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INTERVIEW: NIGHTS CREATOR NAOTO OHSHIMA VOL16NO10NOVEMBER2009 THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE 0911gd_cover_vljf_REV.indd 1 10/21/09 11:22:16 AM POSTMORTEM CONTENTS.1109 22 5TH CELL'S SCRIBBLENAUTS VOLUME 16 NUMBER 10 SCRIBBLENAUTS is a pie-in-the-sky concept come to life, and there's a lot for developer 5th Cell to be proud of. Plus, in a game where the object is to write anything and have it come to life on the screen, what could go wrong? A whole lot, of course—from QA to localization DEPARTMENTS to controls, all facts are laid bare. By Joseph M. Tringali 2 GAME PLAN By Brandon Sheffield [EDITORIAL] To Be Continued FEATURES 4 HEADS UP DISPLAY [NEWS] 7 GAMING IN THE CLOUD Good Old Designs, Sense of Wonder Night 2009, and more. Companies like OnLive and Gaikai are promising the gaming world on a platter with cloud computing-supported game services. But 34 TOOL BOX By Zoltan Erdokovy and Bijan Forutanpour [REVIEW] how viable is it, really? Programmer Jake Cannell takes a look at the Luxology's Modo 401, and Real Time Cameras book technical and financial logistics behind this emerging space. By Jake Cannell 38 THE INNER PRODUCT By Mick West [PROGRAMMING] Jump To It 13 THE GAME DEVELOPER 50 In concert with our advisory board, we've highlighted 50 important 42 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore [ART] achievements of the last year-or-so, and associated them with specific Most Likely to Succeed persons in order to acknowledge individual work. It's no easy feat to distill the work of many into a few names, but we attempted it here. 46 DESIGN OF THE TIMES By Damion Schubert [DESIGN] By Brandon Sheffield, Jeffrey Fleming, and Simon Carless The Art of Fun 50 INTERVIEW: NAOTO OHSHIMA 49 AURAL FIXATION By Jesse Harlin [SOUND] Ohshima is best known as the character designer for SONIC THE The Magic of Misdirection HEDGEHOG and director of NIGHTS INTO DREAMS, and here we investigate his motivations, thoughts, and his fascination with time. 56 ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT By Matthew Wasteland [HUMOR] By Brandon Sheffield Stack Trace Industry Detective COVER ART: EDISON YAN WWW.GDMAG.COM 1 0911gd_toc_v4jm_REV.indd 1 10/21/09 11:25:08 AM GAME PLAN // BRANDON SHEFFIELD www.gdmag.com Think Services, 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94107 t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090 SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND ADDRESS CHANGES HEADLINETO BE CONTINUED t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606 RETHINKING PLAYER DEATH e: [email protected] EDITORIAL PUBLISHER ARCADES HAVE BROUGHT US A LOT OF SIGNIFICANT are conceptually relevant. So many games employ Simon Carless l [email protected] advances over the years. From the industry's outlandish sci-fi or fantasy scenarios that it seems EDITOR-IN-CHIEF beginning through the mid-90s, arcades were still death could be explained away in simple terms—or Brandon Sheffield l [email protected] where you’d find the best game graphics, and the even better, with some entertaining gameplay. PRODUCTION EDITOR Jeffrey Fleming l [email protected] best multiplayer experiences. A great many excellent Continues and their progeny are usually not a ART DIRECTOR design rules and guidelines were forged in these nuisance, they just seem unnecessary—evidence of Joseph Mitch l [email protected] fires. Every so often though, I notice a trope carried the early framework around which games have evolved. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Jesse Harlin l [email protected] over from the arcade days that just doesn’t seem When a developer intends it, player deaths can be Steve Theodore l [email protected] to fit anymore. One of those is the concept of lives, entertaining, they just need to be given weight. If you Mick West l [email protected] continues, and player death. don’t care if you die, the stakes of play seem rather Soren Johnson l [email protected] Damion Schubert l [email protected] The thought occurred to me while playing TEENAGE minor. In LEFT 4 DEAD, you feel like you’re letting your ADVISORY BOARD MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: TURTLES IN TIME RE-SHELLED for teammates down, so death has weight. But in GEARS OF Hal Barwood Designer-at-Large Xbox Live Arcade. I played with three friends, and aside WAR, which I otherwise like very much, death is just an Mick West Independent Brad Bulkley Neversoft from none of us being able to tell which character annoying setback, and I have to watch cut scenes again Clinton Keith Independent we were about 75 percent of the time, I noticed that and traipse back across the same shattered landscape Bijan Forutanpour Sony Online Entertainment Mark DeLoura Independent the game defaulted to unlimited continues. Playing just to get killed again by the same stupid Troika. Carey Chico