Game Developers and Publishers Are Using to Make Their Businesses Profitable, from Popcap to Yahoo! Games
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>> PRODUCT REVIEW AUTODESK 3DS MAX 8 SOFTWARE FEBRUARY 2006 THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE >>STATE OF THE INDUSTRY >> SIT! SPEAK! DEVELOP! >>DEMOLICIOUS DERBY CASUAL GAMES AND MAKING JAK X WITH A CORNUCOPIA OF TRIAL THE MASS MARKET NAUGHTY DOG DISCIPLINE TOOLS FOR ARTISTS POSTMORTEM: THE BUZZ ON HARMONIX’S GUITAR HERO Physics. Animation. Behaviors. Tools. Integrated. physics Why wrestle bringing your next-generation characters to life? animation behaviors Stay Ahead of the Game!TM []CONTENTS FEBRUARY 2006 VOLUME 13, NUMBER 2 FEATURES 9 STATE OF THE INDUSTRY: CASUAL GAMES The casual games market is expanding rapidly, and so too are its associated business practices. In this market overview, Paul Hyman investigates some of the current and future-leaning tactics 9 that casual game developers and publishers are using to make their businesses profitable, from PopCap to Yahoo! Games. By Paul Hyman 17 FROM SMART TO FINISH: JAK X: COMBAT RACING AND THE NAUGHTY DOG PRODUCTION METHOD JAK X: COMBAT RACING found Naughty Dog working in a new arena. The developer had never before made a combat racer, beyond small elements in previous JAK titles. So how did they go from concept to finished product in a relatively short time, in an area slightly outside their comfort zone, with features they’d never POSTMORTEM before attempted? The answers lie within. 24 THE BUZZ ON HARMONIX’S GUITAR HERO By Richard Lemarchand Peripheral-based games are often a risky gamble. But partnering with the right publisher, utilizing a mature code base, and having the right staff for the job allowed Harmonix to come out with the critically lauded, consumer-embraced GUITAR HERO in just nine months. Knowing how to rock didn’t hurt either! 17 By Greg LoPiccolo and Daniel Sussman DEPARTMENTS COLUMNS 2 GAME PLAN By Simon Carless 30 THE INNER PRODUCT By Mick West [PROGRAMMING] Hero to Most Multi-core Processors 4 HEADS UP DISPLAY 33 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore [ART] Independent Games Festival finalists announced, CES event wrap-up, Demolicious Derby Nintendo’s DS sails in Japan, and more. 36 AURAL FIXATION By guest columnist Jesse Harlin [SOUND] 6 SKUNK WORKS By Ronnie Ashlock Q/A for Audio Autodesk 3ds Max 8 software 38 GAME SHUI By Noah Falstein [DESIGN] 48 A THOUSAND WORDS When the Hunter Becomes the Hunted NinjaBee’s OUTPOST KALOKI X 40 BUSINESS LEVEL By Clarinda Merripen [BUSINESS] Maximizing Operations COVER ART: RYAN LESSER, HARMONIX WWW.GDMAG.COM 1 GAME PLAN [] www.gdmag.com CMP Media, 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94107 t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090 EDITORIAL EDITOR Simon Carless [email protected] MANAGING EDITOR Jill Duffy [email protected] ASSOCIATE EDITOR Brandon Sheffield [email protected] ART DIRECTOR Cliff Scorso [email protected] CONTRIBUTING EDITORS HERO TO MOST Alexander Brandon [email protected] Noah Falstein [email protected] Steve Theodore [email protected] Mick West [email protected] ADVISORY BOARD Hal Barwood Designer-at-Large Dave Pottinger Ensemble Studios THIS MONTH’S GAME DEVELOPER IS, WELL, NOT written an eloquent piece on how his team made Ellen Guon Beeman Monolith George Sanger Big Fat Inc. afraid to rock out a little, as you can see by the JAK X: COMBAT RACING in just 10 months, from full Andy Gavin Naughty Dog Harvey Smith Midway jaunty cover, which features a postmortem of production start to gold master. Given the genre Joby Otero Luxoflux Paul Steed Microsoft Harmonix’s PlayStation 2 mainstream rock switch from action platform to combat racing and ADVERTISING SALES NATIONAL SALES MANAGER phenomenon, GUITAR HERO. GUITAR HERO has been the short timescale, Lemarchand lays out for Afton Thatcher e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6217 consistently eulogized since its release late last fellow developers the production methods that SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER, EAST COAST, EUROPE & EASTERN CANADA year, and received a significant number of votes in allowed them to complete the title so quickly to Ayrien Machiran e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6224 ACCOUNT MANAGER, NO. CALIF., NORTHWEST, ASIA & WESTERN CANADA sister site Gamasutra’s best games of 2005 survey. significant success without using time travel—or Nick Geist e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6223 To play devil’s advocate for a moment, why does so he claims. ACCOUNT MANAGER, GLOBAL RECRUITMENT/EDUCATION & TEXAS GUITAR HERO particularly matter? It’s just another Aaron Murawski e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6227 of those darned rhythm games—isn’t it?