THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE vo L 1 8 N o 3 M ar c H 2 0 1 1 I N S I D E : dead nati o N P o STM o RTEM CONTENTS.0311 VOLUME 18 NUMBER 3 DEPARTMENTS POSTMORTEM 2 GAME PLAN By Brandon Sheffield [EDITORIAL] Surprise! Your Game Is Canned 13 HOUSEMARQUE'S DEAD NATION Marrying a twin stick shooter with the Zombie genre was a perfect 4 HEADS UP DISPLAY [NEWS] match. So much so that Housemarque's enthusiasm for the project Cowclickification, Japanese game market woes, and Nathan Fouts' resulted in ever increasing feature creep. What was supposed to be Developer Notebook. a small-scale downloadable title was starting to look like a full-on retail game. 28 TOOL BOX By Seth Gibson and Damian Kastbauer [REVIEW] By Harri Tikkanen and Ilari Kuittinen Autodesk Maya 2011 and BaseHead 2.5 20 FIRAXIS' SID MEIER'S CIVILIZATION V 32 DESIGN OF THE TIMES By Soren Johnson [DESIGN] When the team began work on CIVILIZATION V the technology for the new Water Finds a Crack game was not yet in place. This forced them to run a development plan that put design and engineering on separate but simultaneous 35 THE INNER PRODUCT By Dave Cowling [PROGRAMMING] tracks. It wasn't until the final year of CIVILIZATION V's almost four Idle Threads year production that the two came together to create a new CIV game that was as pretty to look at as it was forward-thinking in its design. 39 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore [ART] By Dennis Shirk Blink of an Eye 43 AURAL FIXATION By Jesse Harlin [SOUND] FEATURES Three Erroneous Conceits 7 TENSION MAPS 44 THE BUSINESS By Kim Pallister [BUSINESS] Ideally, by the time a game ships, it's various systems should be in a A War of Attrition state of careful balance. Of course, during development, systems will need to be cut or modified and the closer a game is to its ship date 46 GOOD JOB! By Brandon Sheffield [CAREER] the riskier those changes can be. Here, designer Simon Strange pres- Manveer Heir Q&A, Who Went Where, and New Studios. ents a decision making approach for identifying and defining low-risk design changes. 48 EYE ON GDC [GDC] By Simon Strange 2011 GDC Classic Game Postmortem Lineup 26 RED MEANS BOOM! 50 EDUCATED PLAY By Jeffrey Fleming [EDUCATION] Putting exploding barrels in your game should be pretty simple, Richard Flanagan's FRACT right? Well, not quite, as this anecdote from behind the scenes of BULLETSTORM illustrates. 56 ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT By Matthew Wasteland [HUMOR] By Arcade Berg To The Writer WWW.GDMAG.COM 1 GAME PLAN // BRANDON SHEFFIELD GAME DEVELOPER MAGAZINE WWW.GDMAG.COM United Business Media 303 Second Street, Suite 900, South Tower SURPRISE! YOUR GAME IS CANNED San Francisco, CA 94107 SO YOUR BIG GAME IS CANCELLED. WHAT THE HECK DO YOU DO NOW? t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090 SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND UNTIL LAST WEEK, I WAS game, and burn at my by crunch, but I wasn’t may lose some of the ADDRESS CHANGES narrative director for missed opportunity? actually crunching in people that will fight for t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606 a mid-tier budget, big These questions are either job per se—I was risk and new experiences e: [email protected] publisher-backed original unanswerable, but crunching in life, by in traditional games. FOR DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION IP for retail Xbox 360 always lurking in the back doing two full-time jobs I’m certainly not www.gdmag.com/digital and PlayStation 3. Then, of my mind. simultaneously. saying I won’t work EDITORIAL suddenly, one executive Luckily, nobody’s Suddenly, I find in a traditional game PUBLISHER shuffle later, projects losing their job over myself with reams of development setting Simon Carless l [email protected] were getting canned left this—the team absorbed free time. No weekly again—I most likely will, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF and right, mine among all its core members into meetings, no deliverables, when the opportunity Brandon Sheffield l [email protected] them. It’s happened to PRODUCTION EDITOR other projects, and life no misunderstandings to presents itself. There are Jeffrey Fleming l [email protected] nearly everyone in the goes on. As an external clear up, and no critical certain kinds of narrative ART DIRECTOR industry, but it’s the first contractor though, my issues to think through. experiences that are Joseph Mitch l [email protected] time for me, so I’ll delve journey with this team But the energy remains. difficult