Thursday, November 29, 2007
Jon Blow's MIGS Lecture Posted
Jon posted the audio and slides from the lecture he gave at MIGS which I mentioned yesterday. You can get 'em here. I highly recommend you listen to the whole presentation.
Labels: design
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Impressions of the Montreal International Game Summit
So it's the morning of the second (and final) day of the Montreal International Game Summit. I'm here partly because I'm giving a talk, partly because Darren won a free pass and it's a good time for us to do a road trip together, and partly because Jason totally sold me on it back at GDC.
This conference is a little weird for me, in that it's the first conference I've attended where many people don't speak English as their first language. This makes networking a little bit difficult. I find it a little awkward to just walk up to people and start a conversation. This is an insecurity on my part, and something I need to work on. The other interesting tihng is that this conference is very much local. I'd guess that 80% of the people here are from Montreal or Quebec City, although I might be way off on that. Still, it's a lot of locals. This is a blessing and a curse. It means that I've never met most of the people here, which is bad because there aren't many people I can immediately hang out with, but good in that there are a lot of new friends I can potentially make.
The conference content itself has been excellent. (I'm speaking later today, so who knows, maybe the quality bar will drop significantly.) Jon Blow gave a brilliant keynote yesterday, about the fact that providing empty gameplay to players is actually lowering their quality of life, and that we as developers have an obligation to provide quality gameplay. Jon's example of empty gameplay is stuff like the grind in WoW, where we're giving people rewards for the sake of rewards. Quality gameplay can be seen in something like Portal, where solving a puzzle doesn't require the developer to give a little medal or new equipment to the player: the brain rush of solving the puzzle is reward enough. But you should listen to it for yourself.
The earlier keynote yesterday was by Koizumi Yoshiaki of Nintendo, on the journey from Super Mario 64 to Ocarina of Time to Super Mario Sunshine to Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (!) to Super Mario Galaxy. It was a pretty good talk, although the problem with the presentation was that he'd hit on something really cool, I'd instantly get it (usually due to an illuminating gameplay video), and then he'd spend 10 minutes explaining it. So while there were some great points, especially about camera control. He made a great point that the spherical levels in Galaxy basically mean that the camera never has to shift very much, even when the player is moving a lot.
Ian Bogost gave a great talk on game criticism (not game journalism), and where we're failing as a culture to provide proper criticism. I think I will write this up in a separate post, it is that important. Randy Smith also gave a fantastic talk on how to reduce save/load compulsion in players, but I ain't gonna write it up here.
The big disappointment for me was Harvey Smith's talk on the player's relation to the avatar. Harvey's a really smart guy, and I've said as much in the past, but the presentation was full of the kind of information that I'd expect to find in an intro to game design course. Okay, according to feminist theory, gender is performed, not natural. Great! I believe that theory! But I know that already. Okay, there's a double-consciousness at play where the player is immersed in the game but is simultaneously aware of the fact that she's not actually Sam Fisher or whoever. Cool, yeah. But I think my frustrations were vocalized by Randy Smith when he got up at the end of the presentation and asked, basically, "How can we apply this stuff to game design?" And Harvey didn't seem prepared to answer that question.
But overall, I've been really pleased with the conference so far. I am definitely looking forward to the GAMMA 256 party tonight!
This conference is a little weird for me, in that it's the first conference I've attended where many people don't speak English as their first language. This makes networking a little bit difficult. I find it a little awkward to just walk up to people and start a conversation. This is an insecurity on my part, and something I need to work on. The other interesting tihng is that this conference is very much local. I'd guess that 80% of the people here are from Montreal or Quebec City, although I might be way off on that. Still, it's a lot of locals. This is a blessing and a curse. It means that I've never met most of the people here, which is bad because there aren't many people I can immediately hang out with, but good in that there are a lot of new friends I can potentially make.
