gamedeveloper200511-dl.pdf

>> PRODUCT REVIEW MAYA 7 UNLIMITED FOR MAC OS X

NOVEMBER 2005

THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE

>> PURE SCIENCE

PORTABLE PHYSICS

FORWIPEOUT PURE

>> BUT SERIOUSLY

JAMES PAUL GEE ON

WHAT GAMES TEACH US

>> POKER FACE

HOLD’EM-FRIENDLY

AI SHARKING

SCALING THE CABAL FOR

VA LVE’S

HALF-LIFE 2

[

CONTENTS

]

NOVEMBER 2005

VOLUME 12, NUMBER 10

FEATURES

9 WHAT GAMES HAVE TO TEACH US:

AN INTERVIEW WITH

JAMES PAUL GEE

James Paul Gee of the University of Wisconsin

is one of the most vocal proponents of games

for learning. As an academic, his views have

been a welcome contrast to the current anti-

game sentiment in the conservative public

view. In an interview with Game Developer , Gee

discusses his thoughts on digital interactive

entertainment, the importance of games to

states’ economies, and perhaps most

importantly, what game developers can do to

improve the industry.

By Brandon Sheffield

20 SCALING THE CABAL: VALVE’S DESIGN PROCESS

FOR CREATING H ALF -L IFE 2

The sometimes-mysterious G-Men at Valve Software outline the

process, workflow, and design techniques that brought us H ALF -L IFE 2,

one of the seminal PC games of the past few years, updating us on the

evolution of the unique Cabal work management system developed for

the original H ALF -L IFE , and touching on everything from story

development to voice acting challenges.

By Brian Jacobson and David Speyer

14 HOVERING ON A HANDHELD: THE

PHYSICS BEHIND W IP E OUT P URE

The physics engine for W IP E OUT P URE was built

from the ground up, and as a PSP launch title,

it had to be done in a relatively short time.

Martin Linklater of Sony’s Studio Liverpool

shares the experience of creating a speedy

physics engine for handhelds without

compromising the gameplay, or shattering his

programmer’s pride.

By Martin Linklater

DEPARTMENTS

COLUMNS

2 GAME PLAN By Simon Carless

Serious Fun

30 THE INNER PRODUCT By Mick West

[ PROGRAMMING ]

Tex as Hold’em AI

4 HEADS UP DISPLAY

Words of wisdom from Tokyo Game Show, Softimage XSI 5, NYFD gets

serious, and more.

35 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore

[ ART ]

Anatomy for Animators: A Leg to Stand On

38 BUSINESS LEVEL By Careen Yapp

[ BUSINESS ]

7 SKUNK WORKS By James Alguire

Alias’ Maya 7 Unlimited for Mac

Working With Hollywood

39 AURAL FIXATION By Alexander Brandon

[ SOUND ]

48 A THOUSAND WORDS

BreakAway’s F REE D IVE

Bringing Down the House

41 GAME SHUI By Noah Falstein

[ DESIGN ]

Stealth Education

WWW.GDMAG.COM

GAME PLAN

]

www.gdmag.com

CMP Media, 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94107 t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090

SERIOUS FUN

EDITORIAL

EDITOR

Simon Carless scarless@gdmag.com

MANAGING EDITOR

Jill Duffy jduffy@gdmag.com

ASSISTANT EDITOR

Brandon Sheffield bsheffield@gdmag.com

ART DIRECTOR

Cliff Scorso cscorso@gdmag.com

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Alexander Brandon abrandon@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 Monolith

Andy Gavin Naughty Dog

Joby Otero Luxoflux

ADVERTISING SALES

NATIONAL SALES MANAGER

Afton Thatcher e : athatcher@cmp.com t: 415 . 9 47. 6217

SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER, EAST COAST, EUROPE & EASTERN CANADA