Pandemic Studios essentially amounted to mashing the attack button We’ve had articles in the magazine (see “Press A and hoping for the best, with no real consequences to to Jump,” Game Developer, October 2009) that cite ADVERTISING SALES GLOBAL SALES DIRECTOR death, though the game did keep a tally of who among death as a good time to provide positive feedback Aaron Murawski e: [email protected] my friends had died the most times. for players, and add tutorial hints. Considering the t: 415.947.6227 It really stuck with me—in a scenario in which fact that games are meant to be won, the player is MEDIA ACCOUNT MANAGER John Malik Watson e: [email protected] death essentially means nothing, why have death at essentially invincible in the grand scheme of things, t: 415.947.6224 all? Granted, this was a port of an arcade game, but a requiring, again, nothing more than perseverance GLOBAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, EDUCATION number of kids’ games operate under a similar basic and the occasional GameFaqs hint. Why not try AND RECRUITMENT principle. Dying either places you right back where to create a game that contains similar challenges Gina Gross e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6241 you were, or it does so until you run out of lives, and to standard games, but completely avoids death? COORDINATOR, EDUCATION AND RECRUITMENT then you continue and start at the beginning of the If the end result is the same, and meaningful (or Rafael Vallin e: [email protected] level, lives fully restocked. The game is basically humorous) consequences aren’t built in, why is death t: 415.947.6223 testing your ability to complete the same actions even part of the equation? It isn’t really death, after ADVERTISING PRODUCTION again and again, rather than your skill. Except in all, it’s really just the proverbial “flesh wound.” PRODUCTION MANAGER outlying cases, it’s testing your willingness to These days we have a buffer against death in Robert Steigleider e: [email protected] persevere, and not to adapt. games anyway—most first- and third-person shooters REPRINTS have regenerative health, whether it makes sense for WRIGHT'S REPRINTS RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE the world or not. Once the player’s regenerative health Ryan Pratt e: [email protected] » This extends in a mild way to the checkpoint is depleted, they crumple to the ground momentarily, t: 877.652.5295 systems in modern games. Most AAA games have only to have time magically rewound, with players THINK SERVICES rid themselves of the idea of continues, or even the finding themselves transported to a very familiar CEO THINK SERVICES Philip Chapnick concept of limited lives, but death is still not so much (usually identically instanced) checkpoint save state GROUP DIRECTOR Kathy Schoback CREATIVE DIRECTOR Cliff Scorso a punishment as it is a setback—you simply lose a from their recent past. CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER Anthony Adams few minutes’ playing time, and probably learn some strategies in the meantime. So why represent this as THE DEATH (OF MY INTEREST) AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT “death,” rather than in some other way? It could well be Of course if you’re not careful, alternate methods GROUP DIRECTOR Kathy Henry » e: [email protected] because we’ve always done it that way, rather than for of “death” can be even more annoying. Lengthy LIST RENTAL Merit Direct LLC t: 914.368.1000 any reason anyone spent time thinking about. resurrection sequences (in fact cut scenes of any MARKETING DEMON’S SOULS is going to be a hot topic discussion kind) will take the player out of the action. Death- or SERVICES MARKETING COORDINATOR Laura Robison among alternative journalists and academics for some loss-related minigames need to be fun and relevant. e: [email protected] time, perhaps rightly so—the way that game deals Almost any time not playing the game is time waiting with death is well thought out, and actually has an to play the game—and that’s generally time wasted. UBM TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT in-world reason behind it. If you die, your (weaker) Innovative ways of dealing with player death CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER David Levin CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Scott Mozarsky soul must go out in search of demon souls with which aren’t just for the wacky indies, or the fringe CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER David Wein to reclaim your physical body. In ASSASSIN’S CREED, titles—which is why I deliberately didn’t mention any. CORPORATE SENIOR VP SALES Anne Marie Miller SENIOR VP, STRATEGIC DEV. AND BUSINESS ADMIN. Pat Nohilly “death” is explained as a de-syncing of the player from High-end games are starting to change the way they SENIOR VP, MANUFACTURING Marie Myers his host body in history.