“The debut E3 trailer set the graphical bar high for the Ubisoft developers, as far as current gen is concerned they get a pass but the 360 and PS3 ports have come under a lot of criticism.”

The initial sales figures suggest that Ubisoft hopes of a new franchise to add to their development rooster might come to fruition. Over 4 million copies sold in its first week, making the game the best-selling new IP at launch. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot commented last month that they hoped to sell as much as the first Assassin’s Creed title which sold more than 6 million copies. At the current rate of 4 million in a week Watch_Dogs should easily surpass any of Ubisoft’s predictions and with a WiiU release still to come in September. With such impressive sales and generally positive reviews there is no doubt that the Ubisoft heads will be cracking the whip for their Montréal development team to get back to work on a sequel. In fact last year the Head of Sales and Marketing at the company Tony Key made the comment “That’s what all our games are about; we won’t even start if we don’t think we can build a franchise out of it. There’s no more fire and forget – it’s too expensive.” in reference to the then in development Watch_Dogs. A statement that reflects Ubisoft’s current catalogue of games that are mostly made up of sequels or games based on existing properties. Nobody can really blame the publisher from taking a conservative approach when faced with new IP, video game budgets have increased tenfold in the last decade. The likes of GTA V costing Rockstar over $250 million, with the company relying on the games accumulated reputation to shift copies and recoup the costs. Even if Ubisoft have to take a hit financially on the first release with planned sequels the can account for the initial loses in the franchise.

“A small hitch in the games release as arisen over a bug that causes players to get stuck on the games loading screen. Uplay, Ubisoft’s digital distribution service is suspected to be at fault.”

In an interesting move the publisher has also tasked their film division Ubisoft Motion Pictures to start drafting up a film script for Watch_Dogs. It seems a little earlier to planning a movie adaptation for a series that is so new but then again they are already thinking of the long term plan for this would be franchise. Ubisoft have already made plans for all their other major franchises to get the silver screen treatment, the Assassin’s Creed movie gathering steam with a late 2015 release date announced and Michael Fassbender attached as the lead. The video game industry in fact is beginning to mirror their Hollywood counterparts in some respects. At the top end of the industry the big players favour content that will be able to offer them significant return over a long period of time as opposed to a quick flash in the pan. It would be hard to envisage the pitch session for Goat Simulator with the executives at EA or Activision and the publisher drawing out plans for the game as a franchise. Disney planning out a road map for their highly successful Marvel series of films right through to 2021. The big movie producers favour adaptions over original screenplay, the video game industry taking a similar stance.  At the other end of the scale the indie scene has exploded in popularity with new IP finding great success in what can be sometimes a swing and miss sector of the industry. For as many triumphs like Minecraft and DayZ there are there are ten times as many failures among them. The indie movie scene following a similar failure success rate among the films released over the last few years.  However the more important issue surrounding Ubisoft’s movie studio is will we finally see a decent video game adaption in the cinemas, the video game community doesn’t needs another Prince of Persia movie.

“The film is still in early pre-production with no indication of what role Michael Fassbender might be taking on; Altair, Ezio or Connor?”

Taking a look at some of the other major publishers, paints a similar picture with already establish IP getting the go ahead and financial backing. EA like Ubisoft seemed to have taken a gamble with new IP Titanfall, but then again is it much of a gamble when working with Vince Zampella a proven hit driven developer. No doubt EA have plans for Titanfall to be what Call of Duty has become to Activision with Zampella the man behind that particular franchise. The same could be said of Take-Two interactive and their new IP Evolve that is set to release later this year. Not so much a gamble with Turtle Rock at the helm, the same team that was behind the highly successful Left4Dead franchise. These games also seem to be perfectly suited for a host of DLC releases and eventually sequels. It is becoming rarer and rarer that a game will be made with a definitive end point. Modern video games are developed with the sequel in the back of the developers mind or at least at the top end of the industry. When a publisher is given a hit by one of their studios they always want more. The video game fans also playing a part in this, the community endless speculating on sequels and follow ups. With E3 just around the corner the rumour mill is in full effect and rampant speculation abounds.