The conference content itself has been excellent. (I'm speaking later today, so who knows, maybe the quality bar will drop significantly.) Jon Blow gave a brilliant keynote yesterday, about the fact that providing empty gameplay to players is actually lowering their quality of life, and that we as developers have an obligation to provide quality gameplay. Jon's example of empty gameplay is stuff like the grind in WoW, where we're giving people rewards for the sake of rewards. Quality gameplay can be seen in something like Portal, where solving a puzzle doesn't require the developer to give a little medal or new equipment to the player: the brain rush of solving the puzzle is reward enough. But you should listen to it for yourself.
The earlier keynote yesterday was by Koizumi Yoshiaki of Nintendo, on the journey from Super Mario 64 to Ocarina of Time to Super Mario Sunshine to Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (!) to Super Mario Galaxy. It was a pretty good talk, although the problem with the presentation was that he'd hit on something really cool, I'd instantly get it (usually due to an illuminating gameplay video), and then he'd spend 10 minutes explaining it. So while there were some great points, especially about camera control. He made a great point that the spherical levels in Galaxy basically mean that the camera never has to shift very much, even when the player is moving a lot.
Ian Bogost gave a great talk on game criticism (not game journalism), and where we're failing as a culture to provide proper criticism. I think I will write this up in a separate post, it is that important. Randy Smith also gave a fantastic talk on how to reduce save/load compulsion in players, but I ain't gonna write it up here.
The big disappointment for me was Harvey Smith's talk on the player's relation to the avatar. Harvey's a really smart guy, and I've said as much in the past, but the presentation was full of the kind of information that I'd expect to find in an intro to game design course. Okay, according to feminist theory, gender is performed, not natural. Great! I believe that theory! But I know that already. Okay, there's a double-consciousness at play where the player is immersed in the game but is simultaneously aware of the fact that she's not actually Sam Fisher or whoever. Cool, yeah. But I think my frustrations were vocalized by Randy Smith when he got up at the end of the presentation and asked, basically, "How can we apply this stuff to game design?" And Harvey didn't seem prepared to answer that question.
But overall, I've been really pleased with the conference so far. I am definitely looking forward to the GAMMA 256 party tonight!
Labels: conferences, networking
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Metrics Talk at MIGS, Nov 28 -Past-
So, the Thanksgiving holidays are over and I can get back to blogging.
Except I can't, because I'll be at the Montreal International Game Summit (or driving to and from) all week (with Darren!) and I'm always too busy networking at a conference to actually live-blog anything. I'm giving a talk on Nov 28, at 11:30, on metrics in single-player games. So if you're at the show, drop by and say hi.
Except I can't, because I'll be at the Montreal International Game Summit (or driving to and from) all week (with Darren!) and I'm always too busy networking at a conference to actually live-blog anything. I'm giving a talk on Nov 28, at 11:30, on metrics in single-player games. So if you're at the show, drop by and say hi.
Labels: speaking
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Texas Independent Game Conference
Just thought I'd get the word out that the Texas Independent Game Conference is coming up Nov 29 and 30. It looks pretty cool, it's really cheap ($125 general, $75 for students), and there are some very good speakers including Mike McShaffrey, The Fatman, and Billy Cain. Oh, and some Richard Garriott guy. It should be a great networking opportunity, especially for local students and indies.
I unfortunately can't attend since I'll be driving back to Boston from MIGS then. But if any of you go, please tell me how it turns out!
I unfortunately can't attend since I'll be driving back to Boston from MIGS then. But if any of you go, please tell me how it turns out!
Labels: conferences
Stupid Hackers, Stupid Moles
Update: Well, that lasted about a half a day. Hopefully no permanent damage was done. Original post below. My sentiments still hold.
So, someone hacked Surfer Girl's blog. For those of you who don't know, she's a person who's been posting anonymous, sometimes-scarily-accurate industry insider gossip. She recently got a lot of press for a post about development troubles at Ubisoft. The hacker has gained access to her entire Google account, including her email, and has been dropping hints about who she really is--probably enough info so that people who know her in real life now know that she's Surfer Girl.
This sucks for her. This hacker is a douchebag.