to put forward PRODUCTION INTERN into this a little bit. has ended. It was a good I still need to “do,” and to with a small team, and Tom Curtis CONTRIBUTING EDITORS group we had, with solid “create.” those ideas still intrigue Jesse Harlin WELL, THAT SUCKS! ideas, crazy work ethic, I’ve talked a lot in these me. But there are persons Steve Theodore Kim Pallister » Nobody saw it and a willingness to take pages about the merits for whom rest and repose Dave Cowling coming—the game’s alpha a stab at something new. of smaller-scale teams hold only limited appeal—I Soren Johnson was approved and paid I suppose everyone feels and development, so I’m think many game Damion Schubert ADVISORY BOARD for, response from the that way about their going to put my money developers feel this way, Hal Barwood Designer-at-Large publisher was positive, teams, don’t they? where my mouth is, and and it’s what pushes us to Mick West Independent and all our ideas were Brad Bulkley Neversoft work on a few iPhone and keep creating and make Clinton Keith Independent really coming together. WHAT NOW? XBLIG projects I’ve been the games we make. For Brenda Brathwaite Lolapps The story made sense When you’ve put considering for some time. all of you out there who Bijan Forutanpour Sony Online Entertainment » Mark DeLoura THQ and had a flow to it. All months of your life There’s something to be may have recently lost Carey Chico Independent gameplay elements and much of your said for working at your your job, had your game existed in the alpha, brainpower into one own pace, on a project canceled, been scaled to ADVERTISING SALES GLOBAL SALES DIRECTOR and our unique look was project, it’s difficult to that’s very much your half-time, or anything of Aaron Murawski e: [email protected] showing through. Five derail. I keep thinking own, even if the financial that nature, I urge you to t: 415.947.6227 days after that, word came of things I could do to rewards are uncertain. find out what you really MEDIA ACCOUNT MANAGER John Malik Watson e: [email protected] down that it was over. make the story better, want to express, and find t: 415.947.6224 Ultimately, it came down the characters more TALENT BLEED? a way to make it happen GLOBAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, RECRUITMENT to publisher finances, believable, the subtext » I outlined all this so for yourself, even if that’s Gina Gross e: [email protected] there was nothing anyone more subversive. Since explicitly because I think not within games. t: 415.947.6241 GLOBAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, EDUCATION could do about it, and this does no particular my experience is not Rather than looking Rafael Vallin e: [email protected] frankly I don’t even blame good for anybody, unique. When a project at this as a time to t: 415.947.6223 the publisher. Still, one I’ve got to redirect my you’re passionate about mope and feel sorry for ADVERTISING PRODUCTION can’t help but think—what thoughts to something slips away from you, oneself, the best thing PRODUCTION MANAGER if we’d put a little more else. And that’s one of the passion doesn’t go to do is to work on those Pete C. Scibilia e: [email protected] effort in? What if we’d the silver linings to a away. The need to create smaller or weirder games t: 516-562-5134 worked longer hours, or project cancellation—if remains, and must be you’ve had floating REPRINTS made our ideas more you do have other channeled somewhere, around in your head, WRIGHT'S MEDIA obvious in the alpha build? ideas, a canceled game or be lost. I think this write that screenplay, Ryan Pratt e: [email protected] Would it have helped? is obviously a huge experience is what turns code that application, or t: 877.652.5295 Doubts and misgivings are disappointment, but it’s a lot of modern-day finish that novel. That’s AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT difficult to avoid. also a weight lifted. To developers away from my challenge to myself, TYSON ASSOCIATES Elaine Tyson The game took a lot of make this magazine run the traditional publisher- and to those of you in e: [email protected] calculated risks, which for and also be narrative backed game industry. similar situations, I pose LIST RENTAL Merit Direct LLC NDA reasons I obviously director on a decent- This is good for players, the same challenge. Let’s t: 914.368.1000 can’t divulge—did those sized game, I made because they get more see what we can come risks keep us afloat myself work some crazy varied experiences across up with before we get longer, or did they kill us hours.