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Game Developer - June/July 2005
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THE FIRST ANNUAL
BUSINESS
ISSUE
JUNE/JULY 2005
THE LEADING GAME INDUSTRY MAGAZINE
>>
STUDIO STANCE
DEVELOPMENT STUDIOS,
POST-ACQUISITION
>>
LICENSE TO PLAY?
DEAD PRESIDENTS,
GAME ADAPTATIONS
>>
E3 HIGHLIGHTS
INSIDE THE FILTH
AND THE FURY
A COLLECTIVE
BACKBONE
$5.95US $6.95CAN
07
0
71486 02133
9
DISPLAY UNTIL AUGUST 16, 2005
STUDIO
POSTMORTEM:
[
CONTENTS
]
JUNE/JULY 2005
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 6
FEATURES
10
THE STUDIO STANCE
When a publisher acquires a development studio
or studios, it must decide how the acquisition will
play out in terms of practical considerations. Will
the studio remain fairly autonomous and in its
home city, or will the publisher assemble the
employees into a more centralized office? Other
approaches—such as streamlining only meta-
processes, like payroll, benefits, and tech
support—are also available. What does a studio’s
stance mean for you?
By Paul Hyman
17
PLAYING SMART WITH IP
The quandary of whether to create original
intellectual property or use licensed characters
or settings for a game is, at this point, fairly well-
discussed. But how closely have the potential
pitfalls of licensing, which is generally considered
to be a 'safer bet', been examined, or the greater
effort required to popularize original IP? With
specific input from both licensors and publishers,
we look at the state of licensing as the next
hardware generation rapidly approaches.
By Dan Lee Rogers
10
24
STUDIO POSTMORTEM
24
A COLLECTIVE BACKBONE: FOUNDATION 9’S DEVELOPMENT DREAM
When Backbone Entertainment and The Collective joined forces, they created the largest independent
developer in North America, Foundation 9, with about 400 employees under its care. How did this developer
conglomerate form, and what did the founders learn from the trials and tribulations of the original companies
that they founded? In a twin version of the traditional what-went-right, what-went-wrong format,
Game
Developer
presents this special studio postmortem.
By Andrew Ayre, Douglas Hare, and Jon Goldman
17
DEPARTMENTS
COLUMNS
2
GAME PLAN
By Simon Carless
Nobody Beats the Biz
30
THE INNER PRODUCT
By Sean Barrett
[
PROGRAMMING
]
Optimizing Pathfinding VI: HPA*
4
HEADS UP DISPLAY
E3’s innovative games, hardware announcements, and more
34
PIXEL PUSHER
By Steve Theodore
[
ART
]
Resume in Reel Time
7
SKUNK WORKS
By David March
Luxology’s Modo 102
37
BUSINESS LEVEL
By Alan Yu
[
BUSINESS
]
The 100 Developer Challenge
48
A THOUSAND WORDS
Capcom’s
P
HOENIX
W
RIGHT: ACE AT TORNEY
38
AURAL FIXATION
By Alexander Brandon
[
SOUND
]
Game Audio Academia
40
GAME SHUI
By Noah Falstein
[
DESIGN
]
Familiar, Yet Different
COVER ART:
TED NAIFEH FOR FOUNDATION 9
WWW.GDMAG.COM
1
GAME PLAN
]
www.gdmag.com
CMP Media, 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94107
t:
415.947.6000
f:
415.947.6090
NOBODY BEATS
THE BIZ
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
Sean Barrett
sbarrett@gdmag.com
Alexander Brandon
abrandon@gdmag.com
Noah Falstein
nfalstein@gdmag.com
Steve Theodore
stheodore@gdmag.com
ADVISORY BOARD
Hal Barwood
Designer-at-Large
Ellen Guon Beeman
Monolith
Andy Gavin
Naughty Dog
Joby Otero
Luxoflux
Dave Pottinger
Ensemble Studios
George Sanger
Big Fat Inc.
