|
 Postcard from the GDC 2004: Handheld Gaming Marches Forward [03.26.04] A number of companies were showing off hardware and software solutions for 3D gaming on handhelds. Here's a round-up of the portable 3D gaming hardware that was on display at the GDC, and where the tools and technologies are taking us.
Cross-Platform User Interface Development [03.26.04] Rob Caminos and Tim Stellmach take you on a tour of the pitfalls of designing a cross-platform game UI--as in one that will work on both computer screens and the severe limits imposed by the main console displays--the home television set.
Building Big Licensed Games with Big Teams [03.26.04] Don Daglow dishes the dirt on the key aspects of creating major licensed games--dealing with the large teams and the complex licensor requirements that go hand-in-hand with such deals.
 Postcard from the GDC 2004: The G.A.N.G. Awards [03.26.04] The Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) held its annual awards ceremony at the Game Developers Conference, bestowing over 30 awards to musicians that work in the industry. If ever an awards show rocked--literally--it was this one.
Postcard from GDC 2004: The Experimental Gameplay Workshop [03.26.04] The Experimental Gameplay Workshop explored this week the fringes of game development. Demonstrations of various experimental game techniques ranged from the guerilla tactics of the Indie Game Jam to the innovative thinking behind publicly available titles, and encouraged the audience to think about new ways in which gameplay can be designed.
Postcard from GDC 2004: The Power of Collectibles: Leveraging Your Player's Inner Obsessive-Compulsive [03.26.04] Damion Schubert of Wolfbane Studios led a discussion on Friday morning about the benefits and challenges of developing systems of collectibles in console and online games.
 GDC 2004: Question Man: What was the Most Interesting Product on the Expo Floor at the GDC? [03.26.04] This time we asked GDC attendees what was the most interesting product they saw on the saw on the Expo floor. Read on for their replies.
GDC 2004 Visual Arts Keynote: The History of Animation [03.26.04] Phil Tippett, founder of Tippett Studio, presented a detailed history of animation from early human cultures to special effects sequences from upcoming films. Tippett integrated his study of pioneering stop-motion animators, and included samples of his work on the Star Wars trilogy, Dragonslayer, Robocop, Jurassic Park, and Starship Troopers in a video presentation.
Postcard from GDC 2004: Sound Design Methodology of Medal of Honor [03.26.04] On Friday afternoon, Eric Kraber, senior audio director of EA Los Angeles, shared his approach in designing the audio for the Medal of Honor series.
Postcard from GDC 2004: Kodak's Protype Stereoscopic Display [03.26.04] Kodak, best known for producing film, cameras, and the PhotoCD and Picture CD image formats, has been previewing a lab-built prototype of an auto-stereoscopic display. Quite different from any other stereo display, this one could cause broader adoption of stereo entertainment content.
GDC 2004 Interview: Kevin O'Hara on Managing the Star Wars Galaxies Community [03.26.04]
Kevin O'Hara
Possessed with one of the more daunting jobs in the games industry, as Community Relations Manager for Star Wars Galaxies at Sony Online Entertainment, Kevin O'Hara is tasked with balancing the needs of many thousands of vocal prospective Jedi in a PC MMO title which, while extremely popular, has certainly seen its share of post-launch controversy. He talked to us about listening to the community, dealing with miscreants, and even picked some of his favorites from the current crop of upcoming MMO titles.
GDC 2004 Interview: Richard Marks on the Eye Toy, Cultural Differences, and Hardware Innovation [03.26.04] Richard Marks now manages the Special Projects group of Sony Computer Entertainment US R&D, and was previously an Avionics major at MIT before getting his PhD at Stanford in the Aerospace Robotics Lab. But he's most well-known as the creator of Sony's innovative Eye Toy USB camera technology, which received the Game Innovation Spotlight Award at the GDC Game Developer's Choice Awards. We tracked him down and quizzed him on the Eye Toy's genesis, Sony's attitude to R&D, and how important hardware saturation is to having a successful peripheral.
Postcard from GDC 2004: Triangulation: A Schizophrenic Approach to Game Design [03.26.04] Will Wright, creator of SimCity and The Sims, shed some light on his design methodologies at GDC's design track.
Postcard from GDC 2004: The Philosophical Roots of Computer Game Design [03.26.04] Ernest Adams, freelance game designer and popular game industry commentator, spoke with great humor on Friday afternoon about philosophy, literature, and the need for new heroes in the video game world.
