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Game Developer - October 2005
OCTOBER 2005
THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE
>> POSTMORTEM
ART & ARTIFICE IN
RESIDENT EVIL 4
DANIEL JAMES ON
CASUAL MMO GOLD
>> INNER PRODUCT
LET’S DEVELOP!
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Thanks to our publishers for helping us create a new world of video games.
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TM & © 2005 Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. A Time Warner Company. Patent Pending. All Rights Reserved.
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CONTENTS
]
OCTOBER 2005
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 9
FEATURES
11 TOP 20 PUBLISHERS
Who’s the top dog on the publishing
block? Ranked by their revenues, the
quality of the games they release,
developer ratings, and other factors
pertinent to serious professionals, our
annual Top 20 list calls attention to the
definitive movers and shakers in the
publishing world.
By Tristan Donovan
11
21 INTERVIEW: A PIRATE’S LIFE
What do pirates, cowboys, and massively
multiplayer online games have in
common? They all have Daniel James
on their side. CEO of Three Rings, James’
mission has been to create an addictive
MMO (or two) that has the pick-up-put-
down rhythm of a casual game. In this
interview, James discusses the barriers
to distributing and charging for such
games, the beauty of the web, and the
trouble with executables.
By Brandon Sheffield
21
POSTMORTEM
26 THE GRAPHICAL STYLING OF R ESIDENT E VIL 4
Innovative camera use, more immersive cutscenes, and life-like
character expressions are just one part of the layer of freshness for
the long-standing series of survival-horror games. Accompanied by
detailed figures and other imagery from the game, Yoshiaki
Hirabayashi shares the history of how Capcom Japan put R ESIDENT
E VIL ’s renaissance together.
By Yoshiaki Hirabayashi
34 DEBUG AND RELEASE
Using debug and release modes at
various stages of development has been
the staple method for longer than many
of us can remember. It’s high time we
questioned why we use them and if there
is a better way.
By Mick West
34
DEPARTMENTS
COLUMNS
2 GAME PLAN By Simon Carless
To p Cat
37 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore
[ ART ]
Pencil Whipped
4 HEADS UP DISPLAY
Game Developers Conference Europe wrap, new women’s group forms,
super genre break out, and more.
40 BUSINESS LEVEL By Riley Russell
[ BUSINESS ]
Licensed to Steal
41 GAME SHUI By Noah Falstein
[ DESIGN ]
7 SKUNK WORKS By Tom Carroll and Spencer Lindsay
IDV Inc.’s SpeedTreeRT 1.7 and 3Dconnexion’s SpacePilot
Negative Feedback
42 AURAL FIXATION By Alexander Brandon
[ SOUND ]
72 A THOUSAND WORDS
Ubisoft’s P ETER J ACKSON ’ S K ING K ONG
Bring the Noise
1
[
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GAME PLAN
]
www.gdmag.com
CMP Media, 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94107 t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090
TOP CAT
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 . 9 47. 62 26
ACCOUNT MANAGER, NO. CALIF., NORTH WEST, 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 . 9 47. 62 27
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
MARKETING MANAGER Kathleen Cheng
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
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
e: msalinas@cmp.com t: 650.513.4234 f: 650.513.4482
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
AS YOU MAY WELL HAVE NOTICED FROM THE STAR
design on the cover, 12 months have slowly
ticked over, and it’s now time for the third annual
Game Developer Top 20 Publishers issue. Our
yearly round-up of who’s top in the world of
game publishing—based on not only revenue,
but also release SKU numbers, average review
scores, and anonymous feedback—paints a
fascinating portrait of who’s hot and who’s
hottest in the game publishing biz. And, well ...
we won’t say anything else. Let’s just let the
rankings speak for themselves.
USUAL SUSPECTS
We’re firing on all cylinders through the rest of
the magazine, with Heads Up Display wrapping
up the proceedings of Game Developers
Conference Europe, regular art, design, and
business columns, and Ubisoft’s P ETER J ACKSON ’ S
K ING K ONG cutting a swagger as part of our
Thousand Words art feature.
