“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.

“Nintendo have relied on countless revisions of the Mario games to help boost console sales, but how long can this tend continue?”

However Nintendo’s policies where formed in an era when the video game industry was in its infancy and companies were viewed a kin to toy manufactures. Nintendo having a long and successful history in the toy manufacturing business prior to their switch to the video game industry. The problem they face now is that the video game industry has moved on from its kid orientated origins and matured alongside its aging gamers. Gamers who want something a little more than Mario in a cat suit, a game like The Last of Us dealing with adult subject matter raking in a host of awards over the last year. It is a sign of the times that as far as the console market is concerned games are generally aimed towards an adult audience. Nintendo over the last decade has managed to sell record amount of devices with their Wii console hitting the 100 million mark. In spite of this sizeable market lead many AAA titles that are ported over to the console failed to sell anywhere near those numbers expected for such a popular console. A fact that has led publishing giant EA to become increasingly hesitant to publish any of its titles to Nintendo’s latest WiiU console. Former EA CEO John Riccitiello stating in March of last year, that no future titles were in the works for the WiiU platform.

 “Nintendo’s flagging console sales saw a sharp increase with the launch of the Wii, its successor the WiiU has come nowhere close in comparison.”

This is the fundamental root of Nintendo’s problems is that despite the falling out between the company and major publishers like EA they ultimately seem unconcerned. Nintendo long ago became the kingpins of the video game industry and it’s a state of mind that they haven’t lost even in the face of their impending failure. Nintendo’s failure is not something that can be predicted by diving into the future but instead taking a look back at the past and a company in a similar situation Nintendo is in today. Sega were Nintendo biggest rivals with the two consistently going head to head with their console platforms throughout the 80’s and 90’s. Like Nintendo they often favoured first party development over licencing deals with third party companies, relying on iconic video game characters like Sonic The Hedgehog to sell their consoles. The 1998 release of the revolutionary but ultimately poorly selling Dreamcast is the device that spelled an end to Sega’s days as a console manufacturer. Sega announcing its intention to become solely a video game publisher only three years later, this has allowed them to remain reasonable profitable within the video game industry. Even going as far as to swallow their pride and negotiate an exclusivity deal for the Sonic franchise with their old rivals Nintendo.

 “Nintendo might take heed for their former rivals Sega. Whose consoles failure to gain a sizable percentage forced the company out of the console market for good.”

Pride is something that would be a bitter pill for the Nintendo executives to swallow if they ever came to approach Sony or Microsoft about licencing Mario to rival platforms. It is also the fact that despite poor sales for their WiiU console they have managed to retain a decent share of the handheld market in the face of stiff competition from mobile devices. Since the launch of the GameBoy back in 1989, Nintendo have managed to rack up impressive unit sales in that sector of the market. The games developed for the handheld market are generally of a more casual nature and aimed at a younger audience. Something that Nintendo excels at with franchises like Pokémon, Animal Crossing, Kirby, etc. Many analysts have stated that one way for Nintendo to re-establish itself in the industry would be to port many of its handheld titles over to mobile platforms. The latest version of their handheld devices the Nintendo 3DS and 2DS have sold over 42 million units combined, double that of their preceding device. Although something has be said for the fact that there are over 250 million iPhones and over 1 billion Android devices. Just looking at the numbers it might seem like an obvious move for Nintendo to port its games to mobile, but it is unlikely Nintendo will want to enter into a market where they would have to relinquish a certain level of control. More importantly they would have to share in the profits with Apple and Goggle, one reason why Nintendo are so guarded over they own IP’s.

 “Nintendo have hinted that they are doing some research into smart phone technology, but seeing any of their games on iPhone or Android will be a long way off yet.”