“E3 could have seen the big revel of the next Assassin’s Creed game if it wasn’t for those pesky internet sleuths leaking the news early. No doubt they will still have a few tricks up their sleeves for the event”

Watch_Dogs wowed fans at E3 2012 and the anticipation for the game only intensified over the following two years. The game has amassed encouraging sales in its first week of release and is surely on its way to recouping the development costs. Ubisoft might have been criticized for making such bold claims about the games future over a year prior to its launch. Most developers and publisher have future vision for their new IP but to come out and state those claims so boldly is not so common. If the games follow up can build upon the original and maintain the fans attention than their maybe hope for the future of the franchise. If not certain Ubisoft executives might have to back track on their previous statements.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Watch Dogs Review appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“The Oculus Rift has come a long way from a Kickstarter concept piece to billion dollar acquisition by Facebook.”

Oculus VR are not breaking new ground for the integration of VR technology and innovative motion controls into video games.  It has been attempt before in various different guises, from Nintendo’s Power Glove to Victormaxx’s ridiculously expensive Cybermaxx headset. Peripherals for video games have never really improved on the overall gaming experience, at least not enough to make gamers shell out cash on the high priced products. The Oculus Rift is really a refinement of the technology laid down by Jaron Lanier, Thomas G. Zimmerman and others alike. The wide field of view, HD display and head tracking the key selling points of the new device and may well be the final piece of the puzzle that was missing previously. The other issue that held back many devices prior to the current day equivalents was a simple matter of size. One of the first virtual reality head mounted displays was so heavy and cumbersome it had to be suspended from the ceiling, users nicknaming the device the “The Sword of Damocles”. Even Nintendo’s Virtual Boy seems bulky and unwieldy by today’s standards. There is no doubting that Oculus VR have put their work in trying to make their device slip seamlessly into the gaming experience and make the interactivity as intuitive as possible.

“Virtual Reality has come and gone in the past can the current trend maintain prolonged interest and more importantly sell in sustainable numbers.”

However it is not as if the company has a monopoly on the VR market as both Sony and Valve are looking to enter the arena with their own interpretations. At this year’s Games Developers Conference in San Francisco Sony came out swinging with their own version of a VR headset dubbed Project Morpheus. The Japanese tech giants have been working on VR prototype headsets for a number of years, integrating their own Move controllers into the system. Sony has the slight advantage of having a long history in the tech industry and all the experience that comes with it. However the Oculus team can boost about the veteran developers that have joined the company, with id Software founder John Carmack the chief technology officer at Oculus VR. Even Valve’s own VR specialist Michael Abrash has switched sides and joined the Oculus Rift team. It would seem that at any rate gamers will be spoilt for choice when these devices make it market, when that will be is still up in the air. Some hints point towards a late 2014 early 2015 launch for the Oculus Rift, but another important question arises in response to that is the devices proposed price point. Again no official pricing structure has been announced only guesstimates can be made at this time, the most recent Dev kit version of the device going for $350 (€254). $250(€180) to $300(€220) the price range been floated around by some market analysts. Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey has stated that he may adopt a similar model used by the console manufactures, dropping the price and making up the money on licencing deals with game publishers. This is integral to the success of any of the current VR headsets in development, the support of the video game developers to integrate the technology into their games. At the end of the day if there isn’t an extensive catalogue of titles that will support VR then the Rift, Morpheus, Gameface or any of the other VR headsets will ultimately fail.

“The Oculus Team have had VR market all to themselves the last two years but now competition is heating up with others jumping on the VR bandwagon.”

