gamedeveloper201012.pdf

CONTENTS.1110

VOLUME 17 NUMBER 10

DEPARTMENTS

2 GAME PLAN By Brandon Sheffield

[ E D I TO R I A L ]

POSTMORTEM

Move Back to Kinect

26 UBISOFT MONTREAL'S SPLINTER CELL CONVICTION

Moving S PLINTER C ELL 's trademark stealth-based game play in an

action oriented direction without undermining the series was a tricky

problem for Ubisoft Montreal. The original game design for C ONVICTION

was radically different from the franchise's traditional mechanics and

necessitated a mid-development reboot. Fortunately, clear direction

and a well-tuned production pipeline kept the team from being

knocked off balance by the shift.

By Patrick Redding, Alex Parizeau, and Maxime Beland

4 HEADS UP DISPLAY [ N E W S ]

IGDA Leadership Forum, the Automatypewriter, and Bunten papers

archived.

2010 FRONT LINE AWARD FINALISTS [ N E W S ]

The Award Finalists for Art, Audio, Game Engine, Middleware,

Networking, and Production/Programming tools.

33 TOOL BOX By Tom Carroll

[ R E V I E W ]

Autodesk 3ds Max 2011

FEATURES

36 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore

[ A R T ]

9 FRAGGED

Big explosions with lots of fragmentation and debris are a video game

mainstay. But making them look convincingly unique is a tedious

process for artists. Here, the authors describe a procedural technique

for automatically generating fragmented meshes that can save both

time and sanity.

By Robert Perry and Peter Wilkins

The Balkans

38 THE INNER PRODUCT By Giacomino Veltri

[ P R O GR A MM I NG ]

Game Configuration at Crystal Lake

41 AURAL FIXATION By Jesse Harlin

[ S O U N D ]

The Weight of Silence

15 FULL REACTIVE EYES ENTERTAINMENT

Are the now-ubiquitous Quick Time Events in games a lazy way to

keep players mashing buttons? Or, are they broadening the range of

expression for game designers? Using examples from the past and

present, this article looks to the future of QTEs.

By Tim Rogers

42 DESIGN OF THE TIMES By Soren Johnson

[ D E S I GN ]

Stop Making Sense

44 GOOD JOB!

[ C A R E E R ]

Bradley Johnson Q&A, who went where, and new studios.

45 EYE ON GDC

[ G D C ]

22 ELECTRIC EYE

Kinect and Move have arrived, and with them comes a growing interest

in augmented reality. In this article, César Botana guides you step by

step through the basics of the OpenCV library, an essential tool for pat-

tern recognition in augmented reality games. Also covered is placement

of 3D objects in game worlds based on these patterns' orientations.

By C é sar Botana

Independent Games Festival news and IGF China finalists.

46 EDUCATED PLAY By Jeffrey Fleming

[ E D U C A T I ON ]

David Arenou’s I MMERSIVE R AIL S HOOTER .

48 ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT By Matthew Wasteland

[ H UMO R ]

Our Last, Best Hope

WWW.GDMAG.COM 1

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

MOVE BACK TO KINECT

ARE THE NEW MOTION SYSTEMS INFLUENCING THEIR DEMOGRAPHIC BY PROXIMITY?

SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND

ADDRESS CHANGES

t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606

e : gamedeveloper@halldata.com

NOW THAT BOTH SONY’S MOVE AND MICROSOFT’S

Kinect have hit the market, we can take full stock of

the new kids on the motion control block. Where Move

goes for a “Wii plus camera plus greater precision”

setup, Kinect hopes to make your body the controller.

It’s no secret to anyone that these technologies

are spurred on by the success of Nintendo’s Wii. If

the drive to create the technology wasn’t necessarily

Nintendo-inspired, the desire to release it with such

pomp and circumstance certainly was.

Both companies have tried to get a drink of

Nintendo's milkshake in slightly different ways. Each

platform lends itself to a different experience, but

both companies have unfortunately gone straight for

the Nintendo-alikes.

or a bow, so holding a physical object—the wand—

makes you feel connected to the world. With Kinect,

steering a car or holding a bat feels bizarre, because

you don’t have an actual “prop.” Whereas with

K INECTIMALS , the feedback was very positive, here it’s

much more difficult to feel connected to your actions,

because in reality these actions would center around

a physical object. Pantomiming them doesn’t cut it.

