Game Developer Magazine June/July 2013 the Leading Game Industry Magazine Volume 20 Number 06 Performance Capture

GAME DEVELOPER MAGAZINE JUNE/JULY 2013 THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE VOLUME 20 NUMBER 06 PERFORMANCE CAPTURE

ANIMATRIK FILM DESIGN • Vancouver, Canada See why we are the triple-A choice at animatrik.com 001 CONTENTS_June/July 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 06

Postmortem

034 GOD OF WAR: ASCENSION Find out how Sony Santa Monica managed to make a proper follow- up to GOD OF WAR 3—and designed a multiplayer mode worthy of the franchise. By Whitney Wade and Chacko Sonny Features

009 POSTMORTEM: GAME DEVELOPER MAGAZINE At long last, we get to taste our own medicine! Game Developer’s longest- running editor-in-chief Brandon Shefﬁ eld explains what went right and wrong with the magazine you’re reading now. By Brandon Shefﬁ eld

015 TOP 30 DEVELOPERS OF ALL TIME It’s time for another yearly installment of our Top 30 Developers list. This time, however, we’re calling out our top 30 game developers of all time. By Staff

020 DIRTY GAME DEV TRICKS You know those ugly last-minute hacks and workarounds that you bring out at the last minute to make your milestone deadline? Everyone’s got them, and we asked you to share your favorites. By game developer magazine Staff

027 GAME OVER Before Game Developer calls it quits, we wanted to take one last chance to stand on our soapbox. By Staff Departments

002 Game Plan [Editorial]

004 Heads Up Display [News]

006 Educated Play [Education]

007 Good Job [Career]

039 Toolbox [Review]

040 Inner Product [Programming]

044 Pixel Pusher [Art]

047 The Business [Business]

048 Design of the Times [Design]

050 Aural Fixation [Sound]

054 Insert Credit [Editorial] game developer magazine

064 Arrested Development [Humor] 001 002 game developer magazine GOODBYE, GAME DEVELOPER, ANDTHANKYOU REQUIEM FOR A‘ZINE The end! and stay intouch. online community, sodon’tthinkyou’ve seenthelast ofme. great things,andwe wantyou to doso,too. Personally, I’llbesticking around asGDC’s director of re-read itevery year orso,because it’s just thatgood—and rest assured thatwe planondoing you to read therest ofthisissue cover-to-cover afew times—maybeputitsomewhere safe and Developer editor working intheWhite Housenow, for cryingoutloud—that’s pretty cool! SoIwant the people who read, write, andproduce GameDeveloper dogreat things.There’s anex- Game If there’s onethingI’ve learned from thelast year andchangeworking onthemag,it’s that INSERT CREDITTO CONTINUE giving meaturnbehindthewheel.Itwasfunwhile itlasted. Carless, Pearl Verzosa, and former EICBrandon Shefﬁeld for taking achance onanew editor and eyes muchsharperthanmine.Andwhile I’m atit,I’dlike to extend apersonal thanksto Simon week; thanksto ourcopyeditors, Alexandra HallandCarrieShepherd, for lending metwo pairs of director JoeMitch for busting hisbuttevery monthto turnoutanamazingmagazineinabouta time (thiswasusually abouthalfwaythrough thethird week ofeachissue cycle); thanksto art Dan Mallory for talking medown eachtimeIwassure we weren’t goingto shipanissue outon thanks to theGamasutra staff for theirsupportandcollaboration; thanksto production manager alive; thanksto ourwonderful advisoryboard for offering theirtime,knowledge, andexpertise; brief mentiononthemasthead. Thanksto thesales team for doingtheirdamnedest to keep print There are plenty ofpeople involved inmakingGameDeveloper thatdon’tgetanylove besidesa TO THEBEHIND-THE-SCENESSTAFF shoulders we stood. (Italsomademyday-to-day jobawhole lot easier.) inspiring to know thatthework we didwasdueinlarge partto theindustry giantsonwhose surprised bytheesteem withwhichindustry people regard GameDeveloper. Itfelt humblingand the dozensoftalented people whotended to thesepagesbefore Idid.have beenconsistently Game Developer hasbuiltupanexcellent reputation over theyears, andIcredit thatentirely to TO THEEDITORS PAST game dev magazinewe could possibly make. “You wannawrite aboutitfor us?”Sothankyou, readers, for helpingusmake thebest damn insisted thatwe shouldbecovering Xtopic, ordisagreeing withYcolumn—to whichIresponded, had theprivilege to includeinthismagazinethelast year andahalfbeganbecause areader to provide readers withwaysto share knowledge witheachother. Someofthebest stuff I’ve to thereaders inaone-wayrelationship, butwithGameDeveloper, myjobhasmore orless been typically demandthattheeditorial staff function as capital-E Expertsthatpass knowledge down I’ve never beenapartofbefore—because you are often ourwriters aswell. Otherpublications Gamasutra blogs andGDCtalks asthey tryto pickupwhere we left off. of thesmartest andnicest folks I’ve metintheindustry thusfar, andIhopeto seeyou among development knowledge we could possibly throw atyou. I’mconvinced thatourreaders are some people like you outthere whostuck around for issue after issue, devouring allthegame First off:Thanksfor reading. GameDeveloper wouldn’t have lasted 19years ifwe didn’thave TO THEREADERS mixtape), soI’mgoingto usethispageto express gratitude, instead. “Goodbye,” but“Thankyou.” Therest ofthisissue isaboutsayinggoodbye (we even madeyou a booze are madeto theproduction anddesignfolks, the words thatrunthrough myheadare not proofed, andtheillustrations are placed, andthesacriﬁcial offerings ofcoffee, cigarettes, and has beenextra trickybecause, well, it’s thelast oneever. Butintheend,after allthedrafts are off theeditorial untilthelast minute isstandard practice for magazineeditors, butthisone I’ve beendreading writingthiscolumn ever since Ifound outGameDeveloper wasclosing. Putting GAME PLAN_ 002 In closing, I’llborrow afew words from authorGarrisonKeillor: Bewell, make goodgames, Since GameDeveloper ismeantfor professionals, we’ve hadarelationship to ourreaders that

gp June/July 2013 Editor, GameDeveloper Patrick Miller @pattheﬂip Simon Carless [email protected] PUBLISHER EDITORIAL www.gdmag.com/contactus [email protected] t: 800.250.2429f:847.763.9606 ADDRESS CHANGES FOR INFORMATION, ORDERQUESTIONS,AND SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES t: 415.947.6000f:415.947.6090 San Francisco, CA 94107 303 Second Street, Suite 900,SouthTower UBM LLC. CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Joseph Mitch [email protected] ART DIRECTOR Dan Mallory [email protected] MANAGER, PRODUCTION Brandon [email protected] EDITOR EMERITUS Patrick Miller [email protected] EDITOR ubm.sms-inc.com [email protected] t: 631-787-3008x3020 Specialist Marketing Services Peter Candito LIST RENTAL Nancy Grant e:[email protected] AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT t: 877-562-5972 Jason Pampell WRIGHT’S MEDIA REPRINTS t: 516-562-5134 Robert Steigleider [email protected] PRODUCTION MANAGER ADVERTISING PRODUCTION t: 415.947.6241 Gina Gross [email protected] GLOBAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, RECRUITMENT t: 415.947.6227 Jennifer [email protected] MEDIA ACCOUNT MANAGER t: 415.947.6227 Aaron Murawski [email protected] VICE PRESIDENT,SALES ADVERTISING SALES Brenda Romero LootDrop Mike Acton Insomniac Carey Chico Independent Mark DeLoura Independent Bijan Forutanpour Qualcomm Clinton KeithIndependent Brad Bulkley Microsoft Mick West Independent ADVISORY BOARD Underland Pallister, Matthew Wasteland, Magnus Damian Kastbauer, DavidEdery,Kim Acton, Steve Theodore, JasonVandenBerghe, Brandon Sheffield,Mike DeLaFlor, Mike Kris Graft, Christian Nutt,Frank Cifaldi, WWW.UBM.COM [email protected] WWW.GDMAG.COM MAGAZINE GAME DEVELOPER Goodbye GDMag!

Full Ragdoll Salute!

See you on Gamasutra.com!

www.havok.com h

004 game developer magazine Kind words andwell wishesfrom GameDeveloper readers GAME DEVELOPER GOODBYE, print for posterity. preserve afew ofthesein community. We wanted to well wishesfrom ourreader condolences, memories,and we found ourselves awashin of GameDeveloper’s closing, Shortly after thenews broke HEADS-UP DISPLAY 004 h _ June/July 2013 “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ will bemissed! expand myunderstanding ofthegamebiz.You Game Developer. memory for gamedevelopment isgone.RIP lessons learned. game dev. Thankyou for everything!” killer industry publication. present GameDeveloper staff for delivering a Sheffield, Patrick Miller, andallpast and high pointfor me. outlive your magazines. :( RIP. professional development, andIhave ever since. in aone-on-onethatIread GameDeveloper for published, thedoors are closing. Game Developer andseeingcolleagues Thanks, GameDeveloper, for inspiringmeto One ofonly afew sources ofinstitutional Great articles, oodles ofeye candy, and good This magazinehelpedmefind mywayinto Thanks to SimonCarless, Brandon Getting anarticle inGameDeveloper wasa RIP GameDeveloper. It’s abitter thingto In myfirst gamedev job,myboss suggested Bummed outthatafter years ofreading —Larry O’Brien,GameDeveloper—Larry founding editor ”

” ” ” ”

”

—Brandon Perkins—Brandon —Michael Marzola —Garth DeAngelis —Garth —Casey O’Donnell ” —Evan Groenke—Evan —Brian Zubert

—Shay Pierce

—Megan Fox “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ TOILET?!?! remains relevant, atleast to me. one respect oranother,thisretro data format to find somewhere elseto putthem,because in in thelevels—that wasclever… Darn.So,Ihad deaths oftheplayers to seeproblematic zones relevant anymore. Oh,yeah—heat-mapping the get ridofsometheseolderissues thataren’t from aboutfive years ago.SoIthought,okay…I’ll pointed to astack ofGameDeveloper issues to clear somespace onthecounter and she honestly heartbreaking. every page(sometimestwice). and itwasmybest source ofinformation. Iread the sametimeasmagazinestarted publishing Game Developer. with love. Premonition cover story still fills myheart about GameDeveloper folding. understand. can. You’ll learn alot even ifyou don’tfully Wow. Very sadnews. Istarted intheindustry at WHAT WILLIREADWHILEONTHE About aweek ago,mywife wanted me Oh myGod,GameDeveloper closing is Oh no…you willbemissed, RIP GameDeveloper, your Deadly I’m aboutto choke upinameetingthinking Get backissues ofGameDeveloper ifyou ” ” ”

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—Craig “superbrothers”—Craig Adams ”

—Steven Ehrensperger —Shane Bettenhausen ” ” ”

—Nels Anderson —-Clinton Keith —Ryan Barrett—Ryan

—Chris Charla —Mitch Dyer h 005 HEADS-UP DISPLAY_June/July 2013

GDMIXTAPE LISTEN ALONG TO THE LAST ISSUE WITH OUR OFFICIAL PLAYLIST

Dear Game Developer readers,

Wow, 19 years, huh. That’s a long time. We’ve been through a lot together. And we’ve learned so much about each other. Um, this is really tough, readers, but there’s something we have to tell you.

You’ve been great to us. You really have. And it’s not your fault—honest!— but it’s time for us to move on. Without you.

Oh—hey. It’s okay. Don’t cry. Er, it’s okay to cry. Go ahead. Just leeeet it out. There, there. Shhh.

This isn’t your fault. It’s Side A: not you, it’s us. The whole Icarus (DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION - Michael McCann) print magazine thing, it’s E1M1 at Doom’s Gate (DOOM - Bobby Prince) just not working. It’s not Xenon (XENON - Ryu Umemoto) sustainable. No, really—what City of Radiant Ruin (ETRIAN ODYSSEY 4 - Yuzo Koshiro) with the trees and all. To Make the End of Battle (YS BOOK I&II - Yuzo Koshiro) Gene’s Rock-A-Bye (GOD HAND - Masafumi Takada and Jun Fukuda) Um, we’ve got to go now. Pissing on Your Grave (The Rites) But we made you something to go along with our last issue—it’s a mixtape. You can ﬁ nd it over here (http:// bit.ly/YHnbiW). You’ll love it, we promise. Chin up, now. Side B: What was that line from The Fear Theme (Kenji Eno, The Cinematic Orchestra) that Robyn song? “The only The Dream is Dead (Life is Killing Me - Type O Negative) way your heart will mend, is The Wretched Automatons (NIER, Monaca) when you learn to love again, Passage from Genesis (ECCO THE DOLPHIN: DEFENDER OF THE FUTURE, Tim Follin) and it doesn’t make sense Lonely Rolling Star (KATAMARI DAMACY, Yoshihito Yano, Saki Kabata) right now, but we’re still your Cloud 8 (Ray - Frazier Chorus) friend.” Human (Crash - Human League) Let’s Go Away (DAYTONA USA - Takenobu Mitsuyoshi) Hang in there. Maybe we’ll see you, you know, later.

Love,

Game Developer Staff game developer magazine game developer magazine 005 006 game developer magazine WWW.THEMINUSLAB.COM TALES FROMTHEMINUSLAB T complete control over physics,andthe the gamewould need.We didindeedgain over thecomplicated physicswe knew engine would give uscomplete control who determined thatrolling our own engineers (Steve Wenzke andDavidYoung), to beworking withtwo very talented lead in (probably dueto growing upinthe’90s); was probably Honey, IShrunktheKids is still ahugepartofthegame. within-spaces nested withinasingle room shrinking/growing to explore thespaces- a tinyprisoncell). Thatconcept ofusing pretty conﬁned environment (inthiscase your perception ofwhatappeared to bea how theabilityto shrinkwould affect of “navigable space,” andIwascurious assignment wasto create someform prototype for aclass afew years ago.The exploring asingle, very detailed room. which dramatically affects your experience team. Thegamelets you changesize, created byasurprisingly large student Student Showcase honorable mention) person exploration game(andIGF2013 enough to notice it. underfoot, you just never looked close wilderness that’s always beenthere to capture thatsense ofexploring avast ALEXBEACHUM: ALEXANDRAHALL: ALEXBEACHUM: ALEXANDRAHALL: comes From theUniversity ofSouthernCalifornia own engine? the shrinking/growing concept? EDUCATED PLAY _ 006 HE T My biggest initialsource ofinspiration ALES M INISH T ALES

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AB OF , a first- Z ELDA : wanted to create situationswhere players design challenge oftheentire project. We become experts intheirspecializations. was great thatteam members were able to task fit into thebiggerpicture. However, it for eachperson to understand how each on theirown specific tasks, itwasharder And, because eachperson wasfocused sheer numberoftasks happeningatonce. management overhead to keep track ofthe working ontheproject, itincurred alot of great to have somanytalented individuals of ahindrance thanahelp.Thoughitwas between specializationsmuch harder. team madekeeping everyone informed reported back.Onthewhole, thelarge that settheirown internal deadlinesand of adesigner,artist, andprogrammer example, asmalluserinterface team into smaller specializedsubgroups, for had initially expected. We hadto divide be more formal andhierarchical thanwe management challenge. Itrequired usto ALEXBEACHUM: ALEXANDRAHALL: SARAHSCIALLI: ALEXANDRAHALL: SARAHSCIALLI: ALEXANDRAHALL: and content intheengine. lengthy process ofsettingupenvironments it wasdifficult to iterate rapidly dueto the experience writinganengineinC++.[But] programmers ontheteam gotfantastic multiple scales? environments thatsupportgameplayat up beinganasset? any managementchallenges? team isquite large. Were there Insomeways[itwas]more Thiswasdefinitely ahuge Thatwasthemost difficult Isittrickyto design Didthemassive team end At 38people, your working onmyMFA thesis, (and advanced gameproject) up development on mymaster’s thesis M another Advanced GameProject thisyear: jobs intheindustry. Alex andIare leading of theteam hasgraduated andnow have it andgetoutto theworld. Alarge chunk M (and advanced gameproject) up development on mymaster’s thesis ALEXBEACHUM: working onmyMFA thesis, O another Advanced GameProject thisyear: jobs intheindustry. Alex andIare leading of theteam hasgraduated andnow have it andgetoutto theworld. Alarge chunk SARAHSCIALLI: ALEXANDRAHALL: the Russianthe Russian dollapproach dollapproach to to world world design! design! players’players’ abilitiesatvarious abilitiesatvarious sizes.It’s sizes.It’s like like that feelsthat feels organic organic andtakes andtakes advantage advantage of of together theserecursive spaces inaway room, level designisallaboutstitching the entire gametakes place inasingle perched atop ashelfinthecorner. Since full size)can literally fit insideabeaker size ofanant—or256timessmaller than expansive atyour smallest size(aboutthe you. Anenvironment thatfeels really space itselfisshrinking/growing around from the player’s perspective, it’s asifthe falling offthetop ofasmallmountain. falling offatable isroughly equivalent to even walkonwater (surface tension!), but small allows you to explore tinynooks and to hazards intheenvironment. Being quickly, andoverall you’re less vulnerable (even entire levels), move across thelab you can pickupandmanipulate objects sizes. For example, beingbigmeans about thepros andcons of beingdifferent we spentalot oftimeearly onthinking would have to shrink/grow fairly often, so to continue development? W UTER INUS INUS ILDS Something that’s easyto forget isthat, . Istill hope Igetachance to finish L L W AB AB ILDS though! andhopeto onedaycomplete We love T , Yep, I’mcurrently wrapping Alex’s MFA thesis.I’malso perspective. 1.6 miles across from your smallest size,itisabout 30 feet across; atyour full size,thelabisabout A funfact: Whenyou’re game: unknown # oflinescode inthe (student project) Development budget:N/A a year Development time:About theminuslab.com) (current buildavailable on Release date: TBD College) with AtlanticUniversity Engineering, collaboration Program, Viterbi Schoolof Media andGames Cinematic ArtsInteractive California Schoolof (University ofSouthern Developer: USCGames What’s next? Doyou plan ALES A

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gj 007 GOOD JOB_June/July 2013

LET’S BE FRANK GAMASUTRA NEWS DIRECTOR FRANK CIFALDI EXPLORES OTHER OCEANS

Veteran game journalist PM: What’s it like to be on the keeping them (and offi cial Game Developer dev side of things for a change? coming back to brunch buddy) Frank Cifaldi Has your perspective on the a website. Also, has been around the block. industry changed at all? as with any Game Developer readers will job, being able recognize him as sister site FC: I can’t say there were any to compose Gamasutra’s former news surprises coming over here, a proper director and occasional Game having covered the industry for sentence is Developer contributor, and something like 10 years now. always going to some might be familiar with (Ask me again after our fi rst come in handy. his game-preservation work big crunch…) at Lost Levels (lostlevels.org). As for what it’s like: I PM: You’re Recently, Cifaldi moved over think it’s great. I’ve spent so also known to dev studio Other Ocean many years turning around as something Interactive, so we wanted to quick articles on the Internet of a game check in and see how this that slowing down a little historian, of card-carrying member of the and working on a big project sorts. Has that press corps was faring on the piece by piece is like a brain come in handy other side of the fence. vacation! so far? (Your encyclopedic knowledge of bad Patrick Miller: Frank, we know PM: Has the industry expertise licensed games, perhaps?) It’s like a foreign language you best as the former news you’ve developed on the only the real nerds ever director for Gamasutra. What, journalism side of things FC: That’s why Other Ocean bothered to learn. Like Latin, exactly, is your new gig? translated well to actual was such a good fi t for me— except even less useful. development? What kinds we’re a group of like-minded Frank Cifaldi: I’m working of skills or knowledge have enthusiasts of the entire PM: At what point do you think with my friends at Other crossed over? spectrum of video game Other Ocean will realize that Ocean in beautiful Oakland, history. (My desk is nestled all your pitches originated California now. My title is FC: Content production is tightly between a ROBOTRON from your most recent GAME “designer,” but so far I’m content production, as far as and a TEMPEST machine, for DEV STORY playthrough? mostly doing biz dev stuff. I’m concerned. Being able to crying out loud!) But yeah, We’re a small enough team identify what satisfi es players we’re able to communicate FC: I don’t care what my that I get to get my hands and keeps them playing ideas to each other really failure in GAME DEV STORY dirty with a little of everything, isn’t much different from easily because of how many says. WWII KARTS is a great which is how I like it. identifying reader trends and old games we’ve all played. idea for a game.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? GAME DEVELOPER’S EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

Game Developer founding company, UBM Tech, as the Tech, which includes Game Brandon Shefﬁ eld is editor Larry O’Brien is a general manager of online Developer and Gamasutra, the founder of dev studio developer evangelist for products. as well as Game Developers Necrosoft Games, and a Xamarin, a cross-platform IDE Conference and infosec senior contributing editor for meant for mobile development. Jennifer Olsen (now Jennifer conference Black Hat. Gamasutra. Yeamans) is a transportation Mark DeLoura currently works planner for the Metropolitan Jamil Moledina is co-founder Current Game Developer at the White House Ofﬁ ce of Transportation Commission. and CEO of a San Francisco- editor-in-chief Patrick Science and Technology Policy (Sounds like real-life SIMCITY based dev studio named Miller will be moving into as their senior adviser for to us.) Wormhole Games. a new role with the Game digital media. Developers Conference, as Simon Carless oversees the Alex Handy is a senior the director of online Alex Dunne still works for Game Network and Black editor for Software community. Game Developer’s parent Hat subdivision of UBM Development Times.

