Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming

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Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming (Subscribe)

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

AGDC: Making an XBLA Game in 6 Months: A Splosion Man Postmortem

(Placeholder; full post coming when I get back to a PC.)

My final session of the day was "Making an XBLA Game in 6 Months: A Splosion Man Postmortem":

"Coming off the award-winning PC and Xbox Live Arcade title, THE MAW, Austin-based indie developer Twisted Pixel embarked on an unconventional XBLA title called SPLOSION MAN. In this in-depth postmortem, the lead programmer and lead designer look at how the splode-happy gameplay of the title evolved, including what went right and wrong during the project?s hyper-aggressive 6 month schedule, and lessons for indies wanting to make console downloadable games."

I'm a big fan of this game, so I was stoked to attend.

There were 4 full-time, 4 part-time people on the team for 6 months.

What went well: Iteration, Prototyping, Focus, Experience, and "One Level"

Iteration
They had the game playable
The entire game is playable in the tools

Prototyping
"Ugly and quick"

Focus
Had room for only one in the schedule, so they chose "polish".

For milestones, they put harsh internal deadlines that were independent of the publisher milestones.

They made tough cuts (from 75 to 50 levels) prioritized, and (if necessary) re-prioritized.

Experience
Folks on the team were experienced, and people responded to that experience, check egos, and be open to criticism.

"One Level"
(Basically the vertical slice)

What went wrong
[I'll update this soon.]

Labels: AGDC, AGDC09, events, indie development, innovation

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

AGDC: The Blurst of Times: How to Make a (Shader-Heavy, Physics-Based, 3D) Game in 8-Weeks

Heading back to the indie summit, I attended the very polished (and perhaps most important) session so far, "The Blurst of Times: How to Make a (Shader-Heavy, Physics-Based, 3D) Game in 8-Weeks":

"Matthew Wegner and Steve Swink of Blurst.com (Flashbang Studios) discuss how it is possible to create games like MINOTAUR CHINA SHOP and OFF-ROAD VELOCIRAPTOR SAFARI in an 8-week production cycle. You'll be surprised to learn that each Blurst game includes a two-week prototyping phase, multiple publicly playable beta versions, rigorous user testing, and detailed stat tracking and analysis. Perhaps more surprising is the fact that each game is produced with the team working 10am-3pm, Monday through Thursday. It's AAA game development in microcosm; each game is an experiment, both in production and design. Come reap the intellectual benefits of the results of Blurst.com's rapid fire approach."

The company is 6 people, and they, for example, spent 4 months on one of their bigger games, Jetpack Brontosaurus.

But this 8-week production cycle as the norm (goal?) is impressive, and is broken into 2-week prototyping, 5-week production, 1-week launch segments. That's a wicked little amount of time, and the company has to be laser-focused to make it.

Granted, you can arguably do quite a bit with a 6-person company, but there are principles that apply regardless of company size. (Think "The Four-Hour Work Week" or "The Cluetrain Manifesto".)

Flashbang Studios really seen to have a holistic attitude toward the company and employee quality of life (cross-fit memberships, etc.), a ridiculous amount of fun and respect, and (outside-in) seems to be the kind of company to which all companies should aspire. That may just be due to Wegner and Swink, but as a company's leadership goes, so goes the company.

Blurst puts a lot of emphasis on higher-level working efficiency, high-intensity work blocks.

They implemented 10:05-3:30, Monday-Thursday work days for 8-weeks, which created intense focus and productivity (Fridays are Google-style personal development days).

Along with this they recommend 48-minute time-boxing (not unique to them, but their discipline with them might be), Growl as a communication tool, real-time source control commits and notifications, company-wide stand-up meetings (with goals captured individually via custom Google widget and shared publicly, including how you do against them), pivotaltracker (which is rigidly Agile-based, but worked for them), an open office layout where everyone could talk to each other and collaborate instantly, etc. (they don't use bug reporting software, which is unique).

I had to leave the session early, which bums me out, so I hope to catch up with the guys at the show later.

(Blergh. This post doesn't capture the awesome of the session. Need to think how to do that.)

Labels: AGDC, AGDC09, Business Development, events, indie development, innovation

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

AGDC: Effective Marketing For Indie Game Developers

The final indie summit session I attended was "AGDC: Effective Marketing For Indie Game Developers":

"How do you use your own website, social networking channels (from Twitter
through IRC and beyond), independent editorial content, and even pre-release
versions of your tools to build a robust community around your game before it
even ships? Wolfire's COO, John Graham,
explains in depth how his company has been building momentum around PC indie
title Overgrowth, what has worked, and what hasn't."

