THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE voL 18 N o 5 MAY 2011 INSIDE: BRo WSER TECH MEGA- R o UNDUP

XBLIG Postmortem Explosion: Cthulu Saves the World, Shoot 1up, Epic Dungeon, ZP2KX, Soulcaster II

Game Engine Survey 2011

A Salute to Real Game Dev Heroes

CONTENTS.0511 VOLUME 18 NUMBER 5 VOLUME 18 NUMBER 5 CONTENTS.0511

DEPARTMENTS

2 GAME PLAN By Brandon Sheffield [EDITORIAL] Accepting Free-To-Play

4 HEADS UP DISPLAY [NEWS] The Video Game Crowdfunding Cheat Sheet, Silver Eddie Award, Strong National Museum of Play, and Gamestorm celebrates Paper Prototyping.

31 TOOL BOX By Darius Kazemi [REVIEW] Dominic Szablewski: Impact Game Engine POSTMORTEM 35 THE INNER PRODUCT By Vincent Scheib [PROGRAMMING] 20 XBOX LIVE INDIE GAMES The Future of Browsers The Xbox Live Indie Games service began as an experiment to let developers publish their games on consoles directly. Since then, a 43 AURAL FIXATION By Jesse Harlin [SOUND] number of standouts have emerged among the over 1,600 games. Here, STACKING Overflow we feature five excellent examples of the XBLIG spirit;C THULU SAVES THE WORLD, SHOOT 1UP, EPIC DUNGEON, ZP2KX, and SOULCASTER II. 44 DESIGN OF THE TIMES By Soren Johnson [DESIGN] By Robert Boyd, Nathan Fouts, Michael Muir, James Silva, and Ian The End of Games? Stocker 47 THE BUSINESS By John Graham [BUSINESS] FEATURES Build Your Own Buzz

7 GAME ENGINE SURVEY 2011 48 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore [ART] A lot has changed since our last engine survey in 2009, especially as Legal Age: Photoshop Turns 21 regards treatment of indies. Engine providers have seen the writing on the wall, and now incorporate smaller platforms, while still supporting 51 GOOD JOB! By Brandon Sheffield [CAREER] large-scale companies. Through extensive surveys, we attempt to discern Michael Dashow Q&A, Who Went Where, and New Studios what is most important to developers when choosing a new engine. By Mark DeLoura 53 EDUCATED PLAY By Tom Curtis [EDUCATION] OCTODAD

15 GAME DEV HEROES 56 ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT By Matthew Wasteland [HUMOR] In every game project, there are unsung heroes. There's the person that Gamified! fixes the "unfixable" legacy bug, or devises the concept that ultimately makes the game fun, or finds the visual theme that ties everything together. We set out to find these people, and to sing their praises. By Brandon Sheffield

WWW.GDMAG.COM 1 GAME PLAN // BRANDON SHEFFIELD GAME DEVELOPER MAGAZINE WWW.GDMAG.COM

United Business Media 303 Second Street, Suite 900, South Tower ACCEPTING FREE-TO-PLAY San Francisco, CA 94107 LEARNING TO FLOW WITH THE CHANGING TIDE t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090

SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND IN THIS MONTH’S DESIGN COLUMN, First of all, a rotating roster around the queasiness some of ADDRESS CHANGES you’ll find Soren Johnson talking inspires players to try out us feel knowing we’re withholding t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606 about free-to-play game design. He characters they might otherwise convenience that could have been e: [email protected] recently completed work on DRAGON never touch. When presented with built into the game natively. FOR DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION AGE LEGENDS, an F2P realization of some 72 characters at once, it’s www.gdmag.com/digital the DRAGON AGE world for Facebook. difficult to know where to start, and GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT EDITORIAL In the column he mentions several one is less inclined to experiment. >> I’ve been casually following the PUBLISHER successful implementations of In that sense, the designers have F2P industry for nearly as long as Simon Carless l [email protected] F2P design, wherein designers chosen to showcase all their it’s been around. I started paying EDITOR-IN-CHIEF must keep players interested and characters individually, because attention to the Korean industry Brandon Sheffield l [email protected] engaged on a moment-to-moment otherwise a good percentage of back in 2001, and the seeds planted PRODUCTION EDITOR Jade Kraus l [email protected] level, but also provide them with them may have gone unused. then have taken fruit worldwide. ART DIRECTOR compelling reasons to spend The game also rolled out these Free-to-play is quite simply one of Joseph Mitch l [email protected] money. The reason this topic is so characters gradually over time, the most lucrative business models, DESIGNER valid is that a lot of game industry making the rotation feel natural for if not the most, in games today. Jessica Chan PRODUCTION INTERN folks, myself included, just get plain long-time players. This has expanded to include much Tom Curtis old queasy when we think about I think that some of us feel greater Western appreciation, and CONTRIBUTING EDITORS creating games this way. designers of these games build looks to become a dominant model John Graham for online games here as well. Jesse Harlin a complete experience, and then Soren Johnson MONEY TALKS decide what they can chop out to I mention all this because these Vincent Scheib >> There’s a perception that the make people pay for. That’s not how games aren’t just being forced Steve Theodore Matthew Wasteland powerful metrics and feedback the most successful games are onto us by a bunch of executives. ADVISORY BOARD provided by these platforms designed, necessarily. They take a I’ve watched the industry grow, Hal Barwood Designer-at-Large turns designers into spreadsheet core experience that has the idea and these games are succeeding Mick West Independent Brad Bulkley Neversoft managers. Though it may feel that of payment integrated into it as it’s because players are paying for them. Clinton Keith Independent way on some level, it’s not totally designed. The preceding sentence They’re voting with their wallets Brenda Brathwaite Lolapps Bijan Forutanpour Sony Online Entertainment true, since you have to devise made me uncomfortable even as I and showing us that they like these Mark DeLoura THQ the systems in the first place, typed it, but all commercial games games. This is, in fact, something Carey Chico Independent then test them extensively. It’s are paid experiences somehow they want to play, and a payment ADVERTISING SALES like getting the ultimate feedback or other. Whereas many of us still method they feel good about. Those GLOBAL SALES DIRECTOR loop, and if your goal is to please make a game and sell it once, these who dissent and rail against this Aaron Murawski e: [email protected] players, there’s nothing better than games keep on selling—but the idea change are a vocal minority. t: 415.947.6227 instantly knowing whether your of selling our games to customers I would love to see more artistry MEDIA ACCOUNT MANAGER John Malik Watson e: [email protected] new system is a success. stands firm in both cases. and narrative design in the free-to- t: 415.947.6224 More than that, one of the It’s important to remember that play market, but we have to make GLOBAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, RECRUITMENT stickier issues is the (perhaps the best among these games really that happen. If you want to create Gina Gross e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6241 EAGUE unfounded) idea of paying to unlock are free. You could play L a narrative in a traditional setting, GLOBAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, EDUCATION the “fun” of the game. In LEAGUE OF OF LEGENDS for free forever, if you there will continue to be a way for Rafael Vallin e: [email protected] LEGENDS, for instance, the character had the time to invest. Almost you to make a comfortable living t: 415.947.6223 roster rotates weekly, and if you everything except the visual flair doing so. But really, those of us who ADVERTISING PRODUCTION want to specialize in one of them, items is purchasable with in-game don’t like this change, those of us PRODUCTION MANAGER you have to either pay real money to money, earned by playing over time. who want to preserve traditional Pete C. Scibilia e: [email protected] keep it unlocked, or play long enough This is just like the “unlocks” we’ve narrative and gameplay, it’s up to t: 516-562-5134 to save up in-game money to unlock been building in games for decades. us to make the F2P model work on REPRINTS that character. There’s nothing But the player never had to pay, and our terms. Customers want to play WRIGHT'S MEDIA inherently bad about this! But just they never pirated the software. this way. If we want to preserve Ryan Pratt e: [email protected] t: 877.652.5295 thinking about it makes me feel like In most cases, paying enhances traditional design, we are going to it’s “wrong.” My gut tells me that all the experience for players by have to meet them halfway. AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT characters should be available from making it more convenient, and Not all games have to be TYSON ASSOCIATES Elaine Tyson the get-go, and players should have that’s another troublesome point. free-to-play, but likewise, not all e: [email protected] LIST RENTAL Merit Direct LLC a choice of who to use. It makes me If the designers know how to make free-to-play games have to make us t: 914.368.1000 even more uncomfortable to know a game more accessible, more fun, uncomfortable. If we want to help that you can buy an item with real and more convenient for players, shape this industry, we've got to do money that helps you gain in-game why should that be behind the pay more than just complain about it! money faster. But you know what? wall? The answer is that if you don’t, —Brandon Sheffield I’m sort of wrong to feel this way. nobody will pay. But there’s no way twitter: @necrosofty

WWW.UBM.COM 2 GAME DEVELOPER | MAY 2011

HEADS-UP DISPLAY

The Video Game Crowdfunding Cheat Sheet

\\\ Crowdfunding is a natural fit for an independent game developer who needs to connect with an audience and secure funding at the same time. Rather than having to “prove” your game to a publisher, you're “proving” it directly to your customers, and you don't have to go out on a limb funding it yourself with no idea of whether you'll sell enough copies to recoup your investment. But not all crowdfunding is the same. An important distinction is the funding model, which divides these services into two different camps. “All or nothing” funding means that you get the money raised only if you've met your funding goal by the funding deadline;

otherwise, no money changes hands. This is a ALLUM-CORNFORTH ROBIN good fit for projects where you have to raise a specific amount of money to pay for an engine or assets, and you'd rather get no funding at

all than get half the funding you need and try BY ILLUSTRATION to cobble together your game with that. “Keep needed right away to feed yourself and pay rent money that the project has raised in previous it all” funding means that you immediately while you work on the project. “rounds” of funding. The chart that accompanies get any money your project raises as soon as Both funding models encourage projects to this article shows the major crowdfunding it's contributed (minus fees), regardless of re-apply if they don't reach their funding goal. A services, as well as their relevant details. A larger whether you've reach your funding goal. It's a failed “all or nothing” project can often succeed version of this report, including comments from good fit for projects where you're committed by scaling down and re-applying with a smaller the organizations themselves, will be available on and able to make the game regardless of how funding goal, and a failed “keep it all” project can Gamasutra.com in April. much money is raised, especially if cash is re-apply with the same funding goal minus any —R. HUNTER GOUGH

NAME KICKSTARTER INDIEGOGO ROCKETHUB ULULE 8-BIT FUNDING http://kickstarter.com http://indiegogo.com http://rockethub.com http://ulule.com http://8bitfunding.com LAUNCHED April 2009 January 2008** January 2010 October 2010 January 2011

SUCCESSES 6,500+ 400 (22,000 total) 94 80 1

VG SUCCESSES 67 1 1 3 Same

FUNDING MODEL All or Nothing Keep It All All & More (Keep it All) All or Nothing Keep It All

SERVICE FEE 5% 4% (9%*) 4%(8%*) 0% 5%

PAYMENT FEE 3-5% 3% 4% 3% 3%

TOTAL FEE 8-10% 7%(12%*) 8%(12%*) 3% 8%

PAYMENT Amazon PayPal/credit card Credit Card PayPal PayPal METHOD

Popularity and Badges and Oppor- Low Fee and Message PERKS Partners Video Games Only Curated Packages tunities Board

INTERNATIONAL No Yes Yes Yes Yes

* HIGHER FEE FOR UNSUCCESSFUL PROJECTS **FILM PROJECTS ONLY UNTIL JANUARY 2010

4 GAME DEVELOPER | MAY 2011 Game Developer magazine Game Developer donates to wins a Silver Eddie Strong National Museum of Play

\\\ The editors of Game Developer the contributors and authors that \\\ The National Museum of Play Frank Cifaldi of 1up.com. are pleased to reveal that the made the award possible. is an exhibition devoted to all To aide the museum’s efforts, magazine has won a Silver Eddie —STAFF types of play, from toys and Game Developer magazine has Award for our March 2010 issue dolls to board games and video donated a near-complete archive which featured an Uncharted 2 games. The museum is hosted at of its back catalog, along with a postmortem, as well as the second the Strong in Rochester, NY, and subscription going forward into edition of the "Dirty Coding Tricks" already boasts a large archive of the future, so that the sharing of article series. The Eddies are put video and computer games, design game development knowledge on yearly by Folio, which bills itself documents, magazines, and more. from throughout the ages can be as "the magazine for magazine The video game division is preserved for future generations. management," and celebrate the known as the International Center Developers interested in best in editorial and design for the for the History of Electronic donating historical artifacts magazine publishing industry. Games, which is already home to or collections can contact the In the B-to-B space, over 25,000 video and electronic International Center for the History Game Developer was a silver games, including over 1,000 PC of Electronic Games and its director winner in the category Media/ games, and almost the entire run of Jon-Paul Dyson through its website Entertainment/Publishing Full Computer Gaming World magazine, at www.icheg.org. Issue. The editors wish to thank which was recently donated by —STAFF

Gamestorm celebrates paper prototyping

\\\ A lot of developers sketch out their ideas, whether that sketch is a arrows, and doodles even mean. Brainstorming notes are amazing pieces bullet-point list of plot points or an entire level drawn out in meticulous of art to me, especially where game developers are concerned, because detail. Although prototyping in code is a great way to prove a concept, they deal with problems and designs of such fun and eclectic types.” many developers still choose to germinate their ideas with paper and pen The genesis of the blog came from a Global Game Jam he participated (or tablet and stylus, as the case may be). It’s this stage of development in this year, where brainstorming pages were in steady supply. It’s those that has aroused the interest of FlashPunk creator Chevy Ray Johnston, pages that were first featured, but the project soon grew. “I launched the who created the Gamestorm blog to gather and showcase the thoughtful site initially planning to just keep uploading new doodles and sketches,” sketches of game developers around the world. he said. “I have a lot of developer friends, and also help teach students of “While developing games, almost all my ideas (whether they be art, game development programs, so I was in no shortage of source material, programming, math, or layouts) find their way onto paper before they but I added a submissions page anyway.” ever hit the computer screen,” Johnston told us. “I love looking back at It turns out he’s not the only one with interest in both viewing and older pages, whether it be traveling back in time to the state of mind I sharing this information. “The idea really struck a chord, and just under 24 was in, or simply trying to decipher what each mess of scribbles, notes, hours, I already had over 100 submissions from developers all over the world,” Johnson said. While the site has only been up for a month and a half as of this writing, well over 100 documents have been shared, from amateur and professional game developers alike, with no signs of slowing down. Why has this captured the interest of so many? Johnston says it best: “Nowhere else can you see complex math equations next to an astronaut riding a dinosaur, or grocery lists on world maps.” Visit and submit entries to Gamestorm at http://gamestorm.tumblr.com. —BRANDON SHEFFIELD

corrections \\\ In the April 2011 issue, we misspelled Autodesk in our Tool Box section. Additionally, we neglected to mention that a version of Joshua Tippetts' article, "Creator of Worlds", originally ran on GameDev.net. The editors regret the errors.

