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2010 FRONT LINE AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE VOL18 NO1 JANUARY 2011 INSIDE: GDC PREVIEW GUIDE PREVIEW GDC INSIDE: 2011 JANUARY NO1 VOL18 MAGAZINE INDUSTRY GAME LEADING THE THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE VOL18 NO1 JANUARY 2011 INSIDE: GDC PREVIEW GUIDE CONTENTS.0111 VOLUME 18 NUMBER 1 POSTMORTEM DEPARTMENTS 22 HARMONIX' DANCE CENTRAL 2 GAME PLAN By Brandon Sheffield [EDITORIAL] Developing a launch title for a new piece of hardware is never easy, Developers Versus the Press but simultaneously working with a new user input paradigm makes the task exponentially more difficult. Harmonix rose to the occasion, 4 HEADS UP DISPLAY [NEWS] creating new UI and a new way to play. By Kasson Crooker, Marc ULTIMATE NEWCOMER, IGF China winners, and Propeller Awards. Flury, Matt Boch, Dean Tate, and Ryan Challinor 42 TOOL BOX By Kenneth Lammers [REVIEW] 38 PROPE'S IVY THE KIWI? Allegorithmic's Substance Designer In this bonus postmortem, the IVY THE KIWI? team outlines how its newest game went from a minigame spawned by a new hire initiation, 46 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore [ART] to a full-fledged product for Wii and DS. By Kohei Takase and Yusaku Scoped and Groped Yamanaka 48 THE INNER PRODUCT By Dave Mark [PROGRAMMING] FEATURES Getting More Out of Numbers 7 GDC PREVIEW GUIDE 52 DESIGN OF THE TIMES By Damion Schubert [DESIGN] Our GDC preview guide should help you get a handle on some of the The Many Forms of Game Narrative early talks and summits coming out of the 25th anniversary of the biggest gathering of game developers anywhere. (GDC is run by the 54 EYE ON GDC [GDC] UBM Techweb Game Group, as is this magazine.) Meggan Scavio and Brian Reynolds interviewed. 15 FRONT LINE AWARDS 55 THE BUSINESS By John Graham [BUSINESS] The 13th annual Front Line Awards are here, presenting the best in A Singular Journey game tools as voted by you, the readers of Game Developer and the game development community at large. Categories include art, audio, 56 AURAL FIXATION By Jesse Harlin [SOUND] middleware, engine, programming, and networking tools. Let's Do The Time Warp Again By Jeffrey Fleming, Chris Griffith, Tom Carroll, Alexander Brandon, Mark Cooke, Joe Allen, Adam Hatch, Nathan Fouts, and Amitt Mahajan 57 GOOD JOB! [CAREER] Ian Adams Q&A, who went where, and new studios. 31 YOUR MOVE As hardware evolves, so too must each established genre adapt itself 58 EDUCATED PLAY By Jeffrey Fleming [EDUCATION] to new platforms. Here, an original COMMAND AND CONQUER designer dis- SHADOWS OF ABIGAIL from the FIEA. cusses bringing the strategy genre to touch devices. By Rade Stojsavljevic 64 ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT By Matthew Wasteland [HUMOR] Studio Pravda WWW.GDMAG.COM 1 GAME PLAN // BRANDON SHEFFIELD GAME DEVELOPER MAGAZINE WWW.GDMAG.COM DEVELOPERS VERSUS THE PRESS United Business Media, 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl., WHEN A STORY GOES WRONG, WHO'S TO BLAME? San Francisco, CA 94107 t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090 SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES THERE’S BEEN A LOT OF TALK LATELY ABOUT BOREDOM AND WHOREDOM FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND journalists twisting the words of developers, or One solution that people have come to is to only ADDRESS CHANGES » t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606 representing them in a manner other than what the give the press very select, very boring information, e: [email protected] developer intended. In the past few months, Cliff or info that does little more than talk up the product. Bleszinski, Ted Price, and others have complained “Here are our features. This is a new screenshot. FOR DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION that their words have been twisted, and that better Yes, we’re very excited.” This rarely translates into www.gdmag.com/digital standards of journalism need to be followed by the good stories, if stories are even written at all. This is EDITORIAL games press at large. not because journalists are voraciously going after PUBLISHER Most recently, Chris Hecker wrote about how hits, but because writing about something you’re Simon Carless l [email protected] EDITOR-IN-CHIEF he was lambasted for joking during a GDC rant that not interested in is a drag. It’s with this in mind Brandon Sheffield l [email protected] the Wii is a “piece of shit.” His actual point was more that journalists ask probing questions and try to PRODUCTION EDITOR nuanced than that, but that quote became the title of dig something up. There may be some interest in Jeffrey Fleming l [email protected] countless stories. The result was that readers got up scandal and controversy on the part of some—but in ART DIRECTOR in arms about Hecker’s comment, and that caused large part, they’re just trying to make their own jobs Joseph Mitch l [email protected] PRODUCTION INTERN them to reflect that upon his current work. Hecker interesting for themselves. And if they don’t get good Tom Curtis got upset and felt the media took it the wrong way. information, you don’t get a good story. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS The media in turn got defensive, saying “Well, he said The press is great for getting the word out Jesse Harlin Steve Theodore it!” This cycle repeats itself frequently. about your game, and if you give them the right John Graham information, they respond well. But no matter what, Dave Mark Soren Johnson WHO’S TO BLAME? if you say something like “Yeah, we really hate Damion Schubert » No one party is at fault, here. It has always been our publisher, but we’ve got to work with them, oh ADVISORY BOARD in the nature of journalism to sum things up in well,” that’s probably going to wind up being more Hal Barwood Designer-at-Large Mick West Independent headlines. Historically, the town crier was going to interesting than a statement about how the game Brad Bulkley Neversoft scream, “Troy falls!” even if the story is a lot deeper. now has 25 guns instead of 20. Clinton Keith Independent Brenda Brathwaite Lolapps It’s only when the crowd gathers that the full story Of course, those controversial statements Bijan Forutanpour Sony Online Entertainment is told. Similarly, the headline of a story draws the the press has gleaned can turn into precisely the Mark DeLoura THQ reader in, and the body text should provide contest. scenario Hecker found himself in—feeling like his Carey Chico Independent The trouble comes when the body text doesn’t give intent was removed from the final stories. ADVERTISING SALES enough context, or when the developer feels as The worst possible outcome is that developers GLOBAL SALES DIRECTOR though their point was actually quite different from will feel like they can’t say anything interesting for Aaron Murawski e: [email protected] what was finally presented. fear that it may be twisted into something other t: 415.947.6227 MEDIA ACCOUNT MANAGER There’s also the issue of our current fast-paced than what they intended. I think transparency and John Malik Watson e: [email protected] news environment. Blogs are reporting things a mile honesty is good for our industry, and I would hate t: 415.947.6224 per minute. Even the Associated Press is running “quick for people to live in fear of getting information out. If GLOBAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, RECRUITMENT Gina Gross e: [email protected] sketch” versions of stories, replete with inaccuracies, developers were afraid to share information publicly, t: 415.947.6241 bad journalism, and typos, in order to get something— where would our industry be? Certainly a magazine GLOBAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, EDUCATION anything—up before the blogs get to it. About 15 like this one would not be able to exist. Rafael Vallin e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6223 minutes later, you’ll see that same story a bit more refined, with better journalism and better grammar. SAY WHAT YOU MEAN, MEAN WHAT YOU SAY ADVERTISING PRODUCTION This necessity for speed has both created and In Hecker’s case, he was giving a talk at GDC, which PRODUCTION MANAGER » Pete C. Scibilia e: [email protected] been inspired by a new generation of information a lot of journalists attend. His rant was planned, and t: 516-562-5134 enthusiasts who feel they have grasped the entirety he knew what he was saying. He had already had of a concept based on a couple of paragraphs. This has experience with inflammatory statements (specifically REPRINTS led to a whole lot of people not really reading articles about the Wii) being taken poorly, but made the WRIGHT'S MEDIA Ryan Pratt e: [email protected] very far past the headline, or first few sentences, decision to joke about the Wii being sub-par once more. t: 877.652.5295 before coming to a conclusion about a piece. I think the outcome of that should be pretty clear to And I think most people know that if they say anyone. It’s not "wrong "to say the Wii is a piece of shit, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT TYSON ASSOCIATES Elaine Tyson something particularly controversial, it’s going to if that’s what you think. But you have to own it. e: [email protected] get reported by someone, somewhere. The illusion My conclusion is that developers should of LIST RENTAL Merit Direct LLC of privacy or closed circles has been shattered. Even course be able to say whatever they want—but t: 914.368.1000 Big Brother has had to wake up to this reality with the choose your words carefully, as you might when MARKETING advent of WikiLeaks.