* * * game developer magazine 007 Put on your game brain.

jobs.popcap.com

009 game developer magazine 010 game developer magazine GDM POSTMORTEM_ 010

f June/July 2013 DECEMBER MAY AUGUST 2009 2008 2005 editor JillDuffysaid to me, “We didthatshit rightbyhiringan there wasn’tmuchbetter to bedone.As myformer managing ranking of gamedevelopment software—period. only contiguous running reports ongamedeveloper salariesand like theSalarySurvey andthe Front LineAwards, whichare the For over adozenyears themagazine hadbeenrunningreports 3. ANNUALSTATE-OF-THE-INDUSTRY REPORTS properties. But,alas,we willnever know! turn Gamasutra into gamedeveloper.com, and unite allthe helped for atime. magazines closed around us.Thatcouldn’t last forever, butit helped usmaintain relevance andground to stand onasother at themagazineasasortofsoftmarketing armfor theshow. It generous adboost, anditdidn’thurtthatthehigher-upslooked helpful. We gotgreater visibilityattheshows, notto mentiona from itsparent company, IwilladmitthatourtieswithGDCwere As muchasIpersonally wanted to differentiate themagazine 2. TIESWITHGDC this monthly, knowing we were actually creating something. and whenit’s out,they have to start allover again.We gotto do great feeling. Manygamedevelopers work for years onagame, monthly cycle, we’d have anactualproduct we could touch. It’s a the magazinewasbest itcould be—andattheendofour putting final touches andmakinglast-minute editsto ensure ourselves into thisthing,staying uplate, working overtime, are doing muchbetter. We like history, Isuppose! have blindly puttheirgamesonconsoles, whenotherplatforms it must be“better,” right?Thisiswhysomanygamedevelopers the prestige ofmakingaconsole game—we grew upwithit,so having written somethingofimport.It’s almost analogous to people, printstill hadthatallure ofbeing“published,”and on Gamasutra, butI’dreally like to have itinprint.”For some would often getpitches saying,“Well, Iguess Icould putthis folks outsidetheU.S.hadnever heard ofit). was clear thatpeople viewed itasrespectable (even thoughmost most ofthesepeople were gettingthemagazinefor free, butit Game Developer! That’s theonepublication Iread!” Granted, happy. Often attrade shows we would getcomments like “Oh, People respected themagazine,whichcertainly madeuseditors 1. THE“PRESTIGE”OFPRINT What Went Right long, itwasonly fair thatwe dothesamewithours. a frank look atwhatwent rightandwrong withtheirwork for so Patrick andIfigured thatsince we hadbeenaskingdevs to take postmortem oftheentire operation inthis,itsfinal issue. Plus, running editor, ateightyears, Ithoughtitmightbefitting to doa a venue for ahost ofnew voices. Asthemagazine’s longest- as themarket hasshifted inthatdirection, andwe hopedto open an indieandsmall-team bentunderPatrick Miller’s leadership serve you for years to come. The magazinewastaking more of was alot more we wanted to do,andwe hopedto beable to to aclose, because printisnolonger anattractive market. There a slew ofmagazineindustry awards, GameDeveloper iscoming that have helpeddevelopers dotheirjobsbetter (we hope). (frankly, there should’ve beenmore), andhundreds ofarticles multiple company namechanges,four majordesignoverhauls demand grew. Over theyears we’ve seenover two dozeneditors, as aquarterly, andmoved quickly into amonthly publication as Game Developer hashadagoodrun.We started inMarch 1994 Neither ofthese was perfect, we’ll bethefirst to admit,but In fact, Ithinkagreater convergence would’ve beenhelpful— That went for useditors, too. Every monthwe would pour No offense ismeantto ourGamasutra siblings,butwe And now, afew monthsshyofits20thbirthday,after winning JANUARY there itis. 96-page issue ofanyqualitygetspumpedoutevery month,but since around 2005.Isometimes thinkit’s amiracle thata52-to are working onthemagazinefull-time,andthat’s how it’s been contributors, sure, butit’s areally lean operation. Only two people in New York to interface withtheprinters. That’s it.We have in Jennifer Sulik,andupuntilvery recently, we hadPete Scibilia have apart-timeartdirector inJoeMitch, apart-time sales lead editor Patrick Miller andproduction managerDanMallory. We code listings. until onehasto layoutafeature withmore than30figures and printed words onapageand how they’re juxtaposed to images magazine possible. Onedoesn’tthinkalot about thelayout of passes ofevery article, andgenerally triedto make thebest We stuck to astyle guide,didmultiple editsandmultiple art last issue, sobegrudgeusthis.Oureditors were pretty hardcore. lot ofhorn-tooting outofpostmortems inthepast—but it’s our This istooting ourown hornabit,sure, andwe’ve edited awhole 4. PROFESSIONAL, HARDCORESTAFF these things,andIthinkwe didquite well withthem. sure they were accurate. Alot goesonbehindthescenes with throughout theyears, andhave always doneourutmost to make touting itsrunningtally asbest enginefor anumberofyears. actually cared aboutthesethings.Epic,for example, hasbeen awards onthegamedevelopment software side,andcompanies money anyway! we’ll allbeholdinghandsandhuggingrainbows, andwon’t need employee numbers. Whenthat’s thesortofindustry we work in, done withoutsomehow gettingalldev studios to give ustheir the numbers are inflated—but it’s really thebest we could have data. Somefolks have criticizedthesurvey, because they feel sift through thousandsofsurvey responses to bringus valuable Survey we usedaprofessional (andexpensive!) statistician to over year.” and itwassmartto stick withthesamecontracted partneryear outside expert to conduct thesurvey andanalyze theresults, The magazineiscurrently doneinlarge partbytwo people: We’ve hadafew othersurveys andobjective reports The Front LineAwards are someofthebiggest industry Since statistics were outsideour wheelhouse,for theSalary 2006 NOVEMBER 2009 There usedto beawhole slew oftools thatadvertised with contraction hitushard, throughout mytenure atthemagazine. we relied onadvertisers for revenue. Because ofthis,industry customers, andlike most business-to-business magazines, Game Developer magazinewas(mostly) free to qualifying 1. INDUSTRYCONTRACTION MEANSFEWERADS What Went Wrong run isyour accomplishment aswell. Thanks,everyone. ultimately, anythingwe’ve accomplished over themagazine’s the hard work of19years ofcontributors andcolumnists, so their mistakes. After all,we couldn’t have doneanythingwithout bare their soulsinprintfor thesake ofhelpingothers learn from as strong asitdiddueonly to thebrave devs whowere willingto do ityourself. We fully acknowledge stood thatGameDeveloper frankly abouttheirprofessional shortcomings, andanotherto luck incarrying thistradition inthefuture. advance themediumoverall, andwe wishGamasutra thebest of of thebest waysto helpfellow devs make better gamesand Developer wasoneofthem.We truly believe thatthisisone are encouraged to behonest witheachother,andGame needed buy-in.” and revising withthewriter because “crucialstakeholders still we couldn’t publishapostmortem we hadspentweeks editing industry, even ifitmeantthatevery sooften we’d find outthat a chance to befrank andhonest abouttheirwork andthe took itasapointofpridethatwe were able to offer developers right?”)—until itcame to theWhatWent Wrong portion. Butwe postmortem for themagazine(“Thatmeanswe’re onthecover, Many, manyfolks outthere were more thanhappyto write a 5. FRANK,HONESTTONE what amountsto askeleton crew. craft, we managedto create amagazinethatpeople liked, with didn’t work together. Through hard work andadedication to the First, we sawconsolidation inthegamesoftware space. To besure, it’s onethingto expect ourcontributors to write The gameindustry hasprecious few places where developers We’ve hadmanyeditors over theyears, butmost ofthem GDM POSTMORTEM_ SEPTEMBER 2008 June/July 2013 f 011

011 game developer magazine 012 game developer magazine enough to keep ourparent company’s skininthegame. much better asasmall-circulation magazine,butitwasn’tgood squeak through abitofdigital revenue. You couldn’t really do profit! We kept lean, kept regular advertisers, andmanagedto company (thatisto say,ourprofit) wasdeclining,butitstill (so far asIknow). To becertain, ourcontribution to ourparent not every month,butitwasprofitable every year ofoperation closing down, butGameDeveloper wasalways profitable. Maybe our life cycle, Ican’t helpbutwonder where we’d benow. for thisyear. Ifwe hadgotten adedicated salesperson earlierin fact, themagazinewasontarget to meetitsprofit estimations makers to auto companies), andgettingournumbers stable. In did agreat jobofbringinginnew advertisers (from smartphone blockbuster profits. never happenedagain,butthesedealsweren’t exactly givingus it cost to printthepagesthey were on.Suffice itto say,that that inoneinstance we actually soldmagazineadsfor less than the deal.Digginghard through thecorporate structure, Ifound Gamasutra, gettingmultiple pagesinthemagazineaspartof some sales staff were makingpackage dealswithGDCand much biggerthanthemag,andpackagedeals.Atonepoint for themagazine.TheemphasiswasonGDC,whichisobviously much of2011,we hadnobodyspecifically assigned to dosales into direct recruitment through Twitter andthelike. could beshared viatheinternet. They have moved even further valuable to advertise inGamasutra, whichhadawiderreach and the numberofadvertisers inourpages. they didn’tadvertise inthesameissue. Thisdrastically reduced in adifferent issue, butsince they were nolonger competing, a few sales points.They could advertise oneproduct oranother company oranother. Thisturnedahydra ofadvertisers into just us—then, onebyone,they started to getswallowed upbyone GDM POSTMORTEM_ 012 SEPTEMBER This maysurprisepeople to hearaboutamagazinethat’s Just asIwasleaving, we gotJennifer Sulikinsales, who Couple thiswiththefact thatfrom atleast 2004through Next to gowasrecruitment. Advertisers found itmore 2010 f June/July 2013 DECEMBER 2005 all came to aclose. support team, theoperation wasfinally runningsmoothly—just asit simply training one,aswe’d donefor years), andhavingadecent ripple effect through production. was budgeted for. Thiscould lead to bottlenecks thatwould have a feel ofthemagazineinto four orfive days’ work. Infact, that’s allhe was often pressed for time,andhadto squeezetheentire look and directors inmytime,andJoeMitch hasbeenagreat one—buthe but sharingartstaff wasdifficult aswell. Iwent through afew art valuable piece ofthebusiness. cycle, itwasviewed asextra overhead, rather thananoverhaul ofa to tackle thissortofthing,butatpointinthemagazine’s life edition, getnew advertisers, reach new markets, andsoon. when we wanted to dosomethingnew—like launchamobile our thing.Butatthesametime,we alsodidn’thave muchsupport scrutiny from thehigher-ups.They were content to just let usdo pace, whichwasgreat insome ways,because we didn’tgetalot of starved for support.Themagazine waschuggingalong ataneven As hasbeenhinted afew timesinthispostmortem, we were abit 3. LACK OFINTERNALSUPPORT than they didwithouractualapp. downloading PDFsofthemagazinesandreading itinaPDFviewer Many subscribers mentionedthatthey hadabetter experience by the transition too late, andourdigital modelwasimperfect atbest. model andtryingto getactualpayingsubscribers, butwe began the next day. had timeto make ithappen.We were too busytryingto getthrough infrastructure wassoscattered, andourcrew sosmall,thatnobody successful. Butwe should’ve doneityears ago.Frankly, our We rolled outourdigital editionlast year, anditwasquite 2. DIGITAL: TOO LITTLE,TOO LATE But through hiringaprofessional production editor (instead of I mentionedthatwe hadto share sales staff for manyyears, In early 2012,we finally gotsomeoneonstaff—Pearl Verzosa— Many magazineswere switching to amore digital-oriented FEBRUARY 2006 MARCH to getright aswe hadto domore and more copyedits. Thisbecame harder andharder massaging, multiple rewrites, andhardcore a lot ofthesearticles neededalot of don’t claimEnglishasafirst language), (they’re allgamedevelopers, manyofwhom of ourauthors were professional writers got everyone upto speed. strain onthesenior staff (read: me)aswe neophytes andtrain them.Thisputalot of of thetime,sowe would hire amateurs or couldn’t afford to hire professionals much to getasingle issue out.What’s more, we with themagazine.We were scrambling harder andharder to seethelong view increasingly frazzled, anditbecame increasing workload madeuseditors of almost every aspectofproduction. The with image sourcing, we were now in charge care ofthewords andoccasionally helping We started doingourown layout. having anadproduction person inbetween. became thedirect lineto sales, instead of an entire departmentoffive people for. We production, whichthere hadpreviously been We became responsible for fi nal magazine additional work gotpushedontheeditors. them into otherdepartments.Most ofthe these positionsandcutthemormerged for themagazine,parent company took house sales staff, andmuchmore. to supportmagazineproduction, anin- editor. There wasanon-site group ofpeople editor, afeatures editor, andanassistant had beenaneditor-in-chief, amanaging Just ascant few monthsbefore that,there I joinedthemagazineinSeptember 2004. CREW 4. SLOW BLEEDINTO SKELETON When you consider thefact that none Whereas before, we were just taking In theinterest ofretaining profitability 2010 real hard data to goon;your average that were basically duds. Butwe hadno the first to admitthere were someissues We certainly weren’t perfect, andI’llbe asking ouradvisers andpeers for input. try to predict whatmightbeimportant, solutions, only criticisms. We hadto was falling over themselves to offer you’d like to see,”we’d ask—butnobody silent. “How aboutyou write something things they’d like to see,andthey’d grow enough. Butwe’d askthemwhat sortsof for nothavingarticles thatwere innovative vital partofgamedevelopment. because we believe audioisanabsolutely an audiocolumn untilthevery end, audio professionals. And yet we maintained of surveyed readers called themselves community. Caseinpoint:Only two percent also wanted to serve every aspectofthe so we triedto accommodate them—butwe audience includedalot ofprogrammers, kept changing. Oursurveys showed our our audience, because ouraudience never knew for sure ifwe were serving with developers attrade shows. We the few emailswe got,andourinteractions print publication, allwe hadto goonwere truly knew whoouraudience was.Asa strong admission here, butwe never really, Who willmournourpassing? Thisisa 5. WHOAREYOU? the times. magazine wasn’tenoughto keep upwith a skeleton crew, butjust makingagood were able to make agoodmagazinewith it wasnever aneasyjob.Intheend,we eventually gotthisto astable state, but things thatweren’t editing. DECEMBER We gotalot offlak from programmers Streamlining ourproduction process 2007 GDM POSTMORTEM_ *** something awayfrom ourwords. was reading. Maybe,just maybe, they took knew someoneoutthere, somewhere, what kept me doingthis.Thefact thatI were doing.For me,atleast, thatwas to us,orspoke to usaboutthethingswe advisers, andallthosewhoever wrote contributors, allthecopyeditors, allthe company’s otherendeavors. the timespentworking onGDC andthe a smallprofit sometimesjust isn’tworth and couldn’t slimdown anyfurther. But others fell, because we were profitable, game magazineleft alive after allthe honestly thoughtwe mightbethelast impact inourtwo decades ofwork. I and Ican only hopewe hadsomesmall wanted to helpyou make better games, for thevarious voices ofourcraft. We by providing aresource, andavenue best to tryto helptheindustry we love, (and former editors) will.We didour I willmiss themagazine.Allofuseditors DAYS GONEBY they miss us?Willyou? month. Whowasouraudience, really? Will they gotitfor free andthrew itawayevery found outaboutitsclosure alsoadmitted they would miss themagazinewhenthey we would onanentire issue. Gamasutra article gotmore feedback than him on Twitter via@necrosofty. small-team gamesfor PlayStation Mobile. Follow over adozentitles, andiscurrently developing two Game Developer magazine.Hehasworked on based Necrosoft Games,andeditor emeritusof SheffiBrandon eld isdirector of Oakland, California– Thanks to alltheeditors, allthe A numberofpeople whosaidto me JANUARY 2009 June/July 2013

f 013 f

013 game developer magazine WE WANT THE BEST Engineers Artists Producers Designers

Join the award winning teams at DICE and Criterion or become a part of EA’s new Ghost Studio in Gothenburg and help shape the future of gaming.

www.criteriongames.com www.ghostgames.com www.dice.se GUILDFORD GOTHENBURG STOCKHOLM LOS ANGELES careers.ea.com 30 015 Top 30 Devs_June/July 2013

Top 30 Developers ofGame All Developer Time and G amasutra staff p ay hom age to the bes t development s tudios in the business—ever

For a few years now, we at Game Developer have consulted with the Gamasutra editors to determine a list of the top 30 developers of the past year (from June to June, that is). Normally, this list is meant to recognize the studios that have shown excellence in creativity or in business, in product or production; in other words, the people out there doing work that inspires the rest of us by virtue of being new, better, or different. When it comes to the last issue of Game Developer, however, a simple list of the last year’s best simply won’t do. Instead, we chose to assemble a list of the greatest game developers of all time. What follows is a list of 30 studios that have left (and in some cases, continue to leave) an indelible mark on the medium of video games for generations to come. Note that whenever possible we’ve gone out of our way to avoid recognizing developers solely for being the first to do something in video games—our medium’s pioneers are important, but we wouldn’t have room left in the list for anyone else. So we’ve generally tried to stick to the last 30 years of game development or so, and focus on the studios that we think have shaped the current era. 016 game developer magazine Top 30Devs_ 016 creative environment onearth.”Well said. the insinuation that they were created in the most liberating and nirvana development and games, those game playing experience my from stems like feels what of fantasy my today, “Even issue2013 of May the bestin Mikeit said Mika genuinely friendly blue-skiesaesthetic alive. keepingthere out someone is there knowing for said there’sthink we games, video grewbe towith who something up directions. new in whole a as games video push to manage consistentlythey way the by impressedwe’re spot; a earned that ago years 30 almost from work their it’sjust brainer.that not out point compelledfeelto However,we a B J think we though, whole, a as industry the on impact their to comes it When others. among M better than ever. (Just for the record, we’d accept a gritty a accept record,we’d the ever.for than (Just better peopletoolstohelp make makelookgames—and games those that making provenat they’regood games, hasmaking at good just they’renot Epic use, of ease relative UDK’s and Engine Unreal of power raw the Between itself. Engine Unreal the for the modern game industry. But we’re including them on this list days, when we were devouring the terminal text in Macintosh-only text terminal their the devouring were in we when back days, way cool was Bungie knew We B Bu doubt C C E seminal its and Software titles id to back straight shooter first-person the of dominance the trace can we worse, or better For R id L for hearts our in spot soft a have We San Franci L with O Kyoto, Japan Ni their id their open-sourcing of habit their and modding, towardstance open and encouraging their by demonstrated as development, game toward attitude dev-friendly generally their for them inclined honor to also we’re example—but for multiplayer, and programmingnetworked graphics 3D to industry— comes game it the when on particularly impact indelible an left have games for agritty ary, ic e ackrabbit ucas dds are that most people reading this article owe their fascination ertainly, Epic’s list of games is impressive enough—nobody can ro ucasfilm Games/ ll pic Games aniac n h n ar e S ng d N s v video games in some part to part some in games video ds ue ort te , L ., oftware W A the impact that impact the D on, , Wa t) n ter detr games: adventure their and rts) M olfenstein h ie s T egend evelopme

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ILLUSTRATION: JUAN RAMIREZ ILLUSTRATION: JUAN RAMIREZ DEV was pretty straightforward. accommodate hidden bss useandtoolchain updates, butoverall it re-initialize thebss to 0. initialize thedestination memory,copy theassets out,andthen We ran somecode asearly aswe could inthecrt initializationto there wasmore thanenoughspace to hidesometexture assets. section). We hadsomethinglike 3MBofbss inourfinal builds,so in theexecutable thataliasedthebss (the“bss alias”or“balias” would have wasted 700k.Instead, we addedanew data section RSX memory,butitrequires using1MBpages, andinourcase it copying themoutandjust wasting thememoryfor thesource. be inadifferent chunkofmemory(RSXvisible), sowe would endup executable. There wasonedownside, though—we wanted theseto we converted themto binaryarrays andcompiled theminto the we didn’twantto distribute theseasactualasset files, soinstead input for full-screen filter effects. For someunimportant reasons, DIRTY STORIES OFDEADLINE-DRIVENTRICKSANDHACKS tools release. Thesewere thingslike noisetextures andsource Believe itornot,worked! There wasalittle tweaking to The PS3toolchain hadalinkfeature to putcertain sectionsin had sometextures thatwe wanted distributed withourengine/ This trickwasonthePS3:We onthe Insomniacengineteam Joe Valenzuela, InsomniacGames CROUCHING RSX,HIDDENTEXTUREASSETS pulls outadirtytrickunderpressure. relax—because you’re nottheonly onethat on, revel inyour colleagues’ ingenuity,and disciplines besidesprogramming. Soread a few unorthodox tricksfrom otherdev One ofGameDeveloper’s most popular from-the-trenches stories, including Well, we’re backwithninenew features wasour“DirtyCodingTricks” a shipdeadlineorpass certification. they’ve resorted to inorder to make open upaboutsomeoftheugly hacks bit from 2009,where we gotdevs to

TRICKS

GAME R Jonathan Garrett, InsomniacGames (S)ELF-EXPLOITATION shipped ontime,withnoTCR showstoppers. screen clears to black,marked thebugfixed, andcalled itaday. We and missing itwould have beenabigdeal.SoIchangedallthe were two orthree daysawayfrom ourintended submission date cause, you can’t besaidto have fixed thebug.Butinthiscase, we had disappeared. controls turnedoff. ButwhenIthentriedto reproduce thebug,it of code bycheckingwhatcolor thescreen waswhentheanalog hoping thatIcould atleast narrow itdown to oneortwo sections in thecode Idetermined to bethelikely source oftheproblem, didn’t understand, Iinserted seven screen clears indifferent colors some monthsbefore. code andtheIOPlogic for thecontroller itselfhadleft LucasArts programmer whohadoriginally written boththemovie-loading up whenwe updated to alibrary version required bySony,andthe in thecenter ofthecontroller to gooffaswell. Thisbughadshown we were loading ourpost-mission cutscenes, causing thered light that thecontroller’s analog stick functionalitywould shutoffwhile submission to Sony. OnenigglingTCR bugremained, whichwas In early 2002,we were readying Brett Douville, LucasArts THIS ISNOT THEBUGYOU’RE LOOKING FOR the static buffer far enough to alsooverwrite a known global that thesizeiswithin thebuffer’s capacity. a static buffer. Thisbuffer isfilled from theserver without checking Agreement eachtime it’s launched.This is anasciistring stored in was unfortunate. shipped withouttheabilityto patch eithercode ordata. Which ATCHET It’s anoldprogramming adagethatifyou don’tunderstand the In thehopesofnarrowing down theproblem quickly incode I We exploited thisfact to cause theEULA download to overflow The gamedownloads anddisplaysanEndUser License

AND C LANK DIRTY GAMEDEVTRICKS_ : U : P Y OUR A S TAR RSENAL W ARS wasanonlinetitle which : J dg EDI S 021 TARFIGHTER Staff

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021 game developer magazine 022 game developer magazine 5.Bootstrap decodes payload data 4.Gamejumpsto bootstrap code pointed to byhandler 3.Sendpacket to triggerhandler pointer 2.Overflow EULAbuffer, miscellaneous data, callback handler 1.Sendoversized EULA By theend,hacklooked like this: un-mutate it. zero bytes andhadacarefully crafted piece ofbootstrap asmto bytes. Sowe mutated thecompiled code suchthatitcontained no of thestring). Ourstring contained code whichoften contains 0 And strcpy endswhenitfinds a0byte (whichisusually theend to normalandtheactualpatching work could bedone. to restore thistrashed data. Once thatwasdonethingswere back and theoverwritten global, sothefirst jobofthepayload code was to somepayload code whichwasstored earlierinthe EULAdata. the address intheoverwritten global. Theaddress wasapointer installed, we could sendthenetwork packet to cause ajumpto handler for aspecific network packet. Once thishandler was variable. Thisvariable happenedto bethefunctioncallback DIRTY GAMEDEVTRICKS_ 022 One complication isthattheEULAtext iscopied withstrcpy. Valuable data existed between thereal endoftheEULAbuffer

dg Staff In 1993Iwasfinishing off Michael A.Carr-Robb-John,MonolithProductions JAMMING THECARTRIDGE don’t useunboundedstrcpy. Takeaways: Includepatching code inyour shippedgame,and 7.Patch executes 6.Payload downloads andrestores stomped miscellaneous data processor intensive). a smaller memoryfootprint (usually atthecost ofbeingmore through andfinding redundant code andrewriting thingsto use Z80 assembly—so Ihadonly oneoptionleft. Ispentaweek going games were written inassembly language—inthisspecific case, section Ihadn’tbeensostrict onwasthecode. Inthosedays, graphic resources andthey were withintheirlimits.Theonly development, Ihadbudgeted andplannedallthesound incredibly small,butbackthenitwasamajordeal.During size cartridge wasoutofthequestion. Today, 12Ksounds the desired cartridge sizebyabout12K,andgoingto thenext little brother, the8-bitMaster System. Thegamewas exceeding conversion from the16-bitMegaDrive /Genesisto itshumble D ESERT S TRIKE ; Iwasdoingthe

