GDC
Here we've got a video of Trism, an ingenious match-three game for the iPhone developed by our very own Gay Gamer of the Week, Steve Demeter AKA Demiforce. Steve showed me Trism at the GGP party in San Francisco during GDC, and the number of wheat beers in my belly had nothing to do with my reaction: Trism kicks ass, was developed in a matter of days, and uses the iPhone's six axises of tiltability to drop the game's triangle blocks, or trisms, according to gravity no matter which way you turn and tilt the iPhone.
Take a look, then sign up at Demiforce.com to be notified when Demiforce releases the demo (you'll need a jailbroken iPhone/iPod touch, most likely), or for more information. Way to go Steve: this has been quite the season for the gay gamer revolution!
CMP, which organizes GDC and DICE, is considering switching to a press-by-invite-only system for the 2009 events. And while that may mean we don't get to attend next year, it sums up what I was whispering to Fruit Brute all week: "I feel like I'm intruding." Partially that's because press attendance has swelled in recent years - 2006 saw 1,000 of the 16,000 attendees number themselves among the press corps, at an event that is, ideally, supposed to be about game designers talking to and learning from themselves.
There was some disgruntlement among journalists when E3 turned to a similar invite-only process, but so far the threat of favoritism and blackmailing editorial content hasn't caused the sky to fall. There were times during this year's GDC that I felt the press presence, of which I was a part, was intrusive or simply not helpful - at the LGBT roundtable, for instance, which was an admirable effort and which I greatly support, I realized that I didn't belong there. Not as a member of the press, anyway. It was a forum for LGBT members of the game industry to discuss internal goals and problems just like any other special interest group in any other industry. But with sensitive issues being discussed, not to mention the fact that not everybody in the room was out, there was really nothing we could do but provide a URL and say, "We're here if you need us." To have made a story out of the discussion would have been disingenuous and possibly counterproductive.
That feeling was even more pronounced at some of the less personal sessions. We'd sent ourselves to sessions clearly meant for designers and programmers and then scratched our heads wondering why we couldn't translate an hour's talk about programming middleware into an interesting post. It wasn't that I felt the press was unwanted, necessarily - but there was a lot of effort put into covering events that weren't always appropriate to cover. Do you want to read about how many forms an independent developer needs to fill out to submit their game to Xbox Live Arcarde? Maybe, but it isn't exactly a story you'd fly around the world to catch.
Check out the full story and let us know what you think - is there enough popular hunger for internecine game designer dialog to justify such a heavy-handed press presence at an event that touts itself as being the moment for game designers to turn introspective? Or is the dilution of the event with more time and money spent on journalists simply too counterproductive?
I've got to admit, when I first heard about Gleemax way back at Digital Life, I was skeptical. Partially this was because I'd just stumbled off the plane from Tokyo and was, frankly, no longer familiar with the direction formerly known as "up." Also, I underestimated both Wizards of the Coast and the momentum generated by their three-pronged approach to modernizing tabletop gaming with awesome gaming reference resources and actual gaming toolsets, a gaming portal, and social networking.
But their showing at GDC stepped up their game big time. From their position as platinum sponsor of the IGF awards, and the dead-awesome awards they had manufactured (a brain in a green sphere gripped by some kind of awesome bronze steampunk business), it became obvious that Wizards is taking Gleemax all the way. While an alpha of the site is open now, don't expect the full features to be rolled out until later in the year when D&D 4.0 arrives - and when the site does go fully live, a certain subset of gamers will be psyched to explore the community portal. More will follow, because WotC is giving Gleemax something for everyone.
Our friends at Texas Instruments (What? We get around...) debuted some ambitious tech last week, namely their DLP 3-D HDTV technology for DLP HDTVs, which generates independent views for the left and right eyes via shutter glasses worn by the viewer. The results were nifty, as was the DLP DualView gaming functionality based on the same technology - no longer will local multiplayer gamers have to split their screen space and risk cheating by stealing glimpses of the other guy's screen: with DualView, each gamer can only see his screen - and it takes up the whole screen, not a fraction.
While older 3-D tech used red and blue glasses or polarized light, the new shutter glasses offer unparalleled color fidelity and picture depth while bringing 3-D images or DualView play to any DLP 3-D Ready HDTV - such as most current DLP HDTVs from Mitsubishi and Samsung.
Games must be programmed for the feature, and a 3-D video source must support the DLP HDTV 3-D format, but the great quality of the tech makes that less of an uphill battle than you might think. Fruit Brute and I were both gasping as we toggled back and forth between Player 1's view of the roadway (I should remember the name of the racing game we were watching, but, la, I don't) and P2's view - the effect was seamless and, frankly, kinda awesome. Check it out here.