WWW.GDMAG.COM 5 Perforce_SpaceS_GameDev_HI

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One of the most remarkable changes in the game industry the past few years has been the massive growth of casual, mobile, and social games. A few years ago I gave a presentation at ENGINES FEATURED CoFesta in Tokyo lamenting how difficult it was for small independent developers to distribute and sell their games—that’s certainly not the case anymore! Now, it’s more difficult to decide Blitz Games' BlitzTech which of the many, many platforms and marketplaces to create your game for, because www.blitzgamesstudios.com/blitztech there is so much opportunity for independent developers, especially on iOS and Facebook. Crytek's CryEngine www.crytek.com/cryengine With such huge changes in the mobile, and social titles the FIGURE 1 industry, it seemed like the casual developers. Digital Extremes' Evolution Engine perfect time to revisit the game PLATFORMS There’s quite a large number www.digitalextremes.com/evolution engine survey. I was curious to /Traditional platforms/ of game engines available for PS3 ·························75.7% Gamebase's Gamebryo see how the change in the game developers to use, from licensed www.gamebryo.com/en development ecosystem would Xbox 360 ················73.9% high end to free open source, be reflected in the distribution Wii ···························20.0% so the engines covered in this Epic Games' Unreal Engine of survey responders, and PC ···························66.1% survey are those most well www.unrealengine.com the information they shared Mac ·························14.8% known or used. They are all also GarageGames' Torque about their use of game engine Linux ·························3.5% multi-platform across PC/Mac www.garagegames.com middleware. NGP ··························· 7.0% and consoles, all licensable (not When the survey was PSP ···························6.1% completely free for commercial Stonetrip's ShiVa3D complete, the change in the 3DS ·························10.4% use), and are all available for www.stonetrip.com make-up of responders was NDS ····························7.0% license without an agreement quite telling. Compared to 2009, with a platform manufacturer. Terminal Reality's Infernal Engine www.infernalengine.com a roughly equivalent number of The full list is in the sidebar to developers who responded were different than that of traditional the right. Trinigy's Vision Game Engine working on big-budget titles, game developers, due to the www.trinigy.net but about three times that smaller size of games, shorter Survey Responders number reported to be working production length, or need /// The developers I’ll Unity Technologies' Unity on smaller titles! I’ve split the for frequent updates. For the concentrate on for most of this http://unity3d.com survey responders into two purposes of this survey we will survey make traditional big- Valve's Source Engine groups, as in some cases their refer to developers working on budget games. These games http://source.valvesoftware.com survey answers differ in very larger-budget titles, those on largely target the PC and high- interesting ways. The needs of consoles and handhelds, as the end consoles (see Figure 1) Vicious Cycle Software's Vicious Engine a developer working on a social traditional developers, and we’ll as most large-budget titles are www.viciousengine.com or mobile title are somewhat call those working on casual, produced for the PC, PS3, and

WWW.GDMAG.COM 7 FIGURE 2 Unreal. ARE YOU USING A LICENSED ENGINE ON YOUR CURRENT PROJECT? WHICH? TRADITIONAL Yes 58.7% No 41.3% Unreal ···························· 27.8% Trinigy ····························19.6% Unity ······························11.4% CryEngine ························8.2% BlitzTech. Gamebryo ························6.5% CASUAL Xbox 360. These machines have Rough development costs for choice. (See Figure 2.) Yes 83.7% roughly the same technology games produced by the traditional Which engine they’re using No 16.3% level, so the amount of art and group have a broad range. Average now doesn’t reflect all the engines Unity ······························26.0% technology retargeting between development costs for a title in they’ve ever worked with. We Trinigy ·····························17.8% the platforms is minimized, this group are between $15 and asked about that as well (See ShiVa ································8.8% and the potential audience is $20 million, with 25.6% claiming Figure 3.), and among both Torque/Unreal ··················3.0% maximized. Most games at this costs over $20 million, and 7.2% traditional and casual developers, level ship on all three platforms, over $40 million. the engine most used is Unity: though some go for just the 61.8% of traditional developers

FIGURE 3 consoles, and generally first-party Use and Usefulness have used it, and 68.4% of casual platform-owned studios are the /// What are the most popular GAME ENGINES USED developers. This is a big shift only ones who can really afford to engines in use today? We asked from two years ago, when Unreal TRADITIONAL specifically target just one of the both the traditional and casual was the clear winner. Now Unreal Unity ······························61.8% high-end platforms. developers what engines they’re runs a close second for traditional Unreal ····························60.7% Development for the Mac using on their current projects. Of developers at 60.7%, and third Gamebryo ······················29.2% is slowly picking up, whether traditional developers, 58.7% are place is quite a distance away. CryEngine ······················20.2% that’s done through cooperation using a licensed game engine, up Unity’s business model, ease-of- Torque ····························18.0% with companies like Aspyr and from 55% in 2009, with the largest use, and multi-platform nature CASUAL TransGaming or as part of an number of those using an engine are paying dividends here with Unity ······························68.4% in-house pipeline parallel to the PC (27.8%) using Unreal. Among all developers, not just casual Unreal ····························43.7% version’s development. In 2009, only casual developers, a substantially developers, enabling people to try Torque ····························38.9% 2% of these developers reported larger number use a licensed game out the engine for fun or for side ShiVa ······························24.3% working on a Mac version, versus engine (83.7%) with 26% of those projects. It’s a smart strategy that Trinigy ····························23.2% nearly 15% in this year’s survey. using Unity, the most popular has resulted in a big boost to the

FIGURE 4 ENGINE AWARENESS /Ordered/ TRADITIONAL 1 / Unreal 2 / Unity 3 / CryEngine 4 / Source 5 / Gamebryo CASUAL 1 / Unity 2 / Unreal 3 / Torque 4 / CryEngine 5 / ShiVa

Evolution.

| 8 GAME DEVELOPER MAY 2011 gamEbryo. FigurE 6 prEFErrEd way To build gamE TEchnology TradiTional use our own engine framework and purchase a suite of middleware ····························································· 38.0% create all tech ourselves ························································ 34.0% purchase a complete game engine ········································ 22.0% purchase a game engine that uses other middleware libraries ··································································6.0% casual purchase a complete game engine ········································ 60.3% purchase a game engine that uses other middleware libraries ································································17.2% number of both traditional and mindshare among developers. create all tech ourselves ·························································12.9% casual developers actively using (See Figure 5.) use our own engine framework and purchase Unity on projects. I have to note that a surprising a suite of middleware ································································9.5% Unity and Unreal are the most number of C4 Engine users wrote used engines, but I was also into the survey comment fields curious to know which licensed this year about how much they unclear whether this is due to a $500K to $1 million. Only a small engines developers have heard like using that game engine. The lack of awareness of the price of fraction of survey responders, of, and which they think might be C4 Engine is created by Terathon a licensed engine, or the growing 9.7%, expected they’d need to valuable for their current projects. Software and founder Eric Lengyel, disparity between the price of spend greater than $1 million for In the traditional space, Unreal, creator of the Game Engine Gems casual engines versus high-end the engine they’re using for their Unity, and CryEngine are believed book series. C4 Engine wasn’t engines. That said, 41.2% of the game. However, for the high-end to be most valuable for current covered by this survey since it developers who responded to game engines, a three-platform projects, with Unity, Unreal, and is exclusive to PCs and Macs. our survey hoped to pay less game (PC, PS3, and Xbox 360) Torque making up the top three However, if you need an engine for than $100K for a game engine, does typically cost more than $1 among casual developers. (See just these platforms, you should for all platforms that their game million. With a growing number Figure 4.) In terms of perceived know that we received a lot of is shipping on. Certainly this is of strong and less-expensive usefulness, Trinigy emerged feedback from happy users. limiting them to a very small licensable game engines these among both groups of developers, subset of available engines, as days, perhaps we’re all just hoping showing up third among traditional Engine Financials there are just a few in that price to save a little money. developers and first among /// In 2009, our survey asked bracket—and even fewer that Of course, a flat-rate purchase casual developers. In 2009, developers what they typically target the high-end consoles. price up front isn’t the only way CryEngine had a similarly strong expected to pay for a game engine, Significantly fewer respondents to license a game engine. While showing in the survey results, and the responses varied widely. (21.9%) were looking to pay from it is the most traditional way, and we wondered why more The same is true this year. It’s $100K to $500K, and 9.6% from other possibilities have been games weren’t being made with it. Perhaps Trinigy’s embrace of component middleware libraries and their recent launch of WebVision are helping them gain

FigurE 5 pErciEvEd usEFulnEss scale of 1 to 5 TradiTional unreal ·····························3.35 cryEngine ························3.15 Trinigy ······························3.12 Evolution ························ 2.56 unity ·······························2.45 c asual Trinigy ····························· 3.46 unity ·······························3.43 unreal ·····························3.22 shiva ·······························3.02 cryEngine ······················· 2.61

vicious.

www.gdmag.com 9 but why are traditional developers still wary? Developers using game engines see some clear benefits (see Figure 7), yet there are undoubtedly things to watch out for (as seen in Figure 8). Worries over code quality and architecture, a lack of support or documentation, and dependencies on other technologies that are difficult to identify during the vetting process are some common concerns. The most important thing when looking for a game engine is to do a thorough job examining all of the potential candidates. Each engine has its own plusses and minuses, and they’re different for different platforms and genres. Unity. But developers in our survey were clear about the most important created as the number of small What other costs are technology? Would you rather practices for all engine providers. and independent developers has developers looking at with licensed buy an all-in-one engine, build all Out of a scale of one to five, with grown. These developers are more game engines? Responders your technology yourself, or do five being the highest, these price-sensitive at the beginning reported that the biggest hidden something in between?” Back in were the highest voted practices: of a project, yet still need great cost is in adapting engine features 2009, we saw that just over 9% provide source code (4.35), offer technology at a great price. Paying to suit the particular game they’re of survey responders wanted to live preview on target platforms back-end royalties is one way creating (86.8%), so flexibility use a full game engine; the most (3.98), and provide ongoing to achieve this. Paying royalties and ease of modification are popular choice among developers access to builds in development allows for a smaller cash outlay at key qualities. Employee training was to create all the technology (3.77). The need to integrate easily the initiation of a project, and then costs were also called out as themselves (46.5%). This year it’s with other middleware libraries, as a percentage of revenue from sales quite substantial (67.9%), in still true that licensing a full game mentioned previously, is also quite of the game. However, royalties terms of both time and money. engine is not ideally what most important to developers (3.67). are not an option many publishers This definitely encourages people want to do. (See Figure 6). As far as systems and tools appreciate. Overall, 80.7% of developers to go with the more While a much larger percentage of within an engine, multi-processor traditional developers prefer the popular engines on the market, traditional developers now want / multi-threading capability flat-rate model, compared to 74.5% so that hiring staff with previous to purchase a complete game popped up this year as the most of casual developers. Survey experience becomes easier. engine (22%), what most are important (4.43), just as it did in responders who commented on still interested in is building the 2009. The current generation of this question encouraged game Capabilities engine framework themselves, consoles brought this technology engine manufacturers to move /// Let’s step back a bit from and plugging specific middleware to the foreground, since to gain toward a hybrid model: a free trial, specific engines. Since game libraries into it based on the maximum performance from those then a small flat-rate fee up front, technology has evolved over the particular needs of their game machines it has been incredibly with either an adjustable royalty as past two years, perhaps what (38%). Casual developers had a important to master the art of game sales pass certain revenue people expect of game engines has quite different reaction: over 60% multi-threaded programming. targets or, if the game is picked also evolved. To start uncovering wanted to purchase a complete Other important systems for up by a publisher, an upgradable some answers, the survey posed game engine. engines include physics (4.15), license fee based on the game’s the question: “How would you Game engines are definitely streaming (4), profiling (3.92), budget. optimally like to build your game continuing to grow in acceptance, and camera control (3.69). These are all very sensible demands.

