Game Developers Conference Europe Wrap, New Women’S Group Forms, Licensed to Steal Super Genre Break Out, and More
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>> PRODUCT REVIEWS SPEEDTREE RT 1.7 * SPACEPILOT OCTOBER 2005 THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE >>POSTMORTEM >>WALKING THE PLANK >>INNER PRODUCT ART & ARTIFICE IN DANIEL JAMES ON DEBUG? RELEASE? RESIDENT EVIL 4 CASUAL MMO GOLD LET’S DEVELOP! Thanks to our publishers for helping us create a new world of video games. GameTapTM and many of the video game industry’s leading publishers have joined together to create a new world where you can play hundreds of the greatest games right from your broadband-connected PC. It’s gaming freedom like never before. START PLAYING AT GAMETAP.COM TM & © 2005 Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. A Time Warner Company. Patent Pending. All Rights Reserved. GTP1-05-116-104_mstrA_v2.indd 1 9/7/05 10:58:02 PM []CONTENTS OCTOBER 2005 VOLUME 12, NUMBER 9 FEATURES 11 TOP 20 PUBLISHERS Who’s the top dog on the publishing block? Ranked by their revenues, the quality of the games they release, developer ratings, and other factors pertinent to serious professionals, our annual Top 20 list calls attention to the definitive movers and shakers in the publishing world. 11 By Tristan Donovan 21 INTERVIEW: A PIRATE’S LIFE What do pirates, cowboys, and massively multiplayer online games have in common? They all have Daniel James on their side. CEO of Three Rings, James’ mission has been to create an addictive MMO (or two) that has the pick-up-put- down rhythm of a casual game. In this interview, James discusses the barriers to distributing and charging for such 21 games, the beauty of the web, and the trouble with executables. POSTMORTEM By Brandon Sheffield 26 THE GRAPHICAL STYLING OF RESIDENT EVIL 4 34 DEBUG AND RELEASE Innovative camera use, more immersive cutscenes, and life-like Using debug and release modes at character expressions are just one part of the layer of freshness for various stages of development has been the long-standing series of survival-horror games. Accompanied by the staple method for longer than many detailed figures and other imagery from the game, Yoshiaki of us can remember. It’s high time we Hirabayashi shares the history of how Capcom Japan put RESIDENT questioned why we use them and if there EVIL’s renaissance together. is a better way. 34 By Yoshiaki Hirabayashi By Mick West DEPARTMENTS COLUMNS 2 GAME PLAN By Simon Carless 37 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore [ART] Top Cat Pencil Whipped 4 HEADS UP DISPLAY 40 BUSINESS LEVEL By Riley Russell [BUSINESS] Game Developers Conference Europe wrap, new women’s group forms, Licensed to Steal super genre break out, and more. 41 GAME SHUI By Noah Falstein [DESIGN] 7 SKUNK WORKS By Tom Carroll and Spencer Lindsay Negative Feedback IDV Inc.’s SpeedTreeRT 1.7 and 3Dconnexion’s SpacePilot 42 AURAL FIXATION By Alexander Brandon [SOUND] 72 A THOUSAND WORDS Bring the Noise Ubisoft’s PETER JACKSON’S KING KONG 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] ASSISTANT EDITOR Brandon Sheffield [email protected] ART DIRECTOR Cliff Scorso [email protected] CONTRIBUTING EDITORS TOP CAT Alexander Brandon [email protected] 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 AS YOU MAY WELL HAVE NOTICED FROM THE STAR Ellen Guon Beeman Monolith George Sanger Big Fat Inc. Andy Gavin Naughty Dog Harvey Smith Midway design on the cover, 12 months have slowly USUAL SUSPECTS Joby Otero Luxoflux Paul Steed Microsoft ticked over, and it’s now time for the third annual We’re firing on all cylinders through the rest of ADVERTISING SALES Game Developer Top 20 Publishers issue. Our the magazine, with Heads Up Display wrapping NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Afton Thatcher e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6217 yearly round-up of who’s top in the world of up the proceedings of Game Developers SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER, EAST COAST, EUROPE & EASTERN CANADA game publishing—based on not only revenue, Conference Europe, regular art, design, and Ayrien Machiran e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6224 ACCOUNT MANAGER, SO. CALIF., SOUTH WEST, CONTRACTORS & MARKETPLACE but also release SKU numbers, average review business columns, and Ubisoft’s PETER JACKSON’S Susan Kirby e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6226 scores, and anonymous feedback—paints a KING KONG cutting a swagger as part of our ACCOUNT MANAGER, NO. CALIF., NORTH WEST, ASIA & WESTERN CANADA Nick Geist e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6223 fascinating portrait of who’s hot and who’s Thousand Words art feature. ACCOUNT MANAGER, GLOBAL RECRUITMENT/EDUCATION & TEXAS hottest in the game publishing biz. And, well ... In addition, we have a new face on The Inner Aaron Murawski