Game.Developer.2010.05.pdf
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Game Developer - May 2010
BONUS !
ORIGINAL MONKEY ISL AND DESIGN RETROSPECT I VE
vol17no5
may2010
t h e l e a d i n g g a m e i n d u s t r y m a g a z i n e
coNTENTS.0510
VoLUmE 17 NUmBER 5
PoSTmoRTEm
dEPaRTmENTS
20
TELLTALEGAMES'
T
ales
of
M
onkey
I
sland
As a studio founded by LucasArts veterans, episodic gaming pioneer
Telltale Games went back to its roots with T
ales
of
M
onkey
i
sland
.
Telling a story over five chapters allowed the team to fill out the
game's narrative but presented unique challenges to the art and
production pipeline.
By Emily Morganti
2
GAMEPLAN
By Brandon Sheffield
[ E D I TO R I A L ]
Adapt To Survive
[ N E w S ]
The chipsounds soft synth, the 8th annual
Scene.org A
wards, and
Ralph Baer joins the Inventors Hall of Fame.
31
TOOLBOX
By Jeffrey Fleming
[ R E V I E w ]
FEaTURES
Game Developers Conference 2010 show floor report.
7
TALESFROMTHECRUNCH
The Horror! Crunch time is a fact of life in the game industry;
everybody hates it but no one seems to know how to avoid it. Here
we gather round the campfire to share some hilarious and horrifying
crunch tales to chill your bones.
By Brandon Sheffield
[ P R O GR A MM I NG ]
Plane-Based Depth Bias For Percentage Closer Filtering
40
DESIGNER'SNOTEBOOk
By Jordan Mechner
[ D E S I GN ]
P
rince
of
P
ersia
: May 3, 1987
41
PIXELPUSHER
By Steve Theodore
[ A R T ]
13
TRUEPHYSICS
One of the vital components of a physics engine is the code that
integrates Newton's laws of motion. There are several techniques
that employ approximations of calculus in order to numerically solve
this problem. In this article Eric Brown proposes a scheme which can
solve this problem without approximation.
By Eric Brown
Blind Alleys
44
DESIGNOFTHETIMES
By Damion Schubert
[ D E S I GN ]
Win Expectancy
47
AURALFIXATION
By Jesse Harlin
[ S O U N D ]
The Global Asset List
27
ANISLANDOFDETAILS
Twenty years after its release T
he
s
ecreT
of
M
onkey
i
sland
continues
to charm players. Here M
onkey
i
sland
creator Ron Gilbert walks you
through some of the design decisions behind its classic gameplay.
By Ron Gilbert
48
GOODjOB!
[ C A R E E R ]
Akira Yamaoka interview and new studios.
52
EDUCATEDPLAY
[ E D U C A T I ON ]
Joshua Nuernberger’s B
oryokudan
r
ue
56
ARRESTEDDEVELOPMENT
By Matthew Wasteland
[ H UMO R ]
Phone Tag With The Art Contractor From Hell
COVERART:STEVEPURCELL
www.gdmag.com
1
4
HEADSUPDISPLAY
35
THEINNERPRODUCT
By David Tuft
GAME PLAN
//
BRANDON SHEFFIELD
www.gdmag.com
Think Services, 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl.,
San Francisco, CA 94107
t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090
ADAPT TO SURVIVE
GAMES ADAPTED FROM OTHER MEDIA TEND TO BE SUB-PAR.
THEY DON'T HAVE TO BE.
SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES
FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND
ADDRESS CHANGES
t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606
e
:
gamedeveloper@halldata.com
EDITORIAL
PUBLISHER
Simon Carless l
scarless@gdmag.com
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Brandon Sheffield
l
bsheffield@gdmag.com
PRODUCTION EDITOR
Jeffrey Fleming l
jfleming@gdmag.com
ART DIRECTOR
Joseph Mitch l
jmitch@gdmag.com
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Jesse Harlin
Steve Theodore
Daniel Nelson
Soren Johnson
Damion Schubert
ADVISORY BOARD
Hal Barwood Designer-at-Large
Mick West Independent
Brad Bulkley Neversoft
Clinton Keith Independent
Bijan Forutanpour Sony Online Entertainment
Mark DeLoura Independent
Carey Chico Pandemic Studios
ADVERTISING SALES
GLOBAL SALES DIRECTOR
Aaron Murawski e:
amurawski@think-services.com
t: 415.947.6227
MEDIA ACCOUNT MANAGER
John Malik Watson e
:
jmwatson@think-services.com
t: 415.947.6224
GLOBAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, RECRUITMENT
Gina Gross e
:
ggross@think-services.com
t: 415.947.6241
GLOBAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, EDUCATION
Rafael Vallin e
:
rvallin@think-services.com
t: 415.947.6223
ADVERTISING PRODUCTION
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Pete C. Scibilia e
:
peter.scibilia@ubm.com
t: 516-562-5134
REPRINTS
WRIGHT'S REPRINTS
Ryan Pratt e:
rpratt@wrightsreprints.com
t: 877.652.5295
THINK SERVICES
CEO UBM THINK SERVICES
Philip Chapnick
GROUP DIRECTOR
Kathy Schoback
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Cliff Scorso
CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER
Anthony Adams
AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT
TYSON ASSOCIATES
Elaine Tyson
e
:
tysonassoc@aol.com
LIST RENTAL
Merit Direct LLC t: 914.368.1000
MARKETING
MARKETING SPECIALIST
Mellisa Andrade
e
:
mandrade@think-services.com
UBM TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
David Levin
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
Scott Mozarsky
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
David Wein
CORPORATE SENIOR VP SALES
Anne Marie Miller
SENIOR VP, STRATEGIC DEV. AND BUSINESS ADMIN.