Nintendo is somewhat stuck at a crossroad with it obvious to see that their latest console is a failure but on the other hand they seen positive sales of handheld titles. The latest games in the Pokémon franchise accumulating over 11 million in sales in the last 12 months. Boosts to profits like these will only help Nintendo in a small way with its general loss of market share in the console sector not looking good on their financial reports. Should Nintendo follow Sega’s path and give up on the manufacturing side of things and primary focus on software development. That question will become clearer based on the sales of Nintendo’s next console; the company cannot afford to have another console launch fail to generate sales. Another WiiU would surely spell the end for Nintendo’s console days. However many would have said the same around the time of the GameCube, that like the WiiU lost Nintendo a sizeable share of the market. However they were able to bounce back with the highly successful Wii console so a lot rides on the success of their next console launch. In essence Nintendo needs to remove itself form its self-imposed ideology formed in the early 80’s and join the rest of its competitors in the 21^st Century.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post The State of the Industry: The Fall of Nintendo 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.

The Banner Saga

“It a game of tactics and manoeuvres between the opposing sides, in a battle of mental strategy.” 

The Banner Saga transports the player into a Viking themed universe with Norse mythology feeding the narrative. The one aspect that sets this game apart for many other games on the market is the stunning art design. The game features 2D animations that are reminiscent of old Disney or Don Bluth cartoons. There is a real resurgence in high quality 2D game art with the industry and gaming community becoming tired of have their vision bombarded with polygons and particle effects. The rise of the indie game sector has definitely helped fuel this 2D revival. Games such as Don’t Starve, Papers Please and Kentucky Route Zero; all spending time to develop and define their own unique art style. Although the fluid animations will grab gamer’s attention the underlying gameplay also has a high level of polish. The game is broken down into three distinct modes of gameplay. The combat is carried out on a turn based checkerboard with the choice of warriors and the strategies of attack implemented meaning the difference between victory and failure. The difficulty of the combat been a sore point for some gamers arguing that the game is a little too harsh on mistakes made along the way. This merciless approach to the player decision making also carries over to the interactive narrative which doesn’t just involve choosing some random text with no real effect on the outcome. In The Banner Saga choosing one text response over another can mean the life or death of one of your characters. It is a feature that forces the player to make some hard decision on their journey across the frozen landscape, which leads to the third and most brutal game mechanic. As your caravan winds its way across the snowy terrain, a resource management mini-game kicks in. Similar to the ruthlessness of Oregon Trail, if you make the wrong decision or god forbid run out of food your followers start dropping like flies. It is this harsh realism within a fictional universe that makes this game stand out from the rest. The player goes through the same strains and stresses as the main protagonists, creating a real connection that makes you want to spend more time within this world of Vikings filled with myth and adventure.

“Choices made earlier in the game can real come back to bite you, every encounter with a stranger has you weigh up the chance that this person will end up stabbing you in the back.”

All of glowing reviews aside one particular company doesn’t care much for the Norse mythology or the turn based strategy gameplay. King.com the makers of many Facebook and mobile games have taken umbrage with Stoic’s choice of name. They have filled an opposition to the trademark of “The Banner Saga” arguing that is would lead to consumer confusion between their game Candy Crush Saga and Stoic’s game. On the face of it seems like a ludicrous claim, it is hard to confuse a puzzle game that revolves around candy and a turn based strategy based on Norse mythology. To most sound minded gamers this is a case of apples and oranges. However copyright and trademark claims over seemingly unrelated properties due to some tenuous linguistic link is nothing new.  It was only a few years ago when ZeniMax the parent company of Bethesda creators of the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series, filled a lawsuit against Minecraft developers Mojang. It was again a case of mistaken identity where ZeniMax claimed that consumers would be confused that they weren’t buying the massively popular RPG game The Elder Scrolls. Instead they had bought a trading card game Scrolls made by Mojang. Why do major video game companies think so little of gamer’s metal capacity, it is a little offensive that are grasp of the English language is in such doubt. The litigation raged on for a year until in March of 2012 Mojang finally caved in and settled to agree a licencing deal with ZeniMax. Were they could use the “Scrolls” name for their game but not for the branding of additional merchandise or follow up titles. Other companies like Edge games have spent year’s fruitlessly claiming copyright and trademark infringements against other companies over the use of the word “Edge”. The companies CEO Tim Langdell been removed from the IGDA (International Game Developers Association) board of directors for his unethical behaviour in the video game industry.