Fruit Brute and I got a sneak peak of Infinite and D3's cash cow sequel, Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, but the Powers That Be had the info embargoed until today. We didn't get much more than a cursory once-over of the puzzle/rpg, but what we saw told us plenty - for starters, Infinite listened when fans asked for a sci-fi setting: Galactrix is set squarely (ok, hexagonally) in the far future, when giant space corporations compete for control of the universe, and so forth. The sci-fi setting works perfectly for the new hexagonal tiles, which in and of themselves will greatly expand upon the deceptively simple strategy of the original Puzzle Quest.
Three-or-more matching is still the name of the game, with yellow red and green tiles corresponding to your ship's engines, weapons and computer systems rather than spell elements. Blue tokens replenish your shields - not your life, which begins to drop if your shields are depleted, but adding an active mechanic for restoring what amounts to a primary HP bar during combat, which is a great addition. Purple tokens represent Psi powers, which seem not unlike the first game's XP tiles but have additional, unknown benefits as well. Silver tiles stand for intel, which adds a new dynamic by unlocking rumors and game information between battles. Attack tiles are no longer skulls but bombs with numbers representing how much damage they'll inflict if matched up successfully.
One major upgrade that comes from hexagonal tiles is that you'll have the option of choosing the direction of your new tiles when making a move - if you're in open space, that is. If you're fighting near a planet, new tiles will fall in the direction of that planet's gravity. But if you're fighting in open space, then new tiles will drop from whichever direction you made your move - in other words, "down" becomes relative to the way you choose to flip your tiles.
There's a lot to look forward to, and of course Puzzle Quest: Galactrix will be on as many platforms as the original, so nobody has an excuse to avoid the addiction!
Not all of GDC is about what game developers are doing right, and certain designers got the chance to get that off their chests at the regular Game Designers Rant panel at GDC. This year featured Ubisoft's Clint Hocking, thatgamecompany's Jenova Chen, ARG designer Jane McGonigal, Everyday Shooter creator Jonathan Mak, and Puzzle Pirate's creator Daniel James. In their talks, most of the five settled on the idea that games were stuck in a rut, and weren't doing enough to live up to their potential. From McGonigal's rant:
Compared to rest of the world we have it all figured out. We invented a medium that kicks every other media's ass... We occupy more brain cycles, make more people happy than any other medium in the world. Basically, we've won already... The bad news is we rule the virtual world. In truth, reality is too messy, we don't want to fix reality, we want to create alternative realities. Reality is broken, [and] we are the people that are supposed to fix it, as the smartest people on planet.
Hocking's rant touched on similar ground, lamenting the fetishism of objects in game worlds over genuine human emotions and experiences. Chen also complained about the game industry's arrested development, wishing that game developers could give gamers a more mature environment that reflects their changing experiences. Mak's rant consisted of music, pantomime, and balloons while he passed out inspirational messages to the audience. James concluded the panel by pointing out exactly how far each segment of gaming has come in thirty years, and emphasized that game developers need to be aware of the responsibility they now have to not just a small segment of gamers, but now society as well.
GDC: Game Designers Rant On Making Games That Matter [Gamasutra]
Wednesday night's Gay Game Industry Professionals and GayGamer.net gathering had quite the turnout - not just of gay folk on all sides of the games industry, but from some heterosexual industry luminaries as well. (And their gay friends!) A very enthusiastic Adam Sessler was there (pictures lie), and went out of his way to let me know how important it was to him that we, as a community of gamers and game-makers, eliminate the kinds of hate speech and homophobic attitudes that litter the gaming seas - not only was I surprised by his message, but by the intensity of his beliefs. We've got a great ally in the X-Play host, who brought much of his crew, including his awesomely supportive Executive Producer, Wade Beckett.
Also present was out and foxy former Spore programmer Brian Sharp - who holds the distinction of being referred to, several times, as one of the five most brilliant game programmers alive, as well as allies from Game Recruiter, PC Gamer and Incubate Group.
I sensed that this year, the GayGamer.net and GGP gathering was becoming more of an affair, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if next year's event turns out to be more significant by an order of magnitude - including sponsor support and a larger draw. Baby steps, of course, but what rarefied company in which to take those steps - big thanks to event organizer and überpublicist Brian Rubin!
(NB: pic hounds - out of respect for the GGP's moderate privacy requests, we didn't go crazy with the cameras. Look for pictures of another GayGamer GDC event after the weekend!)
Morten Iversen, the man surrounded by some of the most gorgeous promotional outfits I've ever seen, is the guy behind Recoil Retrograde one of the most exciting games I got to check out at GDC. Iversen and I sat down for a few minutes to discuss his upcoming game after I got to play through the demo, and he provided some great tidbits about the title.