It’s clear that each solution has its strengths, and

areas in which it excels. But what I’m seeing right now

is some strong me-too-ism. The first titles offered on

both consoles are very much in the vein of Nintendo’s

biggest titles for the Wii, or the third party successes,

regardless of whether it fits the system. The dance,

exercise, minigame, and pets genres are all well

represented, and I guess that’s a start. But to really

succeed here, developers are going to have to figure out

how to maximize the unique qualities of these systems.

FOR DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

www.gdmag.com/digital

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

PRODUCTION INTERN

Tom Curtis

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Jesse Harlin

Steve Theodore

Giacomino Veltri

Soren Johnson

Damion Schubert

ADVISORY BOARD

Hal Barwood Designer-at-Large

Mick West Independent

Brad Bulkley Neversoft

Clinton Keith Independent

Brenda Brathwaite Lolapps

Bijan Forutanpour Sony Online Entertainment

Mark DeLoura Google

Carey Chico Independent

KING OF THE ME TOOS

» Many developers have played with either or

both systems by now, but for those who haven’t, I’ll

explain a bit. The Move uses a camera to identify your

movements (in a 2D sense), and also to put you “in the

game” at times, like the EyeToy before it. It uses wands

to interact with objects and avatars on the screen, using

both motion control and buttons simultaneously.

With the Kinect, there are no buttons, just body

(especially hand) recognition through the 3D camera.

Menus are navigated and confirmed through swipes,

and holding your hand over an on-screen button for

a certain amount of time. In-game actions are all

performed with your body, and an avatar usually

does its best to mimic your movements.

These setups each lend themselves more

naturally to certain kinds of activities, and less well

to others. Let’s look at two genres—pets, and sports.

In the pets genre, Move has E YE P ET , and Kinect

has K INECTIMALS . In both, you’re supposed to be

interacting directly with a little pet character. For the

Move, it’s a bit odd, because not only are you holding

this wand in order to interact with the pet most of the

time, your legs are physically in the picture, brought

in-game by the camera. This creates an illusion that

you could reach down and grab the pet, but of course

you’re always physically behind it in the screen, no

matter how close you get to the camera. The interface

doesn’t feel natural, and you don’t feel as connected

to your pet, even though it’s visually “in” your space.

With K INECTIMALS , there’s a clear distance between

you and the screen—you’re in your living room, and the

animal lives inside the TV. But it actually works much

better, because all your interactions with the animal

are done via virtual hand avatars that mimic your

actual hand movements. So it’s much easier to feel like

you’re really interacting with this little beastie—and the

minigames (for the most part) also take this interface

into account. In this camp, the Kinect wins.

Then there’s sports. Here, the Move makes great

sense. For many sports you have a bat, or a racket,

THE PROXIMITY PROBLEM

» One similarity between Move and Kinect, which

differentiate both from the Wii, is that they use

cameras. It’s interesting technology, but also

represents a curious limiting factor.

In order to get Move or Kinect to recognize you

correctly, you’ve got to be about seven-to-eight feet

away from your television. You also need to have a

clear, unobstructed view, meaning you’ve got to move

the coffee table or ottoman.

I live in an urban environment, as many game

developers do. I also am not the richest human being

on the planet. With that combination, getting seven feet

from my television is a bit of a challenge. I don’t have a

whole lot of space to move things around, and I really

don’t want to move my couch every time I play a game.

As the online space has taught us, any barrier to

entry significantly limits your audience. So instead

of potential players being those who own a Xbox 360

or PS3 and can afford a Kinect or Move (or buy the

whole package if they have neither), layered into who

actually wants the device, now you have the added

element of “can it function in my home?” That’s a big

deal. At each layer, you lose a portion of your audience.

Take the entire nation of Japan, for instance.

Very few people live in homes that are large enough

to accommodate a seven-foot buffer without

reconfiguring their entire living space. Urban dwellers

across the U.S. and Europe face similar issues.

In the U.S., the persons who will be most able

to use the Move and Kinect live in the suburbs, and

own or rent entire homes. This, by and large, means

families. Both companies have specifically singled out

families as the group they want to market their new

devices toward, but due to the space requirements,

they may accidentally be ensuring that those are the

only people who can play with these technologies.

—Brandon Sheffield

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 MEDIA

Ryan Pratt e : rpratt@wrightsreprints.com

t: 877.652.5295

AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT

TYSON ASSOCIATES Elaine Tyson

e : Elaine@Tysonassociates.com

LIST RENTAL Merit Direct LLC

t: 914.368.1000

MARKETING

MARKETING COORDINATOR Nahal Agahi

e : nahal.agahi@ubm.com

GAME DEVELOPER | DECEMBER 2010

WWW.UBM.COM

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: