#gdc 2008

[g4zdtechtv]

THE PILE PRESENTS: X-Play - GDC '08: Night 5 | 2/22/08

It may be the last day, but their coverage is FAR from over!

[g4zdtechtv]

THE PILE PRESENTS: X-Play - GDC ‘08: Night 3 | 2/20/08

Including a chat with Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw himself!

(4GTV - 24/7. LIVE. WATCH NOW.)

[g4zdtechtv]

THE PILE PRESENTS: X-Play - GDC '08: Night 2 | 2/19/08

This was a triumph...

(4GTV - 24/7. LIVE. WATCH NOW.)

[g4zdtechtv]

THE PILE PRESENTS: X-Play - GDC '08: Night 1 | 2/18/08

You paid for the whole seat, but you'll only need the EDGE!

(4GTV - 24/7. LIVE. WATCH NOW.)

[g4zdtechtv]

THE PILE PRESENTS: X-Play - GDC '08: Night 4 | 2/21/08

With the Broadcast TV Premiere of Street Fighter IV!

[g4zdtechtv]

X-Play Classic - Still at GDC

This was a triumph.

[escapingburger]

GDC: More Games (And More People Behind Them)

(Originally posted on 1UP.com, March 9, 2008.

I still like telling the story about joining Phil Fish's entourage and getting into a party on the strength of his IGF trophy.

As much as I wanted to, I never did make it back to GDC. But my current job should give me a much better chance, so I'm hopeful for next year. We'll see!)

Fez Polytron/Kokoromi

I never actually played Fez during GDC. My patience in an expo setting--where there's always something else to do instead of waiting around watching other people play games--is generally pretty limited, and with the booth as busy as it was, I was never quite willing to put in the time necessary to secure a turn at the controls. In retrospect, I probably should have.

I at least had a couple good opportunities to talk with the creators and even fraternize a bit. I actually got introduced to Phil Fish of Polytron before I knew all that much about the game. I realized which game he worked on since he was wearing a fez, and I was somewhat familiar with the whole 2D/3D thing, but that's about as far as it went. Even so, I came to like him right away--not only did he get me into a rather exclusive party with the old "whip out your IGF trophy" bit, but I discovered that he shares two of my most fundamental beliefs: Silent Hill 2 is awesome, and the zombie apocalypse is inevitable.

It wasn't until later that I was able to get a more complete understanding of the game, though I'll spare the explanation here since you've probably already read Jeremy's piece. The biggest surprise for me was that, like The Dishwasher, Fez is also built on the XNA Framework, and the Polytron guys seem to really like our platform--including some stuff I personally worked on, which made me feel pretty good. Also like The Dishwasher, I think this game could be one of the standout releases on the framework if everything comes together well. The game is still largely a proof of concept at this point, but it looks very solid for what it is, and I'll definitely be following its progress in the months to come. This is just one more reason to get up for work in the morning.

Fret Nice Pieces Interactive

This is one of those ideas that a lot of people have but few actually execute on: What if you used a rhythm game controller for a non-rhythm game? Fret Nice, then, is a platformer that uses a guitar controller for input. What's interesting is that it isn't just about creative button mapping, but about creating a more physical experience like you hear about with your Wiis and your Rock Bands these days. For example, you use the fret buttons to move, but to move more quickly you have to actively strum the guitar--faster strumming means faster movement. To jump, you have to swing the guitar upward like you're activating star power. The result is a platformer that requires a bit more player involvement than just pushing buttons.

It takes some getting used to, but it's actually a lot of fun--there's a bit of awkwardness to the controls, but I think that will go away with enough familiarity. But you don't have to take my word for it, as there's a free demo up on the site right now. [Note: Not anymore, but it's on XBLA/PSN now.] If you have the controller for it--I know the 360 X-plorer works, though I'm not sure how wide compatibility is past that--I'd definitely recommend giving it a try.

The Path Tale of Tales

This is another game I never found the chance to play, nor did I even talk to the people behind it. However, I want to briefly mention it just as a counterpoint to the "fun-first" mentality I noticed in many established game designers during the sessions. Tale of Tales is not a group that believes fun is all that matters, or that story is just icing, or that there's some hard line between art and interactivity. This is a group that wrote a Realtime Art Manifesto that repeatedly asks the reader to not make games ("The game structure of rules and competition stands in the way of expressiveness," it says).

Honestly, these guys are probably too pretentious even for me, but that doesn't make what they say about the broader potential of our interactive medium any less true. I'm glad for the Ken Levines and Eric Wolpaws of the world who use story and artistry to merely enhance their finely-honed gameplay, but I'm also glad there are are people out there who realize that not every "game" has to work that way. The Path, from what I saw, didn't look much like a game at all--it looked like something else, and I think we could use more of these something elses to show that the medium is capable of things very different from what we're used to.

GDC: The End GDC was a huge event, with a ton of stuff going on all the time, so much that I could really just keep writing if I wanted to. But I think I've spent enough time on this, and it's been long enough that the relevance of these posts is starting to wane. So, here I close my report on GDC 2008, which I found to be quite the enlightening (and entertaining) experience. I really hope the corporate overlords will see fit to send me again next year.

