THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE VOL18 NO4 APRIL 2011 INSIDE: 10TH ANNUAL SALARY SURVEY “In Firefall, we are creating a futuristic and fantastical world, but believability remains a priority. If you cut corners when it comes to animation, you are betraying the vision of your game. Morpheme lets us meet our high standards of quality while maintaining a very efficient pipeline.” Mark Kern, Founder and CEO of Red 5 Studios www.naturalmotion.com Vo coNTENTS.0411 LU mE 18 NUmBER 4 d EPa RTm ENTS 2 GAME PLAN By Brandon Sheffield [EDITORIAL] Living Luminaries 4 HEADS UP DISPLAY [ NEw S ] G.A.N.G. Award winners, Vietnam curfews online games, and IGF, Choice Award winners. 29 TOOL BOX By Tom Curtis [REVIEw ] Report From The Show Floor: GDC 2011 32 THE INNER PRODUcT [ PROGRAMMING] P o STmoRTEm By Michael A. Carr, Noel Llopis, Anonymous Programmers Programming Sins 14 SUPER MEAT BOY Super Meat Boy represents the work of two persons (plus a musician), 3 6 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore [ ART] which went on to sell some 400,000 units on XBLA and PC worldwide. The High Art of Games Fighting through illness and fatigue, this is a story of success from a team that urges you to "have fun" making your game. 3 8 DESIGN Of THE TIMES By Damion Schubert [ DESIGN] By Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes A Player's Stories FEaTURES 41 AURAL fIXATION By Jesse Harlin [ SOUND] Indie Audio Jonesing 7 10TH ANNUAL SALARY SURVEY Our popular survey is back, now in its 10th year of sharing the 42 THE BUSINESS By David Edery [ BUSINESS] average salaries of game developers worldwide across all disciplines Team Players (though focusing on North America). Indies, for the second time, are also reported herein. 43 GOOD jOB! By Brandon Sheffield [cAREER] By Ryan Newman and Brandon Sheffield Tom Russo Q&A, Who Went Where, and New Studios 45 EDUcATED PLAY By Jeffrey Fleming [ EDUc ATION] 21 cREATOR Of wORLDS One Man Down's Solace Minecraft-like procedural terrain generation is an interesting subject, but where to start? Joshua Tippetts poses that through combining 48 ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT By Matthew Wasteland [HUMOR] various functions, you can create a tweakable procedural world. How To Annoy Your Producers! By Joshua Tippetts www.gdmag.com 1 GAME PLAN // BRANDON SHEFFIELD GAME DEVELOPER MAGAZINE WWW.GDMAG.COM United Business Media 303 Second Street, Suite 900, South Tower LIVING LUMINARIES San Francisco, CA 94107 WHY DO WE HOLD UP SOME VETERAN GAME DEVELOPERS ABOVE OTHERS? t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090 SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND AT THIS YEAR’S GDC—THE 25th— make us feel like the pioneers we technology and design innovation ADDRESS CHANGES there were 11 postmortems of admire. Coming upon some area in their respective eras. But I think t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606 vintage games from important you didn’t know existed feels like what really fascinates us is that e: [email protected] creators, all of them incredibly you’re discovering the lost city these creators managed to make FOR DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION inspiring. This prompted me to of Atlantis—if only for a moment. these innovative games largely www.gdmag.com/digital think—why do we hold these folks Forging those worlds has a similar by themselves. The tools, designs, EDITORIAL in such high regard? They deserve feel, but most of us can’t do that and art techniques they needed PUBLISHER to be looked upon with respect, alone. We need a MINECRAFT to give didn’t exist, so they willed them Simon Carless l [email protected] there’s no doubt in my mind. But us the tools, or else we need a into existence. These are persons EDITOR-IN-CHIEF when you break it down, Toru team of artists behind us to create of vision, with the ability to back Brandon Sheffield l [email protected] Iwatani created PAC-MAN, and that’s the assets that bring our code to PRODUCTION EDITOR that vision up with hard work and Jeffrey Fleming l [email protected] pretty much it. Other luminaries visual life. Or as artists, you need provable results. And who wouldn’t ART DIRECTOR like Jordan Mechner (PRINCE OF coders and designers to help craft respect that? Joseph Mitch l [email protected] PERSIA) and ERIC CHAHI (ANOTHER that universe. The do-it-yourselfer will always PRODUCTION INTERN Tom Curtis WORLD) continue to work on games, We have become extremely be someone to learn from, no matter CONTRIBUTING EDITORS but have few titles to their credit. compartmentalized in our work, what his or her era of prominence. Jesse Harlin Why do we revere certain which is to the benefit of the large- But when they can continue those Steve Theodore Kim Pallister people in the game industry? Is it scale