Ayrien Machiran e : amachiran@cmp.com t: 415.947.6224

ACCOUNT MANAGER, SO. CALIF., SOUTH WEST, CONTRACTORS, & MARKETPLACE

Susan Kirby e : skirby@cmp.com t: 415.947.6226

ACCOUNT MANAGER, NO. CALIF., NORTHWEST, ASIA & WESTERN CANADA

Nick Geist e : ngeist@cmp.com t: 415.947.6223

ACCOUNT MANAGER, GLOBAL RECRUITMENT/EDUCATION & TEXAS

Aaron Murawski e : amurawski@cmp.com t: 415.947.6227

ADVERTISING PRODUCTION

ADVERTISING PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Kevin Chanel

REPRINTS Julie Rapp e : jarapp@cmp.com t: 510.834.4752

GAME GROUP MARKETING

DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS STRATEGY Michele Maguire

Director of Marketing Ta r a C . G i b b

CMP GAME GROUP

VP, GROUP PUBLISHER APPLIED TECHNOLOGIES Philip Chapnick

CONFERENCE DIRECTOR, GDC Jamil Moledina

ASSOCIATE CONFERENCE DIRECTOR, GDC Susan Marshall

EXECUTIVE WEB PRODUCER Peter Leahy

EDITO R, GAMASUTRA.COM Simon Carless

FEATURES EDITOR, GAMASUTRA.COM Quang Hong

CIRCULATION

CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Kevin Regan e : kregan@cmp.com

CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Manager Jessica Ward e : jward@cmp.com

CIRCULATION COORDINATOR Miguel Mendiolaza e : mmendiolaza@cmp.com

CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Michael Campbell e : mcampbell@cmp.com

CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Adrea Abidor e : aabidor@cmp.com

SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND ADDRESS CHANGES

t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606 e : gamedeveloper@halldata.com

INTERNATIONAL LICENSING INFORMATION

Mario Salinas

t: 650.513.4234 f: 650.513.4482 e : msalinas@cmp.com

CMP MEDIA MANAGEMENT

PRESIDENT AND CEO, Gary Marshall

EXECUTIVE VP & CFO, John Day

EXECUTIVE VP and COO, Steve Weitzner

EXECUTIVE VP, Corporate Sales & Marketing, Jeff Patterson

EXECUTIVE VP, Human Resources, Leah Landro

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER, Mike Mikos

SENIOR VP, OPERATIONS, Bill Amstutz

SENIOR VP, CMP INTEGRATED MARKETING SOLUTIONS, Joseph Braue

SENIOR VP AND GENERAL COUNSEL, Sandra Grayson

SENIOR VP, COMMUNICATIONS, Alexandra Raine

SENIOR VP, CORPORATE MARKETING, Kate Spellman

VP GROUP DIRECTOR OF INTERNET BUSINESS, Mike Azzara

CORPORATE DIRECTOR, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT, Shannon Aronson

CORPORATE DIRECTOR, CREATIVE SERVICES, Kellie Ferris

CORPORATE DIRECTOR, PUBLISHING SERVICES, Marie Myers

CORPORATE DIRECTOR, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT, Michael Zane

PRESIDENT, CHANNEL GROUP, Robert Faletra

PRESIDENT CMP ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA, To ny Ke efe

PRESIDENT CMP HEALTHCARE MEDIA, Vicki Masseria

VP GROUP PUBLISHER ELECTRONICS, Paul Miller

VP GROUP PUBLISHER ENTERPRISE, Fritz Nelson

VP GROUP PUBLISHER SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT MEDIA, Peter Westerman

THIS MONTH’S ISSUE OF GAME DEVELOPER

coincides with and debuts at the 2005 Serious

Games Summit in Washington D.C. Therefore,

you’ll find that the some of the contents of this

issue have a mild, tangy “serious” flavor.

It helps if you actually concur with the coining

of the term “serious games” to describe games

for education, health, military, and other sub-

sectors of the industry. As academic James Paul

Gee claims in his interview (pg . 9) , perhaps

there’s an essential anachronism in the phrase

that grates on the more sensitive among us.