—except ADVERTISING PRODUCTION FEE, FI, FO, FUM ADVERTISING PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Kevin Chanel with that guitar controller and a few more bands Of course, that’s not all. Among the other highlights REPRINTS Julie Rapp e: [email protected] t: 510.834.4752 that we’ve heard of. is another casual/indie game, NinjaBee’s OUTPOST GAME GROUP MARKETING No, no, and no. One thing that games forget to KALOKI X for Xbox 360 Live Arcade, showing off in DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS STRATEGY Michele Maguire be is culturally appropriate, and, at least for the the A Thousand Words art showcase, and a host of DIRECTOR OF MARKETING Tara C. Gibb Western market, GUITAR HERO has caught the regular columnists making themselves known on CMP GAME GROUP zeitgeist dead on. some intriguing topics. VP, GROUP PUBLISHER APPLIED TECHNOLOGIES Philip Chapnick CONFERENCE DIRECTOR, GDC Jamil Moledina If you add classic rock poster artwork, actually Programmer columnist Mick West writes this SENIOR CONFERENCE MANAGER, GDC Meggan Scavio skillful cover versions to riff against, plus careful, month on multi-core processors. Artist Steve EXECUTIVE WEB PRODUCER Peter Leahy not overly intricate note-picking—which really Theodore covers how to delve smartly into art tool EDITOR, GAMASUTRA.COM Simon Carless makes you feel like you’re Jimi (or Eric, or Lemmy)— evaluation versions. Plus, Noah Falstein’s design FEATURES EDITOR, GAMASUTRA.COM Quang Hong then you’re in the money. It’s not about how clinically page looks at “the hunter and the hunted,” and CIRCULATION games are created so much as the way they make guest columnist Jesse Harlin of LucasArts CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Kevin Regan e: [email protected] CIRCULATION ASSISTANT MANAGER Jessica Ward e: [email protected] you feel, and the folks at Harmonix explain how provides a special discourse on Q/A practices for CIRCULATION COORDINATOR Miguel Mendiolaza e: [email protected] they make us feel real good (see pg. 24). audio—a great subject that’s often underplayed in CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Michael Campbell e: [email protected] even large studios. CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Andrea Abidor e: [email protected] CASUAL WHISTLING SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES A general theme for this issue is the widening of DS: DOMINATION SITUATION? FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND ADDRESS CHANGES the game market, something that’s readily For one reason or another, a number of my recent t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606 e: [email protected] INTERNATIONAL LICENSING INFORMATION apparent in GUITAR HERO. Feature writer Paul editorials have mentioned Nintendo in some Mario Salinas Hyman, however, takes a look at one of the areas fashion, and this one is no exception. The t: 650.513.4234 f: 650.513.4482 e: [email protected] that’s widening the fastest in his “State of the Nintendo DS’s Christmas handheld domination of CMP MEDIA MANAGEMENT Industry” report on casual games (pg. 9). From the Japanese hardware and software charts PRESIDENT & CEO Steve Weitzner Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Live Arcade, all the way to (Heads Up Display, pg. 4) is cause for both remark EXECUTIVE VP & CFO John Day EXECUTIVE VP, CORPORATE SALES & MARKETING Jeff Patterson major PC portals such as Yahoo! Games and and fascination. For those who haven’t been SENIOR VP, AUDIENCE MARKETING AND DEVELOPMENT Bill Amstutz notable casual game creators and publishers, gazing glassy-eyed at Media Create’s Japanese SENIOR VP, INTERNET BUSINESS Mike Azzara such as PopCap and PlayFirst, Hyman looks at charts recently, Nintendo’s conquering of the SENIOR VP, CMP INTEGRATED MARKETING SOLUTIONS Joseph Braue where the casual game is positioned and where sales market has been practically unprecedented. SENIOR VP & GENERAL COUNSEL Sandra Grayson SENIOR VP, CORPORATE SALES Anne Marie Miller it’s headed, as the market is predicted to But here’s the big question: Could the more SENIOR VP, MANUFACTURING Marie Myers skyrocket over the next few years. extreme market widening that the Nintendo DS SENIOR VP, COMMUNICATIONS Alexandra Raine The casual games market isn’t the only one has prompted in Japan ever happen in the West, SENIOR VP, CORPORATE MARKETING Kate Spellman challenging how we define “player,” “gamer,” or where currently, the DS and PSP are much closer VP, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Michael Zane even “game.” The Independent Games Festival, to being evenly matched? To a certain extent, a PRESIDENT, CHANNEL GROUP Robert Faletra PRESIDENT, CMP ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA Tony Keefe awarded each March at GDC, recognizes greater market was reached for NINTENDOGS, but as PRESIDENT, CMP HEALTHCARE MEDIA Vicki Masseria independent developers and their creations, which the BRAIN TRAINING games start launching in the SENIOR VP, GROUP DIRECTOR ELECTRONICS & continue to experiment and innovate in delightful U.S. and Europe over the next few months, we’ll SOFTWARE GROUPS Paul Miller ways. Game Developer applauds the finalists in a find out whether Nintendo’s world domination SENIOR VP, ENTERPRISE GROUP Fritz Nelson SENIOR VP, GROUP DIRECTOR COMMUNICATIONS GROUP mini showcase in our news section (pg. 5). plans really span the entire globe. Stephen Saunders RECALCITRANT CANINE We’re also very proud to feature an article by Richard Lemarchand, game director at Naughty Game Developer Dog (CRASH BANDICOOT and JAK & DAXTER) who has Simon Carless, editor is BPA approved 2 FEBRUARY 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER WWW.CMPGAME.COM [HEADS UP DISPLAY] GOT NEWS? SEND US THE BIG SCOOP AT [email protected] MOBILE DEVELOPMENT HITS CES OTHER INDUSTRY PRESENCE FLAGGING AT MASSIVE CONSUMER EXPO ONCE HAILED AS THE WORLD’S PREMIERE Xbox 360 might create showcase for video games, industry presence at a solid market for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has been on creative, low-budget a sharp decline since the advent of a game- games.