:MeetPi

The following are notes I made during one of the sessions at Game Connect Asia Pacific 2008.

MS game development for PC Xbox and Zune development. Can develop with only a PC. You use XNA GS 3.0. XNA is a framework for building games. Visual Studio (also free version) used, code in C#.  You can make games using free versions of all the required software downloadable from MS.

http://www.xnagamefest.com

We’re getting a live demo of building games in Visual Studio. They have templates that let you just build a game.  Select template, compile -> game works.  Good way to learn how to make games because you can hack the template games.  All assets are included, too.

The basic kit is free but you can only build games for Windows. You can buy premium membership and develop for XBox360. You can easily transfer builds from your computer to your XBox over a network cable.  Students can get free Xbox-capable kits to test, but can’t publish. Can’t publish from Australia yet either. MS needs to chat with the Classification Board, but are expecting Australia to come online by the end of the year.

Lots of education materials on http://creators.xna.com.

Developers of live community games get a 70/30 split in profits in the developer’s favor.

To submit a game to live community you need premium membership.  Not sure how much this costs. When you submit a game you need to self-rate using a form as part of the upload process. You then add a bunch of other data and upload the binary. This can be 150 megs max. You also select a microsoft points price (MS points are like credit on XBox, you can purchase points with a credit card or a store card like an iTunes card).

This raises all kinds of issues about user created content. What about copyright materials in the game – especially if they contain music and graphics? Microsoft says they bear no responsibility – you’re on your own if you upload illegal or prohibited content.  A lot of people don’t understand copyright in my experience – I’m expecting this to be a learning experience for many.

When you submit it has to go through a peer review process. This process is about content and legal issues, not about the value if the game. There’s a list of prohibited content and it’s meant to be worldwide, so things in the prohibited list reflect the most stringent standards of the most restricted participating country.  Part of this process is identifying copyright materials as well as illegal materials.  MS will inform authorities is you try to upload highly illegal stuff.

Games need to be reviewed by eight people. This is currently taking around 10 hours to complete. Games are then quarantined for 48 hours before becoming available to the world.  You can release timed trials too, so people can play your game for a short time for free.

Microsoft won’t own IP. You are free to republish your games in other formats.

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Jay Wilbur – Epic. Jay used to be with id software. Jay is speaking about looking at Unreal Engine 3 as middleware.

Showed a demo of Nurien’s Mstar from Korea as an example of an Unreal based game that does not look like a typical Unreal engine game. Game is part of the whole Korean online community thing which is huge.

Jay is really selling the engine, making the point that it does not really make sense to build engine tech from bottom up each time. Game devs can license middleware for use in multiple titles, build libraries of content and realise efficiencies.

Content is the most expensive part of any next generation game. Jay says that this makes it even more vital that companies expend less energy on the engine tech. He says that with licensed tech, content development can start immediately.

Middleware is ‘battle tested’ which makes it more robust, more optimised and more useable because it is well supported by tools.

Middleware is not just the engine. Components can be used in isolation to the engine. For example, physics engines, audio engine.

Jay is now discouraging people from modifying the game engine. He says if you use it out of the box, it’s cheaper , simpler, less risky. Something called ’support outlets’ which allow developers to share fixes and features. A kind of closed open source thing. In fact, they use an internal mailing list system for support – when a licensee sends an email in to support, all Unreal team people get it. Someone who knows then answers it. Clever. Avoids horrible helpdesk syndrome without exposing tech staff to hammering.

Using the Unreal tools for developing content are recommended – discouraged from using other software. Assets may be created elsewhere, but should be brought into tools early so the tools can produce final assets that are optimized for the engine. In fact, they say to optimize content before code. Overly complex content is major source of performance issues.

Rowan Wyborn from 2K Australia now talking about their experience with Unreal on Tribes:Vengeance, Swat4, Bioshock and a currently unannounced title.

Team is split into core tech (5) and game code (10) teams.

Fast to get games up and running, supports multiplayer and multiplayform out of the box.

