>> BOOK REVIEW MEL SCRIPTING FOR MAYA ANIMATORS DECEMBER 2005 THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE >>TOO HOT FOR YOU >>FUTURE OF FLOW >>GAIJIN ATTACK COMPARING RATINGS ART PIPELINES FOR BUSINESS SMARTS FOR AS GAMES MATURE NEXT-GEN CONSOLES EASTERN PROMISE POSTMORTEM: NAMCO’s PAC-MAN DISPLAY UNTIL JANUARY 16, 2006 Havok games Xbox360 Games Current Gen Games Amped 3 Swat 4 NBA Live 06 Half-Life 2 Condemned: Criminal Origins Halo 2 The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Mercenaries The Outfit Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault Perfect Dark Zero Medal of Honor: European Assault Saint’s Row Max Payne 2 Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks and 40+ more next-gen AstroBoy titles in development... Full Spectrum Warrior Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon 2 The Matrix: Path of Neo Marvel Nemesis Painkiller FEAR Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6: Lockdown Darkwatch Destroy All Humans and the list goes on... Supposed Competitor Uhhh . one PC game. Can you even name it? The World’s Best Developers Turn to Havok Stay Ahead of the Game!TM []CONTENTS DECEMBER 2005 VOLUME 12, NUMBER 11 FEATURES 11 RATED AND WILLING As video game violence turns more and more heads as a hot-button issue, it has become clear that the majority of the anti- video game lobby, and indeed a portion of the development community, is under- informed about just how the ratings systems work for games. In this feature, we dissect the ratings systems across four major territories—the U.S., the U.K., Germany, and Australia—to give a better impression of how the ratings board work to keep games in the right hands. 11 By Paul Hyman 19 ART PIPELINE PHILOSOPHIES FOR THE NEXT GENERATION: A TECHNICAL ART DIRECTOR’S PERSPECTIVE As the next generation of systems unroll, game development will change forever. Fears of bigger budgets, larger teams and dispersed control could run wild, but as with POSTMORTEM any industry, the key for each individual is to work smarter, not harder. Rod Green 26 DESIGNING PAC-MAN outlines some techniques for next Twenty-five years have passed since the dawn of PAC-MAN. Though the generation art pipelines that could save game and its lovable hero represent the first iconic presence in games, time and money as your team takes that big 19 the PAC-MAN symbol continues to emerge on new platforms, offering new step into the next generation. iterations of the original gameplay. Now, 25 years since its birth, seems By Rod Green an appropriate time to catch up with Toru Iwatani, PAC-MAN’s creator, to get a long-overdue postmortem of the original game. As a bonus, Game Developer’s editors have written a third-party postmortem of the entire franchise, trying to pin down PAC-MAN’s continuing appeal. By Toru Iwatani and Simon Carless DEPARTMENTS COLUMNS 2 GAME PLAN By Simon Carless 32 BUSINESS LEVEL By Bill Swartz [BUSINESS] Clyde Says Hi Navigating Japan 4 HEADS UP DISPLAY 33 THE INNER PRODUCT By Mick West [PROGRAMMING] Austin Games Conference, Serious Games Summit, and more Practical Hash IDs 7 SKUNK WORKS By Tom Carroll and Kelby Fuchs 36 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore [ART] MEL Scripting for Maya Animators, second edition Anatomy for Animators Part II 48 A THOUSAND WORDS 38 AURAL FIXATION By Alexander Brandon [SOUND] Electronic Arts’ JAMES BOND 007: FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE Minimal Themes 39 GAME SHUI By Noah Falstein [DESIGN] Rules of Interest COVER ART: DEREK YU 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 CMP Media, 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94107 t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090 EDITORIAL EDITOR EDITORIALSimon Carless [email protected] EDITOR MANAGINGSimon Carless [email protected] Jill Duffy [email protected] MANAGING EDITOR ASSISTANTJill Duffy EDITOR [email protected] Brandon Sheffield [email protected] ARTASSISTANT DIRECTOR EDITOR CliffBrandon Scorso Sheffield [email protected] [email protected] CONTRIBUTINGART DIRECTOR EDITORS AlexanderCliff Scorso Brandon [email protected] [email protected] CLYDE SAYS HI CONTRIBUTINGNoah Falstein [email protected] SteveAlexander Theodore Brandon [email protected] [email protected] MickNoah West Falstein [email protected] [email protected] ADVISORYSteve Theodore BOARD [email protected] Mick West [email protected] Hal Barwood Designer-at-Large Dave Pottinger Ensemble Studios ADVISORYEllen Guon BOARD Beeman Monolith George Sanger Big Fat Inc. AndyHal Barwood Gavin Naughty Designer-at-Large Dog HarveyDave Pottinger Smith Midway Ensemble Studios A LITTLE YELLOW PILL-CHOMPING GUY HAS BEEN Second, Mastiff’s “head woof” Bill Swartz, an JobyEllen OteroGuon BeemanLuxoflux Monolith PaulGeorge Steed Sanger Microsoft Big Fat Inc. Andy Gavin Naughty Dog Harvey Smith Midway featured in video games for an almost unbelievable Activision Japan veteran, takes