>>PRODUCT REVIEWS LUXOLOGY’S MODO 202 * DARWIN DIMENSIONS’ EVOLVER
NOVEMBER 2006
THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE
>>LUCK IN GAMES >>SURFACE TENSION >>LOOKING ASKANCE RICHARD GARFIELD ON PHYSICS TO FLOAT ARTISTS: FEAR NOT THE RANDOMIZING FUN YOUR GAME’S BOAT RISE OF THE SCANNERS
POSTMORTEM: DESIGNING DEATHWALK FOR PREY
[]CONTENTS NOVEMBER 2006 VOLUME 13, NUMBER 10
FEATURES
11 GETTING LUCKY Many video games diminish the importance of luck, as it’s often considered the opposite of skill. Magic: The Gathering creator and game design legend Richard Garfield ponders the benefits of adding an ounce of luck to computer game titles. By Richard Garfield
21 GO WITH THE FLOW The world of game physics is advancing, but water dynamics can be difficult to pin down. Two pros from Resolution Interactive show us how to use science to make better water and liquid simulations, which in turn can lead to more immersive gameplay. 30 By Erik Winter and Matti Larsson
POSTMORTEM
30 CREEPING DEATH: DESIGNING THE DEATHWALK SYSTEM IN 3D REALMS’ AND HUMAN HEAD STUDIOS’ PREY The creators of PREY, the first-person shooter game from 3D Realms and Human Head Studios, hope you never die—so much so that they’ve built a system that nearly prevents that ghastly act from ever ripping game players from the heat of the action again. Twelve-year game veteran Chris Rhinehart unravels the numerous strategies the 11 21 team employed before they were able to pull this trick off. By Chris Rhinehart
DEPARTMENTS COLUMNS
2 GAME PLAN By Simon Carless 37 BUSINESS LEVEL By Pat Christen [BUSINESS] Right of Reply Serious Expectations
4 HEADS UP DISPLAY 39 THE INNER PRODUCT By Mick West [PROGRAMMING] TGS and GDC London reports, Trion forms, Nintendo announces Stylus Control LiveMode, and more. 42 GAME SHUI By Noah Falstein [DESIGN] 7 SKUNK WORKS By David March and Tom Carroll Changing Brains Luxology’s modo 202 and Darwin Dimensions’ evolver 43 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore [ART] 56 A THOUSAND WORDS Through a Scanner Darkly Nippon Ichi Software’s DISGAEA 2 46 AURAL FIXATION By Jesse Harlin [SOUND] Be a Demo Dynamo COVER ART BY HUMAN HEAD STUDIOS
WWW.GDMAG.COM 1 GAME PLAN [] www.gdmag.com CMP Technology, 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94107 t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090
EDITORIAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Simon Carless [email protected] MANAGING EDITOR Jill Duffy [email protected] FEATURES EDITOR Brandon Sheffield [email protected] RIGHT OF ART DIRECTOR Cliff Scorso [email protected] CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Jesse Harlin [email protected] Noah Falstein [email protected] Steve Theodore [email protected] REPLY Mick West [email protected] ADVISORY BOARD Hal Barwood Designer-at-Large Dave Pottinger Ensemble Studios IT’S BEEN MORE THAN 10 YEARS SINCE GAME postmortems of recent months have been written Ellen Guon Beeman Microsoft George Sanger Big Fat Inc. Developer first hit gamemakers’ mailboxes. The by independent developers, who have let loose Andy Gavin Naughty Dog Harvey Smith Midway magazine, now run by CMP Technology under the with the unvarnished truth. We’re also pretty keen Joby Otero Luxoflux Paul Steed Microsoft erstwhile command of yours truly, has weathered on the postmortems that discuss one specific ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR OF SALES the storms of generational transitions and innovation in a game, such as this month’s Steve McGill e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6217 innumerable game hardware and software wars, investigation of DeathWalk, a feature in 3D GLOBAL SALES MANAGER, RECRUITMENT & EDUCATION all the while attempting to deliver inspirational Realms’ and Human Head’s PREY (pg. 30). Aaron Murawski e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6227 and motivational information to game developers But what universal truths are you trying to SR. ACCOUNT MANAGER, SOUTHWEST, CONTRACTORS, & MARKETPLACE Jasmin Davé e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6226 the world over. discern when reading a postmortem? When do ACCOUNT MANAGER, EAST COAST, U.K. & EASTERN CANADA But where will we be after 10 more years? you really care about what a postmortem has to Cecily Herbst e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6215 And how can we ensure we cover the right say? Would you rather read a good postmortem of ACCOUNT MANAGER, NO. CALIF., NORTHWEST, ASIA & WESTERN CANADA material for our extremely varied audience, a game you don’t know or an average one from a Nick Geist e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6223 while maintaining our wider readability? I’ve game you do? Comments are welcome. ADVERTISING PRODUCTION been mulling over this issue for some time and ADVERTISING PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Kevin Chanel REPRINTS Cindy Zauss e: [email protected] t: 516-562-5000 now seems like a good time to ask for more GAME DEVELOPER PLUS? Julie A. Douglas e: [email protected] t: 516.562.5092 feedback, since you are the people we make Finally, you may have noticed that the girth of CMP GAME GROUP the magazine for. Game Developer magazine fluctuates VP, GROUP PUBLISHER APPLIED TECHNOLOGIES Philip Chapnick significantly from month to month, depending VP, STRATEGIC MARKETING Michele Maguire STRIKING A BALANCE on what’s happening in the game world and DIRECTOR OF MARKETING Tara C. Gibb One thing we’ve been striving to get right over the what big show is approaching. CONFERENCE DIRECTOR, GDC Jamil Moledina past few years is the balance of articles that are Given the current state of the print market for SENIOR CONFERENCE MANAGER, GDC Meggan Scavio EXECUTIVE WEB PRODUCER Peter Leahy suitable for the many disciplines that make up consumer game magazines, we’re doing very well EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GAMASUTRA.COM Simon Carless video game development. Those with longer as a smaller professional trade magazine. It helps ASSISTANT EDITOR, GAMASUTRA.COM Frank Cifaldi memories may recall that Game Developer in the that we reach key decision-makers, too. CIRCULATION late 1990s was much closer to being a game Still, as long as you are an eligible North CIRCULATION COORDINATOR Miguel Mendiolaza e: [email protected] version of Dr. Dobbs’ Journal (another CMP American developer, you’re given the magazine CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Michael Campbell e: [email protected] publication), which is to say it was very technical for free, and this sometimes acts as a strike CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Andrea Abidor e: [email protected] and much more programming-focused. against the amount of editorial we’d like to run, SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES But as the make-up of the industry—and of due to the economics of our business model. And FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND ADDRESS CHANGES Game Developer readers—has broadened, and as occasionally, we daydream about alternatives: t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606 e: [email protected] artists, designers, and managers filed into our for instance, would you pay for an enhanced INTERNATIONAL LICENSING INFORMATION readership numbers, we realized that we needed version of the magazine with more editorial if a Mario Salinas t: 650.513.4234 f: 650.513.4482 e: [email protected] to counterbalance our technical pieces with free version were also still available? CMP TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT columns and features that discuss other matters. The more feedback we receive about Game PRESIDENT AND CEO Steve Weitzner EXECUTIVE VP AND CFO Adam Marder Trying to appeal to everyone is a tall order—but Developer—its content, presentation, circulation, SENIOR VP, AUDIENCE MARKETING & DEVELOPMENT Bill Amstutz what’s your take on it, readers? Would you prefer writers, contributors, and editors—the more SENIOR VP, CMP INTEGRATED MARKETING SOLUTIONS Joseph Braue fewer State of the Industry features and more options and insight we’ll have to deliver the best SENIOR VP AND GENERAL COUNSEL Sandra Grayson technical features? Are you yearning to read more material to our entire readership. SENIOR VP, CORPORATE MARKETING Lisa Johnson practical business analysis? What makes you We love Game Developer. We hope you do, too. SENIOR VP, CORPORATE SALES Anne Marie Miller turn the pages of Game Developer? And we want to find ways to continue to SENIOR VP, MANUFACTURING Marie Myers differentiate it, so that it’s just as fresh in 2016 SENIOR VP, COMMUNICATIONS Alexandra Raine VP, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Michael Zane years as it was in 1996. Send your thoughts to POSTMORTEM PATCH PRESIDENT, CHANNEL GROUP Robert Faletra If there’s one thing Game Developer is known for, [email protected]. We’ll appreciatively take PRESIDENT, CMP ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA Tony Keefe it’s the monthly postmortem articles that dissect them into account and perhaps print some in PRESIDENT, BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY GROUP Jeff Patterson the production of major games. But in today’s day forthcoming issues. * SENIOR VP, GROUP DIRECTOR, ELECTRONICS & SOFTWARE GROUPS and age, with PR agencies (most of whom we love Paul Miller dearly) carefully vetting articles to include SENIOR VP, GROUP DIRECTOR, COMMUNICATIONS GROUP, Stephen Saunders relatively positive spin, it’s sometimes tricky to acquire true, unmasked “what went wrong” admissions directly from developers. Simon Carless In fact, some of our most memorable Editor-In-Chief Game Developer is BPA approved
2 NOVEMBER 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER WWW.CMPGAME.COM B: 8 in T: 7.75 in S: 7 in B: 10.75 in T: 10.5 in S: 9.75 in
Idea: Assemble the ultimate team to create a John Woo sequel that you can play.
Realized: The line between video game and fi lm is offi cially blurred. When faced with the challenge of creating a video game sequel worthy of John Woo’s movie “Hard Boiled,” the team at Midway chose to use Autodesk® 3ds Max®, Autodesk Maya® and Autodesk MotionBuilder™. Using this 3D arsenal, artists are able to create graphically stunning characters, backgrounds and animations with amazing production effi ciency. Get the full story on this next-generation masterpiece at autodesk.com/stranglehold
Stranglehold © 2006 Midway Amusement Games, LLC. All rights reserved. Stranglehold, MIDWAY, and the Midway logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Midway Amusement Games, LLC. Autodesk, 3ds Max, Maya and MotionBuilder are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk re- serves the right to alter product offerings and specifi cations at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2006 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.
Job # 06.M&E.119B Description Stranglehold Single Page Last Modifi ed 8/15/06 3:23 PM User/Prev. User Chad Kukahiko / Ben Schneider Fonts Location Client Autodesk Art Director M.Boychuk Helvetica (Medium), Kievit (Medium, Regular) WD | Studio 02 Bleed 8 in x 10.75 in Studio Artist Benji FIERY-WDLA_Print
Tr im 7.75 in x 10.5 in Copy Writer T. Hamling Placed Graphics Inks Live 7 in x 9.75 in Account Mgr J.Spenchian LV1_119_Stranglehold.psd (CMYK; 275 ppi, 276 ppi; Cyan, Magenta, 152.3MB; 108.84%, 108.3%), L1_Stranglehold_Wire.
