gamedeveloper201010.pdf

THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE voL 17 N o9 o CTo BER 2010 INSIDE: 20 C o M p ANIES T o wATCH

R ED F ACTION A RMAGEDDON .

CONTENTS.1010

VOLUME 17 NUMBER 9

POSTMORTEM

DEPARTMENTS

24 SQUARE ENIX'S FINAL FANTASY XIII

When development started on F INAL F ANTASY XIII its gameplay,

scenario, and technical specs were only vaguely defined. But this

didn't stop the team from motoring ahead anyway, creating assets at

an ever increasing pace with no clear sense as to whether they would

even be usable in the game. It wasn't until the team was obligated

to create a playable demo for the Japanese market that the title's

ultimate design came into focus. In this postmortem we get a unique

look at the creation of a game whose epic scope almost got the better

of the studio. By Motomu Toriyama and Akihiko Maeda

2 GAME PLAN By Brandon Sheffield

[ E D I TO R I A L ]

Wal-Mart Versus the Mom and Pops

4 HEADS UP DISPLAY

[ N E W S ]

Man on a Mission film review, Assembly 2010, and more.

32 TOOL BOX By Ali Tezel

[ R E V I E W ]

Autodesk Softimage 2011

35 THE INNER PRODUCT By Rulon Raymond

[ P R O GR A MM I NG ]

Skin Retargeting

FEATURES

38 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore

[ A R T ]

7 COMPANIES TO WATCH

The game industry is a constantly shifting landscape. What

companies should you be watching to see which way the wind is

blowing? Here Game Developer looks at 20 companies that currently

or have the potential to set the course for the industry's future.

By Jeffrey Fleming and Brandon Sheffield

Mid Life Crisis

41 DESIGN OF THE TIMES By Damion Schubert

[ D E S I GN ]

Make Better Bosses

43 AURAL FIXATION By Vincent Diamante

[ S O U N D ]

Big Tunes, Small Scale

14 TOP 20 PUBLISHERS

In this companion piece to Game Developer 's "Companies To Watch,"

we look at the publishers that are having the biggest influence over

the direction of the game industry. By Brandon Sheffield

44 EYE ON GDC By Staff

[ G D C ]

GDC Europe and GDC Online award finalists.

47 GOOD JOB! By Staff

[ C A R E E R ]

17 SHATTERED

Volition are the masters of destruction. Here we get a detailed examina-

tion of the shader techniques used by the studio to create shattered

glass effects in its upcoming R ED F ACTION A RMAGEDDON . By JT Hooker

Brenda Brathwaite Q&A, who went where, and new studios.

51 EDUCATED PLAY By Jeffrey Fleming

[ E D U C A T I ON ]

Broken Mind Games' F IG .

30 INTERVIEW: ERIK JOHNSON

P ORTAL was one of those rare, perfectly encapsulated experiences

where gameplay and aesthetics were in complete harmony. So how

does one go about creating a sequel without disrupting the elegant

balance of the original? According to P ORTAL 2 project manager Erik

Johnson, keeping players surprised is the key. By Brandon Sheffield

56 ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT By Matthew Wasteland

[ H UMO R ]

Stack Trace Returns

WWW.GDMAG.COM 1

GAME PLAN // BRANDON SHEFFIELD

www.gdmag.com

Think Services, 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl.,

San Francisco, CA 94107

t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090

WAL-MART VERSUS THE MOM AND POPS

DO WHAT YOU DO BEST

SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND

ADDRESS CHANGES

t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606

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FOR DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

www.gdmag.com/digital

AS I WRITE THIS, I’M IN JAPAN FOR

the Tokyo Game Show, and as

such I’ve had the opportunity to

speak with a number of Japanese

developers in the last few days.

One question on everyone’s lips is

“how do we appeal to the Western

market?” It’s understandable—the

Western market is huge, and the

hardcore HD gamer in Japan is

becoming less and less common.

Though this is anecdotal

rather than empirical, I would

submit that part of the reason

Japanese hardcore gamers are on

the decline is that while Western

gamers grew up loving games,

and have continued to find them

a viable means of entertainment,

Japanese gamers that grew up

with the NES/Famicom now find

those old games to be “nostalgic,”

but have moved on to other leisure

activities. However, on this side of

the pond we’ve stuck with games

well into our adulthood.

the principle of supporting local

business. People will always do

what’s easier for them.

But then, there are the niches.

If you want to get the right kind of

bait or tackle or fishing rod, you’re

not going to go to Wal-Mart, you’re

going to go to a specialty bait

shop. If you’re into model trains,

you’re going to go to a shop that

specializes in that. If you like comic

books, you’re definitely not going

to be sifting through the romance

novels at Wal-Mart to try to find the

latest James Kochalka zine.

What Wal-Mart can’t do is

cater to specific tastes. If what

you’re doing is very generalized,

someone will always be able to do

it better. But if you’re a specialist,

by definition you’re equipped to

understand that niche better than

Wal-Mart could ever hope to, or

even desire to. Wal-Mart doesn’t

want to be the best seller of model

trains. Wal-Mart wants to make the

most money with the least effort. If

you love trains, you’ve got a niche

you can fill, with the right amount

of skill and exposure.

above all other things. Just keep in

mind, if you go into the generalist

camp, simply trying to make a good

game with common themes, you’re

competing with a huge number of

companies, many of which will have

been toiling in your particular genre,

with your particular brand of space

marine for many a year.