The decision by “Notch” to pull his official support for Oculus Rift integration with Minecraft doesn’t help with publicity for the VR company. Not that ‘Minecrafters’ desperate to see their blocky creations up close and personal are out of luck, as there are mods that support Oculus Rift input. However an official release of a VR compatible version of Minecraft could have been a big boon for the Oculus Rift over it soon to be competitors. The Rift is definitely carving itself out as a PC peripheral as opposed to Sony’s VR which obviously will be supported by their PlayStation console. Sony already demonstrating their eye tracking technology working with the current PS4 release Infamous: Second Son. So just like the console wars that take place between Sony and Microsoft it is the exclusive titles that can often sway customers moreover than hardware specs. There is even now a host of tech companies that want to take VR even further, not happy with just tracking movement of the player’s vision they want get them on the move. Companies like Virtuix with their Omni motion tracking device want to have Oculus Rift users get of their seats and start moving. The demonstration of Valves new VR headset at Steam Dev Days also incorporated spatial awareness and the capturing of full body movement. This entire aside the current generation of VR is still in its infancy with projects still in development and release dates still TBA. It would seem that there is enough momentum behind the VR push this time that it is unlikely to be a flash in the pan. Whether or not it will be a revolution in video game interaction is still out to tender. A quick review of interactive peripherals of video games past doesn’t paint a great picture. Even the evolution of the video game controller has been fairly stagnant for the last decade, although Valve might have something to say about that. The coming years and eventual product launches will offer a clearer idea for the future of Virtual Reality.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post The State of the Industry: Virtual Reality The Future or Fad? appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“Tim and Chris Stamper founded Ultimate Play the Game in 1985; the company would later be re-established under the new name Rare Ltd., producing many memorable games along the way”

Prior to Nintendo’s buyout of the company Rare had been on a development marathon producing over 50 games in a five year period most of them for the NES console. An astronomical development rate by today’s standards but it helped Rare make enough profits to invest in some computer graphics hardware that would benefit the company going forward. The Silicon Graphics workstations that they purchased allowed them to create advanced 3D models and push the bounds of what was possible for video game graphics at the time. After the buyout they were tasked by Nintendo to use the new technology to create a 3D CGI game that game would become Donkey Kong Country. Due to the limitations of the 16-bit era of console gaming there was no way Rare could make a true real-time rendering 3D game so like others at the time, pre-rending the assets was the way to go. Myst was one of the first games to pioneer this method of creating a pseudo 3D game with pre-rendered graphics. The process for Donkey Kong Country involved modelling and animating the main characters and enemies on their graphics workstations. Then they would save of a series of image stills and turn them into 2D animated sprites that had the appearance and lighting of 3D models. The Finnish developers Bloodhouse had used a similar technique for their 1993 game Stardust. The limitations of the hardware also made it difficult when implementing some of the games other graphical elements. The games 3D backgrounds also taxed the SNES consoles limited memory so the team had to carefully arrange backgrounds that repeated elements but trying to make them appear as natural as they could. These techniques helped the game stand apart from most of its competitors and rivals when the game went on the market in November of 1994.

“It was the work by Rare on Donkey Kong Country and the team at Cyan Inc. with their Myst that helped push forward the era of 3D gaming.”

Nintendo’s 16-bit SNES console was always under pressure from its main rivals Sega who boasted 32-bits and a CD-ROM drive with their SegaCD console. Nintendo needed a title that would show off their consoles hardware potential and compete with their high memory rivals. The launch of Donkey Kong Country helped them do just that with the game becoming an instant hit with the gaming community. The game would go on to reach over 9 million in sales and pick up a host of video game awards along the way. It helped Rare gain international status and cement the relationship between them a Nintendo that would carry on for the next number of years. The Donkey Kong franchise now given a new lease of life would continue to see regular video game releases over the following decades with an iconic look that is still influenced by Rare’s original character designs.

The post Compendium: The Age of 3D Donkey Kong Country appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

The post Top 5: Games That Never Were appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“The lead designer Ted Peterson had initial worries about the games development after talking to fellow industry peers who doubted Bethesda ability to deliver on such an ambitious project.”

The original development briefs outlined an arena combat fighting style game. The player would travel around from town to town fighting with a team in gladiatorial like battles. The idea of side quest available outside the arena combat was only secondary to the initial planned gameplay. However as the development progressed these side quest started to take more precedence over the arena combat, with the explorable world expanding out to vast cities and multiple dungeons beyond in the wilderness. It wasn’t long before the idea of a medieval gladiator style fighting games was abandoned in favour of a full blown RPG fantasy title. The shift change in the games development was influenced by the games developers’ love of the dungeons and dragons series, with other fantasy games like Ultima Underworld and Legends of Valour also offering inspiration for the development team.

“The team behind The Elder Scrolls series has always seen the importance of establishing a rich and deep narrative. The backstory and lore of the games universe seen as important as gameplay.”