SETUP Yellow, Black,
Gutter None Traffi c R.Hill CONTENT tif (CMYK; 278 ppi, 280 ppi; 12.2MB; 107.65%, 2nd Black, PMS 193 CV, PERSONNEL 107.12%), L1_Stranglehold_Logo.psd (CMYK; 6252 PMS 1795 C Printout % 100 Production V.Speiser ppi; 7.9MB; 4.8%), L1_TigerHill_logo.psd (CMYK; Publication Game Developer (9/06) ROUND 3 / FINAL proof 1007 ppi; 1.8MB; 29.78%), L1_Midway2.eps (294KB),
WONGDOODY8500 Steller Drive, Ste. 5, Culver City, CA 90232 t: 310.280.7800 f: 310.280.7780
Southern 8432 Culver City FILE NAME: INDO1_119B_Stranglehold Californa California JOB NO CLIENT DESCRIPTION IMAGESETTER SCREEN PROOF # DATE TIME OPERATOR Steller 608175 Wong Doody FPS Autodesk Stranglehold 4/C Ad Game Developer Fuji proof 133 1 08-15-06 11:01 p m PC Graphics Drive 90232 BLACK CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW [HEADS UP DISPLAY]
GOT NEWS? SEND US THE BIG SCOOP AT [email protected] TOKYO RISING JAPANESE SHOW EXPLODES IN POST-E3 HAZE
THE THRONGS CRANE THEIR NECKS IN CHIBA games (such as GRAN prefecture’s Makuhari Messe to see the latest trailer TURISMO HD, LAIR, and 192,000 people flooded the Tokyo Game Show to lay their eyes on a PlayStation 3 mockup. for METAL GEAR SOLID 4, as others busily snap photos RESISTANCE: FALL OF of flyer-toting booth babes, while dodging hasty MAN) though, as the mockup unit on display was purchase of Xbox Live Arcade titles. These cards Western journalists, fighting in vain through the constantly surrounded by photographers. granted the user a mere 100 points, a token crushing crowds. The Tokyo Game Show is upon us Sony executives also announced a nearly 20 gesture, but a gesture nonetheless. Perhaps once again, and Sony, Microsoft, and to a lesser percent drop in price for the 20Gb-sporting system reduced prices and pack-in deals toward the end of extent Nintendo, are all making bids for global dollars. in Japan, emphasizing that a lower price point was the year may turn the tide in the company’s favor. In the wake of the E3 downsizing announcement, essential to promote sell-through. This brings the Nintendo followed its typical path of eschewing the all eyes were on TGS as the biggest consumer price to 49,980 yen, or roughly $418. HDMI support consumer-oriented show, only allowing Wii software game show in the world. Though the affair has was also announced for the lower model. As of press to be demonstrated at specific booths by company always been open to the public, with the first day time, no announcements have been made regarding representatives. The company is clearly banking on exclusive to business and media, it has never potential price cuts for the rest of the world. the price and branding to sell the unit, rather than before reached the epic proportions of attendance Microsoft had a very solid TGS showing as well, significant pre-release buzz on a popular level. DS as it did this year. Across three days a total of with fans most anxious to get a glimpse of games were playable at the show, but only in the 192,000 fans and business professionals filled the Mistwalker’s LOST ODYSSEY and Epic’s GEARS OF WAR. booths of the games’ respective publishers. convention center on the outskirts of Tokyo, a truly The company also unveiled a new trailer for HALO 3, The 2006 Tokyo Game Show centered around noticeable increase over last year’s 176,000. which was disappointingly short on gameplay anticipation, as the next generation finally rolls out in Sony’s PlayStation 3, playable for the first time by footage, but generated interest nonetheless. In full. Each major console manufacturer is taking a the Japanese public at large, drew the biggest and order to foster excitement around its Xbox Live rather different route to success, making this most eager crowd who waited in two-hour lines for service—which like the Xbox 360 itself has yet to Christmas holiday an incredibly important one for not hands-on time with games. Topical buzz at the show take a significant foothold in Japan—Microsoft only the big three, but the game industry at large. surrounded the machine itself more than the distributed free Xbox Live points, useful toward the —Brandon Sheffield
GAME WEEK GRACES LONDON
A SLIGHTLY DAMP LONDON IN EARLY by Gamasutra.com and the categories artistic autumn was the venue for the 2006 GamesIndustry.biz; as well as achievement and best London Games Festival, a BAFTA’s British Academy Video action and adventure conglomeration of get-togethers Games Awards. game. Other notable that combined key public and The BAFTA Awards, which are open winners were Nintendo’s industry events throughout the to video games released worldwide DS title BRAIN TRAINING in English capital during the first week in the past year, honored Ubisoft’s the innovation category of October, including the London GHOST RECON ADVANCED WARFIGHTER as and LucasArts’ multi- Games Summit, presented by best game and for best technical platform game LEGO STAR ELSPA and TIGA, programmed by the achievement. WARS II for best gameplay. The child-friendly LOCOROCO won two BAFTA awards. CMP Game Group; Game Developers A notably large variety of winners At the Game Conference London, also presented were recognized, with several titles Developers Conference by CMP; the London Content, picking up more than one award: London, keynote speaker Jamie the toughest challenges of Outsourcing and Middleware Sony’s LOCOROCO took two awards for Macdonald, vice president of Sony modern game development in a Market, presented by TIGA; the best character and best children’s Computer Entertainment speech titled “Developing for a London Game Career Fair, presented game. SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS won in Worldwide Studios, tackled one of Networked Experience.” He homed
4 NOVEMBER 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER BROADBAND BULLSEYE NEW DEVELOPER, PUBLISHER CARVES MULTIMEDIA HEADWAY
GAME DESIGNER JON VAN CANEGHEM (MIGHT AND happen if you build the architecture right,” he says. MAGIC) and former Electronic Arts executive Dr. Trion is not restricting itself to games. With a Lars Butler have faith in the power of broadband. multitude of partnerships, from game development They believe in it so resolutely that they’ve built a studios to corporate media giants (think new game development and publishing company, Paramount), the company plans to do business in Trion World Network, devotedly solely to delivering not one type of content, but three: games, online, content with it. and traditional media (television and film). Van Caneghem and Butler insist that, because Funded by Tier 1 Silicon Valley and venture capital the future lies in broadband, media companies firms DCM and Trinity Ventures—rather than a major need to rethink their strategies for providing game publisher—the company already has two entertainment, as well as the substance of the major offices in Redwood City, Calif., within sight of Jon van Caneghem (l) and Lars Butler (r) want to change entertainment. How video games are developed EA’s headquarter campus, and Austin, the U.S. games, one broadband customer at a time. and distributed today, says van Caneghem, “is a epicenter of talented online game developers. Says byproduct of old architecture.” Trion, he adds, is Butler, “It has not been a challenge for us to raise a The company is still many months away from taking multimedia and going straight back to the lot of money.” Nor has recruiting talent been a giving consumers (or journalists) anything drawing board, building new architecture that will challenge: Trion has already signed on a number of tangible. So it’s vagaries and promise for now. allow for various hybrid types of entertainment, expats from EA, NCsoft, and Sony Online, hoping to According to Butler, the technology itself won’t delivery methods, and connectivity. “All devices get the most out of hiring veterans who understand even be ready until sometime in 2007. can tie into some game world, and that can only connectivity, online delivery, and good game design. —Jill Duffy
WII REMOTE TO LIGHTEN CODERS' LOADS CALENDAR Asia Pacific Entertainment NINTENDO AND AILIVE HAVE officials claim it will allow new console to develop for. and demos of the product. and Media Summit announced the release of developers to train the The announcement Its previous product of note Sofitel Los Angeles LiveMode for Wii, a product remote through example specifically calls out was LiveCombat, which Los Angeles that allows the Wii remote to rather than code. In the independent developers as taught AI characters using November 6 and 7 Price: $159–$349 learn via artificial hands of developers, a market for this product the example of a player- www.apemsummit.com intelligence. The software is Nintendo hopes this tool will and has priced it to match, controlled team leader. The poised to ease the difficulties further simplify the at a mass-adoption license LiveMode product seems to Montreal International Game Summit of programming for development process for Wii, fee of $2,500 per seat. build on that concept. Palais des congres de Montreal Nintendo's new input device; already the most affordable AiLive will offer tutorials —Brandon Sheffield Montreal November 8 and 9 Price: $150–$495 CAD (exhibition-only rates also available: $25–$40) in on some of the next- said. EDI was devised to allow possible conditions in this country www.montrealgamesummit.com generational problems common to developers “to work on those great for your industry to innovate and all gamemakers: the increasing ideas that they’ve had but have grow.” He noted the financial eGames & Entertainment Expo Melbourne Exhibition Centre cost of production, a shift from been told will never work as a strength of the game industry in Melbourne, Australia package-centric to network- triple-A, 20-hour game.” Europe and the U.K., saying its November 17–19 centric gaming and development, At the related London Games worth now surpasses that of the Price: $13–$38 AU www.auexhibitions.com.au and strategies for success. Summit, an event tailored more to film industry. “The computer Sony’s E-Distribution Initiative, the business minds of games, the games industry is economically Sigrad Conference the rough equivalent of Xbox Live commencement address was much more important (than film),” Högskolan i Skövde Arcade, was one particular focus given by Lord Sainsbury of he said. “It is the innovation and Skövde, Sweden November 22 and 23 of Macdonald’s analysis. Its job? Turville, England’s Parliamentary creativity that has allowed this Price: contact organizers “To drive the direct delivery of Under Secretary of State for sector to grow.” www.his.se/sigrad06 content to consumers through PS3 Science and Innovation. A comprehensive digest of the Game Connect: Asia Pacific 2006 and PSP’s Network Platform,” Lord Sainsbury, whose position London Games Festival and its Brisbane Convention and targeting new developers through falls under the Department of various events is available on Game Exhibition Centre lower barriers of entry. “We’re Trade and Industry, stressed that Developer’s sister web site Brisbane, Australia talking about shortform works of the U.K. government is working Gamasutra.com. November 30–December 2 Price: $100–$350 AU content, and we really want to strongly with the game industry in —Simon Carless and Jill Duffy www.gameconnectap.com encourage innovation,” Macdonald the U.K. to create the “best
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LUXOLOGY’S MODO 202 By David March
LUXOLOGY WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU ADD A mapping use; a new game creation unit bunch of cool features and an efficient system; and the all-useful image invert SDS modeler to an existing tool that’s command, which lets you flip your image STATS rock solid? Modo 202. inside modo. Luxology 1670 South Amphlett The team that’s driving modo’s Blvd., Suite 214 development is definitely listening to and MODELING San Mateo, CA 94402 thinking about what the majority of the New modeling tools were added to www.luxology.com user base wants. After waiting more than modo’s “best of hybrid” style subdivision- Price a year for this release, modo enthusiasts polygon modeler, including a new Solid will be extremely pleased with the new Sketch tool. This tool is great for quickly $895 ($395 upgrade) updates from Luxology. Users saw major laying out a base figure to fill out your
System Requirements updates in the release of modo 201, and work area. Think of it as a page for quick then two months later, after final concept sketching, using clay-like • 1Gb RAM tweaking, bug-fixing, and throwing in a connectors in an organic fashion to get • 100Mb available hard disk space (3Gb handful of additional features, modo 202 your basic modeling idea down. required for all content was sent out as a free upgrade to license It reminds me of how one might create and integrated training holders. organic concept art using Zspheres in materials) Modo has impressed me with many Zbrush. The Solid Sketch tool is a great • OpenGL-enabled graphics card improvements in a number of areas, feature for laying down basic forms to get • Monitor resolution of most notably modeling tools, workflow, you started on any organic form—or 1,024x768 or greater painting tools, and a new renderer. Game This image, created in modo 202 by Jacques even something that would be hard • DVD-ROM drive (for developers will be impressed by the Defontaine (and courtesy of Luxology), makes edged and mechanical. support materials) • Internet connection Power 2 grid, which lets them create use of the tool’s sub-surface scattering ability. Modo 202 also sports a Sculpt tool, required for product assets using a unit grid (each line of the which simulates sculpting in clay. You activation grid is set to a power of two, just like can drag across the surface and deform • Adobe Photoshop CS texture resolutions), and the Object can configure your working environment the geometry, creating bumps—or by or later required for modo ImageSynth Baking tool, which bakes detail from any way you would like with this option, holding down the control key—reversing high-resolution objects into lower-poly there is a reliable default triview that the action. Scaling is controlled via the Macintosh Requirements: count models. UV tools have been supports a preview window, camera, and right mouse button. Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later; revamped as well, giving developers yet perspective view. Another improvement that I’m very Macintosh G3, G4, G5 or Intel processor. another reason to closely evaluate modo, Another newly added feature is the happy with is the simplified way in which and maybe adopt it permanently. render to region option. This feature is you can weight simple edges. In older Windows Requirements: great if you’re happy with your entire versions, you had to go to the vertex map Microsoft Windows 2000 RENDERING scene except for maybe some bad list under weight map and select or Windows XP; Intel Pentium 4 or AMD One of the biggest updates to modo is the shadow or glow in the corner of your subdivision. But in modo 202, all you Athlon processor. new rendering engine. The renderer is render. You can render away on that bad have to do is go to vertex map and use bucket-style, and supports global spot without having to redo the whole the edge weight tool and drag it out in the Pros illumination, subsurface scattering, scene over and over. viewport. Because I use this function 1. Unparalleled anisotropic blurry reflections, motion frequently when subdivision modeling, I subdivision modeling blur, depth of field, and displacement. If UV IMPROVEMENTS definitely appreciate modo’s approach. abilities and workflow. 2. A slew of new tools your machine supports multithreading, Newly added to 202, UVs that overlap are Smaller updates also dot modo 202’s including a great you will see a dramatic increase in marked in red. It’s a pain to zoom in and fact sheet. For example, the edge slice painting tool. performance with modo 202. find small overlaps in a tightly packed tool lets you bevel points in two 3. New renderer. Worth checking out is a tutorial video map, so this feature makes perfect dimensions. Also new is a really cool Cons called “Render Project,” which explains sense, especially for creating normals. thicken tool, which is similar to 3ds Max’s
1. Wish list 1: animation how to set up a scene and how the Also in 202 the UV Pinning update adds a shell modifier. and rigging. Fresnel option affects the scene. Modo whole new level of control over what UVs Finally, there’s a new Pen tool. The 2. Wish list 2: particles also has a new preview renderer that you do and do not want relaxed. modo Pen is similar to a device found in with a cloth and hair allows you to model in near real time. A few more of 202’s great updates the plug-in Polyboost for 3ds Max. The system. 3. Wish list 3: physics This feature is like the surface preview include object-to-object detail baking for major difference is that for modo, it’s system. window in LightWave 3D. Although you displacement mapping or normal free. It’s great for redoing the relief detail
WWW.GDMAG.COM 7 [ SKUNK WORKS ]
on an extremely high-poly model. For directly on your 2D UV image view on abilities, artists really don’t have to example, you can draw polygons on top your wires with a texture. It’s all pretty export for presentation if they don’t want of your high-poly mesh with the straightforward and reminds me of Deep to. However, don’t forget that modo was constrain-to-mesh feature turned on. And Paint or BodyPaint 3D. built from the get-go to be super friendly with the free update to 202, the Pen tool As far as the brushes go, you can use and work well with all your tools. For the DARWIN has a newer, unique extension for the presets, create your own custom $895 price tag, I think it’s well worth its DIMENSIONS creating subdivisions with finite control. ones, or even grab them from Photoshop. weight in gold. Personally, I find that the best way to The Tool Pipe also allows for learn all these new features is to use interchangeable brushes, inks, and DAVID MARCH has recently joined modo’s Quicktime modeling tutorials, falloffs. The image ink tool can be Irrational Games in Australia as lead STATS which can be downloaded from explained as painting on a preset texture Darwin Dimensions Luxology’s web site. like a lizard skin onto your models with the animator. Send comments to him at 1155 University option to blend different scales in. Modo Suite 901 WORKFLOW also has masking and blending features, [email protected]. Montreal, Quebec H3B 3A7, Canada Luxology has definitely spent time from which are super handy when painting on 888.392.1331 the beginning making modo’s interface your models. And since the 202 update, DARWIN DIMENSIONS’ www.darwindimensions incredibly user-friendly and customizable. you can display in 3D with handles for EVOLVER .com Users can basically clear out the entire position and rotation, which is extremely By Tom Carroll PRICE screen space and lay out the interface useful. 202 is also “smarter” now about WHO DOESN’T LOVE THE LATE-NIGHT any way they want. I think this feature is the way it paints on complex UV folds and talk show game of creating hilarious $39 evolver Basic (software only; customers really quite cool, and the possibilities borders. Best of all, painting is supported offspring by crossing the genes of two can purchase geometry- seem endless. by pressure-sensitive input devices, celebrities? What would Tom Cruise look only of a model for $49, or Modo 202 also allows for customization which is a must if you’re going to paint. like with Yoda’s ears and skin color? What fully featured 3D of the keyboard mapping and mouse It seems as if the only thing missing for would you get if you crossed Christina humanoid for $1,995) inputs. Although these features may modo now is an animation system, but Aguilera with Dobby the House Elf (of $4995 evolver Pro (ships seem minor, busy game artists know the I’ve heard it may be on the way. Harry Potter fame)? And what might a with the capability to power—in workflow speed—of being able character that was half “W” and half Tony output three fully featured to map the functions they use most often WORTH ITS WEIGHT Blair look like? 3D humanoid models; additional models can be to the keys that are most easily reached. In short, modo 202 is one of the best—if While not quite apples and apples, purchased for $1,000 The default keys work just fine, too. not the best—SDS modelers out there. If evolver by Darwin Dimensions allows each) Yet another feature is the Tool Pipe, which modelers test it and use the plethora of anyone who’s willing to pay $39 to is extremely powerful. It takes modo’s core video tutorials that come in the help combine various attributes from a long Evolver complete: Product and pricing not functionalities and lets you create directories, I think they will be impressed list of faces and figures to form their yet available. combinations of tools and tool modifiers. on how quickly they can get up to speed. own custom characters. The resulting For example, you could create a function Luxology has done a great job shipping characters can be converted into a form System Requirements that rotates with a specific falloff every these well thought-out Any Windows XP- time. It beats the heck out of scripting. instructional tools while compatible computer Other simple workflow features, like also fixing, adding, and Pros highlighting child-to-parent items to updating tools. show their relationship, give modo 202 a There’s little room for 1. Easy to understand and use. useful sort of elegance. There’s also a negative feedback about 2. Extremely fun to play new browser for presets and modo. It works extremely with. expand/collapse usability for sub-items well with other packages in 3. Simple interface. in trees. terms of importing and Cons exporting files. Even the
1. Not the answer for PAINTING TOOLS “cons” I listed (see pg. 7) companies that create Modo 202’s painting tools are a major are personal wish list items, unique characters. added function and are exceptionally user- not failures to deliver on 2. Artists still need to friendly, just like the rest of the package. Luxology’s part. clothe the characters and put hair on their Simply click and start painting away. At this point I can only heads. You can create a new image from within selfishly state I want more 3. May be too much fun modo or simply import an existing image videos—I always want more Darwin Dimensions’ evolver uses a simple interface and a for its own good. to paint on. Not only can you paint on of the good stuff. With the family tree-style approach to character creation. your 3D model, you can also paint new painting and rendering
8 NOVEMBER 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER that’s recognized by most customary 3D packages (those that support Autodesk .fbx) or that can filter directly into a Maya pipeline. If you’ve got seven days to kill, download the free trial version of evolver from the company’s web site and watch in awe (and shame) as time flies by.
