ieee ed ca Co ee ee 2 Sinn mes UNUlCl age 8 Se i wy came i | ey iivey. eee 2 SNe Wasa) ee et Fai aaolNsore as ~ St 7 TOOL BOX" Ba oe, MOTIONBUILDER. eves) aa) Ia ARR GOT) i PP INUGtUe tetol ea Cams ! Be re eGLed ao oh ae heed a VA. ee ey oe ROCKSTAR, UBISOFT Iona Pe YE TR Seer a or Co ere Tere ea ti) Naai= Gee Pon Pa aa estes ona ee ree eer eee eee eee Ce ene! Pe een een et aad af Ra and Cation Na Pec LIVING WORLD eet one erate Seas etna A eee nets David Hawes cetals how to gt the language ‘working i-engine on conscles roe Penn co 7 Cee ee hed et tt ee eee eer ete ietat eens Seemed acct Ea aC Ione ofthe most honest postmortemsin recent memory, Secret Level anne , Producer Michal Boccieri takes us trough the tcucled development of Geidanoahpaduacebekhuctasead ere eee satan ier eed hardcore tile LOCOROCO, andin this brief Pee een ete Fehiaehrisenuioneblatiania ee ee Cee as Pe oa Pree rer DEPARTMENTS COLUMNS GAME PLAN THE INNER PROD! Start Prelocating PIKEL PUSHER fy Steve reedoe games, acessibiny de and Over and Researet's Prone repon. Me: GAMESCAPE Focusing Your imovation AURAL FIXATION a4 ARRESTED DEVELOPME Hara tewsGAME PLAN | Bee RECESSION- ey PROOF (ON THE SURFACE, THINGS DON'T LOOK To0 HOT for ourindusry right naw. |was spanking with ‘rend recently about the curentecenomie cimate saying that developers ae lasing ther Jobs across the globe, more tudes are closing, and fewer seem owant tohice. was beinga bit Fa doomsday prophet, but my end suggested ‘that this actually atime of great opportunity, and ‘thinking boutit carey | may agree wth him. ‘There are alot of talented people out of work inal of major metropolitan areas. fyou'te the ‘ype of person who ean mativate them 10 get ‘ogethor, this seems ikea prime opportunity for now studies, now indies, ane new idoas about the ‘shape of the industry. youve aiways creamed oF mplementingtne Hoilywood mode, bringing the right person tothe Fight project and then moving on, this a good time fort Ifyou want to invoke te spin of he bedroom programmer now that tools are geting to where that's actualy viable without being a hardcore programmer/atst/designarhybri, this is 2 good time fort. I you want to venture cut and create your omn Io revisit lost gonre this is ‘good timo frit. might not be the best time to create 2rmut:mllon dolar eple—unless youre one ofthe big publishers, but ven thonitsa bit filer tan usual Games arent goingto go away curing this recession During the Gret Depression, the legend goes that entertainment was the maferinusty ‘tha ourishec Books, movies, nd condoms were among the best sling ner-essental” products. “These al faciltated escapism fem the poverty arcund them, without weighty consequences. Wile were not quiteat the depression lve, gomes are aneffective and acpealing method of escapism inthe best oftimes, and in times of wouble are even mare enticing (Ofcourse it's rather dificult todo any ofthis le youhaver' got alte bit of anest egg to tide you over unti you can release a game, or atleast get funding Some nave sald thatthe ‘venture capital moneyhas al criecup, but I dant ‘think’ necessarily gone. Rater Ithink ifs being hidden, Great Depressionstule under the proverbial mattresses Games are stil good industry. People dont want to stop playing vdeo sgmes—but they might want to start payingless {for them. you can convince people with money ‘hata smaler investment ina fledgling company ‘making smallor games isa wise ono, then you. maybe in business. THE BEGINNING OF AN ERA? In very possible hat this recession could Usher the next age ofthe indie. Small, ess ‘expensive games madeby smaller, more agile teams seemlike a very logical step, now that ‘the industry structure s better abe to support Iywithno es than three venues on which to sdstibute coment as a small eam—cownloadable ‘conse, direct to consumer PC downloads Wa ‘Stwam.ke services, portals or direct sae, and iPhone and potentially OS! downloads, Consumers have shown that they wilingta buy games ke CASTLE CRASHERS m roves, Indie developers have asked me on more than ‘one occasion now to premate thei products tathe press without aig budget or without a Budget 2 al tean seem daunting but actually t's quite ‘imple What works for me, and for many other members ofthe press Ive spoken to about the Issues targeted personal emails It doesnt cost anything more than time. Target the bigger blogs fist, reading to see who writes about indies and inwhat context See what they like nd dont lke, ancichoose a wntar to contact. Sond trem ‘an email explaining who you are, where youre ‘coming rom, what your game Is about, and what you're trying achieve. I youve gat some nice Production at to show, a snappy te, 2 YouTube ideo, oF playable demo so much the bette. Don't eat your game lke i's the next big thing, ‘orthe most awesome Tower Defense clone eve, ‘even fit may be Be straightforward, humble ‘and realistic, and people wll pay attention if your {ame seems intresting ‘im hopeful that this recession wil bring about ‘bf ofan industry shakeup. f's up tothe folks networking at this coming GDC and similar events. | would urge you tonot think along the same ‘ld tnes 3 before, an simply nan existing stucto, or crete anew tradiionaly structured ‘team. Thisis great ime ta experiment ard ty ‘ut new ideas if yout the type wh has ther. it doesnt workout, atleast you writ have been ile bythe time you have to take your next jb in ‘the trenches! Brandon Sheffield Cd CyFOR YOURE USINES cece IS WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE. More than 60 video game companies—from Time Warner's GameTap and Atlanta's own Kaneva, Inc., to China's CDC Games and CCP North America, creators of EVE Online—have found Georgia is designed to help video game developers succeed. Our state's deep talent Pee eee Ree ee ee uncer EN ere ee ee ne et capital and tax incentives provided by Georgia's Entertainment industry Investment Act. Plus, Atlanta boasts the planet's premier airport and is the most heavily wired city in the U.S. with the fat pipes you need. Georgla is a world unlike any other, and we're ready to help you grow es te Mec ea Reser ame Perea tc ee a _ Georgia’ Rime lee Meee C alt Aelia ome LP eae"HEADS UP DISPLAY TOP 10 INDIE FREEWARE GAMES Picks by Indiegames.com editor Wee Tim Boon for the second half of 2008 I SBIT KILLER MEAT BOY SPELUNKY VERGE Daniel Remar epi convene Liisa 20 action platformer wher ployee ‘esume conte of the thula characters she leams hon to cope with waking up find her weld taken overby an ain race, guided by her brother ‘nto peaks through the esearch camplet's loudspeaker eystem, YOU HAVE TO Kian Bashi BuenTheRope php isanevemelyshort, ime tht features good piel at and a cate tne ‘There is ony one sluton tothe prob, though the credits willbe remembered longafter youve managed toa the fina oss This isalso a6 2009 nat inthe Imovation category BURN THE ROPE ‘wommrazapanse/games! Have 70 Bunn HE ROPE Locomalito lose Wourensiem 30in more thana fe ways, complete wth blocky graphics and an impressive chiptune soundtrack which pumps youuptofight Maser Brain's muludinous henchman, NOBODY SHOOTER Orel inp/Airgurteom/ nbodystooter Ties aremate oftie award-winning EVEROAY SHOOTER where pyere have tocollct coin rm theenemiee tay ve defeated, Jonathan Hak, ‘eveoper ofthe orignal says "peny awesome” Edmund McMillen and Jonathan McEntee Irnp/tingur cond platormer crested by the developers of GS, AETHER and COL where Players arsume conta of BS rimble protagonist who smut sale the walla of each re to reach the love otis ie. THRUSTBURST Umiautgames innp7/amlautgomes net thrustbursvdownloads TST isa remake of an ald arcade game called UN, where players must activate theithrusters prudently tonavigte reche cavere, Truetburst hae rest pn! art coupled with adcitve gpmepoy. and they're not ding sround wth he dict ofthis space adventure Derek Yu bntps/Aingurcom/ spetunkygame SreLUR ca procaduraly generated 20 platformer created by Derek, octet ofthe award winning ADU. Here, Players assume the oe of ateseuce hunter who ‘ventures into the Clorel Gavein search of gid tins, gera, golden dls, and domes torescus, FEDORA SPADE Orchard. intpv/studioeres.conv semes/fedora Fanyamunecmyeten) or wo? Look no further than FeDOA SPACE, the SiMOONCATE cree inpied bie acvenure with 2 touch of humor and some Plot wies that keap you hooked uni the very ene Kyle Pulver Ineps/hylafchostcom! view php? Venez e220 platformer ‘ested bythe developer of BOUESAN: THE GAME contbutedby Mec Holowka (ARUN) Payers conto an named protagonist wh hae 10 ‘averse two weds in onder salverudimentry block pales and reach the exo each stage THE MANIPULATOR Virtanen Games bttp//kotimbnet 67 erkkavirthemanipulat phe Hereba 2D puzale Platiormer erated bythe Aovalopar of SEvEN MINUTES and VANUAL LENCE. You lay pychie who has the abiltyto contra the minds of others and influence them tocar aut your orersCORRECTION tr ai adit ant arson Na Ba corny ams stats cuba, lu separ ond marae pt wn nt nmart car erent Uncen eg wc & Sevag ms sun GAMERSWITHDISABILTIES “ANove! Asynctronaus nos. nfoemation canhave ahardtime accuse Mathod Wk Biary rasisa oan playing games that Imericesby Jorge Sv, ‘As 3dance dub 0, the werent designed with Jorge Tes Sal, om player ses the arrow ays thal needs ming hat, and Nex Maen or aNimendoWi remote Recently tere nasbeen the October 2008 Jour tocopy bens according lots ofexeting work sone ofNerongnecing ans totheir rt and tomake games payable Rehaitaton (ww locaton in aural space. formote people. Here are jneuroengea cory Copying them corectly ‘ewinteesting projects: contertS//24) lags down tracks one an top ofthe other The mre ‘AIBICOM WINTERMUTE tracks ae ai, the more vwrwromodoopeniah. ENGINE engieletspiayerspause Wes fom adtonal challenging and musically canvindex php wn dead-codearg the game stangtimeso speech recagntan teh the game becomes. modo penta Abcam, TheWinernute Engine tiayean ake aslongas__softwarebecausetuses Just because a game ls erAsyoctronousincrpreteDevdopmert Kita tmeyneedtoneartertread yoke, ptchand vowel accesible doesnt mean efBmaryConmancs is gameengine signed alouJoreramine theron. qualtytoeratecomuous 6354 development Woaryfor—(Gerestegrapheal"point screen surouncings ‘movemant simi to makigtinaryesnvl——_andellek"severture hnowoneshanceortasa These pects areusta pictiremtince games Deedbycercn VOCALJOYSTICK Conpucr aise savpirgotens ang Single buon swtch programe fan Nesom, tpy/aslee washington dene to make ges more wnat rakes tea theenginecanworkytn’ edly AUDIODYSSEY secesstieto players diferent fomatertinary radiiaral20 games as evlopedatthe Unversity ttp/gamblt mit.edu/——_witndsabities For mare éevtrolmetiod the wellas3Dcharacerson a ofWashingtnthe Vocal eadgeme/audledyssey. des, resources, and Scamingisthatinsead — 2Dbackground Kalsofas Jock (W]issofware php aby enh gaes, ofuserspushingabuton severalfesturestomake tat wilalow people wih From Singapore ‘ist One ‘Wo get the program todo games more accessible to physical disabilitiestouse Gambit MIT Game Lab, ‘oneswitch org.uk) and 7128 what they want theyconiy visuligimpaiedpayers. computersmorefree, —Audidyrseyisamusic/ —_Softwaro (wr 28.cam), Imerac wenthesorware Wintermuteallsusets trap vowelsound to rhythm game for Windows 25 wells rewsirevew ‘when it does something to send text to a text ‘spatial directions, allowing that can be played by ‘sites AbleGamers (wwe. Tmattheysortwantk ——tospeecnsyrtnester, __peopetolmarccrwihabothelghtedand visvaly _sblgamers cor) and toa For athorugh Twiencan highlight actve computer or mechonis! impaired gimers While Assletve Caring (Ntp// alzcussonoftow con aressonthescreenwih cece such asarobate «Ras abisicand tls assisivegamingcom) works, sete poper Keypoarssrorcus The armulsngtnervices. me rapa serimeriace, Sera nie RESEARCH: iPHONE DEVELOPMENT TIME INCREASING, PRICES DECREASING GGAME DEVELOPER RESEARCH HAS REVEALED select results ofits rst evar State of Phone Game Development report helping olluminate the rong but sil largely undocumentediPhone ‘and Pod Touch game software market, While IPhone game development I stilin ts relative infancy, evidence suggests projects are becoming more ambitious and studios are becoming more sophisticated in their approaches, Select report metics have reveled a vend toward longer development cycles for Phone games currently in production. For example, te umber of games with 1-3 month development cytes armong survey respondents d-opped rom 6 percent of completed proees to percent ofn-devsopment projects, whreas the number of gomos with 4-6 month doelopmert cls roe Form 25pacont (complete) wo 4? pean (n development) Thesurvey os asked developers whee they adjustee pres posteese, chew mh, a Why Most devecpers (Spacer) inthe surveywnich had releaseiPhone games cameo hoe ousted ‘hep tthe game at some pant olowngts Iau Ofthose 69 percent sidtheyreciced the pice while erenaider sid theyincessedt Even though est deveined austtbe pce ofthat gare, zr adhsuent was stl hemes common individual response. The most common actual price ajustments were -$2 (19 percent) ang ~81 (14 poreant] flowed by +$1 (9 porcen). The full 39;page report, vallobe for purchase ax woe gomecevteceatch.com, uses Phone ‘pp Store dat and an anonymaus survey of ‘most 150 current Phone developers to utine ‘number oF important datapoints. These incude purchase prices forPhone games, the effect of and reasons for pastlaunch pice adjustments on games donload number ranges, me porting tends, and many other vita stats Ohi RemoNEW HANSOFT 53 OUT NOW! GHansort ©‘THIS SHOULD PROVE TO BE AMOST eer ered eee ed Ct ea ti? eters eet) Si Genetica Se eee Stik ete See ee ea) reer) ee ay Seer eee Sree ted ene eee ee ad Cee eer Pe nen pcubyanbing tears ee ees pes pe be lebarieete Reneererernn et havingtahep the fence. Seo page Pee errs Pee ee main conerence. fee Ta Pepin ta core mnie peel scp terager( ce emnrenrersy perenne erat seer seers Pscaeecentat Ce ene eens ee ens Cee ion cos Pe eee ey Re ek Geet eae ico es oe ees Sead ee) eee ced eee aay SSAct oe et ee eres eT Peet ear of upheaval thers isimmense Cea Ser ict ec ee is eee ues Reena Riese or ated See eer ee eer eee Perera etnias Peete eto —Brondon Seffott# 2009 Game Developers Conference Preview Editor-in-Chief Brandon Sheffield's picks artists ealize.Aflmbackground without breaking everyone's work David Hellman (freelance) realy helps inthis case, and thats cycles. Murray promises to be ‘RAO was David Hellman’ first just what Jay idles got wih films “brutally honest" whichis always 3 commerclal game prject—and Scott Rogers (THO) lke Terminator2, Starship Toopers, good ting true hata way to startout As an ‘Anumber of designors have and The Abyss undor his bl (plas accamplsned artist tryhis old rentioned tome how much a dogroe Fam the USC fim schoo, ‘webcomic at wirmalessoniseamed, Disneyland’ layouteantesen ust ike me! on ep oF his several com) onaverysallteam, Hellman you about design, and this should years asa game art rector Here, \wasatletomakemoad,tone.and proveto be anengagingtalkon _Rcdle will decode the process and styles primaryconcems,inthis the subject. he theme patk from aesthetics ofighting showing [with Jonathan Greenberg (Midway) its impressive intial gating, tothe examples) how artsscan nerease Irmo secret that Midway has way entertains people waiting thelntuitveness immersion, and had arocky path to integrating inline, toi long, medium, and everalleok ofa game. the Unreal Engine into its short-term visual goals toits pipeline—but that just makes for intuitive layout and cohesive lok, more educational success stores, can teach us aot about how to when they come. Greenberg, make a player work his or her way programming lead on the MORTAL through anow world. Scott Rogers, Allen Murray (Bungle) MBA franchise, shows hero talk hediscusses the rationale a designerforGUOUFWaRand Bungle went Fem azo proc how Midway Chicago gota fighting behindhis stylstc choices, and MAXIMO, shall show usthe way. studio tohavinga full production game running at Hz in Unreal the emotions ne hoped to nstil. stoffoverthe course oF HiLOs 1 Engine 3 on Both the Xbox 360 Rare is the opportunity t contrat ‘through 3. In whatcoulddouble and PlayStation 2, He's using ‘the entice mise-en scene of asa stutfo postmortem, Bungle MORTAL KDE a8 the framing for gime,soths mightbe anice Jay Riddle (Disney Interactive) producer Alen Murray wildlscuss this talk, Dutwillalso discuss the chance tolive vicariously Ligitingmakes age diferencein how the company integrates mare general case to prove he's fimes,morethanevensome game producers ntoa