Postcard from GDC 2004: Why We Play Games: The Four Keys to Player Experience [03.26.04] At "Why We Play Games: The Four Keys to Player Experience," on Friday afternoon, Nicole Lazzaro of XEODesign spoke about emotion in gaming from a research-oriented perspective. Specifically, she focused on gameplay-driven emotional experiences, and delineated four types of emotion that players derive from their games.
Postcard From GDC 2004: The Fourth Annual Game Developers Choice Awards [03.25.04] A near-capacity crowd filled the San Jose Civic Auditorium last night. Developers from all over the world gathered to celebrate the best of the best in game design, graphics, audio, writing, programming, and more. The Fourth Annual Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony, presented by the IGDA and sponsored by Nvidia, the CMP Game Group, G4, and the Future Games network, held few surprises and some hilarious animated moments.
UV Mapping Tips And Tricks [03.25.04] In this paper, Renier Johannes Banninga attempts to counteract the insanity of UV mapping by sharing every trick and technique he knows for making the process of texture mapping easier.
The Full Spectrum Warrior Camera System [03.25.04] Full Spectrum Warrior, more attention than is typical was given to the camera system, imbibing it with a unique autolook system for peeking around corners, among other things. John Giors details the development process, including his debugging techniques and design decisions.
GDC 2004 Keynote: Encouraging Innovation in Game Development [03.25.04] Andy House, Executive Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment America, spoke this morning about the international future of the Playstation brand. Calling on innovation as the key to evolution, he explored Sony's plans for extending the life cycle of the Playstation 2, and talked about Sony's upcoming Playstation Portable.
Postcard from GDC 2004: A Peek Behind the Shoji: Japan's Videogame Market Today [03.25.04] Ryoichi Hasegawa, Associate Producer at Sony Computer Entertainment, spoke Thursday morning about the state of the Japanese videogame industry, and presented some considerations for porting Western games to the Japanese market.
 Postcard From GDC 2004: The Sixth Annual Independent Games Festival [03.25.04] At the sixth annual IGF awards ceremony, $40,000 in cash was given out to indie teams from around the world. The big winners of the evening, however, were Savage: The Battle For Newerth and Oasis, which took home the Seumas McNally Grand Prize.
Postcard from GDC 2004: Production Keynote: Production Through Collaboration [03.25.04] David Perry, president and founder of Shiny Entertainment, discussed the role, qualifications, and importance of the producer, informed by his experience delivering Enter the Matrix.
 Interview from GDC 2004: Jason Busby On Graphical Training, VTMs, Giving It Away For Free [03.25.04] 3DBuzz's founder Jason Busby has swiftly built up a dedicated following of student artists, and, increasingly, the ear of game and tool developers who want to use his expertise to help game mod creators (themselves potential games industry employees.) Simon Carless goes one-on-one with him to get his story.
Postcard from GDC 2004: Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History [03.25.04] On Thursday evening, a group of women in the game industry came together to participate in a roundtable discussion entitled Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History, hosted by Sheri Pocilujko, Incredible Technologies; Clarinda Merripen, Cyberlore; and Ellen Beeman, Monolith. The informal setting allows attendees to voice their concerns, ranging from the need for mentoring to the exaggerated anatomy of Lara Croft.
Postcard from the GDC 2004: Rich Vogel On Static vs. Dynamic Content In MMOGs [03.25.04] Rich Vogel, producer of Meridian 59, Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, shares his thoughts about the balance between static and dynamic content in MMOGs.
 GDC 2004 Interview: Daniel James on Puzzle Pirates, Online Community Management, Cutlass Waving [03.25.04] As co-founder of Three Rings, the San Francisco-based company behind the cult Java-based 'massively multiplayer puzzlegame' Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates Daniel James is trying to take a very different path to success in the MMO market after years working on big-budget, eventually shelved MMO adaptions of The Lord Of The Rings. We chatted to him about his road to creating one of the smallest but most intriguing massively multiplayer games around.
GDC 2004 Visual Arts Keynote: Workflow Convergence: How Motion Picture Pipelines Are Merging With Game Development [03.25.04] In his Visual Arts Keynote, John "DJ" DesJardin, Visual Effects Supervisor for the Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions movies, took a behind-the-scenes look at the concurrent visual arts production of the two movies in coordination with the production of Shiny's Enter the Matrix game.