THEY CAME FROM THE GENE POOL Darwin Dimensions’ stated reason for evolving evolver is to “automate the creation of a near infinite variety of high-quality 3D characters by blending and combining physical attributes derived from a vast ‘virtual gene pool.’” However, my understanding of the software’s purposes reads something like this: “To make character creation less like drudgery and more Evolver allows users to create just heads or both heads like a fun game.” and bodies, though no hair or clothing is available. Regardless of the stated reason for development, the company has succeeded in making a product that creates interesting The last step is to assign a skin color to the character models quickly and easily—and for finished head and body. This is accomplished in just $39, you don’t have to break the budget to a similarly straightforward way by selecting and buy a copy and have a little fun with it. blending iconic images of Caucasian, Black, Users start their evolver experience with a Asian, (and alien) faces. screen that shows a large selection of heads as Saving the work is as easy as hitting the well as a few trolls and aliens thrown in for good Save As command and typing in a unique measure. These are called ancestors. name for your .dde file (Evolver’s proprietary Highlighting an ancestor icon, the user loads it file format); evolver also supports Autodesk’s into one of four boxes by clicking on an arrow .fbx format. button to the side of the box. Up to four heads The file is then submitted to Darwin Dimensions. can be loaded at any one time, but ultimately, Whether purchased geometry-only ($49) or as a up to 20 of them can be used to build a new fully featured 3D humanoid ($1,995), the model character head. is delivered to a secure FTP site for pickup. As of Sliders make it possible to quickly combine press time, this automated process was not elements (eyes, ears, noses, head shapes, operating, but the pros behind evolver were mouths, and so on) to make a unique head. quite willing and able to process orders on a If you try, and sometimes even if you don’t, case-by-case basis while they perfect their you can attain some very unusual mugs. But by delivery pipeline. predefining the type of character you want to Evolver is absolutely not the solution for every build (for example: Asian female with elfin ears company, especially for those with staffs of and ample chest) and staying within those hungry character artists, modelers, and parameters, you’ll avoid the silly monkey texturers. But it is the perfect solution for any business that inevitably results. company that does not have such a staff and still needs a wide selection of character models CORPORAL CREATION that have the professional quality that the game, But what’s a head without a body? The next step television, and movie industries demand. * is to repeat the same process, but this time with a large selection of male and female body types. TOM CARROLL is a video game artist and The head you previously fashioned is now positioned atop a body. Within moments, even freelance writer who strives to understand only the inartistic among us can fashion an enough of his corner of the universe to be able to appropriately bodacious body. sleep at night. Email him at [email protected].
WWW.GDMAG.COM 9
>> richard garfield
GETTING LUCKY
THE MAGIC: THE GATHERING CREATOR’S STANCE ON CHANCE
I CAN FIND A BOARD OR CARD GAME FOR ANY GROUP OF PLAYERS. parents, kids, wife, or friends from outside the game industry is RICHARD GARFIELD Game players or people who never played games, old or young, extremely limited. currently teaches at the in large or small numbers, with confrontational or passive Historically, games usually evolved in such a way as to reduce University of Washington. His personalities—there are games out there for them all. While I the amount of luck in them. Even chess at one time had dice. The first game, Magic: The weigh many factors in choosing a game, by far the most people who are in a position to modify a game are likely to be Gathering, a collectible card important is the amount of luck inherent to the gameplay. If the very good at it, and the sort of modifications they will be drawn game, was released game has a lot of luck, it usually appeals to a diverse group. toward are the ones that showcase their talents and their commercially in 1993. He Games in the non-electronic world are widely varied in luck, friends’ talents—although they, of course, are all top players. also consults for video game but computer games are a different story, as very few of them In other words, as games evolve, they tend to become better design. Send comments allow any real chance for a beginner to win against a skilled for the experts, but not necessarily better for new or non- about this article to opponent. The number of electronic games I can play with my dedicated players. A game that illustrates this conflict is [email protected].
CHESS BOARD PHOTO COURTESY OF BELEN MENDEZ; DICE PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHAEL CONNORS WWW.GDMAG.COM 11 GETTING LUCKY
First person shooters, Settlers of Catan, one of the best-selling board games of recent WHAT IS LUCK? such as HALF-LIFE 2, years. The only consistent criticism I have heard leveled at it I define luck in games as uncertainty in outcome. If better could use luck to allow (always from dedicated gamers) is that it has too much luck. players always win against weaker opponents, then there is no players with greater But it’s rather possible that the abundance of luck is exactly luck in the game. However, if the better player sometimes loses, variation in skill to what made the game so wide-reaching. then luck must be present, and the more a better player loses, compete with each Enlightened players, skilled or not, will appreciate luck in their the more luck is in the game. other. games for a number of reasons. First, they can play challenging Uncertainty in outcome is most strongly associated with games with a much broader audience, allowing them to easily randomizers, such as dice, spinners, shuffled cards, and in the case assemble a galley of players and lure their friends, who would of video games, randomly generated numbers. But these overt luck otherwise play something else, into the game. Second, if skilled generators are not the beginning and end of luck. If the game’s players want to experiment and try off-the-wall strategies, the outcome isn’t certain—whether the game is baseball or rock, paper, more luck a game has, the more forgiving it is—after all, no one is scissors—there is luck involved. The variability in baseball may expected to win every time. The only cost of all these terrific come from muscle fatigue, or weather, or endless numbers of more benefits is that skillful players must manage to swallow their pride subtle influences that we have no more chance of determining than and settle for winning a majority of the path of a roulette ball. The variability in rock, paper, scissors? the time, rather than all the time. Any randomizer in that game lies in the players’ brains. LUCK VERSUS SKILL IN We gamemakers are at a This definition of luck, based solely on uncertainty of outcome, TRADITIONAL GAMES special time in game history. Fifty has an interesting consequence in that an otherwise years ago, games were made with deterministic game can have luck. Let’s take for example a GAME AMOUNT OF LUCK AMOUNT OF SKILL no credit to the designers or game I call pi-eye, in which each player has 30 seconds to guess perhaps had no designers at all, a particular digit of pi, say the 37 billionth digit. There is no overt Poker High High with changes being wrought by luck in pi-eye because it’s possible to calculate the answer. Yet, players over time. But our most players would rather simply take a one in ten chance of Basketball Low High nascent game design community guessing the correct digit. Players could improve their odds by tends to comprise game experts; studying pi or theories about its digit distribution, or even Tic-Tac-Toe Low Low it’s in our best interest to reduce the luck to 0 by discovering a formula to determine the examine our own instincts openly digits of pi—but even though those possibilities exist, most of Slots High Low with regard to how much luck us would rather opt for luck. should be in a game. CONTINUED ON PG 14
12 NOVEMBER 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER
GETTING LUCKY
CONTINUED FROM PG 12 LUCK VS. SKILL the game, the tighter that range of skill the players will need to What is a good amount of luck, relative to skill, for a game? have for a satisfying experience. This question sounds benign, but it contains a common Online games, of course, have less need for broadened range fallacy about games. How much luck there is in a game has of competition due to computer matching (see “Ranking and little to do with how much skill there is. A game can have a lot Matchmaking,” October 2006). However, there is something to of luck and a lot of skill. be said for being able to choose opponents and teammates An example of such a game is poker. If you sat down with the based on criteria other than their skill. world champion, you could win a hand, regardless of your skill. Ego crutch. Why do skillful players frequently criticize luck in You might even be able to win a session. But once you start games? It’s probably because the luck in the game can marginalize stringing sessions together you have no hope of winning their skill. When skilled players have played the better, more (unless you too are a poker stud). In fact, repeated play will skillful game and still lose, they say, begrudgingly, that only fate is eradicate the luck from almost any game. If players play a game to blame. And when they win in a game that has a lot of luck, the enough and there is any skill difference between them, the opponents won’t credit their brilliant play, only their good fortune. most skillful player will win the majority of the games. Luck can in this way become a player’s enemy, denying them their If poker doesn’t convince you that a game can rely on both rightful bragging rights and glory in either case. luck and skill, I can introduce you to a game I’ve created called This apparently negative aspect of luck is hiding a very useful randochess. In randochess we each roll a die, and the high roll concept for game designers. Many people take pleasure in wins with ties broken by a game of chess. Randochess clearly blaming their defeats on bad luck, but have no problem taking has more luck than chess, yet in some sense it has just as credit for their victories, regardless of the circumstances. much skill as chess. After all, every book of strategy ever Certainly, these players will often complain about the luck when written about chess applies equally to randochess. they lose, but really the element of chance is beneficial to them: It is just as challenging to be a good randochess player as it is it is protecting their egos, just as surely as it can injure the ego a good chess player, but you won’t win as often leveraging your of a skillful player. skill in randochess as you will your skill in chess. This Variety of gameplay. Luck in games often broadens the type distinction is important because it illuminates the fact that of strategies that people can use, adding variety to the game. games can’t be trivialized merely on the basis of luck—games With the uncertainty luck brings, the most conservative with a lot of luck can be as rich as any other game, and as hard players will have to take crazy chances if they want to succeed to master. In fact, one could argue that games high in luck are from time to time, and the players who always take the long- harder to master since a player can more easily win with bad shot will find they should sometimes ease back on the throttle moves or lose with good moves—which will certainly slow down and play it safe. the learning process. Suppose in an economic military game, players think that building a lot of tanks is the best strategy. Whether it is the BENEFITS OF LUCK best strategy is not too important—what counts is how the There are three benefits to using luck in game design. First, player sees it. Players would spend most of their time building high-luck games broaden the range of competition. Second, luck tanks. The only ones who would typically stray would be the removes players’ ego crutches. And third, luck increases the beginners who didn’t know any better or the elite who were variety of the gameplay. secure enough in their stature to experiment. Suppose we Range of competition. The more luck there is in a game, the introduce a random element into the military units of the game, more easily skilled and unskilled players can play together. In a such as units being priced randomly, occasionally unavailable, game without luck, the more skilled player will win every or varied in power, based on the random availability of competition giving the skilled player no challenge and the less supporting technologies. Players might now regard tanks as skilled player no chance of victory. A game with low luck can be being generally the best unit, but no one will believe as a rule a fine game of course, but it demands that players of similar they are always the best, which might lead to more players skill always compete against each other only. The less luck in exploring more and different strategies.
CONTINUED ON PG 16 short+luck=good combo
FOR A GAME WITH A HIGH AMOUNT OF so bad. However, a long game with a not favored to get a taste of victory in in shorter games. The longer the luck to be really satisfying for a broad lot of luck does threaten to frustrate a single play and, being a long game, game, the fewer games will be played audience of players, it should be a the more skillful players, who don’t starting a new game afresh might during a particular game session, and game that is also fairly short. want to invest a lot of time and take a while. The shorter the game, the fewer games you play in a The definition of “short” varies energy on a spurious outcome. the more likely a less skillful player session, the less chance for that from group to group: for people with a At the same time, a long game with will have at least some wins. variety to show itself. lot of free time and energy, having a a lot of luck holds little interest for The variety of play available in a high-luck game that is longer won’t be less skillful players because they are high-luck game really shines through
14 NOVEMBER 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER
GETTING LUCKY
Another way luck can extract variety from a game design is and hybrid modes. For player versus player, luck functions as it when it is used to rebalance the payoff for player skills. If a does in a head-to-head game. Luck will help broaden the range game involves two skills, A and B, and A is very important to of players that can compete against one another, act as an ego winning the game, while B is not so important—by making it so crutch for losses, and, if the system is well designed, generate that A has more luck involved you can raise B’s relative variety of play. importance. This could lead to a game in which the players have In the player versus environment mode, luck will act much like more strategic space to explore. Remember the old computer it does in a solo game. In this mode, luck is unnecessary for game ARCHON? ARCHON had a chess-like game, but the battles broadening the range of players, useful as a crutch, but not as were resolved with an arcade-like game. My experience with it critical, and can be useful in generating variety of play. was that a player’s skill at the chess portion of the game was Whether you have teammates in either mode will not really irrelevant relative to the arcade portion. Presumably, with change the role of luck, except perhaps in making its use as an players close to one another in arcade skill, the chess portion of ego crutch a bit more important, since you can avoid losing face the game would become more important. If the arcade portion of to your teammates by blaming bad luck. the game had more luck, then the chance of that part of the The replayability of these games might be improved by the game being interesting with disparate skills is higher, and the variety that extra luck will provide in the game mechanics. In chess portion of the game will become more important. many MMORPGs there is already a really interesting level of luck in combat. Unfortunately most of these games have reward LUCK AND SINGLE-PLAYER GAMES systems that strongly discourage players from getting involved Some of the points I’ve made so far don’t apply—or apply in the more interesting encounters, pushing them instead differently—to single-player games. For one, there’s no benefit toward combat in which they are enough of a favorite to always to increasing the breadth of player skills that can compete win fairly quickly. together if the game is a one-player experience. Replayability may be improved greatly if the reward system The role of luck as an ego crutch in a single-player game can encourages players to take on challenges whose outcome is not still apply, though it is less important. Players are less likely to so predictable. Since it’s a staple of the genre to have the
ALTHOUGH ADDING LUCK TO AN EXISTING GENRE CAN ALIENATE FANS, IT IS OFTEN WORTH THINKING ABOUT IN TERMS OF GAME DESIGN. IT MAY BE POSSIBLE TO ADD AN ELEMENT OF LUCK THAT EVEN THE ELITE PLAYERS WILL FIND COOL.
need the crutch when playing against a computer since it is players play what are essentially the same battles ad nauseum, generally less threatening to lose to a computer than to another any potential for increasing the replayability should be of flesh-and-blood human, who is much more likely to talk trash. interest to the designers. In most MMORPGs it’s the randomness But it still helps to have bad luck be your focus of blame for defeat. of monster drops that provides an element of chance, and which Additionally, if the game is intended to be played only once, as keeps people coming back—which is a shame, since it’s not many video games are, then there’s little benefit to increasing directly a part of the gameplay. the variety of the game through luck. Yet, if the game is a one- player game intended for repeat play, luck can be invaluable for APPLYING LUCK TO EXISTING GENRES changing the game each time. CIVILIZATION’s immense It’s hard to introduce luck to an established game or genre of replayability stems in part from the large range of strategic games. For example, shooters tend to attract players who have situations that can affect the player and that arise naturally fast reflexes and accurate aiming; introducing luck will likely from the vast quantity of random elements and how they interact. drive away established players, since they want their speed and Historically, one of the interesting things about games is how accuracy tested. What’s worse, a “shooter with luck” game will they become better over time, disposable games really only not necessarily find a new audience either, since the reputation being children’s games. People can play dominoes or bridge or of shooters as a genre is already established. chess their entire lives and the games just get better and better. Although adding luck to an existing genre can alienate fans, it is Striving to make infinitely replayable games is one way to often worth thinking about in terms of game design. It may be leverage the power of games. possible to add an element of luck that even the elite players will find cool. Also, if a game of this type is able to reach new LUCK AND MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER GAMES audiences it could make up for the loss of some established Massively multiplayer games can be competitive in the sense of gamers. Game designers would want to take this idea into player versus player, cooperative, player versus environment, consideration if they’re working on a game that’s likely to have
PHOTO COURTESY OF NAAMA YM 16 NOVEMBER 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER # #
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GETTING LUCKY
Real-time strategy games, such as STARCRAFT,can introduce luck by including it in their economic systems.