ceativeledstuslo not just bragging! Publisher Simon Carless’ picks » kothey have expansions galore flows some BE, core pret uptterrsleeves,too.Soguimoy, similar Peter Moiynewe (Lionhead) having werkedon both WMUsand gen before the inclusing Naughy PeterMolynew—etsfaceR,heS _thelInked goodness of SCORES. game shipped: Dog's char amadernsvengalthe gad god welipositionedtotel youhow to sathey may be : Lemarchane ane gomes, andastartingy persuasive schecule and organize thingstoatlettalyounow S deea\coces Franc speaker And gen that FARE Ile Weep your games Fowing setuatyeompates = © 7 Lantz testing wisdom one ofthe best gemes of last yer totheoy at youin carey erated and that Molreux seems tohave five minute chunks. Doi blink, focusedback on design and away you might miss from muitiple projectugating is ‘design experiments” shouldbe voy i.restingo bebo Richard Lemarehand (Naughty James O'ien (Universkyof Dog], Robin Hunicke (Electronic Cory Barog, Ere Wiliams Colforle, erkeley) Ext Parker arte), Erle Zimmerman (Gamelab), arlog and Villoms are seme ofthe (Pxetux) Wal Croal(Newsweek], Frank key design talents behind the Gor Lantz (area/code), Jenova Chen OF WAR-sercs, which, ets ace ot Justin Quimby (Maxis) r : (matgemecompany), racy the aout action est exactly right Thetfoks at Maus shipped Pog: effects—that much sknaw, Fullerton (Univeraty ofSouthern Sole great tosee some of the Inaretaitbax, sue butthey Buthow dsthey actualycarty California), John Shatp(Savannah underpinnings behind the franchise catailyknowalctatoutcnine outsomeaf thereat splitaing College of rt and Design-Atlanta}__ and hewit gets youinwolved Im connectivity, thanks othe massive anddestructen you'see when Mayo today’tech conferences. hoping that Earlog al also spi Success Of CREATURE CREATORand —_yoUuse yourforce powersin the _spltouttharmissvesintotiny, about some afhis plans forthe Mod the uriquelyinked wayin which game? Tums out wemay & bitesiedchunks,anditturs out Max game that hes been workingon creations access other users this postmortem, which should thathisparticlr GDClecture_ wits creator George Mle. Worlds inthe ames. Anditiocks beparteusriynotablobecause k does the same n microcoProduction Editor Jeffrey Fleming's picks Corey Andruko (BioWare), Dusty Everman (BioWare) The ceviis inthe detail and 2 games level designisoten credtoan endless succession of tweaks and reconiguations Couks there be formal methodology for ra cptimal evel design with a minim of wasted eer? Sounds abit Zen. Here the MASS E-FEZT ear wll shar wih us the lessons lered fr level design workon th and how those principles are being plied to Mass EFFECT 2, Anders Clerwall(EA— DICE) Aucio dynamics” refers othe range of volume o wich the ear stinguish individual sounds, from the soRtest to the loudest. While ou expensive home theatre figs are capable of reproducing ‘sound with great articulation and brloty, most video game sound design sl eoted in the “This ‘one goes to eleven” philosophy [ICE teok a ferent approsen wth ATED: BAD COMPANY, tevin to immerse payers nan aural landscape that included everything fromthe quiet ruste of grass aginst canvas to thehammer blow Diarmid Campbell (Sony) ve had my doubts about camera: ‘based gaming but where the Wihas ts remote, Sony as orghod ts yey Imcurous to see where the technology is gong and Danni (Caml fom Sons EyeToy Technology group wilbe givingus showingoff some techniques use Northiko Hibine (GEM impact) ith METAL GEAR SOUD 5 release cate only sc montns away Kojima Productions realized thatit ti reeded over 90 minutes of ut ‘scone musi tobe composed and recorded, Wh ard deadlines fast approaching, the developers tured te Konami veteran Noriko form GEM impact, to complete the game's signature sound. Amazingly, tearm was able compete the werk in only three wooks, In this lecture Hbno wil be how he approached the accalrated schol ike Meshastry (Freelance) Merosot Project has been in Use for almost quarter ofa century, makingit a popula choice fr project management, practically ensues its use on ‘vagaries of game development can make Project 2 poor f,and rgle wo get Useful resus out of in this lecture, Meshafiy wil share some ofhishara.wen Project experience, gxtheted over many years inthe ttenenes of game development Working on games from UNA VI to Senior Contributing Editor Jill Duffy's picks Canton Keith (Cinton Keith Consulting) [inten Kath the game industry's Serum and gle cevelcpment guy, the pgrim who bought is ligion tothe New Wert 2s developers looked otheir Manifest Destiny of onqueringrutshreacing, advanced Al, HLSL, and bey eth who has spent he lasts Lyoars preaching Scrum, has aknack for explaining howto not only adopt the methodology, but also canwert ‘whole sus. he clinches knowing when to put an ounce oF bin th inthe process ancunen otto Jane Fraser [Electronic Ars) ‘As someone whose coverage of the game industry now focuses tightly on caeors, m aig fan oF ‘GDC lectures that inspire people tonot jst do their cutent jobs better, but move up inte adr, tac. n adeition to what the title of thistalk promises, ave a fasting ane Fraser willmesivate a few attendees tobecome stewards of their teams and stucos. ‘Matthew Le Mere (Gameplay Holdings ana Kelreteu Forum) youre thinkingof starting your ‘nn game ceveonment operation, ies goingtotake capital ancin thiseconamie ens, that secend mortgage on your San Degohome aint gonna cut it So what the back does tis Matthew Le Merie guy think he knows about playing the Ve funding game? Youll just have tacoma this session t fd out. (dota how they gt you) Fuse DeMaria (DeMaria Suc), E¢ Fries (FigurePrints), Bing Gordon (Electoni rts), Wil Wright (Maxis), Lorne Lanning (ode Fellow), Peter Wlyneus (Lionhead) Ferber when eleision was sg9ingtobe one of the great uaz, bringing education right Into poops homes and providing 2¢209s tall? (OF course you don. ‘That was the 1940s.) longte sare ines, we stil dent reailyknow where games andinteractve entertainment stand Inters ofafeting socal bounds. in this sandal ofthe eA esign ack, a lineup P cf game industry kings have ‘greed toshare the secrets tothe same industry universe—or at least what they think about how games influence players ves and ‘the publ, Patrick Redding [Ubisoft Ina galloping 20-minute lecture, Pavick Redding promises to explain to game designers, sound osignars, producers, and porhaps ‘a raya programmer or we, how to approach A dlslogue For NPCS nd logue systems in a way ‘that keeps your enaracters from sounding ike those retarded robots at Chuck E. Cheese’, The arfing and barking inthe tle refers todalogue barks” or audlo cues that tlhe player something inthe garnepay condlions has changed,bo 2009 Game Developers Conference Preview Gamasutra Features Director Christian Nutt's picks Hitoshi Sakimoto (Basiscape Inwernationa SeKimoto|s hardly ahousehold ame, buts infact one oF the ‘most talented composers working in gpme musie today, Most notably, he was the composer for FNAL FANTASY, whieh requited 2 iene fli for drama while tmsintining dungeon tunes that ean underscore endless exploration. His soundtracks ‘maintain an exellent balance— they buoy gameplay without exlipsing it which sa tough actto pallor Jim Tilander, Vassily Flipoy (Sony) [5000 WAR 3rasto deliver intense, beaut and visceral amb to ‘the PlayStation 3. Not asa ppointing ‘the series’ massive fanbase is a op priority, Getting non the ground flor ents tech tak fr ani development gameisan absolute must. Coming roma rt party ‘tudo, these guysare tound to have allthe most effective, p10 date knowledge at tre disposal Glenn Fiedler (Sony) Freier was the mutployer ead programer on PanceriiE As ERCENIRES2, which featurecia _steaming pen werd and drop cop-out co-op thrghouts enti campalgn-—one ofthe things eres and fans kedbest about the gare Making hat work requires ahuge amount of techrical knowledge and kl. Wha leans tho great ‘mest had wih another co-op open ‘word, Reatme Vers Micros ‘CACKOONA, which offered simak fee form coop experience. Im ‘convinced more developers need to ‘erphasize thisin open word games. Heres where to start ‘lint Hocking (Ubisoft) FaR CRY 2 may not have worked 100%of tetimo, but when It ‘dg, oFfered glimpses ito what ‘the future of open word gaming might be ike, lust me, Gamasutra ‘editor at arge Cvs Remo went ‘stop talking about the damn game, 501 kno, In this mustsee tale Hocking wl relay his ideas, 1 dowbt refined by lng and Gamasutra Editor-at-Large Chris Remo's complicated development process, ‘on making games that players can ‘simply be berated to lay the way ‘thay want to—an exellent goal ‘oshinary Gotanda(trt-Ace) Tice isnt a very welknown > Py0S.setsig and PJ0S-gets ig end up moreor less empty on PlayStation 3 (we ae not interested in ts functional) >> WAVES PRINT needs tobe csabied so thatthe Python Interpeeter omulstesthisbehavior >> simian isatty() funeton requires equvatent PlayStation 5 mplerentation disabling Unicoce requires slight maiicaton toast. decade. nicade needs tobe iféefed cut > portable Fseek and FteLL will require equivalent ayStation 3 calls inserting into the Function bodies >> PyConfig. A wil require modification inform the interpreter that on PlayStation 3, signals are not supported ‘The cruxof getting PlayStation 3stacless working versus reguiar Pythons implementing the tack sntch assembler, native Cos a (Python/C API) ‘SWIG modern SWIG elassle hich hanales jumping betmeen e stacks when swithing taskets (See Listing 2, found onine at www.gerag.com/ resources/eodentm) In‘slp_platforaselect.h we need toad an ifdef ieetve forthe PlayStation 3 patform and inclu the all important stitch ps3.h Modifications fr Mbox 360. Xbox 360s 3 tle more straightforward, possibly due tit being atouch more closely rolated tothe PC. But kt stlreoures ts own impierentation| ofthe stack switch code [see Listing 3, found online t ww. ‘gdmap.corvresources/codehim). Again, we wll need tomake ‘the appropriate modification 1o'slp_platforeselect.h” HEAP USAGE IMPLICATIONS. What we nave sean so far Shaul be sufficient to got stackless ython runningin our engine. A this pot, tough, we stl area long way away fom being abieto use tina production tite. The next step isto take Python's heap usage and put it Inbox that we contel allowing us to measure its usage, prevent fragmentation, and have an ald in bots debugging and optimization We controled memory allocation using our own internal pool allocator [we allocated a large block atthe start ofthe application fr Puthon and allocated chunks out oft) and the fellowing Python functionals >> yen MLLOC macro defined to call EtxKaLNoc >> Pylon REALL macro redefined to call EtxReaLoc > PyMen_FREE macro redefined to cal EteFree Onnalloc.c is modified so that direct calls tC library alloc, raLoc, anc fra ae replaced withthe Et calls above Now we are abe to take advantage of Puthons own speedy and ceaehe-conscous abject allocate, optimizes for large numbers of smallnallocs ‘When using your own fevorke managed heap, bearin ‘mind that Python naver expects to get HLL back, even wien requesting ero bytes This tasks instead handled bythe ‘macros and funetions that eal the custom allocator always Alul=v ME Aseciv) Bi sequin 1s 5 175 8 0% 05 am 1 2 2225 2% 3 amas am 4 amas ams 5 execution time [sec]requesting at east 1 byte). Be sure to sesertiteraly in your custom allocator prior toa WALL return, Be wary when overriding the alocaton behavior to make sure yu dort ever etur Python memary ram afferent heaps or cause the Python object allocator tobe used when t would not rnotmallybe Thats, ot change other alc cals tobe outed through the ebmalc interface; route them through the macros ove. Either ofthese mistakes can cause very nasty Bugs. Ie also useful to route any raL.oc calls you make on bet of Python to this managed heap [using your own calls rect) For example, If you allocate merry orale handle and want to koop Puthon import costs budgeted differently fom your normal Fle loads, you might want route allocation ofthe hanger though here. MAKING USE OF STACKLESS PYTHON (Once we havea working version of stackless Python in our lengjne anchhave ts memory allocation under contol, now dowe actually make use oft? First, we can use stackless Python asa debugging console Implement a simple text console in our game so you can aways pump commands to 'PyRun_SinpleString ()"from in- ‘game This is such a powerful bugging tool once youhave a good amount of our engine exposed. But wort of waming: While inmany situations tishandy to beable tojust plugin a USB Keyboard to an Xbox 360 and pull up the consoa, the USB keyboard support onthe Xbor 360 goes through a debug diverat present, which canbe quite unresponsive, making typing a chore. We used a virtual consale ‘onthe PC that would send commands overt the text console ‘on the Xbox via our network. ‘Second wean use the application as an operating system. Fewas Ham Kalogrou, crestor ofthe Syphis3D game engine, who fist proposed this model (hitp/arkalsyphis36, ‘com/2005/08/10/multveaded gare scripting with-stackess- puthow, Te getthe most outofit, weneedt change how we think of te applicalon. The aplication san operat ngsustm that provides high-speed, low oval (C++) sarvieas wis applications (Pytnan tases) tnatrun ont determines when they run, for hhowiong and whether it honors requests made to sarvices. ovng 38 cosely 2s possible toward this rage lets us ‘make the core more robust and puts extra safety between requests made by gare objects and the engine actualy doing anything about The results can realy help staeany. Every object that canbe interacted within the wore should havea Python class, an instance of which is storedin a Python database at altimes. I contains the persistent data about the ett When player i close to an entity's physical poston, the relative asset neds to be loaded, and the database entry associated wit treeds tobe sunced with this visible asset. tn fac for game terms, the instance in the database ie what we considor ‘true the master dara, much Ike the server's ew of te werld ofan MMO. ‘Athi use forthe embedded stacless Pytnon is fading assets by assigning processed assets (a resource’) a unique 1D automaticaly. We do ths using an offine tot (deveopes using waPython C++, and SWIG! tat maintains an XML otabace of assets for the game. In this ease we are really talking about an object view o files. For example an in-game caris made up ofa mesh forits graphics, some texture, some haces, a simpler mesh fori physics, anda script that ddescribesits performance and handling characteristics. We ‘can tum the whale bundle of cefning information nto a set of STACKLESS PYTHON shes, an accoctote them wih resource thats isle {oPython. The game engine gets some dt ded atthe sat ‘matali which IDs ap relat to whieh achive Hs In Rs filesystem We also gveFytren a lethst specifies how much ‘memory needs tote alecated ingame forsparticulsr archive tobe oases. When an enty is added tothe database, becomes associate witha resource Dis tohave a*physcal” ‘equivalent (cars andl characters do, missions don). Assiring inci ete urique Ds fs ane automatically when creatingthe database through astraighforward Python srpt ‘hat uses Sot of citer defined for our game to generate he require eis. Because we're dealing with an open werid ‘mete remainder oft system unctonaiyrefets his. inthe Pye srp that describes a partular mission, ‘entty bs apeciealyelevant tothe mission ae sted. Python code calculates what resources ar needed forthat setof nttes tobe used, an requests tat he gma lo them. Essential asks fora ist of esource Ds area total amt of memory tobe allocated forte fies, using ne nication ‘generated about the archives as described ‘tveke stuctre of sate machines that manages what code's curendyrunningon the C++ sie includes a stat that isable torecelve messages for Python requesting 2556 loadsa resource Ds nrealiy. weave a data structure ‘matlets Python request lke of hings that require soaet loacng (parte sustams, music ands eth]. The structure Isetined onthe C++ sie andis wrapped va SIP so hat Python can resteinstances ofthis suusture, out wth 3 reques, and (va another SIP wrapped tinction) send ne request to this loader state. The ade tate queues up such requests and {ally loads than Naso retainsinformstion about what has add so that Python can request that particular package that was loaded previously now be unloaded The Cr side adr stat determines exacthy which assets toload as well as how and when toload them. For example, whan Puthon asks for sportscar the Cox datrmines whether ‘that should be