FIGURE 7 A newer technique that survey ENGINE BENEFITS responders found important to /Scale of 1 to 5/ include is deferred rendering (3.34), as opposed to forward Our artists/designers can begin working right away without waiting for tech ··················4.20 rendering. Developers commented Allows us to focus on game-specific code ··········································································3.98 that “...all these systems should State-of-the-art tech from engine specialists ·····································································3.72 be easily replaceable with custom We can develop our game more quickly with less tech to develop ·····································3.71 [technology] / middleware.” Time to first working version of game is significantly reduced ··········································3.71 What if your game engine’s physics system doesn’t have the

10 GAME DEVELOPER | MAY 2011 feature set I need for the game for engines to provide a run-time opposed to using their DCC tool scripting is to enable rapid I’m making, but everything else script debugger (3.6), shader for world editing. This year that iteration, yet many game engines is perfect? It’d be sad to have to editor (3.56), and cinematics tool number has increased to 84.8% don’t offer real-time script preview choose a different engine or do (3.53). New to the list of priorities, of traditional developers, so it’s or run-time debugging. Over 50% a lot of heavy lifting to replace but still important, are an understandable that this would of developers rated “live preview of the physics. Ideally, the engine animation blend tree editor (3.51) be rated the most important tool scripting” a 5, or “most important.” developer should provide simple and global illumination solver for a game engine to provide. In As one developer commented, “It’s integration with Havok, PhysX, or (3.06). Clearly some of these the casual space though, using a shame that almost no engine in Bullet. tools can be purchased separately a DCC tool is more common, and the industry fully supports this The tools our survey and integrated by the developer, only 64.2% are using a standalone yet. Fast iteration time is the most responders found important are but the stronger engines should application. Leveraging your important factor for any kind of also all fairly logical: a standalone provide most of them. DCC tool for world building is an tool development we do in-house.” world editing tool (4.21) and a Back in 2009, 73.2% of survey inexpensive way to go, for sure, particle system editor (4.02) got responders noted that they use a but as game level sizes or team Tool and Language Use top votes. Developers also look standalone world editing tool, as sizes increase, using the DCC tool /// As part of the survey, I like in this way can quickly become to find out what other tools,

FigU re 8 unwieldy. languages, and processes game Another hot button issue developers are using in their eNgiNe coNcerNs in this year’s survey was the engine development. Through /scale of 1 to 5/ importance of having a runtime this anonymous sharing we can Availability of engine source code ············································4.16 script debugger. The use of all learn about some of the more code quality and architecture ···················································4.09 scripting languages in games has esoteric tools available, and we Lack of support or documentation ············································3.67 continued to increase, and Lua can showcase some solutions engine has dependencies on other assumed tech (44.7%) and visual scripting tools that most developers might not be so it is difficult to extend ··························································3.62 (31.9%) are the popular leaders aware of. incomplete feature set across multiple platforms ···················3.62 in this regard. One of the most Respondents made clear important reasons to implement that they like being able to

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Infernal. select middleware libraries to close second (69.6%), with Python, ensure clean fresh builds are engine is not for everyone, as incorporate into their preferred Lua, and PHP filling out the top five available each morning are many would rather build either game engine. For traditional favorites. systems which ease development the technology framework or the developers, Scaleform and How about in the early stages with complex codebases. Among entire game engine themselves. Bink are the kings of runtime of a project for prototyping? At traditional developers that What’s important is to be aware middleware, both of which solve the beginning of a project the last responded to our survey, 69.6% of the benefits and limitations of particular problems extremely thing you want to do is spend use automated build systems using engine middleware, and to well (user interface design and all your time knocking out tools. and 67.4% now use continuous thoroughly vet the engines you’re video playback, respectively). You need a language or tool you integration systems, like Jenkins considering. Ultimately, we’re For casual developers, the most are very familiar with, that you or CruiseControl. Casual developers all trying to create better games popular middleware libraries can use to quickly put together use these types of systems much less expensively and with higher are both good and inexpensive, demos to prove out your design. less frequently, with only 12.4% fidelity. Licensed game engines or they are free: FMOD, Bullet, Pencil and paper will always reporting use of automated build are an increasingly popular tool and PhysX are the most popular rule for prototyping of course systems. for developers working hard to in this category. In general, far (73.9%), although C++ apps follow Automated testing is realize their vision. fewer casual developers (48.6%) a close second (71.7%). Other another way to make large- use middleware libraries, versus popular systems for prototyping scale development more MARK DELOURA is VP of technology at 91.5% of traditional developers. include previously used game straightforward. Tests which run THQ, creator of the Game Programming (See Figure 9.) engines, Lua, C#, and Flash. For automatically on each build, such Gems series of books, and was formerly What about DCC tools? The casual developers, Unity is also as unit tests, gameplay tests, editor-in-chief of Game Developer popular conception is that 3ds Max a noticeably strong choice for visual comparisons, and stress magazine. Follow his tweets at @ and Maya are the most popular prototyping. tests, can quickly pinpoint the markdeloura. 3D tools out there, but there are introduction of a bug or other other options as well. Maya turns Automation undesired change in the codebase. FIGURE 9 out to clearly be the most widely /// One of the clearest differences Automated tests are less popular TOP 5 MIDDLEWARE used DCC tool for traditional that showed up between than automated builds among LIBRARIES USED developers (71.7% versus 3ds traditional developers and traditional developers, but still /Ordered/ Max’s 45.7%), yet for casual casual developers in the survey used fairly frequently (58.4%). TRADITIONAL developers 3ds Max (46.7%) is just is the degree of automation Casual developers, on the other slightly more popular than Blender in their production process. hand, use automated testing 1 / Scaleform (42.9%). A large variety of tools Among traditional developers more frequently than automated 2 / Bink exist in this space, with some of that responded to our survey, builds (23.1%), but it is still fairly the other frequently used tools 67.4% now use continuous uncommon. 3 / FMOD being ZBrush, Mudbox, SketchUp, integration systems like Jenkins 4 / PhysX LightWave, Nevercenter Silo, and or CruiseControl, with 69.6% using Engines on the Rise Modo. automated build systems of any /// Licensed game engines 5 / Wwise When developers make their kind. These are less important continue to increase in popularity, CASUAL own tools, what languages do techniques for casual developer especially among casual 1 / FMOD they find themselves drawn to? I teams, but are still valuable developers. The increase in was curious this year whether C# practices. popular of Unity over the past two 2 / Bullet was still the most popular. Sure Continuous integration years has been remarkable, and 3 / PhysX enough, 71.7% of our responders systems that kick off new builds Trinigy is making strong gains in attested to C# as being the on a build farm each time someone mindshare among both traditional 4 / SpeedTree language they are most productive checks in code, and automated and casual developers. Still, it’s 5 / RakNet in for tool development. C++ runs a overnight build systems that clear that using a licensed game

12 GAME DEVELOPER | MAY 2011 changing THE GAME

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developers to adjust geometry tessellation on both the Full scene anti-aliasing: UE3 supports full scene anti- LEVERAGE THE edges and the insides of triangles. Tessellation amounts aliasing in DirectX 11 through multisample anti-aliasing. POWER OF can be controlled by distance from a camera or setup to MSAA is a hardware feature that shades pixels only once DIRECTX 11 WITH place more triangles along silhouettes. but evaluates the depth test multiple times per pixel. A popular re nement algorithm, PN-Triangles, softens In UE3, deferred passes like lighting and shadowing work UNREAL ENGINE 3 the look of coarse models. PN-Triangle tessellation correctly with MSAA by detecting geometry edges and Epic recently presented what we would like to see in the mode smoothes hard edges, converting low-resolution shading per-sample along those edges. next generation of games with our Samaritan real-time models to curved surfaces, which are redrawn as a mesh UE3 materials have a feature that multisamples the edges Unreal Engine 3 demonstration at the Game Developers of  nely tessellated triangles. UE3 also has support for of masked materials. This is especially useful for creating Conference in San Francisco. crack-free tessellation and displacement. realistic hair and foliage. To take Unreal Engine 3 to the next level, we Image-based re ections: Image-based re ections are a Screen-space subsurface scattering: Subsurface implemented DirectX 11 support along with NVIDIA’s part of UE3’s DirectX 11 rendering pipeline. This technique scattering refers to light that penetrates the surface APEX physics technology, and these features were is used to render real-time whole scene HDR re ections of an object, scatters through its interior and exits at made widely available in the March 2011 release of as seen in Samaritan. The technique works by re ecting a di erent location. This is why subsurface scattering the Unreal Development Kit (UDK). an image which is an approximate version of a scene at makes skin appear more luminous. each pixel, which makes it more e cient than previous Commercial UE3 licensees have source-level access to re ection techniques, such as planar re ections. UE3’s subsurface scattering is a screen-space e ect that these additions. Here’s a round-up of the DirectX 11 blurs the light incident on the object’s surface to other features accessible to anyone who downloads the latest UE3 enables re ections on any surface with varying nearby points on the surface. The blur attenuates the UDK build from www.udk.com. glossiness and blurriness. This is useful for visuals such lighting based on the world-space distance between the as wet roads where puddles mirror re ections, while incident and exitant points to model absorption of light Bokeh depth of eld (DOF): Real world images other parts of the road appear glossy. captured with a camera lens often depict scenes with by the interior of the object. some parts more in focus than others. The out of focus UE3 also supports anisotropic glossiness, where For help getting started with these features, visit http:// objects form shapes, such as circles or pentagons, called re ections are streaked more in one direction, and udn.epicgames.com/Three/DirectX11Rendering.html. Bokeh. Artists can control Bokeh shapes and textures in dynamic components enable all parts of the re ection the UE3 post-processing chain. except for static shadowing to be changed at runtime. Mark Rein UE3 supports dynamic object shadowing as well. Doing DOF as a post process works quite well for opaque Epic Games, Inc. objects, as each pixel has a depth associated with it. Deferred shading: Deferred shading allows dynamic Translucent rendering, however, cannot work well with lights to be rendered much more e ciently. Traditional a post-processing method. Ignoring the problem can UE3 lighting is called forward shading because the dynamic Canadian-born Mark Rein result in translucent objects that are either too much in lighting is calculated while rendering a scene’s meshes. is vice president and co- founder of Epic Games based focus or too blurry, depending on their background. With deferred shading, material properties such in Cary, North Carolina. as di use color are stored in render targets, called We solved the problem by giving control over which Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 translucent objects are a ected by DOF within UE3’s G-Bu ers, while rendering the meshes in the absence has won Game Developer material settings. Additionally, we’ve implemented a of lighting. Later, in a deferred pass, each light looks up magazine’s Best Engine new material node that allows artists to adjust shading the material properties from the G-Bu ers for a given Front Line Award ve times by fading objects out or blending them to a blurry state. pixel and calculates lighting based on that. along with entry into the Lights rendered with deferred shading are about 10 Hall of Fame. UE3 has won three consecutive Develop Tessellation: Because the DirectX 11 tessellation pipeline Industry Excellence Awards. is programmable, it can be used to solve a large number times faster than lights rendered with forward lighting. of graphics problems. In Samaritan, the opening scene had 123 dynamic Epic is the creator of the mega-hit “Unreal” series of lights, and all lighting was done using deferred shading games and the blockbuster “Gears of War” franchise. Tessellation works especially well for natural objects with except on character skin and hair. Follow @MarkRein on Twitter. medium-scale details, and UE3’s material input enables

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© 2011, Epic Games, Inc. Epic, the Epic Games logo, Gears of War, the Powered by Unreal Technology logo, Unreal, Unreal Engine, Unreal Kismet and Unreal Matinee are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epic Game Games, Inc. in the United States and elsewhere. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. BRANDON SHEFFIELD

////////// WE’VE ALL HAD GAME DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS WHERE SUDDENLY EVERYTHING SEEMED TO GO WRONG— NPCS ARE FALLING THROUGH THE FLOOR, BULLETS BOUNCE OFF INVISIBLE BARRIERS, THE SKYBOX COLORS HAVE INVERTED—AND NOBODY CAN FIGURE OUT WHY. THEN, SUDDENLY, SOMEONE STEPS IN WITH THAT “A-HA!” MOMENT, THE PROBLEMS ARE SOLVED, AND THE GAME GOES ON TO MAKE ITS SHIP DATE. OR PERHAPS THE GAME WASN’T EMBATTLED BUT SIMPLY BLAND, AND THEN A CLEVER DESIGNER REALIZED THAT ADDING A TIME LIMIT UPPED THE TENSION TWO-FOLD. OR PERHAPS THERE’S SOMEONE WHO’S JUST DAMN GOOD AT HIS OR HER JOB! IN THE FOLLOWING PAGES, WE CELEBRATE HEROIC MOMENTS OF GAME DEVELOPMENT, WHEN A PROJECT WAS SAVED, MINDS WERE ENLIGHTENED, OR PROCESS WAS STREAMLINED.

