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Posts Tagged ‘Game Developer’

Valve’s Gabe Newell shares his thoughts on DRM

At this year’s Game Developer’s Choice Awards, Vavle’s Gabe Newell won the Pioneer Award, and he used the opportunity to share a slide show with the crowd of developers, press, and business people. His message? DRM is not good for business.

He spoke about DRM adding negative worth to products, and his remarks were greeted by loud and enthusiastic applause. 

“One thing that you hear [Valve] talk a lot
about is entertainment as a service, it’s an attitude
that says ‘what have I done for my customers today?’” he said. “It informs all the decisions we make, and once you get into that mindset it helps you avoid things like some of the Digital Rights Management problems that actually make your entertainment products
worth less by wrapping those negatives around them.”

Of course, Steam is itself DRM pretending to be a service, but as long as gamers are willing to trade the ability to sell their games or have a physical copy for the added features and convenience offered, Newell will continue to have a good thing going. DRM isn’t going away, but at the very least its harmful effects can be minimized.

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GDC 2010: Canabalt postmortem

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Other Events, iPhone, App Store

“What kinds of games do you like?” Adam “Atomic” Saltsman asked of his panel audience at the Canabalt postmortem during the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco. “Role-playing” was yelled out, as was “puzzler,” and eventually Saltsman picked “platformer” as the genre. Without another word, he quietly went to work on a laptop. Then, his partner at Semi Secret Software, Eric Johnson, took the podium to tell us all about what it was like to make one of the App Store’s most popular games.

He started by saying that the game was originally developed in just “five very long days,” and was created for the Experimental Gameplay Project and based around simplicity — it only uses six colors and, obviously, the one button. For a game that’s so simple, it actually had a lot of complex influences. It drew from older games, like Another World and Flashback, as well as modern works, like Half-Life 2 and District 9.

The level design was originally assembled around the idea that “the farther you go, the harder it gets,” but they later evolved the difficulty to be based around the player’s running speed, so that, to an extent, you could self-mediate the difficulty by hitting obstacles and slowing down a bit. The buildings were all designed with what Johnson called “lego pieces” — little bits of graphics that are interchangeable to create somewhat randomized designs.

TUAWGDC 2010: Canabalt postmortem originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GDC 2010: From concept to Top Paid with Unity iPhone

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Developer

Unity Technologies hosted the sponsored lunch panel during GDC 2010 today, and their “product evangelist” Tom Higgins gave a quick rundown of the software platform that enables developers to assemble and release games extremely quickly on multiple platforms.

The company was actually founded in Denmark, but has since expanded around the world with just two products: Unity Pro and Unity iPhone Pro. The second product, as you might imagine, allows developers to put together an application that can then be exported out into an Xcode project and released on the App Store. Higgins said that they’ve had over 90,000 people download the software since it was released for free last fall, and that more than 500 games in the App Store were authored by Unity.

He also ran a short demo of the software at the panel. While some of the coding got a little technical (the system allows you to create and change variables on in-game objects even while the game is running in the engine), the coolest feature was the way they simulated iPhone controls: by using a real iPhone as a remote. They’ve released a free app on the App Store that will connect via Wi-Fi with a copy of the development tool running on your Mac, and as you touch and turn the iPhone, the editor reacts, and sends the (slightly lower resolution) output to the iPhone’s screen. You can also make changes to your code as the game runs in that mode, so you can be playing and coding at the same time.

That was pretty impressive. Of course, Unity won’t actually help you be a game developer — like many of the tools on display at the conference this week, it’s a professional tool that can only make your ideas and art come to life, not actually create them for you.

But when you combine Unity’s compatibility across platforms (there’s even a web player that will play your Unity-created game on any web-compatible computer) with the ease of development (the app just outputs an Xcode project, so you can write an app in Javascript with the tool and output it straight to the App Store, or even edit the Xcode after the output if you want to take advantage of features that Unity doesn’t support by default), it’s definitely worth a look as an iPhone development tool. I’m not a developer, so I don’t have much insight on how the program actually works, but just in terms of creating apps for multiple platforms at the same time (”author once, deploy anywhere,” as Higgins said during his talk), Unity seems like a worthwhile solution.

The Unity platform is available as a free download, and the iPhone app either comes in source code with the rest of the platform, or can be downloaded straight from the App Store.

TUAWGDC 2010: From concept to Top Paid with Unity iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Talkcast reminder: Oscar night show 10pm ET

Filed under: TUAW Business, Podcasts

It’s the biggest night in show business, but just in case you’re not caught up in the Hollywood horse race (go Hurt Locker!) you’re welcome to join Mike Schramm and I for our Sunday night Talkcast, as we dive into all things Mac, iPhone and iPad.