D0 ar LE, and whether it shoul load naw or rte block of eran hat neds loading Upon campltng tr eaing ofan asst package (a resoure},tne C+ ste cals ito Python This gnerates notations that the resource ean tren be synchronised with the matching ent inthe python database. Now heey in the database nasa reference tothe hghsdety C++ mesh and physic deta that represent inthe werd This also means hen other seis intret withthe ent, ican retum exact date atout ts poston and its velcty In sandbox game, the world soften filed with va ees of one ind ot another Mary ofthese ete wl use the same assets a nomial nes in amission Consider 3 ‘mission ok 10 snakes by the ive. there ae always some stakestythe rv whylbad 10 srakes fer this mission when there are already. sa, elght that could cone tthe oa 10 werout father Burning he streaming? Why not assasat emis wit any ded resource tat mates ts escuceD Andis cose tothe entity estaba positen? Tis solutions ot always sutabe and me wil want the functionality tore lad rom the Python side, But in mang cases inwhich xnumber of tial NPS are parte mission, this optimization method can be set nother use forthe embeded tackles Python isto implement evetaivan systrs. We realy wart hep on top of perfomance, We also need a general way ofeommunicatingoy parts of whats happening in the high doty + simulation and the Iow-fdeity Python database so that Python an eact and make new requests for change Inthe simulation ‘Anevent riven systems the key tomeeting both Taeklets register for events that they are interesteain upon creation. When an eventis resolved, they can deregster or egister fr new events. These enanges are handed by a callbacksmap in Python that periodically synes with C+. This ‘ccasional sync relly helps with performance and gives @ 00d chokepoint for debugging, The game engine can generate ‘hausands of events from the high-Felhy simulation every frame, and the events fiterknows which Python entities are Interested in what, sotcan quickly throw away relevant ‘events t wll bud up a buf of events that neds 10 be sent to Python, and perodicaly it will pump this whole bufer through a single Python cllt the callback map sot can disseminate the ‘vents among th rolevant entities. (See Figure 3.) Since skies an Bock while wating or events, trey reduce the processing lood;by contalinghow many events wereglstr for (ot how fequenty they occur), we ean balance pesformanee ageinst fidelity against number of entities, Another od we need to supports the reloading of scripts on the fy A naive approach would simply be to call ‘raload()" on modules you have changed [and hopefully complied to py¢ and copied onto your cansole’s les erver The problem sin handing instances of objec created from those modules. Ensuring you recreate objects correctly can be very messy. I'you'e no careful you can have two Instances ofa game object that are supposedly identical running afferent coae. STACKLESS PYTHON "URE 3 An event ys cara shor ‘We solved his by intocucing 2 small but important seaton. We know tha the septs we mast requent\y want 0 reload ae the eventhandling components ofindivicual entities fn ourdstaase, andthe loge forthe missions the player can ater. By making missions another typeof ent in our ‘etahase, we can handle them all using the same relondngrules, ‘Any object in the database can only ever be accessed ‘externally vis a proxy that automaticaly retrieves the correct object from the database via @ unique entity ID. Every entry in the database has a unique ID. Now ifthe base object used for entities in the database knows which modules itwasoaded from, we ean have te database automatically handle the roloacing ofits objcts and correctly tying up proxies, andthe rest ofthe code never need worry about eas, : Marine monster beauty treatment CMe eet earriccit Rte ee Pair Multilingual Desktop Publishigt} Wee) Implementation fore acter ee ane) eninsoMakers” Ree una] Pa acu?| GAMESGAPE| a ONION °c COMMUNITY Perhaps mare than anything, Toronto benef fom having 2 cornmunity oF Aevelopers who are committedto helping TORONTO, ONTARIO IS HOME TO A game developmenttalc From there,we eachother out and are determined not remartable assemblog ofindependent’ _decied to tryurhandat makingout own toalow their nascent scene to fre. The me deveopers most ofwham verkalone games,"Vela td us Tonto Independent Game Development rinse groups drven by apassionfor “Weal had other Flkime jobs in Jam (T0Jam) oxganizedby Jn MeGiniey tteirartandfreeffomthe corpromises enterprise software ortelevision of BigPants Games (HOLD ME CLOSER, sooften associated with corporate fe We of something else remedial anc {GANT OuNCER) brings together local asked NathanVelaofCapybaraGammes would work evenings and weekends _developers to collectively bash game and algon Burs ofMetanetSoftwareto developing SUPER SHOVE IT and eas ita complete frm over thee days hepustakethemessureofTecntssgime SMAB.U, Vella said. We got our frst ofintense coding TOJam has seen the ‘development geography. ‘deal developing CARS for Disnoy/Pbar. emergence of number of dovelopars We quit ourdayjods,gotan office and who have gained a wider recognition DO IT YOURSELF started making games fora ving” since Jonathan Mak of Queasy Games “Sotorthereisntsbigstudlo presence _Metanet Software is aso one of created TOJAM THB atthe 2005 event here, especialy since Pseudo shut Torontcs many seltstarters. Comprised! and has since released EVERYDA” SHOOTER lonn Burns tld us. "Koes around and of Raigan Burns and Mare Shepoard, for Playstation 3 and Winsows. Shawn there's branch of Rockstar out beyond Metanet used Flash to creat the MeGrath of (right square bracket left ‘the suburbs. There are other companies, freeware gem Win 2005. As NSaudlence square bracket] whose game CHEN is tat they tend tobe located outside re, Metanet made the decision to. currently available fr Phone, il the cof Toronto foreconamic reasons, And ‘Resp tselfsmall and manageableby award winning AGAME ABOUT BEUNCRG at theyre less fun” he added. “Other than partneringwith Sick Entertainment to TOJam 2008, Now inits fourth yea, he that its mosty small ormeumsized produce an expanded version called ‘ext Tam i et fr May 2009, ‘groups, focusing on PCandmoblerather N+ forNintendo GS,SonyPSR.andXtox The Artsy Games Incubators another than console. There are aletofpeople Live Arad (soethe postmortem inthe significant boost to Toronto scone making games traugh” Soptomber 2008 sste). Headod by Jim Munros, tne creator of Vel agreed, tling us, “There is 3 EvERHODY DES, along with help Frm etal ton oftalentin Toronto, buttne —- HELP FROM ABOVE Metanet and Queasy Games, tne Artsy fact tat there is almost nolarge-scle The Ontario Media Develeprent ‘Games incubator provises a gulced game development in Canada'slagest_ Corporation (OMOC], an agency of framework for cresting independent ‘ity sone of the major reasons wry Ontari's Ministry of Culture, plays games. Operating 3s a combination theindie scene does sowell Youhave _significantrolein the Teronta ats scene lesson pan, manifesto, and hands-on ‘arassve talent pool ofpeoplewho by providinglocal book, fir, and musie workshop, the Incubstorhas hep ‘really want tobe game developers with producers as wellas game develcpers _bringto fruition such games as Benjamin ‘where forthem towerk.Inourcase, with grants and axincentives. Rivers Sow and Miguel Sternberg NEAT weld the only thingwecould—start our “The OMDC has made ahuge difference OFTHE CEFHALOFOOS. jown company and make an opportunity forus—bothinterms ofhelpingus get “The Toronto scene Isa proty tight for oursetves” ‘ur ideas off the ground through financial community” Vola Sad. We help cach Capybar Games, the dveloper of nd business suppor, as wellprovingte other out where possible, mostly just PLLOWoHTand CAITERCAUNCH,hadits us thatthe Ontario government actually through having a network of talented lignsenthe Torte GAforum."At the caresaboutthe videogame industry,” and successful peopl to talk games tumetherewerelotsofpeoplein oroto Vela olds. “Theirfundingalsohelped with, The success ofocal indies ho ovedand wantedtomake games,and us getideasoffthe ground that never really fuels the scene and help us al alrostnogemingcompaniesin the city woukdhavesseenthe light of cayhad_——_—believe that we can be successful as LEFPREYFLEANGhowotorthem to werk foc ARerthe thraadcn the werededto a through thetradtionsl independent developers in Toronto finstedreadeg Beal forum, westarted meeting ourlocalIGDA publisher green ight route” Honestly t's hard not tobe encouraged Losers yet Emathim chapter meetings, then moved tomeeting "However, it’s not ike they simplyhand__ by games!ike Ns or EVERYDAY SHOOTER Maringogamageom ——atacrappybareveryNondayforbeerand out meniey-itS highly competitive getting the recognition they deserve” x [Wwweomas com///1// \Introducing new tools to artists without getting spitballed [NEW TOOLS AND TECHMIQUES HAVE ‘he ability to revolutionize, oat east ‘wuly hone, the work ofa game artist. The toutes, few game artiste want to.stop making the game in order to investigate ese ew options In stepe the technical artis. For si years | worked a Pseuse Interactive, a game development studio in Toronto. In 200? Pseudo ralledout 8 new too called BRISE, and along the way, | wound upleaming 2 number of valuable lessons about the introduction of nen tocs want to start ay noting that the technical artist represents anew profession ina young Industry. There sno consistent job description there is oven ajod description all, ancmany of us are figuring things out on our own, Alot of technica artists have flen nto the rok fom some other postion, mostly crven by an inability to eave broken things alan. The discussion of what makes a technical artist 0x 3 he job would be along one. Problem saving, communication stil, patience, perseverance, rmultasking, andthe abit to keep an open mingare all important aibutes. But equaly Important to how we do the ob s wh we do fo ‘eer Fundamentally, we provide BRORWEN GRIMES eotecnca et Technical artists are enables, ‘ough many of us are talented artistsor programmers {or both) in ‘our wn ight, very of cur work ends up being immediately visibe Ina game. Soinstead oftinking ofthe game's consumers as my customers, ve lamedto tink of ‘my customers as the people who Use the tals and shaders eres dif customers aren happy witha product, theyre not goingto Nom back to BASE, which was ode-based shader editor (similar to SadorFX, though no OCC-software specif). "Brise* means breakin French, signifying tht this too was ‘break from our oi system, Boy was't ever. Our od system was Fag-based,inflxile, and ‘oraughly entrenched. The new too! was completely open-ended. My task was t introduce entirely ew concepts the att team and get them productive again within a short time frame, AS the evelopment of he too progressed, ‘had been documenting and weling tutorials. | used the tutorials asa lesson plan, and took the artist trough eight 3-hour classes. This brings me tothe frst lesson earned in ths process. COMMUNICATE WITH THE ART TEAM, NOT AT THEM ‘Anyone who hasbeen a trainin the course oftheir jobs can sympathize here. hada stressed team, a short ‘meframe, a complextool anda soties of lessons ona projector. The temptation was to reas rom the ‘seteen ust to get through tafe all, ‘my jobs towrte tools ane shaders, mnota teacher, right? (esd wrong Thetootis useless without users. had ta force myself to ak questions, high schoolteacher stl, and use more examples thant actually prepared ‘anddocumented. Some people gett quickly, more quickly even ‘than I antiipate. Some lagged. "okd myself his was normal Not everyone wouldbe an expert user. focus my time ater, one-on-one, ‘on those picked out to be shader wing prodigies Everyone needed a base level of competency, though. Even same of them werert going to wite shaders, thay atleast had tobe able touse ones created by ther teammates. One ofthe artists was working win repeateny fale to grasp a Crucial concept, even tthe point of becoming argumentative. Unless youre using maple render targets, piel shaders output single lost ree, green, blue, and alpha. We'd been using alpha not just or transparency bt for masking diferent screenspace ‘operations, based on the needs of ‘the object being rendered, But it's 2 choles other he shaded abject uses the same alpha values for multiple diferent operations, you pek ust one operation. The atist in question wantes to use te afferent alphas, one for transpareney andone for # screen space glow. Irie to get across the point tha although he could source rmutiple textures, he cou only ‘output single alpha valu tothe ‘ramebufft kt dnt make sense 10GOOD MORNING CLASS! him: had two erent alphas. He oul! 00 them! Explaining tat thoy adobe composted ino a single channel to cutpu tothe ramebutr gotme abiankstxe. {Aor Sever trying minutes, ow 2 simple invert pyramid show trataltough he coud start wih ‘many images, he could end with nly one pl value. The agra aid what en minutes of taking had, andthe Hit dawnedon hn. He respondedinmadately, “Or, gat ma vsualleamer, you krew” He wasnt tho only one who had an epiphany Inrevvospect seems obvious thatan artist would bea \swalleamer had Been truhngto armmunicat inthe way that een Destinsted oF yng understand ow he ees things think thsi common prcber. at quite often rom programmers andoter technica artists that a certinarst [sometimes arts ingeerl]sna‘tecnlea Tiss often used an excuse to dismiss ‘thei cancers orto pass the wrk of ‘eadifeent moce"tcrnical art. {havea hard time batovng that excuse, rough Were aking sboutaiets no repuariyuse complexsofware such a Maya and Photoshop. Every tational artist "keow wel conser hat work igh echnical. femiy ive that ange these ats can lary complicated processes up toandineuding scripting they have a goodreason {odos0.Youjst oad present tho Information in way ‘hot motivates them. PUT, YOURSELF IN THE ARTIST'S SHOES ‘had a dificult tine, initally, convincing the production eam and ‘company owners that BRISE was a good investment Tbe the only one able ro sei, thoy argued. Al my ‘time would be takon up veting shaders, and fd bbe under aot of pressure to support the entire tear, The current system was, Understood and useable by ‘everyone, so why change? | was deterined that the artists couldeaen the sustem, Give them the power, argued ‘bac, and they wil do amazing things wth though stl maintain this ‘a abasic tenet of my professional illocophy, | allowedmy eanvetin Toblindme.