gdc2010

GDC 2010: PlayStation Move vs. Project Natal, we go hands-on with both

As we predicted before the start of the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Sony used its press conference to formally announce the PS3 motion controller. Officially called the PlayStation Move, this wand-and-cam system, briefly demoed at the Electronic Entertainment Expo last year, is the latest move by a video game console maker into the realm of motion control.

While the Nintendo Wii has had this segment of the market cornered for some time, Microsoft is developing a camera-only motion control system for the Xbox 360 called Project Natal (still a working title), and is now officially joined by Sony in the console gesture control arms race.

As Microsoft demoed Project Natal for us in New York recently, and we've just had a chance to play with the PlayStation Move, we can now bring you our initial hands-on impressions of both systems.

PlayStation Move The PlayStation Move requires a combination of a Sony PlayStation Eye Web cam (an existing peripheral), plus one or more PlayStation Move wands. A secondary controller similar to the Nintendo Wii nunchuck, with the unfortunate name of the "subcontroller," is an optional accessory for some games.

We tried several games using the main Move controller (see the video above), and the experience was generally very close to what we're used to from the Nintendo Wii, albeit with a much greater sense of precision--even better than using the Wii Motion Plus. There was much less of the jittery movement to the onscreen cursor we're used to from the Wii.

At the same time, the experience was clearly a work in progress. We played a rail shooter called The Shoot, and while the aiming and shooting worked fairly well, we kept accidentally resetting the level because of overly sensitive pop-up menus. We also played Move Party, a collection of competitive mini-games for up to four players. Most of the mini-games worked well, from swatting flies to painting shapes on the screen, but the entire package felt too much like a retread of the original PlayStation EyeToy Webcam peripheral and games. A fighting game, using two Move controllers, had just enough input lag to feel sluggish.

Of course, these were all early demo versions of games, and they can be expected to undergo additional polishing before release. Our biggest concern is actually the hardware and how it will be sold.… Read more

Sony unveils Move, its PS3 motion controller

SAN FRANCISCO--Sony on Wednesday unveiled Move, its motion-sensitive controller.

A small device that looks like a microphone--but with something on top of it that looks like a ping pong ball with an LED inside--Move is Sony's bid to gain control over the motion controller wars that are currently led by Nintendo, with its Wii controller, and which many think will be dominated by Microsoft and its Project Natal controller system.

To Sony, releasing the Move is an obvious move for the PlayStation, given it believes it started the motion controller era with its Eye Toy. Sony held its press … Read more

GDC talk: Legal pitfalls for iPhone app developers

SAN FRANCISCO--To most consumers, Apple's App Store may seem like sunshine and rainbows. But to a developer, getting an application on it presents a number of legal challenges.

No, it's not Apple's historically notorious approval process. Instead, as attorney and Joystiq contributor Mark Methenitis explained to a group of developers during a talk at the Game Developer's Conference here Wednesday, it's the contracts developers have to sign that can get them into some serious trouble if they're not careful.

Apple's contracts, which include the iPhone developer program license agreement, the registered iPhone developer … Read more

GDC 2010: First look at Civilization V

We just got an early look at the latest chapter in one of the most storied PC game franchises of all time, Civilization V. Originally created by industry legend Sid Meier, the series is known for its mix of diplomacy and military combat, and for the vibrant community of modders who continually create new content for the game.

If you're a Civ fan, you're no doubt waiting to hear how this new entry changes things from the award-winning Civilization IV. While it looks as if the core of the game remains mostly unchanged, the main difference we were … Read more

GDC 2010: Hands-on with Mafia II

There is no shortage of games that follow the stylistic lead of the classic Grand Theft Auto series, taking an urban crime action/adventure and setting it in a free-roaming sandbox city. One of the variations on this theme we've been most excited about is the 1940s-1950s-set Mafia II -- itself a sequel to an earlier cult favorite. After seeing the game demoed a few times over the past year, we finally got a chance to sit down and play it ourselves.

All the hallmarks of the genre are there, from stealing cars to period music playing on a … Read more

Why the explosion of social games excites veteran developers

SAN FRANCISCO--For game developers whose industry experience predates not just Facebook but even Mark Zuckerberg, you might expect that abandoning making big, complex games for simple titles like Farmville and similar social projects would be anathema.

But to hear a panel of respected industry veterans who spoke before a packed house in a huge room at the Game Developers Conference here Tuesday, the truth is exactly the opposite. In fact, to these four speakers at least, this may be the opporunity of a lifetime--making a transition from working on $25 million console-level games that take years to build to small … Read more

GDC 2010: Meet BackChatter, the Twitter MMO

Both Twitter and Facebook are immensely popular social networking tools that offer real-time sharing of ideas and updates--but of the two, only Facebook has a second life as a huge gaming platform. After all, the sheer simplicity of Twitter makes it hard to imagine what kind of games could even be developed for it.

BackChatter is a project created especially for the Game Developers Conference, using Twitter as the basis of what is being called a "massively multiplayer GDC game." Though that might conjure up images of World of Warcraft, the actual game uses the definition of a … Read more

How Epic fit the Unreal Engine into the iPhone

SAN FRANCISCO--Getting one of the most advanced 3D game engines onto the iPhone has not been an easy task for Epic Games. But they're close to getting into the hands of developers, and gamers alike.

The makers of the Unreal Engine now say they've kept approximately 90 percent of the code from the PC version, but that process of getting it from PC to Mac, then to the iPhone has been cumbersome.

In a talk to developers at Tuesday's Game Developers Conference, Epic Games' senior console programmer Josh Adams illustrated some of the pitfalls in taking the Unreal Engine, which is--and always has been developed in Windows, over to other platforms. In this case it was Apple's iPhone, which despite being one of the faster smartphones on the market, does not compare to a multi-core gaming PC.

The Unreal Engine is what powers many of today's popular PC and console titles like Gears of War, BioShock, Mass Effect, and of course Epic's Unreal Tournament. What the company builds for its own games, it then licenses out, meaning other publishers can use it on their own titles. The company also has a development kit, which anyone can use (not just big studios), then sell their games for a small fee and a chunk of any revenues. In that regard, it's in the company's benefit to get it ready as something it can sell to other developers, as well as port in-house titles out as iPhone games.

Adams said that the single most pressing issue Epic has run into while porting UE3 to the iPhone, is simply getting the various systems to talk to each other. The engine itself consists of 2 million lines of code, many of which depend on Windows-specific features. In porting it over to the iPhone, Epic has had to make a number of workarounds and simply cut out things that were either too taxing or completely incompatible. … Read more

Eliminate's 3G multiplayer: How'd they do that?

Ngmoco's Eliminate for the iPhone was a groundbreaking game in two ways. One was its pay-to-score business model, which offered the game for free, but required users to have virtual energy units (which could be bought) to gain rank and equipment bonuses. The second, and more important one, was the back-end server technology that let players hop onto online matches over 3G.

This feature was not so simple to implement, as Ngmoco's director of engineering Stephen Detwiler and lead engineer James Marr mapped out during a talk at Tuesday's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. As Marr … Read more

Power Gig, a music game with real guitars

Announced Tuesday at the start of the Game Developers Conference, Power Gig: Rise of the SixString is a novel approach to the well-trod music game genre.

Instead of using plastic simulations of guitars that are essentially just dressed-up plastic game controllers, the game uses fully functional six-string guitars that control the game, but can also be played in real life.

As one might imagine, the game is being developed by a company connected with the guitar business. Developer/publisher Seven45 Studios is a sister company of First Act, a leading musical-instrument maker responsible for making the entry-level guitars, basses, and … Read more