The Demise of Gaming Journalism

The 2010 Microsoft E3 press conference exposed gaming journalists. At the end of the press conference, Microsoft handed out free Xbox 360 slim units to all who attended. This included every journalist there. Shockingly, (maybe not) the journalists didn't appear to have a problem with the conflict of interest. Actually, they didn't seem to even NOTICE a conflict of interest. But they did brag about their new gifts on blogs and Twitter. How can anyone take gaming journalism seriously after this? Gaming journalists have been exposed as inexperienced and without character. Would any other group of journalists brag about their new bribes? I don't think any other group would be so stupid as to do that. And to add insult to injury, go read reviews of Microsoft's press conference. Pick any gaming site. It doesn't matter. If the site had reporters there at the conference, they gave it glowing reviews. Well done Microsoft. Mission accomplished. Unfortunately, the gaming industry as a whole has suffered. Once again, the industry looks childish and amateurish. I would love to hear from a journalist who was at the Microsoft press conference and refused the free gift. Something tells me I won't be hearing from many people.

Saturn Bomberman Tournament: May Day Open 2010

The 9th Saturn Bomberman Tournament took place on May 1st, 2010. Here is an excerpt taken from the official Saturn Bomberman Tournament website:

This marks the first time for the May Day Open tournament. Another first is the 3 round format. There were a total of 13 players; 7 in the first round and 6 in the second. The top 4 in each round advanced to the championship round.

Shaun McGuire won his 6th Saturn Bomberman tournament (5 Thanksgiving Day Invitationals and 1 May Day Open). Brian McGuire was this year’s Mad Bomber. He was also the first Mad Bomber award winner in the Thanksgiving Day Invitational. This year’s tournament took place on May 1st, 2010.

Interesting tournament facts: 3 countries were represented from 3 continents: United States, Germany and Brazil. André Schwarz had 21 kills in the first round. That was the most by anyone in any of the 3 rounds, yet he had no wins. Tara Pilliard made it into the top 4 with 2 wins in round 1, yet she had no kills. Celia McGraw had a 42% (the best of any round) winning percentage in round 2 yet had no wins in the championship round.

Please visit www.saturnbomberman.com for complete results of every round, including video of the entire championship round!

Saturn Bomberman Tournaments

A new site has gone up documenting a group of people who have been running Saturn Bomberman tournaments since 2002. So far, the tournaments have taken place once a year on Thanksgiving day. But, the site mentions that they hope to expand to 4 tournaments a year eventually. Check it out: www.saturnbomberman.com

The Lost Golem Website!

The Lost Golem website is up and running. There you will find the most information on the web on Caramelpot's classic Dreamcast puzzle game. It will also be THE place to post questions and comments about the game.

See you there: www.lostgolem.com

Developer Interview: Craig Forrester (Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp)

This is the third in a series of interviews I am doing with video game developers. The first interview, with Japanese game developer Shuichi Ishikawa, can be found here. The second interview, with The Game Equation's Brian Meidell Andersen, can be found here.

In this interview, I had the opportunity to talk (through email) with Craig Forrester. Craig is an indie developer from England. In this interview, we focused on his new game, Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp. It is a fantastic puzzle/platform game for the Xbox 360. We also discussed using Microsoft's XNA to develop Community Games. I hope you enjoy the interview:

Craig, let's start off by having you tell us about yourself. Where from? Where do you go to school? Currently employed working on games?

I'm originally from a town called Leek in England, and am currently in Middlesbrough, at the University of Teesside. I had a year's work placement in the industry last year but don't start properly until later this year, which I'm looking forward to a lot. I'm enjoying university but after four years it'll be nice to see it finished. There are no concrete plans for what I'll do post graduation, but there are a few possibilities.

Your game, Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp (JPBR), is a terrific puzzle/platform game. Tell us about the making of this game...

It's mostly inspired by the PDA Games minigame that came with Alien Hominid. I wanted to try making a quick DS game and it seemed like the perfect type of game to make, since once the mechanics are finished it's basically about putting together as many levels as possible. I tried to add my own ideas to it of course, but I think the similarities are quite obvious too.

How long did it take you to finish the game (from first idea to final product)?

It was originally supposed to be a five day game but ended up taking about a week or so. That was a fun week, the second year of uni had finished so I almost literally just sat and worked on the game for the entire week.

Was it intended as a DS game from the very beginning?

Yeah, the ideas behind the game only began after I had decided to work on a DS game. I think the screen-wrapping mechanic mainly existed because of the small resolution on the DS. I didn't want to make the graphics smaller so it seemed like the next best way to get more gameplay out of a single-screen level. I didn't really have any ideas for using it at the time but it ended up creating some quite intricate puzzles.

Are there any differences between the DS version and the 360 version?

The main thing I added for the 360 was 5 extra levels. Since the game was going commercial I really felt the need to add at least a bit of new content to justify charging for it. I also tweaked the difficulty curve and added a bit of tutorial stuff, though that could still have been a lot better.

I haven't had an opportunity to play the DS version. But, is the reason the game has such a unique, vertical playing area on the 360 a direct result of having it been on the DS first?

Yeah that's completely dictated by the DS' screens. Graphically the game is pretty much identical to the DS version, simply scaled up to fit HD resolution. It feels a bit strange on a TV, especially a widescreen one, but I didn't have the time to invest in remaking all the levels for a different screen size. At least the Ikaruga-inspired TATE mode means people with rotateable monitors can play it fullscreen.

What are some of your favorite games that may have influenced you while making JPBR?

Hmm this is a tough one. There's the aforementioned PDA Games, but I can't think of any more direct influences. I think there are some hints of Yoshi's Island and Wario Land in some of the graphics. I enjoy lots of platformers in general, especially some indie ones like Stargirl, Cave Story and Mini Falafel Adventure off the top of my head.

What made you decide to publish the game on Xbox 360?

I toyed around with XNA last year and began a shooter project, but then university work got in the way. In December I had a week between the end of the semester and going back home, and when my housemate suggested that I should port JP to the 360, I couldn't really refuse.

What was your experience like using Microsoft XNA to develop a Community Game?

Definitely a good one, turning your console into a devkit is just fun. XNA is nice and easy to set up and work with, and there's plenty of documentation, tutorials and examples to help that. The fact I managed to port a DS game to XNA so quickly shows how easy it is to use, although you have to bear in mind I did steal some code from the XNA project I started previously.

What were the best and worst parts of developing a Community Game?

The best part has to be the end result, getting to see your game on the marketplace is very rewarding. I didn't really have any worst moments as far as I can remember. I had to do a lot of polishing stuff, which extended the port to a week from the originally intended two days, thanks to the 360-specific stuff I hadn't considered like handling storage devices and getting the 'purchase game' option in. It's all pretty straightforward when you get into it though.

Did Microsoft have input into JPBR? If so, what kind?

None at all, the game really is just whatever the developer wants to do. I think the restrictions that do exist are basically on stuff that's actually illegal, like including stolen or copyrighted material in the game.

I'm curious as to who is responsible for making sure that Community Games submitted to Microsoft aren't broken in some manner. Is anyone besides the developers themselves checking for any bugs in a game or even the overall content?

The game goes through peer review before being released, where other developers play the game and pass or fail it based on if it crashes or violates copyright. The game can also be optionally put into testing, which works in a similar way with peers downloading and playing the game. This leaves plenty of oppurtunity for bugs to slip through the net, but it's the only way to keep the publishing step quick and hassle free.

How is the pricing decided for Community Games? I was surprised JPBR was priced at 200 points. It seems to me, it could have easily been a 400 point game.

Prices are set purely by the developer. The options are 200, 400 or 800, but games above 50MB have to be at least 400. I spent a lot of time thinking about whether to charge 200 or 400 points. In the end I went for 200, since the DS version is available for free so I felt it would be cheeky to not charge as little as possible for it. Another factor was that the aim of the project was never to make money, just to get my game out there to a new audience and get my name out there. It also hopefully shows that paying twice as much for a fireplace screensaver is a bit of a rip off.

Apparently, no achievements are allowed in Community Games. But what about downloadable content? Could you add more levels to the game if you wished?