However, as an overarching term, it fits better

than anything else devised thus far. We like it,

and we’re sticking to it.

GEE, POKER, HOLLYWEIRD

The rest of this issue is on the action-packed side,

too. Games for learning proponent, author, and

academic James Paul Gee expounds on some

pretty intriguing topics in his previously

mentioned in-depth interview. Code columnist

Mick West has some excellent AI lessons learned

from his work on a new console poker game (pg.

30) , and this month’s Business Level is from D3’s

Careen Yapp, discussing what happens when

Hollywood talent collides with the game industry,

and how to make the best of it (pg. 38) .

Dave Pottinger Ensemble Studios

George Sanger Big Fat Inc.

Har vey Smith Midway

Paul Steed Microsoft

INTERNET WELCOMES

CAREFUL DRIVERS

Finally, I want to share some of the improvements

we’ve been making to our editorial operations in

the wild, woolly world of the internet.

As for Game Developer (www.gdmag.com) , we

continue to roll out a digital edition, which allows

digital subscribers to read all the content online

every month, but still in the elegant format of

magazine pages. And access to back issues is

rolled into the bargain. We’ve also recently

introduced single-issue digital sales, so you can

read any one particular issue without tracking

down a physical copy.

As for our sister web site (www.gamasutra.com) ,

which wholly or partly shares a number of

editors with the magazine, Gamasutra.com has

been expanding recently, and now features five

exclusive features and five exclusive columns

per week, and as many as 15 news updates per

day. Thanks to the continual development of new

markets, the site now has a daily email

newsletter plus fresh newsletters concentrating

on mobile games, casual/indie games, serious

games, and career-related issues. Look for their

expansion into their own websites over the next

few weeks and months. Needless to say, all this

means that you have plenty of extra information

to supplement your monthly copy of the

magazine. Use it wisely!

HEADCRABS, BOOMSTICKS

The big news for this month: a developer-penned

analysis of Valve Software’s seminal H ALF -L IFE 2

(pg. 20) .

Many months in the making, and the biggest

article we’ve run for some time, Brian Jacobson

and David Speyer’s piece follows a feature that ran

in the December 1999 issue of Game Developer ,

which analyzed the Cabal Process used to create

H ALF -L IFE .

Moving from the first game to its sequel

required significant tweaks to the Cabal Process,

and Jacobson and Speyer discuss, in detail, the

development methods that created one of the

most critically acclaimed games of all time.

W-W-WIPEOUT!

While the high-end PCs that run H ALF -L IFE 2had a

little more leeway in terms of processor power

for vital in-game systems such as physics, Sony

Liverpool’s marquee PSP game W IP E OUT P URE was

operating under tighter restrictions. In this

featured technical article (pg. 14) , senior

programmer Martin Linklater discusses the

work he single-handedly accomplished

implementing physics, handling, and collision

for Sony’s popular title.

Considering that near the end of the project the

game was using just 10 percent of the CPU to

perform the physical simulation for all eight

ships at 30fps—which included the collision

tests, physics integration, and ship handling

code—Linklater’s work on the game was no

mean feat.

Simon Carless, editor

Game Developer

is BPA approved

Game Developer

NOVEMBER 2005 | G AME DEVELOPER

WWW.CMPGAME.COM

[

www.gdmag.com

CMP Media, 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94107 t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090

EDITORIAL

EDITOR

Simon Carless scarless@gdmag.com

MANAGING EDITOR

Jill Duffy jduffy@gdmag.com

ASSISTANT EDITOR

Brandon Sheffield bsheffield@gdmag.com

ART DIRECTOR

Cliff Scorso cscorso@gdmag.com

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Alexander Brandon abrandon@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 Monolith

Andy Gavin Naughty Dog

Joby Otero Luxoflux

ADVERTISING SALES

NATIONAL SALES MANAGER

Afton Thatcher e: athatcher@cmp.com t: 415 . 9 47. 6217

SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER, EAST COAST, EUROPE & EASTERN CANADA

