EVERY ISSUE INCL. COMPANY INDEX 11-12/2017 € 6,90 OFFICIAL PARTNER OF Bundesverband DESIGN BUSINESS ART TECHNOLOGY THE MAKING OF POST MORTEM BUSINESS BEST PRACTICE GAME DESIGN CASE STUDY HOW SALMI GAMES BROUCHT THEIR HOW TO DESIGN AND IMPLEMENT NCSOFT ON THE BALANCING IN MOBILE GAME ELLIPSIS TO THE PC YOUR OWN PAYMENT SYSTEM ACTION MOBA MASTER X MASTER EVENTS FOR THE GAMES INDUSTRY JOIN OUR CONFERENCES BECOME A SPONSOR BE A SPEAKER www.aruba-events.de Aruba17_1-1_210x297_image_02.indd 1 14.07.2017 10:59:22 LET THE GAMES BEGIN(AGAIN)! amescom 2017 is done and dusted. which will be presented on December 6 and With a record number of 350,000 7 in Cologne. The application phase ended Dirk Gooding visitors and an opening speech on September 15 – now it’s the jury’s turn Editor-in-Chief at Making Games Magazine by German Chancellor Angela to play through nearly 230 submissions in Merkel, the world’s biggest family various categories. The »Blue Byte New- get-together of the games industry comer Award« will also be on board again, wrapped things up for this year. which includes a notable upgrade this year; GSome of the participants immediately left for you can learn more about that on page their well-deserved vacation, while others 16. We’re already looking forward to the had the next big events like IFA (International many creative projects which – with a bit of Radio Exhibition Berlin) or recently the Tokyo luck – we will hear more from in one of our Nico Balletta Game Show on their agenda. And again, others future issues. And who knows, maybe some Managing Editor were or are about to make it to the finish line of the stars of tomorrow will follow »The at Making Games Magazine of one of the many releases of the coming fall Dwarves«, »Cubiverse«, »Shift Happens« or and winter months. Admittedly, we would »Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun«, the have liked to enjoy the warm summer for a bit big winner of the German Developer Awards longer… but hey, considering the number of 2016, and make it on our cover. Which makes top games we shouldn’t really complain. As a for a not so subtle transition to… famous saying goes: »Brace yourselves – the best gaming season is coming!« Bigger, bolder, better Mimimi Productions won as many as four Events, events, events categories last December, almost simulta- There’s no rest for Making Games either: Mak- neous to the PC release of the now interna- ing Games Conference, which will be held as tionally successful title. And, as is often the part of the MEDIENTAGE (Media Days) Munich case, the time was against us: Post-editing, a on October 25 and 26, attracting their audience shortened production period and gamescom »We’re already looking forward to not only with keynotes and expert panels, on the one hand, and significant milestones the many creative projects from the but also with a number of Master Classes, is on the other. And while initially we weren’t potential stars of tomorrow!« definitely worth paying a two-day visit to the sure whether the time would permit doing Bavarian capital. Detailed information with a proper cover story, we actually may have regard to the timetable and speakers can be – due to many sleepless nights – broken found on our overview on page 12. a record in terms of volume, which we’re Another note: From now on, starting with incredibly proud of and which you, our dear this issue, Making Games will be released readers, will hopefully enjoy as well. on the first Wednesday of each even month instead of the third Friday. As a positive side Enjoy the latest issue! effect, issue 01-02/18 will be released right on the day of the German Developer Awards Your team at Making Games! 3 18 CONTENTS 11-12/2017 03 Editorial 82 Preview / Impressum Fokus GAME 06 By Timm Walter 4 questions for… 07 Nico Nowarra in a brief interview BIU Special: Diversity requires funding 08 Games funding in Germany 32 BIU Academy 10 Upcoming webinars at a glance Making Games Conference 12 An overview of all keynotes and Master Classes Making Games Academy 14 The new video portal on makinggames.biz Event: animago AWARD & CONFERENCE 15 From »Simon‘s« Cat to »Beyond Good & Evil 2« 60 The Ubisoft Blue Byte Newcomer Award 16 The newcomer award gets an upgrade. Company index 76 The industry at a glance 4 COVER STORY The Making of Shadow Tacctics: Blades of the Shogun Retrospective – The History of Shadow Tactics 18 We sat with Johannes Roth, the CEO of Mimimi Productions, to talk about the studio‘s history and how the idea for »Shadow Tactics« came to life. Case Study – Finding the Perfect Art Style 25 »The Last Tinker« and Shadow tactics couldn‘t be any more different – and so are their looks. 