024 game developer magazine stash theasset, and thenwe could temporarily reuse thespace GPU’s memorywould work just fine asaplace to temporarily one ofthelarger asset files to somewhere elseinmemory? The was playing. assets were very large. Noneofthemwere neededwhile amovie disk, andonce inmemorywere never modified. Someofthose When thegamestarted up,anumberofassets were loaded from memory allocations withinourmaingame-asset heapstood out: buffers. So we neededanothersource ofspace. for various reasons we could notusethatfor themovie-playback seeing. There wasplenty offree space available for theGPU,but same kindoffragmentation problems thatwe were already sources were eithertoo small,orelsealsosuffered from the “borrowing” memoryfrom them.However, theseotherpotential other systems sittingidle, sowe gave someconsideration to stage wasimpractical. movie playback,andtaking space awayfrom othersystems at that have enoughspare memoryavailable to setasideexclusively for and too riskyto consider defragmentation oftheheap,we didn’t the memorywe needed.However, itwastoo late intheproject blocks ofmemorythatwere neededfor full-screen movie playback. allocation heapshadmadeitimpossible to reliably allocate thelarge they were supposedto. Fragmentation withinoneofourmemory through thegamefor manyhours, movies would nottriggerwhen Toward theendofoneproject, we discovered thatafter playing Jonathan Adamczewski, InsomniacGames THE DALTON ALLOCATOR we didpublish,there were only 6bytes free! required fixes pretty quickly usedupthose98bytes. Ithinkwhen certification. Unfortunately itdidn’tpass onthefirst time,andthe a few daysbythechapsinQAbefore beingsubmitted to Segafor just 98bytes left! Thegamewasburnedonto ROMandtested for DIRTY GAMEDEVTRICKS_ 024 This gave usanidea:Whatifwe were to copy thecontents of While looking into another problem, aparticular pattern of It wasclear that whenmovies were playing, there were many We neededto find awayto besure thatwe could always get By thetimeIhadfinished, thegamefi t onto acartridge with

dg Staff get the base motion, then hacked up in a 3D animation program to a slower pace. the scenes gotgreater andgreater, butourtechnology iterated at sequences. Aswe iterated onfurthersequels,ourambitions with scenes were amixofstraightforward startgrids andfancier action I wasrunningcinematicsonalong-running racing series.Our Edward J.Douglas,Flying HelmetGames PAINTING SOUNDS was granted (probably because we were soclose). the requirement, sowe eventually hadto askfor a waiver, which screens…—5.5 secondsvoila to load anddisplay. did most ofthemenuloading while theplayer iswatching those of time.Let’s seenow—if we loaded only those two screens, and must beprevented from skippingthescreens for asetamount into themenusystem. Whatisalsoofinterest isthattheuser specific screens are displayed byyour gamebefore progressing solution dawnedonus. engineer (best problem-solving methodIhave ever found), the to load anyfaster. While discussing theproblem withanother to knockitdown to around 10seconds, but Ijust couldn’t getit knocked offover nineseconds. Manytweaks later, Ihadmanaged Surprisingly, thishadabiggerimpactthanIwasexpecting; it put offloading specific global data untilitwasactually needed. job wasto isolate whatwasrequired to displaythemenus,and screen, soIcould already feel thatheadachestarting. Myfirst selected thegameto thetimeitdisplayed thefirst presentation to present themainmenu. you still have to load awhole bunchofvisualsandsoundsinorder two orthree seconds just for itto load before you getcontrol, and four seconds. Ifyou have alarge executable, itcan take atleast game, you mustbedisplayingthefirst presentation screen within had to dealwithisthatfrom thetimeuserchoosesto runyour to cause developers problems. Onesuchrequirement thatwe’ve two “requirements” thatjust seemto benothingmore thanaway simply common senseandgoodpractices, butthere are oneor the certification headache.For themost part,certification is Anyone thathasever written agameonconsole knows about Michael Carr-Robb-John,MonolithProductions CERTIFICATION HEADACHE the project…) memory, andfailing to setasideenoughspace earlierin of thingatthestudio—of bothstashing random thingsinGPU (I’ve since discovered thatthere’s somehistory ofthiskind animation clipmemorywasusurped. as coming from “theDalton Allocator” after thecharacter whose each step oftheprocess. systems involved are safely synchronized witheachotherthrough the process doesspananumberofframes to ensure thatallthe The implementation endedupbeingfairly straightforward, though and thegameproceeded asifnothinghorrible hadhappened. copied backto where itbelonged, theanimationsystem restarted, playback system. Attheendofmovie, theanimationdata was the GPU’s memoryspace, andthememoryhandedto themovie- animation system wasswitched off,animationclipscopied into clips usedfor oneofthegame’s heroes (namedDalton). The from GPUmemorywhenthemovie finished. in theasset heapfor movie playback,copying theasset data back You see,thecars would beanimated byaQA“stunt driver” to Unfortunately, thatstill wasnotenoughto satisfytheletter of The specific console alsohasanotherrequirement thattwo My gamewastaking 26seconds from thetimeuser The memoryfor themovie system hassince beendescribed So that’s whatwe did.We chosethelargest setofanimation the background list. Ta-da! Nomore “skipped”background. :) five daysaway,soIjust stuck anextra reference to thetexture in why, even after spendingalot oftimedebugging.Deadlinewas background imageswasbeingskippedandIcouldn’t figure out show eachoneasthey scrolled across thescreen. Oneofmy I hadalist ofbackground textures, andIcoded thegameto Richard Morwood …AND ONEFOR GOODLUCK he wasthe“enginerev painter” guyfor thelatest sequel. It wasn’tlong before Irealized they never upgraded thetech, and years later Imetanaudioguywhohadjoinedthatteam after Ileft. the sametech-base for thenext sequel. we knew we’d needsomethingmore robust ifwe’d continue with it allintime.Itsoundedgreat, butafter thislast-minute hack, they drew intheanimation, exported allthescenes, andsqueezed Max, andbyusingtheirintuitionofhow rev patterns shouldlook, wanted. Afew members oftheaudioteam rushedto learn 3DS editor like 3DSMax,they could draw inthecar enginesoundsthey 3D scene. Ifanartist went inand“drew” curves inakeyframe brake metadata wasrepresented byafloat scale onacubeinthe audio, andAIengineeringteams found thesolution.Thegasand combination ofingenuityandmadness between ourcinematics, sounds, sowe were determined to make itwork. had won numerous awards for audio,especially for thecar engine so theaudioneededto beprocedural. Butbythistime,ourgames have anycar init,dependingonplayer’s choice andmodifications, post-process theaudiolike amovie, because anyscene could anymore—the data just wasn’tthere! Theaudioteam couldn’t data to drive simple audiorev samples for ourcars wouldn’t work and recorded capture. Theoldtricksofusingtheenginemeta- were very complicated, withamixofhand-animated car action The ideawasthatthiswould drive thecar audiosystem aswell. represented inmeta-data inthe3Dfile, thenreproduced in-game. including gasandbrake information from thecontroller and physics andenginebehavior. Lotsofgameplaydata wascaptured, our in-gamecinematictool where playbackwould simulate allthe adjust thetimingandplacement oftheaction,andre-exported to …Or soIthought.left thestudio after thatgame,andafew Coming onto beta, thingswere looking dicey, buta The problem came afew sequelsdown, where ourscenes smaller andawesome. avoiding thiscycle wasto quitandgowork someplace much managers, sonobodycan catch onto your ruse.Mytrickfor you needto make sure to only review people withdifferent stock grants. Iteventually becomes difficult, hetold me,because annual staff ranking, whichinturnled to larger bonuses and workers aspossible. Thisresulted inhimreceiving ahigher was to write negative performance reviews for asmanyco- employees figured outthatthebest way to advance hiscareer When Iusedto work for avery bigcompany, oneofthe Ben Burbank HR HACKS years ago,shestarted playing she’s beenhooked onsince childhoodis Chris Pruett,RobotInvader problems. Also,it’s story.] asweet fibut we gured it’s to ahandyway usejobskillsfor real-world [Editor’s note: Thisisn’t,strictlygamedev trick— speaking,adirty HONORABLE MENTION:NICESAVE talk about itshewasoffto complete anotherdungeon. all assheleft them.Shewaspretty excited, butbefore we could to find herprogress, hercharacters, herstats, andheritems strangely namedsave. Sheloaded itupandwasvery surprised booted thegameupandshowed herthecontinue menuwiththe the whole process hadtaken meaboutthree weeks. ThatnightI restored. Between ordering theDexDrive andpatching thesave, from theothersave, butonce loaded hergamewascompletely and loaded itup. broken save. ThenIsaved thisdata backto thememorycard Internet, andpasting itover theheader sectionofmywife’s copying theheaderdata from someothersave Igotoffthe it wasjust theheaderthatwasbroken. Itested thistheoryby If thecontinue menucould tell that thesave wasbusted, maybe hex), Icould tell exactly where theheaderstarted andstopped. offset from thetop ofthefile andeasyto identifyaspixel data in Because oftheplacement oftheicon (whichisataconsistent to require alot more work thanIhadplanned. proved challenging; after afew daysIdecidedthatitwasgoing save data itself. Unfortunately, decoding the raw game state data chucks ofthedata: theheader,icon image,andlastly, the written bytheauthorofaPS1emulator, Ilocated themain data comes out to alot ofpages.Working withaunofficial spec came in8kbblocks, printing8kbas16-columns ofhexadecimal and markingthehex upwithahighlighter; thoughPS1saves a PCandexamine itinahex editor. Iendedupprintingitout hand, Ithought,itcouldn’t hurtto try. the data wasirrecoverably damaged,alost cause. Ontheother up andIdidn’tactually thinkitwould bepossible. Presumably that Iwastryingto fix hersave—I didn’twantto getherhopes memory cards withaPC,on eBayfor $15.Ididn’ttell mywife was angry. Sheswore never to playgamesagain. grayed-out andcould notbeselected. Shewasdevastated. She become corrupted. Itappeared inthecontinue menu,butwas main quest), shediscovered, to herhorror, thathersave file had understand it,isaboutthree-quarters ofthewaythrough the PlayStation. After puttingabout80hours into it(which,asI My wife doesn’tplayalot ofvideogames,butoneseries Miraculously, itworked. Thecontinue menushowed stats Instead, Iconcentrated ontheheaderportionofdata. With theDexDrive, Iwasable to dumpthebroken save to I found ausedDexDrive, a device for reading andwritingPS1 DIRTY GAMEDEVTRICKS_ dg D RAGON Q D UEST RAGON dg 7 onmyaging 025 Q UEST . Afew Staff

025 game developer magazine

you’ll have to tackle themwithout GameDeveloper’s help. and layoutwhatwe seeasthegameindustry’s key changes,challenges, andopportunitiescoming inthefuture—because be able to make amagazinethatwillhelpyou out.Sowe’ve decided to pooltheGameDeveloper andGamasutra brain trusts for more compassionate development practices, allinthenameofhelpingpeople make better games. games, highlightandrecognize goodwork andnew talent, offer big-picture analysis ofindustrywide trends, andadvocate endeavored to provide a space for game creators to swap tips and techniques, speak frankly about the challenges of making For 19years now, GameDeveloper hasbornewitness to thegameindustry’s comings andgoings.Asamagazine,we have BY STAFF GAME DEVELOPER’S But GameDeveloper

SURVIVAL KIT is over. We know thatallourreaders willgoonto doamazingthingsinvideogames,butwe won’t

FOR THEFUTUREOFVIDEOGAMES GAME OVER_ June/July 2013 f 027

027 game developer magazine 028 game developer magazine It won’t beeasy. efficient andlean aspossible and hangingonto talented teams. of thegamesitmakes)—all while keeping theirdev processes as audience thatisattached to thedeveloper itself,notjust theIP from onegameto another(inotherwords, developing an in theirgames,andattracting anaudience that sticks around better jobbuildingtheirbrand, defining astronger “personality” blogs orgarage bands,while doingsomethingelseto paythebills. people willmake gamesintheirspare time,just like people start to break into theprofessional class thanitalready is now. More on theirown (andpossibly even make money from), butharder something thatisreally easyfor individuals orsmallgroups to do into similarpatterns aswriting,photography, film, andmusic: game developer jobmarket. Perhaps game development willfall pay for games. audiences andfinding new waysto convince existing audiences to will expand theoverall market for gamesbyattracting new will continue—and thattheirinnovation increativity andbusiness incredible rushofcreative energy coming from indiedevelopers kind) thattheindustry giantswon’t beable to. We thinkthatthe (both ofthebusiness kindandthecreative make games—games thattake risks more andmore people will beable to more sophisticated andeasyto use. shelf dev tools to become increasingly this trend to continue, andfor off-the- acquisition, for example); we expect problems (monetizationdesignanduser visual motif,orsolving business design envelope, creating aunique problems andmore onpushingthe less onsolving cutting-edgetech game developers generally focus teams (andmassive dev budgets). smarter withoutrelying onmassive dev to make gameslook better andplay on third-party tools andmiddleware more andmore devs to come to rely else). Toward thatend,we expect console, amobile device, orsomething that hardware isinaPC,dedicated ever more powerful hardware (whether smaller teams to take advantage of more efficient tools thatwillenable the industry willbeforced to develop hiring more dev teams, we expect that that kindofmultiyear development effort. giants capable offundingandsustaining releases peryear from thefew industry movie infilm, withonly afew major perhaps oneakinto theblockbuster will berelegated to aless central role— disappearing entirely, butwe dothinkit margins appearto begrowing narrower. We don’tseetriple-A games continue to increase even thoughtheirrespective profit dev cannot. emergence offree-to-play onlinegamesallthrive inareas triple-A mobile andsocialgames(andtheirassociated appstores), andthe of triple-A’s pie:Indies,better off-the-shelfdev tools, theriseof development over thelast few years hasendeduptaking abite out Practically everything new andinteresting to happeningame is onthewallwhenitcomes to triple-A gamedevelopment. We know we aren’t thefirst onesto saythatwe thinkthewriting TRIPLE-A, INDIES,ANDGAME DEVASAFULL-TIMEJOB GAME OVER_ 028 Studios looking to stay aheadofthischangewillhave to doa On theotherhand,thismightnotbodewell for thefull-time As gamedev tools continue to evolve, Over thelast few years, we’ve seen Instead ofmakingbiggergamesby Meanwhile, budgetsfor producing andmarketing triple-A

f _ June/July 2013 June/July 2013 of jobsspecifically categorized as “computer science andmath.” (science, technology, engineering,andmathematics), and27% Gap to Innovation” found thatwomen held 24%ofSTEMjobs Department ofCommerce called “Women in STEM: AGender point ortwo. For comparison’s sake, a2011report bytheU.S. game industry atabout89% male, give ortake apercentage in recent memory. new conversation, thoughitisperhapslouder now thanithasbeen sites, forums, Twitter, andjust abouteverywhere else.Thisisnota the gameindustry popup attrade shows andconferences, onweb Recently, we’ve seenconversations aboutinclusion,diversity, and NEW VOICES FOR VIDEOGAMES less—is notlost onus,bytheway.) on future-proofing skills—inthelast issue ofthemagazine,no seems like a losing proposition to us. all, soexpecting gamedevelopers to besimilarly multitalented expect Steven Spielberg to begoodatinventing football, after and less cross-applicable astheindustry matures. We wouldn’t drama, we suspectthatthey willonly become more specialized picture” are usually created withthesamebasictools (a conversation. Even thoughalloftheabove typesof“motion simply too broad andvague for usto actually useineveryday anything elsethathappensto contain videocontent thatwe watch. could describemovies, television, commercials, musicvideos,or display ofsomesort.Butwhentaken literally, “motionpicture” moving, andvideogamesare gamesthatyou playwithavideo literal sensepossible. Motionpictures are pictures thatare picture”; bothphrases describeamediuminthesimplest, most Think oftheterm “videogame”asanalogous to theterm “motion LEAVING “VIDEOGAMES” BEHIND Each year, ourSalarySurvey pegsthegenderratio inthe (The irony ofpeople working inprintpublishingoffering advice When itcomes down to it,theterm “motionpicture” is sport-game, oraheart-wrenching episodic a fantastic MMO,oracompetition-focused camera), andthere isoverlap intheskills when itcomes to theskillsyou needto make ins andoutsofaspecific sector ofgames; probably best served byfocusing onthe game industry? We suggest thatyou’re their skillsnow story games,andyou have theidea. competitive-eSport games,ortoy games,or or GDCspecifically devoted to developing unto itself. ImaginehavingaGameDeveloper of gamewilleventually grow into amedium than inoppositionto it—andeach“genre” traditionally passive forms ofartrather itself alongside music,film, andother of popularcommunication—integrating entertainment to become thedefacto method experiences; andsoon. spaces; someare interactive narrative some are sports;someare virtualcommunity Some gamesare virtualtoys andplaysets; and are authored withasetofsimilartools. the fact thatthey exist inavirtualspace very little incommon witheach otherbesides catchall term for allkindsofmediathathave too. “Videogames”isquickly becoming a consumption patterns, andsoon. artistic techniques, delivery mechanisms, different mediaentirely, withdifferent the different formats ofmotionpictures of “motionpicture,” we typically consider necessary to produce eachdifferent kind So, how can gamedevelopers develop We expect virtual,interactive This iswhere “videogames”are headed, to prepare for thefuture

ILLUSTRATIONS: BRENT PORTER ILLUSTRATIONS: BRENT PORTER Hollywood—but asamedium ofmass we’ve eclipsedbothrecorded music and job ofmakingmoney—as anindustry, Thus far, gameshave done anexcellent nasty when prodded to changeitsways. defensive, exclusionary, anddownright its worst, thisculture can beinsular, that isalsobymen,for men.And,at creating aculture around themedium for otheryoung mento play,you endup composed ofyoung menmakinggames like to play. Whentheindustry ishistorically make games that they themselves would people getinto thisbusiness inorder to cultural. We take itasabasictruththat for games. spend). It’s goodfor everyone, andit’s good reach for ahigheryearly per-person demographics, anddeepeninggames’ entertainment form to new consumer aspect (popularizingvideogamesasan messages andmechanics)abusiness from acreative aspect(discovering new to expand themedium’s potential both themselves andeachother,whichserves games are often makinggamesfor What’s more, thesenew voices invideo of people makingandplayinggames. has given riseto quite afew new groups games come crumblingdown, which to creating, distributing, andplaying we’re beginningto seethe barriers function performed bymen.Fortunately, games shouldbeoverwhelmingly a normative reason whycreating video STEM fields’ ratio. gender ratio istwice asbadtheoverall You read thatright:Thegameindustry’s The barrierto entryisn’ttechnical; it’s This isaproblem. There isnolegitimate perhaps, we can just start byscrutinizing to further break down thesewalls;or, institutional changesandideological shifts could meaninitiatingandencouraging open aspossible, however we can. This make videogamesasaccessible and colleagues, andourcommunity to Thank you.) of GameDeveloper, soifyou’re reading this: these people are contributors andfriends more supportive andwelcoming. (Manyof make thegame development community out there continue to dotheirhard work to continue withoutaskingthatgoodpeople on ourpartto assume thatthistrend will to that.However, itwould benegligent fits andspurts,we’re looking forward their medium,too. people whoare gradually makinggames not-male, not-straight, not-middle-class that more ofthesefolks are thenot-white, inspires usto dobetter—we’re seeing the people who dothecreative work that devs thatare admired withintheindustry— to make games.Andwhenwe look atthe not-straight, not-middle-class people start as we’ve seenmore not-white, not-male, mainstream, hascontinued to grow louder same-ness, particularly inthetriple-A we think,thatcriticismofgameindustry’s class, andsoforth. It’s nocoincidence, could besaidfor sexuality, race, economic strictly interms ofgender,butthesame don’t seethischangingsignificantly. is primarily thedomainofyoung men,we seriously. Aslong asgamedevelopment communication itstill isn’ttaken very We allowe itto ourselves, our As atrend, we expect thisto continue in We’ve framed thisconversation sofar GAME OVER_ a 1990s slap apearlescent purple coat ofpainton its role eitheroutward orinward. You can quo ofcommunity rather thanexpanding seem basedaround preserving thestatus little myopic attimes,inasmuchasthey journalists—but thesestrategies look a from theirplayer basesorrecruiting ex- have community strategies—usually hiring presentations? Manyofthebig developers straight to fans withitsNintendo Direct controls itsgameannouncements, going major platform holderthatcompletely this road bynow. WhyisNintendo theonly expected thingsto bemuchfurther along that theplayers prefer itthatway. players, butithasalsobecome quite clear take control ofyour relationship withyour obvious thatyou have theopportunityto choice here, too. Not only isitincreasingly especially portentous, butlook, you have a Developer magazine,sothismightsound so must we. Thisisthelast issue ofGame picture ofyour industry andyour career, 2013, itsure isn’t.Just like you have abig simple job,isolated from reality, butin how to write stories. Itmayseemlike a That doesn’tjust meanthatwe understand As journalists, we understand journalism. IMPORTANT COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT IS our best intentions. colleagues to behave like assholes despite ones whichmaycause ourselves orour and systematically eliminatingthe our own individualbehaviorandattitudes not areal connection. its heart.Therest ismarketing, andthat’s The truthofthematter isthatwe Q UAKE clan,butthat’s whatitis,at June/July 2013 f 029

029 game developer magazine 030 game developer magazine exception, andjobapplicants needmultiple shipped layoffs are routine, unpaidovertime isthenormrather thanthe reason we can imaginethatdevs would enter anindustry where and passion ofitsemployees. Atleast, “passion” istheonly The gameindustry issubsidizedlargely bythe enthusiasm CRUNCH, BURNOUT,LAYOFFS you don’trespect it,nooneelsewill. comes runningwiththepitchforks, defend your creative vision;if (and your future games).Atthesametime,whencommunity a strong relationship withthem.It’s aninvestment inyour future on mobile appstores, for example)—track themdown andforge access to theirplayer communities (ifyou’re publishingmostly particularly important for smaller devs whomightnothave direct for bugtracking, designideas—whatever. What’s more, thisis reach them.We’ve seendevelopers usecommunity members you, whatthey like aboutyour game,whothey are, and how to very specifically abouthow your community likes to interact with or manipulate itfor short-term gain.You shouldbethinking figuring outhow to best harness it,notjust communicate to it is ahugeasset across allvectors, andyou needsmartpeople waking upto theideaofcrowdfunding—fine. Butyour community doesn’t allhave to bedoneinonespecific way. People are now GAME OVER_ 030 This work doesn’tallhave to bedonebythebigguys,andit

f June/July 2013 end ofagame.We don’tthinkit’s worth it.Andsoonerorlater, and family timemissed byevery person inthelist ofcredits atthe cost ofgamedevelopment can bemeasured infriendshipslost down andthinkthatitsimply isn’tworth itanymore. Thehuman for TheLove OfTheGame,butatsomepointyou willprobably sit young andhungry,you mightbewillingto putupwiththebullshit other industries are willingto treat thembetter. Whenyou’re people. Smart,hardworking people eventually figure outthat fresh gameprogram grads, butit’s alousy thingto do. You can probably getawaywithit,thanksto ayearly crop of rely onunpaidovertime to ship, you can’t usethatasanexcuse. software dev projects ishard, butonce your projects routinely to bringinmore funding.Make adifferent game.Budgetingfor cheaper. Findawayto useaprototype orminimumviable build overworking your employees, can’t you afford to make it.Make it this isunsustainable andwrong. still sometimesworn asaperverse badgeofpride—andwe think normal partofastandard gamedevelopment cycle—one thatis the “EASpouse”days.Butcrunchisstill seenasarelatively level positions. titles andyears ofexperience undertheirbeltseven for entry- Game developers, byandlarge, are smart,hardworking Here’s thedeal:Ifyou can’t afford to make agamewithout For somedevs, working conditions have gotten better since specialties related to different aspects QA specialists could goonto develop right people attherighttime. Career feedback andtesting reaches the process, soasto make sure theright in different stages ofthedevelopment methodologies and incorporating them by buildingvastly improved testing see studios develop acompetitive edge compensated assuch—we could easily worth staying infor itsown sake—and this way. IfQAwasseenasafield magazine. we rarely address itelsewhere inthe like we dofor otherdev disciplines,and we don’tpublisharegular QAcolumn as therest oftheindustry, inthatregard; work. We admitthatwe’re just asguilty entire caste ofpeople meant to domenial “internship”; gamedev hascreated an In anyotherindustry, thisiscalled an they getrouted into adifferent discipline. that happensto most QAfolks isthat end, thepayisawful,andbest thing QA getsnorespect. It’s acareer dead rest ofthegameindustry. from describing QA’s relationship to the treats hisservant elf,butit’s notthatfar discussing how anotherpowerful wizard This quote isfrom apowerful wizard he treats hisinferiors, not hisequals.” what aman’s like, take agoodlook at how to want know “Ifyou the Goblet of Fire: J.K. Rowling’s Potter bookHarry and think themost quotable version isfrom by observinghow they treat others; we how onecan judgeanother’s character Many smartpeople have spoken about MAKE QABETTER interests inmind.) your overwork donothave your best that thepeople whostand to profit from colleagues’ aswell. (Also,we suspect health andyour relationships, butyour has deleterious effects onnotonly your overwork, especially whenthatculture people shouldbeproud ofaculture of and family. Andwe especially don’tthink over otherimportant things,like friends it’s agoodthingto value your work ethic worth beingproud of. Butwe don’tthink walks outthedoorwiththem. amazing gamethey could have made we let dev talent leave theindustry, every specifically for. When games buildingyour and expertise they’ve cultivated office, you’re losing alltheexperience When you let dev talent leave your studio industry backfrom aqualitystandpoint. crunch, burnout,andlayoffs holdsthe so on. down, start families, buyhouses,and especially once they’re looking to settle we find thatmanydevs tend to agree, The thingis,itdoesn’thave to be Fact is,inmost ofthegames industry, A strong work ethic is a fine thing, and What’s more, theendless cycle of with anartist oraudiodesignerto more dedicated QAveteran working intandem of gamedevelopment. Imaginehavinga that likes you enough to take you onasa contract giguntilyou can find astudio hopping around from contract gigto drudge work for low pay,andalot of QA islargely characterized byendless point for theindustry. Asadiscipline, seems like acold, capitalist version of that likes you enough to take you onasa contract giguntilyou can find astudio hopping around from contract gigto drudge work for low pay,andalot of QA islargely characterized byendless point for theindustry. Asadiscipline, fraternity hazing. seems like acold, capitalist version of some ofthestories we’ve heard, QA (we too were interns once), butfrom amount ofdues-payinginthebeginning that every profession demands acertain programmer orartist. We can appreciate industry ifyou aren’t already awhiz the defacto pointofentryfor thegames making QAaslog—especially when it’s we thinkthere’s areal humancost to significant boost on a studio’s bottom line. properly investing inQAwould have a issues), we don’tthinkit’s impossible that heavily affected bybugsandrelease-day changed review scores andthusis performance (whichdoesn’tallow for are tyingbonusesto Metacritic Considering more andmore publishers balance issues, andyou have theidea. QA specialist devoted to hominginon design or audiomalfunctions,agame efficiently ferret outgraphical glitches with anartist oraudiodesignerto more dedicated QAveteran working intandem of gamedevelopment. Imaginehavinga Think ofitthisway:QAistheentry Think ofitthisway:QAistheentry Beyond themoney stuff, though, GAME OVER_ _ June/July 2013 June/July 2013 f 031 031