This was a decent little session, though it's probably better couched as case study of a small (4-person?) indie studio figuring out what worked and what didn't, and how they used what works.

It was interesting, not least of which because it's an be an advocacy for a formal PR function within an indie environment.

Graham's a sharp guy, and it's impressive to see what the team has done to build buzz and put out useful content for their community. I'd really like to understand the details and timeline of their core business, technology, and game, to have context on how the PR maps to the reality of the project.

Someone needs to do an in-depth case study on there guys (they'd totally do it).

Labels: AGDC, AGDC09, events, indie development, innovation

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

AGDC: How To Operate Your Indie Game Business - For Fun And Profit!

Finally breaking free from the toy job shenanigans (don't get me wrong, I'm grateful), I gave the independent games summit again - glad I did.

The session was "How To Operate Your Indie Game Business - For Fun And Profit!":

"One of the most stable indies out there, Ninjabee has made a large number of very diverse games for digital download. They?ve released games from CLONING CLYDE to A KINGDOM FOR KEFLINGS. These games were developed for XLA, WiiWare, PC, and iPhone. The down-to-earth Fox, talks about how NinjaBee can maintain the creative indie edge and still stay in business. He discusses how they handle contracting vs. self-funded games and compares development and success on various platforms. Hear tips and tricks on pitching your games to publishers or getting them approved from gatekeepers like Microsoft for XLA and much more on practical matters of interest to every indie game developer."

Brent Fox, from NinjaBee / Wahoo Studios, was a wealth of knowledge.

Starting out in weird way -- talking about the employees, all of their young kids, their need for insurance -- had a purpose. There is a higher need (speaking from experience, sometimes desperation) to provide for families that forces a company to run itself like a business and drive to profitability faster than what indie studios of a bunch of single folks might do. The game industry has been slowly moving this direction as the workforce matures, any way. Slowly.

(Blergh. The rest of this post has been deleted. I'll try to find it or reconstruct it from my notes.)

Labels: AGDC, AGDC09, events, indie development, innovation

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Target has your indie games / Tees

Indie games in the mainstream!

I'm wicked impressed, and want to file this under "little guys with great marketing concept make good".

2D Boy -- "a brave new indie game studio based in San Francisco, making games the old fashioned way - a team of two, no money, and a whole lot of 'love'" -- has struck a deal with retailers (Target stores being possibly first out of the gate).

You can buy independent game game T-shirts, which come with a demo or full version of the game, for like $12.

A bunch of the titles are a la the Experimental Gameplay Project (clothing company egp apparel looks to be an offshoot of the effort), and this is a slick way to get indie cred mainstream recognition (the tags talk quite a bit about the games and creators).

More info at the 2D Boy Website, and (interestingly) waaay more info at Kevin Allen's blog.

Labels: indie development, innovation, licensing, media intersection, shopping deals

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

More gaming Web 2.0 ...

Folks have been hitting me up over the whole "Web 2.0 / video game intersection" mini-post I did.

(Oh, and I'm not the 'techno-geek screaming, "F***ing get with the times, game industry!"' He probably wouldn't appreciate me giving out his contact info; he actually works in the games industry.)

Anyway, some folks wanted some more concrete examples of Web 2.0 and video game intersection.

First, a review:

Web 2.0, to oversimplify, is that intersection of getting desktop-application-quality ("rich") functionality from your browser, and user-generated content that draws people in droves.
And since I used a Halo example last, I'll use another one.

First, as an additional caveat, consoles have a ways to go to catch up to PC gaming in user-generated content. So to get to this Web 2.0 intersection about which I'm talking, they need to leapfrog the stuff they're currently not doing that well, and get with the Web 2.0 times. Recent changes from Microsoft with regards to (for example) allowing Xbox Live user-generated content means this may actually happen sooner than later. If someone capitalizes on it.

Back to the example.

At its simplest, think about being able to create player customizations, user skins, game types, and map changes, and share them -- from your browser -- with your Xbox Live friends list.

(Here's where I tick off game devs again.)

This is easy.

(What? It is. You know how stuff like this gets done? A development manager says, "We need to do X." And, hopefully he's got a management style that's built a dev team that want to work to make that happen for him, rather than being made up diva devs that will spend the week explaining why it can't happen. Because, conceptually, everything's doable. We get to shop online with credit cards, for crying out loud. You're welcome, by the way.)

