gamedeveloper200703-dl.pdf

>> PRODUCT REVIEW: SKYMATTER'S MUDBOX 1.0 FOR 3D SCULPTING

MARCH 2007

THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE

>> STATE OF THE INDUSTRY

HOW DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION

IS CHANGING THE MARKET

>> THE INNER PRODUCT

SIMULATING FLUIDS

>> SECURITY MATTERS

PROTECT YOUR

PLAYER BASE

POSTMORTEM:

EPISODIC GAMING:

SAM & MAX

DISSECTING

[

CONTENTS

]

MARCH 2007

VOLUME 14, NUMBER 3

FEATURES

11 STATE OF THE INDUSTRY:

DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION

Are video games retreating from store shelves

en masse to fully join their digitally exclusive

brethren, to create a game version of the

iTunes Music Store? With digital distribution,

developers and publishers—even of console

games—are not only cutting out the

middleman, but also enhancing their products.

And they need more than just a lower price

point to make it work.

By Paul Hyman

19 INSECURE PLAYERS: HOW SLOPPY

CODE LEAVES GAMERS EXPOSED

When game developers talk about player

protection, they're usually referring to cheating.

However, some developers are coming to see

that there's more at stake in matters of

security. Microsoft security experts Dave

Weinstein and Michael Howard consider how

the machines of online game players might be

left exposed to virtual perpetrators.

POSTMORTEM

26 SAM & MAX: A JOURNEY THROUGH EPISODIC GAMING

Do the words “episode one” still make you groan from the 12 times you

watched all the Star Wars movies in one session? To developers, they

signify a new day. Telltale Games, working with Sam & Max creator Steve

Purcell, embarked on a months-long journey to create a game series that

would be episodic in both content and distribution cycle. A handful of

company insiders share how the plan came to fruition and what

measures they took to adapt to the new schedule.

By Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors, Steve Purcell, et al.

By Dave Weinstein and Michael Howard

35 INTERVIEW: GAMELAB’S PETER LEE

GameLab: Add one part casual game

developer, one part nonprofit educator, and

one part funding innovator—mix and serve.

By Brandon Sheffield

38 INTERVIEW: RALPH BAER

The father of video games speaks about the

early days and how without a little trickery,

we might not even be working in this industry.

By Benj Edwards

DEPARTMENTS

COLUMNS

3 GAME PLAN By Simon Carless

Serving Duty

43 THE INNER PRODUCT By Mick West

[ PROGRAMMING ]

Practical Fluid Dynamics: Part I

4 HEADS UP DISPLAY

Mobile game developers respond to Apple’s new iPhone, Doug Lowenstein’s

run of the mouth, a preview of the next Game Developer , and more.

48 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore

[ ART ]

The Black Art of Pivot Animation

52 GAME SHUI By Noah Falstein

[ DESIGN ]

7 SKUNK WORKS By Ronnie Ashlock

Skymatter’s Mudbox 1.0

Casual Starters

54 BUSINESS LEVEL By Jon Goldman

[ BUSINESS ]

96 A THOUSAND WORDS

Atari's B ULLET W ITCH

Keep Your Employees

56 AURAL FIXATION By Jesse Harlin

[ SOUND ]

The Great Conjunction

COVER ART: STEVE PURCELL

WWW.GDMAG.COM

Idea:

Assemble the ultimate team to create a John Woo sequel that you can play.

Realized:

The line between video game and ﬁ lm is ofﬁ cially blurred. When faced

with the challenge of creating a video game sequel worthy of John Woo’s

movie “Hard Boiled,” the team at Midway chose to use Autodesk ® 3ds Max ® ,

Autodesk Maya ® and Autodesk MotionBuilder™. Using this 3D arsenal,

artists are able to create graphically stunning characters, backgrounds

and animations with amazing production efﬁ ciency. Get the full story on

this next-generation masterpiece at autodesk.com/stranglehold

Stranglehold © 2006 Midway Amusement Games, LLC. All rights reserved. Stranglehold, MIDWAY, and the Midway logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Midway Amusement Games, LLC. Autodesk, 3ds Max,