| structured na just the lessons themeaivesbutthe ene lesean pan in a wal that made ‘most sense to me—85 tool manual {or creating shaders. Hw do you ‘connect nodes? How do you make a basicafuse shader? wanted totum ‘outmore shader wie, justo prove my paint. nd fale to ask myself the most basic of questions, What does the artist want to accomplish with {this too? Fd answered ith what! ‘wantod to accomplisre wine shadors ‘tha support the art crectorsvsion, Butts that what the typical artist wanted too? ‘The fist thing aur art team wanted tadowas apply a generic shader ‘that would et ther see thet abeets tendering in-game This is how ‘Should have started my tutorials Instea, twas the last esson. The ast ended the rate sessions ‘weary and overcallenge, edd ‘get tothopartthat was most relevant Tothemuntl the very end IP placed ‘myselfintheir shoes, cout have better seen how this too int the ‘overall pipeline, nd approached the tutors fom top-down perspective, Instead of rom ground.up This was 2 really tough less00 for sme talzar. Like many technical artists, started outas anatist, who could script For several yoars inmy caress, this was how | worked ‘ea problem, fix for myself, and clean it up forthe team. Boing ‘your own customer makes tol or ‘documentation writing relly easy Putting yourselfin someone else's ‘shoes isa challenge CONVINCE THEM THE PAYOFF IS WORTH THE PAIN Technical artists are very process ‘rented. We want ‘oknow ‘everything about oo, gure ou new and creative ways to use, and ‘understand how ican be changed ‘orextence to make the content ‘development process beter. Every other aris wants to seve visual problems. Mat, corecty, is ‘here the majorty oftheir brain power goes. They dont want to ‘spendtime thinking about how to ‘make @ tool do what they wat. Tey ‘want think about mood, style, and ‘composition They are goaborierted ‘They especially doit want to ‘ny something that takes ther completely ou of tele comfort zone. When an artis realy familar wth tool using its ike using a penct The mechanies ate automa. Only ‘the outputs interesting them, Soconwincingan artist totry anew toot an be ficult, as this makes. it much harder intially, forthem to reach ther goal Even if tink tool will make anattist more productive have toremind myselthat any energy ‘thay purtoward leaning anew tools energy they arent using o produce artwork. iughtrohave considered my tutoralsin the contoxt ofthe ppalne. New onts mast be considered in that carte 2s wel Does te new actan take an artist cut a comfortable environment? ow many applications have oe open fer an artist to cornplete an asset? When switching between applications, how many opportunites are therefor the content to beak? Sometimes you need tomarket atool to your customers, Their opinions can only be 2s good as ‘the information they are based on Showing them features and te: ‘saving shortcuts val hespmosivate ‘ther, you cart convince the art ‘team thatthe new oo wllmake ‘thern more procctive, you may have togo back tothe drawing board, Since they'e the ones doing ‘the work, they'2in a good position {wo judge the value ofa new addon. aught take @ moment here twociarify that consicer‘more produetvo" not just 10 mean ‘make more stuf’ butalso "make better stuf faster” ‘BRS elit theeategryof"beter su faster vas pry fr cutsse ‘the comfort zone of mostofthe artists and was intial dsappointing sa result Dutingthe fest week tlooked tothernike*medicere stuf slower” ‘As mentioned befor, the timeframe fortraning wastealiy short We were Inthe process ofbuldinga small eve which would be the puclous for alargor me pay ara, andthe level was due in afew days We managedto get itlooking et hedinthe old shader ‘system nin two cays, whichin sit asa sucess Without aprandleap {ormar, though, was hard forthe team tosee the posses inherent inthe new system, ‘he ofthe core features of BRISE was referenced groups. instructed the team on them, andmade sure they were used religous throughout allt shaders in the ova. had ‘sumed that everyone would Understand he power behind ths simple concept and get exited Just as had structured the tutors rom my perspective, had marketed my tol as though tomyselt Fd shown ‘ther the process, but what they realy needed toe were the results ‘After ciscussing the visuals with the at ead andar recto, iathered the team around mydesk ‘oshow them how one quick change could dramatically imoact the whole level. | opened the specular group node in one shader and added anew cutput—an “ou of range" output ‘tat ook overbrignt values and passed them to what was termed ‘ne“radianee butler" In our engine [essentially a glow pass). Switching back tothe level ear, | enabled the model's aby torte vaives tothe radiance buffer, causing the specular ightights to bom. ‘The at team gave some gratifulng “eohs, and statedto diy up who would change which shaders te have tho sare functional. nad to Intorrupt thom worming them that the node I cranged was erences Into al thet shoders. Wi 10 seconds cof wor, the erie lve’ look had en updates. ey watched while! copied the witetoxadlnee-buter settings tothe whoo lave and the whole team erupted into gins. ‘Speed, power, ad the wilto use It Finally, success. ony shown them that frst. TECH TO THE FUTURE The process ofaing out anew too! Is always raugrt with challenges. As ‘echnical artists, were inthe unique postion of sharing our ofices wth ‘the customers or our to's and Pipelines, We've got the chance toreact quickly to feedback at all stages of development, Keeping your lego out ofthe equation and realy listening to your customers makes for ru greatimproverents ana Innovations in your pipatine ‘he best thing that we can o, as technical artists oras ‘tools programmers, to rust and respect our customers: our colleagues. Working to see things from their perspective, talloring ‘the tools to their preferences, and shawing them how powerful the ool can be will tur them into power: Users, creating better content and, utimately, better games.» christian nutt INTERVIEW: TSUTOMU KOUNO > TALKING To TSUTOMU KOUNO ABOUTHISICONIC CREATION, LocoRoco, one gets a sense that theresa lat of hidden depth to this developer of simple games. i's refreshing to speak to 2 developer who wants to create games that appeal broadly not because R's a way to cash in toa major market—the PSP isnot the most mainstream piatform afta all—but because he feels ingpted to deliver eign, pleasurable experiences. This interview, conducted at Sony Computer Entertainment's HOin Tokyo, revess a bit ‘more about the man behind ths adradle, accessible series, whieh recently had its second installment CHRISTIAN NUTT: When ie comes to LocoRoco, the one thing you think abouts the control and 1 was wondering which came frst— the game design ‘ar the cantrol? From whore di you proceed when you crginally thought ofthe frst game inthe series? TSUTOMUKOUMO: When came up wit the concep forthe Fst LocoRoco, was spending alot of ime sketching game ideas we eng the train. These werent just ideas or LaCMROCD, ‘there were a bunch was working on. (Shaws crawing] So this isthe one that became the jumping of point for LateR0c, When Nooked att saw tat with so many characterson the screen, this wouldtbethe sort of game where youd contra a single ‘guy rectly, But also thought might be cool f you cout rrate ‘the landscape around allofthem. The picture’ about the same diersions asthe PSP seen, and athough cid have Land Rbottos, Uk from side to side an think, "Hoy. this might actually Work” Mo this nal drawing, started churning out ‘more sketches ata crazy pace The PSP was alsobaing released right around the time frst hed these ideas, and usingtne Land R ‘iggersto get the rotation seemed ike an dbvouschate CN You made this game specifically forthe PSE not fora home console. How did your thinking change when creating o game {for PSP rather than ahome console where the usercoud sit ‘and concentrate for along time? "TK When the PSP was frst announced, t seemed 0 me ike everyone was geating upto make these complicated games for 1 ke sequels to games that had been onthe P52. wanted to break that mold and make a gare that relly seemed at home fon the PSP. That had been my thinking ever since heard about ‘the portale Coming up wth the idea for Loco Roca right around ‘the PSP launch was good timing, and | was lucky the control ‘scheme worked so well ‘th LOCOROCD, | wanted every aepect oF the game, fom the music othe fst sual impression you ge tobe unique. Polygons, complex character ocelsrelstic shadows andlightinghave become the standart for games today, wanted to gothe other way, and use asimpie elective 20 approach that would make even nor-gamers say, "Hey, that's ete It play that” IS also common in games forte payor to have rect contre ove ther character, but his ithe ‘case n LOCOROCO. The LocoRocos themseives often det lo what you want them to. was ort oF an earn king back, but myhope was to create something tha, cone wll, woul introduce anew way to enjoy laying games. (oN. Wet games inspired you at such a young age to went to ‘become a game creator? TK: There were a couple of Japanese games forthe PCIke HYOLEE and XANACU, as well as atextadverture game fr Apple computers called TRANSMVIA. You know, the typeof game where you entra noun and a verb to say, “Do this wth this” Ithad werewolves and allsorts of good stuffinit At any rate, hada lot of games. CN Wha’ fanny is tho te games you lst ae olavely complicated genres ike RPGs or text adventure. find Interesting how you gotfrom enjoying games ike ANADU to making a game ike LocnRoco ‘TK: Wel, ve been a big fon of games since wey back, but also sort of kept an eye onthe industry. From where I stead, t seemed tke a otofthe games comingout were very sia to each other, ts that cde? sem like a good thing me, Once lentes the industry myself ke hada responsitilty to create sornathingnevt. remember feoling that ely strongly that Thad todo something, anything solongasitwascifferet. = nian tious recer of Garasieracan cata dgn tot own by Kova. alin renu@gonagcon,Game Developers Conference®™ March 23-27, 2009 | Moscone Center, San Francisco: PUM TMM Sd m8 ee Register now and save up to 30% on conference passes visit GOConf.com for the latest sessions, keynotes, and news arr Tt‘TOOL Box AUTO DESK MOTIONBUILDER 2009 Adding MotionBuilder to Your Pipeline Review by Marc-André Guindon en Cowes Gaba, pRoDUCTION stuos are avays looking for faster td meve ele mayo aime Aer 3, animation sone ofthe rst tne Consuring ton 30 production With thatining shard seethe benef acding yet anther pece ofsoftwareto ‘pur ppatnes shopping ist. nur animation suf NeoRod we nave used Autodesk Monae with Several game ane fim projec ich gpmes a Pak (2x Gomes), FOTPAL feta (Eee as), andre LAW Seats series tb Str). NotionBscerstord ot er us or thre reasons Fist thas ream display engine, pred is bso uely cerebro vaca of thecontentandse playin elie Second th saftware mas designed 0 bee charcter animation ok sits fest an stowed dn wth como features. This, both ayfoming and matencopture workflow topoted adrenal anmaton can bereveves wth most 3D packages suc = Maya, 5s Max andSorimoge XS, using Foxe forma. Wy should you ad» charseter ‘animation package to your pipeline when your other packages can already do the |b? Nyanswer is because MaionBuilder does faster and in real MOTIONBUILDER AS PLAYER if you're using motion capture, youre probably ready familar wth MotionBullder, a ts one ofthe leading pieces of software in thet Fl. F not, then youre prabebly stuck with ‘sow scenes and feel cluttered by the thousands of keyframes tat are hard tomodity Andi you're using keyframe ‘animation ony, you might be slowed down by heavy character igs and uncomfortable playback rates. MotonBuilder has an easy implemented, one-size tsa intaligent character rig that ean accommodate most biped and quacruped characters. eimatars wont have eam new is, 28 allchoracters wile usingthe same Rud ‘worlow throughout al you projets. Because Molander isa character ‘animation to, you wil stilneed todo sit the modeing texting, and skinning, of characters in your native 30 software. In our case, we use Autodesk Maya, in ‘which the characteris skinned toa FK Joint hierarchy and uses blend shapes. ‘Once yourereadyto export a character, youcanuse the FBXpivgintobringthe il — tharacterin MotionBullder. Next.simly a cragand crop itfeenttosy pares inte ilaliemamemammaal character ig charactrize ft and start animating There's no need to render mall move previews of your animation because everything wile in realtime. ‘As soan as you'e happy with your snimation, you ean poet back nto your native 30 software using the FBX plugin. THE BRIGHT SIDE OF MOTIONBUILDER The latest version ofthe oo, MotonBuilder 2009, now has the ability to simulate rig body andragdot iynamics, which can adda great touch of reallem to your canned animation asthe ‘character ig and props can be blended In and out of a dynamic mode. Tough the resus are often ganeated on-the-fly by the game engine, its always good to have a preview ofthe animation inthe oeren viemport ise lo ‘ince MotionBulder makes intensive se of our grphicshardware, ts possible touse CgPX shaders and perp ‘lyraric lighting to mimic the ook of yout {game engine directly inthe viewport. ‘he powerful animation system can realy help you modity. reuse, and retargt esting animations. Further ‘thin, tools such as Animation Layers, tion Blend, and Stary ofer outstanding nonlinear acimatio tricks. Ive been using these cornerstone featutes from as fr as version 10, and they are probably the top reason why! prefer to animate with MotinBuilde over Maya, 36s Max, or Softimage XSL Poni [www cemas.com‘TOOL Box! be THE DARK SIDE OF hich coulduse st esort techniques _Alongthe same ine, have nthe past MOTIONBUILDER cr nor-aimster rendly corrals, thus been working on afile when sudden ‘As with angtoo, MotionBullderhas afew slowing down your aniation ‘ask. MotonBuider rashes—and with no as features andimplerentatonsthathave From productionstandpointve minute save or memory dump—provents Jeftme ith an unplessanttasteinmy always opted touse MotinBuitier only me rom reviving 2 potion of my ‘mouth, In some cases, aspects ofseveral_ on standardcharacters and would Work. MotionBulder does havea Save tools soomto require plshing,asfthey strongly discourage usingcharactrs Reminder seting that warns you whan wereimplemented as works in-progress, that dt lino the symmetries biped you haven saved forth pas few andit seems Autoceskis watingforthe ot quadrupes mol. ‘minutes, but hat’ hardly repicement {eammunityte pointcut the problems, While Matonuildor 2009 1s making _fora propor crash recovery function rather han Implementing sabi tools Interms of openingisintcace He by te. i Sndrourestspogenmatesotard AROUND THE BEND Tothat extent, end to became seriptinglonguoge are inmy pinion very Motions simp awesome fr {rustrated with tiny problems a soon as imaturecompared toother packages. creating animation for vdeo games. t's trytothingoutside the box Foreample, —Mwecorpare Rto Nays, for wrich the fat easy to lear, ana supports FEX the character rigis verysasyto setup software wasbult om the ground up__‘fle format across a wide variety of 30 anduseforstandardcharactes, buti's usingthe MEL ciptinglanguage andC++ packages. But you might want to tke cumbersome touse when replicating SD, it seems ike MotonBuikier does the for atest runbefore ging fl throttle anesistingrigerbulidngantop ofthe eactoppost, tung deconstruct the Into roducton (detalsabout the 30 basic MotonBuilerrig Implementing _softwareto gve access tw some features day free al are aval on Autodesk's asetofexra controls requires agood (but pata wth Python sexipting website). Make sure you know what Lunderstandingofthe software andcan —_anguageandC+-S0K. otionBuidor can do for you fend frustration sine tacks some Forinstance, heres no casy way of From my experience, MationBuer essential feturesofother favorite 30 creating acustomnetkey.Wehadtouse was atimesaverinmostcaces, utin software pockages. brute force keyboord hocks to access certain uations, twas best omit t Forinstance,toset wpa paiofwings some menuitemsandtoclsinorderto fromthe pipeline. ona character you wouldneed to bully speedup our wekfow contollrsffom scratch without evolved Usingasftware witha dysfunctional ARCAIOREGNGONios Bem in vu rigging ols [in Maye, would deferto _Undosystemcan be quite rustrating too. efits urd grein fOr, the Set Driven Keys) andimplement’ —_Formost tasks, Undo works asintended epocaling pple ng Moteur ont ‘acharacterextensiontopluginto your in MatlonBuilier, but the bution does Mays Ambien tend and ceutrent character rotwork oreveruthing. When you come expe newinaaf nna, has end Inanother example. ifyouwantto —_acrasscerainacons that youcanit ——_Nesfiet ne, epredctin ond constr creatzasimple snake characte, you undo, forces yout revert tothelast_ state botedin Monta Ema hin at ood wo istogard the character ig saved flea painful moment inany game mgundenagenegcom completly and ercate custom setup, developers workiow Book Review by Bijan Forutanpour PROGRAMMING THE CELL PROCESSOR FOR GAMES, GRAPHICS, AND COMPUTATION 8 warrHew scarpine ‘WHAT DO SPIDER-MAN AND THE PLAYSTATION 3 HAVE IN COMMON? THEY SHARE A ‘common theme: great power comes great responsibilty” According tothe ‘uinness Book of Word Records, the honor oF th worlds mast poworful stubuted ‘system goes to Folding@Home, 2 wardwide network of PCs and PlayStation 3 consces, {As of Aor 2008, the network consisted of oughly 2.4 millon PCs, and hala milion PlayStation 3 consoles Yet the PCs contribute “only” .259 PetaFlops, compared to 1.235 PetaFlops rom the PlayStation 3 eonsoles. The PiayStation 3 delivers several orders of ‘magnitude more performance than a single PC. Winall tht processing power comes ‘the responsibilty and complesty of programing the PlaySttin 3s Cel Broadband Engine, which where Programming the Cll Processor For Games, Graphics, and Computation by Mattnew Searpina prcves ta be very valutle. The Cell processor was developed by the ST Aliance, whichis composed of Sony, Toshiba, and IBM. Th processor is used in Sonu's PlayStation 3, BH's Roadrunner supercomputer and Slade Servers, and Tashia’s SPURS engine. Both IBM andSony have released Celi Software Development Kits twas musings read the author's Gescrption of his reaction in tyingto understand the material covered in GM's Cell SOK, since {cout relate: “The material few over my head with a ferce whoosh” The Books brave attempt at recucing the whoosh effect associated with Cll ‘evelopment. Three main tpies are ceavered inorder