>> POSTMORTEM TWISTED PIXEL'S THE MAW DECEMBER 2008 THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE >> INTERVIEW >> AURAL FIXATION >> GAMESCAPE YUJI NAKA TAPS COMPRESSING SOUND A HISTORY OF BOSTON HIS CREATIVITY FOR THE IPHONE GAME DEVELOPMENT 0812gd_cover_vIjf.indd 1 11/20/08 10:43:45 AM “ReplayDIRECTOR rocks. I doubt we'd have found it otherwise. It turned out to be an occasional array overwrite that would cause random memory corruption…” Meilin Wong, Developer, Crystal Dynamics BUGS. PETRIFIED. RECORD. REPLAY. FIXED. ReplayDIRECTOR™ gives you Deep Recording. This is much more than just video capture. Replay records every line of code that you execute and makes certain that it will Replay with the same path of execution through your code. Every time. Instantly Replay any bug you can find. Seriously. DEEP RECORDING. NO SOURCE MODS. download today at www.replaysolutions.com email us at [email protected] REPLAY SOLUTIONS 1600 Seaport Blvd., Suite 310, Redwood City, CA, 94063 - Tel: 650-472-2208 Fax: 650-240-0403 accelerating you to market ©Replay Solutions, LLC. All rights reserved. Product features, specifications, system requirements and availability are subject to change without notice. ReplayDIRECTOR and the Replay Solutions logo are registered trademarks of Replay Solutions, LLC in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners. []CONTENTS DECEMBER 2008 VOLUME 15, NUMBER 11 FEATURES 7 WHAT WENT WRONG? Over the years, postmortems start to echo each other. The same problems are encountered, and fixed, or dealt with. Here, we've compiled the 10 most common difficulties of the last three years for your reading (and cringing) pleasure. Just as the Salary Survey is intended to be waved in the face of your boss come raise time (or to hide if you're paid more than the average), this feature should hopefully go part of the way toward fixing some common development mis-steps. 7 By Brandon Sheffield 14 INTERVIEW: YUJI NAKA Yuji Naka was once one of the biggest names in Japanese game creators, as the man 16 behind SONIC THE HEDGEHOG. Since his era of 14 prominence, Naka has made a purposeful shift from manager back to creator, and is now launching a series of simple, easy-to-play games for the Wii. In this interview, conducted POSTMORTEM at the recent Tokyo Game Show, we discussed his new company Prope, as well as his latest 16 TWISTED PIXEL'S THE MAW work, LET'S TAP, which doesn't even require the players to touch the controller. Twisted Pixel went from an under-construction warehouse to a urologist's office during the development of THE MAW, and lived to tell By Brandon Sheffield the tale. Here, the author discusses the difficulty of Lua and Luabind memory allocations and XML load times, not to mention the difficulty of greenlighting a new project to begin with. By Frank Wilson DEPARTMENTS COLUMNS 2 GAME PLAN By Brandon Sheffield 36 THE INNER PRODUCT By Noel Llopis [PROGRAMMING] A Christmas Story Data Alignment Part 1 4 HEADS UP DISPLAY 38 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore [ART] Front Line Award Finalists, Tec-Toy's new Zeebo console, the Uzebox The M-Word homebrew system, and more. 41 DESIGN OF THE TIMES By Damion Schubert [DESIGN] 30 GAMESCAPE By Jeffrey Fleming Writing Better, Shorter System Docs Boston, Massachusetts 43 AURAL FIXATION By Jesse Harlin [SOUND] 33 TOOL BOX By Noel Llopis and Bijan Forutanpour Squashed Whole Tomato's Visual Assist X, and Real Time Rendering, Third Edition, by Tomas Akenine-Moller, Eric Haines, and Naty Hoffman 48 ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT By Matthew Wasteland [HUMOR] Bug Me Not COVER ART: JOE MITCH WWW.GDMAG.COM 1 0812gd_contents_vIjf.indd 1 11/20/08 10:46:04 AM []GAME PLAN www.gdmag.com CMP Media, 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94107 t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090 CMPThink Media, Services, 600 600 Harrison Harrison St., St.,6th 6thFl., Fl., SanSUBSCRIPTION Francisco, SERVICES CA 94107 t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090 t:FOR 415.947.6000 INFORMATION, f: ORDER415.947.6090 QUESTIONS, AND ADDRESS CHANGES t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606 e: [email protected] SUBSCRIPTION SERVICESSERVICES EDITORIAL FOR INFORMATION, ORDERORDER QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS, AND AND ADDRESS ADDRESS CHANGES CHANGES EDITOR-IN-CHIEFt: 800.250.2429 f:f: 847.763.9606847.763.9606 e: e: [email protected] [email protected] Simot: 800.250.2429n Carless [email protected] f: 847.763.9606 e: [email protected] MANAGINGEDITITORIAL EDITOR A CHRISTMAS PUBLISHERJill Duffy [email protected] Simon Carless [email protected]@gdmag.com FEATURESSimon Carless EDITOR [email protected]@gdmag.com MANAGINGEDITOR-IN-CHIEFBrandon Sheffield EDITOR [email protected] Jill Duffy [email protected]@gdmag.com ARTJillBrandon DIRECTOR Duffy Sheffield [email protected] [email protected] STORY SENIORPRODUCTIONCliff Scorso EDITOR [email protected] EDITOR Brandon Sheffield [email protected]@gdmag.com CONTRIBUTINGJeffrey Fleming EDITORS [email protected] ARTJesse DIRECTOR Harlin [email protected] Cliff Scorso [email protected] NoahCliffJoseph Scorso Falstein Mitch [email protected] [email protected]@gdmag.com CONTRIBUTINGSteve Theodore EDITORSEDITORS [email protected] SENIORJesse Harlin CONTRIBUTING [email protected] EDITOR MickJesseJill Duffy West Harlin [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] BY NOW, YOU WILL LIKELY HAVE EITHER FINISHED YOU’LL PUT YOUR EYE OUT Noah Falstein [email protected]@gdmag.com ADVISORYCONTRIBUTINGNoah Falstein BOARD EDITORS [email protected] or just be finishing your holiday crunch. If you’re Meeting a holiday schedule has its obvious Steve Theodore [email protected]@gdmag.com MickHalJesse Barwood West Harlin [email protected] [email protected] not finished, well, I’m sorry for you. And if you problems. Unless a game is very specifically EllenMickSteve GuonWest Theodore Beeman [email protected] [email protected] Microsoft ADVISORY BOARD haven’t had to crunch at all, maybe you should planned out to release at that time, there’s a ADVISORYBradNoel BulkleyLlopis BOARD [email protected] Neversoft HalClinton Barwood Keith High Designer-at-LargeDesigner-at-Large Moon Studios EllenSoren Guon Johnson Beeman [email protected] Microsoft write us an article. strong chance you’re going to be crunching, RyanEllenDamion LesserGuon Schubert Beeman Harmonix [email protected] Microsoft MarkBrad BulkleyDeLoura NeversoftNeversoftUbisoft Our main feature this month is about common rushing, or otherwise cutting corners to get it ADVISORYClintonMark DeLoura Keith BOARD HighUbisoft Moon Studios ClintonHal Barwood Keith Designer-at-LargeHigh Moon Studios things that have gone wrong with game out the door. Granted this can happen in projects Ryan Lesser HarmonixHarmonix ADVERMarkEllenTISI DeLouraGuonNG BeemanSALES