Yeah achievements aren't supported, I imagine to stop them from getting abused. Paid DLC isn't supported either, probably just to keep everything simple. I think in theory you could code the downloading of free levels into the game if you hosted them somewhere, but I don't know a lot about the network capabilities in XNA. Another option would be to do a patch for the game with more levels in it, but unfortunately players who already downloaded the game aren't notified when a new version is released, unlike when professional 360 games get patched. That's something it would be nice to see fixed, although I guess the releasing of continuous patches should be discouraged.

How is it decided which games submitted for Community Games, will eventually get published?

Basically anything that passes the peer review system will get published, there's no one at Microsoft deciding which ones get through. It's a great thing as it means no restrictions on new ideas and game styles that would normally never get published, but on the other hand it does inevitably cause an avalanche of pong clones. Swings and roundabouts really.

Would you recommend the XNA Game Studio to other people who are interested in creating their own games?

I certainly would, it's a great way to get way to get your game out there, as if it's good enough it will potentially get a nice bit of attention from the indie games community. Another nice bonus compared to releasing a game on PC is the great piracy protection. Once we eventually get sales figures at the end of March it will be a much better platform for actual full time indie developers too.

Do you plan on continuing with any more Johnny Platform games?

I might do a sequel in the future, as long as I can give it enough new content. The last thing I want is to appear to be whoring the "franchise" out by making a cheap sequel. I do know if there is a sequel it won't involve biscuits, but the coffee will still be abundant, of course. The evil robots are probably plotting another scheme after their failed attempt to take biscuit land.

Did anyone else work with you on JPBR? If so, who? And what were their roles in the game?

Two of my university housemates helped out on it. James O'Hare actually did the sprites for Johnny and the robots, which is why Johnny is a bit more twisted that the usual kind of sprites I do. I saw a great fanart of him recently, which portrays him as a freaky green thing shaking from caffeine with coffee dribbling from his mouth, which I think is pretty accurate. James also did the robot's Scottish voices, and Johnny's Yorkshireish voice was done by Tom Chambers.

Was developing for the 360 possible only because of the XNA Game Studio? Is developing for PSN or WiiWare out of the question right now?

Yeah, it provides pretty much the only (official) avenue for creating a game on one of the home consoles. Creating an XBLA, PSN or WiiWare game is possible in theory but it needs a hell of a lot of money behind it, and even then Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo might not be interested in publishing it. I think a good amount of success in the Community Games market would certainly help any quest to get a game onto one of the "proper" markets though.

Have you heard from Microsoft how well Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp is selling?

Nothing yet other than the weekly top ten sales list on Major Nelson's blog, so you get an idea how you're doing relative to the other Community Games but that's about it. As I mentioned previously at the end of March, which is around the time the first paycheques will be going out, a sales figure system is being released which will be really interesting to see.

Are you currently working on any other 360 games?

I have my unfinished vertical shooter that I started a while ago, which I'd like to come back to eventually. I've also been starting to put together a general 2D game engine in XNA which I can hopefully put to good use in the future.

Besides the 360, are there any other projects you are working on that you could talk about?

University work takes up the majority of my time, but part of that involves making a small game demo in a team, which is going to be a music-based RPG called Twilight of the Tieran. I'm also doing a bit of pixelart work towards Erin Robinson's game, Puzzle Bots, which is looking really cool.

Where did the name IshiSoft come from?

The nickname Ishi was borne from a general obsession with Japanese things. Craig comes from crag, which means stone, which is what ishi translates as. I then just stuck 'soft' on the end in classic lazy fashion, but I really like the name now.

What are your plans for the future? What are your goals in the gaming industry?

I graduate from university soon, but I haven't really decided yet what path into the industry I want to take. Joining a larger scale studio making the big titles is a possibility, or alternatively I could go for somewhere doing smaller projects like downloadable games. Of course another option is to just go for full on indie development myself, which I might consider more depending on how well Johnny Platform is doing. Time will tell!

Thanks a lot for the interview.

End Interview.

I hope you enjoyed this interview. I want to thank Craig Forrester for his time. I loaded him up with quite a few questions and he gladly answered them all. I'd like to encourage everyone to at least download the trial version of Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp. You won't be disappointed. Just a note, this entire interview was done through an email Q&A system. It was printed here in complete form with no editing to preserve the original spirit of both the questions and the answers. Thanks again to Craig, for his participation.

2008 E3 Press Conference Impressions

Microsoft's E3 Press Conference
After watching Microsoft's E3 Press Conference, I have to say that I was quite impressed. They seem to have covered quite a bit. They had plenty of games for their hardcore audience as well as several things for their casual fans.I thought the Xbox Live announcements were very strong. Sure, avatars are a direct rip-off of Nintendo's Miis, but they seem to have improved upon them. They are cartoonish but have a more realistic style about them. And it appears that Microsoft will actually be adding content to their avatars unlike NIntendo with their Miis.The new dashboard seems very clean and easy to use. Teaming up with Netflix is a stroke of genius. I think that will be a huge coup for Microsoft.Microsoft also scored big with Square Enix. Besides the shocker of the Final Fantasy XIII announcement, three additional RPGs were also revealed. Four Square Enix RPGs for a Microsoft console is quite a change from the past. I almost felt like I was watching a Sony press conference.

Nintendo E3 Press Conference
I have to say that Nintendo's press conference was a bit on the boring side this year. They really focused on the casual gamer while leaving everyone else out in the cold. Satoru Iwata did say that new Mario and Zelda games were being worked on for the Wii, but with no video and no other information, it's is hard to get excited about that announcement. Nintendo's biggest news seemed to be: Wii Music Wii Music looked fun, but it truly looked like something geared towards kids. I can imagine my kids banging out some noise, but I don't see myself playing an imaginary saxophone anytime soon. Wii Sports Resort This actually looks like it might be more fun than the original Wii Sports. The addition of the Wii MotionPlus should be a huge boost to a game like this. Animal Crossing While it looks fun, it also looks like more of the same. Same graphics, same characters, same tasks. The new online portion looks promising, but nothing earth shattering. Wii Speak This microphone for the whole family looks to be the perfect solution for Nintendo. Since everyone in the room can hear what is being said, it makes it a much safer choice for kids. My only question is how well will it work. Can Wii Speak pick up everyone's voice in a big room when it is sitting on top of your TV? Wii MotionPlus This looks to be the most promising item Nintendo showed off. Too bad this wasn't available from day one. I doubt it will work with older games, but for new games it will offer a never before seen experience. True 1:1 motion between the player and his character. I think this will be huge once developers get a chance to incorporate it into their new games. The big news for the DS was Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. This will certainly be a nice addition to an already great library of games. If only Nintendo had announced a game of that magnitude for the Wii.

Sony's E3 Press Conference
I thought Sony's press conference was a solid effort. They revealed interesting information for both casual gamers and hardcore gamers. Sony's movie and TV download system is interesting. While Microsoft's deal with Netflix might prove to be cheaper for consumers, Sony adds the benefit of taking video on the go by transferring to your PSP. For PSP owners, this is great news. Home still seems a few months away. I tend to be on the optimistic side on this. Everything Sony has shown about Home looks very nice. I think this is too important an area for Sony to fall down on. That's why I'm betting Sony pulls through on Home. LittleBigPlanet was shown again and still looks incredible. This game alone looks like a reason to buy a PS3. God of War III and MAG were also shown. It's safe to assume the GOWIII will be a special game. MAG looks promising, but we will have to wait and see on this one. Overall, I think Sony had a nice show. Definitely better than Nintendo and on par with Microsoft.

Developer Interview: Brian Meidell Andersen

This is the second in a series of interviews I am doing with video game developers. The first interview, with Japanese game developer Shuichi Ishikawa, can be found here.

In this interview, I had the opportunity to talk (through email) with Brian Meidell Andersen of The Game Equation (Bo Cordes, Brian's partner is mentioned in some of the Q&A but he was not interviewed) about casual gaming and it's impact on the gaming industry. Brian had several interesting things to say regarding casual gaming and I hope you enjoy his interview:

First off, I was hoping to get some background on both of you. What companies have you worked for and what games have you worked on?

I'm a b.sc.e.e. and previous companies most relevant to our current endeavours are IO Interactive, Titoonic (maker of high quality web games) and now-defunct networkleague (multiplayer gaming middleware/service company). The most well known games I've worked on are "Hitman: Blood Money" and "Hitman: Contracts".

Bo is a m.sc.e.e. and before going into the games industry at IO Interactive, he worked with cutting edge virtual reality at Aalborg University in Denmark. He has worked on "Hitman 2", "Hitman: Contracts" and "Hitman: Blood Money".