031 game developer magazine 032 game developer magazine that indies andsmallstudios aren’t turned awayfrom including mobile games(andcompete withPCs);accessible enoughto devs offer gameexperiences thatclearly separate console games from and convenience. The next console must bepowerful enough to compete witheachother’s platform onvalue, openness, power, we’ll presume thatthey’re inthesame“maybe”boat. their iPads instead). Andbarringadrastic changefrom Microsoft, when early adopters spendtheircash (andmainstreamers play launch. For now theanswer is“maybe,”inthenear-term anyway, its gameunitto increase inthe next fiscal year thanksto PS4’s plenty ofPlayStation 4s?Thecompany expects dollarsales of this shrinkingpiece ofconsole pie.Socan we trust Sonyto move on theotherfront willbeNintendo andMicrosoft, fighting over core audiences willbeplayingSteam games ononefront, and have to compete against increasingly TV-friendly PCs,whose as dev-friendly asitmightbe,we thinkthatnew consoles will developers, even rightnow before theconsole haslaunched.But architecture, andseemingly strong relations withbigand small initial details: Ithasplenty offast RAM,anx86processor, PC PlayStation 4:Sonyseemsto have donewell sofar withthe Nintendo 3DSandsmartphones. it ispriced atalevel thatforces itto compete against boththe giving developers agoodreason to make agamefor it,because this thingistanking, andthesmallinstalled baseisjust not to PlayStation Plus’s well-played digital business model.But not theleast ofwhichisitsnice hardware, andanetwork tied consoles—the PlayStation Vita. Ithassomethingsgoingfor it, that mightalsoserve asamicrocosm for thedecliningstate of of theconsole business. gun-shy. Nintendo’s notmakingthebest argument for thefuture turn, iscausing traditional publishers like EAandActivisionto feel is doingjust fine), isbehindNintendo’s own expectations. This,in slowly after itslaunchwithaprice drop (andwhichmanyassume a small-town weatherman. Even the3DS,whichcourse-corrected operating losses sohard thatNintendo missed theirforecasts like with anemphatic“no”rightnow withtheWiiU,whichisdriving makers isalready answering thequestion. Nintendo’s answering to move hardware units?Theoldguard oftraditional hardware video gameconsole. confidence inusaboutthelong-term viabilityofthededicated and thelatest hardware launchessurely are notinstilling , e n fihardware unitsandfi y ght offcompetition from emerging platforms, l t c e f consoles ultimately relies onwhetherthesecompanies can move r e p ’s screw t thingsuptoo muchfor you. Except your success ongame i d n a , w o n t h g i r t i asshole.” g n i d i r “No it’s not,look. I’magoodcyclist, I’m “Your bike isdoomed, myfriend.” you your bike isdoomed—while you’re ridingit. saying “consoles are doomed”to you isakinto someonetelling biggest franchise, thebiggest marketing resources. Sosomeone top oftheconsole food chain,withallofthepremier talent, the you’re annoyed because you know you’re inastudio that’s on If thatsentimentannoys you, thenmaybeyou’ll beokay. Maybe CONSOLES ARELOSING THECONSOLEWAR frequent layoffs. We don’tthink this isacoincidence. QA—long hours withrelatively low hourly pay,andalarmingly at thelaborissues thatextend across theentire industry, notjust of drudgework for low money andminimaljobsecurity. Now look have already established thatthey’re willingto work long hours it follows thatthepeople whomadeitinto theindustry through QA QA lead orentry-level inadifferent discipline.Logically speaking, GAME OVER_ 032 In order for consoles to stand achance, they’ll needto As for future homeconsoles onthehorizon,like the There’s anotheryoung console, albeitonethat’s handheld, Ask yourself this:CanMicrosoft, SonyandNintendo betrusted You maybefine, aslong asMicrosoft, Sony,andNintendo don’t

f June/July 2013 June/July 2013 won’t beable to usethese pagesto helpitalong anymore. this industry, initsfuture, anditsimmensecreative power. We just worth ofGame Planeditorials. Make nomistake: We believe in So, that’s where we stand—consider this feature to beafew years’ STEPPING DOWN FROMTHESOAPBOX Consoles maybedoomed,butyour career maystill bebright. and your skillssoyou can survive: You are your own life raft. into consideration whatyou need to doto diversify your business till themarket isready for “full-core”!). Ifyou’re notalready, take growing fast withmore “mid-core” developers risingup(just wait this starting to happeninthemobile market, andthatinitiative is that experience won’t beonaconsole platform. We already see People willstill wantto payfor the“console experience,” even if developers shouldtake note rightnow thatit’s notallbadnews. play arole inlots ofheadachesandheartaches for ourreaders, (as we know them)willcertainly have adifﬁcult future andwill few years. pace thesedays,we don’tthinkit’llgetanyeasierover thenext an uphillbattle already, andgiven technology’s lightning-quick recent overtures toward indiedevs, for example) butitlooks like that thisisanimpossible task (see:PlayStation PlusandSony’s Steam sales and99-cent appstore price points.We don’tthink smartphones, for that matter); all while competing in price against convince players to turnto theirTVs instead oftheirPCs(or those consoles ontheirnew, cool stuff; convenient enoughto On thebrightside,even thoughthebusiness ofconsoles f

0034034 game developer magazine POSTMORTEM_ 034

pm June/July 2013 ourselves thatwe could deliver theentirety ofthe technical andcreative forces. TheMPteam rekindled our“underdog” spirit—we neededto prove to critics,players, and internal dev teams yet. right onthisproject—careful hiringpaysoffinthelong term, andhasled to one ofthestrongest Santa Monica Studio members still felt like they could bringtheircontributions to thetable, even aswe grew. Thisissomethingthatwent very things. Thisnew life issomethingthatwe don’ttake for granted, andwe hadto work hard to make sure thatallteam able to find key contributors inalldisciplinesandatlevels ofseniority. push, working inconjunction withon-site talent acquisition staff whohelpedexecute ourrigorous interview process, we were example), andleadership expertise inorder to successfully deliver theproject we haddefined. Through anaggressive hiring dramatically. We acknowledged early onthatwe required avariety ofnew skills(multiplayer engineeringanddesign,for Development started almost immediately after thecompletion of player MULTIPLAYER BROUGHTNEWLIFETO THEFRANCHISEThedecisionto addmultiplayer to thetraditionally single- WHAT WENT over thecourse ofbuildingthisgame. postmortem reflects someofthethingsthatwent right,someofthethingsthatwent wrong, andthekey lessons we learned Santa Monica Studiosteam’s key strengths to complete theproject ontime,withinbudget,andto ourqualitystandards. This G helped create theoriginal expertise forced usto reconsider how we madegames,andinsomeways,itenabled usto return to theprinciples that slightly shortofthenear-universal critical acclaim for Ultimately, theproduct succeeded onmanyfronts, establishing astrong multiplayer gamewithinthefranchise, butfell of thepriorgame—deliver somethingbigger,better, andmore awe-inspiring while addingsomethingnew to thefranchise. something uniqueabouttheteam, process, andproducts we create. members whohave left briefly for stints elsewhere intheindustry have returned to SMS,acknowledging thatthere is senior leaders are team members whohave beenhere from thevery beginningoftheteam. Over time,anumberofteam NEW HIRESBROUGHTLIFETO THETEAMInthepast, SonySanta Monica hasgrown from within;manyofour strongest advocates. and after ourMPBeta, we hadconverted legions offans whohadeitherbeenonthefence oroutrightopposedto itinto our the MPgameoutrightbefore even tryingit.People ontheteam have never beenmore passionate aboutproving something, “tacked on”(critics’ words, notours) MPadditionsto othergames,thiswasanextremely difficult task, asmanydismissed OD Our newer team members bringwiththemafresh outlook andoffer experience orideasonhow we can improve Over thecourse ofdevelopment, we faced anumberofuniquechallenges, butwe managedto take advantage ofthe For

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0035035 game developer magazine 036 game developer magazine to exceed thecomplexity oftheintroductory sequence from or Poseidon. For theHecatonchires sequence, theteam sought not exist withoutsequences from priorgameslike Cronos, Gaia, the game,andFury Monster attheendofgame,would gameplay spectacles, like theHecatonchires atthebeginningof of f Franchise development team. project, havingtaken great care insupportingthefranchise andthe marketing and PRteams are clear partners inthesuccess ofour as ours was,went smootherthanonanyotherproject. Our buy-in and team support. Having a clear master plan, as aggressive communicating itoutward to allterritories, andgettingglobal of course, but we were able to reduce thembyhavingaplanand requests are normalfor alot ofthemarketing and PRprocess, seat ofourpantsto supportlast-minute requests. Last-minute wanted to support,instead offeeling like we were flyingbythe we worked together early onto definean overall planthat we information andinteraction more thanithadever beenbefore. com, andmake sure thatourwebsite became adestination for game artmotif,butwe alsolooked to completely rework godofwar. accomplish. We revamped ourvisualcampaign to tieinto thekey our plates to make agamethatwould live upto whatwe setoutto done before, butthey alsorespected theamountofwork we hadon raring to gowithideasonhow to pushtheboundariesofwhatwe’d and stayed consistent through theentire project. Theteams were outstanding relationships withmarketing andPRthatstarted early G S on systems from priorgames. magics, for example—were thedirect result ofadesire to improve were added—includingnew navigationmechanics,ortheblade peak ofthePS3generation. Further, thegameplayinnovations that continually pushingthequalitybar. of how to create thesesequences, we were able to focus on strengths ofthepriorgamesandleveraging theteam’s knowledge the software, butafundamental changeinhow we plannedfor important changefrom thistesting wasnottheimprovement to deploy fixes for, andthen monitor inalive environment. Themost revealing successive layers ofissues thatwe would address, testing infall 2012.Thebeta testing proceeded asexpected, manageable, andpeople can still playwhile we address them. certainly discovered afew issues post-launch, they have been we were buttoned upin thewildbefore launching.While we have multiplayer wasnew to most ofus,we wanted to make sure that to thevolume ofplayers we’d see once thegamelaunched. Since game would holdupto thescrutinyofadedicated fanbase, and chance to validate thatthesystem andgamedesignfor theMP as an E or trong MarketingandP arly MP lobal postmortem_ 036 W While supportingthesethingstook timefrom ourseniorleads, Critics have universally hailed thevisualsingameas We released ourgame inMarch 2013,butwe started beta ar I nnovation andQuality E III volving S , whichwasamassive challenge. Bybuildingonthe trategy and T esting Forced S trengths Provided a

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take, pre-production for previous game,andexperiments withnew directions we didn’t pre-production time.Between “allhandsondeck”to finishthe later thanwe would have liked, andwe lost outoninvaluable W into place way earlierontheproject. those thingsthatIslappedmyforehead over andwishedwe’d put others whowere working inthesameareas. Thiswasoneof individual ownership, aswell asresponsibility to notlet down disciplines, aswell asbetween artanddesign.Italsocreated running, butitalsohelpedwithcommunication intherespective day’s fixes. Notonly didthishelp keep everything together and by dinner. entire level bylunch,andthendesignwould gatherandplaytest and cameras for design.Artwould gatherandplaytest the on behalfoftherespective teams. Thisincludedlightingfor art example, we hadakey artist andakey designergatherchanges stayed stable, butthatthegameasawhole didn’tbreak. For so we neededto make sure thatnotonly thelevels themselves finishing touches in.Thebuilds were locked atthatpoint,as well, and make sure thelevels stayed functionalaswe were puttingthe leads to gatherthemassive volume offixes completed inaday areas ofthegame,like Cronos, for example. In thepast we hadcreated smallpodsto work onvery specific to changeuphow we hadapproached completion onpriorgames. all done.There wasstill alot ofwork to bedone,andwe needed drove ourdevelopment tasking aswe closed inonrelease. gave usinsightinto how we shouldprioritizefor key features, and any changeswe implemented. Also,thelive testing environment also developed therightsystems to monitor, log, andinterpret coordinate withinternal technology partners withinSony. We them through infrastructure (testing, certification, patching), and team’s workflow to enable them to quickly iterate onfixes, deploy supporting thegameonce itwent live. We haddesignedthe of finalizing process, andthe reality isthat planning for thenext. We holdto avery highstandard duringour L S S C to telling anew entirely new project. Ourexcitement ultimately came backaround and itdidhave adetrimental impact ontheentirety oftheproject. when we began. Thisproved to bevery difficult to recover from, Todd Papy (game director) andseniorleadership wanted itto be for thenext project wasavery bigchallenge. Attheendof on ourselves, andit allcomes together intheend. every partrequires alevel ofprideandperfection thatonly we put focus andallhandsondeckto finish. i trong” Bytheendofgame,we neededto focus andgetit hortened Pre-Production ross-Functional hat m W At theendofday,we hadacompleted level withthat We determined thateachlevel neededkey designandart Balancing thatkindofsingularfocus against pre-production itations Asoneproject ends,it’s important to begin a We r

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we knew thatwhatever we didhadto beawesome and knew we wanted to domore thanaddaco-op bot,andmost ofall, on abunchofplayable Kratos characters inacompetitive arena. We constraints wideopen.We knew thatwe wanted to domore thantack established multiplayer gameplaygenre. have beenidentified asunsuccessful, earlier,ifthishadbeenan rules—some ofwhichwere successful, andmanyofwhichwould team members whohadthatexperience, sowe created ourown We hadnever attempted multiplayer, andwe didn’thave alot of what thatmeantinterms ofcreative andtechnical resources. We knew thatwe wanted to tackle multiplayer, butwe didn’tknow THE ROAD TO MULTIPLAYER WAS LONGER THANEXPECTED understood thescope andeffort neededto finish them. should have putmore timeinto theseelements upfront, andbetter to polishitsufficiently. Intheend,we learned thehard waythatwe time the system was fully implemented, we didn’t have enough time animation, environment art,design,andengineering,bythe in priorgames,revising thissystem required additionaleffort from disruptive approach would, inhindsight,have beenbetter. game were more delineated than wasinitially expected, andaless effort. Ultimately, thesingle-player andmultiplayer partsofthe had hoped,sowe lost oflot ofmechanicdevelopment timeinthat was amuchbiggerundertaking, anditdidn’tgoassmoothly aswe therefore hadto work alongside thesingle-player campaign. That to allow for onlineplay,whichwasinitially assumed to beco-op and navigation code wassomethingthatwe hadto completely change those mechanicsuntilwell after key deadlines.Ourentire player rewrites thattook longer thanexpected, andwe couldn’t deliver features, notleast ofwhichwasmultiplayer, required substantial Chacko, were splitbetween single-player andmultiplayer. multiplayer orsingle-player, somekey leaders, includingTodd and While we hadthemajorityofteam fully dedicated to either specific issues requires dedicated leadership for eachgametype. two separate games. Theamountofattention required for mode- building amultiplayer gamealong withsingle-player islike making TEAMS SLOWED PROGRESS Asanyone who’s builtoneknows, SHARED LEADERSHIPFOR SINGLE-ANDMULTIPLAYER continue to hone theexperience through patches andDLC. the end,however, we’re really happywithwhatwe shipped,andwe final multiplayer game,andwe tweaked itrightupuntilAlpha.In and publicthatwe really found theheartofwhatwould become our wanted. Itwasn’tuntiljust before ourfirst showing to thepress a co-op pathandrealized that itjust wasn’tgoingto bewhatwe we alldidn’tagree onwhatthegameshouldbe. would berequired to successfully realize thatvision. Ontop ofthat, would take to make thegamewe envisioned,andhow manypeople too smalluponthestart. Whatwe didn’tknow washow muchwork it in itsepicness. Whatwe didn’tknow wasthatevery ideawould feel While manyofthesystems thatwere improved for TECHNICAL DEBTDELAYED DELIVERYOFKEYMECHANICS A SCENSION When we started thinkingaboutmultiplayer, we left the While thewall-navigationsystem wasultimately smootherthan So we ventured onanddid a lot ofprototyping. We started down builtuponsuccessful systems from priorgames,some G OD G

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W OF AR W : AR GOD OFWAR: CONCLUSION Intheend, and ouraudience. the storytelling ambitionswe hadhopedto deliver to bothourselves and theseniorleadership learned agreat dealon better, more robust planningandprioritizationupfront. Theteam Ultimately, we found thesolutionto ourchallenges lieswith communication between team members indifferent disciplines. moments in cost ofnarrowing ourstory-telling vision.We’re proud ofsomany “epic” momentsandsetpieces. Unfortunately, this came atthe to retain ourprimaryfocus onthegame’s biggest moments—those previous games.Aswe closed inonfinishing thegame,we decided critical thatwe alsofind waysto top thejaw-dropping setpieces of story—and thekindofstory we were tryingto tell—it wasalways As important asitwasfor usthatwe find new waysto tell the “Epic Moments”provided anunexpectedly complex challenge. met thatcriteria, too. We felt goodaboutthedirection. Thestory andscriptasawhole prototyped visualcuesthatwe played withatthestart ofthegame. substance to experience. We hadalot ofinitialideasandeven Kratos’s storyline, givingtheplayers more context and emotional the waywe told thestory, andtryto godeeperemotionally with TRADITION OF“EPICMOMENTS”We really wanted to change STRUGGLING TO BALANCESTORY ANDTHESERIES game director. that pressure andlackofleadership from thelead producer and rolling, butwe can imagineitwasvery frustrating for themto have everything. Luckily, ourteam wasable to keep thevarious balls resulted inslower decision-makingthandesired onmost multiplayer suffered. single-player E3debut,we endedupplayingcatch up,andthen time we refocused onto single-player andtoward ourbig player gamegotvery little seniorleadership attention. Bythe getting multiplayer ready for that.Duringthattime,thesingle- exclusively featured amultiplayer reveal, ourentire focus wason respectively, for internal Monica. development Santa at Sony Whitney Wade andChacko are Sonny theseniorproducer anddirector, *** A experience from concept to onlineimplementation. Allinall, production process, andthetruescope ofadedicated multiplayer a better functionalunderstanding ofourdeeply integrated multiplayer community. opened new doors for thefranchise withavibrant, active in terms oftheirmultiplayer experience), andalso Studio to grow (bothasindividual devs andcollectively asateam, became astrong additionto theseries,achance for Santa Monica our new projects. even now we’re incorporating thekey lessons into ourprocess on SCENSION Finding therightbalance ofstory andtheseries’ staple We juggled thiswaythrough theentire project, whichalso As we were gettingready for ourbigpress announce, which Our key takeaways over thecourse oftheproject were required atremendous amountofcoordination and A SCENSION pm POSTMORTEM_ , butthefinished gamedidmiss manyof G OD June/July 2013 pm

OF W 037 AR A SCENSION : A : SCENSION , and

037 game developer magazine GOD OF WAR:

becoming thenorm,higher- the computer. WithHDdisplays tablet updates thedata sentto refresh rate ishow fast the send to thecomputer, andthe amount ofdata thetablet can per inch(lpi),measures the Resolution, measured inlines tablets start at2048levels. In general, professional-grade now whensculptingdigitally. with opacityandcolor, and width linesorstrokes, working play whendrawing variable- pressure sensitivitycomes into the tablet can pickup.Typically, specifies how muchpressure the penstylus hasnoeraser. There isnotiltsensitivity,and 200 pictures persecond (PPS). resolution, andarefresh rate of 4000 lines-per-inch(LPI) levels ofpressure sensitivity, specs weigh inasfollows: 1024 range. Thetablet’s relevant sized tablet—a popularsize which makes itamedium- Monoprice is10x6.25inches, The drawing area ofthe MEETING THEMONOPRICE not have aspecific name,sofor thepurposesofthisreview, we’ll simply call theMP1060-HA60tablet “theMonoprice.” HA60) asachoice for new artists looking to diptheirtoes into computer illustration. Note thattheMonoprice Graphic Drawing Tablet does with acomputer. NoCGstudio iscomplete withoutone. Tablets are analternative to themouse,andto somedegree thekeyboard, andassuch,they mayrelieve therepetitive stresses ofworking Graphics tablets have become ubiquitous because, simply put,they make drawing, painting,oreditingwithacomputer feel natural. Stylus requires AAA battery 3 Cheapconstruction 2 Low resolution and low 1 CONS: Generally works well 3 Simple to use 2 Inexpensive 1 PROS: Mac OS10.4.0(orlater) (SP3, 32-or64-bitversions), Windows 7,Vista orXP SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: $47 PRICE: www.monoprice.com (MP1060-HA6) Graphic Drawing Tablet Pressure sensitivity So whichtablet shouldyou purchase? Inthisreview, we’ll take alook atMonoprice’s budget-friendly Graphic Drawing Tablet (MP1060- pressure-sensitivity levels multiple displays,and while starters, itdoesnot support a few clear drawbacks. For generally performs well, ithas were abitmore apparent. the Monoprice’s shortcomings sensitivity makes, meaning difference thathigherpressure strokes, itiseasierto seethe Illustrator produces vector strokes. However, because produce nice variable-width with thePaintbrush tool to the tablet alsoworked well from producing excellent work.) didn’t stop computer artists pressure sensitivity,andthat were limited to 1024 levels of professional-quality tablets (Think ofitthisway:Years ago, and thatofhigher-endtablets. the Monoprice’s performance notice anydifference between and only atrained eye would Monoprice performed very well, it withAdobePhotoshop, the it’s abadtablet. WhenItested Of course, thisdoesn’tmean TESTING THETABLET than itscompetitors. comes inabitcheaper($47) consumer-level tablet that the Monoprice isamidrange comes to specsandfeatures, end BambooCreate. Whenit ($80) instead ofthehigh- the Connect($80)orSplash more basicBambootablets like groups theMonoprice with the a peneraser ortiltsensitivity Intuos 5).However, thelackof Intuos 3(thecurrent release is Bamboo tablets oraWacom the consumer lineofWacom Monoprice isequivalent to pressure sensitivity,the are better. resolution andfaster tablets While theMonoprice In AdobeIllustrator, Thus, at1024levels of produces tablet components for tablets underitsown nameand an Asianfirm thatbothsells manufacturer isUC-Logic, manufacturer. Infact, the of thistablet, notthe Monoprice isthedistributor years ofuseandabuse. are tough andbalanced to take constructed, andWacom pens tablets are sturdy andwell unit. Instark contrast, Wacom uneasy feeling abouttheentire which againgives onean does notfit thepenvery well, damaged. Even thepenholder can beeasily andpermanently while swapping outbatteries it if you don’thandle itproperly feels poorly constructed, and bottom. Thepenstylus also upper case andathinmetal flimsy, withacheapplastic Overall, theMonoprice feels leaves muchto bedesired. construction oftheMonoprice BUILD QUALITYThegeneral find abetter stylus. pens, soitmaybepossible to does work withafter-market tablet. However, theMonoprice the pensendssignalsto the uses anactive system inwhich user inputs,theMonoprice use apassive system to detect unlike Wacom tablets, which pen requires abattery isthat unbalanced. Thereason the battery, anditfeels bulkyand stylus requires asingle AAA other tablet drivers installed. drivers don’twork ifthere are gimmicky anyway. Thetablet Windows 7or8,andit’s pretty Monoprice doesnotwork in software thatshipswiththe problem. Most ofthebundled limitation, it’s still amajor you can work around this As mentionedbefore, Also, theMonoprice pen MONOPRICE GRAPHICS DRAWING TABLET TOOLBOX_ simple graphics tasks. a cheaptablet for occasional pick for non-artists whoneed perfectly. It’s alsonotabad of $47targets thataudience artist, anditsbargain price hobbyist computer graphics well suited for theamateur or on high-endworkstations. professional work, especially is muchbetter suited for Wacom lineofIntuostablets hold upto everyday use.The think itsconstruction would and workstations, andIdon’t the features inmoderndisplays antiquated to take advantage of its technology isjust too good work withtheMonoprice, While itispossible to produce professional-quality tablets. for everyday work, stick to who dependsonatablet illustrator/designer/editor it. Ifyou are aprofessional on whatyou’d like to dowith your studio dependslargely Monoprice isagoodpickfor TABLET Whetherthe A SOLIDSTARTER-LEVEL will beoutdated soon. tablets usingitscomponents does notupdate itstechnology, It isasafe betthatifUC-Logic appearance andperformance. identical to theMonoprice in its components are nearly decade, asoldertablets using changed inthebetter partofa tablet technology hasnot it appears asthoughUC-Logic different brands. Unfortunately, Artists asother CGtitles. aswell Essential Tools andTechniques for title Digital SculptingwithMudbox: writer. He’s theco-author of therecent medical illustrator, instructor, and FLORMIKE DELA isafreelance *** However, theMonoprice is Mike DeLaFlor t 039 t