games we create. Having ideas through to the future, and their Dave Cowling because of the high quality of the a dedicated writer has proved to original pioneering ideas are still Soren Johnson games they created? Is it because be very successful for certain applicable, you see that they’re not Damion Schubert ADVISORY BOARD of how influential they were? Do teams. Dedicated network coders just one-hit wonders. Sure, there are Hal Barwood Designer-at-Large we color those past experiences are hard to find, but an absolute those in the industry who happened Mick West Independent with our memories? All of these necessity for most persistently Brad Bulkley Neversoft to hit on something at the right time, Clinton Keith Independent are factors—but I think overall, our online games. But sometimes and made an impact in their day, Brenda Brathwaite Lolapps reverence for these people has to that compartmentalization can but cease to retain relevance. I think Bijan Forutanpour Sony Online Entertainment Mark DeLoura THQ do with a pioneering spirit. diminish the feeling of creation those are fewer and further between Carey Chico Independent and exploration. than those who do something great WILD, WILD WEST So we do hold up these because that’s what’s in them, and ADVERTISING SALES GLOBAL SALES DIRECTOR » I think most of us in the luminaries for their pioneering spirit, whether they move on to education Aaron Murawski e: [email protected] game industry have some sort but also for the fact they did nearly as Iwatani has, or continue to t: 415.947.6227 of predisposition to thoughts of everything themselves, before tools pioneer fluid gameplay like Chahi MEDIA ACCOUNT MANAGER John Malik Watson e: [email protected] fantasy. To imagine, fantasize, and to do so were even invented. with his new game FROM DUST, their t: 415.947.6224 dream is human. But as working ideas remain strikingly relevant. GLOBAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, RECRUITMENT game developers, we actually make THE WILL TO CREATE This is what I’ve taken away from Gina Gross e: [email protected] these visions come to life in ways Iwatani’s PAC-MAN was an the vintage postmortems at GDC. t: 415.947.6241 » GLOBAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, EDUCATION that most people can only, well, early effort in fooling players into What these fellows did back then Rafael Vallin e: [email protected] dream about. So to us, that fantasy believing games had complex AI, was amazing—but what they think t: 415.947.6223 is closer at hand. while also proving the power of and do now is just as interesting. ADVERTISING PRODUCTION We idolize cowboys, samurai, distinctive character combined Every time I’ve spoken to Eric Chahi PRODUCTION MANAGER explorers, inventors, and astronauts with tight control. Jordan Mechner about modern game design, he’s Pete C. Scibilia e: [email protected] because they fulfill that need for knew he wouldn’t be able to create revealed to me something I wouldn’t t: 516-562-5134 adventure and exploration we all perfect animation with the tools have thought of, even in genres he’s REPRINTS feel. I don’t know about everyone he had at his disposal at the time, never worked on. WRIGHT'S MEDIA else, but part of why I work on so he filmed his brother running We can aspire to greatness Ryan Pratt e: [email protected] games, and help to create worlds, and jumping, then shrank the ourselves, and this is part of t: 877.652.5295 is because of an urge to explore. I data and made pixel versions that current the indie fervor, I believe. If AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT want to make my mark, and be the have an incredible fluidity to them. we apply what we know and try to TYSON ASSOCIATES Elaine Tyson first one to step onto that alien soil Eric Chahi pushed polygons on make something different on our e: [email protected] and discover its secrets. Because early computers in an early stage, own—something that comes from LIST RENTAL Merit Direct LLC after all, no matter how carefully we and where assembly failed him, within—we could be presenting t: 914.368.1000 craft our games, there are always constructed code language of his our own vintage postmortems secrets, little twists of the world own, to create a one of the most at the 50th GDC. Would anyone that we never anticipated. cinematic games of the era. be surprised to see MINECRAFT’s MMOs, open-world games, and Of course, it helps that all these Markus Persson there? sandboxes like LOVE and MINECRAFT games were excellent examples —Brandon Sheffield are fantasy generators. They of what could be done with twitter: @necrosofty WWW.UBM.COM 2 GAME DEVELOPER | APRIL 2011 Our programs and initiatives are helping Ontario’s interactive digital media companies create a thriving industry, a global audience and a wealth of opportunity.