October 1998
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OCTOBER 1998 GAME DEVELOPER MAGAZINE V GAME PLAN It’s First and Goal for EDITOR IN CHIEF Alex Dunne [email protected] MANAGING EDITOR Tor D. Berg [email protected] Fantasy Sports DEPARTMENTS EDITOR Wesley Hall whall@mfi.com his fall, as the leaves turn success stories. Unlike the traditional ART DIRECTOR Laura Pool lpool@mfi.com shades of orange and the days studio’s royalty revenue model, SWS has EDITOR-AT-LARGE Chris Hecker grow shorter, one of the two revenue streams: a two-year licens- [email protected] largest, most massively multi- ing agreement to develop more than 40 CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Jeff Lander T [email protected] player games picks up steam and sucks online games for CNN/SI (http://base- in participants. It’s a role-playing game ball.cnnsi.com), plus revenue from ban- Mel Guymon [email protected] that draws tens of thousands (gads, ner advertising displayed on the CNN/SI Omid Rahmat probably more) of players, and if my game’s web pages, which garner 50 mil- [email protected] predictions are right, it will be one of lion page views per month. Surprisingly, ADVISORY BOARD Hal Barwood the most popular attractions on the and in contrast to most commercial fan- Noah Falstein eventual TV set-top box. I’m talking tasy leagues, some of the CNN/SI Brian Hook about fantasy football leagues. leagues are free for participants and Susan Lee-Merrow It’s taken quite a bit of time for me to offer cash prizes for winners. These are Mark Miller 2 accept the fact that fantasy league sports the guppy leagues which, hopefully, (there are also fantasy leagues for base- entice the most enthusiastic players to COVER IMAGE Epic MegaGames ball, hockey, and perhaps even pro join the premiere leagues for $15. beach volleyball for all I know) belong With such tremendous success PUBLISHER Cynthia A. Blair in the same category as “traditional” attracting players to the site and bring- cblair@mfi.com computer games. But the more I ing in advertising revenue, and armed WESTERN REGIONAL SALES Alicia Langer thought about fantasy leagues, the more with the knowledge that the fantasy MANAGER (415) 905-2156 I came to see them as kin to many other sports market is growing approximately alanger@mfi.com popular video and computer games. 25 percent per year, SWS and CNN/SI EASTERN REGIONAL SALES Kim Love MANAGER (415) 905-2175 As the owner of a sports team, your have made plans to develop four games klove@mfi.com role is similar to that of most RPG play- each for the NFL, NBA, and NHL sea- SALES ASSOCIATE Ayrien Houchin ers: put together a balanced, effective sons, including mid-season and playoff (415) 905-2788 ahouchin@mfi.com team based on attributes such as speed, games, and games with different styles strength, and toughness, and pit the and scoring systems. team against opponents. The select More traditional game developers MARKETING MANAGER Susan McDonald players you designate as “active” for have begun staking their claims in this AD. PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Dave Perrotti that week earn you points based on the market, too. Electronic Arts, the king of DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION Andrew A. Mickus actual statistics they earned in NFL sports games, recently announced a new VICE PRESIDENT/CIRCULATION Jerry M. Okabe games. (Scoring systems in fantasy web site called “The EA Sports Edge” ASST. CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Mike Poplardo leagues are often pretty complex.) Based (www.easports.com/99/easportsedge/). CIRCULATION MANAGER Stephanie Blake on your weekly points, you either tri- The site offers recommendations on fan- CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Kausha Jackson-Craine umph over your opponent and improve tasy football league drafts, trades, and so NEWSSTAND ANALYST Joyce Gorsuch your record, or not, and the teams with on, for about $20 per season. I expect REPRINTS Stella Valdez the best records at the end of the season others will follow. As Chris Berman (916) 983-6971 go on to the playoffs and the eventual might say, computer-based fantasy Miller Freeman A United News & Media publication Superbowl. There’s far more to it than sports games could go…all…the…way… this, but as you can see, assuming the CEO-MILLER FREEMAN GLOBAL Tony Tillin role of team manager/club president/tal- CHAIRMAN-MILLER FREEMAN INC. Marshall W. Freeman ent scout during the season holds the Heeere’s Mel PRESIDENT/COO Donald A. Pazour same addictive lure as any RPG. When SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT/CFO Warren “Andy” Ambrose you factor in the huge, rabid market for This month, I’d like to welcome Mel SENIOR VICE PRESIDENTS H. Ted Bahr these pay-for-play leagues (recent