to give an understancing ‘ofthe big picture. The Fst isthe hands ‘on development toc set, tre second Isthehacdwate architecture, and finally the avaiable sotware Koran, Ieisimportant ro note that this book isnot for the novice programmer and requires a very sali background in computer science, Knowledge of some formof Assemblyis very helpful, 2s Is some understancing of hardware architectures, operating systems, ‘mathematics, and compuner graphics. Programming the Cell Processor For ames, Graphics, ond Computation 's very well ten and orgarized, and does a great ob describing the haraware architecture and how things work. That Isnotto say Mis easy to read, because the subject matters pretty eamplex. The majority ofthe tock s wisely spent movieul eet od gree nave ete lo te cutar of 2030 pint for Photshop[mwmanzo3écom. Emel im at Deruarpeuragemagcom. www.rtpatch.com teh seca St ged taal Phe 8NOEL LLOPIS »THE INNER PRODUCT START PRE-ALLOCATING And Stop Worrying WE ALL HAVE THINGS NAGGING IN THE back of our minds. es never anything we have toworry about this very Instant, just something we need to do sometime inthe future, Maybe its changing those worn tres onthe car or ‘making an appointment with the dentist about that tooth that has been aching con and of. Dynamic memory allocation fs ‘someting hat fais in that eatogory for ‘most programmers. We all Knaw we cant Nt goon alecating memory wily ly whenever we needi, yet we puto eating witht until the end of the project. .2y that time, deacines ar piling on the Pressure, andi's usually too late to make signicant changes, ‘With a ite it of forethought and planning, we can avd those problems and be confident our game isnot going trun out of memory a the most Inoppartune moment. ON-DEMAND DYNAMIC MEMORY ALLOCATION ‘he easiest way to get started with rmemary management isto allocate ‘memory dynamically whenever you ‘edit. This isthe approach many software engineering books consider Ideal, and t's often encouraged in computer science classes. Its certainly an easy approach touse, [Need 2 new animatian Instance when ‘the player i landing ona ledge? Allocate It Need new sound when we reach the goal? Just allocate anather one! NOEL LLOPIS hartews mating game fr prt cout cumymap afer tot tangers He now gong ‘rand spend hi doy ing Phare dvepmert rm localcaeo stops Emeka ps0 92n09 can EX) reenvanysosrsexwe oevevoren] (On-demand dynamic memory ‘location can help to keep memory usage toa minimum because you ‘only allocate the memory tat you eed ae no mar. In practice i's pot quite as neat and tidy because there ‘can be a surprisingly large amount of ‘overhead per alscation, which adds up if programmers become allocaton-Nappy. ks also good way to shoot yours Inthe oot ‘Games dort ive ineide 2 computer science textbook, so we have to dest with real word imitation, wich make this approach cumbersome, clunky, ‘ana potently disastrous What can go wrong wth on demand dari memory location? Almost everthing! LIMITED MEMORY Games, or any sofware for that mater, run on machines with imited amounts of ‘memory. Aslongas you know what hat limit is and you keop extremely careful ‘rack of your memary usage, you can remain under the mit However, since ‘the game i allocating memory any time enced rere wil most key come a time when the game ties to allocate a new block but there sno memory ef What ean you do then? othing easy, 'm afrald, You ean try to free an older mernoxy block and allocate the new one there, oF you ‘can try to make your game tolerant torunning out of memory. Both those solutions are very complex and dificult tolmplement correct, Even seting memory budgets and ‘sticking to them cane very afi. How cana designer know that a given particle system isnt geingtorun out ‘of memory? Ar these Ati going to crete too many pathinding abects and crash the game? its hard to know ‘uni we run the game inal possible ‘combinations. And even then, how ‘doyou know nist going to crash ‘iveminutes iter? Orten? hs almost Impossibietoknow fc certa HH youinsist on using this approach, at ‘the very east, you shou tag al memory allocations 30 you have an idea of how ‘memory is being used, You can either tag ‘each allocation based on what system Iniited it (physies, textures, animation, ‘sound, Al) or even on the flename whore ‘Rorighnated, which has the advantage ‘that can be automated and should stil ‘ave youa good peture ofthe overall ‘memory usage. MEMORY FRAGMENTATION Even youtate strenuous pains notto ‘exceed the availabe memory you sti ‘cauldruninta trouble because of mernary fragmentation For example, youmigh ‘have encugh memory for are alocation, butinthe farm of many small memory ‘locks instead of arge comiguous one. Unies youprovde your own memory allocation mechanism, rogmentation 6 ‘something thats very hard trackon ‘your own you cant even be rend fort “unite abeaton fis, VIRTUAL MEMORY Virtual memory coud solve all hose problems In theory, f you runout of real ‘memory, the operating system swaps ‘ut some oder, unused pages to disk and ‘makes room forthe new memory you requested. In practice, Isjust abad caching ‘scheme because It canbe triggered ‘atthe worst possible moment, and it ‘doesn know what daa i's swapping out ‘orhow your game uses them, Games, unlike most other software, have “soft real time” cequlrement. ‘he game needs to keep updating an acceptable interactive rate, whichis ‘somewhare around 15 or more Frames er second, That means consumers areTHE INNER PRODUCT geingtomake atriptothe store tareturn {your game i pauses fora couple of seconds every fw minutes wile t's “making oom” farnew memory Reiging on vrtwalmemory isnt a particularly avactiv solution, ‘Adciionally, 21 of games run in Piatforme with fixes amounts of RAM and ro virtual memory. When memoryrun ‘0, things won get slow and chugay— they crash hard When the memeryis. g20e, really gore. PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS There ate some performance Issues that are relatively oo8y to track down and i ‘suallyones that occur every fare and arehappening\n a single spot some ‘expensive operations (a3) agri, and so forth. hen there are performance probioms introduced by oynamic ‘momory allocations whic can bereally hard tek down, ‘Standard maloe returns memary Pretty quickly, and usually doesn ever register on the profiler. Every soften ‘though, whenever the game has been running for awhile and memory is pretty fragmented, can spike up and cause significant delay for just frame, Trylngte track down those spikes has caused more than one programmer to age prematurely Yu can avoid some of those probs by using your own ‘mamory manager, but cont sttempt to wie 2 genetic one yoursef from scratch, Instead start with some ofthe ones listed Intmerterenees. alloc spikes arenot the only source of performance problems. locating ‘many small blocks of memory can lead to bad cache coherence when the sgame code accesses thom sequentially, This probiem usually manifests itself 28 general slowdown that can't be narrowed down in the profier With today’s hardware of slow memory syetems and deep caches, god memory access pattems are more Important than ever KEEPING TRACK OF MEMORY Anather source of problems with dynamic ‘memory allocation are bugsinthelogie that keeps track ofthe allocated memory blocks. Ifwe forget ta free some of them, cour programill have memory leaks and has the potential torun out of memory The fp side of memory leaks invalid memory acess. we free a memory biock and ater access itas fk were allocatod, wel other got a memory access exception or well manage to corrupt our onn game. ‘Some techniques, such a reference counting ana garbage calleson can help keep track of memory allocations, ut intracice their own completes and overhead. INTRODUCING. PRE-ALLOCATION Inthe opposite comer isthe purely pre- allocated game. k exces at everthing ‘that the dynamically allocated gare Is KNOW YOUR DATA For pesallocation to work, youneed to know ahead of ime how much of very {ype of data you wil need inthe game, That can bea daunting proposition, cespociallyto those used toa more ‘dynamic approach. However, with a good ata baking system (see “Inner Product” (October and November 2008 ), you can (get ls! view ofeach level sn gue ‘ut how bg things need tobe. Theres one portant design Phlosophy that reeds tobe adopted for Prealocation ta work: Eveythingin the {are has tobe bounded, Tat shoukirt feel too restrictive; afterall, the memory In your target platform istounded, 2s well as every single resource. That means that everything rat can create new objects, ( ( The purely pre-allocated game excels at everything that the dynamically-allocated game is weak at, but it has a few weaknesses of its own. But all in all, it’s probably a much safer approach for most games. j j vrakat, but ithas a few weaknesses of its onn, Ball inal ts probably a much ‘afer approach for most games. ‘The lea behind a pre-allocation memory strategy st allocate everything once ang never have to do any dynamic allocations in the mile ofthe geme. Usually you grab the biggest block of memory you c and then you carve it ut to suit your gare’ needs ‘Some advantages ae very clear no performance penalties, knowing eracty how your memory used, never running out of memory and no mernory ‘rogmentation to wory about. There are ‘some other, more subtle advantages, too, such as being able toput data in contiguous areas of memory to get best cache coherency, or having blazingly fast Jond times by oacinga baked imoge of 2 level directly into mesrory. ‘The main drawback of preallacationis that is mare complex to implement than ‘the dynamic allocation approach, and takes some planning ahead including hightevel game constructs, should operate ona id numberof them, This nigh soem the an imglomantation etal, butt often bubbles upto whats exposed to game designers. Acomman examples an enery spawner Instead of dengring a spawner with an emission rate t shoulchave a feed numberof enemies ean span and potentially reuse them after theyte dead). POTENTIALLY WASTED SPACE you allocate enough data fr the worst ‘casein your game, it can lead 03 lt of Unused data most ofthe time, Thats only an issue iFthat unused data preventing {you fom adcing more content tothe game, We might italy balk tte Kea ‘of having 2,000 pre-aliocated enemies when were only gong ta see 10 of them once, But remember that each of thase tenamies is only taking 256 bytes and the total overheads SOOKB, which can be accommedsted in most modern piatforms todayTHE INNER PRODUGT reallocation doesrit have tobe as ‘draconian as it sounds. You cous relax this approach and commit to having ‘each level reallocated and never having dynamic memory allocations while the game is running, That stil allows you te dynamically allocate the ‘memory needes for each level and keep wastod space toa minimum. Or you ceantake it further and preallocate the contents of memory blocks thet are streamed in memory. That way each block can be divided in the best way for that content and wasted spaces kept toaminimum. REUSE, RECYCLE IF you dort want to proalocate every single object youl ever use, then you can ‘create asmaler set and reuse them as ‘needod. This can be tcky though Fst ‘fal, need tobe very much specific to the type of object that is eset Particles ‘are easy toreuse (Just drop te ogest ‘one, orthe ones notin view), but enemy Lunt a active projectiles wil be more difieu. s going to take some game knowledge of those ebyects to decide which ones to reuse ard how Iealsomeans that systems need to be propatedtoelter fall an location (if gour curent set of objects full ‘and you dont want toreuse an existing fone], or they noed to cope with an ‘objec als appearing fom one frame 0 another. That's a elatively easy problem tasolve ayusinghandles or other neak teferencesinstead atest pointers. Then theres theissue tat reusingan object ist as simple as constructing ‘anewone Youreally need to make ‘sure that when you reuse it there's nothing ef for the object it replaces, ‘This is easy when your objects are just plain data in atabe, but can be more ‘complicated when they e complex C++ ‘lasses tied together with pointers. In ‘any case, ou cant apply the “resource ‘acquisition intialzation”(RAl}) pattern, but taoesn seem tobe a pattern very wel sulted or games, anditsa small cet pay forthe simplicity that pre allocation provides SPECIALIZED HEAPS “uth be tld a pure reallocated approach can be hard to pull of, especialy with highly cunamic vironments games with user created content. Specialized heap is {combination of dynamic memory allocation and pre-alocaton that akes {he est ofboth words. ‘Thelceabehind specialized heaps istha the heaps hemsetves are pre locate, buthey alow som erm of speealzed dynam allocation hin ‘hem, That way you avd the problems efrunningoutof memory or memory ‘eagertation goby but yousican pericrm some sort fcpamic allocation when needed One ype of specaized beeps based cathe object ype. you can guarantee that allobjecs allocate in that heap a4e goingtobe ofthe same size or at leastamultpie ofa certain size, memory mmanagernentbecams much easier anes eo roe, and removes ato. cf he compledty of gnerat memory manage Ny verte approach for games to create specisites heap based onthe etme of tre hjectsalcated in them. These heaps use sequent elcatrs, always allocating memary ra the begining of a meray Hock When thelftme ofthe objets uo, the heapiereset and allocations can start fram te beginning again The use of simple sequent atorater bypasses al the insu probes of gereral ‘memory management rgrentation, compact eaks, anasoon (See te coce mn p/gdrag covrescurces! coce him foran implementation ofa Sequential Alecatorebss.) Thehesp types most often used in games are: + LEVEL HEAP, Here you allocate all the ‘assets and data forthe fvel at oad ‘ime, When the fvelis unloaded, ll ‘objects ae destroyed at once. your ‘game makes heavy use of steaming, ‘mis-cante a streaming block instead ofa fullevel ‘FRAME HEAP. Any temporary objects ‘hat only need to last a frame a ess ‘etallocates hare and ate destroyed at the end of the frame, + STACK HEAP. This one isa bitlifferent from the others Like the other heaps, uses a saquentalallocatar and objects are allocated from the beginning, but Instead of destoyingal objects at ‘once, it only destroys objects upto the ‘marker thats popped from the stack WHAT ABOUT TOOLS? You can take everything ve writen here and {atmost) completly gate for teal. fallin the camp of programmers Who consider the runtime as totaly Separate beast tom the tots That ‘means thatthe runtime canbe lean and ‘mean and minimalist, but ean relax and use whatever technique makes me ‘ore productive when witing tools wal allocate memory any tie wart, and! will use comptes libraries like STL. and Boost, if fel tered Most tots ate goingto run ena beoty PC anda few cra allocations here and thore wont make any dference ‘Be careful wih performance-senitive tools, though Tools that bid aes or compute complexligiting calculations right be aboteneckin te build process in that case, performance becomes crucial again and you might want to be abit mre careful about ‘memory ayout and cache coherency, ‘nthe other hand ifthe toc youre wetingisnot performance sensitive, youshould ask yourself ray ods tobe wrtonin C+. Maybe Ct cor Python woutd bea better tanguoge fal youre doings transforming XML files or verifying that ile formatis correct Tading performance for e250 of Aevelopmentisaimost always 2 win with evelopment tools Nexttime you reach out fora malloc inside your main op, think about howit can fll Maybe you can presallocat that memory and stop wording about what's sgoingto happen the day you prepare the release candida feaicsd DOUG LEA'S MEMORY ALLOCATOR itp/g.c8woge.edu/dVhtml/ ‘malloc im! LOKI FIKED SIZE ALLOCATOR httpd www a0c.nao.edu/phal tiuerges/ALMA/Loki/ntma0e74, imNETWORK = SITES GS camasurea Qene CAREERGUIDE indiegames.com W@RLDS: N MOTION.BIZ G/'°MES"DECK =] FINGER Ay FG GAMING GAME SET WATCH LN Poa Ee) GOC Canada AUGUST17-19,2009 GOC Europe © Alstin OCTOBER 11-13, 2009 GOC China ORS UC LDSTEVE THEODORE »PIXEL PUSHER OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER The Misadventures of Tiled Textures HARDWARE COMES AND GOES, BUT THE technically made the visual equivalent of struggle te stuff our ences imaginings |ammich ager texture wth a muchlonger Into finite set oFRAM chips is with us repeat rate (Thovghas simple blends always. VRAM slike time and money ts they ae rarely enough to really create precious and theres never encugh