>> GDC 2007 PREVIEW GUIDE INCLUDED JANUARY 2007 THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE >>2006 FRONT LINE AWARDS >>SEVEN FOR `07 >>PRIORITIZING BUGS HONORING THE BEST TOOLS NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS MORE DISCRIMINATION, FOR GAME DEVELOPMENT FOR PIXEL PUSHERS LESS EXTERMINATION POSTMORTEM: BUILT FOR Wii: TONY HAWK’S DOWNHILL JAM []CONTENTS JANUARY 2007 VOLUME 14, NUMBER 1 FEATURES 13 GAME DEVELOPER’S 2006 FRONT LINE AWARDS Game Developer’s ninth annual Front Line Awards feature pays homage to the companies and products that make game development possible. Seven winners are named—and one tool that no developer could live without is inducted into the Hall of Fame. By Jill Duffy 23 SETTING THE BAR “There wasn’t enough time to fix them all,” said the game developers about the bugs they just couldn’t get rid of. Sound familiar? 13 Two test engineers from the Microsoft Games Test Organization have a theory about why developers should just let go and accept that 23 some bugs are inevitable. But, they also have a plan for finding the bugs that count and 30 exterminating them in a way that’s neither costly nor overly time-consuming. By Chris Hind and Dan Bell POSTMORTEM 30 NOT YOUR TYPICAL GRIND: TONY HAWK’S DOWNHILL JAM FOR WII Skateboarding at home, in the living room, on the couch, never felt to alive. In this postmortem of the newest TONY HAWK game, Toys for Bob lead designer Toby Schadt explains how playtesting was different for this Wii game, and how the legal department can hinder even the most generic design choices. By Toby Schadt DEPARTMENTS COLUMNS 2 GAME PLAN By Simon Carless 38 THE INNER PRODUCT By Mick West [PROGRAMMING] Full Tilt Managed Code in Games 4 HEADS UP DISPLAY 41 BUSINESS LEVEL By Jack Emmert [BUSINESS] Developers’ biggest concerns for 2007, Microsoft XNA news, and more. Test of Design 7 SKUNK WORKS By Ronnie Ashlock and Tom Whittaker 42 GAME SHUI By Noah Falstein [DESIGN] Autodesk’s 3ds Max 9, Perforce Software’s Perforce 2006.1, Do, Don’t Show and product news. 43 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore [ART] 53 A THOUSAND WORDS Inner Tidings LucasArts’ INDIANA JONES 45 AURAL FIXATION By Jesse Harlin [SOUND] iCan Too COVER ART: TERRY FALLS WWW.GDMAG.COM 1 GAME PLAN [] www.gdmag.com CMP Media, 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94107 t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090 EDITORIAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Simon Carless [email protected] MANAGING EDITOR Jill Duffy [email protected] FEATURES EDITOR Brandon Sheffield [email protected] ART DIRECTOR Cliff Scorso [email protected] FULL TILT CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Jesse Harlin [email protected] Noah Falstein [email protected] Steve Theodore [email protected] Mick West [email protected] ADVISORY BOARD Hal Barwood Designer-at-Large Dave Pottinger Ensemble Studios TO THOSE OF YOU WHO DON’T NORMALLY RECEIVE used the potential of the Wii Remote compared to, Ellen Guon Beeman Microsoft George Sanger Big Fat Inc. Game Developer, we bid you a hearty welcome. As say, WII SPORTS. Andy Gavin Naughty Dog Harvey Smith Midway part of outreach for the Game Developers Have the extreme freedoms inherent in the Wii Joby Otero Luxoflux Paul Steed Microsoft Conference in San Francisco this March, we’ve controller doomed all games that don’t want ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR OF SALES decided to give out tens of thousands of extra incredibly freeform controls into feeling a little Steve McGill e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6217 copies of the magazine, alongside a preview guide buttoned-down? I hope not. GLOBAL SALES MANAGER, RECRUITMENT & EDUCATION of the show. Just flip the magazine over to read Aaron Murawski e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6227 more about the GDC. JUGGLING DIFFICULTY SR. ACCOUNT MANAGER, SOUTHWEST, CONTRACTORS, & MARKETPLACE Jasmin Davé e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6226 But if you keep paging forward through the main As for the PlayStation 3, the difficulty for ACCOUNT MANAGER, EAST COAST, U.K. & EASTERN CANADA magazine, you’ll find an extremely honest developers has been in wrestling with the Cecily Herbst e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6215 postmortem of a Wii launch title, thanks to Toys complex hardware after final development kit ACCOUNT MANAGER, NO. CALIF., NORTHWEST, ASIA & WESTERN CANADA Nick Geist e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6223 for Bob’s TONY HAWK’S DOWNHILL JAM write-up, as delivery. Because of this, a lot of the game design MEDIA ACCOUNT MANAGER well as the winners of the 2006 Front Line behind the launch titles has ended up feeling John Watson e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6090 Awards, honoring the best tools, engines, reasonably staid. If a game’s technical execution ADVERTISING PRODUCTION hardware, books, and much more. For more is going to have risk factors, the developers ADVERTISING PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Kevin Chanel