Crisis in Creativity?

Will the next generation of hardware stifle creativity in the game industry? Is it possible to get original concepts onto the next gen hardware and if so how? These were just some of the questions asked and answered at the London Chapter meeting that took place on Wednesday 29th June.

The first of our two speakers was Tameem Antoniades, Chief Design Ninja at Cambridge based developer, Ninja Theory. Ninja Theory have just signed a publishing deal with SCEE for their next gen title "Heavenly Sword" and Tameem gave a highly entertaining and very interesting blow by blow account of their pre-production process leading from first concept to getting the coveted publishing deal.

Tameem showed the companies initial "vision video" that was used to inspire the team and also an early promotional video for a humorous next gen Kung Fu game, which none of the publishers wanted. He then described the process the company used to transition from that first failed pitch to the fully developed and far more serious concept that is "Heavenly Sword".

He wrapped up the presentation by treating the audience to a sneak peek at the very impressive work in progress on the title before answering questions from the very appreciative audience.

Next up was the ever-popular Ernest Adams - Author, Game Design Consultant and founding father of the IGDA. Not a single video clip on display during Ernest’s talk but the audience was still equally captivated by his speech entitled "Innovation: Games that changed the industry."

Titles such as Dune II, the Madden football franchise and Microsoft's Flight Simulator and their effect on the industry were discussed before Ernest focused on a few successful titles that didn't change the industry. Despite the fact the Ernest claims this talk is "of no practical value" it certainly seemed to inspire the audience.

Ernest wrapped up his presentation with an excellent Q&A session before the audience, drinks in hand, set about mingling and discussing the issues raised.

Those of you who want to absorb more of Ernest's design wisdom should checkout his forthcoming day-long game design workshop at GDCe. It's called "Fundamental Principles of Game Design", and it's aimed at designers who want a refresher, non-designer professionals who want to start doing design, and students.

You can read about it on his website at: www.designersnotebook.com/Workshop as well as on the GDC-E website at:
http://www.cmpevents.com/GDCeu05/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=755

The opinions expressed by the speakers do not necessarily represent the opinions of their respective companies.
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