gamedeveloper200706-dl.pdf

(5401 KB) Pobierz
Game Developer - June 2007
>>
JUNE/JULY 2007
THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE
>>
THE INNER PRODUCT
TECHNIQUES AND TESTS
FOR SCATTERING OBJECTS
>>
INKING THE CUBE
EDGE DETECTION
WITH DIRECT3D 10
>>
BUSINESS LEVEL
CALIFORNIA OVERTIME
EXEMPTION LAWS
QUALITY
OF
LIFE
FOR BETTER
OR WORSE
383301249.065.png 383301249.076.png
383301249.087.png
[
CONTENTS
]
MONTH 2007
VOLUME 14, NUMBER 6
FEATURES
7 FOR BETTER OR WORSE:
A QUALITY OF LIFE UPDATE
In 2004, a then-anonymous letter writer,
“EA_Spouse,” penned an angry and
outraged treatise to the game community
chiding Electronic Arts for forcing
employees to work egregious amounts of
overtime. In the months that followed,
development studios, the IGDA, and other
outspoken individuals stood up and voiced
their opinion of what it means to be in this
obsessively dedicated line of work, with
most of them calling for industrywide
change, too. Nearly three years later, has
any of it stuck? Or has the call to action
petered out?
By Paul Hyman
7
20
13 INKING THE CUBE: EDGE
DETECTION WITH DIRECT3D 10
Detecting outlines and edges is
particularly useful when a video game
uses cell-shaded characters. In this
technical feature, Intel's Joshua Doss
explains how Direct3D 10 allows
programmers to shift the whole process
over to the GPU.
13
POSTMORTEM
20 BIG HUGE GAMES’ CATAN FOR XBOX LIVE ARCADE
The executive team at Big Huge Games had been dreaming for years of
working in the triple-A console game market. Then one day Microsoft came
along and offered the group an opportunity to develop an Xbox Live Arcade
game, based on the Settlers of Catan license. Though traditionally a real-time
strategy game maker, Big Huge jumped at the chance, viewing it as a low-
cost way into the console world, where some of the risks could be mitigated.
Read on to find out if the company got more than it bargained for!
By Brian Reynolds
By Joshua Doss
DEPARTMENTS
COLUMNS
2 GAME PLAN By Simon Carless
Throwdown
29 GAME SHUI By Noah Falstein
[ DESIGN ]
Reflexes and Reflection
4 HEADS UP DISPLAY
Game marketing gurus, why developers really are the young
and the restless, and more.
30 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore
[ ART ]
Slip Me Some Skin
33 THE INNER PRODUCT By Mick West
[ PROGRAMMING ]
26 SKUNK WORKS By Bijan Forutanpour
Book review: Second Person , edited by Pat Harrigan and
Noah Wardrip-Fruin.
Random Scattering
36 AURAL FIXATION By Jesse Harlin
[ SOUND ]
The Gospel of Attenuation
48 BUSINESS LEVEL By Stephen Smith and Lisa Pierson Weinberger [ BUSINESS ]
Exemption Clause Gap
COVER ART: BY CLIFF SCORSO
1
383301249.098.png 383301249.001.png 383301249.012.png
GAME PLAN
]
www.gdmag.com
CMP Media, 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94107 t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090
THROWDOWN
SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES
FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND ADDRESS CHANGES
t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606 e : gamedeveloper@halldata.com
EDITORIAL
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Simon Carles s scarless@gdmag.com
MANAGING EDITOR
Jill Duffy jduffy@gdmag.com
FEATURES EDITOR
Brandon Sheffield bsheffield@gdmag.com
ART DIRECTOR
Cliff Scors o cscorso@gdmag.com
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Jesse Harli n jharlin@gdmag.com
Noah Falstein nfalstein@gdmag.com
Steve Theodore stheodore@gdmag.com
Mick West mwest@gdmag.com
ADVISORY BOARD
Hal Barwood Designer-at-Large
Ellen Guon Beeman Microsoft
Brad Bulkley Neversoft
Clinton Keith High Moon Studios
Ryan Lesser Harmonix
Mark DeLoura Ubisoft
A LOT OF SOCIAL AND COLLABORATIVE WEB SITES
have been over-funded by venture capital in the
past few months. My favorite example is a social
networking site for people with curly hair that got
hundreds of thousands of dollars in investment—
I kid you not!
So I’m sure a few Game Developer readers,
alongside myself, have been tut-tutting the
excessive hype that surrounds the cornucopia of
Web 2.0 applications and how they relate to the
game space. After all, collaborating and playing
with game-like functionality on the web is fun in
small doses, but it hardly replaces a stirring, hi-
def multiplayer match of G EARS OF W AR , right?