of. the llusion Ifyou pick your tiling sizes Many ofthe gimmicks that dstinguish game artists come fom the fact that, Unlike our cousins inthe ofine graphics ora we are aways tryngto stretch that limited runtime memory budget, We rely on allsorts of wicks UV mirroring, well the next exact repetition could be quite far off For example, you overlay an image that tes oneo every 11 feet on one that es onea every 20 fer, the epoat site ofthe combined textures 319 feet ‘texture compression, and vertex (111232318), You have tomake sue the lighting —but in the end the biggest textures repeat at quite cifferent rates Single toa weuse for managing memory peatehelps oobecuenaropentvenawre and thatthe rates don't share a common Isalsothe hombest. It's thatgranddadcy eFtrg (top). However wren are are song, mtple. &12foot erture repesting ofallthe ticksinthe game artist's carpet eomtastsertermercoir. rhe ayelsven food against a 24-eot texture fj anew bag texture ting cpenenringtte overs and dsentaging ——24.oot texture, because the second Andas annoying textuerepests can thetwe parerne{beten) textures integer is a multiple ofthe bo they're going tobe with us fora while. fist’. f you haven't forgotten your high Allthoseimpressiveheaps ofVRAMin _tsefhaseeasedtobean imageand schoo math, tik to prime numbers, Ime shiny new PlayStation 3 are about has tured into an icon, or worse, a 4 and 29, when you ca. ‘naught pave a thousand square yards meaningless and forgettatle walloaper. Unfortunately, this icky tsf doesnt atone piel per inch. Thats not avery Welly, the current generation of take you very fr Blending wo tetwres high resolution ora very bigarea; players graphics hardware actualy offers alitie together il prevent the repetiion ofthe can coveritn about tree minutes. hopetoartsts whore sickoFseeing exact same pol images, but R wont best [Trough enree minutes might seem ike the same paeis aver ana aver again, ‘the hurran eyes uneanny ay to plek longtime ifallthey could see was® Now thatpinelshadersarecommon, _ou pattems. As you cn seein Fire 1, ‘textured ground plane } Itspossibleto get alittle morebang _the two overad pattems can fallow the Let me put plainly: Repeat textures utfthismast venerable of graphics prime number repeat ule andstil ack Wee are prety lame. Overrepatiton just techriques. Lats conser some ways to two ovriaid pattems rather than asingle ‘vacuums allthe goodness out oF make tlingtertures suck alte ess. uniqueteaure, evan the sickest textring job By the ‘twentieth replay ofthe exact same PAINT BY PRIME NUMBERS —FRISKET CASE “natural-aoking” rock pattern or The simplest way 1 finesse tling ‘The problems thatthe human visual “alstessea™ wall texture, te visual Textures s tocambine them for greater _systom is as sensitive w shape asi isto varety This wickhasteen around for simple repetition Overaying two textures ‘long time.buttherise offastmodem helps csguise the frequency of repetition, al shaders makes t much mare ‘Which sows down our abit pick up STEVE THEODORE has been pushing ries formare Interesting and flexible repetition patterns—butas ongas the patter an daze years Hs cred inde MED COMMER, |s so dead, t would make sense to contains repeated copies ofthe same Le, Tam FORRES ond CNTERSTARE He been @ composite textures tomake mare unique shapes, cur eyes wl eventual eet cut mods omar andtechnclarst orwel 2fmguent laoks over larger areas. the underlyingpattem. Once thy docaten ‘poke ot ody anorancs Hearty aot The simplest option sto layer two itout, thetextureis effectively neutered Sib cnc deer ot urge Suds. rev hat repeatingtextures on top ofeach other If Youcan minimize this kindof problem sneocereopeny com. they doit repeat atthe same ate, yau've by eliminatingstrong features fcr | YY Feenvany s00v came otvevorenPIXEL PUSHER but norepeats. The most common strategy is based onthe ite colored ‘squares shownin Figute 3, which go bythe name of Wang tes. rename is ‘abitofabackhanded complement. Or. Hao Wang care up with he kes of tes with matching edges in the 19605 whl ‘eying to prove that ling an infinite pane without repetitions was impossiie. Unfortunately form (butlcklyforus), his theory was proved wrang afew years later. But the name stuck De Wangsmetaphorca ties are squares with cabored edges (ref t0 Figure 3). Wang's method was to create pattems by alng the tes outone ata time, choosing the new tes with edge coors that matched those youvejust aid down, soa red edge on heeft matches a red edge onthe ight, and soon. As ong as FIGURE? Combining vei omerekh mss rek upton of rang esas bape Ne repens ur more ecvay han sinters. The arg nage sma om sale, and rad combate tre sterImages Lok sey see hath ik nr repens LS ‘est th combain of very and mae fer epete cbse the repo, your textures. Mushy patterns aremuch different effects out oFasingle overiay _youlaythe tes inrow-column ore, you hatdor to decipher Unfortunately theyre texture. But youcanalcouse the pil only neodto match two elrs aso protty dul took t,and few artists shaders to create masks on teoverlid at any gvon tmesthe clos want settle fora game made entirely texture, which lets younet only eda “above” andthe corto te “et” oFformiess and nosy textures, nother source of sual variety, but also ofyournexttle As you can see in Here's where modem graphics come breakupsome.fthelandmarks inthe the eaple,our set contains four tothe rescue, atleast in 9smallway.AS overay evtue, Fnacessary, you could tes foreach possible combination we've noted before (see “Cone Wars,” addalpha information inthe base texture of "above" and"Tft” That, by the way, (October 2008), modem piel shaders as akind of isketo peotect parts ofthe is where Wang's theory broke down, can da many ofthe same Photoshop ‘base that should nat be overwritten ty acause there aretwo possile ticks every artist knows by heart. overlay textures, tes that the next slo, you ean Some of hose od wicks can beeasily Combining blend modes and masks's choose the naxt one randomly— fectended tohelpmake tiled textures a averypowerful way toanliven repeating andifitis truly random, then by bot more oerable, textures, 26 shown in Figure 2. Naturally, definition does repeat. rel shaders can reproduce alot ofthe none of this fs real substitute for Inthe academic world, the ha ck familar Photoshop blond modes, which _carofully handcrafted textures, but Is toanalyzeapicure andereatea means youcan use nonlinear efecs Ike beats the pants of ting the same setofthese ties automaticaly, theo standby softlght fterto get texture zillon times, andthe costs are whichallows you tocreatean teltively sight. The example shown here infinite, non-repeating version of requiresjust two extratexturelockups the aignalimage (see Figure ancisome cheap piel math Watrick _Youcansee why this ets the hearts lke thislets yourhit your visual marks of ie exture authors to beat fast. vithout storing a larger conventional Aithough wee not quite able to texture, itcan beworth Best ofa, _extractinfnte textures onthe fy most artists can visualize the results _inreal time,a simplified version of ‘airy wall based on thelr Photoshop the technique can produce fie, but experience, even they dont graspthe _stllimpressivaly large, non repeating subtleties OFHLSL,makingita viekthars toxtues. The technique Wel discuss FIGURE men serngup lkely tobe well used hve from LEM Wer "le-Based ‘ecu fra eng e- Texture Mopping’ pubishedin GPUGems —mkaestuting 3h eke WHO WANTS SOME WANG? — 2 (Aazson'Nesiey Professional, 2005), teases torent, Moverayingaloe stil doesnt satisfy your Incase youwant toleave it cut on the repeasgpatam samp hunger forendless fields oftextrescn an coffee table foryourcoders tose While atone-utrerte sizeof FiGuRES Intis6-teVangse.thecolers_aferdable budget, youmaystibe iniuck_t'Ssnatthe only approach tothe preblem she wl trea Tn be slong aochedelndeatewiehtes canbe Inthe last ew years, academic it'san easy ane formost artists to ora can be Placed gees The arargenert in isiage graphics researchers have been playing understand and author for swe evens any Is designeds prove gpd entre cnglna with systems for covering an infinite Figure 4 shows how thetlingworks. _andben vanstons ageatenparwecatin Spacewitha fine amountofcontent The textureused bythe Wangtle pixel natwowr ca samp.PIXEL PUSHER FIGURES nhs Wang gv vor uous, bt ‘te eovauslandnar re ean acpi une. ie camoinaton of se eco wnnourepeaing shader cones of 16 tle. The edges ‘of ech te are ates ether recor sen. Edges the same colar should contin mating eres £0 ha, or cevample, ny te with aretap could be paced unde any te witha red batt fndshow no seam. The shader can then Fandomly cesta seo tiles by using the edgematching ule. Atcurtine, yout st an endless, randomized mosaic oF your oigial texture, andi you dd a goodjos withthe odge-maching, it shouldbe seamless. (Strety speaking Iksnot’endess: Te example fom GPU Gems 21s to generate a set tes once andthen ste to lookup teu, Which salt fester than recreating the poston of each ten the pel shader every fame. herefore rat technically infin, just pretty denn big] Toma ths wrk, youneedto pay some atenion too theese isout Untke te offi version, tis taciceant smagealycrote tls fom anyald mags Lockly settngupa Wang te textures pretysimgofyou use 3 pate ke the oreinFigue 3.As youcanses the tore ‘sotvdedup ino 6 tles. Theyre out sotfateac ie ends seamessy wth ts nsghborstat'simporant because helps the raphes hardware get the ig ctr at tewermip vee took dsurtng, but managing the samsis actualy easy for any td txture veteran. Moke four small ‘ing terres the os eshioned way, vith ose ltr and cone stampin Fhotoshop. Each shouldbe at one-fourth the size ofthe original. Next, select ase ofthe colors inthe pattern in turn and se Photoshop's “paste into feature. The result willbe a srt of quite image with correct matches across the edges ofall 16 tes [referto Figure 4). Ofcourse, the Intel of each te shows seams where the four edge sections come together, so (oul wart to add some unique vexure ro the center ofeach tle, taking care tonat stray aross the te boundaries. Hall goes wel, you shouldbe able to get resute ke these in Fgure SAS you can see, the Wang:fed texture can be extended pretty farbefore the repetitions reallyjump out at you Make sure the most noticeable feature ofeach tle snot ead center to avoid a mechanical gridded look Youcan also break up te grid by having some of your ledge sets include high contrast elements that breach the grid boundaries. nd, you can use alarger tle set with more ledge colors, wnich wll rocuce even less regulaleoking resus ASK NOT WHAT WANG CAN DO FOR YOU 2s you can se fromthe results, the technique fs cool butt does have sme obvious limitations i's not magically enerating mor texels than you had before, f'ust shusing and reshuting ‘its of your exsting texture to help pstpane vewer boredom, rworks ice forages with na overarching structure, visually noisy subjects ike {1488 or masonry. On the other hand, Subjects with lage sharp features are likely to lock sited owovar, the main advantage andthe big dramtack are the same. By chopping ‘the image into reusable bts, Wang les break down tho eye's ability decipher pattems, whien is great forthe kind oF ‘unobtrusive background textures we often need to tile fr vdeo games, but nat so natfyou'e myingto make a carefully calibrated aristic pint “The fact all thase matheds are usu, but none eallyeratinally satisfying For the immediate future (atleast until the Larabee versus GPGPU war produces some advances in ea-tie procedural ‘emturing), we game artists are going to be recyiing every litle scrap ofruntime ‘memory we con. yout oF gloomy tum of mind, you ‘might compare us to those Depression cera folks who had reuse tea bags tamake ends meet of, you coud te {yourself tha ling texturesislike Deinga vituous, eying friendly, ‘sustainability consultant. Either way, you're going tobe doing it fora mile, so ‘make the most oftThe Art & Business of Making Games The Leading Professional Game Source for Job Seekers and Employers Take Control of Your Future Today! Log onto THIN qDAMION SCHUBERT »DESIGN OF THE TIMES FOCUSING YOUR INNOVATION ‘THERE'S AN URBAN LEGEND WHICH Most designers know tis, but they about your game, stealing focus fom the states that In the early daysoFthe space stil fallin the pursuit of novation, ambous game elements hat your team program, NASAdetermined ballpoint —_stumblinginaal-too-common design actually succeeded in delivering, Pens would write in space. Thay ptfals that plague both shipped products Dressed their engineers to design apen and those that gt canceled beforethey FAILURE TO EXECUTE that could and after months of time See the light ofday Common mistakes Creating game systems tht are and milions of dallas research, they are innovating too much, mistaking Innovative is hard Areasof rue Finally. The Russians, when presented content forinnovaton, galngtco weird, Innovatlon are wypclly full oF withthe same problem, simpiyhad ther flingto execute, and aling to innovate engineetingrisk and design uncertainty cosmenauts cary a pene inadieetionofvaluetothemarket. They require tons ofiteration and ‘As avetoran inthe industry, this story Playtestng to get right and are almost Iscompelingbecauseitspeskstoa TOO MUCH INNOVATION. impossitie to schedule accurately. problem tat plagues game development Students speak to always seem Having one wuly innovative feature {cams throughout the ndustry— surprised whent complainof design an your schedule makes ficult mismanaged innovation. We have teams that try innovate too much. This having miiple can make a nightmare Finite resources. There stiitedtime, a reactions natural for young designers— Tiss mst true when the new features limited budget, and mite engineering itis theirimpulse to look at every feature interact with each other cirectly—the cyeles—and these resources dwindle as Inthe game and ask how every possible cost of acing these features can thereaities of developmentoccurand _featurecanbe improve, notreplaced increase exponentially as designe, unexpected problems arse Given these emiey, How culdtco muchinnovaten programmes, ae quality assurance challenges, even wolifundedteas necessary be bad? have to dal win unexpected edge cases stumble, esulingin ledinnovators Butoftentis—even oe truly related to how these systems mix and often doomed projects. ambitious new featurecan be cif cut Even one innovative feature can wreck tobi taiance,testanddalverata—-—_ascheduiefit is heavily comantdiven. FAILURES OF INNOVATION ——nighievelotquaity.Atemptingto do Asystaminwnicha payor can only use Falluresin innovation cantake rutile toomanyrisky things at once reduces stcalthinthe dark for example rogues forms. Most designers worry about tmelielboodirat anyof them vllbe ward ules to create maps and eels innovating too ate, which sa good _—exeeuted as well asthey cous. tospeciniatons that aise rom eration cance torave Innovation isimportant Ina recent ak, Giff Bleszinski and playtesting the system I that togaming—in many ways, we area described how the orginal GEARSOF WAR system comes onine too late, content research-and.devetopment industry, and feature lis was an endless wishiist built ary may have tobe complete novelty is hugely mportantto breaking of ool, butexpensve faves, They rebuit or in warstcase scenarios, be Intoa core market thatisby now deeply soonrealizd that attempting iodotoo discarded etrely, jaded, Cones and me-oo products mang iskythings at nce educesthe One typical result see wheninnovation ae unikelyto score wih the public likeinood that any ofthemeauldbe —_—_—sporlyrnanagedis that when schedule onscousness and breakinto megahit executed to thelr fullpotental Focusing _realieshit home, all aspects ofthe game ‘tus, unless they are themslves and wimmingtne featur isto highlght end up getting stones underdevelopes. ‘sequets tomegahits cover mechanics andlight squad combat Even nthe unlikely ese where most of allowed them toco both features wel the bugsand edge cases are found and and utimately eam mutiple Game ofthe handled, 'sunliey thatthe innovative Year awards. thecustomers willkely _feture wile abet gettheteratin never know what features didnt makeit. time and palsh needed to truly shine DAMON SCHUBERT iste led combat esbneaf SiR MS TO Toormuchinnovationcanmake the Then your game winds up inthe bargain Aes Bre atin. ees spat ay coe waking cha game hardertoselasiteanclous your bins—but if youre (un}lucky, maybe etn of opmos wih exparoncecn MERE SHUDDMM oo matketingmessage New estures that designers at another company wl see c= ther