On the other hand, I find it hard to have much sympathy for someone who posts fairly sensitive industry info anonymously to a public blog. Nobody deserves to be "outed" like that, but you can't be outed if everything you do is out in the open.
And if you're going to be an anonymous insider: please have an entire alternate identity set up for that job, including email address, blog, etc. Make sure there are literally no links between your personal stuff and your alternate stuff.
So, someone hacked Surfer Girl's blog. For those of you who don't know, she's a person who's been posting anonymous, sometimes-scarily-accurate industry insider gossip. She recently got a lot of press for a post about development troubles at Ubisoft. The hacker has gained access to her entire Google account, including her email, and has been dropping hints about who she really is--probably enough info so that people who know her in real life now know that she's Surfer Girl.
This sucks for her. This hacker is a douchebag.
On the other hand, I find it hard to have much sympathy for someone who posts fairly sensitive industry info anonymously to a public blog. Nobody deserves to be "outed" like that, but you can't be outed if everything you do is out in the open.
And if you're going to be an anonymous insider: please have an entire alternate identity set up for that job, including email address, blog, etc. Make sure there are literally no links between your personal stuff and your alternate stuff.
Labels: industry
Friday, November 09, 2007
QA, a Giant Rat, and Iraq
So my very first game industry job was as a QA tester at Turbine. I started exactly one week before Halloween. There was a guy named Thatcher who was working in QA but got moved to the Design group just before I arrived. I got his old cubicle, I think.
Anyway, for Halloween someone in the QA department bought an oversized, scary-looking plastic rat. I dubbed him "Ratcher" and he became Thatcher's replacement.
Ratcher was the best worker in the department. When I would write an automated script to scan through all our Excel-based testplan documents, the script would take about 2 hours to plow through our thousands of testplans. The dedication to actually having testplans is one of the reasons why Turbine's QA department is really awesome. During these hours, I would usually go off for an extended lunch, or sleep on the couch in the break room, or just wander around the building asking people what they're up to. (I was totally a manager back then, at least in my head.) While I was away from my desk, I'd sit Ratcher at my chair, put his paws on the keyboard, and slap a post-it on the back of his head saying something like "STAND BACK! IMPORTANT QA WORK BEING DONE."
Anyway, Ratcher maintained a high profile as one of the best testers in the department even after I transferred out of QA into another department. However, I just got some exciting news! It seems that he's on duty in Iraq! My friend Jamal Ingram, who is also on duty in Iraq, decided to take him along. Here he is as the mascot of a military vehicle:
From test automation mascot to military mascot. You've come a long way, Ratcher!
If other Turbine or ex-Turbine folks who read my blog have stories of Ratcher's exploits, I encourage you to submit them here :)
Anyway, for Halloween someone in the QA department bought an oversized, scary-looking plastic rat. I dubbed him "Ratcher" and he became Thatcher's replacement.
Ratcher was the best worker in the department. When I would write an automated script to scan through all our Excel-based testplan documents, the script would take about 2 hours to plow through our thousands of testplans. The dedication to actually having testplans is one of the reasons why Turbine's QA department is really awesome. During these hours, I would usually go off for an extended lunch, or sleep on the couch in the break room, or just wander around the building asking people what they're up to. (I was totally a manager back then, at least in my head.) While I was away from my desk, I'd sit Ratcher at my chair, put his paws on the keyboard, and slap a post-it on the back of his head saying something like "STAND BACK! IMPORTANT QA WORK BEING DONE."
Anyway, Ratcher maintained a high profile as one of the best testers in the department even after I transferred out of QA into another department. However, I just got some exciting news! It seems that he's on duty in Iraq! My friend Jamal Ingram, who is also on duty in Iraq, decided to take him along. Here he is as the mascot of a military vehicle:
From test automation mascot to military mascot. You've come a long way, Ratcher!