broad audience appeal, such as a game with a popular movie tie-in Most games have specific spawn spots for weapons and armor. or one that will debut on a new platform (iPod games anyone?). If these were inconsistent, or the power-ups themselves were Let’s look at a few established game genres and consider new very swingy, it would introduce luck to the game. ways to introduce luck. These techniques have certainly been Real-time strategy games. The expert RTS player has excellent used in one game or another, but the luck introduced is often massively parallel management skills and speedy clicking. Also minor or dominated by other factors, rather than really allowing important, of course, are both strategy and tactics; but the best for less skillful players to win from time to time. strategy and tactics won’t help if you can’t implement them fast Shooters. The expert shooter player has excellent reflexes and enough while juggling all the elements these games typically aiming. A lot of other gameplay elements may be present in throw at you. More luck could be used to raise the relative varying degrees, such as tactics, strategy, and teamwork, but importance of these game components, in addition to making these tend to be dominated by reflexes and aiming. The the expert player easier to beat. introduction of more luck could be used to bring the value of Reducing the chance of being hit by a unit or increasing the these skills closer together, in addition to reducing the variance on its damage might be a way to increase the amount of dominance of the better player. luck in an RTS. Units could have special abilities that are Inaccuracy is one of the obvious ways to increase the amount completely out of the player’s control and which are used of luck in shooters. Games such as COUNTER-STRIKE do this, but inconsistently. The units could have morale that is to some extent the high rate of fire and the ability of skilled players to minimize randomly implemented so that your units might start to panic in a this effect make it so the aggregate game may actually have battle you might otherwise have won. Similarly, units might make less luck rather than more. It’s easy to imagine a game in which all sorts of AI checks which are guided by the outcome, ignoring nearly every shot has a high enough variance that moving players’ commands, gaining bloodlust and the inability to stop without cover into enemy fire zones, while generally a bad idea, attacking, or maybe focusing entirely on their sworn enemies. does not ensure instant death. Economics is a natural place to introduce luck as well, in Another natural way to increase luck is highly variable particular since this facet of many RTS games is often highly damage. Naturally, if you combine this with a high rate of fire, important and yet mostly rote in play value. Mines could give the luck you have introduced is incrementally removed. Right more variable payouts, and technologies could cost varying now, the standard way to inject highly variable damage is via amounts or be randomly available. The expert player may even head shots, which does introduce some randomness, since enjoy the freedom of exploring parts of the tech tree that are random sprays of bullets will occasionally yield a critical hit— generally less effective rather than feeling obligated to use the but again, this is a randomness that diminishes rapidly with skill. same proven approach every time. Randomly distributed power-ups could be another way to go. In thinking about research, players could be kept from learning
18 NOVEMBER 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER what their research might yield, or when it was going to yield it. Shortcuts that are dangerous but are also navigable by all Perhaps the research could be guided a bit, without the players players could be implemented to increase luck. Many games knowing whether the exploration of metals, for example, would have shortcuts, but they typically only favor expert players; less yield good troop armor, good tank armor, a good conductor, or advanced player can’t navigate the shortcuts or don’t know they perhaps a vital ingredient for teleporters. Designers might get exist. To increase the luck, you need something more like a ideas from looking at games such as ALPHA CENTAURI. chasm that saves you some time but destroys the car 20 Racing games. Racing games reward players who have percent of the time regardless of expertise. knowledge of their vehicles’ capabilities, knowledge of the racetrack, and reflexes. If your opponent has you beat in these FUTURE GAMES areas, you will lose every time. Increasing the luck in the game If you’re working on a project that for some reason is difficult to will allow the less skilled player to take higher risk strategies categorize, or may appeal to a different audience than an and thus occasionally challenge the opponent. existing game, you might consider erring on the side of One way to introduce luck into this genre is to create danger including too much luck. You’ll gain the benefit of broadening zones, or areas or situations that sometimes get you into your player base’s competitive range while increasing your trouble, but not always. An example of a danger zone is a game’s variety. Over time, games have a tendency to go down in maximum safe speed, beyond which there is a chance of luck rather than up, so you can correct your gameplay more mishap or random cornering checks. Good players would know easily in that direction in subsequent expansions and versions. not to drive faster than the maximum for fear of a mishap— Video games are journeying into game design territory that unless they’re desperate. Alternatively, the further ahead you paper games could never go. But the large body of information are, the more conservatively you should drive. that exists outside electronic games can guide all game Including random, wacky power-ups is another way to add developers and help in that exploration. I am hopeful that one luck to racing games and some titles, like MARIO KART, already day I will have a collection of computer games that will handle use this feature very effectively. Missile launchers, booster jets, any group of players in collective play in a manner that rivals smoke screens—bring them all! my paper game collection. *
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REGISTER TODAY! TAKE www.gdconf.com
trol. CONTROLTake Con March 5-9, 2007 in San Francisco Join the world’s leading developers to exchange ideas, be inspired, and advance the art of game creation. play, the power is now with you to seize the market. GDC 2007 - With the innovative features enabled through next-gen consoles and the growth of diversification in videogame
GDC07_gdmag_NOV.indd 1 10/10/06 2:16:09 PM >> erik winter and matti larsson
GO WITH THE FLOW
WATER EFFECTS AND FLUID DYNAMICS IN GAMES
PUTTING CUTTING-EDGE INTERACTIVE PHYSICS INTO A GAME The Fresnel effect shows that the mirroring property of the can help make it stand out and increase immersion. Faster surface is greater at a distance while transparency is greater when ERIK WINTER processors, hardware acceleration, and new algorithms can looking straight down at the water. Capturing these three effects in and MATTI LARSSON greatly enhance not only the game’s look, but also its feel. simulated water gives it a much more realistic visual appearance. are, respectively, lead When it comes to creating these cutting-edge effects for Yet, the effects must be bound to the water mesh in some fashion. programmer and CTO of water, it’s now possible to live up to the player’s expectations One popular way to implement the effects is to use projective Resolution Interactive, an of how the game should look, feel, and play when the textures, a method that will be revised here. This solution works online games and technology character dives into an ocean. very well as long as the object’s surface shape stays close to a company with 10 years in For our new game, CLUSTERBALL 2, we wanted to achieve the plane. Two different cameras are used to render the reflection and the business. The company’s most realistic water possible. The simulated water area had to refraction images to two textures. These textures are then blended previous titles include give the impression of being without boundaries, just like the into each other and projected back onto the water surface in a SKI-DOO X-TEAM RACING (PC) real ocean. We also wanted the water to follow the larger natural shader. Figure 1 (pg. 22) shows a simple scene in which some and CLUSTERBALL (PC and movement of the sea, with waves caused by the wind. Another objects will be reflected and some refracted on the water’s surface. mobile phone). They are goal was to make the water interactive, with splashing, waves, One camera is used to render all the objects below the surface, currently working on and wakes. Finally, we wanted to capture and simulate the the ones that will be refracted, to a texture Trefr. This camera has CLUSTERBALL 2 (PC, Xbox characteristic visual properties of water. the same position and direction as the main rendering camera. A 360), an online action game second camera is used to render all that can be seen in the combining the elements of RENDERING WATER VISUALLY reflection of the water surface—only objects that are above the flight and racing as a sport Visually, water is very much defined by the way it interacts with surface are rendered. The camera position and direction is with lots of balls. Email them light. Light rays hitting the surface are both reflected and mirrored around the surface plane to capture the same scene as at [email protected] refracted, making the surface work as a semi-transparent the reflection. The render target is set to the texture Trefl. and [email protected]. mirror. The rays are perturbed due to the normal of the surface Finally, the main camera is used to render the water. The use and the different indices of refraction of water and air. of projective coordinates allows the textures to be mapped back
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FIGURE 1 Two cameras can to the surface plane. The water pixel shader blends between the white, respectively. Together this gives the impression of a more be used for reflection and refracted and reflected images, following the Fresnel effect. fragmentized surface with foam creation. refraction textures. This technique works well when the surface is perfectly flat. Listing 1A (pg. 26) shows an excerpt of the water vertex But what happens when the surface changes? In Figure 2, the shader. The wave height at each vertex is calculated. As the water image on the left shows a flat surface plane with three basic surface plane is the same as the xz-plane in our implementation, geometrical objects reflected in the water. A ray of light ray is the wave height will be the same as the vertex y coordinate in emitted from the camera until it hits the water at point P. The ray world space. The vertex height is used to calculate a value in the reflects around the surface normal N and, in this case, finally interval [0,1]. This value is passed to the pixel shader to define hits the circular object. how much the reflected/refracted images should be replaced by We imagine the texture rendered from the camera to be placed the colors of a fragmentized surface. The function interpol2P() in the surface plane. The texture coordinates are applied with is used for a linear interpolation, but with three control points projective coordinates so that they match the point P where the instead of two. Its results are in the interval [0,1]. reflection occurred. Listing 1B (pg. 26) shows the pixel shader. Three different The right side of Figure 2 shows the surface being perturbed normals are used: the real vertex normals, normals from the with the normal directed a little toward the camera. The reflected high frequency normal map, and normals from the distorted ray then changes according to the new normal and hits an object normal map. The deviation of the vertex normal from the surface a little closer to the camera, represented by the rectangle. We do plane normal is measured with the corresponding dot product. this by using the same texture as the flat surface and The result is stored in DistNormWeight and used to interpolate implementing one additional trick. The rendered texture is placed between the two normal maps. The constant as in the left image, but with a vertical offset D. The texture VX_NORMAL_WEIGHT then blends between the normal maps and coordinate used for the rendering is then updated to correspond the vertex normals. to a new point T instead of P. T is created by following the surface The final normal displaces the UV coordinates as described normal from P until it hits the displaced texture plane. above before we sample the refraction and reflection images. For reasons discussed later, the wind-driven waves have to be We interpolate the sampled colors with the fragmentized surface created with pretty low frequencies. To increase the realism, colors, using the ratio calculated in the vertex shader. higher frequency waves are added in a normal map. These normals are blended with the real vertex normals in the pixel LET THERE BE HEIGHTS shader, before reflection and refraction calculation. The physical simulation of water has been studied extensively. Although the concepts have been well defined, their numerical COLORING THE WAVES solutions still require a lot of computing power. Another property of water to capture is spray and foam. To Simulation methods are highly specialized to the nature of account for these fragmentized effects, we implement the liquid being simulated. For example, the simulation of milk disconnected volumes as particles. To visualize it in the mesh, being poured into a glass for the animations of Shrek might we first needed a way to measure its activity. A very active have been just as complex as the animation of the sea surface is signified by strong waves with short wavelength. movement for some of the scenes of Titanic, using totally Therefore we chose to quantify the vertex activity as an different algorithms. Therefore, it’s necessary to choose an interpolation depending on both the vertex height and the appropriate model for the special case. deviation of its normal from the surface plane normal. The water surface in CLUSTERBALL 2 should be able to handle As the vertex activity increases, a second, highly distorted the propagation of wakes and the interaction of objects falling normal map is blended onto the old one. The colors from the down in the water. Because the surface is really large, we refracted and reflected images are replaced with green and need a fast method, such as using a heightfield. Instead of
FIGURE 2 To handle reflection around perturbed normals, you can offset the sampled texture.