salwar Donn ds prs fr Znof ih ‘are unpopular, unfinished orjust net fun youridea, gure out how to seat and eves gue orginal him! Scrbwtg 4009 om candominatereviews andonlinechatter doit right intheir own game [A reeevanv eos onwe orvexorea—]DESIGN OF THE TIMES. GOING OFF THE DEEP END Sometimes, designers trytotake designs Inne, interesting, and atogether weld directions, Ths canbe 2s simple as changing the core Ul paradigm ofthe gon, such a reversing what mouse buttons door changing the genre's standard hotkeys. rt ean be more ‘substantial for instance adding anow feature tothe gare that doesnt actualy improve how t pays, but just makesit irene forthe sake of designers calling ‘themnseves innovative ‘Such changes ften presenta leaening problem forthe player—if our genre has astrongmarkst leader, then that genre leader has effectively aught ‘ope how to play your game before they even pick up 2 copy. Games are arta environments, and players must ‘roquonty get over the unfamiliar and ‘ncomforable beter they get what ‘the game's al about. changing core {genre conventions without good cause Simply makes your game a ore alien lexpariance tofans of the genre Anytime a major innovation is proposed fora game design, alot of Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Build a better mousetrap, and the wor's vill bata path 1 your doo” The rick is defining "better"—what makes 3 better mousetrap depends on what the Fodent-hunting customer finds valuable. In the designer's ole to identify the ‘op problems the customer has and focus hs energles on finding a design response tothose sues at the end of the day. isnot successfully innovative unless Ws better MISTAKING CONTENT FOR INNOVATION Launcry ists of content have long been, ‘Sedictve bullet points forthe back of ‘the box of any game, perhaps because It so easy—ifthe market leader nas 0 races, surely 12 oF 15 races wil bo bot Thismentalty pormestes ‘almost every genre. RPGS ate the worst ‘offenders—with race, ease, eeatur, ‘pel quest, and zone counts being ‘comnon—but they are fr from alone in this regard. RTS games like to boast ‘about unit counts and the number of factions. Fighting games lve to sel favarite gun, andtallor thelr own game ‘experience in that crection. Designers are almost always beter off ensuring ‘that each individual choice the players could make is as rch andinteresting 2s possible. Doing less also ensures ‘that those choices which are innovative can be propery balanced and allowed reshine, FOCUSING YOUR INNOVATION the above shauid not be mistaken for faple to innovate ass—the industry ‘needs beter, smarter games to move forward, and you will reed new cutting edge feturesin your productsin order tobe compettive. Games that fallt0 innovate are, in genera, destined for ‘the bargain bin and general gnaminy, Designers have totako chances, but you cant take on too much ik in your project. Games ced highy-argeted innovation, ensurngthat you are focusing your energy on features that really matter Innovate, but entity features that are high in demand within your core market. ie Anytime a new, major innovation is proposed for a game design, a Lot of questions should be asked. yy {questions shouldbe asked: Wilthe feature actualy be seen as better by fans ofthe gence? Wil the feature confuse people expecting the gomeplay ofthe marketleader? And wil this feature blend gracefully withthe game's other fetures into a coherent whole? ‘One mistake common to MMOs in particulars innovation thatis more Ieresting to academies and designers ‘than Risto the players. LAnow ofa team ‘that wantes tallow players to set other players houses.on fe, nthe rame of cresting “nterestng soca dynamics” Design innovations shoul always be player.centric wth areal focus an what Impact they withave to all oF your target ‘markets. Anew feature that passes your hardcore but alienates any newcomers, for exarole,is probably best lft onthe cutting reom oor, numbers of combstants ang arenas. Fer ‘a while, FPSs would sel their weapon ‘counts, oF would ade dualie modes to effectively dole the weapon count. However, moreisn' necessarily better ‘The market leaders in almost every gence ‘ill have a relatively smal, constrained ‘set ofraces, classes, combatants and/or weapons, Qualys the key—the more lasses andraces you have, the more ‘combinations you have wo balance Further, this problem compounds isalfin Player vs player arenas—each character yous toa Ngnting game increases ‘the variables tbalance against ‘expenentily atthe end ofthe day, more ofthe same ent tue innavation—at least not ‘nits own, In allthe above exarples, players are eventually going to choose 2 favorit class, a favorite army, ora Trynew tings, but prototype an erate con them early, especially they have high content demands. Cort innovate teo much, But do ensure the features you choose ainnovate on are welLexscuted ‘an polished ta glossy sheen, ‘Alot of designers think that gamers ‘want youto show them something new. ‘They dont—they want you to show ‘them something better Good designers understand that innovation is inherently risky-—Ideas are cheap, executing conthem fs bard, and managing that rik soften the aiference between a project succeeding andit calapsing Under ts um weight It may not fel ratural for designers to focus on one or ‘ro key gameplay features with home run potential and discard the rest, but esigners that can do so almost aways make betier games. [Wwweomas.cow 20learn network igtye) ina) GOC Canada Vancouver, BC May 12-13, 2009 feet melee Meee d Nemec mec encased Ue GDC-Canada.comJESSE HARLIN "AURAL FIXATION GENERATION XxX FORYEARS, ONE OFTHE BIGGESTTOPICS have much toda. beggedone ofthe GETTING THERE inthe gime industryhas been female residentleadsoundesigerstogiveme _Craning one's neck to see more change payors Ac fst the discussion cantered samethingtodo—me, the bratwithno Is cammon aang audio designers. lentowresttoatract womento video _priorexprience. hansfuly.he had this “The industry hasbeen making huge gamesin general Nowitscems to mostiy let see-whot she-candoattude He strides," says Guebe. "Women have Be apout how game genres, markets, Kept throwingtasksatme,andtleamed forums ana groups to tak 0 other and companies are evolving tomeetithe my wayarcund editing admixing ‘women inthe industry. With that interests andineedsoffemale gamers. softwareon the fy” ‘8id, games have to have a broader But tae a quick ook around your own _appeal to women. think more women aucio department and something TECHNO-FEM-PHOBIA ‘would enter int this el if they had becomes immediatly apparent: There Unfortunatly serismisctan unheard more exposure oi. IFwecan ge more ate stilvery ew women ingame audio. _ofissue.‘havea eal passion foraucio” wore interested in gaming, then that Thismonthspokewithsound designers, sausArenofandithink because oftrat, can lead to more women interested in Pamels Aronoff(Css, OEM Mav ky ——_intaly wasbind to teinsttuionalor careers within the game industry” sis], Fruca Wolf [EVERGUEST|l).andcutualsensm.Whongotmyfirstob —_-Aronofftaughtaudoat Loyola Kristen Quebe [FAHLE2, FEAR about —_thinkifanythingitheped that was Marymount University fora fen years ‘erexperencesintheindusty,ther feat. think they havent, Riot. “When tasked wnat peope wantedto ace to youngfemale sound designers, Coal Overtime vecefntely seenmy owen they graduated, the gs inthe andtheirthoughtsastowhy therearent’ shareofissuesonthetopc [gender class saideither management or agent. ‘ore wemenin game aus Imbalance] inate ten get around When asked why, they sid they were ‘guswhlethereisatechproblem and intimidate think girs get more easily BUILDING BLOCKS, they ecludeme fom the rutleshootng psyched out and have ahardertime ROAD BLOCKS corversation Ivebeenin auciosince was believing they have what takes to make ‘ltivee sound designers found their teen. thavemadoubleshootingshils” it inthe audio tank” ways into te industry wth friar Wolf mentions this “boys chb™ ‘When ic comes to advice for oun stories. Aronaffwas studying musicin mentality aswell ‘if theres an opening women entering tho fd, the auto college when she became fascnatedby —foraprject.alengtime audioprois designers spoke with agreed that a herrocoring gearand the soclaization —moreikalytocallhisbuddy om 15 wealth of good infomation out there, cof mec" tat games represerted.For_yearsack thantake achance on most nine. “The internet has became (uete, "Games came before auca.|_younge female whos newertothe audio an unrivaled resource’ says Wot practically gewupin anarcde playing comnmunfty. t's eifieutto getane's oot “Snoop the networks of working ausio games ike ELEWTOR ACTON, TENGE Inthe coor particulary saweman, pros Seewho they know, nd ot what [MUTANT MA TURTLES ARCADE, and my all-_whenthere ae so very few auco ladies they do,2sKthem questions. andes time fave GALAGA” who'gowayback™ whether fs right for you” Quebe'sprjectsincollege often focused Welffcontnues, "Think the ‘hfs hardto get your foot inthe door? enintectveauioenvronments which emviranmentthe ld boys club restos _Ousbe sa, aut Ris posabiewith enough ‘aught her instructors’ attention and ledto Is subconsciously hose toward women dedication and hard work. Get involved anintemshipatagamecompany. “ht that whovilliterallyneverbe one ofthe guys, with some ofthe worenin game groups point my jaw dropped. ournean youcan regardless ofthelrtalanc or experience. These.can provide great insight fom ‘make Sounds fr vdeo games foralving?”Thatjust means women wit have to _wornen nthe industy as wllas provide a Theoption to wketwoofmy greatest ——warkalitlebt harder andbe altebit strong support system”: passions and:uanthem into acareerfet’ tougher to prove themselves deserving of lke cream come ue Ouebe says, being partofthe cub” Ene Wott sratany tures her passion for For Quebe ofthe fourand holt years JESSE ARLIMim ——gamingintoanin-cadtogame aud. _—shehasbeenintheinausty,snesays | wici ‘ew corposingmise —Originabyinteestedincalege sound she has any met fourather women total | ww womeningomesinternetiona, forgames since 1988. design programs, Wf parlayed a who work in audi production in vdeo oo Moixcumeriyhestff _postionas a gamemaster at Sony nline game development studios "think that conposeforicecies Entertainment intoavoice implementation is changing though she ads, “as we 1oDA WOMEN'S S16 ‘anematin erating postion on EVERQUESTI.“Exceptthat branch out and make games that havea | www.iodacre/women ttoageon ater EGIL shipped she expan, “Ididnt larger appeato ween| TN INE Jus \d ae fy w D i a Pp a gh"SeeACTIVISION. GREAT GAMES INST GREAT PEOPLE ARE YOU READY TO EXPLORE THE MOST SOUGHT AFTER JOBS IN ENTERTAINMENT? COME VISIT US AT GDC BOOTH #510 Pi EL es OA) ec ee OM S| ors Visit our site: activision.comart design Preeti al) Bsiness >> www.creatorsofemotion.com (ey Telaa Montreal - Quebec City - Morrisville (NC) - Paris - Montpellier - Annecy - Newcastle - Malmo - Bucharest - Sofia - Kiev - Te ee Ge toe ee ea eee te ene en eee ener)DEFINE THE FUTURE OF GAMING WITH THE AWARD WINNENG TEAM BEHIND rol TSW e Melt teeo1 a CEN eee C0 CMM (EACLE Ceo oe aa ea ee ces r PLAYS TATIONS a, ae a eee eaACCESS IT IN REAL TIME i Sie Sma aay Game Developer magazine brings you postmortems, product reviews, and strategies for creating innovative, successful games from aC ee Ch ued oe www.GDMAG.com a aTmemeet | BUZMAR) ENTERTAINMENT 1S HIRING | HIRING We are actively recruiting across all disciplines for the following locations: Irvine, California | ec | Nl ra ae Ute | Cork, Ireland eS Cem Ur ee ET ETC Pec Rod Visit us in the GDC Career Pavilion at Booth #410.TISEMEN qPDigiPen INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY DigiPen Institute of Technology's Tradition ‘sth word fist callege to offer a Bacholo’s degree program dedzatod to game development, ign has been.top choice for students pursuing acarerin tw imeratve eds ndusties. Redman WAis oe of he eget garring and sofware ‘communities in the nation, Home to 20 different gaming companies (including Mirosoft and Nintendo, suayjng in Resmand offer tucets looking towards 2 careerin the gare indus unique advantage nat avaiable lene. Founded in 1989, DigiPen ratte ofTechclogy continues tobe aleaderin game development education; our studonts have placed more gamnesin the Independent Games Fetival than students from any other schoo, Games such ‘3 NarbacularOrp (the inspiration fr Valves Portal), Synaestheto, and Empyreal Nctume are eniy some examples that prove ou students truly understand the complex lationship between user and experience. 18 iPr aninnovative and pionesting combination of soli foundatonal skifs and theoretical coursemerk wth practical hands-on project experenceisincorporsted into evry somoster Wihighly academic dagre programs ugh bya world-class faculty, CigFeris comprehensive curiulum goes fr beyond teaching art production software or specif pogramminglanguages.Threughintershis and toaching opportunites, our stuers drecty oxpeencewhatittakas to boeomo successfland valuable members ofthe interactive mesia ndusties. | _DigiPen offers the Following Degree Programs: lachelor of Science in RealTime Interactive Simulation + Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering = Bachelor of Fine Arts in Production Animation * Master of Science in Computer Science Fall 2008: DiglPen Launches Two Game Design Degrees The designers and creators of electronic and digital entertainment fil a unique role that requires a knowledge of rt, technology innovation, storytelling, history, psychology, and many other disciplines. Based an feedback from industry leaders, DigiPen has developed two new Bachelor degrees to address the needs of the industry: * Bachelor of Science in Game Design * Bachelor of Arts in Gare Dasign A great game designers sensitive tothe player's experience and understands ‘hat i takes to create an innovative and engaging experince. Game design students at DigiFen will become experiential experts and develop skills that go far beyond straight game mechanics or story telling. Studeres will prototype and present numerous projects to DigiPen faculty and personnel from local businesses. Through exposure to challenging problems that practitioners inthe field regulary encourtr, graduates of these programs willbe highly capable of designing quality games forthe industry. DigiPen opens New campus In Singapore “Singapore the prosperousislnd ctystate and growing technical centr between Nalaysia and Indonesia, now home to DigiPen institute of Technology’ frst internatonalbraneh carnpus, Established in cooperation with Singapore’ Economic Development Boar, the new campus wil offer the flowing degree programs: + Bachelor of Science in RealTime Interactive Simulation * Bachelor of Fine Arts in Production Animation Both programs will beidentcalin content and rigor to their US counterparts. Graduates from DigiPen Singapore can expect to contribute to, as well as benefit from, the rapidly developing digital interactive media industries in Singapore. PRIVATE COLLEGE DigiPen institute Of Technology ‘S001 150th Ave NE Redmond, WA 98052 Phone: (425) 558.0299 Toll-free: (865) 478.5236 Email: admissions@digipen.edu What employers are saying about DigiPen Graduates “DigiPem is, bar none the fist choice {for Airtight Gomes in recruiting out of ‘schoo! talent. The training they receive Js rigorous ond fully applicable to the Industry they are entering” E Matt Brunner, Art Director, Alright Games “The DigiPen curriculum is well designed In addressing specific needs of game development companies. ArenaNet has had «high success rate in hing DigiFen graduates. Some of our most talented ‘and promising programmers have ‘gradueted from DigiPen.” Steve Shepard, HR Manager, Arenallet> (Miaa SERIES BY THE GAME DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE OES se sa fe ae Don’t Miss the Opportunity to Network and Learn From Game Industry Professionals. Cla liTh L lee eh er) May 13th, 2009 SOUT TTL aL WWW.gamecareerseminar.com{ GEEKED AT BIRTH. | ay Teer ae Pett ae eatery Ces a err ery Ce Tg Praery Pao Coy Pero ortod You can talk the Ik. Can you walk the walk? Here's a chance to prove it. Please geek responsibly. yw.ated » 877 UALSEEK biGET EDUCATED =) ee ed eV Se APPLY NOW FOR SEPTEMBER 2009 Geers) Ty emg} mura] et mbines industry PT ue ete See Maan se) ea mere GDC Career Pavilion or vis CENTRE FOR DIGITAL MEDIA Ce Pag FULL SAIL UNIVERSITY.Sa oe ena ethision Es Dkzzard Entertainment BRADIC—Lousina State University s.-.23 (Cente For Ugh ngng a Me DigPen ) poe u syevorics @ Fills Real Wn Eaenion 2 are Connon 24