SPLATTERED HOUSES √ As they labored on SPLATTERHOUSE, the development team had been working for months in a custom character-scripting tool that sat on top of Microsoft Visio as a plug-in. While the interface looked slick, the team was plagued with

WWW.GDMAG.COM 15 general production woes whenever they worked in further progress. The level was completely linear, the tool. Clicking on a graphical node would bring save for the standard “key and door” chicanery up a scrollable list of parameters that could be that games sometimes use to trick people into tuned, but the interface was extremely slow to the thinking they actually have a meaningful choice point of absolute frustration. The tool would take about where to go. five seconds per mouse click to update. Scrolling Besides these design problems, the entire the parameter window would force the tool to level was wrapped around a “giant robot” narrative re-query the parameter list and force a full redraw. where the player was moving through different Once you entered a value and pressed the Enter sections of the robot’s innards to activate it and key, you needed to wait three to five seconds for save a fictional planet from an evil alien invasion. the whole program to finish updating. For a game This fundamental dependence on narrative was that was meant to induce nightmares, none were exceptionally risky on two big counts: it meant as frightening as attempting to work within the that we still had to create a large volume of character scripter. non-interactive content in the first place, and it Enter Justin Pease, an engineer who had been cornered us in terms of development flexibility. recently assigned to the gameplay programming It meant certain parts had to come before others team from the studio’s central tech group. After Warhammer: age of reckoning. in order to keep the narrative coherent, and if getting up to speed in about a week, Justin worked something didn’t work, well, we would have had a couple of extra nights, unbeknownst to the HAMMER OF THE GODS to just re-do it or keep changing it around until production team, focusing his efforts on improving √ I once had the pleasure of working with it did. On top of this, all the different mechanics the scripting tool. Why, you ask? Probably because a man named David Scott. David worked at were sufficiently underdeveloped that none of he was going to have to use the tool to help me on the WArHAmmer reckoning project them were really fun to play, and we didn’t have an improve the main character, Rick! as an engineer (Software Engineer II to be adequate contingency plan in the event that any Regardless, one evening Justin sends out specific). During my time he discovered or all these mechanics proved to be garbage. an email detailing that he has “improved” the a small flaw in the code that had existed As if that weren’t enough, our art style and character scripter. The results were staggering... for years. It was buried deep within, and visual grammar for interactions was not yet suddenly the tool functioned as intended! No had been passed over so many times that well defined. The original principal designer, more waiting for updates and refreshes. Not all of us just assumed it was an inherent technical director, and senior producer each had only was the tool usable, but it actually allowed fluke of the engine we could not overcome. independently left the company by that time. for production gains in terms of overall velocity. By correcting it, he had solved a mystery We were also working exclusively with tablet In trying to quantify the efficiency gains Justin that spanned years, eliminating the single emulators and had no idea about how the final made in the tool the numbers were ridiculous ... cause of client-to-server latency in the tablet product would ultimately affect playability. something like 3,000 percent or one man-year. game. WArHAmmer is a PvP (RvR)-oriented Oh yeah, and we also had six months to finish the On the tight production schedule Namco faced game, so this bug was one of the single game. Things were not looking good. after taking the project internal, Justin Pease’s most frustrating things about the player It was around this time that my lead designer, tools improvements are truly the stuff of coding experience. –Haley Chivers Devin Knudsen, came up with a simple and brilliant heroism. idea that ultimately proved to be the singular –Michael Boccieri project-saving decision. We called it a “refocus,” In January of 2009, we began work on what and it was a fundamental structural change to the would eventually become DooD’s Big ADventure game that allowed us to minimize all the big scary DOOD, WHERE’S MY DESIGN for the uDraw tablet (which we were also risks by modularizing as many components of the √ DooD’s Big ADventure is a game we developed simultaneously designing). Seven months later, game as possible. In this way, if any part of the at THQ Digital Studios Phoenix (formerly Rainbow about halfway through the development cycle, design proved not to work, we could just scrap it Studios) and was released in November 2010 as we were not quite out of pre-production, and and the rest of the game would be unaffected. The one of the games for use with the Wii uDraw tablet. the extent of our accomplishments thus far was details went like this: But the published game that you see today on contained within one side-scrolling “vertical slice”- store shelves is drastically different from the type style demo level. At this point, the plan was to 1. We cut out most of the non- of product we originally began developing. build a story-based game with a linear progression interactive narrative elements. This Game development is typically much more structure, lots of narrative, and some collection way, we could focus all our remaining about execution than singular ideas. In other of mechanics that utilized the tablet in hopefully development efforts on the actual words, it’s the process of developing and refining essential, interesting, and usable ways. interactive game, which was more an initial idea over time that results in something The demo level we had built thus far looked important. This also guaranteed that meaningful. Normally, the original idea itself is just great, but was completely unsatisfying on no portion of the game would have to a kernel of a starting point, and often those ideas numerous levels. Because the various control depend on a specific narrative element are transformed enough during the development mechanics we were developing were so different to justify its existence. process that the majority of weight and credit from each other, the only way the player could should and does go to the process, as opposed to switch between them was to pass between 2. We changed the level-structure the idea. However, during this particular project we specific choke points in the level. In one section plan from nine long, linear and heavily enjoyed one of those rare moments where a single of rooms the avatar was walking and jumping, in interdependent gameplay sequences compact idea completely saved a game that was another section he was contained in a bubble and to (ultimately 60) short and totally in crisis by all accounts—resource-wise, morale- could float in any direction, in yet another section independent “challenge” style levels. wise, and direction-wise. you would connect points on the screen with the Each level would just use a single pen to produce a physical object that would allow input-control mechanic from start to

16 game developer | may 2011 end, and the game would score the GAME JAMMED of us have done, and Dan still doesn’t have the player in terms of how skillfully and √ In May 2010 Wild Pockets hosted a 24-hour sponsor screen in, which means the game will be quickly they could navigate each level. game jam. We entered as a team of three with disqualified from competition. Things get heated The time constraint was essential to hopes of taking home the $3,000 grand prize. Our and talking turns to shouting. making otherwise boring interactions team had two designer-scripters (Daniel Bryner, I submit my game with three minutes left, interesting and replayable, and the new Brad Johnson), and one artist (Chris Webb). Chris but what do we do for Dan? There’s absolutely no structure allowed for a single designer had the pleasure of doing all the art for two games way we can get his script working in time! and artist to concentrate on one level at since both Dan and I wanted to work on separate Chris pops his head up off the desk, renames a time without affecting anyone else’s games. One of the requirements of the winning the sponsor screen texture so it overwrites work. game was to have an end screen listing the game the level complete screen and hits upload with jam sponsors. about one minute left to spare. Our games end Eventually, we decided to stick with four Chris actually finished all the art for both up going on to tie for first place so we take home particular gameplay mechanics that proved games (including the sponsor screen textures) not only the grand prize of $3,000, but the $600 themselves to be worthwhile. Our new modular with half an hour to spare, so he put his head down for second place as well. Chris Webb saved the structure meant that we didn’t have to make on the table and started sleeping. This whole time day. It was definitely an Indiana Jones-saving- these systems work with each other, which was Dan and I were scrambling to put the finishing his-hat-from-under-the-crushing-wall moment. a much simpler problem to solve. We ended up touches on our games, such as making sure the –Bradley Johnson with 60 total levels, across 4 different mechanics sponsor screen is displayed at the end. I had made (15 levels for each mechanic). The wide variety a UI script that would do various things, one of of play modes, combined with the “short and them being the display of the sponsor screen. Dan SPORED numerous” level structure made the game much had already put a level complete screen in and was √ Game Developer’s original “call for heroes” more accessible and lively than it would have waiting for me to help him implement the UI script, asked for people who saved the day during a been otherwise. On top of that, it allowed us to but I kept telling him I didn’t have enough time to game’s development with a heroic effort, or who finish the game in a way that was satisfying to all finish my game and help him, so he was on his had an “a-ha!” moment that turned the tides. of us with the little resources we had left. own. Long story short, we had about five minutes My personal game development hero did plenty —Ara Shirinian (special thanks left, and Dan and I both start to panic because of day-saving and a-ha-ing when I worked with to Scott Blinn and Trapper McFerron) we still have to finish our games and then post him on Spore, but those aren’t the reasons he’s a link to finalize our submission, which neither my hero. Tom Bui (now at Valve Software) is my

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18 game developer | may 2011 game development hero because he’s the most productive programmer I’ve ever met, and I find that incredibly inspiring. It must be said: I struggle with pretty bad productivity problems. I realize this isn’t an issue everybody has to face, so this may not resonate with you personally. Some people can just sit down in the morning and start typing code, stop at lunchtime, and then do it again in the afternoon. I am not one of those people, unfortunately. But just being around Tom made me more productive and focused. Seeing the endless stream of his check-in notices go across the team mailing list, taking a break from a conversation with him to go to the bathroom, only to find he’s fixed a bug during the brief intermission while I was gone instead of checking email or Facebook or Twitter, finding he’s added a feature in an hour that people Trials HD. thought would take a week—the man is just a machine! Better yet, he’s incredibly kind and self-deprecating, so instead of this amazing TRIALS, TRIBULATIONS productivity being intimidating or humiliating, √ Although it’s not widely known, early in the development of Trials HD, the original design called it’s completely inspirational. You want to work for a “Crash Mode” that was to be just as important as the timed obstacle course driving we have harder and faster around Tom—not because all come to know and love ... or curse and throw our controllers because of, as the case may be. you have a prayer of working as hard and fast Crash Mode was originally meant to be a BurnouT-style game. The goal was simply to gain points as he does, but because you feel like you can by making as spectacular a crash as possible. Many on the team were excited by it, our partners draft him a little bit, like cycling behind Lance were enthusiastic, and all around, we thought it was a great idea, as it was believed that its simpler Armstrong or something. —Chris Hecker mechanics would help bring the game to a much wider audience. The problem was it just wasn’t very much fun in large doses. With our core action designed for a 2D plane, there simply weren’t enough ways to make the crashes varied enough on any particular A CRY TOO FAR level. There were only so many routes we could create through any given warehouse. √ To provide some context, at the same time Realizing how this limited the game’s potential, but not wanting to abandon the idea altogether, that we were developing Far Cry 2, the technology project manager Jorma Sainio, lead programmer Sebbi Aaltonen, 3D guru Sami Saarinen, and pipeline team was building the game’s engine, creative director Antti Ilvessuo, worked hard trying to find ways to somehow utilize the potential of which came to be called Dunia, in parallel. Crash Mode in small doses. The major technical challenge for the game After many iterations and discussions, the core team came to the conclusion that Crash Mode was to convincingly deliver a realistic open world shouldn’t be in the actual game. However, some parts of the Crash Mode prototypes were a lot across 50 sq km of typically African terrain types, of fun. So, they turned the question upside down: how could we take advantage of that small set including desert and savanna. In other words, the of fun, short gameplay moments and make Trials HD a better game overall? When Crash Mode engine was being asked to support large draw was abandoned, these small ideas didn’t have to be limited to fit Crash Mode anymore. After this distances in situations where natural features decision, the team came up with many small, fun ideas, that on their own would not have made a like mountains couldn't be used credibly to game mode, but could be turned into a small, fun collection of events comprising the Skill Games block sight lines. The old-gen solution of simply that many riders have come to love. —Jason Bates cranking up fog effects wasn’t compatible with the game’s next-gen environmental graphics. And in a few regions, from readily accessible vantage production. It was a potentially catastrophic do the trick, Gagnon put in additional code that points, we discovered that it was theoretically setback that could have easily derailed a title that raised and lowered any other visible non-terrain possible for players to see from one end of the had already been delayed by several months. entities in order to match the pseudo-curvature. world to the other. After listening to the level design and art For players viewing their surroundings from The problem lay in the way Dunia streamed technical teams debate the relative costs of inside the game (and in the absence of any in chunks of the world. Each sector that was various fixes with the producers, FC2’s technical powered aircraft, which FC2 didn’t feature), the rendered inflicted a performance burden on the architect, Philippe Gagnon, spoke up and effect was too subtle to be noticed. Our level game. At the time, Dunia lacked a per-sector asked for a few hours to investigate a possible designers still needed to restrict access to LOD system (although individual game assets solution. He came back with something that was some of the taller mountain vistas and obviously had multiple LODs), so in order to protect the astonishingly elegant: he curved the world. hang gliders needed to be placed where they framerate, the engine imposed caps on the Or at least he created the illusion of a curved weren’t going to suddenly give the player a number of sectors that could be simultaneously world. Specifically, the game’s renderer was disconcertingly sub-orbital view of the world. loaded, visible and active in the game. modified to apply a curve function at runtime, Philippe’s cognitive leap saved our collective We found ourselves confronted with the so that the sectors that were the furthest away asses. It was one of those moments that prospect of needing to make fundamental from the player’s POV fell below the game’s becomes immortalized in three and a half years’ changes to large—we’re talking multiple virtual horizon, causing them to be culled worth of production lore. —Patrick Redding kilometer—swaths of the game world, late in automatically. Once the solution was proven to

