Austin Game Conference :: Day 2

AGC Day 2 has wrapped. Lots of great info dropped today. And yes, the crickets are still out in force.

First, we got a shout out over on Mystic Worlds. To quote Lauren … “I love this misfit tard duo.” She is speaking of Gary and Ryan of MOG, a gaming podcast I help produce. Thanks Lauren!

Now, on to the AGC.

I attended several sessions of the Games Writer’s Conference (an AGC subset). Bioware continues to impress. They held a session called “New Frontiers in Digital Acting”, in which they outlined their process for writing, casting and filming digital actors. In short, their take on digital storytelling is years ahead of anyone else in the industry. They really, really take story seriously, which is why their games are consistently the best in the business. I spoke about Mass Effect yesterday and saw game play footage of a completely cinematic, yet player driven, conversation between the player and an NPC. It is nothing short of amazing.

Chris Avellone, the Creative Director of Obsidian, led an interactive session called “How to write the best game ever!” Given that Avellone is one of the primary drivers of Neverwinter Nights 2, I was looking for some insight into the work processes used to develop the rich stories that Bioware (and now Obsidian) used to “make its bones”. I did not get that, but I was not disappointed. The session was more of a roundtable where everyone shared the tools and processes that worked for them. So, we got a broad cross-section of talent talking about how they get things done. This was far more valuable than one person’s isolated perspective.

We also got a peek at MultiVerse, an MMO development platform with a twist. Developers pay NOTHING for the platform (server, client, development toolset, initial assets) until they start charging their customers. If they never charge, they never pay. This makes the platform ideal for independent game developers, students, academics, folks developing simulations for non-profit organizations. If you’ve ever wanted to create your own MMO, Multiverse might be the perfect place to start.

The company showed a lot of demos made on their platform. Graphically, all seemed pretty rudimentary, but they were in the private beta. Multiverse says the platform sports a plug-in architecture that will a hook up with any pro-level graphic toolsets and assets. Multiverse is now in private beta. Look for it to drop soon.

Online Alchemy, a Multiverse beta tester, showed off Dynemotion, a emotion engine they just announced at AGC. Dynemotion plugs in to Multiverse and is a really interesting take on faction/reputation systems. The demo had a sniper shooting into a crowd. The crowd reacted to dropping bodies with pretty realistic crowd dynamics. Granted, it was a demo but the ideas presented could lead to some pretty immersive and ground-breaking game play down the road.

More general takeaways …

1. Bioware Austin confirmed that their next offering is an MMO. Beyond that, they could not say more. This is not earth-shattering news as this has been rumored for some time. Given Bioware’s track record, this becomes the game to watch.

2. Ryzom Ring looks absolutely amazing. User-created content looks to be a major part of this game’s future. Again, no big secret here. The update drops in the next few weeks. So you’ll have an opportunity to try it for yourself. What is notable is the extent to which this is going to be part of the Ryzom experience. I’ll let Gary and Ryan give you the full scoop in the next episode, but let’s just say that if Ryzom pulls this off it will be a big, freekin’ deal.

3. Virtual worlds and MMO business models were a major theme. In-game advertising is a hot-button topic. It is going to happen, the real question is … “how intrusive is it going to be?”

4. Blizzard, SOE, and EA Mythic were all notable for their relative lack of presence in the exhibition hall. Considering that these are the 800 lb. Gorillas of American MMOs, one would think they’d have had a bigger footprint at the show. Also notably absent from the floor were Funcom (Conan) and Flying Labs (Pirates of the Burning Sea).

5. The MMO that looks most promising, at least to me, is Fallen Earth. Log line … Mad Max meets the MMO.

6. The boys met with CCP, the developers of Eve. Again, I’ll let them drop the knowledge in the next episode. For the moment, know that they have many new, and interesting insights into Eve, the Kali update and the Eve community.

Like last night, I’ll share a bit of unattributed developer insight For the sake of brevity, I am summing up much larger and longer conversations, so don’t consider the following word-for-word quotes. As for the lack attribution, I’ll respect the devs desire for anonymity. So, don’t ask me who said this stuff!

“Anytime you can get an (in-game) emotional reaction (positive or negative) from a gamer, you have to consider it a victory”

“E3 is dead for good reason. It was a huge waste of money that drained budgets with little real benefit to the developer or the audience. The $400K spent for a stand-out presence on the E3 floor is better spent on bug-testing and polishing games before they launch to ensure a positive reception on launch day.”

“Technology is holding back next-gen PC game development, but not in the way you think. Sure, new cool tech is on the horizon, but a lack of assets standards, coupled with the need to produce multiple versions of assets to accommodate backwards compatibility are the real roadblock. Everyone, at least on the PC side, still has to develop a second set of assets against Windows 98. Standardization and raw processing power is why the console market will take off with third-gen consoles and leave PC gaming behind”.

In closing, I’ll offer you a little bit of insight into the MOG team. Gary and I have met in the past. I already knew he had a wry wit in person. Gary, Ryan and Todd all know one another from back in the day. This trip is my first face time with Todd and Ryan. If you think these guys are funny on the show, hang with them in person.

Sitting around watching Bill O’Reilly tonight, I damn near pissed myself laughing on three separate occasions due to something one of these guys said while commenting on that tool. My fricking sides hurt.

Peace,

DD

PS: One last insight, the game dev community seems to be one huge sausage party. There are not many women working in the industry, and that is unfortunate. And we wonder why so few girls game?

Austin Game Conference :: Day 1

I write by the glowing light of my laptop from the Austin Game Conference. Ryan, Gary and Todd are all snuggled into their bedrolls, hunkered down after a couple of long days of travel, networking and then drinking in Austin, TX. Ryan is dodging crickets. Yes. Crickets. Apparently, it rained a few days ago and that somehow released a shit ton of mating crickets into the air. Believe me, I wish I was kidding.

To paraphrase John McClean, “Yipee-kai-yay motherfuckers! We in Texas!”

The conference has been great so far. Travel hiccups and work IRL made me miss most of the formal events of today. However, G, R n’ T all had great things to say about the first day of the con. I’ll let them explain in further detail on subsequent posts. For the moment, I’ll leave you with a few general impressions.

1. Per Ryan, the guys at Bioware are all the content geniuses we’ve known they were all along. Only now, having seen them talk in person, there is no question. These guys know how to craft, deep, rich, engaging stories. Though not an MMO, Mass Effect looks to be one seriously rich RPG … and there are no elves or orcs! BONUS!

2. Everyone has a hard-on for WOW. No big surprise here. The world loves WOW. What is sort of surprising is how many folks seem reluctant to to do anything ground-breaking to surpass WOW. They all want WOW’s numbers, but they are not sure how to get there.

3. While it may seem that I just capped on game devs, that was more of a shot at “the suits”. We’ve had the great fortune of hanging with several core devs working on major titles. So far, they are all cool, regular guys with a passion for the art and craft of game development.

Before you ask … no inside scoop gathered thus far.

But then again, that is not really our objective. We simply want to get to know the landscape of game development and come to understand what drives the industry so we can produce a better show for all of you.

For those of you working in web and other non-gaming software development, you might be interested to know that game development is not all parties, hookers and blow.

Most of these folks work their asses off. They deal with corporate politics and have PHBs just like the rest of us. At the end of the day, game devs put their pants on and go to work, just like everyone else.

That said, there are a lot of interesting observations to be had. I’ll leave you with this quote … intentionally unattributed …

Game studios now are a lot like film studios during the Golden Age of Cinema. There are lots of brilliant people working really hard to produce great creative works within the confines of corporate structure. We have yet to have our “1970′s”, when Scorcese, Coppala, Spielberg, and Peckinpah broke the industry mold and introduced the world to truly visionary, independent film.

Sound like a war cry for third generation gaming? It does to me. And, I love the smell of napalm in the morning. Uuuh-rah!

Peace,

DD