the opportunity in ADVERTISINGJoby Otero Luxoflux SALES Paul Steed Microsoft NATIONAL SALES MANAGER quarter of a century. As you might have spotted a Business Level column to muse on why many ADVERTISINGAfton Thatcher SALES e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6217 from the cover, this esteemed personage would Western publishers and businesspeople are SENIORDIRECTOR ACCOUNT OF SALES MANAGER, EAST COAST, EUROPE & EASTERN CANADA be PAC-MAN, whose immense arcade success in convinced that Japan is an entirely culturally AyrienAfton Thatcher Machiran e: e:[email protected]@cmp.comt:t:415.947.6217415.947.6224 SENIORACCOUNT ACCOUNT MANAGER, MANAGER, SO. CALIF., EAST SOUTH COAST, WEST, EUROPE CONTRACTORS, & EASTERN & MARKETPLACE CANADA 1980 helped to kick-start the modern video alien landscape, and how this affects the way AyrienSusan Kirby Machiran e: [email protected] e: [email protected]: 415.947.6226t: 415.947.6224 game craze. business gets done in the East. Swartz does a ACCOUNT MANAGER,MANAGER, NO. SO. CALIF., CALIF., NORTHWEST, SOUTH WEST, ASIA CONTRACTORS, & WESTERN CANADA & MARKETPLACENick Geist e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6223 To pay tribute, we’ve managed to get a special good job of explaining why we should listen ACCOUNTSusan Kirby MANAGER, e: [email protected] GLOBAL RECRUITMENT/EDUCATIONt: 415.947.6226 & TEXAS postmortem for the original PAC-MAN written by its carefully, look sharp, and in particular, hire a good ACCOUNTAaron Murawski MANAGER, e: [email protected] NO. CALIF., NORTHWEST,t: 415.947.6227 ASIA & WESTERN CANADA creator, Namco’s Toru Iwatani. Iwatani talks lovingly interpreter, to avoid tragic loss of nuance. ADVERTISINGNick Geist e: [email protected] PRODUCTION t: 415.947.6223 ACCOUNTADVERTISING MANAGER, PRODUCTION GLOBAL COORDINATOR RECRUITMENT/EDUCATION Kevin Chanel & TEXAS about his goals when designing the title, the trials REPRINTSAaron MurawskiJulie Rapp e: [email protected] e: [email protected] t: 510.834.4752t: 415.947.6227 and tribulations of development, influences, and KAISER SOZE GAMEADVERTISINGGROUP PRODUCTION MARKETING the title’s effect on the gaming landscape. To back Elsewhere in the magazine, this month’s art page, ADVERTISINGDIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION BUSINESS COORDINATOR STRATEGY Michele Kevin Maguire Chanel REPRINTSDirector of JulieMarketing Rapp Tarae: [email protected] C. Gibb t: 510.834.4752 this up, the Game Developer editors have weighed A Thousand Words, looks to Electronic Arts’ FROM GAME GROUP MARKETING in with our own postmortem of the PAC-MAN RUSSIA WITH LOVE, replete with a suave Sean CMP GAME GROUP VP,DIRECTOR GROUP OF PUBLISHER BUSINESS APPLIED STRATEGY TECHNOLOGIESMichele MaguirePhilip Chapnick franchise in the 25 years since it started. What Connery and slinky new Bond girls. In addition, CONFERENCEDIRECTOR OF DIRECTOR,MARKETING GDC TaraJamil C. Gibb Moledina went wonderfully right? What went horribly the Heads Up Display news section rounds up two CMPASSOCIATE GAME CONFERENCE GROUP DIRECTOR, GDC Susan Marshall wrong? We take an objective look (pg. 26). important recent shows—the Austin Game SENIOREXECUTIVE VP, WEBGROUP PRODUCER DIRECTOR,Peter APPLIED Leahy TECHNOLOGIES Philip Chapnick CONFERENCEEDITOR, GAMASUTRA.COM DIRECTOR JamilSimon Moledina Carless Conference and Serious Games Summit—in case FEATURES EDITOR, GAMASUTRA.COM Quang Hong you missed out and would like to know what all CONFERENCE MANAGER Evelyn Donis RATE MY GAME? EXECUTIVECIRCULATION WEB PRODUCER Peter Leahy This month’s feature from Paul Hyman (pg. 11) the fuss is about. EDITOR,CIRCULATION GAMASUTRA.COM DIRECTOR KevinSimon Regan Carless e: [email protected] looks in detail at video game ratings, following a FEATURESCIRCULATION EDITOR, ASSISTANT GAMASUTRA.COMManager JessicaQuang Ward Hong e: [email protected] CIRCULATION COORDINATOR Miguel Mendiolaza e: [email protected] not-insignificant amount of controversy in the CIRCULATION JACKSON VS. ANCEL CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Michael Campbell e: [email protected] CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Kevin Regan e: [email protected] mainstream press over how games are rated in Talking of fuss, a lot of the pre-Christmas critical CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Adrea Abidor e: [email protected] CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Manager Jessica Ward e: [email protected] North America. Rather than snapping to any interest we’re seeing is focused on Ubisoft’s PETER CIRCULATIONSUBSCRIPTION COORDINATOR SERVICES Miguel Mendiolaza e: [email protected] decisions, we thought it would be a good idea to JACKSON’S KING KONG. But there’s something in here CIRCULATIONFOR INFORMATION, ASSISTANT ORDERMichael QUESTIONS, Campbell e: [email protected] ADDRESS CHANGES t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606 e: [email protected] investigate exactly