“A literal war of words has ignite between King.com and Stoic Studios all over the simple usage of Saga in the title of the companies’ games.”

The real reason for King to makes its series of trademark claims, is that so often when one bigger company start a court battle with a smaller company; the bigger more financial powerful company wins just by sheer relentlessness. Companies like Mojang and Stoic may have the moral support of the community but when it comes time to pay the lawyers, King has the money to hire the best and maintain lengthy legal proceedings. King themselves have already demonstrated that clout by winning a trademark on the word “Candy” although only granted last month with still time for others fill their own opposition. It set a scary precedence for companies to gain trademarks on common English words. Could Microsoft stop business using the word “window” or Amazon forces the rainforest to be renamed. King has gone on record as saying that they have no desire to stop Stoic from producing their Banner Saga series, that they have only carried out their actions to deter any would be copycats. Any interesting position to take from a company that produced Pac-Avoid a game that was a clone of Stolen Goose’s title Scamperghost, with King subsequently removing their game from the market proving their guilt. They state that their legal claims are just a formality that they must undertake to ensure their own futures. Trademark law does back up this claim by putting the ownness on the company to defend its own trademarks, otherwise they may be revoked on the ground on “non-use”. However this sort of rhetoric is slightly ominous from a company that seems to have scant regard for the detrimental affects their actions could have not just on the games industry, but for what is supposed to be a free market. Are we heading into a future where the Oxford Dictionary will cease to be published due to every company under the sun filling trademark claims on what have previously been common English words?

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post The Banner Saga Review appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“The games art style and visual appeal can’t be in doubt with the vocal talents of Elijah Wood, Jennifer Hale and Will Wheaton all featuring in this dialogue driven game.”

The game is a traditional 2D point and click adventure with no effort spared on the art direction. Broken Age features a hand drawn aesthetic that is very appealing in an industry that has become obsessed with graphical power. The Xbox One and PS4 vying for consumers by trying to pack as many polygons as they can onto gamers televisions. Adventure games by their nature have never really focused on pushing new advancements in graphical technology maybe aside from Myst. Broken Age like many of Tim Schaffer’s other games is more concerned about delivering a gripping narrative and establishing an engaging atmosphere. This game offers two dissecting storylines, one featuring a girl in a village tormented by a great beast that is only appeased by a sacrificial maiden. The other features a young man confined on a spaceship with an overbearing computer system, which has the personal traits of HAL crossed with loving mother. Personally I haven’t been able to complete the game yet not because the puzzles are too difficult on the contrary their far to one dimensional. I’m sure if you leave a group of monkeys in a room with the game one of them would beat it just by randomly clicking on the screen. The main reason I’m having difficulty playing the game is that it is not as engaging as I had hoped, I have no real personal feeling towards either character. In a game that is heavily based on narrative with any sort of gameplay mechanics few and far between aside from the few puzzle like mini-games, the story and character must be engaging. The main problem is there is a set path that must be followed and no chance for divergence. There are plenty of things to interact with but most just result in a short piece of dialogue with no real consequence. The player has no say in how things play out which means they can’t really connect with characters that only want to do things in a certain way.

“I have to wonder what the game would have resembled if Schaffer had only reached his initial $400,000 goal and not the $3 million he received.”

A comparison to another company that has recently established themselves as the new darlings of the adventure game genre. Telltale Games have very quickly become the go to studio for new adventure titles. Many of its developers coming from LucasArts where Tim Schaffer and his team cut their teeth. The one title that really put Telltale on the map was of course The Walking Dead, an adventure game based on the popular zombie graphic novel by Robert Kirkman. Although not original IP with most Telltale game featuring licenced content, they still managed to create an entirely unique narrative within the Walking Dead universe. The game is based around two protagonist trying to survive during a zombie apocalypse. Clementine a young girl trying to discover the faith of her parents and Lee her inadvertent guardian on their journey through the zombie filled American south. The game allows the player to make decisions that have a real effect on how the other characters interact with you and how certain events unfold. The game has been meet by universal critical acclaim, picking up over 90 “Game of the Year” awards in the process. The game has led to a resurgence in interest in adventure games.