www.gdmag.com 19 very promising start for our CTHULHU new team. It also raised the question: what next? SAVES We had a few promising ideas for new games THE already, but all of them felt too ambitious for a second WORLD project. We decided to do something a bit simpler—a On April 22nd, 2010, Zeboyd spiritual sequel to our first Games released its first game. It wouldn't be a direct title, BREATH OF DEATH VII: THE sequel, since we wanted to EGINNING O B . B D was patterned gain a reputation for good CTHULHU SAVES THE WORLD. after the popular 8-bit RPGs of games and not be labeled old but also featured modern "the BREATH OF DEATH guys." ideas mixed, and the concept of Lovecraft and Cthulhu fans, getting elements, like branching Rather, it would build on the Cthulhu losing his powers and people excited about the game level-ups, a combo system, foundation we had created having to regain them through an was easier than it might have been and random encounter limits. with our first game. This RPG quest was born. otherwise. It was a big success for us. idea eventually turned into When you have a strong 2 /// Building on the past. If we The game skyrocketed up the CTHULHU SAVES THE WORLD. concept, it makes development so had decided to make CTHULHU SAVES top-rated list on the Xbox Live much easier. We had a wealth of THE WORLD as our first game, I don't Indie Games U.S. Dashboard WHAT WENT RIGHT? material from Lovecraft's fiction to think we would have ever finished (it ended up in the #2 spot 1 /// Concept. I had been playing work with, which gave us plenty of it. As our second game, however, for several months) and sold around with the idea of taking a great monsters and locations right we had an existing RPG engine and over 45,000 copies in its first classic piece of literature from the from the start. Writing amusing some experience with coding, art, year. Admittedly, the game public domain and transforming dialogue was relatively easy since design, and writing. Since we could only sells for $1, so it was not it into a comedy RPG. I also like the concept was so strong. And focus on making the game better, making us rich, but it was a the horror genre. One day, the two since the internet is filled with and not just on making it work, an

20 GAME DEVELOPER | MAY 2011 The Xbox Live Indie Games service was launched as part of the XNA Creators’ Club (as “Community Games”) back in May of 2008. It was viewed as a way for developers to release games directly on the Xbox 360 without having to get a publishing deal. Since then, the service has grown to include some 1,600 titles, with a number of standouts. We’ve compiled postmortems of five of the more interesting games on the service to give curious developers some idea of the XBLIG development environment.

otherwise insurmountable task some work with accessibility for GamesRadar among others) GAME DATA became much more manageable. our first game, but we went even compared to our first game. 3 /// Presentation. Our artist CTHULHU SAVES further with CTHULHU SAVES THE THE WORLD and musician really nailed the WORLD, adding a save-anywhere WHAT WENT WRONG? nostalgic feel of a classic 16-bit PUBLISHER feature, easy town-teleportation, 1 /// Underestimating the amount game while instilling their own Zeboyd Games 1-ups to retry battles, a new Easy of work. We'll just take BREATH OF personality into the presentation. DEVELOPER difficulty, and an unlockable DEATH VII and make everything Due to the small size of our team, Zeboyd Games Overkill mode (in which the player better—how much time could we had to cut some corners, so NUMBER OF DEVELOPERS levels up very quickly at the start). that take? A whole lot, as we soon we decided the game would have Robert Boyd (Design, Code, At the same time, we didn't want found out. Our initial goal of three very little animation in it. Still, Story), William Stiernberg to neglect the gamer in search of to four months of development we did a lot with what resources (Graphics, Level Design), and a challenge, so we added a new time kept getting pushed back, we had. Since we didn't have the Gordon McNeil (Music) game mode (Highlander) where and our estimated release dates budget for big FMV sequences, we LENGTH OF DEVELOPMENT you can only bring one character became a joke. In the end, we patterned our cutscenes after the 8 months into combat, in addition to the Hard just narrowly managed to get the non-animated comic book-style RELEASE DATE difficulty and Score Attack mode game released before the end of scenes used in PHANTASY STAR IV. December 29, 2010 (XBLIG), from our first game. the year, after eight months of This allowed us to have dozens Spring 2011 (PC) 5 /// Marketing. In addition to work. I even ended up spending of scenes in the game that were PLATFORM our regular marketing efforts, we a good chunk of Christmas day far more visually interesting than XBLIG, PC also helped to organize a special working on the game. How's that they would have been if done in multi-game promotion called for self-inflicted crunch? the game engine. To make combat Indie Games Winter Uprising. When you add an extra layer of more interesting, we gave each 4 /// Accessibility. I love really I believe this promotion was a sophistication to one aspect of a enemy a unique "insane mode" complex games, but I'm not big help to the game's visibility, game, your workload increases a sprite. And to draw attention everyone. As a developer, I want my and is probably responsible for bit. When you add an extra layer of away from the simplicity of our games to appeal to a wide variety the increase in reviews from sophistication to several aspects of animation frames, the animation of people. "Easy to learn, hard to bigger and more prestigious a game, your workload increases we did use was very quick. master" is our motto. We had done sites (Eurogamer, Joystiq, and exponentially. More work in one area

WWW.GDMAG.COM 21 we are pleased with the results. DUNGEON retained a lot of the feel of Despite the higher price tag ($3), its classic inspiration. If it had been the game sold about 9,000 copies planned as an action-RPG from the in its first 30 days (though daily beginning, it would have been a sales have dropped off noticeably very different, and, I suspect, less since then). Reviews have been successful game. overwhelmingly positive, and For example, even though perhaps most important of all, the character movement is smooth, game has unlocked future doors of it is still based on an underlying opportunity for us. grid system. Not only did this give it some retro flavor, but it also ROBERT BOYD was an English made it easy for players to quickly

CTHULHU SAVES THE WORLD. teacher before he decided to go into game see and understand all the action development, starting up Zeboyd Games quickly. would result in the need for more that we did soon after, Zeboyd with BREATH OF DEATH VII. He was the creator 2 /// Playtesting. Playtesting work in another. It was a mess. Games has enough funds for the of the Winter Indie Uprising in late 2010. really helped with the final level of If we had planned the game out time being. And hopefully, our PC polish. Beyond serving as a source better beforehand and limited our port of the game will help bring in of inspiration and motivation, it improvements to a few key areas, enough additional funds so that we helped with the most important development would have gone won't need to worry about running EPIC aspect of EPIC DUNGEON, which was much smoother. out of money while we work on our gameplay balance. Most notable 2 /// Lack of tools. With BREATH next game. DUNGEON was the amount of discussion OF DEATH VII, we did all the maps 4 /// Not different enough. Although and work that went into balancing directly in code. My artist would we felt that CTHULHU SAVES THE WORLD Originally, EPIC DUNGEON the economy. Acquiring better make them using a free map was a huge improvement over our started off as a self-imposed equipment is an important part of editing program, he'd convert them first game, we received complaints challenge to see if I could the game, but finding the perfect into arrays, and then I'd plug them that it wasn't different enough. Those create a classic roguelike point where players can buy a few directly into the game. This wasn't complaints weren't completely in two weeks. Those two things, but not everything, was a ideal, but it worked. without merit. Most of the changes weeks quickly turned into real challenge given the random With CTHULHU SAVES THE WORLD, that we made to gameplay were months (so I guess I failed nature of the game. we upped the size and complexity subtle, so that though everything the challenge). But the result 3 /// Accessibility. Nobody reads of our maps, and our old process was bigger and better, the core was a successful twist on instructions, and tutorials are boring. of making maps quickly proved gameplay and interface weren't that the roguelike that combined So my basic approach was to provide inadequate for the task. Rather far off from our first game. some of the genre's core information on screen as it was than stopping to make more For our next game, we will be mechanics, such as perma- needed. Tips occasionally fade in to efficient tools, we just plowed making much more drastic changes death and random level highlight specific gameplay features on. Creating maps was a time- to overall style and gameplay, as well generation, with more modern as the player moves deeper into the consuming process, and modifying as an overhaul of the interface. action-RPG elements—real- dungeon. Thought bubbles are used them was a pain. 5 /// Not enough iteration. We do time gameplay and the to communicate when a button can If we had just taken a month plenty of theoretical iteration at development of stats and be pressed to interact with an object. or two at the start of the project to Zeboyd Games. We spent weeks skills—as well as a dash of Icons for the face buttons (A/B/X/Y) make some efficient map-editing coming up with different insanity character. All of this was set are displayed on the HUD, and tools, we could have made higher systems before finally choosing within a text-based encounter behave contextually (e.g., if a skill is quality, better-tuned maps in the one that we used in the actual system, wrapped up in a retro on cooldown, the button will look like drastically less time than it ended game. However, we didn't do enough 8-bit package. a timer). up taking. iteration with actual playable As a one-man development Beyond that, I also tried to reduce 3 /// Lack of funds. This was prototypes. CTHULHU SAVES THE shop, having to switch useless, repetitive tasks. Giving a direct result of our failure to WORLD wasn't playable in any way between coding, writing, players the ability to “Sell Junk” with plan appropriately. We were that resembled an actual game artwork, music and sound a single click has been very popular. expecting a new source of income until about a month or two before effects, then on to marketing It basically just looks at all items and once CTHULHU SAVES THE WORLD completion. Had we worked faster on was difficult, but ultimately equipment in the inventory and does came out after four months getting out a playable prototype in rewarding. stat comparisons automatically, of development, but since the order to get feedback earlier, I think I am happy with the result, reducing the need to go through game's release date kept getting the overall quality of the game would and it has performed well for every item in the inventory manually. pushed back, the new revenue have been much improved. an Xbox indie title, selling over As a result of all this, players stream was delayed as well. I had 20,000 units in its first three get a pick-up-and-play experience to borrow money and find work ELDER GODS months. that still has depth. elsewhere during development CTHULHU SAVES THE WORLD was an 4 /// Level of difficulty. It seems just to keep things going. excellent learning experience for WHAT WENT RIGHT? like hard games are making a Thanks to the game's eventual us. Although it was much harder 1 /// Evolution. By starting out comeback, particularly among release and a kickstarter fundraiser work than we had anticipated, as a turn-based roguelike, EPIC indie titles. The fact that EPIC

22 GAME DEVELOPER | MAYMAY 20112011 DUNGEON embraced perma-death, GAME DATA mimicked the inventory screen it’s quite easy for me to debug rather than providing some kind to make the behaviors consistent or optimize should the need of “respawn” mechanism was met EPIC DUNGEON between the two. arise; however, research and with much wider approval than I PUBLISHER 2 /// Music. I have mixed emotions a better understanding of anticipated. It was something that Eyehook about the music in EPIC DUNGEON. existing technologies would have I originally did out of principle, and DEVELOPER I’m proud of what I created, but I significantly sped up the process I think that people have responded Evehook believe it could have been much and probably improved my code. to that adrenaline rush you get NUMBER OF DEVELOPERS stronger. All the music loops are 5 /// “Epic” Dungeon. Using “Epic” when you know you’ve invested 1 roughly a minute long and change in the title generated a bit of initial hours into a game only to see that LENGTH OF DEVELOPMENT every level. Unfortunately, I used backlash, which really surprised you're being swarmed by enemies, 9 months the same instruments for many of me. Using a superlative in the title your lantern is running out, and RELEASE DATE the loops, and they're all in the same seems to suggest bad quality to you are low on health potions. November 30, 2010 key, so they can sound repetitive gamers. I thought I was giving 5 /// Marketing. EPIC DUNGEON BUDGET after playing for a few hours. I will it a slightly ironic, but generally benefitted greatly from the Indie $0 definitely focus on having longer, descriptive title: it’s a dungeon, it’s Games Winter Uprising promotion, PLATFORM better, and more varied music in my going to be big, it’s going to be hard. a joint marketing effort by Xbox Xbox (Indie Games) future releases. Regardless, it literally is a player’s indie developers. Only a small LINES OF CODE 3 /// Not having a deadline. During first impression, so I wish I had percentage of the Xbox user base 30k its development, EPIC DUNGEON spent a little bit more time thinking visits the indie game section with didn’t have a real schedule or plan about the title. any regularity, so getting the word for deliverables. This gave me the out played a significant role in EPIC have been much more effective to time to explore a lot of different ROGUE WAVE DUNGEON’s sales. have spent some time sketching ideas, but it ultimately just ended I’m proud of what I accomplished EPIC DUNGEON was the first out the screens with pencil and up putting the game into a state of with EPIC DUNGEON. It was a lot title released during Indie Games paper first. Originally, there were unending development. If I hadn’t more work than I had planned Winter Uprising and as a result got separate screens for a player’s participated in Indie Games Winter on, but I truly enjoyed creating early reviews and additional press, inventory and a player’s stats (DMG, Uprising, which finally gave me a it and still enjoy playing it. So, which, unfortunately, some of the DEX, DEF, LCK). Unfortunately, after solid deadline, there’s a good chance for me, it’s been a success. I’m other titles did not receive. getting everything pixel-perfect, I that EPIC DUNGEON would still be in looking forward to leveraging the Not only did it generate early realized that I had to combine both development. knowledge I gained and libraries sales, but it created a critical mass screens, since (obviously!) it’s 4 /// Building everything from I’ve written to make something of players referring EPIC DUNGEON important to see how equipment scratch. A lot of development time even bigger and better in the to their friends, giving the game affects stats. Similarly, it became was wasted reinventing the wheel— future. a much longer lifespan than I had clear that it would be necessary to most notably, the amount of time originally anticipated. toggle between the shop screen I spent creating custom font, text MIKE MUIR is the sole member of Eyehook and a player’s inventory. So, I layout, dialog box, storage, and Games, a small independent game WHAT WENT WRONG? basically had to throw away the screen management classes. development studio located in New York 1 /// Lack of planning . EPIC original shop screen and create a The upside of having written City. You can follow Eyehook Games on DUNGEON was developed in an new shop screen that more closely my own entire engine is that Twitter @eyehookgames. iterative fashion, starting with a quick prototype, and then quickly EPIC DUNGEON. moving into increasingly full- fledged implementations. Very little time was spent with a pencil and paper, and ultimately that caused problems. First, early assumptions resulted in unnecessary limitations later on in development. For example, there are fundamentally two types of tiles—walls and floors—and later on, when I wanted to implement water and cliffs, the cost in time of doing so was just too great. Unfortunately, the existing tile concepts were just too integrated in my AI and lighting to easily be modified. Secondly, I made a huge mistake developing the shop and inventory screens iteratively in code. It would

