A Game Development Blog

DICE: Blizzard’s Building Blocks of Success

There’s more than one ingredient in Blizzard’s Secret Sauce of Success.

Blizzard is an industry leader with one of the most pristine track records in game development. You only have to look as far as Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft and World of Warcraft for proof of this.

But that success didn’t happen overnight—there wasn’t one singular moment where everything just “clicked” at some point in Blizzard’s 17-year history.

“We didn’t come out the gate and try to do World of Warcraft day one. With each game we’ve made, we’ve gotten a little more ambitious,” said Blizzard SVP of game design Rob Pardo at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas. “We’re very careful about where we innovate… We don’t try to do too many things at one time.”

Instead, Blizzard takes calculated steps, setting and reaching more focused (yet still lofty) goals.

This can be seen in an overview of Blizzard’s history. The studio began as a company that did ports for games, and eventually worked its way into making original games, like Lost Vikings, Blizzard’s first completely original game.

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New Images of the Animated film Wall-E Surface

It is the year 2700. Following man’s decision to abandon earth due to the deadly toxins that fill the air, human life flees to live aboard a huge spaceship circling the planet. Waste Allocation Load Lifters – Earth Class are deployed to clean up the surface, but after hundreds of years of work, one of the robots decides he’s had enough and heads off into outer space…

Check out these 4 new images from the animated 3d movie Wall-E.

Images (4) 

Online PC Gaming Service “Steam” hits 15 Million Users

Steam creator Valve has announced that its distribution platform has recently reached more than 15 million users, as its holiday sales grow over 158 percent over the year prior driven by Call of Duty 4, BioShock and Orange Box.

The company said that in addition to community features added in September of 2007 like personal profiles, friends lists, groups, instant messaging, text and voice chat, event schedulers, even more unannounced services will be added in the coming year to support forthcoming games like co-op zombie survival title Left 4 Dead.

Valve also again noted the recent launch of Steamworks, a suite of free publishing and development tools giving developers access to amongst others, Steam’s real-time stats, auto-updating and matchmaking utilities.

Said Valve president Gabe Newell, “PC gaming is thriving, and has evolved into an era of constant connectivity. That connectivity gives us the ability to have a much better relationship with customers, not just for delivering our games, but across all aspects of our business - including the design, development, and support of our games. Features like Guest Passes, Free Weekends, Gifting, and the Steam Community have been very well received both by customers and the developers who are using Steam. We are accelerating our release of new functionality in the next year as well as finding new ways to work with our partners such as the release of Steamworks, which allows them to bring the many benefits of Steam to their packaged products.”

Source

CNET Reviews 40gb Sony Playstation 3

Sony set out to make a multimedia powerhouse with the PS3, and we’re glad to say that it succeeded admirably. The inclusion of a Blu-ray player makes it almost a must-have for gamers looking to get into high definition video (or even a high-def buff with only middling game aspirations), particularly at this price point. Hardcore gamers, however, may need to think twice. With few exclusive titles at launch and a dwindling list of PS3-only games slated for the future, the
PlayStation 3 will surely have its hands full competing against the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii.”

The good:

* Impressive graphics capability
* Looks swish
* Cheapest Blu-ray player on the market
* Plenty of multimedia features
* Wireless controllers, plus recharge cable is included free
* Robust online store.”

The bad:

* Expensive for a games console
* Few outstanding exclusive titles in launch line-up
* Lack of backwards compatibility
* Only comes with composite cables
* Sixaxis capability needs to be better utilized.”

Source

Bungie’s next game “totally different” from Halo

In its latest podcast, Halo developer Bungie has revealed that its next game will be “something totally different” from what the developer’s fans know the studio for.

Speaking on the podcast with content manager Frank O’Connor, lead designer Christian Allen and writer Luke Smith, Brian Jarrard, director of franchise and community affairs revealed that from what he’s seen of the new, super-secret game, it’s “pretty cool”.