On Bioshock 2K did a lot of custom feature creation. This made it difficult to merge their codebase with updates from Unreal. Rowan says this was a mistake and led to a lot of additional work. Now they keep their codebase in sync and use OO techniques and #defines. Makes life complex for coders, but allows them to keep in sync with Unreal codebase.

The interesting thing is that this does not mean you don’t need a solid technology team. What is gained seems to be the ability to maintain traditional sized tech teams on next ten platforms.

Back to Jay.

Unreal Engine being used in movies – a multitrack cinematic linear editor built in. Lazy Town uses unreal for Cg. A number if others are starting to make linear stuff using Unreal. Even Dreamworks have looked at UE for previz.

Again, the whole convergence thing.

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The following are notes I made during the keynote address for Game Connect Asia Pacific 2008 confernce in Brisbane, Australia.

Tom Crago opens and says we’re happy to be back in QLD. Epic and MS support – thanks to them & QLD government.  Big year for Aus games. GDAA key stategic priorities for 2009:

• Promote Australia overseas
• Gcap bigger and better 2009
• Bring publishers from os
• Awards show to raise profile
• International trade shows
• Lobbying government esp r18+
• Skills – better collaboration with education

Jan Jarrett, parliamentary secretary for industry portfolio here in QLD opens confrerence officially.  Qld govt proud to support games. Jarrett says the QLD government’s 2003 package saw the creation of 300 new jobs in 5 years.

Industry stats. Export dollars. QLD leading the industry – Krome a major player. (personal note: QLD has a number of big stars, especially Krome, but fewer companies than VIC.)

Skills formation – convergence is coming back into the discourse. Increasingly seeing a developing relationship between games and film – not just in spin-offs and movie properties, but also in the ways that film makers are getting interested in games, and even crossovers in tech (edit: this is a theme picked up by Zareh Nalbandian in his keynote below, and on Friday Jay Wilbur talks about the same thin in relation to use of the Epic game engine in film/tv production).

Keynote address: Zareh Nalbandian – Animal Logic – he’s using a Mac, but not a great ad as he can’t get the slideshow to work. Looks like it’s that pesky fn-F7 thing.  Not entirely the machine’s fault…

Says he feels like an outsider. TV and film – it’s about entertainment; lots of similarity. Differences and sameness. Passive vs active audience. He’s recognising difference. Not overemphasizing the similarities between games and film, but suggesting there are connections.  Interestingly mentions gamers a few times as if they’re ’something else’ – like there is a subculture of gamers, but he’s mixing this with general ideas about games; I think he (and indeed a lot of people in industry) need to shrug this off… 

Wants to stop the brain drain.

Tricky business to run. Needs to innovate, chase challenges. Happy Feet a big risk, many thought it would see the end of AL, but rewards good.

Animal logic interactive – investing heavily. Shovelling money. Risk money missing in Australia. Conservative investment. Looking to realise ip through multiple forms – tv film and other forms.

Game industry discriminated against in relation to film and tv. Applause from audience; 40% budget subsidy for film 20% for tv. Says AL is going to be working with GDAA and helping them lobby government. (This is great, but AL may have a very large voice, don’t want their interests trumpeted to the exclusion of the rest of the industry).

Addresses criticism of ALI being set up offshore. Just because ALI is offshore does not mean development will be done there.  Interesting – Zareh quite obviously taken aback by criticism in the press.  Also, committed to Australian development.

Wants to open a dialogue (with game industry).

Narrative is key. Crossovers and convergence. Alex Proyas and Zack Snyder (Watchmen) moving into games.

Great comcast ad, rocket powered hare panther hybrid. Showed concept then final to demonstrate value of concept. Be great to get a copy to show students.

Asks people from audience for advice. Narrative seems to be a sticking point. Zareh generally feels games -> movies suck. Trent Custers from Torus has some great ideas, good comments.

ALI Parallel game/film development.

Says we need to think about franchises and the long tail.

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