The game was not set to just emulate these influential titles but wanted to surpass them with The Elder Scrolls: Arena. The one design element that set Bethesda’s game apart from the competition was the sheer size of the game world. The entire map outside of the pre-set towns and cities was randomly generated populated by enemies and NPC’s. The game was one of the few in the series to allow the player to explore the entire continent of Tamriel, so large was the map that without the fast travel feature the game was near impossible to play. It could take the player several hours to walk from one town to another or several days to walk to a city in another province. The game was also known for it’s notoriously difficulty for new players, with high level enemies spawning right from the beginning unlike later titles that have enemies level up with the player.

“The Elder Scrolls series is now heading into its 20th year with the release of its latest title Elder Scrolls Online a venture into the MMORPG genre.”

Even though during development the combat fighting elements where replaced with RPG style gameplay, the original title The Elder Scrolls: Arena still stuck. Mainly due to the game’s material having been already printed using the original title. The misleading title and a missed Christmas 1993 launch date led to some early poor sales, only 3,000 units being shipped for the initial March 1994 launch. The subsequent negative reviews and high hardware demands made on the player’s machines didn’t help the flagging sales. The development studio heads worried about the future of the company if the game failed to boost sales, which it managed to do through word of mouth and a rerelease “Deluxe Edition” launching late in 1994. The game soon becoming a cult hit with plans for a sequel in the works in the same year. Bethesda Softworks now had a franchise to establish, with an expanding fantasy universe to explore and build upon.

The post Compendium: The Elder Scrolls appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“The MOBA genre has seen a huge increase in popularity over the last few years and Hi-Rez studios will hope that SMITE can be a part of that growth.”

SMITE was launched with a closed beta in May of 2012 after debuting the game at PAX East the previous month. Although the term closed beta would denote a restricted number of players testing the game, when the game finally moved to the open beta stage the following January its player base was already up to 900,000. SMITE has been free-to-play throughout its beta stage, although like many other free-to-play games it relies microtransactions to help finance the continued development of the game. Due to the games increase in popularity it gave the development studio the impetuous to continue development and release regular content updates. No doubt development may well continue after the games official launch, to help maintain a strong player base. The games developers Hi-Rez Studios may have also noticed that the gaming community might see the SMITE launch go unnoticed. In response they have organized a LAN Tournament to be held in Atlanta over the weekend to celebrate the momentous occasion. Upholding their openness with the gaming community they have given players the chance to chip in on the cash prize on offer at the event. Initially set at $100,000, players can buy a custom skin for one of the game characters with the money going towards the prize fund. Now the cash prize is sitting at $185k, it is a question of how far will this level of community involvement lead too. Of course the contributors do receive a piece of DLC for their donation, but what’s next. If the development studio is late on the electricity bill or has to call out a contractor will there be a Kickstarter to raise funds to pay the bills or fix the plumbing. An overexertion of course but the video game industry has changed so dramatically over the last five years. From what was traditionally an obscured development process to now involving mass community engagement.

“Mojang have achieved legendary status within the industry not only because of their highly successful game but the method by which it was developed.”

The obvious example to point to as the origin of this current trend is the Swedish based developers Mojang and their game Minecraft. There is no doubt that Minecraft acted as a watershed moment for the video game industry, the extended and open development process of that game influencing many other to do the same. The game was available online to buy while the game was still in development. Players not only helped the development process by giving Mojang a few dollars to play the game, but also through community discussion and game mods gave the developers a clear idea of what the players wanted. Instead of hiring a number of QA testers to play an in house version of the game, the entire Minecraft community became Mojang’s bug testing team. The game continues to shaped by community driven feedback. In fact it’s hard to believe that Minecraft actually had an official release over two years ago at this point. For those players who bought the alpha version of the game for less than $15 back in 2010, they can still expect new and upcoming features for no additional cost. It is a question if the development process for Minecraft will ever cease, will there be a Minecraft 2 or is this game set to be in development indefinitely. Another game with a seemingly never ending development cycle is the much loved by gamers and NASA scientists alike, Kerbal Space Program.

“Squad a company based out of Mexico City operate as a marketing firm, who just happen to take a chance on a video game pitch from one of their employees.”