e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6227 ADVERTISING PRODUCTION we won’t say anything else. Let’s just let the Product: Mick West, a co-founder of TONY HAWK’S ADVERTISING PRODUCTION ADVERTISING PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Kevin Chanel rankings speak for themselves. PRO SKATER creator Neversoft, who, in his REPRINTS Julie Rapp e: [email protected] t: 510.834.4752 inaugural code column, discusses the problems GAME GROUP MARKETING PRESIDENT ELVIS of debug and release modes for game build DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS STRATEGY Michele Maguire DIRECTOR OF MARKETING Tara C. Gibb As for a postmortem to go alongside our special configurations, and intriguingly argues that they DIRECTOR OF MARKETING Tara C. Gibb CMPMARKETING GAME GROUP MANAGER Kathleen Cheng Top 20 Publishers feature, we’ve managed to should be replaced by a single configuration— VP, GROUP PUBLISHER APPLIED TECHNOLOGIES Philip Chapnick CMP GAME GROUP grab Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, the lead cinematics develop mode—that should be used at all stages VP,CONFERENCE GROUP PUBLISHER DIRECTOR, APPLIED GDC Jamil TECHNOLOGIES Moledina Philip Chapnick director on Capcom’s critically acclaimed RESIDENT of development. CONFERENCEASSOCIATE CONFERENCE DIRECTOR, GDCDIRECTOR,Jamil MoledinaGDC Susan Marshall EXECUTIVE WEB PRODUCER Peter Leahy EVIL 4, to discuss some of the efforts that went ASSOCIATE CONFERENCE DIRECTOR, GDC Susan Marshall EXECUTIVEEDITOR, GAMASUTRA.COM WEB PRODUCERSimonPeter Carless Leahy into fashioning one of the best looking SITTING IN A TREE EDITOR,FEATURES GAMASUTRA.COM EDITOR, GAMASUTRA.COMSimon CarlessQuang Hong GameCube titles of all time. Finally, a rumination on an old friend. Since we in CIRCULATIONFEATURES EDITOR, GAMASUTRA.COM Quang Hong Particularly focusing on the improved the Game Developer office grabbed copies of CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Kevin Regan e: [email protected] CIRCULATION ASSISTANT MANAGER Jessica Ward e: [email protected] graphical development workflow, facial NINTENDOGS and ADVANCE WARS DS, we’ve been CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Kevin Regan e: [email protected] CIRCULATION ASSISTANTCOORDINATOR MANAGERMiguel JessicaMendiolaza Ward e: e: [email protected]@cmp.com animation advances, and skillful use of real-time happily humming a “we love Nintendo’s first- CIRCULATION COORDINATORASSISTANT MichaelMiguel Campbell Mendiolaza e: [email protected] e: [email protected] cutscenes in the chilling ratcheting-up of the party games” tune. But, unfortunately, this CIRCULATION ASSISTANT MichaelAdrea Abidor Campbell e: [email protected] e: [email protected] sometimes sedate RESIDENT EVIL franchise, seems to be just about the only tune it’s possible SUBSCRIPTIONCIRCULATION ASSISTANT SERVICES Adrea Abidor e: [email protected] SUBSCRIPTIONFOR INFORMATION, SERVICES ORDER QUESTIONS, AND ADDRESS CHANGES Hirabayashi reveals the workings of a title that’s to hum when playing Nintendo consoles. t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606 e: [email protected] FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND ADDRESS CHANGES currently rated as one of the top five games of all Although you might know better than I whether INTERNATIONALt: 800.250.2429 LICENSING f: 847.763.9606 INFORMATIONe: [email protected] Mario Salinas time at GameRankings.com. NINTENDOGS will be as much of a phenomenon as INTERNATIONAL LICENSING INFORMATION e: [email protected] t: 650.513.4234 f: 650.513.4482 its currently sold-out status seems to imply, the Mario Salinas CMPe: [email protected] MEDIA MANAGEMENTt: 650.513.4234 f: 650.513.4482 TALK! BANG! PIRATES! DS, and particularly the thus-far mysterious PRESIDENT AND CEO, Gary Marshall CMP MEDIA MANAGEMENT We thought it was about time to feature another Revolution, seem again to be setting Nintendo on PRESIDENTEXECUTIVE VPAND & CEO,CFO, GaryJohn MarshallDay in-depth interview, and this time around we’ve an island all its own when it comes to development EXECUTIVE VP &AND CFO, COO, John Steve Day Weitzner chosen someone a little different: Daniel James, community outreach. EXECUTIVE VP,VP ANDCORPORATE COO, Steve SALES Weitzner & MARKETING, Jeff Patterson EXECUTIVE VP, CORPORATEHUMAN RESOURCES, SALES & MARKETING,Leah Landro Jeff Patterson founder and CEO of Three Rings Design, a San When even long-time Nintendo second-party EXECUTIVECHIEF INFORMATION VP, HUMAN OFFICER, RESOURCES, Mike Mikos Leah Landro Francisco-based developer and operator of MMO developers, such as Factor 5, have transitioned to CHIEFSENIOR INFORMATION VP, OPERATIONS, OFFICER, Bill Amstutz Mike Mikos games for the mass-market casual audience. working on PlayStation 3 games, isn’t it true that SENIOR VP, OPERATIONS,CMP INTEGRATED Bill Amstutz MARKETING SOLUTIONS, Joseph Braue SENIOR VP AND GENERAL COUNSEL, Sandra Grayson Three Rings’ independently