ROUND 2:
RUNESCAPE VS. WARCRAFT
By some reported figures, R UNESCAPE is the
second most-grossing Western MMO, only behind
W ORLD OF W ARCRAFT . Yet hardly anybody in the
game business ever discusses the fairly
rudimentary browser-based product, which
nonetheless has an army of devoted fans. Its
advantages include 1) a long life, 2) a smart
business model whereby users can play the basic
game for free and pay up for forum privileges or to
receive access to the majority of the game world,
and of course 3) the fact that anybody with a web
browser can access the world.
If the same addictive leveling-up style gameplay
can be achieved within a web browser, which
reaches an infinitely larger audience than most
hardcore MMOs, why isn’t there a mess of online
game companies clamoring for a Flash or Java-
based experience that the whole world (wide web)
can plug into, rather than a standalone installer
that often requires complex graphics cards and a
level of trust over and above simply surfing to a
web site and registering?
ADVERTISING SALES
DIRECTOR OF SALES
Steve McGill e: smcgill@cmp.com t: 415.947.6217
GLOBAL SALES MANAGER, RECRUITMENT & EDUCATION
Aaron Murawski e : amurawski@cmp.com t: 415.947.6227
SR. EVENTS ACCOUNT MANAGER, SOUTHWEST
Jasmin Davé e: jdave@cmp.com t: 415.947.6226
SR. ACCOUNT MANAGER, EAST COAST, EUROPE & EASTERN CANADA
Cecily Herbst e: cherbst@cmp.com t: 415.947.6215
MEDIA ACCOUNT MANAGER
John Watson e: jmwatson@cmp.com t: 415.947.224
ADVERTISING PRODUCTION
ADVERTISING PRODUCTION MANAGER Kevin Chanel
REPRINTS
REPRINTS ACCOUNT MANAGER
Cindy Zauss t: 951.698.1780 e : czauss@cmp.com
MARKETING
MARKETING MANAGER
Hilary McVicker e: hmcvicker@cmp.com t: 415.947.6207
CMP GAME GROUP
VP, GROUP PUBLISHER APPLIED TECHNOLOGIES Philip Chapnick
VP, STRATEGIC MARKETING Michele Maguire
GROUP DIRECTOR Kathy Schoback
CIRCULATION
CIRCULATION COORDINATOR
Miguel Mendiolaza e : mmendiolaza@cmp.com
CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Michael Campbell e : mcampbell@cmp.com
CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Andrea Abidor e: aabidor@cmp.com
LIST RENTAL
Merit Direct LLC t: 914.368.1000
INTERNATIONAL LICENSING INFORMATION
Mario Salinas t: 650.513.4234 f: 650.513.4482 e: msalinas@cmp.com
CMP TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT
PRESIDENT AND CEO Steve Weitzner
EXECUTIVE VP AND CFO Adam Marder
SENIOR VP, AUDIENCE MARKETING & DEVELOPMENT Bill Amstutz
SENIOR VP, CMP INTEGRATED MARKETING SOLUTIONS Joseph Braue
SENIOR VP AND GENERAL COUNSEL Sandra Grayson
SENIOR VP, CORPORATE MARKETING Lisa Johnson
SENIOR VP, CORPORATE SALES Anne Marie Miller
SENIOR VP, MANUFACTURING Marie Myers
SENIOR VP, COMMUNICATIONS Alexandra Raine
VP, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Michael Zane
PRESIDENT, CHANNEL GROUP Robert Faletra
PRESIDENT, CMP ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA To ny Ke efe
PRESIDENT, BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY GROUP Jeff Patterson
SENIOR VP, GROUP DIRECTOR, ELECTRONICS & SOFTWARE GROUPS
Paul Miller
SENIOR VP, GROUP DIRECTOR, COMMUNICATIONS GROUP,
Stephen Saunders
ROUND 1: WEB VS. GAMES
Raph Koster, former Origin and Sony Online
designer and a thought leader in the MMO industry,
has been speaking out about what people in the
game business don’t understand when dealing
with the online space—and you know, I think he
has a significant and rather scary point.
In an interview with Bonnie Ruberg that recently
ran on our sister site , Gamasutra.com, Koster
described his GDC 2007 lecture as follows: “‘Where
Game Meets Web’: that’s the one where I basically
said that everyone in the industry is doomed
because the web is stealing their thunder. This
industry isn’t working with the web very well at all.
Basically, the talk was kind of a tour through some of
the products that are [seen as] games from outside
this industry, games that are doing spectacularly,
games that we don’t even pay attention to because
we don’t think of them as being part of our industry.”