From the minute I walked in, I knew this was going to be a great lecture: a Calvin & Hobbes comic was projected on two screens and classic rock music was blasting over the speakers. And then Earnest Adams took the podium and I fell in love with the man: he was wearing a fedora. Apparently he used to wear top hats, but he forgot it in England.
This lecture was different from the usual track Adams normally follows in his speeches, as he normally lectures on interactive storytelling. This time around, the focus was on examining some of the aspects of god games and to throw some ideas out into the public domain so that developers might be able to take something away if they’re working on such a title.
A few months ago we told you about one of the finalists for the IGF Awards, a game entitled World of Goo ay a couple of guys calling themselves 2D Boy. After the article ran, the game's creator Kyle Gabler emailed me to let me know that not only is he a fan of the site, but is a gay gamer himself. So it was with overwhelming gay pride that Tiny and I attended the GDC awards and watched Kyle and his business partner accept two IGF awards for World of Goo: The Technical Excellence Award and Design Innovation. While we hadn't met Mr. Gabler in person yet, Tiny and I jumped up and down and screamed for World of Goo and its wins like a couple of proud gay dads. We finally tracked Kyle down and terrified him with our presence and warm well wishes. I'm sure we speak for the entire staff and our readers when we say a big gay congratulations goes out to Kyle, 2D Boy and World of Goo. If you haven't yet checked out this amazing game, do yourself a favor and do it now!
World of Goo Official Site [2D Boy]
Ascaron's original Sacred was a bit of a mixed bag that provided great action RPG hack'n'slash fun for Diablo 2 fans but didn't necessarily draw legions of new players to the genre. Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, from Ascaron and new publisher cdv USA, improves upon the original in almost every way while retaining its strengths. Particularly, the Sacred franchise has always forgone the clichéd character archetypes for more daring, interesting, and risky choices.
The sequel is no exception - you'll have six vastly different character types to choose from: the heavenly Seraphim return; the Inquisitor, a Seraph's polar opposite; the necrotic Shadow Warrior; the classic High Elven sorceress; the head-shrinking voodoo Dryad; and an archaic dog-headed cyborg, the Temple Guardian.
That's right - cyborg. Sacred 2 embraces the polyfantastic past of a world in which both magic and technology have arisen, intertwined. The player chooses whether to play alongside the forces of light or shadow, unless playing as a Seraph or Inquisitor, which are dedicated to the paths of light and shadow respectively. Also - each character gets its own mount, and the mounts will all fight as extensions of their characters when you're riding; in other words, you won't have to dismount to fight.
The game looks gorgeous, and lives and breathes with no loading times, no instancing, and cooperative multiplayer of up to 16 players on PC and 4 on Xbox 360 (yup, more hack'n'slash fun on the 360!), and provides an immediately rewarding level system that gives each character three distinct combat arts that aren't restrictively tiered - you won't have to wait until you're Level Gazillion to unlock that power you've been pining for. With over 180 quests in each main campaign alone and 24 hours of gameplay if you race through, Sacred 2 could make a lot of twitchy dungeon-running button fingers happy when it launches worldwide in September, 2008.
I'm always silently, ok not so silently rooting for the underdog. Independent developers are normally the fresh faces in a world that is rapidly becoming stale and redundant. I'm not one to be disillusioned, but it is becoming increasingly less common to see games that use mechanics we've never seen before. As such, it always makes me sad when the Indie world is under blows.
Nothing is confirmed yet, but according to some "well informed sources", developers are likely to see their payout for Xbox Live Arcade titles reduced significantly in the near future. The once impressive 70% pay out is said to be cut down to 35% in recent months. It is speculated that this may be tied to the upcoming XNA community, and is an attempt to encourage use of that system.
This is of course all very much speculation and there is no real way to confirm it, but it does seem likely. It could also be suicide for XBLA. One of the main reasons developers like it is because of the high pay rate, the ease of deployment and the immediate availability. Making the platform less attractive could potentially lead to a loss in revenue for Microsoft, and give further reason for gamers and developers to adopt the PS3. Let's hope that Microsoft doesn't drive away their developers, the Arcade is my favorite part of my 360.
Microsoft Cuts Indie Royalties in Half [Kotaku]
And girls who like girls who like rumble packs!
Poll of the Week
Gay Gamer of the Week
Recent Comments
GGP Mailing List
Are you gay and working in the games industry? If you are interested in networking with other folks like you within the industry, try joining the Gay Game-Industry Professionals mailing list.
Links
The GayGamer Store
- Help support GayGamer by purchasing your items through our store!
All rights reserved © 2006-2008 FAD Media, Inc.
