Game Developer Conference 07

1. Game Developer Conference 07 Roundup & Sample-Bag by Ben Hutchison Lead Developer, Playscape Games

2. Shigeru Miyamoto • Famed designer of Donkey Kong/Mario/Zelda/Pikmen, gave a keynote. • Well attended - the queue wrapped fully around a city block! • Outlined Nintendo’s “Expanded Audience” strategy by way of the • Wife-o-meter - they aim to make games that would appeal to his wife, who has “no interest in games”.

3. LittleBigPlanet • Sony used their Keynote to show off LittleBigPlanet • UK indie Media Molecule. • Awesome concept!: • Cute 10cm high characters • Cute little platform world. • Physics & gadgets everywhere • Emergent gameplay • Customisable avatar & world • “Art-n-crafty” in-game creation tools • Social Gaming • Share objects & levels with community • Give & get info/comments on content, what’s most popular, etc

4. GDC Mobile • Frustration evident in North American mobile games market: • “Can’t innovate!” • “Operator squeezing me out!” • “Don’t know my customer’s needs” • Supermarket model prevails: • Limited customer purchase options • Getting Shelf Space key to success • Mass market casual games dominant • No shelf space for risky, hardcore or niche titles: “long tail” of mobile games Mobile-game-free zone

5. GDC Mobile • Innovation continues in Asia: • Path of Warrior, a multiplayer online mobile game by Korean developer Gamevil. • Action RPG • Item acquire/trading focus • 80K subscribers in 18 months • 10% operator revenue share vs typically 50% in US

6. GDC Mobile • Consultancy Shufflebrain advocated adoption of Social game features, eg • Points, Leader Boards • Player Profiles • Comments and feedback • User generated content • Idea is that players, even of single-player games, want to feel connected to a community • Few mobile games in this space, but eg • Xbox Live (on Xbox) • 3’s SeeMeTV: “mobile YouTube”

7. Multithreaded Programming • Coverage of multithreading featured heavily in the programming track. • The near exponential growth in single thread performance we’ve enjoyed over ~30 years has ended. Multicore CPUs are the future. • Parallelise or Perish • Valve outlined how they converted their Source engine to take advantage of multi-core CPU systems.

8. Peter Molyeux & Fable 2 • Peter Molyeux spoke very well on innovation in Lionhead’s RPG Fable • Track record of outrageously ambitious games that promise more than is eventually delivered • His Big Idea: Love. You the player feel Love while you play the game. • A faithful dog companion that wants to please and help you. • Family members that miss you and fret when you go away adventuring. • Also: • All city buildings are purchasable • Can have sex & babies in the game (no screenshots provided) * For the record, Arcadia features a faithful dog companion, independently conceived. ;)

9. Ernest Adams • Game designer advocated going beyond (violent) conflict as the core game mechanic • Exploration;“virtual tourism” • A space to hang out with friends in • Learning • On Far Cry: “it’s a beautiful tropical island and I’d love to look around, but everywhere I go a guy pops out and tries to kill me!” • Dig the message, Ernest! but …where have you been the last 3 years? • Nintendogs • Viva Pinata • Professor Neurogotchi’s Brain Training • LittleBigPlanet

10. Briefly… • AI Roundtable • “Finite State Machines” popular • “Goodness Score for Each Alternative Action” runner-up • No one using Learning or Neural Net • Casual/Web Games • Lots of sessions & interest • Advertising-supported gaming • Independent Games Festival • Won: Aquaria underwater platform • I Liked: BaseInvaders, Band of Bugs

11. Closing Remarks: Themes for 2007 • Player created content and gameplay • Online, connected and social gaming • More types of games & gameplay for a wider audience • Thank you