The game has now remained in the alpha stages of development for the past two and half years. No beta or official launch has been announced, which hasn’t stopped the game from racking up impressive game sales. Normal industry conventions would state that alpha builds of a game are for in house testing only and that releasing an unfinished buggy version of the game will hurt eventually retail numbers. This traditionally ideology surrounding the development cycle is been challenged by games like Kerbal Space Program, who buck the trend set by the major AAA studios. The move towards digital distribution spurred on by services like Steam has given developers the opportunity to offer their games for sale at increasingly earlier stages of development. What would have been financially impossible in the cd and cartridge days of the industry, selling an early build of a game can now in fact help fund the continued development of a particular project. The conversion of the ARMA II mod DayZ into a standalone title has benefited from such an approach. Released in December of last year on Steam as an early access alpha, DayZ sold over a million copies within a month. No longer do developers have to keep their fingers crossed throughout the development process, hoping that when the game is launch that it is a success. Instantaneous feedback can be received very early into the games development, reducing the financial risks that would have previously held back many developers.

“The hype surrounding DayZ was a major factor in its high number of sales, but will gamers be turned off after buying an incomplete buggy version of the game?”

The modern video game industry has caused the standard terms of alpha and beta to be redefined in a new context. No longer just versions of an incomplete game that would not be seen outside of the development studio save for a short testing period open to the public. Most AAA studios still stick to this model with information about an upcoming game only available through a few scant reports or planned media announcements. In the past it was only through unofficial leaks that gamers could get a chance to get hands on with a game prior to its official launch. Now the indie game scene has taken it a step further an offered up their games to the public from the get-go, with warts and all. The developers no longer keeping their game hidden behind the curtain until launch day but allowing the public to join them on the journey, to see that the game evolves to meet their wants and desires.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Smite Review appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

Titanfall

“Medal of Honor marked a turning point in video game narrative, were games could now attempt to emulate Hollywood in terms of grandiose storytelling.”

Following the release of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault some of the developers including West and Zampella decide to leave 2015 Inc. and form their own studio. The limitations imposed on them by their employers and the control on the creative process by the publisher EA, forced 22 members of the development team to break away and establish Infinity Ward in 2002. Interestingly 2015 Inc. has only produced one game since the mass departures and has not seen the same level of success as it had with Medal of Honor. Infinity Wards funding was boosted in the beginning when the publisher Activision bought up 30 percent of the company. The studio went straight to work on its first title a WWII themed FPS, following on from the experience gained with their previous game. Call of Duty was released in October of 2003 and was an instant classic, with mission structures and narrative techniques that their previous publisher EA had disagreed with. The most iconic mission of the game, forcing the player to fight through the besieged city of Stalingrad with only a clip of ammunition and no weapon. An idea that was unthinkable in the FPS genre, a reason why the game was a success and spawned an acclaimed franchise. When WWII shooters became too commonplace West and Zampella decided to shake things up and produce Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Again Infinity Ward proved to be the studio at the forefront of the FPS genre setting the trends and game design conventions that others would attempt to emulate.

 “The original title in the series received its very own rerelease on the next gen system in 2009, known as Call of Duty Classic.”

Just as the second Modern Warfare title was breaking all sales records decent was brewing between Infinity Ward and their publishers/owners Activision. West and Zampella were aggrieved about the lack of royalties afforded to them by Activision, based on the success of the latest Call of Duty release. The ensuing conflict resulted in Activision firing both West and Zampella on the grounds of “breaches of contract and insubordination”. The reason for the dismissals was in reaction to a supposed meeting that took place between the pair and EA, to which Activision was not privy too. The subsequent legal battle of lawsuits being filed by both parties would mar the establishment of West and Zampella’s new venture Respawn Entertainment in April of 2010. Just as in the case of 2015 Inc. a large number of Infinity Ward’s development team left the company, 48 resigning from Infinity Ward with 38 of them joining West and Zampella at Respawn Entertainment. Activision has tried to maintain the high level of quality and strong sales figures for its Call of Duty franchise even bringing in another development studio to help get the games to market. Although sales figures have been annually smashed with each subsequent release aside from Call of Duty: Ghosts, the critical acclaim and public opinion has waned of late. Now after four years in the making Titanfall is finally on the market, but can the Respawn team do what they have already managed multiple times before and reshape the FPS genre.

 “It’s a game of cat and mouse between the fast and agile pilots; and devastation brutal giant titans.”