On the other hand, if you spend

more time working to differentiate

your game, to give it a unique visual,

aural, or game play style (and I

mean significantly different, not just

nicer explosions, or better ponytail

physics), then you’ve got a talking

point right away. The press will

want to pay attention to your title,

because maybe it’s doing something

interesting. Fans will notice the

press and follow the title. Non-core

gamers may even catch wind of this

buzz, if it gets loud enough.

Could a Japanese-developed

third-person shooter about a

bald, no-nonsense space marine

work? Certainly it could. But does

simply emulating that idea show

the strength of a company or an

understanding of a genre? Not

really. On the other hand, with an

interesting visual theme and an

irreverent sense of humor, you

immediately wind up closer to

distinctive games like N O M ORE

H EROES or M ETAL G EAR S OLID .

It’s not necessary to hide

where you come from—an

American game developer making

R ED D EAD R EDEMPTION is a perfect

fit. A British game developer like

TT Games making an irreverent

well-animated action platformer

like the L EGO franchise is a perfect

fit. For Japan, making a rather

heady, visually stylish game such

as M AD W ORLD or B AYONETTA makes

the most sense. Why should we try

to be something we’re not? If we

all just take what we know, apply

the existing techniques from other

games that have come before us,

but marry all that with our unique

expertise, then we wind up being

the invincible mom and pop that

Wal-Mart simply can’t touch.

—Brandon Sheffield

EDITORIAL

PUBLISHER

Simon Carless l scarless@gdmag.com

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Brandon Sheffield l bsheffield@gdmag.com

PRODUCTION EDITOR

Jeffrey Fleming l jfleming@gdmag.com

ART DIRECTOR

Joseph Mitch l jmitch@gdmag.com

PRODUCTION INTERN

Tom Curtis

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Jesse Harlin

Steve Theodore

Daniel Nelson

Soren Johnson

Damion Schubert

ADVISORY BOARD

Hal Barwood Designer-at-Large

Mick West Independent

Brad Bulkley Neversoft

Clinton Keith Independent

Brenda Brathwaite Lolapps

Bijan Forutanpour Sony Online Entertainment

Mark DeLoura Google

Carey Chico Independent

ADVERTISING SALES

GLOBAL SALES DIRECTOR

Aaron Murawski e : amurawski@think-services.com

t: 415.947.6227

MEDIA ACCOUNT MANAGER

John Malik Watson e : jmwatson@think-services.com

t: 415.947.6224

GLOBAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, RECRUITMENT

Gina Gross e : ggross@think-services.com

t: 415.947.6241

GLOBAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, EDUCATION

Rafael Vallin e : rvallin@think-services.com

t: 415.947.6223

WAL-MART: THE GREAT EVIL

» In one particular discussion,

I mentioned that Japanese

game companies needn’t hide

their cultural background and

different nature when making

games for the West, as they

often try to. It’s similar to the

debate about Wal-Mart killing all

the local businesses. The fact is,

yes, Wal-Mart kills local grocers,

clothiers, and appliance shops

when it moves into an area. It

does this by providing a greater

variety of products at a cheaper

or comparable price, all in one

location. The trouble is, if your

market is general, like many

of these mom and pop stores,

someone will always be able to do

that better than you, faster than

you, and more efficiently than you,

provided they have the backing

to do it.

While I absolutely do feel for

the mom and pop shops that got

closed down when Wal-Mart rolled

in with its poor wages and sub-

par product, I understand why

people choose convenience over

GET IN THE NICHE

» There are two types of

Japanese games that have done

well in recent years. There are

those games that are simply very

solid, but don’t necessarily appear

to be from any particular country.

Games like S TREET F IGHTER IV or

N EW S UPER M ARIO B ROS . W II are

good examples. But you’ve also

got the games with interesting

ideas that attempt to differentiate

themselves in order to get noticed,

such as N O M ORE H EROES or D EMON ' S

S OULS . The games from Japan

that have failed have often been

those that attempted to emulate

Western games just for the sake of

it, without actually understanding

what makes those games fun in

the first place.

This really applies to all of game

development, not just when trying

to make a game in Japan that will

appeal to the West—but you’ve

got to have a basically good game

ADVERTISING PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Pete C. Scibilia e : peter.scibilia@ubm.com

t: 516-562-5134

REPRINTS

WRIGHT'S MEDIA

Ryan Pratt e : rpratt@wrightsreprints.com

t: 877.652.5295

AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT

TYSON ASSOCIATES Elaine Tyson

e : Elaine@Tysonassociates.com

LIST RENTAL Merit Direct LLC

t: 914.368.1000

MARKETING

MARKETING COORDINATOR Nahal Agahi

e : nahal.agahi@ubm.com

GAME DEVELOPER | OCTOBER 2010

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