This week, of course, the big news was the announcement of the on-sale date for Apple’s newest platform and the teaser of Steam for Mac, but there’s also a lot coming up at the Game Developer’s Conference over the next few days; we’ll preview it with you. As always, your calls and questions help us make the show the best it can be.

To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the “TalkShoe Web” button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (take advantage of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 — during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8.

If you’ve got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Gizmo or X-Lite SIP clients; basic instructions are here. Talk with you then!

TUAWTalkcast reminder: Oscar night show 10pm ET originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nexus One’s multitouch confused more easily than Droid’s?

Thought all multitouch-capable displays were created equal? Think again — Android and Me has posted a rather fascinating (if not somewhat depressing) video showing a demo multitouch app created by a game developer who’d grown suspicious after running into all sorts of trouble getting the feature to work the way he wanted on the Nexus One. First up, the Droid handles the demo with aplomb — two thumbs are recognized smoothly and consistently. Next, though, the Nexus One gets confused after a while and starts registering presses at the wrong corners of the on-screen box formed by the placement of the thumbs. There’s always hope that this could be fixed with a firmware bump, but that hope looks to be in jeopardy from language posted by a Google engineer in the official Android dev forums: “…this is how the touch screen hardware on the Nexus One works (which is essentially the same screen as on the G1 and myTouch). The Droid has a sensor from a different manufacturer, with different behavior. Other phones will likewise have different sensors.” In other words, Google seems to think that HTC’s just using a lower-quality sensor than Motorola is. That’s good news for Droid owners, we suppose — but with game development on Android still something of a non-starter, hardware issues like this keep fragmenting the user base and preventing big-name developers from jumping in and betting on the platform. Follow the break for video proof of the wackiness.

Continue reading Nexus One’s multitouch confused more easily than Droid’s?

Nexus One’s multitouch confused more easily than Droid’s? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SXSW 2010 for Futurists

A ReadWriteWeb Guide

Social media? Oh, please. Some of these sessions are so 2009. How can you have any fun at SXSW this year if you can’t see any real innovation.

If space shuttles, cyborgs and technological singularity are what make you bleep and bloop, you’re going to love these ten events at SXSW Interactive 2010. At the very least you’ll get to share beer with a few cool hardware hackers, learn more about lunar exploration or get involved with a crowdsourced science project.

Sponsor

This is part of a series of ReadWriteWeb guides to SXSW Interactive 2010. If this guide isn’t your cup of tea, be sure to check back for more information soon!

Dorkbot

“Think of it as a science fair with free beer. Ample doses of electricity, tomfoolery, mayhem, makers and music combine to form one exquisite geek talent show. Sponsored by SXSW Interactive, the International Game Developer’s Association of Austin, Mr. Data, Ricochet Labs and the Digital Media Council. “

A Touchy History of the Future

“We pinch it, tap it, shake it and poke it. We’re so enthralled with finally getting to touch our products. But there’s so much more to direct manipulation than just tapping it with our fingers! Let’s explore some progressive interaction models that go beyond touch and into movement, infrared, wearable computing, sound and ambient data to really give us an idea of what our immersive interactive future may hold and how we might curate that future now.”

And this wasn’t the only session we found exploring futuristic interfaces! Check out Beyond Scifi: Design For Surfaces and Big Screens, No Touching! Truly Invisible Interfaces and That Game Feels Nice: Tomorrow’s Touch Interfaces, too.

How SciFi Shapes the Internet

First things first, we look back in the past to see how our forward-thinking forbears imagined the future.

“What if Rod Serling had a blog? Would Alfred Hitchcock Tweet? These great producers and directors brought suspense and irony to the popular medium of the time; television. How did their work shape the minds of the young people of the time who would grow up to create ‘our’ Internet?”

Is the Brain the Ultimate Computer Interface?

“Will we be able to jack into the brain and upload helicopter instructions, like in The Matrix? We already have the technology to control a prosthetic arm or Twitter with thoughts alone. Dishes of neurons can control a robot. And scientists have created a working artificial memory chip in rats.”

Moon 2.0: The Outer Limits of Lunar Exploration

“Space sector representatives will discuss how the use of web and mobile technologies create opportunities for participation in future exploration of the Moon. The panel focuses on how X PRIZE, NASA, commercial space companies, and others generate greater interaction and interest in Moon missions using collaborative platforms and social media.”