“Never has the in game relationship of two characters had such a profound effect on the gaming community, The Last Us a close contender.” 

The most interesting thing about the game and others Telltale have produced is that they were self-published. Tim Schaffer and others at Double Fine have stated that crowd funding was the only way to go with major publishers unwilling to entertain the idea of producing an adventure game. However for well-established studios such as Telltale and Double Fine do they need publishers at all in this age of digital distribution? In the past publishers would also act as distributers making sure the game was printed to CD or cartridge. However with the growth in digital distribution services like Steam, there is no real need for publishers. Other companies like Mojang have demonstrated that they are more than capable of producing a game with no need of a publisher. In some ways Kickstarter is just another version of a traditional publisher just instead of all the money coming from one source it comes from multiple sources.

“Telltale is going all out with four new series in the works for 2014. The communities’ appetite for graphic adventure games unabated”

Crowd funding still operates in the same manner as other publishers, with Schaffer stating that the game would not be possible without a certain amount of capital. The development process touted as been open and inclusive to the gaming community, like many other video game titles stayed relatively behind closed doors. When the project ran out of money they had to come asking for more, eventually deciding to split the game into two parts to ensure it made it to market. I don’t see how Broken Age was supposed to break the mould for video game production when indie game developers have proved that they don’t need a big lump sum of cash up front before they will write a line of code or start manipulate polygons. Titles such as Don’t Starve, Retro City Rampage and of course Minecraft proving that if the idea and concept is strong enough then development should not be halter due to financial constraints. There is nothing inherently wrong with Schaffer using crowd funding to make his game, however it is the concept that a games scope and breath is limited by how much money is in the bank account. It goes against the creative nature of what video games are supposed to embody but then again voice acting from Elijah Wood obviously doesn’t come cheap.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Broken Age Review appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“Chinese history and culture has traditionally been viewed through the eyes of Western and Japanese developers.”

The 14 year old ban on selling video game console sold by foreign companies has been temporally lifted. The lifting of the ban will open the doors for the likes of Sony and Microsoft to sell their consoles to Chinese consumers, convenient timing with the two manufactures recently launching their new line of next gen consoles. Of course it will not be the first time Chinese gamers have had a chance to play Microsoft’s or Sony’s devices, with the black market for consoles ever present during the ban. It is also not the first time that foreign console developers have entered into the Chinese market. In 2003 Nintendo launched the iQue Player that was only sold in China and was an attempt to curb the rampant piracy that has plagued the video game industry in the country. China’s policy of keeping manufacturing in house has led to a culture of imitation. Where making counterfeit versions of popular western products is seen as more beneficial for the economy then spending money to import the goods from other markets. Any video game developer or console manufacturer will have to compete with an industry where the term copyright infringement doesn’t quite translate into mandarin. Although the ban has been lifted it is not open season for console manufactures with all devices to be sold in the country having to pass government review. If it meets the requirements it is then only available within Shanghai’s free trade zone. So combined with this and the extreme levels of piracy it will be an uphill battle for any foreign video game company to establish themselves within the Chinese market.

“The iQue Player was based of the outdated N64 system and never really gained much favour with Chinese consumers.”

Not deterred by these facts many western companies have already cast an eye on new digital hubs within the country as potential base of their Asian operations. Companies like Ubisoft have already gained a foothold in the Chinese market establishing Ubisoft Chengdu in 2007. Others like Activision and Blizzard have made deals with Chinese based companies to distribute their games, in what is becoming one of the fastest growing markets for video games. The one sector of the Chinese market that has seen the biggest growth is the PC market, in some part due to the lack of access to consoles and other devices. PC’s taking up two thirds of the industry as a whole and pulling in over $6 billion in revenue in the year of 2011 alone, with that number more than likely increasing in the intervening years. The PC market in China is one the largest globally, mainly thanks to the proliferation of free play games. The free to play model proving very popular in China, where the average worker only earns about 4,000 Yuan a month; just under €500 a month. The high price point of console and console games alike will be an inhibiting factor for many in China wanting to get their hands on the new consoles, with both the PS4 and XboxOne costing as much as an average worker’s monthly salary. Another reason why cheap counterfeit games and consoles are so prevalent in China with video game piracy also at above average levels.