esti- Guymon to Game Developer as the new Darrell Denny mates pegged the fantasy sports market Artist’s View columnist. Mel penned David Nussbaum at eight to ten million people), you August’s character animation tools arti- Galen A. Poss begin to see the potential. cle. He’s a 3D artist who’s recently Wini D. Ragus One company that’s quickly become worked on high-profile projects for Regina Starr Ridley a force in the fantasy sports game genre Zombie, Eidos, Psygnosis, and others, VICE PRESIDENT/PRODUCTION Andrew A. Mickus is New York-based Small World Sports and he brings a wealth of technical VICE PRESIDENT/CIRCULATION Jerry M. Okabe (http://sports.smallworld.com). SWS, a knowledge and creative experience to VICE PRESIDENT/ KoAnn Vikören GROUP DIRECTOR small company that started in a dingy bear in the column. Welcome, Mel. ■ SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT/ Regina Starr Ridley apartment four years ago, looks to be SYSTEMS AND SOFTWARE one of this year’s game development DIVISION GAME DEVELOPER OCTOBER 1998 www.gdmag.com SAYS YOU Indie Game Festival The demise of the company is espe- lenges to point to in the industry — but cially frustrating because I feel that our not the best explanation for Newfire’s latest efforts were technologically supe- unfortunate death. Newfire would have ith regards to Alex Dunne’s rior to most titles out in the market. been better off creating a custom 3D W September editorial ("Where's With a crack engineering team making engine first (no standards) with Our Sundance?"), this is a major issue technological improvements to the tools/plug-ins to ease the art path and for developers, and proves to me yet engine on a coding, possibly addressing the issue of again that while we want to make weekly standards down the road. incredibly cool games, publishers want Your two cents. E-mail us at Galen Tingle to make money with games they know [email protected]. Or write to Game via e-mail will sell well because they resemble Developer, 600 Harrison Street, San previous best-sellers. Francisco, CA 94107. basis, fter reading your August One of the prob- who A GamePlan, “Requiem For a Game lems with creat- could go Engine Company,” I was moved and ing an indie wrong? Yet, apparently, there distressed. I’m an artist who is interested festival is were still questions about our direc- in game development and game graph- that the tion. Some people in the industry felt ics. I needed a game engine that was games would we had an identity crisis with respect to affordable, and one that could offer me need to be our customers. The question was often the ability to create a small demo to 4 created to getXraised, “Is Newfire going after con- pass around to game development com- there, and many small sumers or developers?”. Some wondered panies. Eventually, I decided on the developers can't create the games with- whether people would pay a few hun- Acknex engine by Conitec. Though I am out the funding. After all, making a top dred dollars for a superior QuakeC-type still learning to use it, I am thus far very shelf game these days takes more than development environment. Still others satisfied with it. I’m relieved that I could $1 million — not exactly chump felt we cheapened ourselves by selling find a tool that would allow me to con- change. Of course, the spirit of indie short to small developers. trol a game environment without going films is, as Dunne said, smaller budgets, And yes, a number of us at Newfire into years of training to learn source so this may not be a true obstacle. did want to develop a game with the code. Premade game engines should be Perhaps in the first round or so, technology. Many people just can’t encouraged among independent devel- developers could submit games that believe that while we won so many opers not only because of the time and they created that were market "flops," awards, we had little sales, our funding money saved, but also because it allows yet still garnered outstanding critical cut, and as a result, folded a few months fresh new thinking into the industry by acclaim. God knows, there are enough later. Thank you for your bittersweet encouraging talented people outside to of them to keep the festival full for sev- retrospective. explore it. It’s the industry’s loss if they eral years. This could be an excellent Former Newfire employee can’t warm up to the idea of a packaged extension of the GDC functions, as all (name withheld by request) game engine. I believe that in the future the right people will be in the right those who learn to use this kind of tool place. E3 simply has too much going on lex Dunne makes some good creatively will have a huge advantage (especially thanks to the massive bud- A points about the nature of the over those who spend extra (and often gets for booths like Sega).