Maya and MotionBuilder are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk re-

serves the right to alter product offerings and speciﬁ cations at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2006 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

GAME PLAN

]

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SERVING DUTY

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

Andy Gavin Naughty Dog

Joby Otero Luxoflux

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Stephen Saunders

WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT SOMEONE CAN

say about the creative business that you’re a

part of? Probably that you don’t care. But this

was the exact specter that Doug Lowenstein

conjured up in his speech at D.I.C.E. in Las Vegas,

effectively his farewell to the game business

after an epic stint heading up E3 organizers and

anti-game law blockers the Entertainment

Software Association.

And what a farewell it was. Very specifically,

Lowenstein said, “It’s very easy on the keyboard

to type up a bunch of criticisms about how ESA

isn’t doing this or that right. Then you look and

where are these people? Are they getting in the

fight? Are they making political contributions? Are

they going to their senators? No, they’re sitting on

their hands. I’m sick and tired of people sitting on

their hands.”

their profits. There’s nothing wrong with this, of

course, but compare it to an organization like the

American Civil Liberties Union, which gets a

great deal of its income from individual

membership dues.

Dave Pottinger Ensemble Studios

George Sanger Big Fat Inc.

Harvey Smith Midway

Paul Steed Microsoft

IN SERVICE OF THE INDUSTRY

So the ESA has started the Video Game Voters

Network, and Lowenstein was also pretty

steamed that very few in the industry had even

stepped up to join that. In fact, I felt so bad that I

just now this evening went and signed up.

Having done so, I didn’t really understand, well,

what I could do next. But I do feel better that I did

it. Yet ... I didn’t give them any money, and I don’t

really understand how signing up can help to

make a difference, other than to be used for

citation purposes. There’s no forum to discuss

issues or other ways to interact with the Voters

Network community, though emails are sent out.

There’s also an alternative now, thanks to Hal

Halpin’s ECA, or Entertainment Consumers

Association. Membership costs a yearly fee,

but, with all respect to Halpin, the effort is still

rather nascent. You sign up, but where do your

membership fees go? Why can’t you interact

with the community here either? Can the now

ECA-affiliate d GamePolitics.com actually

include ECA-related calls to action in it, or does

that break its impartial point of view?

POLITICAL PUSH

Perhaps one of the problems for some Game

Developer readers has been that the ESA has felt

a little remote from the day-to-day realities of

game development—being publisher funded, and

heavy on the corporate membership, at least

from the impression I got from attending Nite 2

Unite and other ESA charity events. But with the

association awaiting a new head, as of press

time, and the downsizing of E3 radically changing

the way its lawsuits and lobbying are funded, this

seems like a good time to reflect on who we, from

the most junior tester to the most experienced

CEO, really do want to swoop in and save us from

those evil politicians.

Here’s where I think the issue is. If it weren’t for

the ESA, we’d all be screwed in the North America

game business. For one, there would be

practically arbitrary state-based laws, which

would mean video games were banned,

differently rated, or differently handled at retail in

any number of different parts of the U.S. For

another, we could see an influx of politicians who

might otherwise stay out of the debate, drafting

more games-as-porn bills due to their successes

in other states or floating the idea of pressing

criminal charges against clerks selling M-rated

games to underage buyers.

But, though the ESA and Lowenstein seem to

care deeply about games’ right to free speech

and to not be censored, the fact is that the

association is funded at the highest level by

corporate interests who essentially care about

A UNITED FRONT

We need unity. We need the publishers to keep

supporting the ESA. And we need more

grassroots organizations like the ECA to start

springing up.

But we need a bigger church to unite under,

one that could include the IGDA, the ECA, the ESA,

and beyond. Are there more clever ways to

protest these issues, via Flash games, or flash

mobs, or good old-fashioned signs outside

courthouses, or intelligent discourse in the court

of public opinion?

Most of all, Lowenstein is right. We need to care,

because if we don’t care about this now, we won’t

be allowed to develop the art form in the ways

that we should and could.

Simon Carless

Editor-in-Chief

Game Developer

is BPA approved

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