gamedeveloper200609-dl.pdf

>> PRODUCT REVIEWS SIGGRAPH ROUNDUP * SEAPINE’S TESTTRACK PRO 7.5

SEPTEMBER 2006

THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE

>> SUDA51 STYLE

KILLER 7 DEVELOPER

SPITS HEROIC DESIGNS

>> MOBILE POSTMORTEM

GAMEVIL’S NOM

TURNS HEADS, PHONES

>> STATE OF THE INDUSTRY

WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH

RETAIL PC GAMES?

TETRIS

CREATOR

ALEXEY

PAJITNOV

INTERVIEW:

Havok Behavior

SDK and tool.

1. Export character

assets

2. Load in Tool

3. Bring

character

to life

4. Put in

your game

Saved: Countless hours.

Sneak out early.

Unlimited character

development possibilities.

Stay Ahead of the Game! TM

[

CONTENTS

]

SEPTEMBER 2006

VOLUME 13, NUMBER 8

FEATURES

10 EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW:

ALEXEY PAJITNOV, MASTER OF SHAPES

As the man behind T ETRIS , Alexey Pajitnov

could be considered the father of popular

casual games. We spoke with him about his

past, his current projects, and even his

thoughts on the industry, as one of the

creators that helped to shape it.

By Brandon Sheffield

19 STATE OF THE INDUSTRY:

PC GAMES

The retail PC game industry has been

undergoing an overhaul, with the advent of

digital downloads, online-enabled consoles,

and a flagging presence on store shelves.

Paul Hyman takes a look at the current shape

of the retail market for PC games and outlines

where it may be going in the near future.

By Paul Hyman

MOBILE POSTMORTEM

31 51 WAYS TO DIE: AN INTERVIEW WITH

GOICHI SUDA

K ILLER 7 creator Goichi Suda, or Suda51, is a

champion of original work in games and is

slowly gaining notoriety with Western

audiences. This exclusive interview covers

everything from Suda’s funeral home origins

to concerns about violent games from the

perspective of a person who makes them.

By Brandon Sheffield

25 GAMEVIL’S NOM

In a market flooded with console game ports and awkward-to-control

high concepts, Gamevil took the risk of making an original, one-button,

mobile phone-specific game—N OM . Lead designer Bong Koo Shin tells us

how he went about it, from design to implementation, leading the game

to million-selling status in its native South Korea.

By Bong Koo Shin

DEPARTMENTS

COLUMNS

2 GAME PLAN By Simon Carless

E3 Evo Emoting

36 BUSINESS LEVEL By Paul Sterngold and Gunjan Bagla

[ BUSINESS ]

Dashboard Confessional

4 HEADS UP DISPLAY

Mobile talks back, Mova’s Contour, CGW closes, and more.

37 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore

[ ART ]

The Scale’s the Limit

7 SKUNK WORKS By Jill Duffy and Justin Lloyd

Siggraph Roundup and Seapine’s Test Track Pro 7.5

41 THE INNER PRODUCT By Mick West

[ PROGRAMMING ]

Closer to Evolving

56 A THOUSAND WORDS

Koei’s G ITAROO M AN L IVES !

45 GAME SHUI By Noah Falstein

[ DESIGN ]

Invisible Monsters

46 AURAL FIXATION By guest columnist Jake Kaufman

[ SOUND ]

Mo Mobile, Mo Problems

COVER ART: JOSH COCHRAN

WWW.GDMAG.COM

GAME PLAN

]

www.gdmag.com

CMP Media, 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94107 t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090

E3 EVO

EMOTING

EDITORIAL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Simon Carless scarless@gdmag.com

MANAGING EDITOR

Jill Duffy jduffy@gdmag.com

FEATURES EDITOR

Brandon Sheffield bsheffield@gdmag.com

ART DIRECTOR

Cliff Scorso cscorso@gdmag.com

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Jesse Harlin jharlin@gdmag.com

Noah Falstein nfalstein@gdmag.com

Steve Theodore stheodore@gdmag.com

Mick West mwest@gdmag.com

ADVISORY BOARD

Hal Barwood Designer-at-Large

Ellen Guon Beeman Microsoft

Andy Gavin Naughty Dog

Joby Otero Luxoflux

ADVERTISING SALES

DIRECTOR OF SALES

Steve McGill e : smcgill@cmp.com t: 415.947.6217

GLOBAL SALES MANAGER, RECRUITMENT & EDUCATION

Aaron Murawski e : amurawski@cmp.com t: 415.947.6227

SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER, EAST COAST, EUROPE & EASTERN CANADA

Ayrien Machiran e : amachiran@cmp.com t: 415.947.6224

ACCOUNT MANAGER, NO. CALIF., NORTHWEST, ASIA & WESTERN CANADA

Nick Geist e : ngeist@cmp.com t: 415.947.6223

ACCOUNT MANAGER, SO. CALIF., SOUTH WEST, CONTRACTORS, &

MARKETPLACE

Jasmin Davé e : jdave@cmp.com t: 415.947.6226

ADVERTISING PRODUCTION

ADVERTISING PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Kevin Chanel

REPRINTS Julie Rapp e : jarapp@cmp.com t: 510.834.4752

CMP GAME GROUP

VP, GROUP PUBLISHER APPLIED TECHNOLOGIES Philip Chapnick

VP, STRATEGIC MARKETING Michele Maguire

GROUP DIRECTOR Valerie Pippin

DIRECTOR OF MARKETING Ta r a C . G i b b

CONFERENCE DIRECTOR, GDC Jamil Moledina

SENIOR CONFERENCE MANAGER, GDC Meggan Scavio

EXECUTIVE WEB PRODUCER Peter Leahy

EDITOR-IN-CHIE F, GAMASUTRA.COM Simon Carless

ASSISTANT EDITOR , GAMASUTRA.COM Frank Cifaldi

CIRCULATION

CIRCULATION ASSISTANT MANAGER Jessica Ward e: jward@cmp.com

CIRCULATION COORDINATOR Miguel Mendiolaza e : mmendiolaza@cmp.com

CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Michael Campbell e : mcampbell@cmp.com

CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Andrea Abidor e : aabidor@cmp.com

SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND ADDRESS CHANGES

t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606 e : gamedeveloper@halldata.com

INTERNATIONAL LICENSING INFORMATION

Mario Salinas t: 650.513.4234 f: 650.513.4482 e : msalinas@cmp.com

CMP TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT

PRESIDENT AND CEO Steve Weitzner

EXECUTIVE VP AND CFO Adam Marder

SENIOR VP, AUDIENCE MARKETING & DEVELOPMENT Bill Amstutz

SENIOR VP, CMP INTEGRATED MARKETING SOLUTIONS Joseph Braue

SENIOR VP AND GENERAL COUNSEL Sandra Grayson

SENIOR VP, CORPORATE MARKETING Lisa Johnson

SENIOR VP, CORPORATE SALES Anne Marie Miller

SENIOR VP, MANUFACTURING Marie Myers

SENIOR VP, COMMUNICATIONS Alexandra Raine

VP, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Michael Zane

PRESIDENT, CHANNEL GROUP Robert Faletra

PRESIDENT, CMP ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA To ny Ke efe

PRESIDENT, BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY GROUP Jeff Patterson

SENIOR VP, GROUP DIRECTOR, ELECTRONICS & SOFTWARE GROUPS

Paul Miller

SENIOR VP, GROUP DIRECTOR, COMMUNICATIONS GROUP,

Stephen Saunders

THERE HAVE ALREADY BEEN APPROXIMATELY A

zillion editorials on “the demise of E3,” or some

such variant. For some of us, E3 has become the

elephant in the room—it would be ridiculous not

to talk about it, but at the same time we’re pretty

fed up with everyone talking about it.

The facts are fairly simple. Because many of

the major U.S. publishers already reach key

retailers and media with gamer days and other

regular showings throughout the year, they

simply don’t see the need to spend millions of

extra dollars putting on a sensurround giga-

experience every May. (See Heads Up Display,

page 5 for more details.)

