexible and dedicated to solving problems.”www.imaginationstudios.com

Imagination Studios breathesnew life into Alan Wake

Air Studios 0207 7940660 www.airstudios.com


servicesAir Edel +4 (0) 207 486 6466 www.air-edel.co.uk

High Score Productions +44 (0) 1295 738 337 www.high-score.co.uk

amBX UK Ltd www.ambx.com


services

Testronic Labs +44 (0) 1753 653 722 www.testronic labs.com

Partnertrans +44 (0) 1753 247 731 www.partnertrans.comIan Livingstone 01483 421 491 www.ianlivingstone.net

Specialist Games ServicesLocalisation

» Global network of games specialised linguists » Translators to cover all genres of games

» All languages covered» In game, scripts, paper parts and marketing translations

Quality Assurance» All platforms (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, PC and Mobile)

» Localisation QA» Compliance checks for TRC, TCR and LOT approval

» Functionality QA

Audio» Voice overs across all languages

» Full casting service» Pre and post production including lip synching

» Highly experienced voice directors and engineers

Universally SpeakingPriory Chambers, Priory Lane, St Neots, Cambs., PE19 2BH, UK

Tel: +44 (0)1480 210621 [email protected] www.usspeaking.com

Universally Speaking 01480 210621 www.usspeaking.com

WWW.DEVELOPMAG.COM

courses

JUNE 2009 | 65

Industry executives will merge with academia during the upcoming Game EducationSummit (GES) in June, organiser Game Path has announced.

GES will take place from June 16-17 at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania. Game Path says the event is the only one of its kind, and is positioned toallow industry executives and course lecturers to consult on how to best educate thenext generation of game designers.

Seven areas of discussion are offered, featuring sessions on areas such as narrativewriting, development tools for traditional games, ‘serious’ applications of gameplay, aswell as the International Game Developer’s Association’s recommended curriculum.

“Across the country, universities are investing heavily to build curriculum to teachthe game designers of tomorrow,” said GES director Mark Chuberka.

“But game instruction is still a relatively new field. This conference brings instructorstogether with industry professionals to talk about what skills students need and tohear the top instructors discuss teaching methods and cutting edge theory.”www.gameeducationsummit.com

New game education summit forPittsburgh

TRAINING NEWS

Tiga is set to become the awarding andexamination body for Train2Game’sdistance-learning courses.

The two current Train2Game courses –covering the areas of programming andgame design – are intended to providenecessary training for those who want toenter the games industry specifically if theyhave no related university qualifications.

Tiga will now contribute to thedevelopment of the courses, while some ofthe body’s members have the opportunityto give guest lectures to students. Tiga willbe giving input on a range of examinationcontent, and will also award a Tiga-accredited diploma to those individuals who successfully pass the exams.

“The T2G courses are designed by the industry for the industry and are relevant tocurrent industry needs,” said Tiga CEO Richard Wilson. “Individuals who take thequalifications and pass the exams should be fit to work in a developers’ studio.”

The courses are open to all, and allow students to study in their own time fromhome. A third T2G course, covering the field of art design, will arrive by March 2010.www.train2game.com

Tiga to partner in Train2Game UKdistance-learning coruses

In other Tiga news, the organisation has warned the government against slashingfunding for higher education

In a letter from John Denham, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities andSkills, establishments of further education have been informed that they may have toprepare to make spending reductions of £300 million next year.

“The UK video games industry needs well educated and qualified people in order tocompete effectively,” said Tiga CEO Richard Wilson. “Universities supply an importantpart of the industry’s workforce. Many developers recruit graduates in disciplinesincluding mathematics, computer science and video games. On average, 60 per centof game developers’ staff are qualified to degree level or the vocational equivalent; insome studios over 80 per cent are qualified to this level.”www.tiga.org

Tiga warns Government againstuniversity cuts

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

Develop Magazine 01992 535 647 www.developmag.com

GREAT ADVERTISINGOPPORTUNITIES

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CODA

66 | JUNE 2009 DEVELOPMAG.COM

I LOVE… SUPER MARIO 64by Mario Aguera,

Producer, Thief 4, Eidos Montreal

My favourite game of all time has to be Super Mario 64.It broke the mould in regards to freedom and how youcould explore a world. It was masterfully designedand, importantly, it was pure fun.

What’s terrible is that, though I love playing games, because it’smy job I end up dissecting and analysing them. With Super Mario64, it was just pure enjoyment. I wasn’t analysing anything, I justcompletely accepted it.

It was a tall order to take the previous Super Mario 64 games andmove that into the third dimension; this team had succeeded thatwonderfully. It had brilliant, simplistic puzzle designs, a greatcamera system, and a beautiful, inoffensive world,which you could have so much fun exploring andexperimenting with.

It is a master class in game design.

MY FA OURI TE GAMENotable developers tell us which game warmed their heart, caught their eye, and ate up their free time…

Develop Conference –Show IssueEvent: Develop ConferenceCopy Deadline: June 18th

Develop Awards round-upEvent: Edinburgh InteractiveFestival, GDC EuropeRegional Focus: ScotlandCopy Deadline: July 23rd

Outsourcing SpecialRegional Focus: AsiaCopy Deadline: August 14th

The Future of Game AudioCopy Deadline: September 17th

100th Issue Special EditionEvent: Montreal Game SummitRegional Focus: CanadaCopy Deadline: October 13th

Special Focus: Artificial IntelligenceRegional Focus: LondonCopy Deadline: November 11th

develop FORWARD PLANNER

EDITORIAL enquiries should go through to

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Develop - Issue 95 - June 2009