gamedeveloper200702-dl.pdf

>> EDITORS PICK BEST OF GDC 2007

FEBRUARY 2007

THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE

>> BILL’S GIFT TO GAMES?

A PROGRAMMER’S VIEW

OF WINDOWS VISTA

>> THE SPECTOR OF EVOLUTION

DEUS EX CREATOR

PUSHES STORY DYNAMICS

>> VERTICAL SLICE OF LIFE

THE SCRUM-OLOGY OF

AGILE DEVELOPMENT

RESISTANCE:

FALL OF MAN

POSTMORTEM:

INSOMNIAC’S

[

CONTENTS

]

FEBRUARY 2007

VOLUME 14, NUMBER 2

FEATURES

13 GAME DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE

PREVIEW 2007

GDC is upon us once more, so your friendly

Game Developer an d Gamasutra.com editors

have put together a condensed list of events,

happenings, and sub-conferences, as well as

those GDC sessions we personally find

compelling. Also, we know where Will Wright

will be staying and will trade this information

for exclusive technical articles!

By Simon Carless, Jill Duffy, Brandon Sheffield,

and Frank Cifaldi

21 SCRUM RISING

Scrum is an agile development methodology

which can save your studio a substantial

amount of crunch time, headache, botched

plans, and disorganized employees—or so

says High Moon’s Clinton Keith. Scrum may

not be right for everyone, but after reading

this article, you should know if it’s right for

you and yours.

By Clinton Keith

POSTMORTEM

39 ALL FOR GAMES: AN INTERVIEW

WITH WARREN SPECTOR

As the creative mind behind D EUS E X and the

newer T HIEF games, Warren Spector is in a keen

position to talk about dynamic story and

gameplay. In this exclusive interview, the game

designer discusses the state of game writing,

before expounding on his dream game.

By Brandon Sheffield

28 RESISTANCE: FALL OF MAN

Insomniac is known more for its stylized character-based games than its

first-person shooters, but R ESISTANCE : F ALL OF M AN is in fact a return to the

company’s roots—the first game the studio ever made was an FPS.

Herein, project manager Marcus Smith shares with us the boons and

difficulties of creating an original IP on a brand new console at launch, as

well as why they want to set the next game in Tahiti.

By Marcus Smith

DEPARTMENTS

COLUMNS

2 GAME PLAN By Simon Carless

TV Emporium

43 THE INNER PRODUCT By Mick West

[ PROGRAMMING ]

Procedural Spooling

4 HEADS UP DISPLAY

Presidential candidates’ views on games, Penny Arcade’s

Child’s Play, and more.

47 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore

[ ART ]

Getting there from Here

51 GAME SHUI By Noah Falstein

[ DESIGN ]

7 SKUNK WORKS By Ben Board and Ron Fosner

Hansoft’s Hansoft 4.2, Microsoft Vista impressions, and product news.

Believing the Impossible

53 AURAL FIXATION By Jesse Harlin

[ SOUND ]

80 A THOUSAND WORDS

Quantic Dream’s H EAVY R AIN

Does it Sound Next-Gen?

54 BUSINESS LEVEL By Andrew E. Katz

[ BUSINESS ]

COVER ART: Insomniac Games

Original Money

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TV EMPORIUM

EDITORIAL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Simon Carles s scarless@gdmag.com

MANAGING EDITOR

Jill Duffy jduffy@gdmag.com

FEATURES EDITOR

Brandon Sheffield bsheffield@gdmag.com

ART DIRECTOR

Cliff Scors o cscorso@gdmag.com

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Jesse Harli n 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

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Stephen Saunders

HERE’S A QUESTION TO PONDER: WHICH BUSINESS

model, though rarely applied to games, has led to

some of the most innovative, interesting, and

high-quality products in the television business?

And here’s a hint: This network had a record 14

nominations for this year’s Golden Globe Awards,

more than any other network, despite being

watched by significantly fewer viewers.

The answer is HBO. The station’s business

model relies on a monthly subscription that lets

viewers watch all movies and original

programming on its service. I’m sure most people

agree that some of HBO’s best shows, including

The Sopranos , Six Feet Under , Curb Your

Enthusiasm , and Deadwood , would not be

possible on a major TV network because shows

with mature, niche, or edgy themes just won’t get

big enough ratings to make it.

subscription basis, then the consumer can try

everything out for size. Demos are close to doing

that, but the sheer amount of interesting niche

games that can be easily flipped onto a

subscription service and aggregated is massive,

compared to those that would be moved onto

Xbox Live Arcade and could survive a standalone

$5 payment. It’s the same with TV channels like

Turner Classic Movies, which has plenty of great

movies that most consumers would never pay to

buy or rent individually, but which become more

appealing when amassed and sold as a package

of opportunities, rather than a single film.

Dave Pottinger Ensemble Studios

George Sanger Big Fat Inc.

Harvey Smith Midway

Paul Steed Microsoft

FUTURE INDIE

A lot of the action thus far has been about

repackaging existing games. If one of these

services really takes off and gets one million

subscribers at $10 per month each, it might be

able to fund the development of episodic games,

independent games, and a plethora of others from

scratch. These games would then be available

exclusively on the subscription service first, and

then could even be rolled out to retail at a later

date, or maybe given away as a bonus alongside

the subscriptions.

That’s what excites me—the idea that there

could be a fund through a subscription service for

these edgy and cool titles, which would foster

innovation and excellence, just as HBO does with

its programming. But it requires a big subscriber

base, and I’m not sure that launching solely on the

PC is really going to do it. There needs to be a

console solution, or anything that will play in the

living room.

Maybe something like the inevitable Apple iTV

or massively upgraded cable set-top boxes will

be the answer in the much longer term. Or

maybe a console company will see the benefits

of allowing this option for a third-party firm,

even though it runs against current business

models. Either way, can anyone else see the

possible benefits here?

It requires gamers to think about how they

consume games differently, but with digital

swiftly becoming the paradigm, anything is

possible.

NEW WAY TO PAY?

Though DVD and licensing sales of its major

products no doubt help, it seems a subscription

model alone might be the thing that keeps HBO

strong. Why can’t this same system work for

games?

We’re starting to see some attempts to exploit

this in the PC market. For example, some European

companies such as Metaboli have tried it. Exent

has powered many games on demand efforts. And

most notably, of course, there’s GameTap.

These services tend to offer unlimited access to

commercial PC games for between $10 and $20

per month, and it’s actually a pretty interesting

idea—one which some companies (particularly

Turner with GameTap) are putting significant

money into developing. The licensing fees are

significant if the company is using content that

has previously been released elsewhere, but that

in itself provides a core of interesting games

which aren’t that easy to pick up in retail.

Then again, Xbox Live Arcade and Wii’s Virtual

Console both do a fine job of providing retro and

other smaller-spec games for $5 and up, and you

can keep those forever. Why would you ever want

a subscription if it doesn’t allow you to keep the

games? Well, Xbox Live has movie rentals right

now, and people are very happy with that, so it

really could work the same way.

PACKAGED GOODS

If the service provider aggregates multiple

products and makes them all available on a

Simon Carless

Editor-in-Chief

Game Developer

is BPA approved

FEBRUARY 2007 | GAME DEVELOPER

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