The development of Titanfall has not been without its level of turmoil with long time development partner Jason West leaving the company for personal reasons. Although the nature of his resignation has been a matter of rumour and speculation, with West’s erratic behaviour and discord with Zampella possible reasons for his split with the company he co-founded. Zampella is now flying solo and we will get to see if he can do it on his own. Judging from the response of the beta released in late February and from the early Metacritic scores it looks like Respawn is on to a winner. Just as Zampella and his team have always done in the past they have not settled just to follow along with the crowd. The FPS genre of late has becoming increasingly stagnant, with little in the way of innovation coming out of the genre for the last number of years. A few gameplay tweaks and graphical improvements seem to be enough for most developers, with new IP falling by the wayside in the face of established franchises. Titanfall is attempting to draw influence from a myriad of different sources to push forward the evolution of the FPS genre. The most distinctive feature of the new Zampella title is the lack of a singleplayer narrative, with the game only featuring multiplayer gameplay. Not that this is something new in the FPS genre with the original titles in the Battlefield series featuring only multiplayer modes. However for Zampella this is breaking new ground since the singleplayer narrative has been as much a crucial part of his previous games successes as the multiplayer component. Iconic gaming moments such as the storming of the Normandy beaches and the first-hand experience of a soldier post nuclear blast, have helped Zampella earn his high ranking status in the industry.

 “Will we see a reunited West and Zampella in the future, somewhat debatable with the apparent success garnered by Titanfall under the solo leadership of Zampella?”

Probably the far more interesting point about Titanfall’s online elements is that the game relies on some of the AI components to be handled by Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform. Essentially this means that the game is online only, with the AI hosting and physics calculations handled by Microsoft’s servers. It is also bad news for gamers living in regions without the Azure service like South Africa, who have understandable become quite upset. They have even gone as far as to petition EA and Respawn to have a South African release of the game. Not helping the issue is the fact that Xbox Live experienced a momentary technical hitch on launch day. Aside from the few regional grumbles and Xbox Live outages, nothing much has been made of Titanfall‘s always online requirement. This is good news for Titanfall publisher EA who suffered a calamitous PR disaster due the resulting backlash that followed the botch launch of their always online title SimCity. It’s interesting that prior to launch nothing has been made of Titanfall’s method of offloading some of its processing tasks to the cloud. Granted from the outset Titanfall is sold as a multiplayer game so certain level of internet connectivity is expected from the outset. All the same the video gaming community was ready with torches and pitchforks at the announcement that the Xbox One would need to be connect online at least once a day. Never mind the fact that for much of the western world regular online connectivity is pretty standard. Here we are less than six months post launch and a game that requires a similar feature, no angry mob in sight. It is amazing how video game fans can go from extreme statements of vitriolic fury to quiet and subdued acceptance. Obviously Titanfall is just that good of game that such heated opinions can put aside. Gamers are clearly very enamoured by giant mech’s, to let go of such issues.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Titanfall Review appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“Although not the company first game it was the title that brought them to the attention of the wider industry and media alike.”

The history of Wolfenstein 3D is intrinsically linked with the fortunes of the games creators’ id Software. The company was founded by four employees of Softdisk, a publisher and developer of disk based games sold with computer magazines. John Romero, Adrian Carmack, Tom Hall and John Carmack all came together to form id Software in February of 1991. The four had developed and released their first title Commander Keen the previous year and instead of pitching it to their bosses, had used a third party publisher. Scott Miller of Apogee Software had been impressed by the teams work and offered to publish their games through his shareware model. A method were a small part of the game was released for free with the rest of the game sold by mail order. Due to the success of Commander Keen Softdisk soon realised the potential in their four employees and offered to form a new venture with them. The four declined and went their own way with id Software, publishing their future games on the shareware model with Apogee Software. The Commander Keen series would help the company establish it’s self in the early days and gain some level of recognition within the industry. A key part of the company’s business strategy has been the licensing of their game engines that power their various titles. The “Id Summer Seminar” in the summer of 1991 was an event held to find prospective buyers of id Software’s Keen engine. It spiritual successor QuakeCon is the annual event were new information on id’s latest projects and new game engines are announced.