Ubisoft Microsoft development, and most of them tie in to some regardless, but rushing a product with the DIRECTORMarkBrad BulkleyDeLoura OF SALES Neversoft Ubisoft Steve McGill e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6217 degree with crunch and schedule problems. One specific intent to compete in the most difficult, ADVERTISINClinton KeithG SALES High Moon Studios GLOADVERTISIRyanBAL Lesser SALESNG SALESMANAGER, Harmonix RECRUITMENT & EDUCATION of these is often the cause or the effect of the most cut-throat period of the year is not very DIRECTORAaronMark DeLouraMurawski OF SALESSALES GreenScreen e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6227 DIRECTORSteve McGill OF SALESe: [email protected] t: 415.947.6217 rest. It’s easy to see how this ties in to the holiday healthy for you or for the game. SR.St eEVENTSve McGill ACCOUNT e: [email protected] MANAGER, SOUTHWEST t: 415.947.6217 GLOADVERTISIJasminBAL SALESDavéNG SALESe: MANAGER, [email protected] RECRUITMENT t: 415.947.6226 & EDUCATION video game retail meat market. There are only so many dollars consumers have GLOAaronBAL Murawski SALES MANAGER, e: [email protected] RECRUITMENT & t:EDUCATION 415.947.6227 SR.MEDIAAaron ACCOUNT ACCOUNT Murawski MANAG MANAGER e:ER, [email protected] EAST COAST, EUROPE & t: EASTERN 415.947.6227 CANADA to spend, and the problem doesn’t just come up SR.CecilyJo EVENTShn M Herbstalik ACCOUNT Watson e: [email protected] e: MANAG [email protected], SOUTHWEST t: 415.947.6215 t: SR.Jasmin EVENTS Davé ACCOUNT e: [email protected] MANAGER, SOUTHWEST t: 415.947.6226 'TIS THE SEASON TO during the holidays. DEAD SPACE released against MEDIAJasmin415.9 ACCOUNT47.6224 Davé e: MANAG [email protected] t: 415.947.6226 SR. ACCOUNT MANAGER, EAST COAST, EUROPE & EASTERN CANADA SR.GLOBALJohn ACCOUNT Watson SALES MANAG e: MANAGER, [email protected], E RECRUITMENTAST COAST, t: EUROPE 415.947.224 & EDUCATION & EASTERN CANADA MAKE MONEY GEARS OF WAR 2, and FAR CRY 2 released against CecilyAaron MurawskiHerbst e: [email protected] e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6215 ADVERTISINGCecily Herbst PRODUCTION e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6215 Certainly the holidays are a big spending period, FALLOUT 3—but DARK SECTOR also released against ACCOUNT t: 415.947.6227 MANAGER, WESTERN CANADA, INDIA, AUSTRALIA, & ASIA ADVERTISINGMEDIAAmanda ACCOUNT Mae PRODUCTION Miller MANAG e: [email protected] MANAGER Kevin Chanel t: 785.838.7523 so it’s no wonder that publishers, and even GTA IV, and that’s got nothing to do with holidays. ACCOUNTJohn Watson MANAG e:ER, [email protected] EDUCATION AND RECRUITMENT t: 415.947.224 REPRINTSSALESGina GrossREPRE e:SENTATIVE, [email protected] EDUCATION & RECRUITMENT t: 415.947.6241 developers, want to get their big titles out and in Naturally it’s hard to predict a release window, but ADVERTISINGGina Gross e: PRODUCTION [email protected] t: 415.947.6241 REPRINTSADVERTISINGSR. EVENTS ACCOUNT ACCOUNT PRODUCTION MANAGER MANAG ER, SOUTHWEST the minds of consumers round about that time. the holiday season is a known quantity. You know MEDIAADVERTISINGCindJasminy ACCOUNTZauss Davé t:PRODUCTION 951.698.1780 MANAGER MANAGER e: [email protected] Kevin Chanel John Watson e: [email protected] t: 415.947.224 ACCOUNT MANAGER, WESTERN CANADA, INDIA, AUSTRALIA, & ASIA Shareholders, too, want to see or hear things everyone will be bringing their best and brightest.