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April 30, 2003
April 2003 Meeting Report
The April meeting went pretty well. With 25 people attending, it was a little bit smaller than the previous meetings, but it was still a lot of fun. As we finished setting up for the evening's presentations, the rest of the group watched The Animatrix on the video projector.
GDC Overview
Once we were ready to go, Brian opened the meeting by talking about the 2003 Game Developers
Conference. He started off with a brief overview of the conference and showed a few pictures.
He mentioned some of the things that go on there every year, such as the Game Developers Choice
awards. He took a few minutes to quickly run through all of the winning games, teams, and
individuals. He also talked a little bit about the Independent Games Festival, and gave some
well-deserved recognition to the chapter members from Michigan State who made up 2 of the 10
finalist in the IGF student showcase. After finishing up the overview of the conference, Brian
then introduced the panel members who wanted to share a little bit of their experiences at GDC.
Jay Semerad, Audio Track
Jay started off by talking about some of what he learned at the audio seminars he attended. He
mentioned that one of the popular trends in game audio was the use of full orchestras or to use
soundtracks comprised of popular music from well-known artists. While this often results in better,
more engaging audio in games, one of the downsides was that this is becoming detrimental to the
smaller, independent audio shops.
Next, he talked a little bit about environmental audio and dynamic sound tracks, where the music in the games adjusts dynamically to what is going on. He mentioned that when done right, it results in an incredible experience, but the real difficult part is figuring out the right way to do it. He also indicated that in order to implement this properly, it requires a large resource commitment (time, money, and personnel). Unfortunately, this is something that many studios don't consider worthy of such a large commitment.
Chris Bray, Graphics Track
Chris talked a bit about how GDC is a great opportunity to make business contacts and to look for
jobs and internships. He mentioned that he talked to a few companies about possible summer
internships doing graphics work. He also found a few leads on some publishers possibly interested
in publishing his IGF Game Breakin' Battle.
Chris mentioned the growth of interest in mobile gaming (cell phone/PDA) at the GDC this year. He also talked a bit about some of the graphics companies in attendance, and how ATI was there in force and in high spirits.
Casey Meekhof, Programming Track
The most worked IGF booth this year had to be the Breakin' Battle booth. Casey mentioned how much
work it is to run the booth all day, showing off his IGF game again and again. However, he said it
was well worth it to see someone passing by with little particular interest, drag them over to
the booth, and then to see them break a smile once they see how cool and fun the game is.
In between showing off his game, Casey got a chance to take in some of GDC for himself. He said he got a chance to attend the Programming Tricks Roundtable. However, he was a bit disappointed that the discussion went off topic and focused mainly on project resource management and some of the difficulties in getting artists to keep game resources up to date and in synch.
Finally, he talked about what was perhaps his favorite attraction at GDC: the demo booth for the game Amplitude (the successor to Frequency). While the game is virtually impossible to explain in words, it focuses around laying down music tracks in a fun and challenging way, and made for a very unique game.
Ryan Ligon, Business Tutorial
Ryan gave the first of two impromptu talks. As our discussion turned more to business topics, he
mentioned that he attended some business tutorials. So, he talked about a tutorial he attended on
how to run a business. Some of the points brought up might seem like common sense, but are all too
often ignored in this industry. Things such as planning ahead, establishing a reasonable schedule
that won't require people to work overtime and weekends, and just simply keeping employees happy.
Patrick Kenny, AI/Programming
Patrick was up next to give the second of our two impromptu talks about GDC. He mentioned that
attendance at GDC seemed a bit down this year. His reason for attending was mainly to catch up
on some AI industry connections. He discussed the dichotomy between industry and academic presentations
at GDC, and how he felt there was a lack of good papers to back up the sessions this year.
Brian Winn, Game Design/Academic Summit
Brian Winn wrapped up the GDC panels with a talk about his experiences at GDC. He mentioned
that in order to get the most out of GDC, you really have to have a reason why you are attending,
and have some questions you want answered. He talked a bit about the Academic Summit, and how there
were some refreshing changes this year compared to last. There were focused roundtable discussions
on academics. There was also a much larger attendance (approx. 200 academic and industry people). In
the future, if the academic portion of GDC continues to grow, it could possibly be expanded into
its own track or expand out to SIGGRAPH.
Finally, Brian talked about some of the game design track discussions. He mentioned there were panels that focused on designing games for women, and what a large role women play in the industry. One of the interesting points is that women often aren't being targeted properly by publishers. They aren't looking for cute games about fuzzy animals and sold in pink boxes. Many of them are looking for well designed games that offer challenge and intriguing gameplay, without gratuitous violence and sexual themes. He also mentioned that game design as a discipline in general is becoming more mature.
You can download a copy of the Powerpoint presentation here.
"Made In Michigan" Game Previews
After finishing the GDC panel discussions, we moved on to second half of the meeting and took
a look at some of the games in development by members of the Michigan IGDA Chapter.
Miko & Molly by Kronos Software
Ron Frazier from Kronos Software gave the first demonstration. Miko & Molly is a game that was
released in August 2002, and is currently in a redesign phase to improve some of the user interface
and gameplay. Miko & Molly is a fun 3D puzzle game that challenges you to find clever solutions for
each level. In each level you guide Miko and/or Molly to grab powerups, manipulate obstacles, and
work their way to recover their prize-winning flowers and return them to their garden. For more
information on Miko & Molly, go to the Kronos Software web site:
http://www.kronos-software.com
Vantage by Crystal Dragon
Next up, Chris Allar from Crystal Dragon demonstrated the world editor for their in-development
massively-multiplayer game Vantage. VantEdit is an impressive tool with tremendous flexibility. It
allows rapid creation of expansive, seamless worlds in tremendous detail. It can generate a complete
world with tectonic plates, which it can then age millions of years. It simulates shifting of the
plates to generate mountain and canyons. It simulates erosion of jagged mountains into smooth,
rolling foothills. It includes, many other details, such as global climates and wildlife. All together,
it was an impressive display of technical ability. For more information on Vantage and the VantEdit
tools, go to the Crystal Dragon web site:
http://www.crystaldragon.com
Mythri by Team Xkalibur
Chris Boyer from Variant Interactive demonstrated an early alpha version of Mythri, a game that they
will eventually be publishing for Team Xkalibur. Mythri is a role-playing adventure for the Game Boy
Advance and features cinematic story telling. For more information on Mythri, go to the
Variant Interactive web site:
http://www.variantinteractive.com
Davy Jones's Local by Whirling Chair Games
Our last presentation featured Paul Kerchen of Whirling Chair Games demonstrating their in development
game titled Davy Jones's Local. The game features a unique take on pirate games, by placing an emphasis
on clever thinking and non-violent strategy and problems solving. Gather treasures, visit towns, trade
cargo, recruit shipmates and keep them happy while grabbing all the fame and fortune you can. Davy
Jones's Local put a kinder, friendlier face on piracy on the high seas. For more information on
Davy Jones's Local, go to the Whirling Chair Games web site:
http://www.whirlingchair.com
Once again, we
hope everyone had a fun time at this meeting. Hopefully everyone enjoyed the demos, and hopefully
we'll be able to have more of these demos at future meetings. Stop by the forum
and
dicuss our first meeting. We hope to see you at our next meeting, which is tentatively
scheduled for the second Sunday in June in the Ann Arbor area. We'll send out an email as soon
as arrangements are finalized.
The chapter coordinators:
Rich Elswick
Ron Frazier
Brian Winn
Posted by BrianWinn at April 30, 2003 05:17 PM