WWW.GDMAG.COM 23 normal. Fortunately, for a project technology to prove the fun of the GAME DATA SHOOT in which I was trying to out-crazy idea was a massive benefit, and Japan, or at least get close, this helped get the gameplay up and EPIC DUNGEON 1UP approach worked. I would simply running quickly without getting PUBLISHER brainstorm while running, in the bogged down in low-level coding Mommy’s Best There’s something extremely shower, driving, or wherever else, issues. Games, Inc satisfying about mowing and then write down any ideas 4 /// The price was right. SHOOT DEVELOPER down tons of alien spacecraft and accept or reject them based 1UP was priced at 1 dollar, which Mommy’s Best Games, Inc with your streamlined fighter on whether they were interesting, helped all the reviews and made NUMBER OF DEVELOPERS ship. I’ve always loved and if they fit the general feel of it easier for everyone to consider Hamdija Ajanovic (music), shoot’em ups, putting tons of the game. I was careful not to checking it out. It’s likely the Amy Fouts (business and hours into LIFE FORCE, R-TYPE, think them through too much, game enjoyed more buzz and a producer), and Nathan Fouts LIGHTENING FORCE (aka THUNDER which is what I think stifles some higher “critical mass,” leading (all the game stuff) FORCE IV) and SUPER ALESTE, of my designs. to more exposure than we could LENGTH OF DEVELOPMENT and dreamed that one day I’d 2 /// Supporting disabled gamers. have gotten at $3–5 price points. 4 months off and on make my own insane shoot I worked with accessibility 5 /// Great playtesting sessions. RELEASE DATE ’em up with a unique twist. organizations Able Gamers and Although we had an original idea, February 25, 2010 SHOOT 1UP is a forced- One Switch to hone the menus we weren’t shy about letting people SOFTWARE scrolling shoot’em up which and controls for the game to play early versions of the game and XNA, Photoshop 7, tiny Wacom bends the convention of 1UPs support as many options as integrating useful feedback. Lots of tablet, SD and HD televisions, possible for handicapped and and allows players to control aspects, such as an improved story tons of SNES/TG-16/Genesis all their ships simultaneously. non-handicapped gamers alike. introduction (which now includes shooters, lots of robotics and Any time they gain a new life, It was relatively easy to support animated pictures), more enemy bug photos, and some porn they get it as an active ship, button remapping, and it greatly variation, and better play controls which contributes to their increases the game's flexibility came out of playtesting, and heavily (for reference of course) firepower. Players can risk and audience. We also gave improved the final product. PLATFORM spreading out their ships, gamers the option to control the Xbox LIVE Indie Games and endangering them, for overall gameplay speed, which WHAT WENT WRONG? the ability to fire a super laser. made it much easier for frightened 1 /// Didn’t know what we had. wishing I had done a better job There’s also giant spiders newbs or old-timers chastened by SHOOT 1UP came together in on the art and animation, and had being milked. And dead brutal shooters of the past. a weird period in which I was just generally added more content whales. And a flying, naked 3 /// Critical prototype. I came “supposed” to be working on to the game. lady-bot. up with the core idea of “all your GRAPPLE BUGGY, but was also 2 /// No design and no timeline. ships at once” in response to a devoting time to a paying contract. While having limited initial WHAT WENT RIGHT? challenge for the “Experimental By the time the game shipped, I designs in place for development 1 /// Unknown, gut-reaction Gameplay Project” web site. I realized it was pretty cool, and ultimately worked creatively, it design. My designs are usually quickly made a prototype of the people might like it. Turned out it didn’t work well for the timeline. pretty freewheeling, but for SHOOT gameplay based on an existing got some really good reviews and We were trying to create the 1UP it was even more open than tutorial in XNA. Using existing a lot of attention, which left me game quickly in an effort to get back to our “real” project. With an SHOOT1UP. open-ended design, it’s very hard to call it done. That’s definitely a benefit of concrete game design documents and milestones. 3 /// The price was wrong. SHOOT 1UP is only a dollar, which undervalues the game and others like it. I have no crystal ball to see if we could have made the same money, but I often wonder if we should have priced it at the next point ($3) instead. But our success here does set us up to release a new, more expensive shooter of higher quality. 4 /// Poor underlying technology. While using a starter-kit-style codebase to get things going is very good for jumpstarting a project, at some point, it’s possible to diverge so far that you

24 GAME DEVELOPER | MAY 2011 ZP2KX. need to rewrite underlying code SHOT' EM UP online multiplayer over system and definable sprite to improve performance. I try not SHOOT 1UP was my first shoot Xbox LIVE, I made ZP2K9, sheets, which allow the designer to to over-engineer my projects in ’em up, created after playing which did pretty well, selling create far more organic, expressive an effort to keep development and loving the genre for years. 25,000 copies. A little over maps with stuff like sprite-based time down. This approach mostly At over 25k sales, we’ve had a year later, as part of my animated lighting, swaying grass, works, but here it started to hinder lots of gamers, even lots of non- XBLIG-for-fun development and flowing fog all on a bunch of performance as the original shooting game players, write to methodology and just in time parallax layers. starter kit was never meant to say they love the game, which for the Indie Winter Games 2 /// Distributed development. support so many moving objects encourages me going forward. The Uprising promotion I released ZP2KX is, to date, the most and interacting collisions. Taking design was loose, and my primary ZP2KX, which sported highly collaboration-oriented a few weeks to better optimize hope is that I can remain open an overhauled graphics game I’ve released. About a underlying systems, such as to more interesting ideas I may engine, new maps, character year ago, I brought on Dustin collision (for all the interactions have for new designs, rather than customization, new weapons, Burg as marketing coordinator, between bullets and enemies), analyzing them into vanilla. classes, levels, and more. basically to organize for PAX, could have replaced cuts I had to handle community, work with make to bullet and enemy counts. NATHAN FOUTS is president of WHAT WENT RIGHT press, and things like that. After 5 /// Forgot my homework. This was MBG and 8 Bit Horse. Read more about 1 /// Recycled tools. ZP2K9 a bit of THE DISHWASHER: VAMPIRE my first sprite animation game, as his love of 2D games on Twitter @ maps used a pretty old-school tile SMILE development, I got him set our first game, WEAPON OF CHOICE, MommysBestGames. system; tiles could be painted as up to use the map editor so he was skeletally animated. It was very either empty, sloping up, sloping could create some arcade levels. exciting to get to start playing around down, or full, and the game would Since ZP2KX now used the same with traditional cell animation, and in then figure out which of about map editor and format as THE my excitement, I forgot the basics, ZP2KX 16 tiles per palette (grass, wood, DISHWASHER: VS, I was able to draw such as onion skinning to better line metal, and so forth) to draw per tile up some map sprites and then up progression in an animation. Had Ever since broadband gave so that each would mesh with its let Dustin churn out some maps. I taken a week or two to brush up on us deathmatches without neighbors. ZP2K9 had just 4 maps while traditional animation methods, the LANs, I’ve dreamed of making For ZP2KX, I rigged in the map ZP2KX has 11, which is a far more final results would have been much my own online multiplayer editor from the XBLA game I’ve respectable amount of levels for a better. Fortunately, I made good shooter. I tried this in 2005 been working on for the past two multiplayer-only game. on the idea of studying traditional with ZP2K5, an ugly game years, THE DISHWASHER: VAMPIRE 3 /// Hobby mentality. Ever since animation when creating our next with terrible lag that basically SMILE. The new format kept the my earlier game THE DISHWASHER: game, EXPLOSIONADE, and the quality no one played. When XNA 2.0 tile-based collision map but used DEAD SAMURAI got the go-ahead obviously improved. nailed easily implementable a multiple layer drag-and-drop for XBLA, I’ve stuck with a system

WWW.GDMAG.COM 25 ZP2KX.

for dividing my time and energy games during the same window, so the awful execution issues I ran with strategy), I reasoned that over multiple outlets, all made that we could all benefit from the into, higher-level networking tasks, while killing real humans is the possible by Xbox, and it basically promotion. Microsoft jumped on like searching for active games and most satisfying way to play (odd goes like this: XBLA is my day the promo, giving us an awesome just maintaining a server without how that comes out), I shouldn’t job, XBLIG is my hobby. ZP2KX is chunk of dashboard space. futzing with router settings (forget punish gamers who want to the latest product of this system, 5 /// XNA Multiplayer is mostly about invites and friends lists!), practice on bots a bit. but it’s also yielded XBLIG games awesome. Before XNA, multiplayer were a total pipe dream for an What ended up happening was ZSX4: GUITARPOCALYPSE, ZP2K9, and seemed like a totally unattainable inexperienced hobbyist developer. that someone was able to max out I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES dream. I’d dabbled in Winsock and XNA streamlined all of that to the his level within nine hours of the 1N IT!!!1, as well as XBLA games DirectX 8 (oof!), but even without extent that, given my previous game’s launch (I was only able to THE DISHWASHER: DEAD SAMURAI failures, it was actually exciting. get to 85 or so of 100 after about and the soon-to-be-launched THE GAME DATA two weeks of pretty heavy play). DISHWASHER: VAMPIRE SMILE. ZP2KX WHAT WENT WRONG By playing a certain gametype The aim of this system is to 1 /// Generosity isn’t always with bots only, players are able keep momentum high and burnout PUBLISHER the best policy. Because the to rack up obscene killstreaks by low. XBLA development during the Ska Studios driving philosophy behind spamming nuke grenades into end of a cycle tends to alternate DEVELOPER ZP2KX was more of a fun, hobby the center of the map for hours on between “hurry up and wait” and Ska Studios mentality, whenever there was a end. While this didn’t bother me “stare numbly at the bug tracking NUMBER OF DEVELOPERS choice between generosity and too much at first, in time I realized database that is taunting you,” so 2.5 stinginess, I erred on the side of that, no matter how small an online being able to pour some energy into LENGTH OF DEVELOPMENT generosity. However, generous universe seems, every little exploit another creative outlet helps ease 9 months game design is not always (or even that you leave in there goes a frustration that otherwise would go RELEASE DATE typically) good game design. huge way toward destroying the in the Nervous Breakdown Bank. December 23, 2010 Example: You kill enemies perceived integrity of the universe 4 /// XBLIG promotion FTW. ZP2KX SOFTWARE to earn XP, which goes toward for everyone. was part of Indie Winter Games XNA Framework, XACT, increasing your level, which 2 /// Time to rethink player Uprising, a somewhat experimental FLStudio, Paint Shop Pro, unlocks new clothes, skills (perks), interaction. ZP2KX was new and extremely good idea from Photoshop, Zka Editor jetpacks, and the like. XP earned ground for me in terms of giving Robert Boyd. The idea behind IGWU PLATFORM is multiplied by killstreaks. When humans the ability to interact with was that developers who had a XBLIG faced with the choice of letting other humans, and I erroneously track record of quality and valuing LINES OF CODE gamers earn XP by killing bots went about it with the philosophy creativity over profitability (i.e., no 80k (which, compared to human of “everyone will be cool.” It turns Avatar games) released Xbox Indie players, aren’t exactly brimming out that giving the host player the

