Friday, March 09, 2007
GDC: Live from GDC! GDC!
Just attended a great planel on the autobiography of flOw, where thatgamecompany and creator Jenova Chen discussed how they came to be and the last year in their lives which took them from USC design students to a small team with the #1 game on the PSN network. Great presentation, one of the more interesting tidbits being that they had to decide between PS3 and Wii for the title; it seems like such a good fit for Sony and their more risky publishing tastes, but it could certainly be argued that it would be an even better fit for the Wii with the more complex motion control. I'm happy with their choice though, and it's definitely working out for them.
Yesterday was a bit of a ridiculous morning, with back to back to back to back talks by industry icons and legends. Tom and I went to see Cliffy B talk Gears of War iteration first thing in the morning, then attended Shigeru Miyamoto's keynote on the "creative vision," went straight to Peter Molyneux talking innovations in Fable 2, then a very refreshing and hilarious game design challenge with David Jaffe, Alexey Pajitnov (Tetris, Hexic) and Harvey Smith (Deus Ex). Regarding the challenge, the three designers were given the challenge of creating a game concept around a needle and thread interface, whereby the controller is a piece of cloth, plastic needles and thread. I'll talk more detail another time, but Jaffe had a hilariously presented Paper Airplane designing game called Playper, Pajitnov had a very mathematically, systematically explained simple-yet-brilliant puzzle game design reminiscent of Snak.... okay what the hell? Laura Foy is sitting on the computer next to me and just answered the phone at the top of her voice and proceeded to have the loudest conversation of all time. What a famous bitch. Anyhow... yeah, and Harvey made a ludicrously ambitious, well thought out adventure game with RPG elements. Good stuff.
Tom and I played a four-player game of Calling All Cars yesterday, and I've gotta say it's the most fun I've had at the show so far (and it's been a damn great show). It's just one of those instantly great, instantly accessible and entertaining games. The controls and concept take about a minute to pick up, and then it's just riotous fun until the game is over. You just drive around picking up criminals, and try to return them to drop-off points of different value before someone steals them from you by bumping into you or hits you with one of many available weapons. And that's about the extent of it. I dominated the game thanks to my thirty seven years with the LAPD, naturally, but even those other losers still had a great time. Between CaC, Home and LittleBigPlanet, I once again need a PS3. But I also need a job and an HDTV, in that order... but still! It's a close third.
Really, GDC is just a great place for business. I've met a ton of great contacts; if you have someone you want to talk to you, walk around long enough and you'll run into them. It's smaller, more professional and exponentially more focused than E3. And instead of waiting in line to play embarrassing builds of too-early games, you get to hear the best talent in the industry talk about how they make great games, imparting their philosophies and methods to the people who matter to the future of games. And all in a setting where there's not a blaring half pipe four feet away from you while you're trying to ask someone a question.
Gotta run to a session called "SPORE's Magic Crayons." Wish me luck!
(and tune in tonight for a podcast, hopefully)
Yesterday was a bit of a ridiculous morning, with back to back to back to back talks by industry icons and legends. Tom and I went to see Cliffy B talk Gears of War iteration first thing in the morning, then attended Shigeru Miyamoto's keynote on the "creative vision," went straight to Peter Molyneux talking innovations in Fable 2, then a very refreshing and hilarious game design challenge with David Jaffe, Alexey Pajitnov (Tetris, Hexic) and Harvey Smith (Deus Ex). Regarding the challenge, the three designers were given the challenge of creating a game concept around a needle and thread interface, whereby the controller is a piece of cloth, plastic needles and thread. I'll talk more detail another time, but Jaffe had a hilariously presented Paper Airplane designing game called Playper, Pajitnov had a very mathematically, systematically explained simple-yet-brilliant puzzle game design reminiscent of Snak.... okay what the hell? Laura Foy is sitting on the computer next to me and just answered the phone at the top of her voice and proceeded to have the loudest conversation of all time. What a famous bitch. Anyhow... yeah, and Harvey made a ludicrously ambitious, well thought out adventure game with RPG elements. Good stuff.
Tom and I played a four-player game of Calling All Cars yesterday, and I've gotta say it's the most fun I've had at the show so far (and it's been a damn great show). It's just one of those instantly great, instantly accessible and entertaining games. The controls and concept take about a minute to pick up, and then it's just riotous fun until the game is over. You just drive around picking up criminals, and try to return them to drop-off points of different value before someone steals them from you by bumping into you or hits you with one of many available weapons. And that's about the extent of it. I dominated the game thanks to my thirty seven years with the LAPD, naturally, but even those other losers still had a great time. Between CaC, Home and LittleBigPlanet, I once again need a PS3. But I also need a job and an HDTV, in that order... but still! It's a close third.
Really, GDC is just a great place for business. I've met a ton of great contacts; if you have someone you want to talk to you, walk around long enough and you'll run into them. It's smaller, more professional and exponentially more focused than E3. And instead of waiting in line to play embarrassing builds of too-early games, you get to hear the best talent in the industry talk about how they make great games, imparting their philosophies and methods to the people who matter to the future of games. And all in a setting where there's not a blaring half pipe four feet away from you while you're trying to ask someone a question.
Gotta run to a session called "SPORE's Magic Crayons." Wish me luck!
(and tune in tonight for a podcast, hopefully)
// posted by Nick @ 1:47 PM 
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