Speculation has been rife on what Bungie, acclaimed developer of the blockbuster Halo series, will do next, now that Halo 3 has been out for a number of months and the studio has gained independence from ex-parent company Microsoft.

Unfortunately, Jarrard remained tight-lipped, saying the game was “far far too early” to talk about. He did, however, say that “eventually… we’ll have a lot of cool things to start talking about.”

He said: “It’s tough for us to really get into the stuff our listeners would love to hear about which is what we’re currently working on.

“We can say… is sort of Bungie’s next game that isn’t Halo 3 expansion, DLC type stuff, this would be something totally different from Bungie.

“(It’s)far far too early in its state to even say more than that at this point, but eventually I’m sure we’ll have a lot of cool things to start talking about.

“I can just say that some of the stuff that I’ve seen is pretty cool.”

First Image from Disney/Pixar’s ‘Up’

Emotiv To Unveil Consumer Neurosystem Headset At GDC

Stealth-mode technology firm Emotiv Systems has revealed, via a new invitation, its plans to unveil the Emotiv consumer headset, a “high fidelity neuro-system” controller for gaming, at an event during Game Developers Conference later this month.

The technology was previously showcased to some extent at GDC 2007, but a new invitation given to members of the press reveals that an “exclusive launch event” on February 19th at the Metreon in San Francisco will show the final version of the tech for the first time.

According to the literature, the headset is described as containing “a high fidelity neuro-system that redefines the realm of human-computer interaction”, and a special presentation showing its applications in creating “a new horizon for interactive gameplay” is promised.

The company’s website also adds that licensed developers will have access to the Emotiv SDK in March 2008, and it consists of The Expressiv suite, which can identify facial expressions in real-time, the Affectiv suite, which measures players’ discreet emotional states, and the Cognitiv suite, which detects players’ conscious thoughts.

Emotiv itself was founded in 2003 by four award-winning scientists and executives: internationally recognized neuroscientist Professor Allan Snyder, chip-design pioneer Neil Weste, and technology entrepreneurs Tan Le and Nam Do. Its board of directors includes noted former Microsoft game exec Ed Fries.

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Featured Game Developer: 2K Games

Founded in 2005, 2K develops and publishes top-line PC, console and handheld entertainment software, with a strong concentration in three distinct categories, sports, high profile licenses and specialty products.

2K games perhaps are best known for their recent blockbuster PC / Xbox 360 game Bioshock, which won many awards in several categories. 2K has also brought gamers Civilzation 4 and Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion just to name a few. 2K games has studios in several locations including the US, Australia, China, and the Czech Republic.

You can find out more about 2K at their official site 

The Future of RTS Games

Have you ever experienced this feeling after playing a real-time strategy game? You get used to the controls, learn all the hotkeys, become efficient with the mouse, and find that the best way to win is to build units and firepower as fast as possible and throw them at the opponent in successive, inexorable waves.

It’s not that the game ceases to be fun, but that it ceases to be fresh: the basic strategy never really changes. Essentially, your only viable strategy — your overall plan for success — is to wear down your opponent and destroy him.

I have experienced this feeling. As empowering — and, at least initially, as fun — as real-time strategy (RTS) games are, I often find that they turn into real-time tactics (RTT) games after a while. So often, there is no other viable plan for success beyond attrition. Sure, I may construct that building here instead of there, or gain control of those resources over there instead of these here, but I can never really change my basic plan for victory.

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A Closer Look Inside SCEA San Diego

Check out this great Gamasutra feature where they take a tour of SCEA San Diego, and talk technology, video game design approaches, and a method of creating detailed 3D assets a lot faster than traditional methods for a game. Also included is what appears to be a new screenshot of the stunning PS3 title Killzone 2, which floored people lately at their unveiling at GDC 07.

Why are we posting an image of a rough model of a blown out building? Check out the entire story to find out:

Read it here