More Talking

by Jason Della Rocca (October 2004)

Ever the popular format, this was the chapter's third members-only roundtable style discussion night. 80+ developers and industry professionals showed up to discuss and debate on various game development related topics (see summaries below). Unlike the chapter's usual beer infused social/presentation nights, the evening was somewhat more serious as developers were locked in debate for about an hour and a half.

After the roundtable sessions, everyone hung around for snacks/coffee and continued discussion. And, we raffled off a few game development books along with t-shirts from the recent trips to Germany and Ireland.

Roundtable Summaries

Managing Change

by Alexandre Parizeau, Producer, A2M

This was a big, broad topic to cover. A lot of "blame" was put on publishers, who make requests to change a game without fully understanding the implications to the budget, schedule and quality of the project. Emphasis was placed on design (ie, player experience) being the central area that demands many changes until a game is fun - with such design changes often having massive trickle-down effect on other aspects of the project (eg, art assets, technology, etc). The need to prototype and work out the kinks of the gameplay before heading into full production was viewed as one way to help alleviate the need for many changes later in the schedule. Most developers in the room only wished that budgets/schedules allowed for such pre-production and prototyping as espoused by the Cerny Method. Ensemble was noted as a studio that spends a tremendous amount of time on testing the fundamental gameplay/design aspects before building the rest of the game...

Another, perhaps more controversial, area that was discussed was the fact that most producers and project managers in the game industry have no real management background or education. Could more problems related to managing change be solved by those with a formal background in management?

A complete report of the discussion (pdf - 50kb) was compiled by Nicole Dolensky.

Designing Beyond the Hardcore

by Heather Kelley, Designer, Ubisoft

...report coming...

Shooting for Cinematic Audio

by Noémie Dupuy, Audio Producer, Wave Generation

It did not take long for those of us to dive right into the thick of things. We agreed that video game development stands to benefit from the industry's convergence with Hollywood as top publishers and developers look more and more toward contributions from A-list composers and actors to highten the gaming experience. We also discussed the power of audio as a potential marketing tool and as a basis for the creation of derivative products with possibilities for lucrative revenues for the publishers. As we drew comparisons between the game development industry and Hollywood films, it became clear that Hollywood still holds the edge in terms of audio quality. This having been said, we acknowledged the fact that audio for games has unlimited potential but requires a special approach that includes developing audio tools specific to game development, involving the audio team as early in the production process as possible, and setting aside appropriate budgets for the audio production of each project.

As the discussions wound down, we focused on the game audio industry in Quebec and Canada. We talked about the need to increase our visibility in the game development community here and abroad. We agreed that we should take our cue from the mobilization of US composers and their formation of the Game Audio Network Guild. They have achieved great results and continue to push for recognition at key award ceremonies including the Grammy and BAFTA awards.

Coding Realistic Physics

by Dany Lepage, Lead Programmer, Ubisoft

After a short speech explaining the reasons why the inclusion of the Havok physics SDK in Splinter Cell - Chaos Theory didn't end up being a success, the participants redirected the discussion toward the creation of a dynamic environment, and positioning physics as just one of the elements or consequences of a dynamic environment. They also mentioned that while physics was viewed by some as a source of infinite gameplay possibilities, the reality is very different considering that physics alone, if you haven't solve the other components of a dynamic environment, will create more problems than it will solve. The participants also agreed that it makes currently little sense to try to compete with Havok or other physics SDK suppliers as the investment to achieve something equivalent or superior will be significant and will distract from the final goal, making a game. The road toward a dynamic environment will be a long one and the hardest problem to solve will involve creating a new way to animate characters considering that key framing alone won't be flexible enough to handle every or even most situations.

Exploring Alternate Business Models
Moving Away from Visual Realism

Sadly, these two roundtable were cancelled due to lack of interest... I'm not surprised about the visual arts session as the chapter has not had much success at attracting artists in the past. But, I am disappointed that all those people looking for new ways of doing business didn't show up.

October Gathering Pictorial

...here are just a few shots I took during the October gathering (all persons are identified from left to right):

Despite the lively debate Patrick Minotti (Jamdat) couldn't stay away ;-)

It was encouraging to see ~30 designers all discussing ways to make games more appealing/accessible to players beyond hardcore gamers!

Mathieu Lamarche (Ubisoft) hooks up with Ann DeMarle (Champlain College) who was up visiting from Vermont, once again!

After a grueling production process, Simon Desjardins and Alexandre Parizeau are happy that A2M's Scaler is out the door...

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