Game.Developer.2009.10.pdf

TOOL BOX: AUTODESK 3DS MAX 2010

VOL16NO9 OCTOBER2009

CONTENTS.1009

VOLUME 16 NUMBER 9

POSTMORTEM

22 SUCKER PUNCH'S IN FAMOUS

IN FAMOUS represents Sucker Punch's departure from the cheerier

world of S LY C OOPER and into the gritty next-gen world of bald heroes

and exploding everything. Lots of good lessons await, particularly

proving the old axiom: "The player is always right."

By Chris Zimmerman

DEPARTMENTS

2 GAME PLAN By Brandon Sheffield

[EDITORIAL]

FEATURES

Publishing Papas

7 WRAP IT UP

Most designers don't like C++, because they don't understand it. But

scripting languages are a lot more like, well, languages. SWIG is an

open-source tool that helps you wrap your C++ into languages like

Python and LUA, and we've got some tips for how to do it.

By Juan Manuel Alvarez

4 HEADS UP DISPLAY

[NEWS]

2009 video game remix albums, PAX report,

and cocos2d.

38 TOOL BOX By Jeff Hanna

[REVIEW]

Autodesk 3ds Max 2010

40 THE INNER PRODUCT By Noel Llopis

[PROGRAMMING]

13 PRESS A TO JUMP

Telling the player what they need to know without telling them what

they already know is an achievement. Tutorials can be seamlessly

integrated, or maddeningly abrasive, and Tom Smith has both

rudimentary reminders and advanced tips to help your information

flow like sands through the hourglass. By Tom Smith

Becoming Social

43 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore

[ART]

Send in the Clones

47 DESIGN OF THE TIMES By Soren Johnson

[DESIGN]

Playing the Odds

18 TOP 20 PUBLISHERS

Our 7th annual report, which empirically ranks the top publishers in

the world, showcases a few new faces, while cementing in history the

status of the old guard. When the number one video game publisher

was founded in 1889, you know you're working in an interesting

industry. By Trevor Wilson and Brandon Sheffield

51 AURAL FIXATION By Jesse Harlin

[SOUND]

Less Is More

56 ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT By Matthew Wasteland

[HUMOR]

Our Important Meeting

COVER ART: SUCKER PUNCH ART TEAM

WWW.GDMAG.COM 1

GAME PLAN // BRANDON SHEFFIELD

www.gdmag.com

Think Services, 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl.,

San Francisco, CA 94107

t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090

PUBLISHING PAPAS

SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND

ADDRESS CHANGES

t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606

e: gamedeveloper@halldata.com

EDITORIAL

PUBLISHER

Simon Carless l scarless@gdmag.com

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Brandon Sheffield l bsheffield@gdmag.com

PRODUCTION EDITOR

Jeffrey Fleming l jfleming@gdmag.com

ART DIRECTOR

Joseph Mitch l jmitch@gdmag.com

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Jesse Harlin l jharlin@gdmag.com

Steve Theodore l stheodore@gdmag.com

Noel Llopis l nllopis@gdmag.com

Soren Johnson l sjohnson@gdmag.com

Damion Schubert l dschubert@gdmag.com

ADVISORY BOARD

Hal Barwood Designer-at-Large

Mick West Independent

Brad Bulkley Neversoft

Clinton Keith Independent

Bijan Forutanpour Sony Online Entertainment

Mark DeLoura Independent

Carey Chico Pandemic Studios

ADVERTISING SALES

GLOBAL SALES DIRECTOR

Aaron Murawski e: amurawski@think-services.com

t: 415.947.6227

MEDIA ACCOUNT MANAGER

John Malik Watson e: jmwatson@think-services.com

t: 415.947.6224

GLOBAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, EDUCATION

AND RECRUITMENT

Gina Gross e: ggross@think-services.com

t: 415.947.6241

COORDINATOR, EDUCATION AND RECRUITMENT

Rafael Vallin e: rvallin@think-services.com

t: 415.947.6223

ADVERTISING PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Robert Steigleider e: rsteigleider@ubm-us.com

REPRINTS

WRIGHT'S REPRINTS

Ryan Pratt e: rpratt@wrightsreprints.com

t: 877.652.5295

THINK SERVICES

CEO THINK SERVICES Philip Chapnick

GROUP DIRECTOR Kathy Schoback

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Cliff Scorso

AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT

GROUP DIRECTOR Kathy Henry

e: khenry@techinsights.com

DIRECTOR Kristi Cunningham

e: kcunningham@techinsights.com

LIST RENTAL Merit Direct LLC t: 914.368.1000

MARKETING

SERVICES MARKETING COORDINATOR Laura Robison

e: lrobison@think-services.com

UBM TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER David Levin

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Scott Mozarsky

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER David Wein

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER Kevin Prinz

CORPORATE SENIOR VP SALES Anne Marie Miller

SENIOR VP, STRATEGIC DEV. AND BUSINESS ADMIN. Pat Nohilly

SENIOR VP, MANUFACTURING Marie Myers

WHO'S YOUR DADDY?