[escapingburger]

GDC: The Games (And The People Behind Them)

(Originally posted on 1UP.com, March 6, 2008.

Man, how great was Audiosurf? I've still never played the sequel, but I bet I'd enjoy it.)

As I mentioned before, GDC was all about indie gaming. I personally played nothing else at the conference, spending all my game time at either the IGF booths or the XNA Lobby Bar, checking out the works on display and/or talking to their creators. Yeah, that's the other great thing about independent games--not only are they some of the most interesting works out there right now, but their creators are totally accessible. These aren't games from headline-making idols backed by teams 200 strong, after all; they're created by small crews (down to a single person) who would honestly love to hear what you, personally, think about their games.

So, I do want to talk about some games at GDC that particularly stood out to me, but I don't just want to talk about the games. Indie games are very much products of their creators, many of whom are pretty awesome people in their own right, so it only seems fair to bring them into this as well.

The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai Ska Studios

This wasn't in the IGF, but games don't get much more independent than this--The Dishwasher is entirely the product of one guy. Like, programming, art, music, animation, you name it. Meet James Silva.

If you're familiar with the story behind this game at all, you can probably guess that GDC wasn't exactly the first time I'd seen it. The Dishwasher was one of the winners of the first DreamBuildPlay contest last year, and will be one of the first XNA Game Studio games to be released through Xbox LIVE Arcade. It has more than a few fans around the office, for the simple reasons that 1) it's awesome, and 2) it kind of justifies everything we've been doing. I can't speak for everyone, but I know I took my job because I wanted to help make game development better... and seeing that one guy can make something like this due to the technology I helped create, well, that sort of makes it all feel worthwhile.

I finally met James for the first time the Tuesday of GDC, which means I can say I knew him approximately twelve hours before he was famous--the next morning, he was up onstage at our keynote showing off The Dishwasher, and shortly therafter a demo was made available to millions over Xbox LIVE. It was kind of amazing to watch as he became a minor celebrity over the course of the week, and at one point I literally had a conversation interrupted so someone could get a picture with him. I can't say I got to know James incredibly well in the limited time there was, but he certainly seems deserving of everything his game is bringing him.

Speaking of the game... have you played it? It's no longer up for download, I'm afraid, but the demo is still playable until the 9th if you have it already. It's a very fast, visceral, combo-heavy action game in a similar vein to Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry, but all stylized and 2D. It isn't quite as out there as some indie games, but it's damn fun, and I wouldn't be surprised if the full version fits nicely into the top tier of XBLA games. I'm really looking forward to it.

Audiosurf Dylan Fitterer

Do I need to say anything about Audiosurf at this point? Since GDC, seemingly everyone I read on 1UP has gushed about it, and this love has proven to be no isolated phenomenon. I'm really happy to see what could have been another obscure indie title getting the enormous respect it deserves, but to maintain my own indie cred, I should point out that I liked it before it was cool. Really!

I glimpsed the game at its booth while first exploring the IGF area, but from a distance all I could see was something racer-ish with a nice visual style. I think I was actually looking at something else when I noticed the soothing strains of Dragonforce emanating from the Audiosurf kiosk, which was kind of interesting. Looking closer, I realized that the action on the screen appeared to be synchronized to the music, which was more interesting. Then I overheard the guy at the booth telling someone that you could play with whatever music you wanted, and that's when I really started paying attention.

This is basically the game I've wanted to play since 1999 or so, the year that Vib Ribbon wasn't released in America. That particular title taunted me for the better part of a decade, though I'd later hear (uh, at GDC) that its music synchronization wasn't really that great. I've heard the same about Phase, and I know that's the case for Every Extend Extra Extreme, whose custom song mode is disturbingly difficult to get on beat given how important that is to gameplay. The idea of a music game that can integrate any song I want appeals to me deeply, but with not even esteemed developers ever quite getting it right, I started to lose hope. Maybe, I thought, this just isn't something current technology can do.

Audiosurf is the game that proved me happily wrong, providing a gameplay experience that integrates and enhances essentially anything you throw at it. I think part of it is the fact that it doesn't require you, the player, to directly match beats, instead building a different type of game out of your music (unsurprisingly, Rez was a big influence). But that doesn't mean the synchronization algorithm is just a detail; it's actually a very impressive piece of work that seems to detect beats, intensity, and even different instruments to produce unique tracks that fit the music exactly and always feel awesome. Personally, I like songs with interesting beats and/or large changes in intensity (i.e., prog rock) because this tends to create a lot of big ups and downs, but any type of music will provide its own, appropriately tailored experience.

I tried to keep things fairly professional with most of my IGF meanderings, but when I came to Audiosurf I couldn't help just smiling and enjoying myself. After a single play I was promising Dylan Fitterer that I'd buy his game as soon as I got back home, and I did. There's a free demo up on Steam, and the full game is only $10, so, really, you should give this a try. Although I get the sense that a lot of you already have.

Next time: More games!