Pat Nohilly
SENIOR VP, MANUFACTURING
Marie Myers
SOME TIME AGO I HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO INTERVIEW FAMED MOVIE PRODUCER
JERRY BRUCKHEIMER
(
Beverly Hills Cop
,
Pirates of the Caribbean
,
CSI
) regarding the production of the
Prince of Persia
movie. The movie
was put together in typical Bruckheimer style, with the aim more toward blockbuster spectacle and anonymous
style than showing an auteur's touch in the direction or editing. He mentioned that he goes through several
writers to get every aspect of the screenplay correct, and has each task on the production clearly delineated. It
seems as though nothing is simply controlled by one person.
DEVELOPERS ANONYMOUS
»
The way Bruckheimer organizes his film productions is similar to what most game studios do nowadays, with
each area of production receiving a lot of iteration, input, and polish. You could hardly point to the art style of a given
triple-A title and say “Oh, that’s a Steve Theodore game.” Auteurism is left to the more independent ventures—you
can certainly identify a Dan Paladin game, for instance (C
ASTLE
C
RASHERS
, A
LIEN
H
OMINID
). Bruckheimer has also put
together a game studio, with the help of some game execs, so you can expect that production style to be reinforced.
The thing that struck me about the interview was that someone of his level had the understanding that when
you adapt a film to a game, you need to give it the time required to make it good.
“Here’s the problem,” Bruckheimer began. “To really make a good game, it really takes a long time. By the time
you green light a movie, it’s a year to a year-and-a-half until it’s out. That’s too short a period for a video game to
be made. It’s a three-year process to get a really good game made, and that’s where they fail.”
"What the studios do is have this business model
where they know they’ll sell X amount of games
on that opening couple of weeks, and a lot of them
do that, rather than take their time and create a
wonderful game.”
Then there are the constraints imposed by the
film itself—does it follow the same narrative? What
assets can you use? How much access do you
have? I know one writer working on an adaptation
of a film story into games, who was only allowed
one look at the script—he could read it through in
a room, one time, but couldn’t have a copy, or even
take notes or pictures.
To me all of this calls for games that are released based on the theme of the property, rather than some
attempt to replicate an experience from another media. B
ATMAN
: A
RKHAM
A
SYLUM
does this. People love Batman,
and they don’t care if it’s based on a movie. Ditto G
HOSTBUSTERS
. Likewise P
RINCE
OF
P
ERSIA
. The story from
that game is based on the ancient
One Thousand and One Nights
text. It’s not a literal adaptation, but takes a
compelling concept and makes it work in a game world. In the case of T
HE
C
HRONICLES
OF
R
IDDICK
: A
SSAULT
ON
D
ARK
A
THENA
, I don’t think audiences even care that much about the license—but the universe is compelling, and the
game plays well, so people buy it.
GIMME THE CASH
»
Certainly studios will continue to capitalize on the release of their films—but perhaps Facebook, the iPhone,
or the downloadable console space are better suited to that. Triple-A titles should be given space to breathe and
become their own entities. If you want to make an I
RON
M
AN
game, base it on the comics, and release it at some
point between two movies when people are hungry for content. Crossovers like the newly announced M
ARVEL
VS
.
C
APCOM
3 offer opportunities to do interesting things with licenses without catering to a certain timeframe.
Perhaps the takeaway is obvious: games need more development time to be good experiences. My hope is
that hearing someone like Bruckheimer say it will convince some executives of its truth. Unfortunately, as long as
the newest grindhouse-style game production of a popular cartoon continues to sell, people won’t stop. But even
Pixar is taking greater control of games based on its properties now, and companies like THQ are looking to get
out of the direct film license business.
Licenses are compelling to a lot of people, but you have to treat them right and do them justice. That means
giving them time, and I would submit not necessarily tying them to a specific release in another media.
—Brandon Sheffield
P
RINCE
OF
P
ERSIA
2
GAME DEVELOPER | MAY 2010
WWW.UBM .COM
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