Koster also pointed out some of the notable
titles—both games and what might be termed
“virtual worlds”—that have become incredibly
popular without many game industry experts
even noticing. The Webkinz virtual world web site,
where one can trade points, play any number of
mini-games, and interact with friends after buying
a plush Beanie Baby-style toy with an unlock
code, is a smash, seeing 2.5 million unique
visitors in December 2006.
And if you say, “Pshaw! It’s just a free title!
Where’s the actual money coming from?” then
sure, Webkinz is mainly cross-promotional. But it
certainly seems to help the company sell its main
product: plush toys.
There’s an even better web-based example: the
sometimes ignored R UNESCAPE , which just
recently reached 1 million subscribers, who each
pay $5 per month.
ROUND 3:
MOUSE VS. CONTROLLER
The answer, if you think about it, may be scary. If the
future of video games is based around collaboration
and online play, as so many claim, and the
mechanics of collection-based gameplay are so
simple that they don’t require any specialized
video game playing knowledge, then there’s a
whole branch of the game industry that’s about to
be made obsolete by the web services industry.
How big is it? How big a deal is it? As soon as we
find out exactly what Koster’s project at Areae is,
we’ll know how far off the deep end he’s plunged in
search of a new solution.
Meanwhile, ridiculous as it sounds, we all need
to pay more attention to plush toys with their own
web sites.
BADGE OF HONOR
Finally, I’d like to congratulate everyone
associated with Game Developer for bringing
home a Maggie Award this year for Best Computer
Trade magazine. This award represents our
commitment to delivering the highest quality
information to game developers.
* Simon Carless
Editor-in-Chief
Game Developer
is BPA approved
2
JUNE/JULY 2007 | GAME DEVELOPER
[
www.gdmag.com
CMP Media, 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94107 t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090
SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES
FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND ADDRESS CHANGES
t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606 e: gamedeveloper@halldata.com
EDITORIAL
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Simon Carless scarless@gdmag.com
MANAGING EDITOR
Jill Duffy jduffy@gdmag.com
FEATURES EDITOR
Brandon Sheffield bsheffield@gdmag.com
ART DIRECTOR
Cliff Scorso cscorso@gdmag.com
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Jesse Harlin jharlin@gdmag.com
Noah Falstein nfalstein@gdmag.com
Steve Theodore stheodore@gdmag.com
Mick West mwest@gdmag.com
ADVISORY BOARD
Hal Barwood Designer-at-Large
Ellen Guon Beeman Microsoft
Brad Bulkley Neversoft Entertainment
Clinton Keith High Moon Studios
Ryan Lesser Harmonix
Mark DeLoura Ubisoft
ADVERTISING SALES
DIRECTOR OF SALES
Steve McGill e: smcgill@cmp.com t: 415.947.6217
GLOBAL SALES MANAGER, RECRUITMENT & EDUCATION
Aaron Murawski e: amurawski@cmp.com t: 415.947.6227
SR. EVENTS ACCOUNT MANAGER, SOUTHWEST
Jasmin Davé e: jdave@cmp.com t: 415.947.6226
SR. ACCOUNT MANAGER, EAST COAST, EUROPE & EASTERN CANADA
Cecily Herbst e: cherbst@cmp.com t: 415.947.6215
MEDIA ACCOUNT MANAGER
John Watson e: jmwatson@cmp.com t: 415.947.224
ADVERTISING PRODUCTION
ADVERTISING PRODUCTION MANAGER Kevin Chanel
REPRINTS
REPRINTS ACCOUNT MANAGER
Cindy Zauss t: 951.698.1780 e: czauss@cmp.com
MARKETING
MARKETING MANAGER
Hilary McVicker e: hmcvicker@cmp.com t: 415.947.6207
CMP GAME GROUP
VP, GROUP PUBLISHER APPLIED TECHNOLOGIES Philip Chapnick
VP, STRATEGIC MARKETING Michele Maguire
GROUP DIRECTOR Kathy Schoback
CIRCULATION
CIRCULATION COORDINATOR
Miguel Mendiolaza e: mmendiolaza@cmp.com
CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Michael Campbell e: mcampbell@cmp.com
CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Andrea Abidor e: aabidor@cmp.com