22 NOVEMBER 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER &334:3(.3,
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>TZHFSUZWHMFXJ^TZWINLNYFQJINYNTSTKYMJ ,FRJ(FWJJW,ZNIJTSQNSJFY \\\LFRJHFWJJWLZNIJHTR GO WITH THE FLOW
using a full 3D representation for We created the wind-driven waves with low frequencies and low the fluid, a 2D grid is used where amplitude. That way, they are clearly separated from the high and each grid coordinate has a steep ship wakes, making the superimposing a valid approximation. corresponding height. Therefore, But there’s an instance when the models can’t be kept we can exclude one dimension separated: when calculating the water’s influence on interacting from the calculations. objects. The interaction is defined in the object interaction One disadvantage to using model, but many of the calculations require the current water heightfields is that a body with height. For example, buoyancy is dependent on how much of the overhang, such as a breaking wave, object is covered by water. This means that whenever water can’t be modelled, as only one height height is needed in the calculations, it has to be updated with FIGURE 3 A screen space value is permitted at each 2D position. As long as overhangs data from the wind-driven model. uniform grid can be aren’t needed, the heightfield gives efficient approximations. This sharing of information shouldn’t affect performance, as projected onto the water’s A variety of different heightfield methods exist. In CLUSTERBALL there are a limited number of interacting objects. surface. 2, we used a membrane-based model. Objects interacting with the surface results in the heightfield grid points being offset, MESH TESSELLATION causing waves to propagate from that position. Although the In CLUSTERBALL 2, we wanted to have a really large ocean membrane is a fast model, it still can’t be used for the whole surface—so large that it would seem infinite. The mesh water surface. The algorithm complexity grows with the two representing the ocean surface had to give the impression that dimensions; thus, we must find a way to confine their size. such a large area is covered. To be able to represent all local If we add an upper limit to the number of simultaneous effects, the mesh resolution still has to be close to the camera, interactions, it’s possible to assign a membrane object to handle so we need some kind of level-of-detail technique. each interaction. These objects are instances of the physical model, That the whole mesh should be animated to follow the wind- restricted to a limited area. When all interacting objects have left the driven waves results in another problem. Every mesh vertex has area, the corresponding membrane object could be removed. to be updated each frame, so it’s extremely important to The membrane method works well when describing local maximize the vertex efficiency (the number of mesh vertices waves, such as a ship travelling in the water, but it’s not useful that finally show up on the screen). How might the camera’s when simulating bigger effects, such as wind-driven waves. viewport be used to achieve this goal? With the requirement that the simulated water should be We focused on the projected grid algorithm (see Resources). really large comes the need for a physical representation that Its algorithm is well constructed to minimize the time it takes to can give results over a large area fast. We achieve this by construct the mesh, while still attending to some of the making sure that the model is tileable, that it can be repeated in problems inherent to a viewport-based approach. space and time. We used Perlin noise for the wind-driven waves The major drawback of using these approaches is that the because of its ability to give fast and realistic-looking results. mesh tessellation has to be restructured for each frame update. Performance can be improved if the restructuring is brief COMBINING PHYSICAL MODELS compared to the extra time caused by calculating height data at We still need a way to combine the results of the two physical unnecessary vertex positions. models: the membranes and the Perlin noise. One way is to include the results from one model into the calculations of the PROJECTED GRID other. Intuitively, the wind-based data should be used when One of the goals of the projected grid concept was to create a calculating waves made by object interactions, such as a boat mesh that, when transformed to screen space, would be as wake, which might be seen as a small perturbation on the close to a uniform grid as possible. Such a mesh automatically greater wind-driven movement of the sea. has a continuous LOD handling; the mesh has a higher Is there a way to completely avoid this model interaction? A resolution near the camera, as can be seen in Figure 3. straightforward solution is to simply let the models be To maintain high vertex efficiency, the mesh boundaries need superimposed over each other. However, care must be taken to be as close to the screen boundaries as possible. When when performing this drastic simplification. For a realistic visual finding these boundaries, we must be careful to include all parts impression, it’s important that the models’ precedence to each of the surface that could possibly be seen in the camera. other follow our expectations. As the mesh height can vary along its surface normal, it’s not projected grid algorithm
1. Find the boundaries of the surface on none of the water surface is within 5. Find the maximum span in world space used all other vertices can interpolate screen, using the rendering camera’s the camera frustum and the rendering of the buffer points along the projecting their world space positions from these frustum. This means, find all points can be aborted. camera’s x and y axis. Construct a four points. Thus a per-vertex matrix where the camera frustum intersects 2. Aim the projecting camera so backfiring matrix Mrange that scatters screen multiplication is avoided. Slower or Supper. Add these points to a is avoided. coordinates to this span. 7. Finally, height data from the physical buffer. If any of the frustum’s corners 3. Project the buffer points onto Sbase. 6. Mrange is used to transform the mesh models is used to displace the vertices are within Vdisplaceable, add them as 4. Transform the projected buffer points to corner points to the world space mesh vertically. well. If no points were found, then the projecting camera’s space. span. If homogenous coordinates are —Courtesy of Claes Johansson
24 NOVEMBER 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER enough for the boundaries to include the surface plane—they heights of the surface (the must also include the whole volume spanned by all possible volume Vdisplaceable). vertical positions of the mesh. Every point that’s necessary To enclose this volume the water surface plane is defined as for defining the mesh is stored Sbase and its normal Nbase. If the waves are constricted to a in a buffer. The maximum world maximum waveheight Hmax, then two planes can be used as space area, including these limiters of the variations: buffer points, is used as the Slower=Sbase–Hmax*Nbase mesh span. Which points and should then be regarded as necessary? FIGURE 4 Here, the camera Supper=Sbase+Hmax*Nbase. On the right side of Figure 4, a line is drawn between the far frustum intersects with All possible vertical positions of the mesh should then be plane’s corner points. The intersection point between the line Vdisplaceable . within Vdisplaceable, the volume spanned by these two planes. The and the upper plane signifies the rightmost position a portion of constructed mesh must include all parts of the screen where the water can have within the camera frustum. All intersections Vdisplaceable can be seen. Furthermore, we must be sure to between the boundary planes and the frustum lines should account for how much of the screen should be covered by the therefore be stored in the buffer. water surface. When looking down at the water, the whole The left part of Figure 4 shows another scenario. The boundary screen should be covered. When looking toward the horizon, plane intersections are not enough because one of the frustum only a portion of the screen should be covered. This puts two corner points falls between the planes and will itself represent demands on the mesh. First, it should be possible to represent the leftmost position. As a result, all frustum corner points all conceivable vertex heights, and second, the horizon should within Vdisplaceable have to be stored in the buffer as well. be used to limit the mesh on the screen. Constructing a screen space uniform grid will settle the x How should we calculate the right span of the mesh? Figure 4 and y coordinates of each vertex on the screen. Still, it says gives some hints. Every part of the surface that can be seen in nothing about the z coordinate, the depth in the image, which the camera must be represented in the mesh, which includes remains undefined. This means that each point on the screen the intersection of the camera frustum with all possible vertical will correspond to a line in world space. The object of the
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The proposed solution in the projected grid algorithm is to use two cameras: a regular rendering camera and a projecting camera. This camera is used when constructing the mesh. It inherits its position and direction from the rendering camera, but with the ability to adjust them to avoid backfiring. The camera is always aimed at the surface of the water and keeps the projecting camera outside of Vdisplaceable. (See the sidebar “Projected Grid Algorithm.”)
FIGURE 5 The left image mesh represents the water surface, and the final world PARTICLES AND ACCELERATION shows a screen coordinate coordinates of the mesh vertices will be where these lines We chose a mesh-based model as the main simulator for the and its corresponding intersect the water plane. water system. The mesh representation restricts the water from mesh vertex while the right In Figure 5, point Ps is chosen, and a line is drawn along all its breaking into smaller pieces, such as when a large wave creates image shows a camera possible z-values. The final corresponding mesh vertex will be at spray, which we implemented by adding a particle system. backfiring. Pw, where the line crosses the surface. But a problem arises in Particles are created when the vertical velocity of a vertex gets the right image when the camera is no longer directed down too high. The particles should be created with a direction following toward the surface. the vertex normal and a velocity depending on the vertex velocity. Two points on the screen are chosen: one on the upper edge From which of the mesh representations should the particles and one on the lower. Their corresponding lines should then spawn? Using the projected grid’s vertices would be the correct follow the camera frustum. The lower line crosses the water choice as this is the representation presented to the user. surface in front of the camera as before, but for the upper line, However these vertices will not be statically located, so finding no such intersection exists. The intersection is instead behind the velocity of a fixed world position is not possible. the camera, as a consequence of the underlying mathematics. The Perlin data could be tested but this would be consuming, The camera is said to have backfired. as particles have to be emitted for each noise tile. However, The resulting mesh should be spanned by all intersections of since the energy of the wind-driven waves already has been lines from the screen points and the surface. The area spanned chosen as low, the waves will be small and won’t spray. It’s goes toward infinity in both directions, clearly not the behavior enough to check the velocities in the object interaction grids and we wished for. create particles from them. CONTINUED ON PG 28
LISTING 1A water vertex LISTING 1B water pixel shader (VS 2.0) shader (PS 2.0)
float interpol3P(float x, float minHeight, float middleHeight, float ... maxHeight, float weightMiddle ){ // High frequency normals from normal map if(x > maxHeight ) float3 HFNormal = tex2D( NormalMap, In.NormalMapUV ); return 1.0; // Convert color values to vector else if(x > middleHeight ) HFNormal = ( HFNormal - 0.5 ) * 2; return (x-middleHeight)*(1-weightMiddle)/(maxHeight-middleHeight) // Highly distorted normals for fragmentized surface + weightMiddle; float3 DistNormal = tex2D( NormalMapDist, In.NormalMapUV ); else if(x > minHeight ) // Convert color values to vector return (x-minHeight)/(middleHeight-minHeight) *weightMiddle; DistNormal = ( DistNormal - 0.5 ) * 2; else // interpolation between normal maps due to strength of real normal return 0.0; //The water surface normal is aligned with the z axis } //The dot product of the vertex normal and surface normal can then be simplified to inNormal.z VS_OUTPUT vs_main( VS_INPUT In ) float DistNormWeight = smoothstep(NRM_INTPOL_MIN, NRM_INTPOL_MAX, In.Normal.z); { float3 Normal = lerp(In.Normal, lerp(DistNormal, HFNormal, DistNormWeight), VS_OUTPUT Out; VX_NORMAL_WEIGHT); ...... // Transform vertex position from object space to world space // Projective coordinates are used to sample the refracted/reflected images float4 PositionScaleWS = mul( matWorld, In.Position ); float4 RefractionColor = tex2Dproj( RefractionMap, In.RefractionUV ); // Transform from homogenous coordinates float4 ReflectionColor = tex2Dproj( ReflectionMap, In.ReflectionUV ); float3 PositionWS = PositionScaleWS.xyz * PositionScaleWS.w; // RefractionColor = lerp(RefractionColor, DistRefrCol, In.col.x); // Find a measure on how distorted the water surface should be, ReflectionColor = lerp(ReflectionColor, DistReflCol, In.col.x); depending on vertex height ... // Out.col.x will be used to send the value to pixel shader // The final pixel color is blended from reflection and refraction colors Out.col.x = interpol3P(abs(PositionWS.y), WH_CTRL_PNT_1, WH_CTRL_PNT_2,WH_MAX, float4 TotalColor = lerp( ReflectionColor, RefractionColor, Fresnel ); WEIGHT_CTRL_PNT_2); ...... }
26 NOVEMBER 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER
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CONTINUED FROM PG 26 The particles are rendered with a simple texture, alpha does, too. The waves caused by object interaction will always be blended into each other. As they represent small pieces of small and strong, thus putting even more pressure on the problem. fragmentizing spray there’s no need to attach any higher Another way to soften the appearance of the problem is to demanding effects, such as reflections. The size and alpha value smooth the mesh. Every vertex height is filtered by its of the rendered particles varies with their lifetime, becoming neighbors, so sudden differences will decrease. The smoothing smaller and more transparent to mimic dissolving. will decrease the flickering, but in the meantime, it may erase One important decision to make is how the particles’ physical those sudden, steep waves that we want to see. properties should be updated. We want particles to move due to The projected grid provides a mesh on which the resolution forces like gravity, and bounce when they collide with rigid decreases with a growing distance to the camera. This means bodies. But should the particles be able to affect each other, that the sampling problem will be even more noticeable at far too? If these particle-particle interactions could be ignored, distant parts of the mesh. many fast implementations are possible. The step length between two adjacent grid points could thus The results of such a particle model will not be realistic when the be used as a measure of the probability that sampling artefacts particles move slowly or close to each other. Effects like surface will occur. To hide the artefact, the vertex heights are multiplied tension need the particles to share information with each other. by a smoothing factor, which reaches zero when the grid step Other models (in which inter-particle forces are used to exceeds a predefined maximum value. update the particle positions) tend to be too slow when the particle system becomes large. A way to circumvent this EXTENDING THE MODEL problem is to use hardware-accelerated physics. For CLUSTERBALL As proposed, the wind-driven waves will have pretty low 2, we looked into using Ageia’s physics processing unit (PPU). frequencies. For now, a normal map has been used to add higher Many suggestions have been made as to how physical frequency waves. Because the normal map is a non-animated algorithms can be implemented and accelerated in the GPU. Both texture, the waves sometimes add a static impression to the basic algorithms such as collision detection and, more interesting, water surface, especially when the camera is far away from it. A water simulation methods have been discussed as suitable for better visual result could be achieved if the normal map was this. Ageia’s solution is to use dedicated physics hardware, adapted animated too, by the use of high frequency noise. For an efficient to accelerate physics calculations. The PPU works in many ways implementation, you could generate the noise in shaders. like the GPU, with several processing elements performing The methods and code samples described in this article have calculations in parallel. One important difference in physics been implemented using vertex and pixel shader 2.0. With algorithms is the need to access other objects’ data; the PPU has shader model 3.0, we now have the possibility to sample been constructed with an emphasis on high inner bandwidth. textures as early as in the vertex shader. This means that a The inter-particle interaction model used in Ageia’s PPU is height map could be sampled to offset the vertex heights. smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH). The technique was The mesh in this article has to be high-resolution, and the first developed for use in astrophysics when studying underlying representation has to be sampled in each vertex, which interstellar gas flow. It has become popular for simulating other leads to a high time cost. You could avoid this problem if the wind- highly deformable materials such as liquids or sand. driven waves were sampled and superimposed in the vertex shader. The noise height map should then also be constructed in the shader. RESOLVING SAMPLE ARTEFACTS However, when calculating the interaction between objects and With two different representations of water, the graphical model the water surface, the total water height must still be accessed. has to sample its data from the physical. Care must be taken to The height map should be available in the main application as well. avoid the classical artefacts combined with sampling. A thin, But these queries are not at all as frequent as the per vertex strong spike in the physical representation can fall in between samplings, so performance should still improve. the mesh vertices if the mesh is too sparse. If the vertices The water simulation method presented in this article works manage to represent the spike at some instant and miss it in well as long as the number of concurrent interactions can be the next, the mesh will start to flicker. minimal. The time it takes to update the mesh-based simulation To avoid this problem, the mesh resolution should be kept as grows proportional to the number of active membrane instances. high as possible, which has to be weighted against the extra time The per-vertex cost of the final implementation proved to be cost for more vertex calculations. The wavelength of the physical relatively high. The chosen tessellation scheme was a good representation should be kept small, which can be arranged for the choice as it tries to keep a high ratio of mesh vertices within the wind-driven waves. But as the wavelength increases, the realism camera frustum. *
RESOURCES
Water shader sample code from Projected grid algorithm: Noise displacement in vertex shader: ResolutionInteractive.com: Johanson, Claes. “Real-time water rendering— Kryachko,Yuri. “Using Vertex Texture Displacement www.resolutioninteractive.com/watereffects Introducing the projected grid concept,” Master’s for Realistic Water Rendering,” in thesis, Department of Computer Science, Lund Game Programming Gems 2, Hingham, Mass.: Rendering using projective textures: University, Sweden, March 2004. Charles River Media, 2005. Lombard, Yann. “Realistic Natural Effect http://graphics.cs.lth.se/theses/projects/projgrid/ http://download.nvidia.com/developer/GPU_ Rendering: Water I,” GameDev.net, Gems_2/GPU_Gems2_ch18.pdf September 7, 2004. Ageia PhysX development: www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article2138.asp www.ageia.com/physx
28 NOVEMBER 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER
GAME DATA
DEVELOPER Human Head Studios and (produced by) 3D Realms; 360 version by Venom Games PUBLISHER 2K Games NUMBER OF DEVELOPERS 30 DEVELOPMENT TIME (FROM NEW CONCEPT TO SHIP) 5 years 2 months (May 2001–July 2006) LINES OF CODE About 750,000 RELEASE DATE US: July 11, 2006 Worldwide: July 14, 2006 PLATFORMS PC, Xbox 360
30 NOVEMBER 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER CREEPING DEATH
DESIGNING THE DEATHWALK SYSTEM IN 3D REALMS’ AND HUMAN HEAD STUDIOS’ PREY
DEATH IS AN INEVITABLE PART OF MOST VIDEO GAMES. UNLIKE IN REAL LIFE, though, death in video games is hardly permanent. The player simply has to insert another coin, restore a saved game, or restart from a checkpoint to continue playing. While designing PREY, we at Human Head wondered if there was another way to deal with death. Could we handle death in a less jarring manner than stopping the action and flashing a large, red GAME OVER? Is there a way to design the concept of death into the game that actually makes it part of the overall experience instead of something that inhibits the player from proceeding? The game system we created, known as DeathWalk, was intended to reduce the negative impact of dying and make it a deeper part of the overall play experience.