information about Game Developer, including probably don’t want to experiment heavily with REPRINTS Cindy Zauss e: [email protected] t: 516-562-5000 subscription specifics, visit www.gdmag.com. design either. Julie A. Douglas e: [email protected] t: 516.562.5092 The PlayStation 3 also suffers a little in comparison CMP GAME GROUP LAUNCH EXPECTATIONS with the Xbox 360, which is a year ahead in terms of VP, GROUP PUBLISHER APPLIED TECHNOLOGIES Philip Chapnick I want to talk about launch lineups for next- technical understanding and hardcore engine VP, STRATEGIC MARKETING Michele Maguire DIRECTOR OF MARKETING Tara C. Gibb generation consoles and how they do (or don’t) programming. But even on Sony’s platform, CONFERENCE DIRECTOR, GDC Jamil Moledina predict the success of any given machine. As there’s cause for cheer driving recklessly over the SENIOR CONFERENCE MANAGER, GDC Meggan Scavio people are wont to remind us, the PlayStation 2 horizon, thanks to games like Evolution Studios’ EXECUTIVE WEB PRODUCER Peter Leahy launched with FANTAVISION as a first-party title on MOTORSTORM, which was about to debut as of press EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GAMASUTRA.COM Simon Carless day one, and Lord knows fireworks action-puzzle time—and judging by the frenetic downloadable FEATURES EDITOR, GAMASUTRA.COM Frank Cifaldi games were not what the system continued to demo currently available for PlayStation 3, shows CIRCULATION trend toward. However, I think game professionals off impressive physics and visuals. CIRCULATION COORDINATOR Miguel Mendiolaza e: [email protected] are already able to derive a number of lessons CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Michael Campbell e: [email protected] from the PlayStation 3 and Wii launches. CARRIAGE AND HORSE CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Andrea Abidor e: [email protected] The amount of time given to optimize and It says a lot that standout titles for just-launched SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES enhance launch titles to fit the unique capabilities of next-gen consoles—including upcoming games FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND ADDRESS CHANGES t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606 e: [email protected] the target platform is often very limited, since final like Ninja Theory’s HEAVENLY SWORD—have been in INTERNATIONAL LICENSING INFORMATION hardware and controller delivery often happens development for relatively long periods of time Mario Salinas t: 650.513.4234 f: 650.513.4482 e: [email protected] only a few short months before titles are due out. before the hardware was even available. These CMP TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT Since most competitive games take at least 12, titles are often backed by first-party companies PRESIDENT AND CEO Steve Weitzner and often closer to 18 months to complete, this that can risk a certain amount of churn and EXECUTIVE VP AND CFO Adam Marder means either a short development time after final uncertainty in order to get compelling content. SENIOR VP, AUDIENCE MARKETING & DEVELOPMENT Bill Amstutz kit delivery, or more likely, a certain amount of The results are often key hardware sales drivers SENIOR VP, CMP INTEGRATED MARKETING SOLUTIONS Joseph Braue pre-planning that can limit the spectacular nature for the console in question. SENIOR VP AND GENERAL COUNSEL Sandra Grayson SENIOR VP, CORPORATE MARKETING Lisa Johnson of any debut games. For the Wii, for example, Will the game industry see hardware SENIOR VP, CORPORATE SALES Anne Marie Miller there are several mini-games that are perfectly manufacturers or even major publishers starting SENIOR VP, MANUFACTURING Marie Myers charming, but don’t yet show depth of gameplay. key teams on titles for their next generation of SENIOR VP, COMMUNICATIONS Alexandra Raine Conversely, there are a number of licensed consoles as much as two years before final VP, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Michael Zane launch titles for Wii that are straightforward hardware arrives? If they want classic titles for PRESIDENT, CHANNEL GROUP Robert Faletra PRESIDENT, CMP ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA Tony Keefe conversions from other platforms. Their gameplay early adopters, it sounds like they should PRESIDENT, BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY GROUP Jeff Patterson is functional, but doesn’t feel especially designed definitely consider it. * SENIOR VP, GROUP DIRECTOR, ELECTRONICS & SOFTWARE GROUPS to take advantage of Nintendo’s new control Paul Miller scheme. Such titles have therefore fared in a SENIOR VP, GROUP DIRECTOR, COMMUNICATIONS GROUP, Stephen Saunders lackluster way with critics. Yet even the Wii-exclusive TONY HAWK’S DOWNHILL JAM, definitely one of the Wii launch titles I have Simon Carless enjoyed the most, feels a little like it has under- Editor-in-chief Game Developer is BPA approved 2 JANUARY 2007 | GAME DEVELOPER WWW.CMPGAME.COM B: 8 in T: 7.75 in S: 7 in B: 10.75 in T: 10.5 in T: 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.