LIST RENTAL
Merit Direct LLC t: 914.368.1000
INTERNATIONAL LICENSING INFORMATION
Mario Salinas t: 650.513.4234 f: 650.513.4482 e: msalinas@cmp.com
CMP TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT
PRESIDENT AND CEO Steve Weitzner
EXECUTIVE VP AND CFO Adam Marder
SENIOR VP, AUDIENCE MARKETING & DEVELOPMENT Bill Amstutz
SENIOR VP, CMP INTEGRATED MARKETING SOLUTIONS Joseph Braue
SENIOR VP AND GENERAL COUNSEL Sandra Grayson
SENIOR VP, CORPORATE MARKETING Lisa Johnson
SENIOR VP, CORPORATE SALES Anne Marie Miller
SENIOR VP, MANUFACTURING Marie Myers
SENIOR VP, COMMUNICATIONS Alexandra Raine
VP, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Michael Zane
PRESIDENT, CHANNEL GROUP Robert Faletra
PRESIDENT, CMP ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA To ny Ke efe
PRESIDENT, BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY GROUP Jeff Patterson
SENIOR VP, GROUP DIRECTOR, ELECTRONICS & SOFTWARE GROUPS
Paul Miller
SENIOR VP, GROUP DIRECTOR, COMMUNICATIONS GROUP,
Stephen Saunders
WWW.CMPGAME.COM
WWW.CMPGAME.COM
WWW.CMPGAME.COM
383301249.017.png 383301249.018.png 383301249.019.png 383301249.020.png 383301249.021.png 383301249.022.png 383301249.023.png 383301249.024.png 383301249.025.png 383301249.026.png 383301249.027.png 383301249.028.png 383301249.029.png 383301249.030.png 383301249.031.png 383301249.032.png 383301249.033.png 383301249.034.png 383301249.035.png 383301249.036.png 383301249.037.png 383301249.038.png 383301249.039.png 383301249.040.png 383301249.041.png 383301249.042.png 383301249.043.png 383301249.044.png 383301249.045.png 383301249.046.png 383301249.047.png 383301249.048.png 383301249.049.png 383301249.050.png 383301249.051.png 383301249.052.png 383301249.053.png 383301249.054.png 383301249.055.png 383301249.056.png 383301249.057.png 383301249.058.png 383301249.059.png 383301249.060.png 383301249.061.png 383301249.062.png 383301249.063.png 383301249.064.png 383301249.066.png 383301249.067.png 383301249.068.png 383301249.069.png 383301249.070.png 383301249.071.png 383301249.072.png 383301249.073.png 383301249.074.png 383301249.075.png 383301249.077.png 383301249.078.png 383301249.079.png 383301249.080.png 383301249.081.png 383301249.082.png 383301249.083.png 383301249.084.png 383301249.085.png 383301249.086.png 383301249.088.png 383301249.089.png 383301249.090.png 383301249.091.png 383301249.092.png 383301249.093.png 383301249.094.png 383301249.095.png 383301249.096.png 383301249.097.png 383301249.099.png 383301249.100.png 383301249.101.png 383301249.102.png 383301249.103.png 383301249.104.png 383301249.105.png 383301249.106.png 383301249.107.png 383301249.108.png 383301249.002.png 383301249.003.png 383301249.004.png 383301249.005.png 383301249.006.png 383301249.007.png 383301249.008.png 383301249.009.png 383301249.010.png 383301249.011.png 383301249.013.png
É Larger data sets and escalating build times are the harsh realities that face anyone
trying to achieve a greater sense of realism in 3D simulations and games. That’s why SGI
and PipelineFX have teamed to deliver a scalable, easy-to-deploy render management
solution—including SGI ® Altix ® XE integrated server systems built on Quad-Core Intel ®
Xeon ® 5300 processors and Qube! ™ software from PipelineFX—that can move projects
from rendering to reality in no time.
Read how you can accelerate your rendering workow with our new White Paper,
“Managing Rich-Media Workows,” a t www.sgi.com/go/create
© ÏßßÆÉ,­ÉÉ¿zËÃÉ¿gÃg¿Øg^­É,ÉÃÉ9ÉË¿9^g9¿ÉsÉ,PÉ¿9§PÃ[ÉP­[ÉÉËgÉ.Ëg^É,Ë9ËgÃÉ9^È¿ÉËg¿ÉPÐË¿gÃÉÙ¿^Ù^g­É
Ëg[ÉËgÉz[É5g[É9^É5gÉÃ^gÉ9¿gÉË¿9^g9¿ÃÉ¿É¿gzÃËg¿g^ÉË¿9^g9¿ÃÉsÉËgÉ¿§¿9ËÉ¿ÉËÃÉÃÐGÃ^9¿gÃÉÉËgÉ.Ëg^É,Ë9ËgÃÉ9^ÉËg¿ÉPÐË¿gí
-gÉ)§gg5É9^É*ÐGgqÉzÃÉ9¿gÉË¿9^g9¿ÃÉsÉ)§gg5[É[ÉÐÐ[É9Ù9­
¼ËÉ9gÉÛпÉP¿g9ËÃÉ
Ù9ËÉËÉGgPgÉ¿g9ËÛ
383301249.014.png 383301249.015.png 383301249.016.png

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika:

Zgłoś jeśli naruszono regulamin