So, think about how Halo 3 is going to support multiple player models and more variation in armor customization than the previous 2 Halo games.

There are a definable set of fields for customization. That's begging for a data-driven web page that takes your little radio and checkbox selections for armor types, colors (probably via a slick picker widget), symbols, and so on, and sticks them in your table in the user database. Then, Bungie gives me the field names and technical specs for each (type, length, key, allowable values, binding, etc.) and the output configuration file (or segment of a file it belongs to a larger config file), and I can convert that to a Halo 3-consumable input.

And it's not just colors and armor types. I should be able to upload symbols and skins (in pre-defined templates), and those should likewise be able to be batch converted to consumable input (Hey, it worked for Rune 8 years ago; they just didn't have the batch process).

Game types are even "easier" -- given the process for customization of game types is already defined for Halo 3, the high-level context and user flow has already been defined -- it's just about adapting it to the Web medium (and the creation of the additional conversion conduit).

And if you're concerned about being invaded with obscene or otherwise undesirable symbols, skins, and the like (and you should be), this whole functionality can be constrained to your friends list -- just like the personal gamer pictures or the Xbox LIVE Vision camera's output. Mostly.

But think about it. Think about a friend of yours creating an amazing Star Wars Stormtrooper skin, and 16 of you showing up in a Big Team Battle variant. Halo has red and blue armor (and for that we're grateful). Halo 3 has more colors, and multi-team battle. Halo 3 would rock with uniform-motiff team armor. Stormtroopers (but not clone troopers). Cobra troopers. Hydra or A.I.M. troopers. My Little Ponies (What? Girls gotta represent!).

Have you seen the Forza 2 paint community? Think of that applied to Spartan models (or the Puma, but that's probably asking too much).

Anyway, yet another example of Web 2.0 servicing our gaming. And to be honest, these are pretty tame examples. I have bigger stuff about which I'm thinking ...

UPDATED: Again, if you're a professional in the industry and in Austin for the Austin Game Developers Conference, there may be some off-schedule discussions of Web 2.0 and video game intersection. Let me know if you're interested in that, and I'll try to connect you with like-minded folks.

Labels: Halo, indie development, media intersection, Xbox 360

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

ArtSpark game showcase (Wed.)

Three new indie games are going to be shown off Wednesday night in Austin (Texas; not Indiana, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, or Canada).

Part of the ArtSpark Festival series of showcases running August 2 through 12, and including theatre, visual art, and video games.

I plan on being there tomorrow night; if I can get past being nasty sick (but at least I'm not contagious anymore).

Here's the skinny for Wednesday night from the Website, which you should check out for all of the week's offerings.

Three new video games will be unveiled on Wednesday, August 8th at ACC’s Highland Business Center, located at 5930 Middle Fiskville Road. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet the developers, learn about their visions, and play the games. The reception at 6pm and presentations will begin at 7pm.

Admission is free and open to the public.

Lusorium' s The Palimpsest
The first thing Doctor Faktor remembers is looking up through the leaves of a twisted tree to see the sun reflecting off of a card. As he reaches up to grab the card, a sense of panic rushes through the doctor but he doesn't know why. Doctor Faktor studies the tarot card he has picked up and moves toward the only house in sight in hopes of regaining his memories. In The Palimpsest you are thrust into the role of Doctor Faktor where you explore the house, use the scattered tarot cards to solve puzzles and connect the clues to find the secret to the Doctor's past.

Super Awesome Team's David's Folie
David Fortisante was always an outcast. Whether he was mutilating bugs as a child or sketching images of violence involving his classmates, people would tend to keep their distance. David didn't care. He had the voices. He had his own friends. Ever since he's been at St. Mary's though, there have been less voices. Maybe the medications are working... or maybe they've been chased away by his new friend named Fellow. Let the other kids laugh at his imaginary friend. David's got a plan to sort them out, even if it isn't his own

D.O.D.'s Circadia
A persistent virtual world and point-and-click adventure game inspired by the art, memories, and soul of Jose Miguel Alvarado -- set in a dystopian future and that future's parallel dream world. Users will log on to our virtual world, inhabit an avatar of their very own choosing or design, explore a variety of locations, collaborate artistically with other users, and go on an adventure to Save The World if they like. There will be something for everyone in this virtual universe. Minigames for the action and puzzle lovers, adventures for the story-junkies, epic battles for the Role-Playing-Dork-Heads, driving, flying, boating, hunting, gambling, hitchhiking, Et Cetera Ad Nauseum. Sweet dreams!!

Labels: events, indie development

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.