26 GAME DEVELOPER | MAY 2011 opportunity to change game type someone leaves a game, there’s was mostly as a contract down to the few most important and mutator or quit whenever he or a 0.3% chance that the game will musician/sound designer things. While I had grand ideas she wants can be pretty obnoxious end. Sounds rare, but it seems for the Nintendo handheld for features like a town, character for other players. Giving the host to happen just when things are systems, a job I’ve had since inventory, and a persistent world, full control is fine for private getting good. These issues have about 2002. I began work I knew these would take a lot of matches where everyone is friends, been fixed in XNA 4.0, but I’ve been on the first SOULCASTER in time to implement and test. I stuck but when your competitive edge a bit sidetracked... October 2009 when a project with the core concepts of dungeon is at the mercy of what could be a I was slated to work on was exploration and summoning, and fickle dabbler who is also a sore HOW'D WE DO? canceled, and I suddenly had just aimed to have a more high- loser, your experience certainly Overall, ZP2KX was a great some extra time. I had learned quality presentation of the same suffers. experience. Commercially, it C# programming to develop system. The final task list included 3 /// XBLIG jail is no fun. I put three did fairly well (at least on XBLIG my own audio processing an improved environment titles on XBLIG before Microsoft terms), selling over 19,000 copies tools, so I figured it was time graphics engine, better enemy AI, began implementing the “jail” in the two and a half months it’s to make a game of my own, and a few new enemy types and policy, where games that fail peer been out. As a project, it was a to be released on Xbox Live scripting features. I didn’t risk review have to sit out for a week. ton of fun to work on. After hours Indie Games. Both SOULCASTER any time tampering with the core The policy is well meaning because of mind-numbing bug fixes on THE games were built from scratch mechanics that made the original on a pre-jail peer review list, DISHWASHER: VAMPIRE SMILE, it was in XNA with no external game fun. developers had a tendency to use cathartic to just shut my brain libraries, and I did all design, 2 /// Tools. Twenty percent of peer review as a means of testing, off and draw ZP2KX costumes. code, art, and music. development time for the first spamming resubmissions until it And Dustin, who hails from SOULCASTER was successful SOULCASTER was devoted to making got through. With jail, developers journalism land, can now say he beyond what I had imagined, the level editor. In working on the get a week to iron out bugs, during has thousands of people playing selling a few thousand copies sequel, I spent another month which time they could put their ZP2KX levels that he designed in the first couple months, polishing it and making it as easy game in playtest. and built. At the end of the day, we and holding a nice position in and fun as possible to design levels The three titles I got on XBLIG made a lot of people happy. I think the “top 20 highest rated” list. with. This time investment paid off pre-jail passed peer review with that’s a pretty good deal. So even though my contract big time: I was able to build about no trouble. ZP2KX had to be pulled work started picking up, I set 60 levels, and then keep the best twice, and each time it was over JAMES SILVA has been making out to make a sequel. This 30. I remade the final stage itself bugs that were found several days games for years, but is best known for his postmortem reflects how five times from scratch. With an into review, so with jail time added, Dishwasher series on XBLA, and the XBLIG making a sequel may not be editor that was anything less than the game spent nearly a month in I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1NIT!!!1. as easy as making the first total slickness, this would have review. This wouldn’t have been game, even if you use most of been arduous. nearly as frustrating if I weren’t SOULCASTER II the same technology. 3 /// Playtesting. I was afraid the trying to get the game up for a sequel was going to be a bit too meticulously planned promotion. SOULCASTER II is the follow-up WHAT WENT RIGHT easy when I first had friends test Fortunately, the game passed in to my March 2010 debut title 1 /// Scope. My first design it. Boy, was I mistaken. It’s easy to 2010. Barely. as an indie developer. Before move was to list the potential forget how good you get at your 4 /// XBLIG competition is no fun. that, my industry experience new features, then slash that list own game when you are playing it ZP2KX is an incredibly deep game, from a gigantic, dynamic weapon roster to competent character customization, gamers can formulate any number of unique, incredibly effective strategies to dominate online. Yet we are consistently outsold by AVATAR PAINTBALL WARS, a game where in the trial, every unused button brings up the upsell screen. 5 /// XNA multiplayer is mostly awesome... but not without its problems. I used XNA 3.1 for ZP2KX, and XNA 3.1 has a couple of multiplayer engine flaws that exist at a level where the best I can do is catch an exception thrown at NetworkGame.Update() when the game enters a “things have gone all wrong” state. What this means SOULCASTER 2. for the gamer is that every time

WWW.GDMAG.COM 27 constantly and know all its secrets. coverage we received. The extra original SOULCASTER I code base. GAME DATA Watching friends play levels for the traffic to my web site almost made (A couple weeks later I found the first time was eye-opening. up for my own lack of marketing problem, and it was one line in the SOULCASTER 2 For example, the game opens specific to the game, which I’ll get sound player initialization which PUBLISHER with the hero being ambushed in into in the “wrong” section. caused some sort of near-infinite MagicalTimeBean a swamp by the undead. In the loop.) So please, test on target DEVELOPER original version of the game, the WHAT WENT WRONG frequently. MagicalTimeBean skeletons waited menacingly on 1 /// Scheduling. I started working 3 /// Work habits. I do my best work NUMBER OF DEVELOPERS the other side of a river, unable on SOULCASTER II about one month when I put in three to five hours a 1 full time, 2 contractors to reach the player, but out of after the first game was released. I day consistently, and this practice LENGTH OF DEVELOPMENT range themselves. Players said didn’t create a solid release schedule served me well in making the first 7 months things like “How do I shoot them?” because, hey, how long could this game. I lost touch with this in making RELEASE DATE while they spent their precious really take? It’s just a sequel. I’ll just the sequel, and found myself stuck December 10, 2010 demo time wandering around. So, spruce up the graphics engine, beef in the cycle of crunch, recuperate, SOFTWARE I put the archer spirit in the first up the editor, and then crank out repeat. I wasn’t getting as much Visual Studio 2010, stage, and it made the goal a lot content. Let’s see, one level a day for done, and it wasn’t until later in the Subversion, GraphicsGale, more transparent. Fixes like this, 30 days, plus some time for graphics project that I found my footing again Paint.NET, Impulse Tracker, especially in the first few stages, and music... This should only take with this “energy conservation” Sound Forge, Ableton Live helped get the player right into the three months, tops. Whoops! If I had model of game development. PLATFORM action. broken the project into stages and 4 /// Promotion. Being part of the Xbox Live Indie Games 4 /// Music. My background is set time limits, I would have saved Winter Uprising promotion took care BUDGET in music composition, and the myself some time and focused on of a lot of my marketing needs with $600 + my time soundtrack to any game is always what was important. But not as free press coverage, but I probably LINES OF CODE the most important thing for me. relied on it too much. I could have much as I would have if I had done 20,561 I think I really delivered exactly more testing on the platform—which done more to rally the SOULCASTER fan PIZZA BETA PARTIES what the game needed, and many leads us to... base in anticipation of the game, put 2 critics have specifically mentioned 2 /// Testing on target. Programmers together a proper trailer, and so forth. the soundtrack as a highlight of reading this, brace yourself for a 1 /// Self-doubt. Maybe this can get SOULCASTER II. I also had the songs tale of terror. I spent one month me nominated for “Most Emo Bullet been saved for the playtesting phase. professionally mastered, which refactoring code (ironically, for Point.” As a lone wolf indie developer, Only when I reconnected with the fun evened out the levels from song to performance), testing on only the it’s easy for me to get derailed by of making a game that I wanted to song and added a lot of clarity. You Windows build, just assuming things anxiety over how my game is going to play, first and foremost, did I get back don’t want the player reaching for would work fine on the Xbox. When I be received. This wasn’t a paralyzing into full swing. the volume control mid-game. finally fired it up on the console, the force, thankfully, but in a subtle, 5 /// indie games winter uprising. frame rate was through the floor. pervasive way, I found myself judging GOT SOME RARE THINGS When it happened, IGWU was the To make a long story short, I spent my work against what I assumed ON SALE... largest-scale grassroots marketing a month trying to track down the others would say about it. While it I am very proud of how SOULCASTER coalition in the history of XBLIG. It problem, and ended up rolling back was helpful to make something fun II turned out. Fans of the first game paid off in the vast amount of press in source control all the way to the for other people, this should have liked it, critics gave it high marks, and it sold reasonably well. Although my original intention was to finish the second game in less time than it took to complete the first, this is not how things turned out. My story proves that a few pernicious things, left unattended, can cost months. My next project is an entirely new franchise which I hope to release in the first half of 2011. After that, I intend to break ground on SOULCASTER III.

IAN STOCKER is the creator of SOULCASTER I & II. He has worked as a musician and sound designer for Nintendo handheld systems such as Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, and Game Boy Color, and racked up over 50 game credits in the past 8 years. The creation of an authentic 16-bit style console game is the realization of his SOULCASTER 2. lifelong dream.

28 GAME DEVELOPER | MAY 2011

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Review by DaR ius Kazemi Dominic SzablewSki impact Game engine

The Impact Game Engine the overall UI is every bit as good as templates based on each browser/ Dominic SzablewSki is one of the first professional you’d expect from a desktop map device, if you prefer to use that anwenDungSenTwicklung engines to run on the HTML5 editor. Levels are stored in JSON method. The website also provides a impacT game engine Canvas element for making 2D format and are very easy to parse fairly comprehensive guide, outlining Georgenstr. 14 a games in JavaScript. Games programmatically if you need to do the kinds of optimizations you will 64572 büttelborn created in Impact, like most on-the-fly level editing or procedural want to do to get an Impact game Germany HTML5 games, will run on “any level generation. running smoothly on as many kinds http://impactjs.com/ modern browser,” which is code Weltmeister is tightly coupled of iOS devices as possible. price for Firefox, Chrome, Safari, with Impact, so while it would not Starting with a test platforming › $99 Opera, and Internet Explorer 9. function well as a standalone editor, game I’d made in Impact, I was able SySTem reQuiremenTS Especially notable is that Impact it does a great job of fitting into the to use the provided templates and › internet connection also supports iOS devices out of Impact workflow—deploying levels guides to port the game to the iPad in proS the box. in your game is a matter of edit, save, only a few hours’ time. 1 very easy to make games that run on The engine is targeted toward and run. Impact does not provide official both desktop and iOs everyone from serious hobbyists to support for Android or other mobile 2 Great documentation and support professionals. mobile Device SupporT HTML5-ready devices, although 3 weltmeister level editor can greatly )))) One of the major benefits of many of its features do work on non- speed up workflow The welTmeiSTer level eDiTor developing games in HTML5 is that iOS devices. An important note is that conS )))) Impact’s most immediately in addition to running on modern audio support on iOS is limited to one 1 No official android support impressive feature is its level editor, browsers, your games will also run channel of sound, although that is a 2 No trial license available playfully dubbed Weltmeister. on many mobile devices. Impact limitation of the iOS platform and not 3 No online wiki or knowledge base; Weltmeister itself is implemented supports iOS devices including the Impact itself. useful information is sometimes in HTML5, so it runs in your web iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod Touch (3rd buried in a hard-to-search forum system browser. As a tilemap editor, it’s Generation), and the iPad. The engine moDule SySTem fairly simple but gets the job done. detects the device it is running on )))) JavaScript does not understand It supports an arbitrary number of and provides environment variables the concept of includes, so Impact So even though the game consists tile layers. Each layer is associated that make it easy to do any device- provides a module system that of multiple modules in multiple files, with one tileset, though at the specific configurations you want. allows you to organize your code. the HTML file for your game only moment, tilesets are strictly limited The Impact website provides Here’s an example of how a main needs to include main.js. Seasoned to square tiles. Although there is no an HTML template that will render game file includes the necessary programmers unfamiliar with built-in support for custom brushes, well on all iOS devices, as well as a sub-modules: JavaScript might take this kind of drawing maps feels natural, and PHP file that will redirect to different thing for granted, but if you’ve ever ig.module( programmed a game in JavaScript 'game.main' before, you’ll know that code ) organization can be a big pain in .requires( the neck. Impact’s module system 'impact.game', takes the focus off of housekeeping 'impact.font', and allows you to focus on actual 'game.entities. programming tasks. dynamicActor', 'game.entities. baking your coDe for player', performance anD 'game.entities. proTecTion enemy', )))) Impact comes with a script that 'game.levels.main' “bakes” your game into one big ) JS file and minifies (compresses) .defines(function(){ the code. This reduces loading time by decreasing the number // main game code of HTTP requests and packing things into smaller file sizes. In impact integrates well with external libraries, including }); addition to reducing load time, the many JavaScript flavors of box2D. the baking process serves the

www.gdmag.com 31 TOOLBOX

the impact game engine's flagship demo, biolab disaster, is as impressive as any high-end Flash-based platformer. additional purpose of obfuscating your code. This and often incorporates customer feedback into great documentation puts Impact head and is especially important as many developers are new builds of the engine. shoulders above the competition. rightly concerned about anyone being able to There is also a fledgling community of Beyond all that is something a little more press Ctrl+U in their browser, which allows users Impact users providing plugins, most notably intangible: I’ve tried four other JavaScript game to view the source code of a game as they would multiplayer support via NodeJS. At the time of engines, and this is the first one I’ve used that the HTML of a website. this writing, the concept of Impact plugins is makes sense and feels like it was developed by Baking also happens to be required, in order only two weeks old, but early contributions look someone who understands game development, to comply with Impact’s license ; without it, you encouraging in both quantity and quality. as opposed to a web developer who is dabbling will end up distributing the source code to Impact in games. A programmer should be able to along with your game. pricing and licenSe quickly and easily transition to Impact from )))) An Impact license costs $99, and is granted something like pyGame or XNA. In particular, Support and documentation on a per-developer basis, although bulk rates indie game developers who currently use Flixel )))) The documentation for Impact is both do appear to be available if you wish to obtain to make games in Flash/AS3 will find Impact extensive and easy to use. On the Impact a license for a studio of more than a handful of extremely familiar. website, the developer provides a reference for people. The license grants you unlimited use I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that each of the main classes and their functions, of the engine, and a discounted upgrade to Impact is the first truly professional-grade and most functions are accompanied by helpful future major engine releases. With a purchase, JavaScript and HTML5 game engine to hit example code. There are also articles covering you receive access to the latest stable build as the market. It has set the bar high for future major topics such as collision, animation, well as the git repository of the development competitors, who will undoubtedly be releasing Box2D integration, and mobile porting, as well branch. There are no trial licenses available. their own engines. as a pair of helpful video tutorials that can get you started in a matter of minutes. the bottom line Support for the engine is also good. While )))) While there are many free JavaScript game d ariuS Kazemi is lead analyst at Blue Fang Games, Impact is created and maintained by the one- frameworks available online, the Impact Game located just outside of Boston. He serves on the board of person “team” of Dominik Szablewski, he is Engine is clearly worth its license fee. The directors of the International Game Developers Association quick to respond on the forums and fix bugs, combination of orderly code, iOS support, and and blogs at Tiny Subversions.