039 game developer magazine 040 game developer magazine don’t devote nearly enoughtimeor resources to givingthese some improvements andafew clever implementations, we still special effects. Today thatcall remains. While there have been August2000 about ImplicitSurfaces,” Brian Sharp,“Moving Fluid: TheConclusionof aTwo-part Series are admittedly someobstacles withthistechnique.” actually drop thisinto your engine inanhourandahalf;there All jokingaside,though,Idon’twant to imply thatyou could games, better lava, better liquid in general, andIwantitnow. game today. Iwantto beclear aboutthis:Iwantbetter water in “The obviousnext step isto take thistechnique andputitinyour that willjust make itworse. out of10,aprogrammer willaddnew constraints to theproblem problems instead ofsimply theoneathand.Indoingso,ninetimes attempt to make solutionstoo generic,inorder to tryto solve all having better context. Itremains acommon programmer error to “Play Management,” byFebruary Memory Play: Effective 2002 Brian Hixon, RobMoore, DanielMartin, Greg Richard Schaefer, Wifall, manager accordingly.” know theneedsofyour gameandcan tailor thememory “The ultimate weapon ofgameprogrammers iscontext. You invite you to draw your own conclusions. everyone agreed with,Iwouldn’t really besayinganythingatall!I opinions onthosechoices, ofcourse—but ifIonly saidthingsthat discuss withyou. Noteveryone willagree withmychoices ormy of theselessons from backissues ofGameDeveloper to share and time to examine how they are still applicable andrelevant today. not to throw outallthehard-earned lessons ofthepast andtake change is around every corner. That being said, we should take care 15 years’ time.Andthepace ofchangeisever increasing. Radical the samekindsofsystems inthesamewaysthey’re coding now in the samewaysthey coded 15years ago;fewer still expect to code rapid change.Very few people code thesamekindsofsystems in Game programming hasalways beenadiscipline thatembraces A TECHTALK RETROSPECTIVE INNER PRODUCT, REVIEWED INNER PRODUCT_ 040 Ten years ago,BrianSharpcalled for better ﬂuids andbetter There are very few problems thatcannot bebetter solved by For thisﬁnal installment ofInnerProduct, Ihave chosenafew

ip Mike Acton it’s ever been. Andit’s always been true.However, it’s also truethat 1995 Matt Pritchard, “Ten Techniques for Faster February ImageDrawing,” calls ittakes to draw onescreen orimage.” code. Useinlinecode orfunctionsinstead. Thinkabouthow many “Do notcall aseparate pixel-plotting routine inimage-drawing now thanit’s ever been. Javascript UIs,thebarfor improving performance ismuchlower the abstraction tax isreadily paidthrough scriptinglanguagesand assembly, andthatwillremain thecase. However, inaworld where remain sofor sometime.Agreat dealofcode isstill written in of data. Instruction-level performance isstill important, andwill The biggest optimizationopportunitiesare inproper management performance andmemoryperformance ismuch,muchwider. constraints. about thedata (context) whichthecompiler cannot know, orABI performant thanitsCorC++equivalent, mostly dueto knowledge where it’s very easyto write anassembly routine thatismuchmore that significantly. There remains asignificant percentage ofcases Compilers andoptimizationapproaches have notimproved all I would suggest thisclaimwould belargely unchangedtoday. 1994 Alexander Antoniades, “Monsters from theId:TheMakingof because oftoday’s better algorithmtechnology.” language, Carmacksayshecould write Wolfenstein faster inC main raycasting trace inWolfenstein waswritten inassembly it would only make thegame15%faster. And,althoughthe could managetheoverhead correctly, Carmacktheorizes “If allof doesn’t make enoughdifference to thefinal game. mostly, it’s dueto thesamereason itwasdueto 10years ago:It general solutionsto problems thatdeserve aspecific solution.But the problem posedintheprevious quote—we tryto find over- effects aproper treatment inmost games.Partially that’s dueto Where there isone,there are many. That’s more truetoday than That said,onethinghaschanged:Thegapbetween instruction Notwithstanding thenonsensephrase “algorithmtechnology,” D OOM waswritten inassembler andtheprogrammer D OOM ,” rewrite, which late inproduction isimpossible to justify. Instead, in thesystems thatitcannot befixed late inproduction withouta deeply through thefundamental designchoices and abstractions time spentwaiting for data. Thisbottleneck isusually spread so and systems around that knowledge asbest you can. exist onyour devices, andit’s poor practice to notdesignyour data understand whatever caching anddata transfer hardware may redundantly.] There issimply nogoodexcuse notto deeply to best utilizethem hasnever beenmore important. [Reads Chris Hecker, Miscellanea,” “Memory October/November 1995 more difficult thanyou mightthink.” This mayseemobvious,butkeeping your data in the cache is how to putyour important data inthecache andkeep itthere.’ processor cache andmemorybandwidth,itmeans,‘Figure out optimize onmodernprocessors. Ifwe apply thisideato the processor cache, thisisarule to live bywhenyou’re tryingto caching.’ AlthoughTerje isn’ttalking specifically aboutthe says, ‘All programming can bethoughtofasanexercise in and misunderstanding. AfriendofminenamedTerje Mathisen “The processor cache isusually anobjectofgreat fear, wonder, bits, it’s usually better to teach itinstead. end upwithvery poorsystems. Instead oftryingto hidethemathy statistics andalgebra atthevery least, andthosethatdonotoften poor results—if nottears. efforts to hidethatfrom themhave more often thannotendedin the fundamentals ofalgebra, trigonometry,andgeometry. Andthe Artists cannot write goodshaders withoutunderstanding atleast it. Notjust from programmers, butfrom allgamedevelopers. But more thanthat,we have learned thatyou simply cannot hide today asitwasin1995to understand atleast thefundamentals. June/July 1995 Chris Hecker, “Perspective Texture Mapping,Part II:Rasterization,” graphics, especially three-dimensional computer graphics.” hide thefact thatmathunderlieseverything aboutcomputer describe themathinanaccessible way,butI’mnotgoingto the most part,soI’mnotsure whatto tell you. Mygoalisto “If you don’tlike math,well, computer graphics ismathfor re-used aclass inaninappropriately genericway. problem well. Noplayer isgoingto give you kudosbecause you problem withamore specific solution.Thegoalisto solve the Other times,it’s much,muchbetter to solve themore specific Sometimes, thesametool can beusedmanytimesto dothat. programmers isto transform data from oneform to another. February 1995 Matt Pritchard, “Ten Techniques for Faster ImageDrawing,” functionality thatyou don’tneed.” can choosethevariables you encode asconstants andremove hard-coded values instead ofgeneral-purpose routines. You “For frequently drawn images,usespecific routines with maintainability, testability, andgoodsense. all “act”independently andconspire to sabotage performance, even hundreds ofroutines are assigned to individual“objects”that transformation costs are ignored byprogrammers, anddozensor of object-oriented programming), theactualdata modelsand more thanever before (given thespectacularly disastrous success The most likely bottleneck inanygame istheaccumulated The importance ofhardware caches andunderstanding how Designers cannot designgoodsystems withoutunderstanding Math remains attheheartofwhatwe do.It’s asimportant Another reminder that“generic”isnotagoal.Thework of things look “real”—a brick on concerned withtryingto make we weren’t so generally and real-time feedback—if provide cluesandsignals indicate thingsfor theplayer— We could doalot more to “procedure” ingametextures. I’d really like to seemore its own discipline.Thatsaid, very evident ithas become has come to pass, anditis of hybridprocedural textures heavily inshaders. Theworld textures, they are mixed very very heavily onprecreated Barrett,Sean “HybridProcedural Textures,” October 2004 discipline.” job, since buildingtexture procedurally iseffectively itsown textures: Itcan bedifficult to fi nd the right person for the “One setofissues iswiththeworkflow increating procedural way, ifyou ever doaccidentally stomp thatarea, you can test for it. aligned andhave someunusedarea attheend,fill thattoo. That is a popularchoice. And since“0xdeadbeef” manyallocations are Jonathan Clark,“ObjectCacheManagement,” February/March 1996 easily.” is used,acrash islikely to result andyou can track itdown whenever areference to memorythatissupposedto befree “A helpfuldebugtool isto zero out allfreed memory. Then, ever hasbeen. deal worse thanthediseaseofsimply managingyour memory memory cures thathave come into recent popularityare agreat the stuff thathaspredictable lifetimes. Manyofthemanaged Combine them.Unpredictable lifetimes? Keepthatseparate from things. Accessed together? Stored together. Lotsofsmallitems? allocation are required, anddivideitupinto categories ofsimilar kind ofdata you have andwhatkindsofpatterns ofaccess and within theframe, orschedulingoutaproject. any otherkindoffinite resource. It’s thesameasmanagingtime memory ishard. Managingmemoryisnoharder thanmanaging is basedononetotally erroneous assumption: thatmanaging other typesof“managedmemory”systems. Allthiseffort dynamic memorymanagement,and has beenputinto garbagecollection, Management,” February/March 1996 Jonathan Clark,“ObjectCache (growing down).” the cached requests atthetop oftheheap bottom oftheheap(growing up)and allocating thestatic requests atthe simulate thiswithoneheapby one for cached requests. You can static allocation requests, and heaps. Oneheapisusedto satisfy “The solutioniseasy. Keeptwo play experience endsupgettingcut. good stuff thatwould bevaluable to the While most ofusstill rely Another tip:Fillmemorywitharecognizable sentinel. The solutioniseasy,andithasalways beeneasy. Analyze what Over thelast 20years, alot ofeffort INNER PRODUCT_ ip Mike Acton 041

041 game developer magazine 042 game developer magazine From thesource, whether that’s optical media,HTTPserver, understanding theconstraints of how your data istransferred. design asystem ascomplex asagamefrom endto endwithout of itoneday,the larger problem willnever change.You cannot through CD,DVD, andBlu-ray, andwe mayhopeto seetheend under DOS/4GW,” 1996 August/September Dan Teven andVincent Lee, “Optimizing CD-ROMPerformance a static screen (text, for example) to distract theplayer.” previously buffered soundandvideo,butyou could alsodisplay this problem. It’s possible to cover uptheseeksbyplaying In designingyour game,you must somehow work around drop to zero whenever thelasermoves to anew location. “If you read non-sequentially from thedisc,data rate will and resources, nomatter how you doit. players’ expectations for believability given theconstraints ofcost ideal isthatyou can meet(ordare Ihope,oneday,exceed) the to behave. Sometimesvery realistically, sometimes notatall.The animate. Thatthecharacters behave astheplayers expect them The idealisthatcharacters animate astheplayer expects themto generated dynamically atruntime.Thatdoesn’tmatter onebit. But I’mcertain ofonething:Theidealisnotthateverything is animated, andhybridanimationmodelshasn’tchangedmuch. Jonathan Blow, “Experiments I’dLike to Work On,” June/July 2004 reach.” difficult thingto do,asageneral problem itisfar outofour the chairs andplace theirbuttsfirmly uponthem.Thisisavery down, they figure outhow to move theirmuscles to getover to dynamically atruntime:IfAI-controlled characters wantto sit “Ideally, we would like allcharacter motionsto begenerated obtained it. don’t know whatspecific actionshouldbetaken after you’ve quality. Andthatallthedata intheworld isn’tmuchuseifyou the usabilityofgamecreation tools hasadirect impactongame interfaces for programmers andshould beusabilitytested. That better too), butinallaspectsofdevelopment. ThatAPIsare just Not just inthegameinterface (althoughthosehave gotten much in gameshasbeentherealization oftheimportance ofusability. Barrett,Sean Profi “Interactive ling Revisited,” August2004 data must beviewed byahuman.” “Gathering data solves only halftheproblem; to beuseful,the the more chances you’ve introduced a bug. out whatdata is,andwhatit’s supposedto become atruntime, flow byatleast anorder ofmagnitude.Themore code hasto work doing that)isthatitusually simplifies state checksandcontrol source data isandwhatyou needto transform itinto (andsimply Barrett,Sean 2004 “OpeningDoors,”September chances for bugs.” Programs withlittle flow control orstate, e.g.scripts,offer few opportunities to fail to maintain invariants between them. conditionals; designswithmore variables offer more statements islikely‘if’ to have more bugsfrom incorrect flow andcomplexity ofstate. Adesignthatrequires more “Bugs insoftware generally arisefrom complexity incontrol the sameconstraint. much. Butthere’s nogoodreason whya“brick”ingameneeds a real buildingisn’tlikely to changewhile you’re looking atitvery INNER PRODUCT_ 042 While theproblems ofoptical mediahave haunted us The argument amongtotally dynamic,motioncapture, hand- Probably themost significant advancement ofthelast 20years Another often-ignored advantage to understanding whatyour

ip Mike Acton (Lousy programmer) ‘Sure, that’s no problem.’ (Mediocre specifically, responses fall into oneofthree categories: a first-class programmer, the question isuseless. More is askingengineers, ‘Canitbedone?’Unless you’re asking “One ofthebiggest mistakes I’ve madeinproduct design our gamedesignsasitisfor ourgametools. where they are to where you wantto take them.That’s astruefor it needsto beinorder for people to buildamental bridgefrom the changeyou wantto make, the more grounded inthefamiliar forget isthatpeople are comfortable withthefamiliar. Thebigger should absolutely pushtheexperimental edge,whatwe shouldn’t even fewer really populargenres now thanever before. While we clones” hasn’twanedonebit.Ifanything,it’s clear thatthere are in the20years before. Butthepopularity ofthe“clones ofold scene, more originalgameswere madeinthelast year than Chris Crawford, andOaks,”June1997 “Weeds something originalonce inawhile?” Wouldn’t itbebetter inthelong runto take thetimeto design “It seemsthatwe are dizzily cloning theclones ofoldclones. good, believable paths. worrying aboutthebest pathsandalot more timeworrying about 1996 November W. Intelligent Moves: Stout, “Smart Path-Finding,” Bryan October/ through thatnode.” ranks eachnodebyanestimate ofthebest route thatgoes optimal pathsisA*(pronounced “A-star”). Thisheuristic search “The best-established algorithmfor thegeneral searching of programmer less effective. limitations ofthosetools willmake thatjobmuchharder andthe problem isactually solved, andnotunderstanding thetools and programmer, ultimately, isresponsible for makingsure the code. Thecompiler isjust aconvenient tool inthatchain.The are solved bytransforming data. Thatdata istransformed by code. Aprogrammer’s work isto solve problems. Thoseproblems 1996 August/September Chris Hecker, “More Compiler Results,andWhat to DoAboutIt,” expect this.)” code generation bugsI’ve found, you sometimescan’t even code you write into native machinecode. (With theincredible to domuchwork for you beyond arote translation ofthe “The mainpointhere isthatyou cannot expect thecompiler hardware. the fundamental problem ofprogramming real gamesonreal DMA engines.To designcode first andnotdata first isto ignore or hard drive, to thevarious data caches, register files, and I dare to saywiththepopularityofgamejamsandindie In theintervening time,Iwishwe would have spentless time The compiler isatool. Aprogrammer’s work isnotto write motion machineofvideogameprogramming. create themare afool’s errand. “Future-proof” istheperpetual space ofmakinggames,andtheall-too-common attempts to problem andtherefore dramatically changethesolutionrequired. anywhere ormove 10xasfast—can dramatically change the simple change—for example, enablingyour character to teleport knowing theconstraints ofyour (most relevant) data. Aseemingly applicable: You cannot properly designgamesystems without changed much,really. Andthemore general lesson isequally still April 1998 Jonathan Blow, “Implementing aTexture CachingSystem,” will beunexpected.” Teleportation, therefore, isproblematic because alltextures (which are now carrying erroneous textures) willbelarger. the qualityloss, because thearea ofnewly exposed polygons “Remember, however, thatthequicker themotion,greater provable progress onthosemetricsyet. Butlet’s keep trying! too rushedto thinkitthrough? We haven’t madeawhole lot of someone didn’tmake abrain-dead decisionbecause they were first place? How doyou measure thetimethatwassaved because things you didn’thave to dobecause someonediditrightinthe accomplishment, insight,andquality?How doyou measure the It’s anonsensical metric.Buthow doyou measure real Long andThanksfor theRail Gun,”FebruaryBrian Hook,“So 1998 you work.” is basedonthework thatyou accomplish, notthehours that not necessarily correlate to your productivity. Productivity past few years isthatthenumberofhours you work does “One ofthemost important thingsthatI’ve learned inthe the timeavailable. at thevery least, figure outsomewayto scale theproblem to fit in understand theproblem enoughto getatest modelrunning.Or do understand them,andwhatthey’ll needto doinorder to don’t understand abouttheproblem, whattherisksare asthey otherwise, we’d allstill beusingSNESgameengines. are always new constraints thatmake theproblem very different— solving exactly thesameproblem aswe’ve solved before—there they’ve already doneitbefore. Andmost ofthetime,we’re not estimate, though.Afirst-class programmer can only dothatif is nottheonethatcan give aproducer anoff-the-cufftime to aproblem given enoughtime.The“first-class programmer” many programmers thatdon’tbelieve they couldn’t find asolution Tzvi Freeman, “Creating aGreat DesignDocument,” August1997 slight modification like thisandit’lltake fi ve hours.’” ‘I could doitlike thisandit’lltake two weeks. OrIcould make a programmer) ‘Nope.Can’tbedone.’(First-class programmer) There aren’t manygeneric,one-size-fits-all solutionsinthe The techniques oftexture caching andpreloading haven’t Counting hours isasbadcounting linesofcode. A first-class programmer willbeable to tell you whatthey Of course itcan bedone.That’s asilly question. Idon’tknow Oh, boy. Ifanything,it’s gotten somuchworse. While Working onQuake 1998 II,”January Brian Hook,“How Vacation, ISpent MySummer orWhat ILearned under itsown weight.” getting biggeranduglier,pretty soonit’s goingto implode that C++isascrewed-up language.It’s constantly evolving, such ascrewed-up language,itstill doesn’taddress theissue Design andEvolution ofC++to helpyou understand whyC++is “While you can pickupabooksuchasBjarneStroustrup’s chance to work withthem. great women programmers aren’t rare andaworld where Igeta better, butbecause it’s right.I’dlike to seeanindustry where perspectives orideasthatcould influence ourgamesfor the all people. Notfor thesake ofdiversity, orfor thedifferent never totally fair toward women. can vary from “slightly biased”to “outrightmisogynistic,” butit’s to dosomethingto improve thatsituation.Theindustry asawhole some ofusmenare muchmore aware ofitandwould really like developers. Thedifference between thenandnow, Ithink,isthat time ofittoday. Notjust women players, butwomen game 1997 “TakeNancie S.Martin, theYOutof Computer Games,”September simulator thesedays.” wife anddaughters asideto getsomequalitytimewithhisflight mouse, andwe wantitnow… Amanpractically hasto elbow his pay thing.Butnow it’s gettingserious,because we wantyour wanted theremote. Thenthere wasTitle IXandthatequal “It’s gettingpretty badfor someguysoutthere. First, women and to learn andto make, wherever they are. years, Ihopethateveryone, everywhere willhave gamesto play many ofustake for granted now. Lookingforward to thenext 20 kin, thosewhocannot afford thesmartphonesandtablets that wherever they go.Thefinal frontier for gamesiswithourpoorest place withoutgamesbecause people bringtheirgameswiththem games beingpresent invirtually everyone’s pocket. There isno there were somanyplaces where gameswere notpresent, to 1997 Nolan Bushnell,“A Product WhoseTimeHasCome...Again,”July with easytouch-screen menusandgameplaywould not.” machine would look strange, butacountertop web terminal no gamesoramusements.Inmost oftheselocations, apinball see coffee bars withnogames,andmanychainrestaurants with not inhotel lobbies. Iseefast food locations withoutgames.I people socialize.Itravel alot. Iseegamesinsportsbars, but “We’ve gotto bringentertainment to theplaces where most magazine advisor,andoverlord of #AltDevBlogADay. Mike Acton istheenginedirector at InsomniacGames,GameDeveloper *** I’d like to seeanindustry that’s fair, open,andinvitingtoward Women hadatough timeof itthen.Women still have atough I love thatwe have gonefrom atimenotsolong agowhere INNER PRODUCT_

ip ip 043 Mike Acton

043 game developer magazine 044 game developer magazine particular bitofsoftware), sohopefully the (any more thancore artskillsare tiedto a aren’t dependentonthe printmedium skills thatgointo writingagoodarticle path to a prosperous future. Ofcourse, the printed onformer trees isnot,alas,the as apurveyor ofnews andinformation example oftheprinciple. Honingyour craft issue ofGameDeveloper is,sadly, aperfect yourself to stay relevant. Thisfinalprinted same, andyou needto constantly redefine is abusiness where nothing ever stays the Pusher repeating themantra thatgameart I’ve spentalot ofthelast decade atPixel C The Las l pixel pusher_ 044 osing t he bookonPixe

f Steve Theodore l Pusher t Pixe Much of the toolset we take for granted techniques. Thismadesenseatthetime: were how-tos andsurveys ofdifferent technical innature. Most of thearticles back in2003,the column wasprimarily last decade. have happenedto ourprofession inthe the amazingandmaddeningthings that of inktryingto make somesenseoutof fitting that we spendourlast few droplets find anew homeonthe web. However, it’s artistic insightthatisPixel Pusherwill astonishing blizzard oferudition,wit,and When Istarted writingPixel Pusher l hands down abetter wayto teach advanced and downloadable supportfiles are just walkthroughs. Hyperlinks, multimedia, better medium for doingtutorials and that theInternet wasgoingto provide a artists. However itsoonbecame clear of specialtyinformation for computer the column) the’netdidnotoffer alot a couple ofmonthsbefore Itook over ancient days(MySpace debuted just were allnewsworthy backthen.Inthose animations, andprogrammable shaders, like subdivision modeling,blended today wasjust emerging. Today’s staples, ILLUSTRATION: JUAN RAMIREZ legacy of how platforming gamescan buildonthe L like a publisherto listen to apitch for games It would have beennearly impossible to get a great flowering ofpost-photorealist art. (Pixel Pusher,May2004) to recreating theartifacts ofothermedia?” industry devote suchphenomenalenergy notional gamespace.’ Sowhydoesour of lens-flare radically deconstructs the saying thingslike ‘Halo’s subversive use sitting around thecybercafes ofSeoul “Somehow onedoubtsthatkidsare hung uponthegimmickryofphotorealism: snarked aboutgamesthatwere naively bunch thanwe usedto be.In2004I much more self-confident andambitious other thingsreally have changed.We’re a The craziness isaconstant, butalot of THE CHANGINGOFART Don’t forget thatpart. life—but onewe’re very luckyto beliving. and grumpyresignation. It’s apuzzling and ridiculous inefficiency, soaringpassion lack ofcommon sense,incredible energy adolescents: unfettered imaginationand We combine thebest andworst traits of to leave animprintonthehistory ofart. while itgropes for meaningandachance Our profession isgleefully absurd even diving cyborgs, andlaser-armedzeppelins. talking mushrooms, freaky deep-sea- the day,though,we’re people whomake or withhigh-tech wizardry. Attheendof pronouncements aboutthefuture ofmedia, about artandhistory, withgrand try to hideitwithsolemn discussions completely andunabashedly mental. We business—particularly ourendofit—is I don’thave apatanswer. Thegames and prodding, I’mhappyto admitthat but after more thanadecade ofpoking artistically, economically, andtechnically— looked atthequestion philosophically, what itmeansto beagameartist. We’ve evolved into arunningmeditation on print andacouple ofimages. graphics techniques than2,000words of ways to tell stories too: Gameslike pastel trance colors have found different that usedto belocked into big-eyed At theotherendofspectrum, genres choppy mo-cap inthenameof“realism.” used to lapupgrainy phototextures and it’s hard to remember thewayindustry tyranny ofphotorealism sothoroughly that back then.Buttoday we’ve overthrown the seemed too daringfor themainstream and software of whatwe so quaintly called hard to imagine thatallthefancy hardware hobbled byit.In2003,itwould have been F decade ago.Even triple-A titles like ITTLE ORTRESS Nowadays, ofcourse, we’ve witnessed As thatbecame clearer, thecolumn J OURNEY B IG S P 2 UPER LANET and or M T B and HE ORDERLANDS ARIO U NFINISHED L B IMBO ROS have shown . withoutbeing would have S WAN T EAM a