THE HISTORY OF PREY AND THE DEATHWALK SYSTEM Before delving into how we handled dying in PREY, here’s a bit of history about the game itself. PREY was originally conceived by 3D Realms around 1996 as an internal project. Prey went through various incarnations until it was put on a back burner in 1999. A year later, after Human Head Studios released RUNE, 3D Realms contacted us about partnering with them on a project, similar to the relationship 3D Realms and Remedy had during the development of MAX PAYNE. After discussing various ideas, we eventually decided to resurrect PREY in May of 2001. While designing PREY, we tried to keep the game as immersive as possible. In fact, that idea became one of the core design fundamentals of the game, leading to concepts such as keeping the game in a first-person perspective at all times. We used no cinematics in the final product, and the player’s control is never taken
CHRIS RHINEHART is a 12-year veteran of the game industry, having previously worked on titles such as HERETIC and HEXEN. A co-founder of Human Head Studios, he was a programmer on RUNE, and most recently project lead on PREY. Email him at [email protected].
WWW.GDMAG.COM 31 she has a limited amount of time to fight creatures (called DeathWraiths), which restore the character’s health and spirit power. After the set amount of time expires, the ground opens up and slowly pulls the character back into the physical world, where he can continue playing exactly where he died. This mini-game takes between 15 and 20 seconds on average, depending on how well the player avoids getting pulled back into the physical realm.
THE EVOLUTION OF DEATHWALK DeathWalk wasn’t in our original design for PREY. The idea didn’t come about until early 2003. At that point, we were discussing various ways to make the game more immersive. The intriguing concept of being able to somehow resurrect a dead character to give the player another chance was mentioned, and the initial concept for DeathWalk was born. The first step was to prototype the system to see if it even worked. We worked through at least five major iterations of DeathWalk before we discovered what we were looking for. The PREY development away without a logical reason. We also kept the heads-up First take. The original implementation of DeathWalk didn’t team at Human Head. display simple and iconic so as not to distract the player’s have an underworld. When characters died, their bodies dropped immersion. DeathWalk was of course a primary element in to the ground, but they continued to exist in a ghostly form helping to maintain a high level of player engagement. where they could walk around but not interact with anything DeathWalk is a system in PREY that prevents the action from else in the world. After a short time the DeathWraiths would stopping just because the player-character dies. Upon dying, swoop into existence, to attack the character and steal spirit instead of resuming the game at some predetermined position, power. If the DeathWraiths reduced the spirit power to zero, the the character is transported to a dark underworld where he or character would die permanently—death in the conventional
32 NOVEMBER 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER REWARDING INNOVATION IN INDEPENDENT GAMES
THE 9TH ANNUAL INDEPENDENT GAMES FESTIVAL MARCH 6-9, 2007 • SAN FRANCISCO, CA PLAY THE BEST INDIE GAMES NEW FOR 2007: OF THE YEAR •MAIN COMPETITION: A new Innovation Award, plus the $20,000 Seumas MacNally Grand Prize AT THE GDC IGF PAVILION MARCH 7-9, 2007 •MOD COMPETITION: Mods of ANY game are eligible this year. SAN FRANCISCO, CA Prizes will be awarded for Best Singleplayer FPS Mod, Best Multiplayer FPS Mod, Best RPG Mod, and Best ‘Other’ Mod—plus an overall Best Mod Find out more at •STUDENT COMPETITION: First-ever cash prize for Best Student Game DEADLINE FOR STUDENT SUBMISSIONS: NOVEMBER 10, 2006 WWW.IGF.COM
IGF07_gdmag_NOV.indd 1 10/11/06 2:13:56 PM video game sense—and the player would have to reload from a saved game. The player’s mission was to fight the DeathWraiths (using a specific weapon available when dead) and gain spirit power for each kill. Once the character’s spirit power was full the player could be resurrected on the spot where he first died. Ultimately, we rejected this first version due to the unpredictability of where the character could die. Fighting DeathWraiths was fun in wide-open spaces, but was frustrating in tight corridors or other unmanageable spaces. Take two. The second version solved the problem of the unpredictability of death location by introducing the underworld. After dying, the “dead” character was pulled into an underworld arena to battle the DeathWraiths. The same criteria for winning and losing carried over: The character had to fill up her spirit power to win, whereas running out of spirit power meant losing. A sketch of a DeathWraith. In this second version, we also experimented with the character having to navigate to the center of the arena, one point of health, although this was later changed to 25 where her spirit power would slowly recharge. When the percent and then 50 percent health because only giving a single character was not in the center, her spirit power would slowly point of health caused many testers to die repeatedly in certain diminish. Meanwhile, the DeathWraiths continued to swoop in, circumstances. stealing spirit power and pushing the character out of the center. This version was the first time we really felt the DeathWalk We rejected this version due to the confusion about the slow mechanic would actually work well in the game. It was rejected, ticking of spirit power (as testers would suddenly lose without though, because of the negative feedback loop introduced by much warning). This was also rejected due to the passive the rising body. The more wraiths the player missed, the more nature of the gameplay. Standing in place and waiting for a time passed, causing the body to continue to rise higher, meter to fill up just wasn’t very exciting. meaning that many more wraiths had to be hit. Take three. We designed the third version of DeathWalk around Take four. In the fourth version, we made some major two stages: In the first stage the character’s dead body was also changes to the mechanic of the body rising and to how the in the underworld, floating in the air, and slowly rising up into a DeathWraiths functioned. This time, the body started high and glowing cone of light from above. Once the body reached the top slowly moved down toward the ground. Once the body reached of the cone, the player would lose. the ground, the hole opened up as usual. In previous versions, The objective of this stage was for one of the goals was to save the body by fighting the players to rescue their bodies by DeathWraiths. However, in this version, because the body shooting DeathWraiths, which automatically lowered to the ground, the whole sequence was would energize the body and drop it essentially on a timer, making the goal to kill as many closer to the ground. Once the body DeathWraiths as possible in the short time allowed. reached the ground, the second We also changed the DeathWraiths by introducing a second stage of this DeathWalk triggered. type that gave spirit power when shot—so this time the player The world shook and a hole leading simply had a short amount of time to hit as many wraiths as to the physical world opened up in possible to fill up the character’s health and spirit reserves the ground. A whirlwind formed before getting pulled back into the physical world. which would gradually pull the body and the player character into the FINAL VERSION hole, back to the land of the living. A few tweaks had to be made to the gameplay mechanic, Next, the whirlwind continued to specifically when dealing with death pits. We couldn’t have the pull at everything in the underworld character resurrect at the bottom of the pit. To fix this issue, we with increasing force. During this created death zones and resurrection locations, a place that the stage, shooting a DeathWraith character would return to if they died in a given death zone. This would give the character a little bit seemed to be a pretty simple solution that required a bit more of health. The objective was to design work to place and test to ensure the character would shoot as many wraiths as possible resurrect in a decent location. before getting sucked back into the Another tweak we made was to give the character a few physical world. Players who shot no seconds of invulnerability when they return from DeathWalk. DeathWraiths, would resurrect with Characters often were killed in a firefight, so a few seconds of
34 NOVEMBER 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER invincibility gave them a chance to REDUCED THE FRUSTRATION OF DYING. Dying can be an flee for cover or gain the upper hand 2 exercise in frustration in games, especially if the character in the battle. dies over and over in the same location trying to get past a Finally, we constructed three particular puzzle or firefight. Repeatedly dying in the same different DeathWalk arenas; but the place can result in the player quitting the game out of differences are primarily cosmetic, frustration—sometimes never to return. What’s even more as the gameplay is essentially the frustrating is when players die only to remember that they last same in all the arenas. saved the game more than an hour ago. The DeathWalk mechanic helps reduce the frustration by not WHAT WENT RIGHT forcing players to start the puzzle or fight from the beginning; INCREASED IMMERSION. Since they can resurrect and continue where they left off. This is 1the character continued to play especially important to non- DeathWalk in action. even after dying, PREY became a hardcore players who are more continuous experience without the interested in enjoying the jarring “game over” interruptions experience and finishing the game that mentally knock the player out than getting beat down around of the flow of the game. every corner. Additionally, in most games, when Additionally, players can relax, not a character dies, the player often worrying about when they last decides it’s an opportune moment saved the game, as DeathWalk to take a break from playing. alleviates the need for constant However, in Prey, death is handled as more of a state change save crawling. than a do-over, and game players tend to continue playing CONTINUED ON PG 36 because they mentally stay inside the game world.
WWW.GDMAG.COM 35 CONTINUED FROM PG 35 SOMETHING NEW IN THE 3 GENRE. Quite simply, this throughout the game’s development and something we watched type of mechanic hasn’t really closely in the reactions of the focus testers and of the team. been implemented like this in an It’s interesting to note that opinions on this were split. Some action first-person shooter testers reported that death felt just as much a penalty as in before. Most FPS games deal with other games, while others reported that DeathWalk reduced death in the same way, so it was the impact of dying. In certain circumstances, we noticed, it a refreshing change to play a was advantageous to die. For example, if players are low on game with a different system for health, they can kill themselves, and use DeathWalk to regain death. We had a number of even more health. testers report that once they became accustomed to MADE FOR A SHORTER GAME. One of the major comments DeathWalk in PREY, they started 3we’ve heard particularly from experienced and hardcore first- to miss having this feature when person shooter players is that the game is rather short. This they played other FPS games. happened for various reasons, but one of them is DeathWalk. Had we gone the route of conventional FPS games, the player TIME AND FREEDOM TO (upon getting killed) would have had to reload a save game or 4 EXPERIMENT. Because we restart from a previous checkpoint, either of which would have were working with 3D Realms and required the player to replay a section of the game, possibly a they have an open approach to large section. But with the DeathWalk mechanic, players game design and a “When It’s continue from right where the character died, without retracing Done” philosophy on release their steps. Because we didn’t require players to repeatedly play dates, we had the freedom to sections over again until they solved them without dying, the experiment with alternative game overall game time was reduced. design ideas, as well as the time to prototype and refine the ideas. NOT ENOUGH VARIATION IN DEATHWALK. The gameplay Without that freedom, we wouldn’t 4 mechanic of DeathWalk is pretty simple and was intended to have been in the mindset to be like a mini-game. While this mechanic worked well, it can develop new ideas in the game. become a bit tedious later if a character dies repeatedly PREY’s protagonist, Tommy. Without the time, we never would have been able to go through throughout the course of the game. It would have been as many experiments, revisions, and tweaks as we did. interesting to expand upon the mechanic and provide more variation in the objectives while still maintaining the original A DEDICATED AND OPINIONATED TEAM. Throughout goal of keeping DeathWalk quick and fun. 5 development, we encouraged team members to bring up their criticisms about any part of the game. This generated a lot NO LIMITS ON DEATHWALK. DeathWalk wasn’t limited in PREY, of discussion about various aspects of the game, ranging from 5 so the character is able to die and resurrect as many times music to art to story. as needed. The lack of limitations on DeathWalk contributed to DeathWalk was no exception, as people brought up suggestions many of the other things that went wrong in development or quite often about the look and the gameplay of the mini-game. that we would change if given another go around. Had we limited This feedback was always taken seriously, and it quite often the number of times or how often the character could play in generated new ideas and directions for the prototyping of DeathWalk, it would have reduced or eliminated some of these DeathWalk. Without the feedback of the team, we wouldn’t have other elements that went wrong. explored as many different variations of the DeathWalk mechanic One suggestion that developed in hindsight is to have set places before deciding on the final version in the game—nor would the where DeathWalk cannot occur, such as during boss fights. look of the area be as polished as it turned out to be. KICKING THE LAST BUCKET WHAT WENT WRONG Controversy surrounded DeathWalk after PREY was released. DEATHWALK MADE THE GAME TOO EASY FOR SOME PLAYERS. Opinions on the feature were polarized, as some people liked the 1Because dead characters come back right where they died, aspect of never having to die permanently, whereas others felt it the game became too easy for some players. Experienced reduced the impact of dying and made the game too easy. gamers could just push through the game, die and come back Like other game features, DeathWalk could be improved upon, quickly to finish the fight. but ultimately I’m proud of how it turned out and the fact that we This is especially true during boss battles, when a player can had the opportunity and ability to implement something as fight as long as possible, die, and come back repeatedly until unique as this system. I think the true test of the effectiveness the boss is defeated; the boss’ health does not reset when the of DeathWalk is that it’s a feature that I find myself sorely character dies. missing when I play other games (especially if I’ve forgotten to save in a while). Even if our system isn’t copied directly, I hope REDUCED PLAYER CONCERN ABOUT DEATH. Some testers that alternative methods of handling death become more 2 reported that death no longer felt like a penalty and they no commonplace in future games. * longer feared dying in PREY. This was one of our concerns
36 NOVEMBER 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER PAT CHRISTEN
>> BUSINESS LEVEL
SERIOUS EXPECTATIONS Conflating science and game character creation
MORE THAN A DECADE AGO, HOPELAB board chair Pam Omidyar had an idea to combine science and entertainment technology to create a video game that would give young people with cancer a sense of power and control over their disease. The idea became a reality this year when HopeLab, the nonprofit Pam founded in 2001, launched RE-MISSION, a third-person shooter with 20 levels of gameplay featuring a gutsy, cancer- Between the concept stage (left) and final art work of the leukemia cells (right) fighting heroine named Roxxi. in RE-MISSION, scientists, game designers, and players all provided input. For most of us, RE-MISSION marked the first time we had worked with game challenge of developing one of the most experience but actually cool and fun to developers, so we weren’t familiar with important “enemies” in RE-MISSION: the play was equally important. So when the typical challenges they face, like cancer cells. conflict arose over how precisely we designing levels, optimizing playability, Under a microscope, cancer cells aren’t should represent cancer, our primary and creating engaging characters. particularly fearsome or intimidating. But enemy in RE-MISSION, it made sense to go The goal of RE-MISSION was clear from our goal was to clearly illustrate to cancer back to these young people for input. the start—to improve health-related patients the biology of cancer cells and Ultimately, this customer-focused outcomes for cancer patients. Now it was how they behave in the human body. In approach is what enabled everyone up to us make this goal fit into the game RE-MISSION, as in real life, if you don’t kill involved with RE-MISSION to achieve our development process. all the cancer cells you can find, they goals. It probably comes as no surprise that multiply and become a deadly threat. our young experts pushed for something a WHEN SCIENTISTS AND Accurately representing this threat in bit more fantastical than factual. But the DEVELOPERS COLLIDE gameplay was incredibly important. result is an enemy that’s not only based on Between the HopeLab team and our Concept sketches of the enemy cancer accurate biological principles, but also is a outside collaborators, we hold a great cells were reviewed by our team of real menace when it comes to gameplay. deal of expertise in the sciences. Still, we collaborators—both the scientists and It’s gratifying to have Roxxi blast the cancer had great respect for the fact that game the game designers. The drawings that cell villains, and, just like in real life, it’s not developers, not scientists, are the real the scientists liked best were not at all always easy to get every last one. experts when it comes to creating high- what the developers considered to be quality interactive games that young viable prototypes for video game villains. MARK OF SUCCESS people actually want to play. Finding a balance between these two The results we’ve achieved for a project Predictably, tensions surfaced at perspectives was critical. as ambitious as RE-MISSION have been certain points in the development terrifically successful by almost any process as we tried to incorporate key SEEING EYE TO EYE measure. In March, HopeLab announced biologic principles into the game’s design, We decided to seek the advice of young preliminary results from a large-scale, not always realizing that these principles people with cancer, our primary audience randomized, controlled trial of RE-MISSION didn’t necessarily make for interesting for RE-MISSION. that indicate the game improves key gameplay. A clear example was the Throughout the development process, health-related outcomes for cancer HopeLab consulted with young cancer patients who play it. patients to understand the challenges they Needless to say, we’re thrilled with faced physically and psychologically as these results and greatly appreciate the they endured cancer treatments in order to expertise and collaborative efforts of the PAT CHRISTEN is president of HopeLab, which created accurately reflect their experiences and game developers who participated with the serious game RE-MISSION. The game is accessible free of address their needs in RE-MISSION. us. RE-MISSION works, and the rational charge to young people with cancer through the RE-MISSION Asking these young people whether engineering and rigorous research web site: www.re-mission.net. To learn more about HopeLab they thought the game that was taking behind it demonstrate that video games and the making of RE-MISSION visit www.hopelab.org. shape was not only true to their life can do good in the world. *