“The Chinese game Final Combat strangely resembles a certain multiplayer title developed by Valve. Just can’t put a finger on it?”

China is not the only Asian region that has lacked investment by foreign companies with the Middle East also a relatively untapped market. Although many developers have published and distributed games to the Middle East, the translation of the games material over to the Arabic culture has been more an afterthought for the games creators. Just like China there are certain government restrictions that have hampered many major titles from been distributed throughout the region. Alcohol, sex and excessive violence all running afoul with the government’s censorship boards. Countries likes Saudi Arabia enforcing far stricter constraints than others. Again Ubisoft in its goal to grow its global presence has established an office in Abu Dhabi in 2011 to help localize many of its titles for the Middle Eastern audience. The Arabic language and its grammatical form proving to be the biggest challenge for western developers to interpolate. However with a market that is estimated to draw in $1 -2 billion in revenue each year, it should be in the interest of the big developers and publishers to investigate the potential for the expansion of their operations in the region.

“Skeletons seem to put the frighteners on Chinese officials, a comparison of the undead character from World of Warcraft stands as a testament to this.”

For a long time Japan has for the most part been the sole country with a substantial video game industry in Asia. Long established through companies like Nintendo, Konami, Sega, et al. However many analysts and industry professionals have been extolling the merits of other potential markets in Asia, China been the most enticing. The industry in China is still very localized and may take a decade or so to reach the same levels of revenue as its western counterparts, but its exponential growth his hard to ignore. Companies like NetEase and Tencent could be the next big players in the video game industry. Tencent over the last few years acquiring stakes in western developers such as Epic Games creators of Gears of War and Riot Games the studio behind the popular MMOBA game League of Legends. It might not be long before gamers will be playing titles that are made in China and disturbed to western audience, but importantly come from a Chinese cultural perspective. A game where the Chinese are the good guys and it’s the Americans who are the warmongering invaders.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post The State of the Industry: The Rising in the East appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

The post The State of the Industry: Year in Review 2013 appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

Montague’s Mount

“Montague’s Mount is not lacking in atmosphere, with the intent of creating an inhospitable and creepy island setting of the Irish coast achieved.”

It’s a pity that this game is unlikely to succeed with the promised follow up probably unlikely with so much negative feedback. The Irish video game industry needs as much success as it can get, if it wants to compete with the big boys on the world stage. Unlike other game development countries Ireland relies heavily on the indie gaming scene, with the major industry players like Havok and DemonWare not directly involved in the development of games. Since PopCap pulled out of Dublin last year there is a void of high end developers making games in this country, Activision/Blizzard in Cork the only remaining AAA developer. The hope is that one of the many indie developers in the country will hit it big and generate interest by AAA studios to come to Ireland, in the same way the Canadians achieved their place at the forefront of game development. The potential for this growth was demonstrated at the recent indie developer’s event State of Play.

“Christopher Colston of PunchScreen Games talking about Dwarves with glorious beards and Polish bears fighting aliens”

The event is now in its third year with a growing number of speakers, demonstrators and attendee’s year on year. The event is a chance for any aspiring indie developers to showcase their wares to an audience of fellow game design enthusiast. It is also a chance for developers to talk about their experiences in the video game industry and any upcoming projects that they are involved in. Talks came from those who had worked in the mainstream industry and are now looking to make it on their own, others were taking their first steps into game development. Some studios like BitSmith Games and Redwind Software have already had relative success in the industry. Although referencing a comment made by one of the speakers on the night, being the most successful developer in Ireland is equivalent to being the tallest Hobbit in the Shire. As a nation in the video game industry we are men among giants. It is set to be an uphill struggle for any new development studio to get widespread recognition beyond these shores. However there is light at the end of the tunnel with studios such as Pewter Games picking up awards for their Windows App game Galactic Tactics.