Doing it Wrong: Recently Possible Technology

“Like ninjas battling on stage, Bre Pettis and Tal Chalzin will volley projects demonstrations back and forth. From guitar player robots to machines that vomit plastic skulls, the presentation will include a mix of projects they’ve worked on and that have been worked on at the GarageGeeks, NYCResistor and beyond. This presentation will both thrill and repulse you with the possibilities that have recently emerged in the DIY hacker technology space.”

Museum of Digital Art Showcase

“The Austin Museum of Digital Art presents a party featuring live electronic music and visual art. Expect video projections, interactive installations, and a Laptop Battle with musicians competing to outperform one another in a series of elimination rounds. Free for SXSW Interactive badgeholders.”

Here Are Lions: The Cartography of the Future

“A new breed of maps is revealing breakthroughs in our understanding of biology, neuroscience, ecology and the physical world. We can now map not just physical geographies, but also genomes, neural pathways, emotions, social networks and ideas. These new maps reveal how society will change over the next twenty years.”

Open Science: Create, Collaborate, Communicate

“From discovering galaxies to folding proteins: how to actively contribute to science. Science projects are harnessing open collaboration to further discovery and exploration. As a result, citizen science is witnessing a renaissance. The panel will discuss how you can get involved and challenges faced in making science open.” With Spacehack’s Ariel Waldman.

Zero Waste: The Future of Green

“Innovation, global warming, and green technology are all pushing in the same direction: zero waste. This concept is in practice in several cities (including Austin) and will soon be in yours. Learn about the current, future, and upcoming needs of this movement and how technology is playing a vital role.”

Those are our SXSW Interaction recommendations for futurists of all stripes. If you’ve got suggestions or feedback, let us know in the comments! See you in Austin, folks!

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OpenFeint X Debuts To Help Developers Create The Next FarmVille For The iPhone

Aurora Feint started out as a puzzle game developer for the iPhone platform but has since evolved into the maker of a comprehensive social gaming platform dubbed OpenFeint that continues to attract independent iPhone game developers to join its rapidly growing community. Today, the startup is launching the private beta of OpenFeint X, which offers indie developers the ability to create Zynga-like free-to-play games including microtransactions and virtual goods.

With the success of Zynga and PlayFish on Facebook, Aurora Feint wants to help create more of these types of free-to-play games on the iPhone. Launched with Japanese investment partner and mobile gaming company DeNa Group, OpenFeint X will be rolled out to the general public in phases over the next few months. With the international investment in the project, we can assume that OpenFeint X is designed to develop games that appeal to global markets as well.

Using the new platform, developers can create games with a chat wall where players can interact with each other, a newsfeed showing recent in-game activity, and game nudges. And OpenFeint X’s premium services allows developers to use a cloud-based infrastructure to build and run a full virtual goods store, access detailed analytics, and include game-specific currency wallet.

The existing OpenFeint platform is quite popular amongst developers and already powers social gaming services for 12 million users and is growing at a monthly pace of 25 percent. The strategy of trying to develop Facebook-like free-to-play games through Open Feint isn’t surprising. Peter Relan, executive chairman of Aurora Feint, also happens to be the executive chairman of CrowdStar, a social game developer on Facebook, which makes develops Happy Aquarium, Happy Island and Happy Pets.

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TUAW First Look: Hippo High Jump

Filed under: App Review

There are beautiful games on App Store and there are fun games on App Store, and there are some games that are cool just because of the story that goes along with them. Hippo High Jump [iTunes link] falls into the categories of strikingly beautiful, somewhat fun, and great back story. The story goes like this.

Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova attended the 360iDev conference a few weeks back and joined in in the iPhone game jam. The jam offered an all-night coding marathon, where “people teamed up and had to build a fully working game in 1 night. We built the first version of Hippo High Dive from 8pm to around 6am the next day.” You can see a video of the early prototype here.

After polishing the game up with the help of their artist pal, Kiril, the pair submitted Hippo High Dive to App Store where it just recently went live.

Costing just a dollar, Hippo High Dive does not offer a huge amount of play flexibility. You basically jump your hippo off a diving board and navigate her through burning hoops to a bucket of water below. I’ll admit I have the attention span of a gnat with ADHD, but the game did not really keep my attention.

The art on the other hand definitely did. The video above does not do justice to the beautiful look of the game. The artistry both retains the original hand-drawn “let’s whip up a game” style while pushing it forward into gorgeous design. The layered three-d effects while “climbing” the ladder as a prelude to the dive took my breath away.

So, in the end, it’s a bit hard to rate the game. I found the actual gameplay a bit meh. My coordination skills are weak at best and this is not the kind of fine motion control I generally enjoy. At the same time, I absolutely adored the visual design. If you’re a game developer, consider hiring that artist.

TUAWTUAW First Look: Hippo High Jump originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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