PUBLISHERS. ARE THEY A NECESSARY EVIL?

Developers seem to portray them that way at times,

and even the “necessary” part goes away in the

indie and online spheres, where a developer can self-

release. But evil? I'm not sure.

It’s often been said that publishers are only out to

make a buck, and the larger they get, the more that

can be true. Take, for instance, this quote from an

interview I did with Sierra stalwart Mark Hood about

his time at Vivendi in the early 2000s: “It basically

became sitting down on a panel with eight people,

probably three of whom were from the game industry,

and the other five were either from a cosmetics

company or hair color or water and power company,

and they would be approving our games.

“It was like the same questions would come up

every time. ‘Well, how is this like D IABLO ? Tell me how

this is like D IABLO .’ ‘Well, it's not like D IABLO . It's not at

all like D IABLO . It's completely different.’ ‘Oh, well, no.

You need to give us a game like D IABLO .’"

The situation has hopefully changed since the

Activision merger, but in that scenario, the game is

seen in terms of numbers. How much will this make

us? The larger a company, the more likely it is that

your executives will think this way, whether they came

from another game company, or a restaurant chain.

BECAUSE I SAID SO

» What makes a good publisher then? It seems to

vary based on your market. In the case of the iPhone,

I’ve heard developers say that having a publisher is

largely useful for marketing. Some might say they

take a good game and promote it—Others might

say they take a game that would’ve sold anyway,

and exploit it. All depends on how your deal went, I

suppose!

For MMOs, a publisher is most likely to be the one

serving your game, taking care of customer service,

to some extent, and marketing. In general, a third-

party publisher isn’t going to do much to your game

aside from localize it.

It gets more complicated in the console arena,

of course, and that’s where the back-and-forth

parental relationship can come into play. Ultimately,

a publisher is only as good as its employees.

Some of external producers at the publisher can

actually really help focus your work. In this month’s

postmortem, Sucker Punch mentions that marketing

helped them trim the fat.

Publishers sometimes do know where the money

is, and money allows you to make more games.

What’s unfortunate is when they can’t see past GTA

and G UITAR H ERO to see an actual new idea, forgetting

that GTA and G UITAR H ERO were, at one time, new ideas,

or at least clever new amalgams of old ones.

I do think that publishers can definitely help

make a game better. On top of marketing and

feedback, publishers often also offer external QA,

take care of any legal issues that may come up, and

pay the bills. But that’s only if they’re willing to take

a little risk, and actually trust the developers they’re

working with. Incidentally, since both companies

should really be doing some proper due diligence on

each other, trusting each other shouldn’t be part of

the “risk” bit.

BURY ME WITH MY MONEY

» Someone has to think about the money, and I’m

sure you don’t want it to be you, who’d rather just

get on making a good game. The trouble comes

when the money and the creativity appear to be at

odds. I’m optimistic, and feel there are ways that the

money issues and creativity can fall in line to create

something excellent that also makes its money.

Somebody greenlit H ALO , and C ALL OF D UTY , and

R ESIDENT E VIL 4’s three restarts.

Developers and publishers often have a curious

relationship. The best analogy I can think of is that

of parent and child. The publisher/parent thinks it

knows best because it’s been there before (shipped

more games), and because “it’s my house (money),

so you’ll live by my rules.”

The developer/child is rebellious, and thinks it has

all the answers. In many ways, it does know more

than the parent, and is closer to what’s innovative,

but maybe hasn’t figured out how to hone that energy

yet. I could take this analogy further, with talk of

advice/feedback loops and misunderstandings,

but ultimately, publishers have the money and the

marketing, while developers have the creative spirit

and know-how.

IP FREELY

» As a developer, your job becomes knowing how to

give publishers what they want (more guns!), while

also making the game you want (time travel!). As

publishers, the risk assessment work should mostly

be done at the top end. After that, there needs to be a

lot of monitoring, after all they should get the game

they pay for, but also a lot of trust.

If you’re trying to make a risky game with new

ideas, it’s best to wrap the concepts in the familiar.

Making new IP is always going to be a battle. But if

you stay strong, and both parties really listen to each

other, it can be a battle that winds up getting you a

better-playing and better-selling game.

—Brandon Sheffield

GAME DEVELOPER | OCTOBER 2009

WWW.CMPGAME.COM

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