WWW.GDMAG.COM 37 March 5-6, 2007 in San Francisco GDC MOBILE
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GDCM07_gdmag_NOV2.indd 1 10/10/06 3:30:27 PM MICK WEST
>> THE INNER PRODUCT STYLUS CONTROL A look at the input schemes of alternative game devices
UNTIL RECENTLY, THE MAJORITY OF aspect of gameplay—the interface MOUSE VS. STYLUS games have been controlled with either a between the player and the game. At first glance, a stylus may seem to be handheld sticks-and-buttons controller or Yet, like most aspects of game just a mouse that draws on the screen, a combination of keyboard and mouse. development, even player control is and indeed with a tablet PC, you can use Two factors are changing this. First, the shifting to a more data-driven approach, the stylus pretty much as you would use casual game market’s emphasis on where a game designer is able to define a mouse. But if you’re asked to develop a simple and accessible gameplay has the player control with some script game that works well with both a mouse resulted in a large number of games that language or table of data. Problems arise and stylus (or convert from one system are mouse-only, and that only use single with this approach when the capabilities to another), you need to think about clicks of one mouse button. Second, the supplied by the programmer do not what differences exist. release of the Nintendo DS has hugely adequately match the needs of the Other than other obvious physical increased the potential audience for designer, and it can be especially distinctions, the fundamental logical games that are controlled by a touch problematic when the programmer is difference is that a stylus has no need for screen and stylus. tasked with implementing a specific set a permanent cursor. A mouse is always Both factors converge in Nintendo’s of input functionality and handing it moving a cursor object around the TOUCH GENERATIONS branded games, which over to the designer before moving on to screen, but the stylus is its own cursor. are essentially casual games for the DS other tasks. The second major difference, which is that are played with a stylus. An The implementation of player control is related to the first, is that you don’t additional factor is the increase in the an organic, exploratory task, especially always know where the stylus is. With a installed base of tablet PCs and the when dealing with a controller (such as mouse, if you move it from one position related emerging market of ultra-mobile a stylus) that’s new to the team. to another, say to click on one icon, then PCs (like the Microsoft Origami spec) that Unforeseen inadequacies will inevitably another, the code can detect the use touch screens with a stylus or a be found in any control scheme movement of the mouse between these finger as their primary input device. technical design, and subtle control two icons and use that information as a This article discusses a few of the bugs will crop up throughout the course hint to the player control. programming and control design issues of the project. Hence, it’s highly On platforms such as the Nintendo DS, involved with implementing stylus recommended that a significant portion the stylus becomes invisible when it’s control (and the related single-button of the programmer’s time is allocated to lifted off the screen; it essentially mouse control) in a game. making refinements and fixes. vanishes from one point to appear on Dedicating programmer time to the task another. On tablet PCs, the stylus can be DEFINE YOUR ROLE at hand is especially important if the detected moving in the air an inch or so What should the programmer’s role be in coder is working on the actual player above the surface, but it can still move implementing stylus player control? Are control, not just the underlying code. In out of range, and then re-appear you implementing the player control or that situation, the programmer needs to somewhere else. implementing tools that allow someone be free to make very rapid changes to the else to implement it? Programmers have player control when the need arises. DEBUG BEFORE CODING always been a key part of implementing The role of the programmer is unique The single most important tool in player control, and it’s one of the few in this area since the effective implementing player control is the ability remaining areas where the programmer implementation of intuitive player control to visualize exactly what’s going on. The is directly involved in the most critical requires an understanding of what’s going very first thing you should implement is on at a per-frame level. Most designers are the display of the device input data in an not typically experienced with such low- easily understandable form. This need level functions, leaving them to rely heavily not be complex. For example, all the on the programmer to explain what’s going figures in this article use alternating red on when “this just doesn’t feel right.” and black diamond shapes to represent MICK WEST was a co-founder of Neversoft Entertainment. Again, programmers are not simply every recorded stylus position, with a line He's been in the game industry for 17 years and currently implementing a control specification; drawn between them. This visualization works as a technical consultant. Email him at they are an integral part of organically will give you a good initial idea of the type [email protected]. developing a seamless user experience. of input you will be handling and can
WWW.GDMAG.COM 39 THE INNER PRODUCT
FIGURE 1 These circular lines represent the slightly inaccurate path of a ball-based mouse (A) and the smoother, yet incomplete path of a laser optical mouse (B).
highlight unexpected issues with either the hardware or the driver layer you’re using to read the stylus or the mouse. A B Figure 1 shows approximately the same stroke performed by two different mice; each read the same way by simply you are probably already familiar with, players hold the controller in different handling the WM_MOUSEMOVE messages. specifically, the movement events and ways causing different patterns of input, In Figure 1A, notice the points are fairly the contact or button events. But at a which the programmer needs to account evenly dispersed, and the curve is higher level, stylus control consists of a for. Similar factors apply to stylus control reasonably smooth—but there are a few series of strokes. and simple mouse control. small kinks here and there. In Figure 1B A stroke is the path defined by the A stylus can be held at different angles, there are two differences: the line itself is collection of points that the stylus moves which affects how much it might slip smoother, with fewer kinks, and more through between a down event and an up when making contact with the screen. importantly, there are four samples event. A stroke can be as short as a The force applied when tapping can also “missing” from the data. single tap on the screen (equivalent to a affect the shape of the resultant stroke. A The smoothness of the line can be mouse click), or as long as a stroke that light-handed person may give a nice attributed to the second mouse (Figure covers the entire screen and indicates smooth line, whereas a more heavy- 1B) being an expensive wireless laser something like the path a weapon should handed person, or someone with poor optical mouse, whereas the first mouse take or a set of objects to be selected. motor control, may start the stroke (Figure 1A) is a cheap ball-based mouse Other high-level control events are inadvertently in the wrong direction as that came with the computer. The gaps in game specific. A “throw stroke” might the style makes contact. the line could be anything, maybe a indicate throwing something in a Figure 2 shows three different attempts driver bug, or a problem in some higher particular direction. Words such as “tap,” at drawing the same simple left-to-right layer, but the important thing here is that “drag,” “gesture,” and “path” have stroke. In Figure 2A, the player creates a the simple visualization reveals these different meanings depending on the nice clean stroke, holding the stylus problems before any coding is done. game type, and it’s important to establish firmly yet precisely, moving it smoothly exactly what these terms mean when and cleanly. In Figure 2B, the player has DEVELOP A LANGUAGE discussing player control. hit the screen hard with the stylus, but is For efficient communication between holding it loosely, causing it to slip programmer and designer, you need to DIFFERENT STROKES upward slightly at the start of the stroke. agree on a common language. The In my article “Pushing Buttons” (Game In Figure 2C, the start of the stroke is fundamental, low-level, building blocks of Developer, May 2005), I discussed the again indeterminate, as the player has player controls are the device “events” problem of “sloppy thumb,” where tapped the stylus down hard and paused
A B C
FIGURE 2 The same simple left-to-right stroke can be interpreted differently depending on how the user handles the stylus: using a firm and steady hand (A); hitting the screen hard initially and holding the stylus loosely so it slips (B); or striking hard initially and pausing before completing the stroke (C).
40 NOVEMBER 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER A B
FIGURE 3 Stylus acceleration varies with the user’s intent. A stroke may begin and end slowly (A) technical knowledge of the device (and or may have a continuous and steady speed (B). how input is received by the device) makes programmers integral to the design process and the organic for a fraction of a second before starting ACCELERATION INFO implementation of the player controls. the stroke. At the end of the stroke, the The raw vectors that form a stroke tell Visualization is vital. Players have hand movement slows down, and the you where on the surface the player different input styles and mental angle of the stroke drifts upward. This moved the stylus and how fast. But by expectations of stroke control, and by ending is more typical of left-handed looking at the acceleration information in accommodating as many styles as players who hold their styluses with a the stroke data, the programmer can possible without compromising firm overhand grip, as they would a pen. gather information that indicates what coherent controls, you will expand the What is the programmer to make of the user was doing before and after potential market and the conversion these strokes? It depends on what’s making the actual stroke. rate for the game. * going on in the game, but a common The two strokes in Figure 3 control element is “throwing” something, both cover about the same or shooting a missile in a particular distance in the same direction. We need to translate the stroke direction. However, Figure 3A into a direction vector. Two obvious shows significant approaches are to either use the vector acceleration at the start of from the first point in the stroke to the the stroke and deceleration last, or to use the vector formed as the at the end, which indicates average from all the individual that the player deliberately components of the stroke. made the stroke from one But as we can see from the strokes, the point to another and that the results of these calculations would give us stylus was not really moving a direction vector that is not in agreement before or after the stroke. In with the intent of our sloppy players. Our Figure 3B, the stroke was precise player (Figure 2A) would be fine, made at the same speed but in both Figures 2B and 2C, the throughout, indicating the resultant vector would tend upward. player was moving the A possible solution would be to simply stylus both before and after chop off the start and end of the stroke the stroke at the same by a certain amount, ignoring, for speed. This is like the player example, the first and last 10 percent or moving the stylus through maybe 0.05 seconds of a stroke. But a the air, dipping it down to more sophisticated solution would be to briefly touch the surface and try to identify the “straight” portion of the continuing. stroke, which we can easily recognize, These two movements but is a little more complex to program. are very different, yet the Whether you would actually want to interpretation of the implement this solution depends on the strokes may or may not be type of game you’re making and its different, depending on the intended audience. Some games such as type of game. golf or bowling might depend on the nuance of a stroke for fine control of ball DEVICE-DRIVEN spin, and so the degree of slack you want DESIGN to give the player would be less. But in Games controlled by a ball tossing games such as MAGNETICA or stylus or mouse are LUXOR, all you want is a direction vector. increasingly common. Their
WWW.GDMAG.COM 41 NOAH FALSTEIN
>> game shui CHANGING BRAINS ‘I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.’ —Upton Sinclair, about his 1906 book The Jungle
ONE OF THE POIGNANT STORIES I SURVIVING ON BROCCOLI remember from my high school U.S. For years, most educators have looked at Depression—representing the material in history class was that of the writer and games as the enemy, something their a game becomes much tougher. socialist activist Upton Sinclair whose students choose to do instead of serious Conversely, when you want to teach book The Jungle was intended to study. In the 1980s a few tried to something that is closely related to awaken the world to the awful injustices harness the power of games, reasoning survival, you can do very well—hence and working conditions imposed on that if students were motivated to play, the success of AMERICA’S ARMY and FULL workers in the meat-packing industry. there might be a way to get them to learn SPECTRUM WARRIOR. And he did awaken in the process. the world—but to Many of the early edutainment titles MAKING CONTENT PLAYABLE the awful contents were, in the terms of developer Brenda In the end, it may be that games are the of the sausages Laurel, “chocolate-covered broccoli,” wrong way to go. Games are powerful they ate. Later that merely the same old boring drills with the teaching machines, but not the ultimate year, the Pure Food trappings of gameplay as a superficial solution to every problem. and Drug Act was and ultimately unsatisfying “topping.” It’s Alternative approaches are out there, passed, but really only in recent years (with what has though. One is to simplify. If a complex workers continued become known as the serious games math concept can be broken down into to suffer. movement) that we’re starting to see the very simple steps, which can in turn be What does this true integration of good game design linked to an abstract game, that game have to do with techniques with good pedagogy. might not be able to teach the full subject designing games? of solving differential equations, but it Sega’s TYPING OF THE DEAD Let’s consider another quote. Stop me if SURVIVING ON SKILLS could get you part of the way there and is an example of a game you’ve heard this one: “How many Still, there’s the tendency to view shorten (or reinforce) the classroom that teaches players therapists does it take to change a light gameplay as a kind of fairy dust that instruction. without removing them bulb? Just one, but the light bulb has to can be sprinkled over boring academic Another solution is to find a way to link from the action. want to change.” content. But if you look at the most at least part of your topic to survival. The That joke gets at the heart of a fact of popular games, invariably they are political causes of the Great Depression human nature: getting someone to focused firmly on themes of survival, and may be abstract, but the way it affected change is really tough, unless they the skills one learns while playing are individuals and families was quite real, really want to change. Most people intimately connected to survival and and could transition easily into gameplay would rather just have fun, perhaps by social skills (for more on this topic, see representation. playing a game. And yet, as regular “Natural Funativity,” www.gamasutra.com One of the few big successes from the readers of this column know, games are /features/20041110/falstein_01.shtml). early edutainment days was OREGON ultimately about learning, and learning Frequently, I’ve found that when an TRAIL, which taught about the American is the process of changing one’s educator turns to games as a way to West through a theme that was heavily knowledge, and often consequently make boring topics more fun, those topics survival oriented. I recently used that one’s actions. are far removed from everyday survival. approach myself in the design for a Lauer Perhaps the proper joke for our industry For straightforward topics, just putting Learning game called FREEDOM FIGHTER is: “How many games does it take to the material into an arcade context can 56, which teaches about the Hungarian teach a player? Just one, but the player sometimes help. TYPING OF THE DEAD is a revolution 50 years ago by putting the has to want to learn.” typing trainer, and although there’s no player into the action. logical reason why being a faster typist Ultimately, if we designers are supposed should blow up zombies, it can really to motivate players to want to change, we work as a motivator. need to reach them with topics and NOAH FALSTEIN has been a professional game developer However, if you have a more complex themes that they care about. Otherwise, since 1980. His web site, www.theinspiracy.com, has a subject that is inherently far from a we are likely to aim for their brains, and hit description of The 400 Project, the basis for these columns. Also student’s everyday survival needs—for them in their hand-eye coordination. And at that site is a list of the game design rules collected so far and instance, solving differential equations, everyone knows if you want to stop a tips on how to use them. Email him at [email protected]. or understanding the causes of the Great zombie, you must hit its brain. *