Ayrien Machiran e: amachiran@cmp.com t: 415.947.6224

ACCOUNT MANAGER, SO. CALIF., SOUTH WEST, CONTRACTORS, & MARKETPLACE

Susan Kirby e: skirby@cmp.com t: 415.947.6226

ACCOUNT MANAGER, NO. CALIF., NORTHWEST, ASIA & WESTERN CANADA

Nick Geist e: ngeist@cmp.com t: 415.947.6223

ACCOUNT MANAGER, GLOBAL RECRUITMENT/EDUCATION & TEXAS

Aaron Murawski e: amurawski@cmp.com t: 415.947.6227

ADVERTISING PRODUCTION

ADVERTISING PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Kevin Chanel

REPRINTS Julie Rapp e: jarapp@cmp.com t: 510.834.4752

GAME GROUP MARKETING

DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS STRATEGY Michele Maguire

DIRECTOR OF MARKETING Ta r a C . G i b b

CMP GAME GROUP

VP, GROUP PUBLISHER APPLIED TECHNOLOGIES Philip Chapnick

CONFERENCE DIRECTOR, GAME GROUP Jamil Moledina

CONFERENCE MANAGER, GAME GROUP Evelyn Donis

EXECUTIVE WEB PRODUCER Peter Leahy

EDITOR, GAMASUTRA.COM Simon Carless

FEATURES EDITOR, GAMASUTRA.COM Quang Hong

CIRCULATION

CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Kevin Regan e: kregan@cmp.com

CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Manager Jessica Ward e: jward@cmp.com

CIRCULATION COORDINATOR Miguel Mendiolaza e: mmendiolaza@cmp.com

CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Michael Campbell e: mcampbell@cmp.com

CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Adrea Abidor e: aabidor@cmp.com

SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND ADDRESS CHANGES

t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606 e: gamedeveloper@halldata.com

INTERNATIONAL LICENSING INFORMATION

Mario Salinas

t: 650.513.4234 f: 650.513.4482 e: msalinas@cmp.com

CMP MEDIA MANAGEMENT

PRESIDENT AND CEO, Gary Marshall

EXECUTIVE VP & CFO, John Day

EXECUTIVE VP & COO, Steve Weitzner

EXECUTIVE VP, CORPORATE SALES & MARKETING, Jeff Patterson

EXECUTIVE VP, HUMAN RESOURCES, Leah Landro

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER, Mike Mikos

SENIOR VP, OPERATIONS, Bill Amstutz

SENIOR VP, CMP INTEGRATED MARKETING SOLUTIONS, Joseph Braue

SENIOR VP AND GENERAL COUNSEL, Sandra Grayson

SENIOR VP, COMMUNICATIONS, Alexandra Raine

SENIOR VP, CORPORATE MARKETING, Kate Spellman

VP GROUP DIRECTOR OF INTERNET BUSINESS, Mike Azzara

CORPORATE DIRECTOR, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT, Shannon Aronson

CORPORATE DIRECTOR, CREATIVE SERVICES, Kellie Ferris

CORPORATE DIRECTOR, PUBLISHING SERVICES, Marie Myers

CORPORATE DIRECTOR, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT, Michael Zane

PRESIDENT, CHANNEL GROUP, Robert Faletra

PRESIDENT CMP ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA, To ny Ke efe

PRESIDENT CMP HEALTHCARE MEDIA, Vicki Masseria

VP GROUP PUBLISHER ELECTRONICS, Paul Miller

VP GROUP PUBLISHER ENTERPRISE, Fritz Nelson

VP GROUP PUBLISHER SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT MEDIA, Peter Westerman

Dave Pottinger Ensemble Studios

George Sanger Big Fat Inc.

Har vey Smith Midway

Paul Steed Microsoft

WWW.CMPGAME.COM

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