53 Director Bianca Dörr talks about the difficulties of finding the perfect art style. Case Study – Level Evolution in Shadow Tactics 32 Moritz Wagner knows exactly what an excellent level needs and explains how Shadow Tactics‘ mission maps evolved start to finish. Case Study – Blades of the Engine 37 Frieder Mielke and Philipp Wittershagen talk about assets, tools and editors they used during the development of Shadow Tactics. Case Study – Eye Candy: VFX in Shadow Tactics 25 48 Nobody sees them when they‘re in the game, but everyone knows when they‘re not: visual ef- fects. Florian Smolka about footprints, shadows and lots of blood. Case Study – The Shogun‘s Blades 53 In a game like Shadow Tactics, every single playa- ble character is essential – for a mission‘s success as well as the game‘s story and atmosphere. A Day at … Mimimi Productions 58 We visited Mimimi Productions at their studio 37 48 and took the chance to take some pictures. Business Best Practice 60 In the second part of his series on »Payment services in online games« Stephan Payer talks about the design and the implementation of a 64 68 payment system. Post Mortem 64 Porting games developed for mobile to PC, such as »Ellipsis«, can be quite challenging. Salmi Games can tell a thing or two about that. Game Design Case Study 68 With FOX n FORESTS and the help of their simul- taneously developed »pixel pipeline«, Bonus Level 72 Entertainment want to revive the 16-bit era. Interview: Balancing in Master X Master 72 We sat with Jiho Lee, Hyung-Min Lee, Seungho So, Monnseop Lee and Bonhak Koo from NCSOFT to talk about balancing their action MOBA Master X Master. 5 Industry | Minds Making Games 11-12/17 FOCUS GAME THE CALM AFTER GAMESCOM All done and dusted – the world’s biggest game show including its much-touted visit by high-profile politicians. n my last column I was wondering all time, which basically completely ignored Timm Walter what effect the newly discovered polit- the topic of digitalization. Head of Operations at GAME, ical love of the games industry might the German Games Industry have and what we as the representa- Digital representatives Association tives of said industry can expect when Of course, one may say: »But it’s not the not only the Chancellor, but also the politicians or parties who created the elec- Secretary Generals and Chairmen of tion guide and the tv debate!« This may be Ithe big parties as well as various state rep- true, but at the same time they pretend to Timm is a political scientist and as Head of Operations in charge of the resentatives meet at the trade show that is know what the people want. If the people operating business of GAME. Prior to his time in the association, he so important for us. really don’t have a digital agenda, we and gained wide-ranging experience in politics and the media industry as I wish I could write about other IT industries, too, have well as in various clubs and societies. genuine torrents of enthusiasm »We can only hope a much bigger problem than by the politicians and about we have been aware of so far. a growing understanding, that the annual Since the elections are already not only for our form of art gamescom trips over when this article is pub- and culture, but also for our lished, we can only hope that economic situation – especially are more than just all relevant parties do indeed with regard to the international a getaway to a fun have digitalization and the market and competition situa- alternate universe.« associated prospects and pos- tion. But unfortunately, that’s sibilities on their agenda and not the case. that their annual gamescom trips are more than just a getaway to a fun alternate universe to escape their reality »No guarantees« of furious dairy farmers and steelworkers. Of course, each year, more and more poli- And we should hope that the party pro- ticians find their way – be it by accident or grams will be more than just empty prom- will full intention – to gamescom, and the ises. If one may believe them, most parties by now traditional round tour on opening have at least understood the necessity of a day is becoming more and more popular. To focus on digital content and economy. the surprise of no one, we heard the Chan- cellor say words like »worthy of support« and »potential«, but can we really call this a Hope dies last major achievement? Since we actually can’t do anything but Unfortunately, I don’t possess a crystal hope (and since two politically coined ball (which I am painfully aware of since columns in a row are a bit much), I can I’m not writing this feature from the terrace only conclude that this year’s gamescom of my beach mansion underneath palm was very much dominated by Ubisoft who trees), but also since my bitcoin portfolio has very promising series offshoots in the has failed big time.