42 NOVEMBER 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER STEVE THEODORE
>> PIXEL PUSHER
THROUGH A SCANNER DARKLY
LAST MONTH, PIXEL PUSHER WAS animators would be laid off in droves on the back, poly pushers). For us, the chirruping happily about what a great time while an army of drama students in key is to find significant features, like the it is to be a video game artist. This month, spandex grabbed all the jobs. The reality corners of a box, the roundness of a ball, we return to the moody artist stereotype is, of course, not quite so simple or or the features of a face, which become to dredge up some doom and gloom. baleful—but even if scanning won’t put the basis of the model layout. It’s Anyone who has been to a developers’ us all on the breadline, it’s still worth our intuitive to us, but it’s way beyond the beer night or sat through a state-of-the- time to look at how the technology capacities of contemporary computers. industry conference panel knows the behind it is evolving, what it’s good for, Scanners, on the other hand, take a litany of scary, potentially career- and what it may mean for the industry. brute force approach. They collect millions changing technologies and trends of perfectly accurate bits of data, but they perpetually on the horizon. There’s HUMBLE BEGINNINGS have no idea which of those bits are outsourcing, next-gen team bloat, the Older scanners were impressive at first important and which are filler, using sheer Autodesk-Alias merger, any number of glance, but the results didn’t always volume of data to capture the nuances. In ongoing workers’ rights lawsuit, and the stand up to close examination. Those a hand-built model, every contour is there decline of PC gaming—not to mention bird complimentary “let us scan your art because the artist knows it should be. In flu, the loss of Pluto as a planet, and the director” models that came back from a scanned model, by contrast, the key return of hair metal bands. every Siggraph junket often featured poor visual features don’t really exist, their If you’re not depressed already, here’s handling of undercuts, noisy data, and presence merely suggested by fortuitously another challenging technology that textures with built-in lighting and placed vertices (see Figure 1, pg. 44). hasn’t made it onto most artists’ early projection smears. Mechanical models In this way hand-built models are like warning radars just yet—scanners. sprouted digital acne worthy of Joey vector drawings, whereas scans are more 3D scanners have been around for a Ramone, with dimpled planes, rough like bitmaps. Hand-built models elegantly couple of decades in various forms, so edges, and crude sculpting. Worst of all, describe objects with strong forms, such they’re not exactly “new,” but in the last the raw scan data was monstrously heavy. as sculptures or machines. Scans, like couple of years falling prices and Between bloated data, laborious bitmaps, do a great job on noisier and improving quality have made them cleanup, and mediocre results, scanning more organic shapes (for example, increasingly attractive. Don’t be didn’t put many modelers on the dole. human faces), but they are also memory surprised if you see a lot of breathless The technology did find useful roles in a hogs. A scan requires far more data to get articles in the press over the next year handful of niche jobs, such as cranking visual results that approximate the about the new generation of scanners, out recognizable likenesses of sports quality of a good model. In the last how they were used for this movie or that figures or movie stars. generation of games, turning a scanned game, and how they produce beautiful Cinema teams less bound by the limits model into a real-time-ready model was assets on command. of real-time performance were also able almost as hard as building one from This party line sounds a lot like the one to experiment with scanned characters, scratch, so scanners rarely emerged from we heard in the early days of motion and if nothing else, scanners were their specialist roles. capture, when the media predicted that unbeatable for dealing with wrinkles and folds in clothing. Yet on the whole, THIS IS NOW scanning was definitely an exotic way to Nothing lasts for long in the game generate game content, the sort of business. Three important factors have technology that seems to exist primarily conspired to make scanning a for trade show demos. mainstream option today. The first big change is on our end: while STEVE THEODORE has been in the game industry for THAT WAS THEN the basic technology behind scans hasn’t 12 years. He's worked at FASA Interactive, Valve, RAD Game Even the early scanners were impressive changed, our output technology has. Tools, and until recently was the technical art manager at technical achievements. Attempting to Having cheap and plentiful normal maps Zipper Interactive. He's now a founding partner at Giant Bite. translate a real world object into a 3D means we can finally derive some Email him at [email protected]. model is a daunting task (pat yourselves tangible benefit from all those zillions of
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scanned polys. Per-pixel lighting preserves the important features of the high-resolution scan without busting our geometry budgets. The latest version of Direct3D and a handful of games have even toyed with real-time displacement maps, so we may be able to adopt the Hollywood technique of storing scan data as displacement maps on top of Nurbs curves or subdivision geometry. Advances in scanning software have also helped push scanners back into the limelight. Early scanning applications were mostly concerned with the messy business of converting huge clouds of point data into usable data, or matching up multiple scans into coherent models. Nowadays, scan software (such as GSI A B Studio, CySlice, or InSpeck) also gives artists a lot of freedom to draw in FIGURE 1 This model of a turbine blade (A) has almost 900,000 vertices, but it still can’t animation-friendly topology, produce represent the smooth curvature of the blade perfectly, illustrating the inefficiency of raw 3D
useable UV maps, and quickly generate scans. The hand-built model (B) has fewer than 2,500 vertices, but it shades more cleanly. OF THE GEORGIA TECH LARGE MODELS ARCHIVE. FIGURE 1A COURTESY normal maps off the original data (see Figure 2). All these benefits add up to a real reduction in turnaround time. A high FIRE! Shaders. The biggest reason scanners quality scanned asset can be almost With all these new and almost magical aren’t an end-to-end solution is material ready for prime time in a day or two. capabilities, it’s easy to get spooked and handling. There’s no commercially Technical evolution has also brought start thinking the real output of these available way to capture the surface scanners back to center stage. The latest new machines is going to be pink slips. At properties of an object. Scanners do generation of scanners are accurate to a this very moment, some vice president of capture texture maps, but typically they truly scary degree. There are scanners on something-or-other is looking at a do so with plain old digital photography, the market today that boast a spatial brochure for a $300,000 scanner, so getting those scans into proper resolution of about 0.003 inches (or wondering how many vacation-taking, textures with neutral lighting and no 0.075mm), literally the thickness of a benefit-using, class-action-lawsuit- shading or false highlights takes a lot of human hair. bringing modelers it might replace. attention. Scanned textures are a great The increased resolution is less Keep dreaming. There are several starting point for hand texturing, since important for spatial accuracy than for reasons massive layoffs aren’t right they provide perfect registration with the properly capturing surface texture. A around the corner. Remember that we’ve geometry, but the process is nothing like modern scanner can capture the been through this cycle before, and the “scan it and can it.” stitching in a pair of jeans, the leather skeptics have always been right. On top of all that, scanners don’t texture of a football, or the pores on a Survivors of the first wave of commercial capture all the other surface information face. This microscopic resolution, mo-cap production can certainly bear that modern shader systems require. combined with even larger numbers of witness to how people talked about the Specularity or incandescence, for sample points, now lets scanners tackle end of hand animation; some of us even example, or translucent or transparent planar surfaces and sculpted contours remember when people argued seriously surfaces are obstacles to scanning. with much greater success. Instead of that the availability of 300dpi scanners Shiny or transparent areas often need the pockmarks and pimples, the newest would end the art of computer painting to be painted over to achieve good scanners produce very passable almost before it began. quality scans. renditions of sculpted surfaces. Modern We’re not quite ready to bow before our Professional doomsayers may point scanners can even capture the grip robot overlords just yet. There are four out the body of academic work on texture on a pistol or the lettering key areas where scanners need a lot of bidirectional radiance diffusion function embossed on a button. help from traditional techniques. (BRDF) probes, which can capture a very
44 NOVEMBER 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER to a service bureau, possibly in upright scans suffer from drifts and another city or state. misalignments. Scanning an actor on a A scan-heavy workflow also bed or recliner solves the motion means managing relationships problem, but then the pull of gravity with prop houses, costume distorts the face into a disturbing agencies, model fabricators, and zombified mask. Scans will be perfectly possibly modeling agencies or “accurate” and nearly “photorealistic,” actors’ unions. Riding herd on a but without careful art direction they bunch of in-house modelers may won’t always be appealing. come to seem pleasantly simple by comparison. THE PENULTIMATE TRUTH Like motion capture and digital Style. Of all the potential photography before it, 3D scanning is not problems, style is the hardest to going to bring the world crashing down quantify but potentially the most around our feet. Falling prices and important. continuously improving quality mean The exactitude of a good scan that you will definitely be seeing more is awe-inspiring. Unfortunately, scans in the future. It’s quite likely that the parts of your game that can’t some people who make models today will be scanned could look pretty find themselves touching up scans in the pokey by comparison. Sports future, just as some people who used to games, racing games, and set keys now work from mo-cap data. perhaps contemporary military If the prospect of being second fiddle to games can make very extensive a laser appalls you, start thinking now use of scans without busting about what you can do that scanners their illusions, but other genres can’t. Do you have a knack for design or a are more problematic. strong personal style? Are you a pipeline Some creature-makers are wizard who can find new ways to scanning in Hollywood-style squeeze quality out of a game engine? maquettes. This produces very Can you mimic any style with aplomb? satisfying results (“Leon” from The niche you pick matters less than Matthias Worch’s 2005 Game giving serious thought what you’re good Developers Conference talk is a at and what you want. great example), and hefty clay That, at least, is something the statuettes are great sales tools machines can’t do ... yet. * FIGURE 2 With normal maps, we can finally shoehorn all when dealing with skeptical suits. that scanned data into real-time models. Real sculpture, however, can be even more of an expensive craft than 3D modeling, so this RESOURCES route is for the artistically full representation of how a surface ambitious rather than the budget For a list of all things scanning related, including a long list of interacts with light. The technique was conscious. scanner manufacturers’ web sites, see: used to great effect in the last Matrix www.simple3d.com movie, but there’s still no off-the-shelf Uncanniness. Last but far from least is The Stanford 3D Scanning Repository: solution for those of us without a PhD. the yawning pitfall of next-generation http://graphics.stanford.edu/data/3Dscanrep games, the infamous Uncanny Valley Flexibility. Much like motion capture or where characters become so The Georgia Tech Large Models Archive: asset outsourcing, 3D scanning cuts the superficially real that every technical or www-static.cc.gatech.edu/projects/large_models load of asset creators, but it also creates artistic flaw becomes weirdly repulsive Scanning service bureau resources: a lot of work for producers and art (see “Uncanny Valley,” December 2004). www.gentlegiantstudios.com managers. Unless you’re planning to The precision of modern scanners can http://xyzrgb.com shell out $300,000 for an in-house actually make it harder to capture people www.eyetronics.com scanner, you’ll probably be sending work well. Since no actor can sit perfectly still, www.cyberware.com/info/scanningCenters.html
SCANNED HEAD COURTESY OF CYBERWARE, INC. WWW.GDMAG.COM 45 JESSE HARLIN
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BE A DEMO DYNAMO
THE VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY IS NOMADIC handwriting is, it can’t compare to a clear answers with which everyone by nature and no field is more transient printed CD label. But what do you print on agrees. Should you make a single than audio. As a result, all audio the label? montage piece or a series of smaller, professionals are forced throughout First and foremost, always include your separate tracks? As someone who their careers to prove and name and contact information on every reviews demos, I find that I prefer to see reprove their worth solely on part of your demo—whether it’s the case, separate tracks since I can easily skip the strength of their resume the disc, the resume, or a business card back and forth through the demo to hear and the first 30 seconds of you tossed in for good measure. Discs tracks again. Should your demo vary their demo. and cases are easily separated and if widely stylistically or should it be most Freelance audio folks rarely there isn’t any clue as to whose audio the representative of your strongest talents? get to see the demos of their disc contains, that nameless disc just That depends on the specifics of the job competition and audio lost itself a gig. for which you’re applying. directors don’t have time to Second, if you’re looking to stand out, Without a doubt, the most important give critiques on the demos avoid the standard cliché images aspect that is often overlooked with that end up in their “no” pile. So common to the industry. For composers, demos is the ability to focus it how do you know if you’re a this means never cover your demo with specifically to the job for which you’re A bad demo disc cover, “no” or not? More importantly, how can pictures of sheet music, treble clefs, applying. An all-purpose demo is great for typos and all, will become you ensure you’re in the “yes” pile? noteheads, violins, etc. So many GDC, but if you’re applying for a specific lost among all the other composers use these images as the easy job you should submit a demo that poorly designed discs. PRESENTING YOUR BEST way of saying, “This is a music disc.” speaks directly to that position. A sound No demo exists in a vacuum. To the Hundreds of composers are all using the design job does not warrant a music contrary, almost every demo will find itself same imagery. demo. A company that only makes racing sitting in the middle of a stack of demos. For sound designers, stay clear of games does not want to hear a sweeping Before any tracks can be heard, the first pictures of waveforms, speakers, or fantasy soundscape. Your demo should impression your demo will make is a visual screenshots from Protools as they’re all be flexible enough that you can select one. As such, presentation is overdone. Both disciplines are also guilty from a pool of available tracks that are everything. Imagine an audio of another common cliché. If you include appropriate at different times for director staring down a stack of a photo of yourself, don’t take it while different job opportunities. CDs without any idea of what sitting in front of your gear. Take a picture the audio on them sounds like. of yourself anywhere else. You’re looking BACK TO BASICS At that moment, the selection of to stand out and be different. Trust me. Never forget the basics. Make sure each one demo over another is Audio directors will still believe you know disc works on both Mac and PC platforms, almost completely arbitrary. a mod wheel from a pan pot if they don’t as you never know what the listening The only advantage your demo see you beside one. environment on the other end will be. has is its ability to stand out If you don’t have the graphic design or Listen through your demo to make sure from the crowd. Photoshop skills to design something all of the tracks play through to the end This means that CD- and DVD-Rs other than the clichés for yourself, hire a of the file. Make sure your demo is that have been written on with a graphic designer to do it for you. It’s that short—no longer than 10 minutes, A good demo disc cover, Sharpie marker are automatically at a important. You’re creating a brand of preferably closer to five. Unless from composer Duncan disadvantage. At their best, they look yourself that you’re then marketing specifically requested, don’t send data Watt, uses bright artwork sloppy. Far too frequently, however, they throughout the industry. You owe it to discs with anything other than audio and and a catchy design to contain illegible or incomplete text. No yourself to do everything you can to video clips. Word documents and Excel make it stand out. matter how attractive you may think your ensure that your disc stands out from the spreadsheets are not the stuff of demos. pile of unknowns. There’s a certain element of alchemy to crafting the right demo. Listen when FOCUS YOUR EFFORTS people give you feedback, update your Once your demo has been yanked from demo frequently, but mostly don’t feel the pile, your audio chops are finally on too stressed by demos. Our industry is JESSE HARLIN has been composing music for games display. There are a number of different full of dream jobs and you’ll have plenty since 1999. He is currently the staff composer for schools of thought regarding how best to of opportunities throughout your career LucasArts.You can email him at [email protected]. present your work, and unfortunately no for fine-tuning. *
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DISGAEA 2: CURSED MEMORIES DISGAEA 2 is the PlayStation 2 sequel to the anime- style strategy RPG hit from Nippon Ichi Software, with character designs by Takehito Harada. The character depicted here is Laharl, one of the main characters, with a Prinny hanging from above.
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