“next-gen” would beusedto create P great thingfor us.We usedto have ahard and argumentative critical community isa this joker talking about?” on ourwork and think,“Whatthehellis chance to pickupapiece ofcommentary distinction ofartists everywhere: the We’ve ﬁnally achieved themost coveted level withtheintensity ofaPhDthesis). which examines the entire gamelevel by word critical essay about left andright. You can buy(!)a50,000(!)- conquistadors andare staking outclaims academics have arrived onourshores like moment. Bloggers, gamejournalists, and notional gamespaces atthisvery (more likely tweeting) aboutdeconstructing kid inSeoulis,fact, probably talking been hard to predict adecade ago.That off into theetherinawaythatwould have of commercial star-reviews andsoared criticism hasescaped from thegravity well cultural acceptance ofourartform, game there. Bothreﬂecting andpropelling the Speaking ofwriting:There’s alot ofitout PLAYING FOR REAL But it’s nice to have itdown inwriting. counts.” (Pixel Pusher,March 2009) with whichwe doourjobs.That’s what out ofadmiration for thedexterity andskill complex personal reasons, andsometimes philosophical reasons, sometimesfor about whatwe do—sometimesfor deep animation you created. People give adamn to move inreal life withthegrace ofan you built;somebodyistraining theirbody great time they hadvisitinganenvironment a group offriendsisreminiscing aboutthe become just like acharacter you created; is daydreaming aboutgrowing upto “As you read thesewords akidsomewhere that allalong, ofcourse: beyond peddlingamusements.We knew what we dooccasionally risesto alevel Smithsonian) have conceded thepointthat sentinels ofhighculture (most notably, the about, therefore, it’s important. Even the debate proves thepoint:It’s worth arguing in point—butthemere existence ofthat reception of about thenuances—the mixed critical 3. There’s endless, acrimoniousdebate up more conclusively than “can gamesbeart?”debate iswrapped artistic urge to Make aStatement(™). The a goodtimeifyou’ve gottheold-time The tent isalot biggerthanitusedto be. exquisitely accurate PanzerKampWagens. space marinesorchain-mailbikinis before. It’s okaynotto give adamnabout are a lot more ways to sling pixels than ever a great timeto bedoingwhatwe do:There games—though ifyou do,you’re crazy—it’s L INE IÑATA All kiddingaside, theriseofaliterate While toting upthepositives, it’s also (KillingisHarmless byBrendan Keogh, . Even ifyou hate every oneofthese B IO S HOCK I NFINITE S M PEC ASS O isacase E PS FFECT : T V IVA HE

PIXEL PUSHER_ we may notbefacing the fiery Carousel away inexorably towards extinction. While blinking crystals inourpalms,ticking and polyester unitards—and we’ve allgot be fair, thegamesbizisshortonfree love playground for young people—though to utopia inLogan’s Run.It’s afabulous remind meoftheglitzyshoppingmall/ “…the gamesbusiness hascome to from 2004: themselves adriftinmidcareer dates artists gettinginto their30sandfinding in Pixel Pusherconsidered thefate of the most popularcolumns we ever ran couple ofladderrungsto climb.Oneof on a300-person team, there are only a the heightoftriple-A goldrush.Even career headroom were problems even at Work-life balance andlackoflong-term profession more thansixorseven years: reasons whysofew people stick withthis Nightmare Mode. seems like our gameisstuck on the tuningonthisthing—itsometimes needs to take alook at life problems. Somebodyoutthere really perennials like crunch time and quality-of- and automation. Notto mentionhardy to dealwithflat salaries,outsourcing, the hundreds). Along thewaywe’ve had announced anotherbiground oflayoffs in founder (asthiswasgoingto press, EA games proliferate while triple-A leviathans toward 30ascasual, mobile, andindie unusual—and now we seemheadedback studio to dayswhen300wasn’tconsidered gone from dayswhen30people were abig challenges over thelast decade. We’ve has weathered somepretty remarkable help from bloggers. Thegamesbusiness your blood pressure checked withoutany you’ve probably gotenoughreasons to get industry for most ofthelast decade, Now, ifyou’ve beenworking inthis CHURN OUT,BURNOUT helps keep you from gettingstale. elevate your blood pressure, butitalso of critical voices outthere willoccasionally tell ushow to doourjobs.Thecacophony bloggers andacademics whoare tryingto however, take amomentto thankallthose hoping to please thecritics.For rightnow, fearing, despising,anddesperately and authors, we’ll alternate between course, just like fine artists, fi lm makers, help usbebetter artists asaresult. Of our own work withafresh setofeyes, and criticism flourishes, itwillteach usto see tropes lurkaround every corner. As sequelitis, copycatting, andcreaky old always indangerofgettinginto ruts; bass-thumping hallsofE3. publishers, andmarketroids cruisingthe counted were commercial gamereviewers, when theonly people whosetastes time seeingourown work inperspective There, alas,are long-standing Like anycommercial artform, we’re Steve Theodore f 045

045 game developerTHETHE magazine LASTLAST PIXELPIXEL 046 game developer magazine white andmale (and,dare we say,slightly The industry remains overwhelmingly changes are happeningwithamazingspeed. slowly year byyear, butotherdemographic The graying oftheindustry creeps along Ev through 20-somethings. back to thedaysofchurningandburning budgets andtighter margins mightdrag us back intheday. Ontheotherhand,smaller the samehorsepower asaPlayStation 2did on mobile platforms: AniPad 2hasabout chance to relive theirlow-polygon glory days continues. Perhaps thevets willgeta remains to beseen,ofcourse, ifthattrend in theindustry past thefive-year mark.It doubt hadsomethingto dokeeping artists money thanyounger developers—which no veterans were makingnoticeably more between 31and35(upfrom 25-30)and a bit.By2009,theaverage developer was and thankfully thedemographics hadshifted We revisited thesameissue five years later, 2004) business past 35.”(Pixel Pusher,August at 30,itseemslike very few usstay inthe pixel pusher_ 046 e ryon e agam

e d f e v e lop Steve Theodore e r and thiswillbeanexcellent opportunity. years. We’re goodatconstant relearning, professional skillsgetobsoleted every few same adaptability thatwe show whenour need to embrace thenew reality withthe to ourworkplaces andourprofession. We it’s alsogoingto changethewaywe relate ahem, occasionally accused of. However, repeating ourselves—something we’ve been, of view keep usfrom gettingboringand medium. Differences ofopinionandpoint and fractious. base, it’s alsogoingto bemore loosely knit is goingaway. Astheindustry broadens its monoculture most ofuslearned ourtrade in face it:It’s literally inevitable thatthecozy evoke defensiveness andderision.Butlet’s shows how easily efforts to changethatcan up ourprofession. Unfortunately, italso that we’ve doneapretty poorjobopening last year’s #1ReasonWhycampaign shows isn’t goingto beseamless; thefervor of make gamestoo. However, thischange everybodies ofallbackgrounds wantto nowadays—so it’s notsurprisingthat is agamer—hell,myparents playgames pudgy?) butthat’s changingfast. Everybody That’s actually avital thingfor our G in 1994,whoknows whatthefuture holds? waste asmuchofmylife in2013asitdid where XCOM can come roaring backto Nothing lasts forever—but inaworld at themagazinewhomadeitallwork. privilege. Thanks,too, to allthegoodfolks is anamazingplace, andit’s beena the last decade: Thegameartcommunity read andresponded to thecolumn over profound thanksto allthefolks who’ve On thewayoutdoor,let meoffer a alas, theprintversion ofGameDeveloper . even theEAfootball monopoly. Andnot, Character Studio,nottheMMOboom,or Nothing lasts forever: notDPaint, not Which bringsusbackto where we began. Seattle’s UndeadLabs. He’s currently thetechnical director art at as afrequent speaker conferences. at industry modeler, animator, andtechnical aswell artist, more Hiscredits thanadozenyears. include Steve Theodore hasbeenpushingpixels for *** M C f oun am ech

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F or t ress , OPPORTUNITIES FROMENDINGS PLUS ÇA CHANGE… from wikisto un- is disseminated— of how information top-down structure is challenging the and decentralization wisdom-of-crowds Even therelated authors for feedback. give quickaccess to the technical solutionsand make iteasyto find news. Communitysites people upon the latest subscriptions keep lists, andTwitter changed. Blogs, mailing share information has readers learn and the wayinwhich than itusedto, because that makes less sense information vehicle disruptive forces. by thesametypesof about, inpartanyway, that it’s beingbrought tinge ofirony to thefact to note thatthere’s a Developer, it’s only fair see theendofGame So while we are sadto change intheindustry. that ofdisruptionand of them,it’s perhaps idea common to most issues. Ifthere’s one to-play, to copyright crowdsourcing, to free- topics ranging from a widevariety of column. We’ve covered Developer’s tag-teamed Game Dave EderyandIhave For thepast two years, KIM PALLISTER Magazines are an business winning thelottery—I 2006. Itfelt muchlike LIVE Arcade backin manager for Xbox worldwide portfolio first landedthejobof I remember whenI DAVID EDERY of ourhistory. years agoasachapter first issue from somany and store itnext to my copy issue coming out, forward to thislast hard the meantime,I’lllook change, andsoon.In of thevehicle. Plusça moving, regardless keeps themedium a key partofwhat is aconstant, and of thesecontributions GDC 2018,thevalue the Moscone wallsat document posting on augmented-reality un-conference, orsome an impromptu talk atan tree pulp, ablog post, pressed collection of Whether it’s ina SHARE YOUR IDEAS. make great games. wants to seepeople everyone really just disciplines. Deepdown, it isinmost ofits open andsharing amazed meathow industry hasalways another. Thegame learning from one constant: We are the themeremains the form changes, conferences. Butwhile the merciful thingand job) untilMicrosoft did for me(norfor the clearly nolonger right rot inajobthatwas I allowed myself to my role too much.So enjoyed theperks of I wascomfortable; I atrophied. Despite this, responsibilities slowly never changedbutmy after another. Mytitle one reorganization to new manager,in from new manager to beswept passively was me. “play thegame.”That without beingwillingto in ahugecorporation visible business role foolish seeksahighly someone naive or political entities.Only companies are highly vast majorityoflarge on Microsoft; the This isnotaknock political environment. to survive inahighly nor thetemperament have neithertheskill so hot. couple ofyears weren’t a dream job.Thenext moments, ittruly was some rather insane first year orso,despite references. And for the strong professional and noparticularly experience ofanykind, “portfolio management” experience, no had nogameindustry So Iallowed myself As itturnsout,I BUSINESS_ not hired meinthefirst exist ifMicrosoft had Cook. SpryFox wouldn’t with myfriendDaniel I co-founded SpryFox And notlong thereafter, bootstrapped studio. the groundwork for a bills andto possibly lay consulting to paythe I started doing some them pass meby. So I hadbeenletting social networks—and mobile platforms, me: f2pgames, exploding allaround lifetime opportunities There were once-in-a- doing withmylife. I really wanted to be and askmyselfwhat head outofthesand forced meto pullmy ever happenedto me. of thebest thingsthat by Microsoft wasone is thatbeinglaidoff it allthemore notable matter). Whichmakes your spouse,for that co-workers (orwith with anyofyour your next conversation don’t look forward to you getlaidoff. You feel ashamedwhen you thatcan’t helpbut still asmallpartof dislike your job,there’s matter how muchyou what thisfeels like. No ever beenlaidoffknows employees in2009. thousands ofother laid meoffalong with Being laidoff Anyone whohas Kim Pallister &DavidEdery that come next. into thebetter things put allyour energy represented, andto the goodthingsthey dead isto remember best wayto honorthe news products. The even lovely paper-based companies, and,yes, platforms, stagnant old jobs,irrelevant for thedeathofbad then give three cheers pay ourrespects, and So let’s bow ourheads, evolution withoutdeath. there isnogrowth or about ispainful,but something we care never laidmeoff. place—or ifthey had *** THE games suchas FoxSpry andhasworked on istheCEOofDavid Edery *** his employer. do not reflect thoseof in thiscolumn are hisand kimpallister.com. Hisviews hardware, heblogs at www. for super-coolworld When not prepping the requirements planning. forecastingindustry and at Intel doing game Kim Pallister works and Live Arcade.Live managerforportfolio Xbox games theworldwide was Fox,founding Spry David M The deathof T b RIPLE AD G 047 OD T OWN , S R TEAMBIRDS EALM . Priorto b

047 game developer magazine V

0048048 game developer magazine GAME ENDINGSASAMOMENTFOR HONESTDESIGN TELL THETRUTH IN THEEND, the store. But,for allhis passion, Idon’t the Internet, sothey mostly came from of gamesperyear, andthiswasbefore game starter. experiences—and anavidvideo of swords andtheatrics,acollector of Dylan. Dylanwasacarouser, alover I lived withaneccentric friendnamed For several years backinthe late 1990s, LEARNING TO DABBLE freedom? The question is:How willyou usethat design thanindesigningyour end. personally liberating momentingame gaming gives you, you willnotfind amore attention ontheadvantages thisfact of everyone whostarts finishes, andputyour learn to worry less aboutinsisting that the game-designlandscape. Andifyou thing; thisisagoodthing.Itpartof inherent intheform! Thisisnotabad playing whenever they feel like itis game team. with avague senseofhavingdissed the controller before reaching theendisleft games, andaplayer whoputsdown the are dismayed atthelow finish rates ofour a culture, still confused aboutthis.We ever seeit.We are, asanindustry andas only asmallportionofyour players will one hasever “finished” poker, orfootball. closed, you willbeingoodcompany. No are loops, andifyou wantto leave yours choice. Don’twantone?Allgood!Games First ofall,havinganendingatallisyour you are for anyotherpiece ofyour game. more free whencrafting your endingthan Argument: Asagamedesigner,you are DESIGN OFTHETIMES_ 048 Dylan played dozens,maybe hundreds Yet, theabilityfor players to stop But for gamesthatdohave anending,

Jason VandenBerghe stopped playing them asideforever. Thiswasamanwho them, trylove them…andthenset an hourinto asingle one.Hewould buy know thatIever sawhimputmore than consensus ‘GameoftheYear,’ [ every 10people whostarted playingthe author putit: articles like it.Here’s how thearticle’s assumption inthisarticle, andinmany that goal. along theway. Precious few gamesreach content, andsmooth outallthebumps to make someseriously compelling Numbers like thatimply thatwe managed praises oftheteam andpopthebubbly. finish rates over 30-40%,we singthe games they started (http://bit.ly/q1ezhV). only 10-20%ofgamers actually finish the regaled theInternet withthenews that published anarticle byBlake Snow that Last year, you mayremember thatCNN NOT ABADTHING appreciate it. absolutely notrequired to finish agameto the gamesheplayed taught methatitis Watching Dylan’s weird relationship with Ever. He never didthiswithmovies orbooks. not seeingtheend. never showing asingle hint ofregret at perfectly content withhispurchases, so (!).Even more weirdly, hewasalways R point? …Who’s to blame:The developer or player attention spansreached abreaking game keep people engaged?Orhave How isthat?Shouldn’tsuchahigh-rated EVOLVER “Let [this]sinkinfor aminute: Of But, Ihave abeefwithanunspoken No argument. Whenwe seegame ] only oneofthem finished it. D IABLO after anhouror R ED D EAD

048 finished asingle in designdiscussions! Ihave never But Isure ashelluseitanexample endings. games andmost MMOsdon’thave real even have endings.Most arcade-style (usually). I never finished thefi rst UNFINISHED our artform. game isnotasin.Itanintrinsicpartof before thefinal climacticscene inavideo Putting down thecontroller somewhere finish agameisbadthing. My beefiswiththeideathatfailing to the player? Ormaybeit’s ourculture?” G it remains agameIthoroughly enjoyed. enjoying this story enough to continue.” message ofthisactionisclear: “I’mnot unfinished. For thosemediums,the off ashow onTV,orsetsdown abook someone walksoutofamovie, turns implicit rejection thatispresent when beliefs aboutothermedia.There isan I believe thattheidea hasitsroots inour NOT AMOVIE reach theendofour(story) games? tear outourhairwhenonly 20%ofplayers So, then,whydowe gnashour teeth and optional. We know this.It’s self-evident. an “ending”into your gameis,clearly, which leads to another… One gameofSudokuleads to another, specifically designedto never befinished. world’s long-standing favorite gamesare Poker? Chess? Football? RIM There are aton ofgamesthatdon’t In gamedesignterms, even putting In fact, abroad majorityofthe F ANDANGO T HE S IMS ? Never finished it. Z

, but,man,they are fun doesn’t have anending. B IO S HOCK , yet d 49 DESIGN OF THE TIMES_Jason VandenBerghe

When someone stops playing a game, kind of acknowledgment for their effort. tick-mark that comes from reading the however, the possibilities are far, far more Bright-eyed, with the end in sight, your last line. varied: players look to the designer expectantly, How might I use this receptive state ready to interpret whatever you present of mind? What is my truth about endings, “I’d love to keep playing, but the time as a kind of reward, while your producers right now? commitment is too high for me.” turn a blind eye… GD MAG “I enjoyed the beginning, but now it’s TELL THE TRUTH Speaking of endings, did you know getting sort of grindy, and that’s not for I only have one piece of real advice for you that this is the fi nal issue of this here me.” about this moment: Tell the fucking truth. magazine? Funny story: Through random luck, I’ve ended up with the honor of “Love the game, but I’m weary of the Whatever it is that is in your heart, writing the fi nal Design of the Times. player culture, so I’m going to hang out whatever it is that has drawn you into That’s this article, right here. somewhere else.” making this game in the fi rst place, do You know, the fi rst time I picked up that with your faith capital. Spend it telling an issue of GD Mag was back in 1996, in “My friends stopped playing.” them that, somehow. the offi ces of Hyperbole Studios. I was The fi rst MODERN WARFARE had a great a late-20-something, blown away to be These are not necessarily sins of the example of this: The fi nal mission was suddenly making games after long years designer. Gaming is as much a lifestyle as the most over-the-top crazy, punishing, of professional wandering. it is entertainment, and if a game doesn’t nearly-impossible-to-complete madness- It was the existence of this magazine fi t into an individual’s life, they are going to fest in their game. It had almost no that gave me my fi rst glimpse into the put it down. That’s not a tragedy. That’s a explanation, required none (“PLANE! murky, somewhat-secret society of game feature of our design landscape. TERRORISTS!”), and it was simply developers. The magazine’s professional- So, instead of looking guiltily at our brilliant. The level was a celebration of looking cover and its interior pages full completion rates and fantasizing about the game that you had just fi nished, a of post-mortems and dev tricks all were a world in which 99% of the players who self-referential guns-blazing cherry on the clearly aimed specifi cally at a readership start our (story) game reach the fi nal cake that was completely unnecessary, but made up of people who made video scene, let’s fl ip it around and see what we became legendary. games. Flipping through the pages, I can do to take advantage of this One of the most satisfying endings I gradually discovered that I very much fact, instead. have ever played was the ending of THE wanted to be part of that target market. DARKNESS. It laid bare the truth of the It’s much later now. We have FLIP IT AROUND fantasy they had created, and gave me full internets, game developers are meeting More than half of your players are not rights to punish an evil that I had come with vice presidents, and 99.9% of people going to fi nish. You know that going in, so to loathe. The truth there was consistent under 25 have played video games. It’s think of it as a design constraint! What with the story, but it was the play that they a world in transition, and I cannot wait does that mean to you? created that made that last scene true. to see what happens next. But I, for I hated the villain of that game, and in one, won’t move forward into that future First: The deeper into your game your the end the game did nothing to force my without fi rst pausing and, maybe just for content is, the more likely it is that the hand (beyond closing the door behind me). a moment, placing an affectionate hand players that are still with you have been When I took my revenge, it was me that did on the magazine that was the having a good time. They’re in. They’ve it, and that act stayed with me. warm face that greeted me as I entered bought it. You have earned a certain this industry. amount of faith capital with them, and they But it is the ending of the fi rst METROID, probably want to see what else you’ve got perhaps, that best demonstrates Thanks. Thanks for that, and for all the up your sleeve. the strange liberty we have with this other stuff. moment. It could have ended with Second: Because your producers and Samus Aran raising a blaster into the ENDINGS SET YOU FREE various high-mucky-mucks have seen the air in victory. That would have been That is my truth on endings: I mark them, fi nishing stats for other games, they know satisfying, and it was an amazing game I use them to refl ect, and if I can get away that dev time spent in detailed iteration all the way through. Hero pose! Instead, with it, I give thanks to people who have on your ending is effort going to a small Samus stepped out of the battle suit, had an impact on my life. subset of players. They will prioritize the demonstrated her gender, and shattered As a game designer, you are more free team’s time accordingly. They will thus be the 8-bit preconceptions of players when crafting your ending than you are in more likely, whether through disinterest or everywhere. It is still one of the most any other piece of your game. So, in the lack of time, to let your crazy idea for the celebrated endings in gaming history. end, tell the fucking truth. Tell as much end slip through the cracks. of it as you can manage. Tell it as best AS AN EXAMPLE you can. And see if you can give the world Third: Players themselves already Let’s say we were to apply these principles something to remember. d know that arriving at the end is a rare to this article. occasion—because they, personally, most You’ve stuck with me this far, so I can *** likely don’t do it very often. Every player perhaps assume that you’re interested in Jason VandenBerghe is a creative director has put down the controller on at least a what I’ve had to say so far. We’re near the at Ubisoft, which he has to admit doesn’t few games. If they do decide to complete end, so you are maybe starting to think exactly suck. You can read his intermittent the whole thing, they will wear that fact as about what you’ll read next, or putting blog and various scribblings at www. a badge of honor (we hope). So, they are down the magazine. Perhaps you are darklorde.com. He can be reached by email at psychologically primed to receive some looking forward to the internal satisfactory [email protected]. game developer magazine 049 050 af AURAL FIXATION_Damian Kastbauer

OUR INTERACTIVE AUDIO FUTURE MODELING THE FUTURE OF GAME AUDIO

The following is an excerpt from the Oxford Handbook of Interactive Audio to be released in 2014.