S-ar putea să vă placă și

• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

  

  De la Everand

  The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

  Mark Manson

  Evaluare: 4 din 5 stele

  4/5 (5794)
• Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

  

  De la Everand

  Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

  Phil Knight

  Evaluare: 4.5 din 5 stele

  4.5/5 (537)
• Comic Design Sampler

  

  Document1 pagină

  Comic Design Sampler

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• • Reviste
  • Podcast-uri
  • Partitură
• Maya 3Ds Max Softimage: Katana

  

  Document1 pagină

  Maya 3Ds Max Softimage: Katana

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• Multiverse

  

  Document2 pagini

  Multiverse

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• Arnold For Maya User Guide: Search

  

  Document2 pagini

  Arnold For Maya User Guide: Search

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• Multiverse Workflows

  

  Document1 pagină

  Multiverse Workflows

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• Prman Notes

  

  Document9 pagini

  Prman Notes

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• BG Painting Tips

  

  Document3 pagini

  BG Painting Tips

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• How To Get Your SIGGRAPH Paper Rejected: Jim Kajiya, SIGGRAPH 93 Papers Chair

  

  Document4 pagini

  How To Get Your SIGGRAPH Paper Rejected: Jim Kajiya, SIGGRAPH 93 Papers Chair

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• Building Survey: Property Address

  

  Document47 pagini

  Building Survey: Property Address

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• Katana Viewer A Pi Getting Started Guide

  

  Document30 pagini

  Katana Viewer A Pi Getting Started Guide

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• How To Apply For A Correction To A Death Registration v2.0

  

  Document3 pagini

  How To Apply For A Correction To A Death Registration v2.0

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• Animation Andrew Selby

  

  Document217 pagini

  Animation Andrew Selby

  rendermanuser

  92% (13)
• Fusion 8 Scripting Guide

  

  Document217 pagini

  Fusion 8 Scripting Guide

  Avinash Jagarlamudi

  Încă nu există evaluări
• Hydra Pixar Presentation S5327-Jeremy-Cowles

  

  Document23 pagini

  Hydra Pixar Presentation S5327-Jeremy-Cowles

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• AnimCouleur2 User Guide 01

  

  Document2 pagini

  AnimCouleur2 User Guide 01

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• CBZ90 Sampler PDF

  

  Document9 pagini

  CBZ90 Sampler PDF

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• CBZ90 Sampler PDF

  

  Document9 pagini

  CBZ90 Sampler PDF

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• Illustration Mag

  

  Document16 pagini

  Illustration Mag

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• Toonstyle Tips (Smallpdf - Com)

  

  Document6 pagini

  Toonstyle Tips (Smallpdf - Com)

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• The Know How of Cartooning

  

  Document49 pagini

  The Know How of Cartooning

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• AnimDessin2 User Guide 01

  

  Document2 pagini

  AnimDessin2 User Guide 01

  rendermanuser

  100% (1)
• Magic Color Flair The World of Mary Blair PDF

  

  Document20 pagini

  Magic Color Flair The World of Mary Blair PDF

  rendermanuser

  100% (2)
• Standard Tube Map PDF

  

  Document2 pagini

  Standard Tube Map PDF

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• Cartooning Jobs For Beginning Cartoonists

  

  Document2 pagini

  Cartooning Jobs For Beginning Cartoonists

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• Nodal Scene Interface

  

  Document51 pagini

  Nodal Scene Interface

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• Pythonforkatana 170326112919

  

  Document37 pagini

  Pythonforkatana 170326112919

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• Comic Artists - WorkingMethods

  

  Document36 pagini

  Comic Artists - WorkingMethods

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• Maya Python A Pi

  

  Document582 pagini

  Maya Python A Pi

  rendermanuser

  100% (1)
• How To Read A Skull Like An Open Book

  

  Document8 pagini

  How To Read A Skull Like An Open Book

  rendermanuser

  Încă nu există evaluări
• Yes Please

  

  De la Everand

  Yes Please

  Amy Poehler

  Evaluare: 4 din 5 stele

  4/5 (1891)
• The Yellow House: A Memoir (2019 National Book Award Winner)

  

  De la Everand

  The Yellow House: A Memoir (2019 National Book Award Winner)

  Sarah M. Broom

  Evaluare: 4 din 5 stele

  4/5 (98)
• Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race

  

  De la Everand

  Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race

  Margot Lee Shetterly

  Evaluare: 4 din 5 stele

  4/5 (895)
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

  

  De la Everand

  The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

  Ben Horowitz

  Evaluare: 4.5 din 5 stele

  4.5/5 (344)
• The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

  

  De la Everand

  The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

  Meik Wiking

  Evaluare: 3.5 din 5 stele

  3.5/5 (399)
• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

  

  De la Everand

  Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

  Angela Duckworth

  Evaluare: 4 din 5 stele

  4/5 (588)
• The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

  

  De la Everand

  The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

  Siddhartha Mukherjee

  Evaluare: 4.5 din 5 stele

  4.5/5 (271)
• Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America

  

  De la Everand

  Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America

  Gilbert King

  Evaluare: 4.5 din 5 stele

  4.5/5 (266)
• Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

  

  De la Everand

  Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

  Chris Voss

  Evaluare: 4.5 din 5 stele

  4.5/5 (838)
• A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius: A Memoir Based on a True Story

  

  De la Everand

  A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius: A Memoir Based on a True Story

  Dave Eggers

  Evaluare: 3.5 din 5 stele

  3.5/5 (231)
• Principles: Life and Work

  

  De la Everand

  Principles: Life and Work

  Ray Dalio

  Evaluare: 4 din 5 stele

  4/5 (599)
• On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal

  

  De la Everand

  On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal

  Naomi Klein

  Evaluare: 4 din 5 stele

  4/5 (73)
• Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

  

  De la Everand

  Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

  Ashlee Vance

  Evaluare: 4.5 din 5 stele

  4.5/5 (474)
• Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

  

  De la Everand

  Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

  Doris Kearns Goodwin

  Evaluare: 4.5 din 5 stele

  4.5/5 (234)
• The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

  

  De la Everand

  The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

  Thomas L. Friedman

  Evaluare: 3.5 din 5 stele

  3.5/5 (2259)
• Angela's Ashes: A Memoir

  

  De la Everand

  Angela's Ashes: A Memoir

  Frank McCourt

  Evaluare: 4.5 din 5 stele

  4.5/5 (440)
• Rise of ISIS: A Threat We Can't Ignore

  

  De la Everand

  Rise of ISIS: A Threat We Can't Ignore

  Jay Sekulow

  Evaluare: 3.5 din 5 stele

  3.5/5 (137)
• Steve Jobs

  

  De la Everand

  Steve Jobs

  Walter Isaacson

  Evaluare: 4.5 din 5 stele

  4.5/5 (806)
• Fear: Trump in the White House

  

  De la Everand

  Fear: Trump in the White House

  Bob Woodward

  Evaluare: 3.5 din 5 stele

  3.5/5 (738)
• The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America

  

  De la Everand

  The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America

  George Packer

  Evaluare: 4 din 5 stele

  4/5 (45)
• Bad Feminist: Essays

  

  De la Everand

  Bad Feminist: Essays

  Roxane Gay

  Evaluare: 4 din 5 stele

  4/5 (1015)
• John Adams

  

  De la Everand

  John Adams

  David McCullough

  Evaluare: 4.5 din 5 stele

  4.5/5 (2409)
• The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

  

  De la Everand

  The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

  Brené Brown

  Evaluare: 4 din 5 stele

  4/5 (1090)
• The Glass Castle: A Memoir

  

  De la Everand

  The Glass Castle: A Memoir

  Jeannette Walls

  Evaluare: 4.5 din 5 stele

  4.5/5 (1712)
• The Light Between Oceans: A Novel

  

  De la Everand

  The Light Between Oceans: A Novel

  M.L. Stedman

  Evaluare: 4.5 din 5 stele

  4.5/5 (789)
• The Outsider: A Novel

  

  De la Everand

  The Outsider: A Novel

  Stephen King

  Evaluare: 4 din 5 stele

  4/5 (1839)
• The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)

  

  De la Everand

  The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)

  Viet Thanh Nguyen

  Evaluare: 4.5 din 5 stele

  4.5/5 (120)
• The Woman in Cabin 10

  

  De la Everand

  The Woman in Cabin 10

  Ruth Ware

  Evaluare: 3.5 din 5 stele

  3.5/5 (2322)
• Brooklyn: A Novel

  

  De la Everand

  Brooklyn: A Novel

  Colm Tóibín

  Evaluare: 3.5 din 5 stele

  3.5/5 (1937)
• A Man Called Ove: A Novel

  

  De la Everand

  A Man Called Ove: A Novel

  Fredrik Backman

  Evaluare: 4.5 din 5 stele

  4.5/5 (4609)
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower

  

  De la Everand

  The Perks of Being a Wallflower

  Stephen Chbosky

  Evaluare: 4.5 din 5 stele

  4.5/5 (2101)
• Wolf Hall: A Novel

  

  De la Everand

  Wolf Hall: A Novel

  Hilary Mantel

  Evaluare: 4 din 5 stele

  4/5 (3811)
• Little Women

  

  De la Everand

  Little Women

  Louisa May Alcott

  Evaluare: 4 din 5 stele

  4/5 (104)
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

  

  De la Everand

  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

  Betty Smith

  Evaluare: 4.5 din 5 stele

  4.5/5 (1929)
• Manhattan Beach: A Novel

  

  De la Everand

  Manhattan Beach: A Novel

  Jennifer Egan

  Evaluare: 3.5 din 5 stele

  3.5/5 (792)
• The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel

  

  De la Everand

  The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel

  Garth Stein

  Evaluare: 4 din 5 stele

  4/5 (4200)
• Sing, Unburied, Sing: A Novel

  

  De la Everand

  Sing, Unburied, Sing: A Novel

  Jesmyn Ward

  Evaluare: 4 din 5 stele

  4/5 (1103)
• Her Body and Other Parties: Stories

  

  De la Everand

  Her Body and Other Parties: Stories

  Carmen Maria Machado

  Evaluare: 4 din 5 stele

  4/5 (821)
• The Constant Gardener: A Novel

  

  De la Everand

  The Constant Gardener: A Novel

  John le Carré

  Evaluare: 3.5 din 5 stele

  3.5/5 (104)