So the publishers put their collective foot down,

and now E3 will be a 5,000-person event in July

without a show floor for that same select group of

media and retailers—not GameStop clerks, rank-

and-file developers, nor anyone else who could

get past the increasingly stringent entry

regulations. Bye bye, status quo.

But let’s try to look around the tedious talking

head analysis. What are some of the less explored

items of practical interest to the game business

that will be affected by a changed E3?

smaller publishers and peripheral companies be

affected? Formerly, these are the companies

who exhibited in (the more affordable) Kentia

Hall and elsewhere, and who relied on word of

mouth and people walking past their booths to

generate buzz.

For one, some smaller U.S. publishers are

already talking about banding together for special

gamer days next year, in order to combine key

products and give incentive for journos and others

to make an effort to attend. Second, E3 itself will

still provide some ways for the smaller players to

be recognized, of course, but the foot traffic, key

for a lot of those companies, will be gone.

Has the eclecticism of Kentia Hall been lost

forever? Possibly.

Dave Pottinger Ensemble Studios

George Sanger Big Fat Inc.

Harvey Smith Midway

Paul Steed Microsoft

PLAYABLE NIRVANA NO MORE?

Finally, here’s the matter that concerns me the

most. A lot of rank-and-file developers made the

trip to E3, sometimes just for one day, to get a

comprehensive snapshot of the state of game

development. Perhaps they picked up some ideas

along the way, and they certainly scored some

hands-on time with dozens of playable titles

before their release.

I’m not saying that events like GDC don’t

provide a whole heap of developer knowledge and

a plethora of levels, or that Xbox Live or the

internet in general doesn’t provide downloadable

demos and trailers, but for a snapshot of the

game industry in terms of actual, playable

games, all splayed and conglomerated together, I

think E3 was one of the key events for the game

creation community.

Then again, E3 wasn’t meant to be for the

benefit of the developers or producers,

necessarily. And in related good news, developers

won’t have to crunch through E3 demo

development any more, though no doubt other

pre-release showcases will throw yet more

wrenches at producers who juggle schedules.

And who knows? Maybe another show will step

up and pick up some of the slack that’s undeniably

been left by E3’s drastic downscale. All we know is

that you have to embrace the elephant.

BETTER FOR GAMING FREEDOM?

Although the publisher-funded ESA has always

been known for putting on E3, it might be argued

that far more important is its work defending

video games against innumerable U.S. state and

prospective federal legislation—with some

significant success, since all state bills signed

into law to date have been injuncted against on

First Amendment grounds.

You can be sure, then, that when the ESA

decided not to run E3 at the same level, with

significant revenue loss, it asked for and received

additional member dues to help fight anti-game

legislation—Electronic Arts intimated as much in

a recent earnings call.

So perhaps removing some of the pressure of a

grand-scale E3 will help to concentrate the minds

and funding pockets of the ESA and publishers

alike on these vital legislation issues.

WHAT ABOUT THE LITTLE GUYS?

Clearly, the big publishers have no problem

attracting both retailers and publishers to their

open days, or booking appointments at the 2007

closed-door version of E3. But how will the

—Simon Carless

Game Developer

is BPA approved

SEPTEMBER 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER

WWW.CMPGAME.COM

[

Idea:

Assemble the ultimate team to create a John Woo sequel that you can play.

Realized:

The line between video game and ﬁ lm is ofﬁ cially blurred. When faced

with the challenge of creating a video game sequel worthy of John Woo’s

movie “Hard Boiled,” the team at Midway chose to use Autodesk ® 3ds Max ® ,

Autodesk Maya ® and Autodesk MotionBuilder™. Using this 3D arsenal,

artists are able to create graphically stunning characters, backgrounds

and animations with amazing production efﬁ ciency. Get the full story on

this next-generation masterpiece at autodesk.com/stranglehold

Stranglehold © 2006 Midway Amusement Games, LLC. All rights reserved. Stranglehold, MIDWAY, and the Midway logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Midway Amusement Games, LLC. Autodesk, 3ds Max,

Maya and MotionBuilder are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk re-

serves the right to alter product offerings and speciﬁ cations at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2006 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

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