MILESTONE 1: POWER ON standard authoring application butterfl ies along the edge of search of my daughter. My steps I’m standing on the bank of a by specialists spread out the rushing water. From the echo coldly in the grass. Her river. It’s late, and the heat of across the galaxy. I’m currently corner of my eye I can see my smiling face goes unseen, so I the afternoon sun is fading. reviewing the work done by young daughter rushing in and ask the gathered assortment of The sounds of cicadas are our technical sound synthesis out of cattails twice her height nieces and nephews where she all around me. Their placid specialists who have recently with her favorite doll. Her look might be. No one has seen her chirruping, accompanied updated some old sound of freedom and wild abandon for some time, they say. by the nearby burbling of a models. It seems like ages ago while chased by cousins as stream, sets a tone of peaceful that we began working with our the fronds whoosh back and MILESTONE 3: DEBUGGING tranquility. The simulation here library of reference materials forth brings a smile to my face. MEMORIES is really good. to synthesize different aspects I move to speak and urge her In a moment, I feel my As I kneel next to the of Earth’s soundscape into the to stay clear of the undulating, every fi ber stiffen toward a shore, splashing water on living, breathing, and sounding black, and treacherous stream heightened awareness of my face, the sound erupts world that is represented today. edge, but they are gone before my surroundings. Nothing in a perfectly modeled and the words leave my lips. has changed, and yet in that synchronized symphony of MILESTONE 2: SOFT FOCUS I become lost in debate with instant it’s as if all sound had harmonic fl uids. Each drop I remain lost in thought as various relations over the use of been removed but for the deep of water from my fi ngertips the sound of rushing water sound as a storytelling device. churning of water. I look around that ripples on the surface is catches my memory. My mind is It seems we have fi nally found frantically, my eyes darting refl ected in automatic sound transported to a sunny day from a way to effectively use all fi ve between reeds as I began synthesis and tied so tightly my past. A reunion has brought senses to convey an emotional calling her name. People are to the visuals that I’m struck family members together arc as part of an interactive gathered around me, I can see by the fact that it was just a within a branch of an older experience. Of course, there their mouths moving but can short time ago that we were beta version of a simulation continue to be new ways to no longer hear their questions. locked into a sample-based located by a nearby stream channel and leverage our My mind is sharply tuned to the methodology. It didn’t happen in the countryside of Earth history through simulations, sound of dramatically frothing overnight, but as I am standing 2012. It was during this time new ways of combining what whitecaps as I desperately on the shore of this digital in simulation technology that has already happened with attempt to keep my thoughts river, it seems clear to me that our industry was just beginning new technologies as a way of above water. audio technology has fi nally to iron out inconsistencies making sense of the future. I wade into the sea of made good on the promises of inherent within the burgeoning Through the lens of creativity, cattails, moving further and transparent interactivity. fi eld of procedural audio, we may fi nally understand further upstream. Their fronds It should be said that I’m synthesis, and the advanced who we are and where our brush past me in a noiseless inputting this log in real-time, manipulation of dynamic sound: civilization is headed. hush of extreme focus. I while working inside the baby steps toward the expansive Back at the reunion, the can hear others who have beta release of our current fully realized simulation I’m sun is beginning to set in the crossed a nearby bridge and simulation based on a historical testing today. distance, and it’s time for us to begun combing the riverbank re-creation of Earth circa As we laugh and carry on take leave of this place. I head on the other side. My voice, game developer magazine 2012. The simulation has been inside the memory of my mind’s toward the pack of children becoming louder and more developed using an industry- eye, the children play and chase collapsed by the riverside in urgent, punctuating the ebb 050 art inour re-creation ofEarth. driving themodern state of the myself deeply embeddedin especially asIhave found during myshortlife span— technology hasachieved, even the leaps andboundsthat retrospect. It’s hard to believe state operated perfectly, in brought onbymyalerted the radical soundmixchange the process .Ihave to saythat that hadbeenboggingdown leapfrog themanual process were, over time,able to simulation .Theseadvances sound propagation withinthe accurately representing continued to work toward reach. Thankfully, people no extraneous soundswould exist—these places where how these“deadspots”could looking backonthetechnology, with sounds.It’s easy to see, inch was“painted” byhand handwoven audiofabric. Every was subjectto gapsinthe meant thattheprocess every explicit soundonce of authoringpropagation for just thesame.Thedifficulty generated bythemresonate weren’t perfect, but the feelings world around us. returning to thesoundof space, call offthesearch party, from the noiseless interstitial quiet place to play.” We emerge say, “Iwasn’tlost, Ijust found a asked byfriendslater she’ll looks atmeandsmiles. When that she’s woven together. She holds outaringofflower stems into mydaughter’s eyes asshe find myselfenveloped in.Ilook the vacuum ofsoundlessness I white dress, explodes within clothing brushingagainst her an alienquality. Thesound, my footsteps resonating with hold herinadeepembrace, looks upasIrushto herand voice calling hername.She startled bythesoundofmy has disappeared. that thesoundofstream us andsuddenly recognize I quickly close thegapbetween to her,butshedoesn’tlook up. dark blackstone column. Icall with herdollintheshadeofa daughter playingnoiselessly reaches mylips.Isee view, asthetaste ofsaltwater rocky outcropping comes into sounds far away. Acurious and flow ofwater to myleft, These early simulations My daughter becomes modeling, taking into account matrix ofreal-time distance been replaced byacomplex yesteryear have long ago only attenuation curves of 3D pointsourced, volume- over distance. Thesimple dynamic frequency filtering I’m struck bythequalityof grows louder witheachstep. the undershot-wheel paddles churning soundofwater on realistic representation. and emerge asa quality ofearly experiments able to transcend the synthetic footsteps andmovement was applications, thesoundof smart andcreative authoring behind thescenes. Enabled by beyond hard science running designers ofsoundto move development allowed early the tools quickly followed. This mathematics were inplace, the field. Once theunderlying some early front-runners in creative endeavor thanksto swiftly blossomed into a a purely academic pursuit other things.Whatbeganas viscosity, andavariety of mass, velocity, materials, sorts offactors into account: models inplace, whichtake all inherently bytheprocedural Everything isnow handled to getthesefootsteps right. each footfall how long ittook watermill. I’mreminded by and continue onto anearby the systems. parameterization from eachof stood upto thebarrage of flexible synthesismodels but attheendofday,our of liquidsandtemperature… complex still withtheaddition Sound modelsbecame more (that is,mostly subtractive). purely aprocess ofsculpture that data onourhands,itwas easy part.Once we hadallof the cloth simulationwasthe of physical sound.Tying into reflect thecomplex dance interaction to accurately of movement andmaterial it took usto getthesubtlety ago. I’mreminded ofhow long of soundasonthatdaysolong elicits asimilarsoftexplosion on coarse cotton pants.This my face anddrymyhands up from splashingwater on current-day simulation.Istand I return to testing insidethe MILESTONE 4:AUDIOBETA As Iapproach, Inote the I step backonto thepath with anoppressive clattering. sound ofrushing water coupled pervasive, low-end rumbling Back inside,there isthe MILESTONE 5:STRESS TEST across theface oftheplanet. just afew soundfiles spread simulation involves more than convincingly Earth-like inthis every nookandcranny sound unique, theexpectation that sounds thatrequire something take ahandcrafted approach to process. While we dotryto large for suchalabor-intensive we’re creating are just too every river ordoor;theworlds to place sounds byhandfor entire world. Imagineifwe had propagates throughout the underlying physical modeling work we’ve beendoingonthe little things.Thankfully, the hard to getcaught uponthe reads like asighofrelief. I’ve received aresponse which miles away. Withinmoments the designerwhoisamillion I sendoffafriendly note to was muchbetter, Ithink,as let itclose behindme.That thud thatreverberates asI The doorcloses withadeep age andtenacity ofthesteel. density andthickness, andthe flaking offeachhinge),wood evidenced bythedeeprust occurring: damplocation (as compositional breakdown sound takes into account the Each individualaspectofthe and deepunsettlingcreak. hollow-wooden resonance, with asharpsnapofmetal, mechanism come to life the knobIhearrusty the drawing board. Turning the sounddesignerbackto and material type,soIsent accurately convey theweight last timeItested it,itdidn’t handle withtrepidation; the water millandreach for the designed withapurpose. count oneverything being of interaction, you can usually In suchacomplex woven fabric powers allofthelightsinside. surprise meto find thatit show. However, itwouldn’t Of course, thisoneisjust for power ofnature into energy. turbine labors to convert the effortlessly while someunseen spinning wheelsplasheson temperature andhumidity. The everything from airdensityto With somuchto do,it’s I walkto thedoorof AURAL FIXATION_ based on geometric toolsets and programmatically abstracted withinauthoring reflectors anddefl ectors, both colors incombination with filtered noiseofdifferent could apply pitched and to thesesimulations—we synthesis we could apply first andeasiest dynamic roof overhead. Windwas the the cracks inthethatched sound finding itswaythrough I notice agentle whistling overall soundpresentation. and endedupaffecting the working watermill inperson, since we hadnever seena These samples were critical, various processes andmodels. the creative application of recordings anduseitto inform mine relevant data from these a diverse sample setand use feature extraction across kHz/24 bit,butwe were able to at thelow sample rate of192 actual watermill were recorded only remaining samples ofan representation. You see,the isn’t asimple soundfile begin slowing to ahalt—this pitch ortimbre asthegears are no artifacts ineitherthe begins to winddown, there the changeinsound. flow outsideinorder to hear begin slowing down thewater navigate thecontrols and life, ready for action,Iquickly front of me.Asitspringsto with theworld appears in and aninterface for interacting I engagetheauthoringtools, feel inmygut.Withagesture, unbelievable rumble thatIcan is shudderingwithan the simulation. creative tools runningwithin the machineryusingseveral were able to furtherembellish With theirresearch inplace, we rich characteristic ofwood. satisfying level ofdetail to the material typeshasgiven usa into oldtechnologies and Piggybacking ontheirresearch modal synthesishistorians . developed bytheforemost of thelatest wood models into place isadirect result they make aseachtooth locks The hollow “thonking”sound groove ofperpetualmotion. locked together inaspiraling succession ofwooden gears I’m standing infront ofa As thingsgrindto ahalt, As theinternal mechanism The whole contraption Damian Kastbauer af 051

051 game developer magazine 052 game developer magazine recordings, andskeletons. century, includingfield notes, of artifacts from the21st access to awidevariety since past. Luckily we have time ago,butthathas have existed innature along habitat. Thesesoundsmay these soundsintheirnatural no longer possible to capture models andanomalies,it’s building alibrary ofgranular field recording asthebasisfor continues to be aplace for soundscape is.While there even notice how diverse the looping audiofile thatIdon’t we were restricted to asingle chatter. It’s beensolong since of crickets and occasional bird been replaced withachorus late afternoon cicadas have all purple andpink atdusk.The into amajestic eruptionof Outside, theskyhasblossomed COMPLETE MILESTONE 5:CONTENT my testing. the tinybuildingandcontinue gently flowing againandexit another day. Istart theriver creative joy ofdestruction for free to runamok.I’llsave the within thisuniqueinstance, I’m the simulated physical world Distanced from theconfines of on theresulting mayhem. gave meauniqueperspective I enabled theauthoringtools shard thatinstantiated when the properties ofthedebug confines ofthesimulation, structure. Safe withinthe of nature onthetinyprimitive listen to theresulting forces the entire millinorder to testing just shortofflooding circumstances. Istop my well undertheseextreme and modelingholdingup I find thewatermill synthesis test andcalibration procedures. wooden floor asIresume my convincingly onthehollow representations. curves andunreal-sounding of consistently sloping pitch of nature swiftly took theplace progressed, therandomness simulations. Asthetechnology using parameters from the to bemodified inreal time, it madeupfor initsability in “natural” soundfactor, at thetime,andwhatitlacked technology wasvery futuristic different environments. This representations withinthe AURAL FIXATION_ 052 My footsteps echo

af Damian Kastbauer overwhelmed bythedensity of with thesoundof thecity. I’m of meandfloods mysenses opens soundlessly infront world to test in.Atransition instantiate anew area ofthe a user-interface terminal and Back to work, Iquickly navigate CRUNCHING MILESTONE 6:BUG the damagehasbeendone. proceed asasociety,now that a future roadmap for how to this experience can serve as such beauty. We allhopethat as tragic whenfaced with have transpired intheinterim not to judgetheyears that of progress. It’s impossible the swiftly encroaching hands elemental forces atwork and a balance between the in thismoment,there was syncopation. Itseemsthat wheel working inceaseless in thebreeze, to thewater the tall grass gently swaying resonates throughout, from represented witharhythmthat our simulation.Everything is the 2012Earthembodiesin struck bythetruebeautythat hills offinthedistance andI’m slipping behindtherolling anything heard since. complex cacophony quite unlike and manufactured soundsina is ablending ofbothnatural ensuing soundscape. The result to realistically represent the over time,andfinding ways interaction thatdeveloped understanding thecomplex difficult partsthenbecame industrialized society. The nature overlapped with range ofvocalizations wherever the speechandfrequency over time,completely modified auditory fabric oftheearthand, inexorable partofthecomplex These soundsbecome an of machineryandtechnology. too didthesoundofanew era society beganto take hold,so As theriseofindustrialized vocalizing birds andanimals. decades inmanyofthe recordings taken from different behavioral changesbetween we beganto note peculiar more difficult waswhen enough at first. When it became modern culture proved easy amidst thenoiseofthen- re-create. Isolatingelements initially proved difficult to I watch thesunslowly Some oftheenvironments through acomplex mechanical on reaching theirdestination buzzing withmomentum, intent around like oversized insects with energy. Vehicles zipping a swarmofpeople vibrating kinds treading familiar paths, the sky,transportation ofall scene: buildingsreaching to It must have been afamiliar into itsprerecorded routine. the world around mesnaps unnatural resonance. this simulation,somesortof reported byearly adopters of I’m looking for ananomaly tonality across thespectrum. accentuating abuildupof analysis, the hue and saturation reflected inawashoffrequency unique voicing characteristics As cars speed byIseetheir based onthesoundsofcity. kind ofethereal cloud ofcolor from every object,radiating a based oncolor asitemanates of thefrequency spectrum model to visualizethedensity the world. Ican usethisdebug analysis across every corner of projects arainbow ofvisual analyzer thatimmediately all-attack modernage. frenetic intheno-hold-back- countryside, I’mnow firmly the tranquility oftherural moments agoIwasadriftin of stimulation. Whereas toward aninevitable overflow dance oforchestrated input my battered brain-stem ina simulated molecules caress sensual information. These the endless saturation of before I’mconfronted with threshold ofmodernity, not long, asIcross the of interconnectivity. It’s amidst therapid acceleration an endless stream ofactivity of information technology, clatter liesthegoldenage intermittent elevated train air-conditioner rattle and modern age. orchestration ofthethen- skyscrapers resonating inan cars, tricklingfountains, and glory. Inamoment:speeding typified 2012Earthinallits frenetic audiovibration that a thrummingandhumming humming metropolis isahive, sympathetic embrace. This their wayinandoutofa and intensity asdrones weave the experience: alloppression Loading arestore point, I engageafrequency Between theinsistent fine-tuning. in every case thatstill require motion, butthere are extremes created theentire range of and we’ve captured andre- of thesimulated vocal chords size, shape,andcomposition into account thesimulated response. Ourmodelstake of extreme emotional break down duringmoments modeling always seems to it—the qualityofourvoice uncontrollably. Thisexplains to face withalittle girlsobbing analyzer andfind myselfface the sidewalk. somewhere inthemiddle of standing low to theground frequencies, Ifind myself point to amass ofoverlapping connects theextreme data- a sinuouspulsatinglinethat the modeling.AsItrace along glance to bea discrepancy in the source; itseemsatfirst the problem. Inavigate to source andimmediately see in anattempt to isolate the in oneofthedebugwindows I perusethedata streaming to theoriginofanomaly. manual control andreverse frequency pileup. Iswitch to haze ofpink,representing a the world issaturated ina the report andallatonce to themomentspecified in I scrubthrough thecapture the playbackseemsnormal. amplitude increase, sofar, sea ofclear density. concrete footfalls islost ina step. Theindividualityoftheir undeniably propelling each the threshold ofhearing,but of kickdrummixed below the city;like amilliontracks in timewiththeheartbeatof Each person moves lockstep toward anunseendestination. moving, seemingly insync, Everybody onthestreet that flank every thoroughfare. It’s thesameonsidewalks MILESTONE 7:ANOMALY a city. this polyphonic synthesizerof building islike anoscillator in throughout theinterior, each vibrations ofpeople cascading their mechanical rooms to the a hum.From thedepthsof Each buildingresonating with so revolutions perminute. the endless drone ofso-and- ballet ofbelching exhaust and I switch offthefrequency Aside from theoccasional

ILLUSTRATION: BRENT PORTER ILLUSTRATION: BRENT PORTER the answer is,buteventually face notknowing exactly what if sheislost. Shelooks inmy sidewalk infront of herandask Regardless, Ikneel down onthe than anybeliefinthisas“real.” more aresult ofmyexperience my breathing accelerates. It’s that Ican feel inmychest as still here havingareal reaction of thisishappening,butI’m is still only asimulation;none for amoment.Ofcourse this lost someonedearto me,ifonly long agowhen,asaparent, I her asIremember thatdayso frantically. Myheartgoesoutto begins to scan thecrowd quieted down andherface secrets heldwithin. instrument thatthere are still testament to thehumanbody- with theaudience. Itremains a has thepotential to connect whether acted orauthored, that day itisstill theperformance, body, though.Attheendof the artistry present withinalive technology cannot yet achieve moments wheneven ourbest a long time.There still exist part ofourexperiences for we’ve haddigital doubles as phoneme-based lip-syncing, procedural animations,and Coupled withafullbodyscan, the peakoftheirprofession. could beperpetuated beyond take a vocal snapshotwhich certain status we rushedin to actress oractor achieved a profitable. Assoonasan first: These were themost down celebrity vocalizations Of course we beganbynailing S Milestone 8: oul The girlseemsto have S ynthesized

environment. Even amidst began to notice thechanging of life ontheplanet.People turning point”in the evolution become known asa“great vocalization model. next update to the will beusedto inform the often enough,thesolution behavior isfound. Ifithappens applied inreal-time ifthesame simulation itself,they can be changes don’tgoasdeepthe such anomalies.While the be usedintheevent ofother to thevocalization modelsto Instead, Iapply theadjustments to address every similarcase. of thisscope itcould take hours just seconds, but inasimulation unnatural. Theprocess takes have caused things to become constrain theparameters that or emotion,Imethodically Without losing anyoftheferocity various smoothingalgorithms. of hervoice, Ibeginto apply vocalizations. Soloing thesound to thedata-point for thegirl’s I utilizethecontrols attached identified asthelittle girl’s cries, to theoriginalanomaly, now at hand. people asIreturn to thetask girl’s smile through theseaof foot-traffic. I can seethelittle bustling parade oflunchtime whisked awaythrough the condolences she’s quickly volley ofhugsandexasperated girl into herarms.Amidst a mother quickly lofting thelittle the message isbroken bya with when,midsentence, I beginto askwhoshewas nodding inacknowledgment. This periodofEarthhas Scrubbing backintime

Milestone 9: power ofnature. and prepare to orchestrate the terror. Ibringupmydisplay, in amomentofsheersonic approaching shore isunhinged waves increase theiramplitude The howl andmoanasthe roofs off thenearbyhouses. sea, andwindsetto tear the wall ofwater, anundulating investigating. I’mfaced witha next restore pointthatneeds task athand,flipping to the slow decay. combination ofexodus and planet. From there, itwasa beyond theconfines ofasingle had already shifted to worlds recognition spread, thefocus the planet.Bytimethis a role to playinpreserving of thefact thateveryone had city, people were taking note the abstracted nature ofthe game industry toward afuture is rapidly evolving withintoday’s physical modelingtechniques— procedural, synthesis,and incorporates extensible a composite toolbox which playback methodology into from thestandard sample radical changeinapproach— at universities today. This found runninginsimulations there are aspectsthatcan be in therealm ofscience fiction, and methodologies live strictly While someof theseworkflows forward for interactive audio. done to helpenvisiontheway is to inspire thework being reference theideaofthisstory fictional story and factual Through acombination of I exhale andreturn to the Aur S a hip l Fix I t a tion Twitter @lostlab. LostChocolateLab.com andon Damian Kastbauerislost at *** Muppets keep pretending.” —The own ending,keep believing, “Life’s like amovie, make your dynamism ofsimulations. by leveraging theinherent of aninteractive experience reinforce theperceived reality creative waysthatsoundcan continue to look forward to the sample-based content alone. I needs cannot bemetwith seems inevitable thatsound inherent inmost games,it size, diversity, andcomplexity sound. Dueto increasing hybrid modelofdynamic Density: http://transom.org/?page_id=7006 inria.fr/reves/Basilic/2008/BDTVJ08/ Frequency-Domain Synthesis: www-sop. gamma.cs.unc.edu/Sound/RESound/ for DynamicVirtualEnvironments: http:// http://graphics.cs.cmu.edu/projects/pat/ geometrically complex vibration sources sensitive, accurate sound generation for projects/Sound/cloth/ of Cloth Sounds:www.cs.cornell.edu/ gamma.cs.unc.edu/PrecompWaveSim/ Sources inComplex Scenes: http:// Real-Time SoundPropagation ofDynamic propagation/ Propagation: http://gamma.cs.unc.edu/ 33-Issue-9-October-2010-/Viewpoint.aspx cgw.com/Publications/CGW/2010/Volume- 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 gamma.cs.unc.edu/SoundingLiquids/ Synthesis from FluidSimulation:http:// Walter Murch, DenseClarity–Clear Fast ModalSoundswithScalable RESound:Interactive SoundRendering Precomputed Acoustic Transfer: Output- Motion-driven Concatenative Synthesis Precomputed Wave Simulationfor EfficientNumerical SimulationofSound Noriko Kurachi -Now HearThis:www. SoundingLiquids-Automatic Sound _ Damian Kastbauer af af 053