In addition, we have a new face on The Inner
Product: Mick West, a co-founder of T ONY H AWK ’ S
P RO S KATER creator Neversoft, who, in his
inaugural code column, discusses the problems
of debug and release modes for game build
configurations, and intriguingly argues that they
should be replaced by a single configuration—
develop mode—that should be used at all stages
of development.
Dave Pottinger Ensemble Studios
George Sanger Big Fat Inc.
Har vey Smith Midway
Paul Steed Microsoft
PRESIDENT ELVIS
As for a postmortem to go alongside our special
Top 20 Publishers feature, we’ve managed to
grab Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, the lead cinematics
director on Capcom’s critically acclaimed R ESIDENT
E VIL 4, to discuss some of the efforts that went
into fashioning one of the best looking
GameCube titles of all time.
Particularly focusing on the improved
graphical development workflow, facial
animation advances, and skillful use of real-time
cutscenes in the chilling ratcheting-up of the
sometimes sedate R ESIDENT E VIL franchise,
Hirabayashi reveals the workings of a title that’s
currently rated as one of the top five games of all
time at GameRankings.com.
SITTING IN A TREE
Finally, a rumination on an old friend. Since we in
the Game Developer office grabbed copies of
N INTENDOGS and A DVANCE W ARS DS, we’ve been
happily humming a “we love Nintendo’s first-
party games” tune. But, unfortunately, this
seems to be just about the only tune it’s possible
to hum when playing Nintendo consoles.
Although you might know better than I whether
N INTENDOGS will be as much of a phenomenon as
its currently sold-out status seems to imply, the
DS, and particularly the thus-far mysterious
Revolution, seem again to be setting Nintendo on
an island all its own when it comes to development
community outreach.
When even long-time Nintendo second-party
developers, such as Factor 5, have transitioned to
working on PlayStation 3 games, isn’t it true that
many publishers will grudgingly support The Big N
because they have to, rather than because
Nintendo is actively courting them?
Then again, this doesn’t yet seem to have
affected Nintendo’s direction or profitability, or,
indeed, the delightfulness of many of the game
consoles or software titles the company creates.
It’s just, well, obtuse, and the gossiping masses of
game development are wondering if Nintendo’s
downfall is now, or ever, imminent. Well ... if it
makes you feel any better, we don’t know either.
TALK! BANG! PIRATES!
We thought it was about time to feature another
in-depth interview, and this time around we’ve
chosen someone a little different: Daniel James,
founder and CEO of Three Rings Design, a San
Francisco-based developer and operator of MMO
games for the mass-market casual audience.
Three Rings’ independently developed casual
MMO Y OHOHO ! P UZZLE P IRATES has garnered plenty of
fans, due to the way it neatly weaves a casual
community aspect and addictive multiplayer
puzzle games together with wider persistent-
world goals. Now, Three Rings has announced
plans for a second title, B ANG ! H OWDY , that will be
free to play but will allow players to purchase in-
game items and upgrades with real-world money.
In this exclusive interview, James talks about
why he feels this business model is ready to take
off in the West, and the problems of distributing
casual games like P UZZLE P IRATES as an executable,
as well as some of his visions for the future of the
so-called broadcore games that Three Rings
specializes in creating.
*
Game Developer
is BPA approved
Simon Carless, editor
Game Developer
is BPA approved
RIDE-ALONG MATERIAL ENCLOSED
2
OCTOBER 2005 | GAME DEVELOPER
[
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 . 9 47. 62 26
ACCOUNT MANAGER, NO. CALIF., NORTH WEST, 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 . 9 47. 62 27
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
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
e: msalinas@cmp.com t : 650.513.4234 f: 650.513.4482
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
Dave Pottinger Ensemble Studios
George Sanger Big Fat Inc.
Har vey Smith Midway
Paul Steed Microsoft
WWW.CMPGAME.COM
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