Har vey Smith
Midway
Paul Steed
Microsoft
ADVERTISING SALES
NATIONAL SALES MANAGER
Afton Thatcher
e
:
athatcher@cmp.com
t:
415 . 9 47. 6217
SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER, EASTERN REGION & EUROPE
Ayrien Machiran
e
:
amachiran@cmp.com
t:
415.947.6224
ACCOUNT MANAGER, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA & MIDWEST
Susan Kirby
e
:
skirby@cmp.com
t:
415 . 9 47. 62 26
ACCOUNT MANAGER, WESTERN REGION & ASIA
Nick Geist
e
:
ngeist@cmp.com
t:
415 . 9 47. 62 23
ACCOUNT MANAGER, GLOBAL EDUCATION/
RECRUITMENT & 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
EDITORIAL FEEDBACK
editors@gdmag.com
CMP MEDIA MANAGEMENT
PRESIDENT & CEO
Gary Marshall
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT & CFO
John Day
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT & COO
Steve Weitzner
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CORPORATE SALES & MARKETING
Jeff Patterson
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, HUMAN RESOURCES
Leah Landro
CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER
Mike Mikos
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, OPERATIONS
Bill Amstutz
SENIOR VP & GENERAL COUNSEL
Sandra Grayson
SENIOR VP, COMMUNICATIONS
Alexandra Raine
SENIOR VP, CORPORATE MARKETING
Kate Spellman
VP/GROUP DIRECTOR INTERNET BUSINESS
Mike Azzara
PRESIDENT, CHANNEL GROUP
Robert Faletra
PRESIDENT, CMP HEALTHCARE MEDIA
Vicki Masseria
VP, GROUP PUBLISHER INFORMATIONWEEK MEDIA NETWORK
Michael Friedenberg
VP, GROUP PUBLISHER ELECTRONICS
Paul Miller
VP, GROUP PUBLISHER NETWORK COMPUTING ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE GROUP
Fritz Nelson
VP, GROUP PUBLISHER SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT MEDIA
Peter Westerman
VP, DIRECTOR OF CUSTOM INTEGRATED MARKETING SOLUTIONS
Joseph Braue
CORPORATE DIRECTOR, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT
Shannon Aronson
CORPORATE DIRECTOR, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT
Michael Zane
CORPORATE DIRECTOR, PUBLISHING SERVICES
Marie Myers
WELCOME TO THE FIRST ANNUAL BUSINESS ISSUE
of
Game Developer
, the opening salvo in a series
of specially themed issues readable by and
applicable to all game professionals, regardless of
discipline. Even if you’re not directly involved in
the day-to-day business dealings of your
company, you do care about whether your
company works on licensed games, and just how
development studios interact with the publishers
that own them. Fortunately, so do we.
licensed intellectual property in today’s market
(p. 17). Although some of the traditional
touchstones for this quandary are obvious,
Rogers talks to publishers about their strategy
and analyzes the increasing licensing fees for
non-game IP, pointing out where, why, and how
publishers should license for a balanced portfolio.
BUSINESS AS USUAL
We haven’t forgotten our regular contributors
for this themed issue, and you can still find our
Inner Product, Pixel Pusher, Aural Fixation, and
Game Shui columns nestled happily in the issue,
as well as the regular Skunk Works product review
section and a particularly business-relevant
Thousand Words art showcase, thanks to
Capcom’s crusading lawyer P
HOENIX
W
RIGHT
.
In addition, and thanks to popular demand, we’ll
be commissioning more and larger technical
articles for the magazine, and notably stepping up
code-oriented articles on sister website
Gamasutra.com to satisfy recent interest.
A SCYTHING TEAM-UP?
Our postmortem for this month (p. 24) sidesteps
convention, to dissect not a particular game, but
rather, a particular developer—or better yet, a pair
of prominent, now-merged companies: Backbone
Entertainment (D
EATH
J
R
.) and The Collective (S
TAR
W
ARS
E
PISODE
III: R
EVENGE OF THE
S
ITH
). Operating
together as Foundation 9 Entertainment, the
company is now the largest independent developer
in North America. We asked senior figures from the
former companies to discuss both the high and low
points of their respective development firms, and
exactly why they got together. Oh, and it doesn’t
hurt that we got Backbone’s Death Jr. and his
friends into the boardroom, Trump-style, for the
cover image.
E3’S LOVELY PLUMAGE
As I write this, I’m sitting in LAX waiting to return
from this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo,
and, appositely, the music playing over the
loudspeaker is Fleetwood Mac: “Tell me lies, tell me
sweet little lies.”
For tunately, and aside from press conference
obfuscations, we can most easily get to the
bottom of each console’s relative technical
strengths when we can compare launch titles.
(Besides, isn’t it all about the games, not the
power of the console?)
Separately, and following last year’s post-show
tradition, we
Game Developer
editors have picked
our favorite games and trends, from O
KAMI
to
H
ELLGATE
: L
ONDON
through S
HADOW
O
F
T
HE
C
OLOSSUS
, in
an E3-centric Heads Up Display (p. 4).
What we didn’t mention in HUD was our most
disturbing E3 experience, which came about when
SpongeBob SquarePants’ nose became wedged in
the door as he tried to sidle backstage at the THQ
booth. We can handle the post-apocalyptic fire-
eaters and battalions of Roman centurions, but
please-don’t maim our spongiform idols.
STUH STUH STUDIO!
With significant development studio consolidation
over the last couple of years, larger independent
developers like Foundation 9 are becoming a
veritable rarity. Many of the most notable North
American developers are now owned by one of the
big publishers. But what happens post-acquisition?
What are the relative advantages and disadvantages
of bureaucratic and technical independence from
your owners, compared to greater consolidation?
Reporter Paul Hyman talked to acquired studios
and senior executives alike at major companies
such as THQ, Activision, Electronic Arts, and
Ubisoft (p. 10), documenting the contrasting
ways that the studio system can operate to keep
game quality high and employees happy, even
when your developer becomes one of many.
IP EFFUSIVELY
In our final major feature for the issue, Dan Lee
Rogers uses both sales data and real-world
financial estimates to examine the position of
different games created using original and
Simon Carless, editor
Game Developer
is BPA approved
2
JUNE/JULY 2005
|
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WWW.CMPGAME.COM
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