“Commander Keen originally started out as a tech demo by Carmack and Romero, aiming to emulate the side scrolling technology of Nintendo’s Super Mario on the PC.”

As part of the breakaway deal that led to the formation of id Software the company agreed to produced future titles that their former employers Softdisk would publish. Two of these games would have a direct impact on the advancement of video game technology, that paved way for the development of Wolfenstein 3D. Hovertank 3D and Catacombs 3-D both feature a first person 3D perspective that show an evolution in the technology that would eventually lead to Wolfenstein 3D. The games developed began soon after the release of Catacombs 3-D in late 1991, Apogee Software the games publisher offered $100,000 upfront to help jump start the process. The game was based on an earlier set of 80’s titles produced by Muse Software called Castle Wolfenstein. They contained a heavily stealth based gameplay which id had originally aspired to emulate. The gameplay proved to be too difficult to implement and the game evolved into an action based shooter. As with their previous Commander Keen titles, Wolfenstein 3D was released on the shareware model.

“Mecha-Hitler is often cited as one of the seminal video game bosses in the history of the video game industry.”

By the end of 1993 after a year on the market the game had broken all previous shareware sales records, selling over 100,000 copies and garnering much critical acclaim. Even though the game was a massive success within the industry, picking up numerous awards and honours it was not without its own controversy. Due to the games depiction of a SS prison set in WWII and featuring Hitler as the main antagonist the game was banned in Germany. Nintendo decided to heavily edit the game for the SNES version sold in Germany. Removing all references of the Nazi content, including a retextured Hitler renamed “Staatmeister”. Despite this minor setback the game was an outstanding success for the company and laid the tenants that all future First Person Shooters would be judged by. It gave credibility to the shareware business model and boosted the popularity of the pc market. Wolfenstein 3D is without out a doubt a landmark title in the history of the video game industry and cemented id Software’s place within it.

The post Compendium: The Age of 3D Wolfenstein 3D appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

Anti-Piracy measures are nothing new, with a service like Steam requiring the player to sign in to authenticate their account and access their games. Nonetheless SimCity was a dismal failure as far as EA’s PR department was concerned, with the company already in a rocky relationship with the gaming community. It is no surprise then that it has been the indie game sector that of late has had a massive surge in popularity. Mainly due to its non-corporate approach to game design, where player experience is top of the list of priorities. AAA development budgets are now astronomically high in comparison to indie developers, rivalling Hollywood productions in terms of money spent on the project. Many indie developers are working on nothing more than shoestring budgets, with passion and determination the only driving factors.

“Even the most well planned out village won’t save the townsfolk from a harsh winter or natural disasters.”

Banished is the perfect game for those who have become dismayed at what has become of the SimCity series without Will Wright at the helm. Take SimCity and rewind a few hundred years, Banished is a city-building game that takes the concept and refines it down to it most basic components. Instead of managing an entire metropolis your task is the make sure a small village doesn’t go cold or hungry. That’s its most appealing characteristic, with no financial or macro management the game strategy is boiled down to a few core gameplay mechanics. The game operates on a barter and resource system where money is not present which makes sense for its pre-industrialisation setting. The balance between resources management and population growth is very finely balanced; with one harsh winter, an unexpected outbreak of disease or sudden fire can bring the village to its knees. It is this balancing act that makes the gameplay very additive. Its style of gameplay reminiscent of the Settlers series of games where the layout of your village can have a drastic effect on how the game plays. Place your villager’s homes to far from their place of work and good luck keeping your supplies stocked up. The games difficulty is as rewarding and it is frustrating, if it was too easy to build up a new settlement in the middle of the wilderness where would the fun lie. The only complaint would be that the villagers are all given randomly generated names, it’s like they say not to name the animal you kill for meat so you don’t become attached personally. When that notice pops-up that Lamberly the Miner or Sandell the Farmer died from hunger it really hits a nerve. Like an omnipotent god you’re responsible for their fate and take each death as a personal failure. The strive to do better is always present, with a harmoniously functioning village taking multiple failed attempts. The most amazing thing about this game aside from its well-crafted art design and gameplay mechanics, is the fact that it was solely developed by one man. Luke Hodorowicz is the one man team behind Shining Rock Software, founded in 2011.