In a recent article on next-gen.biz, you mentioned you were fed up with large-scale game production. What about large-scale game production did you grow tired of?

There were several things, but I think they all stem from the same problem.

As the game machines capabilities grow, the number of things that are expected from a game grows with it. For example, the first game that introduced ragdoll physics touted that as a special feature. Today, better ragdoll physics are simply expected, together with normal mapping, per pixel lighting, and many other features that were unique selling points when they first appeared. To keep up with the bleeding edge, it requires that you either outsource a lot of work (either directly or by buying middleware like Havok), increase your team sizes or lengthen the production cycles. Any combination of these three methods will increase your production costs, sometimes by a lot. The more money it costs to produce a game, the more power is handed to business people, and their trained response is typically to take less risk by copying proven success. This has a tendency to change game making from a highly creative process into factory work.

In my eyes, making good games is inherently a very creative process, where the best people have a combination of immense technical skill and a great deal of creativity. It used to be that most game developers were people like this, but today I think these key people are usually supported by a number of people who are simply good craftsmen, be it programmers or artists. In most large game teams, I think there are a handful of people that are critical for the game to be an inspired piece of work. These types of people are often innately uninterested in factory work. There are of course cases where some of these creative, talented people actually like the big corporate environment, but I haven't met too many of them.

I grew tired of this situation, and the direct consequences like colleagues quitting, big teams, long crunch periods, unrealistic deadlines and unrealistic sales expectations. I have a strong feeling that it has gotten better since I quit in late 2005, but I wasn't willing to sit around and wait for it to improve.

What about the casual game business attracts you?

There are several things. Most importantly, the games are of a scope that is realistic for a few people to do well in a reasonable amount of time. For example, Deep Blue Sea was made by a team of two people in the span of 4.5 months, except for the sound which was contracted from an external composer. This makes it possible for a company to be competitive and successful without having to endlessly expand the company simply to keep up with the market.

Second, the direct consequence of the modest resource requirements is that developing a title represents a much smaller risk. This makes it more possible to try new things in terms of both gameplay, themes, format, marketing, distribution and so forth. This is not something we have exercised so far, but we are certainly planning to.

Another attractive aspect is the norm of purely electronic distribution methods. This means a much shorter path from developers to consumers and thereby less overhead.

I went to your website and noticed that right now you are strictly PC/MAC. Is releasing a value title ($20-$30 range) out of the question for the 360, PS3 and Wii?

Developing a regular boxed title to sell in that price range is out of the question for most developers. However, the barrier for entry on the consoles seems to have been lowered a lot with the arrival of the new digital marketplaces like XBox Live Arcade, PSN and WiiWare. The console companies seem to be going out of their way to bring the casual market to their consoles, and I think that is a great move for both themselves, the consumers and the developers.

That said, the technical and financial prerequisites for developing for these platforms still makes that market inaccessible to most of the casual games developers currently targeting desktop computers.

Do you have any plans to work on any titles for Xbox Live, PSN or WiiWare?

We're looking into it, but there are no details that I can share at this point.

Casual games seem to have found a home on the Nintendo DS. Any plans there?

We're looking into it, but there are no details that I can share at this point.

Last night I went on to your website and downloaded the demo of Deep Blue Sea (which I enjoyed quite a bit). While at first glance it looks like your typical tile swapping game, there is quite a bit more depth there. There are actual objectives, missions and even a store for upgrades. Do you feel this game is a fair representation of the kind of games you want to create?

I think Deep Blue Sea is a good game, especially for the development resources we put into it, but our long term ambitions are greater. Deep Blue Sea was in many ways an experiment in minimalism - it was made with programmer graphics and the only contracted work was the music. The focus was primarily on gameplay, a solid progression ramp and accessibility. For future titles we are planning to put more resources into production value, and developing our technology.

I noticed on both of your games, Deep Blue Sea and Constellations, you point out the original music that was created for both. I find that interesting because I think music tends to take a back seat in most casual games. How important is music to you in your games? Do you compose the music yourselves or do you work with a musician for that?

Quite important. Music and sound is immensely important to establish atmosphere in a game, and I think a relaxing atmosphere is a very important aspect of a casual game. We contract a very talented composer named Rasmus Hartvig for the music and the principal sound design.

Is there anything else you are working on right now that you can talk about?

Not at this time - we'll make a public announcement when that changes.

What are your long term plans for The Game Equation?

We're planning to develop and release casual titles as we push our technology along. Eventually, we are hoping to also find a viable market in the space between casual games and big budget games.

Do you feel that many of your peers in the gaming industry feel the same as you about working on big budget games?

Yes. Though most of them definitely still prefer it to creating casual games.

Due to the rising development costs, do you think we will eventually end up with two kinds of developers...those who produce $15 million games and those who produce casual games with few developers in between?

Actually, I think that has been the situation until now, but we're moving away from that, towards a more varied game ecology. The online console markets and sales channels such as Valve's Steam seem to be able to support games that are somewhere between casual and big budget games, since many of their customers are people who are more hardcore gamers than your typical casual gamer. Indie games for non-casual gamers have existed for a long time, but there haven't been a lot of clearly defined sales channels for them - the developers have proudly been cutting their own paths.

It seems that the major game companies are increasingly interested in the casual market, so I don't think the separation you mention will happen. Rather, I think it will move the other way, where the big companies will have teams of varying sizes that produce a much more full spectrum of games, from casual to big budget titles. There'll probably also be a good deal of mergers and acquisitions in this process. In many ways, I think it will be a miniature replay of what has happened to the "big" game industry in the last many years.

I was shocked when Sony announced the original price of the PS3. Most systems start to sell well after a $200 price point has been reached. At $500 and $600, the PS3 was years away from that price point. It seems very difficult for a developer to make a big budget game when the install base is going to be so low. On the other hand, consumers who pay $500 or $600 for a new system want to see something big and exciting that takes advantage of the latest technology. It appeared that Sony put developers and consumers in an awkward spot. Do you think there is a lesson to be learned here? Is it possible in the next round on console wars that we won't see the same leap in cutting edge technology due to high cost? And that maybe hardware companies will take a different approach like Nintendo did this round with the Wii?

I don't think there is an inherent problem in selling a console for $500-600 as long as people are buying it, which they seem to be. Sony and Microsoft might take less chances when designing their future consoles with emerging technologies, but I don't think they will stray radically from their current competitive areas of graphics, sound and processing power in the way Nintendo did. I think the Wii will probably make them consider adding unique interaction features to the console, but not as a replacement for raw power.

The PS3 in particular has taken a lot of abuse in the press, but I honestly believe it is going to do just fine in the long run. I am guessing here, but I think the high price point from Sony was an unfortunate necessity, not something they planned. The price to be paid for the awkward spot you mention mostly lands on them - failure is not an option for the PS3, so whatever it takes to make it an attractive developer target, that's what they'll do.

As a sidenote, I think the fact that the press has declared the PS3 unattractive to develop for is a business opportunity in disguise for smaller companies. According to wikipedia there are at least 5.6 million PS3s out there. There are only a handful of games on PSN right now, and the people who shelled out 500 bucks for their PS3 are likely happy to pay 10 bucks for something that is a bit of fun, and which really shows off some aspect of their consoles abilities. That's 5.5 million content-starved people who can potentially visit PSN and see your game among only a handful of games. Those are a lot better odds of selling copies than what you get in the PC/Mac casual games industry.

Where do you see the gaming industry in 5 years and where do you see yourselves in 5 years?

As mentioned under the "rising development costs" question, I think we'll see more big players moving into the smaller games space, and more sales channels will be established for smaller games that are not typical casual games. Rotating developers into smaller game teams once in a while would also help make life better for the overworked developers at the big companies, and maybe hold on to some of those key people I mentioned earlier.

As for myself, I hope I will be at the helm of a small but successful game company publishing fun games for both the casual and less casual consumers.

Finally, what will it take for developers to turn casual gaming into a big business?

Casual gaming itself is already big business. If you mean what it takes for a new developer to make their casual game into big business, I'd prefer to answer that question a couple of years from now, once we've managed to do just that.

End of interview.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. Just a note, this entire interview was done through an email Q&A system. It was printed here in complete form with no editing to preserve the original spirit of both the questions and the answers. Once again, I'd like to thank Brian Meidell Andersen of The Game Equation for his participation.