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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 05:17 PM | Comments (0)