If other Turbine or ex-Turbine folks who read my blog have stories of Ratcher's exploits, I encourage you to submit them here :)
Labels: anecdotes, nostalgia, wtf
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Rock Paper Shotgun: Best Blog Ever
On the off-chance that you're not aware of it, I want to point you to my favorite gaming blog, hands-down: Rock Paper Shotgun. It's a group blog, consisting of the best UK-based game journalists out there, and it's entirely PC-focused. But just because you don't live in the UK or you only own a Mac doesn't mean that this blog isn't worth reading. Kieron Gillen, Jim Rossignol, Alec Meer, and John Walker are all brilliant, incisive, and fucking hilarious.
Gillen introduced me to the parody text game Liberal Crime Squad through his amazing (and ongoing) series, "Rebel Without a Pause Key." It's made by Bay 12 games, the guys who brought you Dwarf Fortress. LCS is basically a testosterone-soaked recently-enlightened college freshman's dream of what a liberal revolution might look like. And it's hilarious. Unlike DF, this game is actually playable, yet it features the procedurally generated goodness that we've come to know and love. Gillen's articles tell the story of his rag-tag squad of liberal ne'er-do-wells.
There's an excellent interview with some Team Fortress 2 devs that shows you just how they managed to make such an amazing game. Also the guys wrote a bunch of articles about the 9 TF2 classes which are well worth reading if you actually play the game. While we're on the Orange Box, John Walker actually convinced me that I needed to try Half-Life 2: Episode 2. This is no small feat.
Gillen, again, writing the article about sex and The Sims that I always wanted to write. And again, the article about humor in games that I always wanted to write. Filthy bastard's living out my imagined career in game journalism before my very eyes. On the other hand, "game journalist" is possibly the only worse career I can think of than "game developer," so I think I'll let him steal my ideas.
And a recent article by Alec Meer that makes me actually want to play Call of Duty 4.
Gillen introduced me to the parody text game Liberal Crime Squad through his amazing (and ongoing) series, "Rebel Without a Pause Key." It's made by Bay 12 games, the guys who brought you Dwarf Fortress. LCS is basically a testosterone-soaked recently-enlightened college freshman's dream of what a liberal revolution might look like. And it's hilarious. Unlike DF, this game is actually playable, yet it features the procedurally generated goodness that we've come to know and love. Gillen's articles tell the story of his rag-tag squad of liberal ne'er-do-wells.
There's an excellent interview with some Team Fortress 2 devs that shows you just how they managed to make such an amazing game. Also the guys wrote a bunch of articles about the 9 TF2 classes which are well worth reading if you actually play the game. While we're on the Orange Box, John Walker actually convinced me that I needed to try Half-Life 2: Episode 2. This is no small feat.
Gillen, again, writing the article about sex and The Sims that I always wanted to write. And again, the article about humor in games that I always wanted to write. Filthy bastard's living out my imagined career in game journalism before my very eyes. On the other hand, "game journalist" is possibly the only worse career I can think of than "game developer," so I think I'll let him steal my ideas.
And a recent article by Alec Meer that makes me actually want to play Call of Duty 4.
Labels: games, humor, journalism, tf2
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Sigh
This is a major blow to Chicago. I actually hope that EA doesn't manage to siphon away too much talent from the city. I mean, I'm happy for the EA Chicago devs who get an insta-job at another EA studio. But it's bad for the city.
I was just talking with someone a few weeks ago about how vibrant the Chicago development scene is becoming. Here's hoping against hope that it continues to grow.
I was just talking with someone a few weeks ago about how vibrant the Chicago development scene is becoming. Here's hoping against hope that it continues to grow.
PHASE!
Monday, November 05, 2007
Brenda on Game Design Portfolios
My friend Brenda Brathwaite, who is an extremely accomplished RPG designer and now a professor of game design at SCAD, just launched her game design blog. (She worked on both Freakin' Funky Fuzzballs and my favorite game of all time. What breadth!)
Of particular interest is her article answering common questions about game design portfolios. What should one look like? Read her take on it. It's good.
Of particular interest is her article answering common questions about game design portfolios. What should one look like? Read her take on it. It's good.
Labels: breakingin, design