The potential for growth is there, whether it can be coalesced into a sustainable and more importantly profitable industry is another question. One man on a mission to answer this is Scraggly Dog Games founder Jamie McCormick, his aim as someone who has vast experience in the industry is to help as many Irish indie developers achieve success. His company in conjuncture with the establishment of GetIrishGames.ie, a digital hub for all Irish game studios to have the ability to get their games out to as wide an audience as possible. The site is set to go live in February of next year with developers from all 32 counties encouraged to get in contact and have their games made available on the service.

“Can a site like Get Irish Games maybe one day rival the likes of Steam or Green Man Gaming?”

If the site is a success it could pave a way forward for indie game development in this country. Hopefully encouraging bigger publishers and develops to cast an eye towards Ireland as a potential market for investment. Places such as Vancouver and Montreal in Canada or Austin in the US, have managed to do just that. By cultivating and nurturing the indie game development scene in their own cities, they have managed to become hotbeds of video game development. Can the likes of Dublin, Cork, Galway etc. copy these models and attempt to emulate their achievements. Aside from the odd set back a game like Montague’s Mount has suffered it is not reason enough to draw a line in sand and give up. It is events like State of Play that give hope and breeds life into an industry that so far has remained largely dormant in this country, it is long past time for the Irish video game industry to wake from its slumber.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Montague’s Mount Review appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“The single player campaign does feature a mission where an attack dog is punched in the face, subtle hint to Call of Duty: Ghosts?”

I would put forward a case that the single player campaign is the reason for Battlefield’s flagging credibility with video game fans. It was the stellar success of Infinity Wards Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, with its gripping narrative campaign that made all other FPS video game developers green with envy. The latest Battlefield campaign is set to carry on the storyline from the last game, what that story was I haven’t a clue as like most Battlefield fans I skipped the single player and went straight to multiplayer. It would seem that the Battlefield 4 narrative will be as forgettable as the last, although it does feature the writing talents of Jesse Stern who worked on Modern Warfare. Maybe it is the last throw of the ‘dice for DICE’, will they continue to pump money into producing a single player campaign that none of its consumer base plays? They established themselves as a multiplayer franchise, why not stick to what they’re good at. A perfect example of this would be the console arcade title Battlefield 1943 which was released back in 2009. The game featured only multiplayer gameplay and went on to set the records for arcade game sales on Xbox Live, albeit after some early launch server issues. Now why does that sound familiar? It proves that fans of the Battlefield series are fans for the multiplayer aspect of the game. I would wonder how many gamers would complain if the next Battlefield game was released without a single player campaign, in fact would anyone even notice that it was missing.

“Battlefield 1943 had the best day one sales on the Xbox Live Arcade and is one of the standout titles on the service”

Battlefield is not the only franchise to have a ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ attitude. The entire industry is rife with copycat developers, or in most cases over controlling publishers eager to boost their own bank balance. Call of Duty: World at War introduced the world to ‘Nazi Zombies’ and ‘horde mode gameplay’. Although it was Gears of War that pioneered horde mode, even coining the vernacular used to describe the genre. It was Nazi Zombies that brought it to the attention of other developers who felt that their games were lagging behind if it didn’t feature some assemblance of a horde mode. Left 4 Dead, Halo and Mass Effect among others soon had their own versions of horde mode included in their games. It is very much a case of what you can do, I can do better. Call of Duty again was to blame for the current trend of the ‘Season Pass’ as a method of distributing DLC (Downloadable Content). Players would pay a one-off sum of money around the games launch and have access to the additional content that would be released over the flowing year.