“I build them a fancy tunnel but yet they decide to ignore it and walk over the hill instead, ungrateful villagers.”

Typically indie games by their nature feature small development teams, solo development is quite commonplace in this sector of the industry. However to make a comparison to a big budget title like SimCity or even some of the latest games in the Settlers series it is a wonder where half that money goes. How much marketing attributes to the over inflated budgets of these AAA titles. If a sole developer can produce a game as complex and rich as Banished, is there something to be learned by the big time developers. Of course a game like SimCity has far more complexity to it than a game like Banished, but it is a wonder if companies might consider returning to their roots and produce smaller titles. Ken Levine’s decision to close down AAA developer Irrational Games and his pursuit of a smaller more streamlined approach to game design, is an example of this. Levine commenting that he wishes to re-engage with the gaming community and a return to his development roots.

“Who knew how much food it takes to keep a small village of people alive? Apparently it’s a lot, either that or these villagers are just greedy.”

The increasing amount of openness in the development process of indie games, is a trend that doesn’t transfer easily to a major AAA game development. A multiplayer beta or early demo is as close as gamers get to the development process of typical AAA titles. Unlike the plethora of smaller indie titles that have early access builds of their game available to buy on platforms like Steam. DayZ a game not even in the beta stage of development has already raked up over a million sales at this point. Interestingly enough Banished is the one game that has managed to knock DayZ of the number one spot on the Steam sales chart, a place DayZ has occupied for the last three months. Rust another indie game rounds out the top three, with Call of Duty: Ghosts one of the biggest budget games on the list lagging behind the three small time developers. It is a clear indication that the indie game scene is thriving in an industry that is supposedly controlled by the big time publishers.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Banished Review appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“For a seasoned developer with a half decent Kickstarter pitch, money does grow on trees.”

Broken Age is a perfect example of this where Tim Schaffer a developer with a long illustrious career in the video game industry made a pitch for peoples support. His pitch involved creating an old school point and click adventure like the ones his known for such as Grim Fandango and The Secret of Monkey Island. Not really pushing the boat out in terms of innovation. Not to say that Kickstarter is alone in this regard to this practice, the major publishers work on the very same principle and not just in regards to video games but the movie industry as well. The point is that Kickstarter and crowd funding are not a new revolution in video game funding, in fact they are more akin to traditional publishing then most people realise. Just like traditional publishing agreement a lump sum of money will be given to get the project of the ground. The project then remains relatively closed off only open to those who invested in the project. Those investors or backers will often put pressure on the developer to complete the game and are reticent to give more money until they see a finished product. The one major difference between the two methods of funding is that a traditional publishers will receive royalties on the games sales whereas backers are left with a t-shirt, poster, signed print, etc.

“Chris Roberts crowd funded game Star Citizen has a lot to live up to with a $38 million budget sourced so far.”

Crowd funding is a good idea it will just take a number of years to work out the kinks in the system. One issues is the budgeting and clarity in the use of the finances received. In a traditional publishing deal the games budget will be worked out before hand and agreed upon between the two parties. If the budget goes over which many games do, it is accounted for in the original contact or the developer is forced to release early. Tim Schafer set an initial budget of $400,000 for Broken Age, he received over $3 million. Yet this still wasn’t enough and he was forced to spilt the game into two parts, using the sales of part one to fund development on part two. Last week’s article discussed The Banner Saga which was also a Kickstarter project. They asked for an initial amount of $100,000 and received over $700,000. A comparison of the two games that share a very similar gameplay length and an equally high level of hand drawn animations, make you wonder how Stoic achieved what they did with a budget four time less than that of Double Fine. What did Tim Schaffer spend all that money on? This is the sort of question a traditional publisher with legitimate financial control would be asking. Some have looked to help backers understand the production process such as VFX wizard Freddie Wong with his Kickstarter for the second season of Video Game High School. In his Kickstarter pitch he include a breakdown of what costs go into a major production like his. Honesty and clarity is the one thing sorely missing from many Kickstarter projects. Traditional publishers always have a contract with the developers to keep things in check, but what can a backer do if the product isn’t what they had been promised or where simple swindled out of their hard earned cash?

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Gaming Sidenote: Kickstarter Good or Bad? appeared first on Game Design Ireland.