32 game deveLOper | may 2011 product news Morpheme 3, FMOD, Vision Engine, Wwise Add NGP Support Scoreloop, which lets developers add in-game purchases and implement www.naturalmotion.com virtual currencies as well as social features, will now be usable with Windows NaturalMotion says its Morpheme animation middleware will include support 7 games so that players can "compete and compare" cross-platform in a for Sony's Next Generation Portable, as the company suggests it's a natural similar fashion, the company said. shift from supporting PlayStation 3 to supporting the high-fidelity handheld. –leigh alexander "We are excited by the possibilities that SCE is opening up with NGP," said NaturalMotion CEO Torsten Reil. OpenFeint Launching Cross-Platform Social Gaming API "With Morpheme already powering numerous PlayStation 3 titles, it is www.openfeint.com amazing to now have the performance to run our technology at the same Gamers on Apple's iDevices who want to compare scores can already do so fidelity on a handheld device." through the company's GameCenter. And cross-platform data is just starting NaturalMotion released version 3.0 of Morpheme in December of 2010 to take off. But what happens when their friends are playing the same game with support for Kinect and Move games. The middleware is designed on an Android phone, or on the PC, or on many more diverse platforms? to allow for real-time graphical authoring and animation previews, asset OpenFeint is hoping to build a bridge to address that issue. The company management, and other features for animators. has announced the private beta launch for OpenFeint Connect, an API It's currently licensed by Ubisoft, THQ, BioWare, and numerous others, solution that will allow developers to use OpenFeint's features on any app the company said. Because NaturalMotion had access to NGP prototype store, for any device, and incorporate its game data much more easily. hardware, it says that the NGP version of its middleware is available While the system, based on RESTful APIs, will not support cross-platform immediately. play, users will be able to compare scores on a centralized leaderboard and In addition to NaturalMotion, Eningen, Germany-based Trinigy said its find new friends regardless of the system they use. Developers, meanwhile, Vision Game Engine will support Sony's upcoming handheld. New features will be able to send a single widespread message to players of their games to for the NGP version of the Vision engine include an "optimized" character alert them to updates. skinning system, and full support for hardware features including touch "We believe games should connect people, regardless of what device or controls, improved multithreading, and an optimized renderer. mobile OS they own," said Jason Citron, founder and CEO of OpenFeint. "With Also confirming NGP support is Australian audio middleware firm the release of OpenFeint Connect, we give game developers the flexibility Firelight Technologies, which said its FMOD audio suite is authorized for NGP they need to take their games and game data to players everywhere." development. In late November, Vision and Firelight announced that FMOD Since the API is more universal, it will allow OpenFeint to support a will be bundled with Trinigy's Vision Engine 8. number of devices beyond iOS and Android, including Windows Phone 7, PCs, Separately, Montreal's Audiokinetic said the NGP is the first portable and the Mac App Store. Through OpenFeint Connect, developers can access console supported by the company's Wwise audio solution, which is already the platform's biggest features without having to use an OpenFeint-built available for NGP development. client, the company said. –leigh alexander, Kris graft – chris morris Latest EKI One A.I. Middleware Integrates With Unity3D Zong Expands Mobile Account Payment System To PC, http://unity3d.com Consoles, Android Tablets The Puchheim, Germany-based Artificial Technology announced that the www.zong.com latest version of its EKI One A.I. middleware will be integrated into Unity In-app mobile payment provider Zong has announced a massive expansion Technologies' widely used Unity3D game engine. of its system, allowing payments linked to mobile phone accounts to be EKI One 2.6 connects with Unity in the runtime environment as a natural included in "nearly any [application] environment," including game consoles part of game design workflow, Artificial Technology said. Developers can and PCs. make changes that are automatically applied when running the game and Previously available only on Android and through HTML pages, while designing in Unity, according to the middleware provider. Zong's new system boasts compatibility with games made in Unity and The company said it has also improved user-friendliness with the Flash, as well as titles for interactive TVs, Android tablets, and consoles. EKI One Configurator graphical interface, and now offers wide-ranging Zong's system streamlines payments on these platforms, the company extensions for online game behavior solution EKI One Server. says, by linking them to a text-message-confirmed phone number provided –Kris graft by the user. Rather than requiring the user to dig out a credit card or sign up for a separate payment account, Zong-enabled payments are billed directly Scoreloop Adds Windows Phone 7 Support to the player's mobile phone bill with minimum hassle. www.scoreloop.com It's unclear whether games on console services like Xbox Live Scoreloop, provider of social networking and in-game monetization tools Arcade and WiiWare will be allowed to accept such in-game payments, for mobile game developers, has launched a beta version of its SDK for rather than payments through those platforms' exclusive currencies. Windows Phone 7, adding Microsoft's new platform to a list of Scoreloop- Zong faces competition from digital account services like PayPal, as supported operating systems including Android, Bada, Airplay, and iOS. well as other mobile-account-based payment providers including Boku. "Windows Phone 7 is an important step in our goal to encourage Last December, Angry Birds maker Rovio announced plans for its own and support connected gaming across the entire mobile landscape," cross-platform payment solution run through mobile phone bills, dubbed explained Scoreloop CEO Mark Gumpinger. He said that the company Bad Piggy Bank. aims to support as many mobile platforms as possible to help –Kyle orland developers expand their reach and revenue opportunity.

www.gdmag.com 33 HEROES WANTED

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The fuTure of BroWSerS a PRIMeR foR htMl5 and otheR ModeRn bRowseR gaMe technologIes

Step 1. See a link for a game. up on a whole range of technologies relevant for adoption. It’s really best to just treat each tech Step 2. Click it... click it with desire. games, all built right into browsers. Most of them independently. So, do let’s dive in. Step 3. ... are still being standardized and implemented, and a few are still in the R&D phase. It’s an The TeCh Well, let’s think about Step 3. What would you like interesting time, too, as the developers who push » I’ll be giving an overview of each, offering to have happen? My answer: I’d like to be playing them now will influence the next generation of code samples and images. the game. No marketing page, no overview page, browser game engines. no screenshots or videos, no download page, no Let’s get some things out of the way before Web GL installation, no plug-ins, nothing but the game. I diving into the tech. Excitement around WebGL has been growing came to play the game. Put anything between me I won’t be discussing plug-ins, or web tech over the last year. Chrome shipped with it in and the game and, well, I might not make it there. that’s been widely known for a while. Plug-ins are February, and the 1.0 Specification was ratified Step 3, you’re playing the game. The only out for a few reasons: they’re a known quantity, at the Game Developers Conference in March. way this happens is with browser tech. Browsers they can be a major security issue, and they lose Firefox 4, Safari, and Opera have also announced are ubiquitous—everyone uses them—and over potential game players by requiring installation. implementations. time having your game run right from a link will Sure, Flash has a great install base... except on WebGL is essentially Open GL ES 2.0 as a become increasingly essential as other services iPhone and iPad. JavaScript API, and is notable in the long history and games all work that way. Mobile and handheld devices will drive the of attempted 3D in the browser because it is Now, I’m an old school dev. My first code markets. Worldwide sales of mobile devices are not a plug-in; it is natively supported. The API shipped on PlayStation. We worried about skyrocketing, outpacing desktops. They’re where consists primarily of GLSL vertex and fragment sorting triangles since there was no Z buffer, a lot of the energy and innovation are going. And, shaders, textures, frame buffers, and context and splitting them as there was no perspective- for significant parts of the world’s population, the states such as blending. correct texturing. Until a year ago, I shrugged off only computer a person will have will be mobile. There are many libraries available, ranging web tech with arrogant disdain. I’ve caught wind And finally, what is HTML5? What’s with from simple matrix and utility code up to 3D of this change, and now it’s only too clear how the “Other” in the title of this article? Well, in engines supporting data loading, animation, things will pan out. It won’t be sudden, mind you, the end, it’s not terribly important. I’m covering shadows, portals, and more. Here’s a starter list but it's coming. technology that is relevant for game developers. of libraries: GLGE, C3DL, Copperlicht, SpiderGL, This article is for me a year ago. It’s a heads- Much of it happens to be covered by industry SceneJS, three.js, O3D, Processing.js and XB specifications, some of PointStream, and WebGLU. which are part of the WebGL Inspector deserves a special call out. HTML5 specification. It’s your PIX/nvPerfHUD/gDEBugger equivalent, all Each specification implemented in JavaScript, and is easy to snap in is at varying levels place with only a few lines of code. It enables you to of finalization, replay a frame, get the history of a pixel, view data implementation, and buffers, textures, GL state, shaders, and constants.

WebGL Sample Google Body explores 3D layers of the body. Canvas 2D Sample of retro game Onslaught.

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WebGl Inspector offers debugging and analysis of your WebGl application.

availability. Many Flash-like games have been created with this immediate- Canvas 2D can also be used for 3D rendering, as in Tankworld. mode API, which handles images, vector shapes, and text. Sprite-based games are common. Performance ranges from dozens of sprites on low-end smart phones, to hundreds on software-rendering WebGL code looks similar to normal Open GL ES code. desktops, to thousands on GPU-accelerated desktop browsers. GPU acceleration is new in browsers, though. Expect particulars to change matrix.makeIdentity(); over time. Also, Canvas 2D is an immediate-mode API, meaning all data for matrix.rotate(currentAngle, 0,1,0); each draw call must be specified every time. There will be performance limits gl.uniformMatrix4fv(uniformLocation, false, matrix.array); that retained APIs would alleviate due to the difficulty of caching primitives. gl.drawElements(gl.TRIANGLES, numIndices, gl.UNSIGNED_BYTE, 0); The Canvas 2D API supports several operations, such as rectangles, circle arcs, lines, Bézier curves, text, and images; fills and strokes; effects such as Canvas 2D gradients, shadows, line styles, and pattern fills; and transformation stacks. The Canvas 2D saw a spike in popularity in 2010, due to its simplicity and broad features are an interesting mix, owing their heritage to Apple’s Mac OS APIs. While

Canvas 2D CoDe samples

a simple example of loading an image of a cat and rendering it to a canvas: an example of the vector apIs (adapted from an Internet explorer 9 sample): // Draw eyes ctx.moveTo(219, 298); // Start tongue ctx.bezierCurveTo(278, 351, 315, 315, 277, 258);

ctx.lineWidth = 20; ctx.stroke();

36 game developer | may 2011 WebGl Sample Nine point Five, showing rich 3D visualization nested in classic 2D htMl. it’s mostly immediate mode with state stored on the context, gradients and heavily manipulating objects frequently, and can be computationally patterns are objects. drawFocusRing() is for visual accessibility. isPointInPath() expensive too. Modifying SVG DOM elements also causes the browser to requires re-submitting a path, a structure that can only be defined in the context refresh page layout unless you use suspendRedraw/unsuspendRedraw. state. Compositing is specified globally with Porter-Duff operations (film full SVG is a larger and complicated specification compared to Canvas 2D, frame compositing), but most implementations only affect pixels modified and implementations have different levels of support for e.g. filter effects by a draw operation similar to GPU APIs using src-dst ops. That said, most of and other features (Gaussian blurs, color matrices, displacement maps, and this can be ignored and you can use the subset most useful to you. that sort of thing). Declarative code is fairly straightforward, as shown below. Scalable Vector GraphicS » SVG is a retained mode, declarative technology that has a longer history than Canvas 2D. While currently less popular, it has many good features.

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Procedural code is similar to manipulating HTML DOM: CSS3 offers 3D transformations on any web content. This can be declarative via CSS files, or controlled procedurally from your JavaScript.