 Postcard from the GDC 2004: John Carmack's Keynote [03.25.04] John Carmack presented the programming keynote at the GDC 2004: an hour-long, content-packed, Powerpoint-free presentation. The game programming icon expounded on the future of game graphics and game hardware platforms.
Postcard from the GDC 2004: Casual Games Summit [03.24.04] The Casual Game Summit at GDC 2004 kicked off with a panel discussion emcompassing a brief history, different genres, their evolution, tips, tricks, advice, and more.
Learning by Design: Games as Learning Machines [03.24.04] James Paul Gee explores the ramifications of games that are hard to learn--how taking a few queues from cognitive scientists can improve gameplay and make the learning curve more enjoyable--as well as making games better educational tools.
Growing a Dedicated Tools Programming Team: From Baldur's Gate to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic [03.24.04] Don Moar discusses the techniques he has used to cultivate and keep quality programming teams. He explains why the importance of creating tools that reduce development time, ensuring programmers are given challenges and clear paths for growth, and underscores the importance of communication.
Postcard from GDC 2004: Behavioral Game Design [03.24.04] Today at GDC, John Hopson from Microsoft Test Labs delivered a talk on Behavioral Game Design covering the psychological foundations of games. The talk explored classic game design constructs and their impact on player satisfaction, frustration, game quitting, etc.
 Postcard from GDC 2004: Acting for Animators [03.24.04] Ed Hooks, a professional acting teacher known for his work with CG animators, spoke this morning about the ways in which character animation in games can be informed by the lessons of traditional stage acting.
Postcard from GDC 2004: Entering the Next Console Age [03.24.04] On Wednesday, March 24, 2004, John Schappert, general manager of Electronic Arts (www.ea.com), shared his insights on the future of the console market in his GDC 2004 keynote address, entitled Console Transition: Will You Be Ready?
 Postcard from GDC 2004: Building Gollum [03.24.04] GDC attendees gathered during the lunch hour today to listen to Bay Raitt, Creature Facial Lead at Weta Digital, speak about his 4+ years as mastermind of Gollum's facial system in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Using dozens of proprietary images and video clips, Raitt explained to the audience how he was able to develop the extraordinarily complex facial system behind the show-stealing CG character.
 GDC 2004 Interview: Chris Bateman on Game Writing and the Future of Outsourced Game Design [03.24.04] Simon Carless talks to International Hobo founder Chris Bateman about how the videogame script writer is treated, and whether outsourcing of the design portions of a game can really work.
GDC 2004 Game Design Keynote: The Making of The Return of the King [03.24.04] At this year's Game Design keynote, Neil Young, EA vice president and production executive on the Lord of the Rings games, talked about the widespread success of The Return of the King and discussed the critical difference between gameplay and entertainment.
Postcard from GDC 2004: 14 Ways of Drawing Players in with an Opening Cinematic [03.24.04] David Freeman, author of "Creating Emotion on Games" and popular game industry writing consultant, spoke on Wednesday afternoon about fourteen techniques that game designers can use to draw players into a game through the use of an opening cinematic.
 GDC 2004: Question Man: What Game Studio Do You Respect the Most and Why? [03.24.04] Quang Hong trolls the Game Developers Conference floor to find out which game studios GDC Attendees respect the most.
Postcard from the GDC 2004: Masahiro Sakurai on Risk and Reward [03.24.04] Using martial-arts combat games as a central example, Masahiro Sakurai (the designer of the classic Kirby's Dreamland) examined the risk and reward that designers imbue into today's games.
 Postcard from GDC 2004: J Allard introduces Microsoft's XNA [03.24.04] In the General Interest Keynote at the GDC, J Allard (Corporate Vice President, Xbox Platform, Microsoft) introduced one of this year's GDC surprises: Microsoft's XNA.
 GDC 2004 Interview: Gonzalo Frasca Discusses Academia and Political Gaming [03.24.04] Formerly a web-based game creator for Cartoon Network, and latterly a videogame researcher at the Center for Computer Games Research at the IT University in Copenhagen, and one of the people behind Howard Dean's official campaign game, Gonzalo Frasca is a rare creature - a gaming academic who also knows something about creating games. Simon Carless talks to him about whether academics analyzing gaming will ever be able to teach the game community a thing or two.
|
|
|
|
|