“Zombies horde type gameplay has now become an essential part of the Call of Duty series, I wonder how long it will be till they produce a standalone title”

Since Call of Duty has become a record breaking series, regularly smashing sales records with its annually released series of games. It is easy to see why many other video game studios have wanted to emulate such a successful franchise. Whether it is the developers themselves wanting to be on level par with their peers or greedy executives only focused on sales charts. The industry is now always looking to the Call of Duty series to see what new gameplay or marketing innovation they can copy and hopefully bring some success to their own games. I would hope that instead of the Battlefield developers comparing themselves to Call of Duty and attempting to counter what they provide and instead look back to their own catalogue of titles. DICE must come to a realisation that it is their massive co-operative multiplayer that is the key to their success and devote more development time and money towards honing the one aspect of unique gameplay that their series has to offer.

By Colm O’Sullivan

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“It’s off to the Caribbean to get into more scrapes with the dreaded redcoats and maybe hang out with some famous pirates along the way”

The first Assassin’s Creed game was released in 2007 and although some may have criticized its repetitive gameplay, it was a refreshing break in narrative content. Very few games look to spend so much development time on historical accuracy and creating a realistic interpretation of famous settings from the past. At the heart of it Assassin’s Creed can be seen as a series of Historical Anthologies, teaching its players about important people and events from the past. The series is now moving onto its sixth title with Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, numerous mobile and handheld titles have also being released along the way. It has now become an annual affair with a new game out every winter. I have to wonder like another annually released game Call of Duty is the development process being hampered by their shorted development cycle. If you compare those series to one such as GTA that just recently had its seventh game in its series released last month. Rockstar have taken sixteen years to reach this point with each new title taking an average of 3-4 years in development. Both the Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed series having development cycles lasting half as much time. Does a longer development time mean that the studio will produce a better game, going by GTA V sales figures it would be safe to make the assumption that it does have some affect. Not that the other two don’t sell well, in fact it’s because of consumer demand that those series receive a new title every year. The question I’m looking to put forward is how much better would those series be if the development cycle was extended. Instead of each of the games looking very similar graphical and only adding a few additional gameplay feature to distinguish it enough from it predecessor, maybe a little more could be asked of the creators of the games. This can be illustrated by comparing the first Assassins Creed game with the second which was released two years later in 2009. The leap in graphics and gameplay demonstrates that when time is taken in the development process the game is generally better for it.

“Call of Duty has become slighty stagnant, the developers are gambling on dogs been the key to reviving the series”

There is of course some cases against such a theory Duke Nukem Forever being the prime example with an extraordinary long 15 year development cycle resulting in what was universally panned by most critics. The developers of the game 3D Realms took this theory a little too far with the games designers continually scraping the project and starting over until it was perfect. The problem was the longer they took the more outdated the gameplay and graphics became and thus they would have to start all over again. Eventually the studio went bankrupt and only for the last minute rescue of the IP by Gearbox Studios that the game ever saw the light of day, whether that was good thing or not. For years Duke Nukem took the title for Vaporware of the year, awarded for the game consistently missing its announced release dates. Another such current title that could soon be following in a similar path is Valve and their long awaited Half-Life 3. Valve again like 3D Realms have never being rushed when making their games in particular the Half Life series. Although Valve take their time with Half-Life 2 coming out six years after the original, they have garnered a well-earned reputation for producing some of the best games in the industry.

“The more valve hold off on annocing any details about the next game the more fans clamour for any shred of news”

It is unlikely that Ubisoft or Activision are going to stop releasing a new title for their respective cash cow franchises. However do gamers need to practise a bit more patient to give game designers more time to make better games? It is the gamer’s insatiable demand that has driven the current release schedules of such series with the pleas of over worked game developers falling on deaf ears. Do we need a Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed every year can’t we just have a break every so often. The video game industry releases more titles a year than ever before and a wide range of games available throughout the year, the choice of alternative is endless. Have gamers become junkies for certain titles with Call of Duty players getting withdrawals if they don’t get their annual fix and Battlefield 4 not enough to feed the habit.

By Colm O’Sullivan

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