053 game developer magazine 054 game developer magazine KNOWING WHENTO FOLD THE CHOICE INSERT CREDIT_ 054

ic Brandon Sheffield INSERT CREDIT INSERT CREDIT INSERT CREDIT

INSERT CREDIT ILLUSTRATION: JUAN RAMIREZ

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ILLUSTRATION: JUAN RAMIREZ INSERT CREDIT she wassupposedto be. because shewasfinally who and thechildren accepted her, a girl.Thenshewashappy, granted, hewasturned into him—and inthatwishbeing children wouldn’t make funof wished to “benormal,”sothe was able to make a wish.He some magical occurrence, he of him.Then,oneday,through the otherchildren madefun his motherhadbought.But as ayoung ladywiththethings right asaboy, andsodressed wanted agirl.Henever felt boy, butwhosemotheralways character whobeganlife asa fairy tales, Idiscussed a crashing down. that brought thewhole project one ofthesewhimsical stories magic andwhimsy. Andit’s meant to evoke amoodof in afairy-tale style, andwere more outofthegame. people whowanted to get they’d beanice bonusfor would never seethem,but conditions. Most players be unlocked given certain few sidestories, whichcould and thelike, Ialsomadea In additionto general dialogue the gamedesignisinplace. begin untilthestructure of knows, thewritingcan’t really any goodnarrative designer actual writing,because as myself, butitgotthere. pool, andalot oftalking to pacing inmyfriend’s empty quite nicely. Ittook alot of tying thewhole thingtogether incredibly difficult questions, structure, andsolved some problem withthestory’s a time.Isolved someinherent a company inAsia. freelance narrative designfor that capacity thatIwasdoing is oneofthose.)Soit’s in do sideprojects. (Thiscolumn order to paythebills,Ioften Necrosoft Games—butin starving indiedeveloper at My dayjobatpresent is You see,inoneofthese These stories were written I thenbeganwork onthe It wasgoingquite well, for to thenext project. ButasI said “nope!”andmoved on I would’ve immediately just stand onthere. a contractor, Ihave noleg to the whole company, andas But hewastheartdirector for do theartfor thislittle story. likely because hisstaff hadto into mypartoftheprocess, had chosento poke hisnose production, and the art director of thispartthegame’s I washired to take control choice to make. Ultimately, “morality” into astory issue. director’s statement, bringing as offended asIwasbytheart creative director wasnearly this particularissue. The didn’t care eitherwayabout wanted thegamefinished. He art director. also afriend,appealed to the director ofthecompany, change, while thecreative appealed to meto make a director, afriendofmine, were allowed. Sothegame’s game ifthisimmoral thing said hecouldn’t work onthis it isaboutanydoctrine. comfortable withoneselfthan and ismore aboutfeeling choice, it’s oneofnecessity a pointhere!) isnotamoral not thatIwastryingto make one’s proper gender(again, abide. After all,changingto But immoral? ThatIcould not that Icould have accepted. or saiditwasn’tinteresting— If they’d criticizedmywriting, THE STANDOFF whole thingapart. Well, thatbasically tore the immoral aschanginggender. couldn’t abidesomethingso it. AsaChristian, hesaid, specifically, took issue with the team, theartdirector about it.Butoneperson on and Ididn’treally thinktwice wasn’t aradical statement, If Iwere flush withcash, So here Iwas,withahard The gamedirector just The artdirector, though, Now, inmymind,this choice. Ihadputtoo muchof For me,ultimately, itwasn’ta DIGNITY THE HIGHPRICEOF respectability? price ispersonal honorand for thesake oftheteam? What just sucked itupandlet itgo guilty myself. ShouldIhave month), butIcertainly felt production (bymore thana it ashisfault for delaying game’s direction. doctrines would dictate the where skewed religious I couldn’t work onagame game. Itwasallornothing. entirety ofmywork from the be thatIhadto withdraw the his stance. Andsoitcame to as muchIdisagreed with almost respected himfor that, felt thesameway,andI make another. that one,maybeIwould that concession. IfI’ve made now aperson whohasmade slide, thatslideisforever. I’m but once Ilet mymoral ground can always getmore money, down. Ithoughtto myself:I stance, because Ihadbacked get to feel justified inhismoral director would “win.”Hewould changed mystory, thentheart wouldn’t let mebackdown. IfI battle to fight next time. my story, andchooseabigger and changethissmallbitof things. So,Ishouldsuckitup battle inthegrand schemeof they are, isslowly losing the doesn’t accept people for who of theargument, thesidethat as achoice, butthatside I waseven thinkingaboutthis said they admired thefact that should quittheproject. Some they would do.SomesaidI think aboutthis. the money. SoIactually hadto thing. Icould definitely use whole indiegamedeveloper “starving” element ofthe of thisarticle, there’s that mentioned inthefirst line The company viewed Perhaps theartdirector But ultimately, mypride I asked myfriendswhat INSERT CREDIT_ the bastards getyou down. everyone to play,anddon’tlet worlds better places for on tryingto make ourvirtual for themagazine.Let’s keep though thisismyfinal column have you fought? fight, inthesesituations?How mainstream.” How would you male, inorder to “access the black to white, orfemale to to changeacharacter from about publishers wanting We’ve allheard stories that prompt you to action? of thisnature, usingterms when faced withadilemma But whatwould you do wouldn’t beoneyou’d fight. to you: Perhaps thisbattle but perhapsit’s for thebest. It feels strange to step back, and make thegameyour own. do, to getpersonally invested, it seemslike agoodthingto But whenaproject feels right, contract work!” Andhe’s right. so muchofyourself into your me, “You’ve gotto stop putting change thename,aswell. her, meaningthey’d have to character asthoughitwere away last year, andwrote the a close friendwhopassed character ofthegameafter of that,Ihadnamedthemain performance orskill.Ontop to me,andwasn’tbasedon a reason thatseemedsosilly *** him on Twitter via@necrosofty. games for PlayStation Mobile. Follow currently developing small-team two worked onover adozentitles, andis Game Developer magazine.Hehas Games, andeditor emeritusof Oakland, California–based Necrosoft SheffiBrandon eld isdirector of I’d love to hearfrom you, So Iposethisquestion A friendofminesaidto Brandon Sheffield to let itbechangedfor ic 055 into thegame myself ic

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gamescom 2013: The entire gaming world in one place

The concept of the world's largest trade fair and event highlight for interactive games and entertainment is unique: it networks the entire value-added chain, from development and publishing to retail and the consumer. As the largest event of its kind in the world and the leading trade fair, it provides discussion platforms on all levels. It covers the entire spectrum of the international gaming scene:

+ PC games + Online games + Video games + Browser games + Social games + Mobile games + Gaming hardware gamescom at a glance The concept provides individual platforms for all target groups: + Business area, halls 4/5 ENTERTAINMENT AREA: emotional gaming presentation for all – the world’s + Entertainment area, halls 6-10 largest playground for interactive entertainment + BUSINESS AREA: international meeting point for exhibitors, trade visitors and Presentations of news and media representatives innovations of the entire GDC EUROPE: largest European developer conference industry + gamescom award gamescom 2013 started with an exhibition space of 140.000 squaremeters. The trade + Games Developers Conference fair and event highlight for interactive games and entertainment demonstrates with + gamescom festival, City of its leitmotif what the games world can expect in Cologne from 21st to 25th August Cologne 2013: The international games community – developers, providers, trade visitors, media representatives, retailers and thousands of gamers – meets at gamescom 2013 in order to experience together spectacular innovations and to celebrate the gamescom 2012 was a games and entertainment event of the year. complete success

Koelnmesse and its partners, headed by the BIU (the German Trade Association of + 603 exhibitors from 40 Interactive Entertainment Software), are already working flat out to further develop countries gamescom as Europe’s central business and entertainment platform. gamescom + 275.000 visitors in total awards are further developed due to the great popularity. The BIU also expects + 24,500 trade visitors exciting novelties and innovations at gamescom when it comes to hardware and (52% abroad) software innovations. + 5.300 journalists from 52 countries We look forward to welcoming you to gamescom 2013! + More than 120,000 additional visitors at City-Festival game developer magazine 057 { ADVERTISEMENT } ON

Essential Scrum, Kanban and FOCUS Agile for Creative Teams Training by the author of "Agile Game Development with Scrum"

Learn how to apply agile practices such as Scrum and Kanban to creative products with training by Clinton Keith, the pioneer of implementing agile for video game development, the author of “Agile Game Development with Scrum” and a Certified Scrum Trainer and Trained Kanban Coach.

Get hands-on experience through team simulation exercises and instruction specifically tailored for creative product development professionals. Learn how agile applies to art and design as well as engineering. Discover how the collaborative team practices of Scrum and the visualization and flow management tools of Kanban can have a profound effect on your studio.

Agile/Scrum/Kanban are Proven to Help:

+ Stop project crunch times + Predict ship dates more effectively + Control and reduce costs + Energize teams + Focus talent on creating value + Eliminate barriers between art, design and engineering

Public and customized in-studio training courses teach iterative product development to creative teams and leaders at any level of experience. Gain practical knowledge through real-world examples and lessons from the development veteran and leader who introduced Scrum to the video game industry ten years ago. The courses apply simulation, discussion, improvisation and exercises to engage the creative developer and demonstrate, in action—not theory—how and why agile works.

Visit the website www.ClintonKeith.com, or email Clinton at [email protected] to discover more about agile training and coaching options for creative teams.

" Clinton is a very switched on, genuine guy, and I strongly recommend his ScrumMaster Course to anyone who is looking to improve the productivity of their teams with Scrum.” - Kim Sellentin, Blizzard Entertainment

“ The training itself was first rate and received wide praise from our staff both for content and mode of delivery. Clinton's experience in game development and project management is a powerful supplement to his expertise in SCRUM methodologies. I strongly recommend both Clinton and his services.” - Michael Timothy Doyle, EA

“ He is a skilled instructor who brings passion and a tremendous depth of experience and know-how to his classes.” - Mike Cohn, Mountain Goat Software www.ClintonKeith.com [email protected] game developer magazine 058 { ADVERTISEMENT } { ADVERTISEMENT } ON

InnoGames GmbH Harburger Schlossstr. 28 21079 Hamburg FOCUS Germany +49 40 788 9335 0 Who We Are [email protected] With more than 100 million registered players, InnoGames is one of the world´s leading www.innogames.com developers and providers of online games. Our products (Tribal Wars, The West, Grepolis, Forge of Empires and others) are available in more than 30 languages. Our headquarter is located in Hamburg, Germany. We also have local offices in South Korea and Brazil. The Business Principle

Our users have the option of playing InnoGames products completely free of charge and without restrictions for as long as they want. We also offer players the possibility of enjoying added benefits in the game by purchasing fee-based premium features. At the same time, InnoGames places a high priority on providing entertaining gameplay even without a premium pricetag.

This principle has great advantages to the user. In contrast to traditional PC games, the product features here are already well-known before the player makes the decision to pay for added benefits - or not. The specific advantages offered by the premium features are also transparent. "What you see is what is what you get" is the underlying principle.

In our games, we focus on high long-term motivation. Our game Tribal Wars has been online for ten years now and continues to attract millions daily. Partner with us

We have a good working network with trustworthy partners in all important game markets. As we are rapidly growing, we are looking for promising new partnerships. Are you a development studio experienced in mobile and browser games? Do you have high media competence and would like to cooperate with us? Or are you highly talented and want to boost our human resources? No matter your skill set - we are eagerly waiting for you. Just contact us We are looking for:

+ Business Partners • High quality development studios • Effective media cooperations • Partners for our in-house affiliate program

+ Talent to boost our human resources • Skilled mobile developers • Creative game designers • Artistic graphic designers • Experienced marketing, analytics and business development experts game developer magazine 059 { ADVERTISEMENT } ON

Automagic 3D Optimization FOCUS

Simplygon is the leading tool-chain middleware for automatic optimization of 3D-game content and Level of Detail. Simplygon offers the beneﬁ ts of LODs but without the drawbacks of tedious, time-consuming manual work; increased production time; and development cost. Moreover, using Simplygon means more consistent LOD quality; having LOD models available throughout/earlier in Donya Labs AB production; and increased visual quality by, for example, enabling more content to be shown on screen at the same time as well as minimizing LOD “pops”. Gjuterigatan 5 582 73 Linköping, Sverige Donya Labs, creators of Simplygon, is the leading developer and provider of www.simplygon.com automatic 3D-optimization solutions and is dedicated to helping professional game developers streamline their 3D-content pipeline. The revolutionary Simplygon middleware has been licensed by some of the world’s most well renowned game publishers and developers.

Simplygon consists of 4 major Components

BoneLOD can be set to remove a speciﬁ c number of bones for a LOD. Optionally, it can be run as a fully automated process, that removes bones, which does not inﬂ uence the result much. A unique and revolutionary technology, ProxyLOD generates a ultra-lightweight replacement mesh for one or more input meshes. This results in a drastic reduction in both poly-count and number of draw calls. Further reduce draw calls using Simplygon’s automated material retexturing and casting solution, to create texture atlases to replace multiple, complex materials. Polygon reduction the Simplygon way. Our unique methods reduce triangles intelligently and the result is an automated process that guarantees a pixel-perfect LOD chain generation.

“We got a huge beneﬁ t from Simplygon on Tomb Raider. There was a critical point in the project where we had to make some sweeping concept changes to all of our enemy characters. ... We could have lost weeks of valuable production time late in the project, but with Simplygon we managed to condense the process into a few hours.” – Mike Abahazy, Lead Tech Artist, Crystal Dynamics

“Simplygon provides high-quality mesh reduction and time-saving beneﬁ ts to both Epic and to the Unreal Engine community through our Integrated Partners Program, which brings the best features of leading middleware technologies to developers. Using Simplygon for our own games ensures that the tools are always meeting the Epic quality bar.” – Mark Rein, Vice President, Epic Games “The cost savings are enormous, should your game need LODs. A medium sized MMO can easily contain 7,000 models and a large MMO can contain up to 25,000 models if not more. If you estimate that it would take an artist four hours on average to generate several LODs per model, a small game will require 28,000 hours, or 14 man years. A large MMO would take 100,000 hours, or 50 man- years. In this sense, Simplygon can pay for itself over time.” – Bijan Forutanpour for GD magazine game developer magazine 060 { ADVERTISEMENT } { ADVERTISEMENT }

THANK YOU GAME DEVELOPER MAGAZINE FOR ALL THESE AMAZING YEARS. ON

Winner of multiple industry awards, including RPG of the Year for Star Wars: FOCUS Knights of the Old Republic II, and Fallout: New Vegas, Obsidian is dedicated to the development and advancement of role-playing games for PC and console platforms. Obsidian Entertainment, Inc. Obsidian was founded in 2003 by industry veterans Feargus Urquhart, Chris Avellone, 8105 Irvine Center Dr Ste 200 Chris Parker, Darren Monahan, and Chris Jones who are best known for their work Irvine, CA 92168 USA on critically acclaimed classics such as Fallout and Planescape: Torment. [email protected] Located in Irvine, California, Obsidian is minutes from beautiful beaches and just over an hour from the mountains and deserts. Irvine is home to excellent schools, www.obsidian.com wonderful housing communities, and countless bike and hiking trails. Boasting nearly year-round sunny weather, Orange County offers the tropical living you see in movies filmed in Hollywood, only Irvine sits on the safe side of the San Andreas fault - so when the big one hits, you and your family can explore the ruins of earthquake- decimated LA (less than an hour's drive away - not counting vault-dweller traffic).

Obsidian is looking for YOU!

Obsidian Entertainment is always looking for creative individuals interested in a challenging environment creating the best role-playing games in the world. If making the next generation of role-playing games in a friendly, enjoyable atmosphere is what you're looking for, we want to hear from you!

We’re currently working on one of the most anticipated RPGs of 2013, South Park: The Stick of Truth, as well as the currently most funded video game on Kickstarter, Project Eternity. We continually iterate on our own suite of RPG dedicated tools and technology to evolve the RPG genre.

Obsidian Entertainment has the best of both worlds: cutting-edge projects of a large studio combined with the family feel of a smaller company. We emphasize employee development, while encouraging open communication both within and across projects.

Beneﬁ ts at Obsidian

Being a part of one of the few remaining independent developers in the world creating role-playing games is only the start! Obsidian offers many benefits to its employees: we are looking for • Competitive salaries. • Immediate 401k with matching and no vesting periods. + Programmers • Complete comprehensive employee health coverage, including vision and dental. • Mid-Sr Level Engine Health coverage for family as well. • Mid-Sr Level Gameplay • Paid vacation, sick leave, holidays (including special company holidays) and an • additional week off during the December holidays. Mid-Sr Level Network + Artists Apply • Senior Environment Artist If you think you have the chops (that is, experience, qualifications and passionate • Senior 3D Artist desire) to create AAA role-playing games, send us a cover letter, resume, and samples • Concept/UI Artist of your work (portfolios and demo reels, sample code, personal websites or anything • Senior Technical Artist else that demonstrates your abilities) to: + Designers [email protected] • Level Designer • Systems Designer game developer magazine 061 062 game developer magazine -8-1-36o [email protected] w.etroAte.o -OnlinePortfolio 1-888-411-9336 [email protected] www.CenturionArtDev.com Art Development Art CENTURION DEVEloPm Co 20 YEa INSPIRatIoN ContaCt brennerfullerat [email protected] packages alsoavailable. Studio andeducation membership uN loCK 8,000+IN-DEPt NFERENCES. NFERENCES. GDCVault.Com RS o ENt F t al

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063 Ad index_June/July 2013

GAMA13_GDmaghalf_F.inddadvertis 1 er index 3/12/13 10:41 AM COMPANY NAME PAGE # In association with ubm tech PAGE #

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gd Game Developer (ISSN 1073-922X) is published monthly by UBM LLC, 303 Second Street, Suite 900 South, South Tower, San Francisco, CA 94107, (415) 947-6000. Please direct advertising and editorial inquiries to this address. Canadian Registered for GST as UBM LLC, GST No. R13288078, Customer No. 2116057, Agreement No. 40011901. Subscription Rates: Subscription rate for the U.S. is $49.95 for twelve issues. Countries outside the U.S. must be prepaid in U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank or via credit card. Canada/Mexico: $59.95; all other countries: $69.95 (issues shipped via air delivery). Periodical postage paid at San Francisco, CA and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Game Developer, P.O. Box 1274, Skokie, IL 60076-8274. Customer Service: For subscription orders and changes of address, call toll-free in the U.S. (800) 250-2429 or fax (847) 647-5972. All other countries call (1) (847) 647-5928 or fax (1) (847) 647-5972. Send payments to gd Game Developer, P.O. Box 1274, Skokie, IL 60076-8274. Call toll-free in the U.S./Canada (800) 444-4881 or fax (785) 838-7566. All other

countries call (1) (785) 841-1631 or fax (1) (785) 841-2624. Vixen, who talks like that? (x6) Please remember to indicate gd Game Developer on game developer magazine any correspondence. All content, copyright gd Game Developer magazine/UBM LLC, unless otherwise indicated. Don’t steal any of it. Or else. 063 064 game developer magazine LinkedIn |Plaxo |Orkut Brent Hornblower, Esq. Warmest Regards, success! to have paved thewayfor your future other opportunities.Iambeyond proud more timewithmyfamily andexplore graciously step down in order to spend hard road to profitability, I’ve decided to than ever before to embarkuponthelong, And withourorganization more ready numbers inthespreadsheets” initiative. thanks to myinnovative “double the spreadsheets hasmore thandoubled, Now, operating profit inourplanning seeking outdisruptive influencers. brainstorming revenue streams, and stages ofsolidifyingourbusiness model, Development, we were still inthenascent Executive Vice President ofBusiness company sixweeks agoasyour Senior When Ijoinedthisindustry-leading Loyal Employees, Tri sure if you guysknew that or not. 5 a.m.soitcould gooutto thestudio. Not so errors inthebuildmanually every dayat a little slower after today. Iusedto fix20or P.S. Just anote. Thebuildprocess mightbe watching Babylon 5. having abeerandthenheadinghome can come ifyou want.Iwasplanningon away thingatthebardown thestreet. You Anyway, ifyou care, I’llbehavingagoing- the time. tester whosatintheserver room most of worked here. Possibly because Iwasthe meet manyofyou duringtheeightyears I today ismylast day. Ididn’treally getto Hi all,you probably didn’tknow this,but Unrecognized Linchpin M. WASTELAND &M.U arrested development_ 064 u mphan t

E xec ad ut ive nde r land once inawhile for oldtimes’ sake. but notto worry, I’llstill come byfor lunch apparently hasitsown gymoncampus, finally be coming through. My new studio they’ve beentalking about for awhile might now thatthefree gymmemberships I’m kindofsadaboutleaving, especially seems like therightlessons were learned. supposed to withthelast game,butit we didn’tachieve thenumbers we were Anyway, Iknow thingsare tightafter sounds like it’ll besuperfun. exciting—a summercamp theme!That pitch for thenew F2Ptitle wasparticularly be left inthebest hands.Thatinternal Of course, I’m confident ourgames will I’m leaving for thatnew place across town. Hey guys,Iguess you heard bynow that G Monday. roommate’s car andcome pickthemupon action figures onmydesk!!!I’llborrow my P.S. NOBODY touch themint-in-box Someone forward thisto HR. forever. PLEASE.GOODRIDDANCE. for absolutely FREE,andget outofmylife your FREEFOOD, provided bymeto you can getthatbuildupwithoutme.Enjoy see how well your burrito-stuffed faces DONE. I’moutofhere, like, for real. Let’s Actually, you know what?Screw this.I’M to beable to DOMYJOB.HELLO? IS TOMORROW, andIneedto EAT inorder staging intimefor thenext update WHICH like we’re tryingto getastable buildonto the oneeatingthem!You know, it’s not producer aboutthis.Heck, maybehe’s can’t believe how manytimesI’ve told our ON THEBOX. ANDONEACH BURRITO. I the freezer, even thoughIputmyname that oneofmyburrit Okay, thisistheSIXTHTIMETHISMONTH R reener age Q u i t P as tu res os disappeared from Matthew Wasteland, MagnusUnderland Sincerely, system: You are notalone. trying to dogoodwork inamessed-up To all line-level gamedevelopers outthere, patterns were thesame. And no,itwasadifferent studio, butthe was, “You must have worked atmystudio!” development travails. Ourfavorite response helped to sustain usthrough ourown game time writingitandthemailwe gotfrom you over thelast six-ishyears. We hadagreat Thank you somuchfor reading ourcolumn Dear Readers ofGameDeveloper Magazine, Management Thanks, That isall. Nobody isallowed to talk about Bob. alert securityimmediately. instead. Ifyou seeBobintheparkinglot, please donotread itandforward itto HR with thecompany. IfBobtriesto emailyou, As someofyou mayknow, Bobisnolonger Bob will cook upnext. =) forward to seeingwhatthistalented team Going to miss you guys,andreally looking A [email protected]. other topics at www.above49.ca. Emailhimat Magnus Underland writes aboutgamesand Email himat [email protected]. Wasteland (www.magicalwasteland.com). and gamedevelopment onhisblog, Magical Matthew Wasteland writes aboutgames *** ad nd N ow, A

G en u ine G oodbye

ILLUSTRATION: JUAN RAMIREZ BRINGING FEATURE-RICH GAMING EXPERIENCES TO THE WEB

How high-performance C++ games are running in HTML5 – no plug-ins, period!

The Web just became a much friendlier mance comparable to native. Bringing visu- platform for beautiful, high-quality games ally stunning, performance-intensive games thanks to the latest advances in Web tech- to billions of people on the Web is now a nologies and Epic’s ongoing collaboration reality. with Mozilla. Epic Citadel is built using standards- Engineering teams at Mozilla and Epic based technologies such as HTML5, We- Games recently ported Unreal Engine 3 to bGL and JavaScript, and should work in the Web in just four days using the powerful any standards-based browser implement- combination of asm.js, a highly optimized ing those features. The app’s benchmarking subset of JavaScript, and Emscripten, mode has been a big hit with the commu- which enables developers to compile C++ nity. Many users have posted screenshots code into JavaScript. with readouts of 150 fps and higher! Epic then demonstrated Unreal Tourna- To try Epic Citadel for HTML5, download ment 3 in HTML5 at the Game Developers Firefox Nightly at nightly.mozilla.org and Conference and released Epic Citadel on then visit unrealengine.com/html5 for a pre- the Web running in HTML5. view of the future of gaming on the Web. Instructions on how to unlock the frame rate Developers can now achieve fast perfor- are located within the FAQ.

Come see Epic at upcoming industry events: Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) (June 11-13, Los Angeles, CA), Develop Conference (July 9-11, Brighton, UK), ChinaJoy (July 25-27, Shanghai, China). Email [email protected] for appointments and sign up for our newsletter at unrealengine.com.

© 2013, Epic Games, Inc. Epic, Epic Citadel, Epic Games, the Epic Games logo, Unreal, Unreal Engine, UE3 and Unreal Tournament are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. IT’S HERE 2

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