Crave

SAN FRANCISCO--If you're a big Star Wars fan, you may find yourself salivating at the chance to play LucasArts' forthcoming game, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Video: Game puts players inside the 'Star Wars' saga

That's because the game will place players inside the films' narrative, in particular in between Episode III and the original film, now known as Episode IV.

LucasArts released a trailer for the film Thursday, and in it, you can see the benefits of two new technologies that should change video games forever: Euphoria, a bio-feedback artificial intelligence system, and digital molecular matter, which provides more realistic physics and physical reactions.

Check out the trailer and see for yourself.

At the Game Design Challenge at the Game Developers Conference, legendary designer Steve Meretzsky won with his concept for 'Bac Attack,' a 'massively micro-player game.'

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

SAN FRANCISCO--Get ready for toxic microbes to come packaged in a video game SKU.

Longtime and much-revered designer Steve Meretzsky's Bac Attack, a game that pits man's strategic ingenuity against the march of armies of bacteria, was the winner of Thursday's Game Design Challenge at the Game Developers Conference here.

The challenge, an annual GDC event hosted by GameLab CEO Eric Zimmerman, and a session that always plays to an energized, standing-room-only audience, traditionally pits three well-known designers against each other to come up with a concept for a game that meets some unusual criteria.

In past years, themes have been games about love; games based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson; and games that could win the Nobel Peace Prize. This year's challenge, "The inter-species game," was to create a fleshed-out idea for a game that could be played cooperatively by both humans and members of another species.

"It's a riff on the idea of opening up new markets," joked Zimmerman, well-aware that he was speaking to a room packed with game developers keen on making titles that have commercial appeal. "People are looking for any kind of market for games they can find. So I thought, why stop at homo sapiens?"

The challenge featured the previous year's winner, Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov; Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Leather Goddesses of Phobos designer Meretzky; and Brenda Brathwaite, designer of games like Playboy: The Mansion and the Wizardry series.

And while Brathwaite's concept for an alternate-reality game called OneHundredDogs.com nearly carried the day, it was Meretzky's marching bacteria that was judged the audience's favorite.

Never fear, though. You won't have to worry that going into a GameStop might expose you to life-threatening creatures: the challenge is just to come up with the game's concept, not to build an actual title.

Meretzky began his presentation--each contestant takes 10 minutes or so to showcase his or her design--by discussing other possibilities for a game for both humans and animals. He said he considered something based on a classic English fox hunt--which comes with the possibility for in-game advertising.

He also considered doing something with squirrels, since "they like to collect things, and we like to collect things. So I thought I could train them to be Chinese gold farmers."

But what led him to microbes was the idea that he could reach a potential market of "5 million million trillion bacteria...Now there's a target demographic worth shooting for."

So, he explained, Bac Attack is centered around a new input/output device called the "Tray Station," which projects microwaves onto a Petri dish.

'Bac Attack' tasks players with holding off a marauding army of microbes.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

The Petri dish becomes the field of play, he explained, and the idea is that light projected onto it is intended to stimulate the bacteria.

"The Tray Station reads those moving bacteria colonies as armies on the march," he said. "After an hour, either your defenses have held, or (the bacteria) have emerged victorious and you lose."

He added that there's a secondary game design benefit from working with bacteria.

"Because of the beauty of natural selection," Meretzsky said, "the bacteria that survive next time level up."

The real benefit of the game, though, he added, is that as the bacteria multiply, there's room for monetizing the bacteria beyond just selling the game itself.

And that's because, he joked, you could sell the bacteria to the biotech industry.

"That's one fat pile of loot just waiting for the right publisher to tap into it," he said of Bac Attack. "The game that makes germ warfare available to the whole family. The game that puts the fun back in fungicide. The first massively micro-player game."

For her part, Brathwaite's second-place game design, OneHundredDogs.com, was what she described as "an interspecies Facebook (alternate-reality game)."

The game would feature dog and human challenges in 50 cities around the world. She wasn't entirely clear on what those challenges would be, but the idea is that in each of the 50 cities, contestants would vie to represent that locale as one of the "50 dogs."

So the goal, she said, was to build a player base in each city that would then require cooperation amongst all the players in that town.

The second phase would be "dog fifty-one," she said.

Here, more tasks would be presented, and players would have to work together with those in other cities, all in the hopes of getting invites from a mysterious "Dog 52."

As each new task is completed, players would move up the chain, getting invites from each succeeding numbered dog, all the while building a massive social network amongst the players.

This would continue until players get to dog 92, which would start the third phase of the game, a "massively cooperative" phase.

I loved this concept, but to be honest, I was a little confused by the end game. And I think others might have been too. That may ultimately have been why Brathwaite's concept wasn't the winner. Or, possibly, I was the only one confused, which wouldn't be entirely surprising since most of the people in the room were game designers.

Unfortunately for last year's winner Pajitnov, his concept for Dolphin Ride, a game that would have people riding dolphins in a complex paintball battle, didn't fare so well with the crowd.

But that's not because the crowd didn't express its affection for the Tetris creator. He may have gotten the warmest welcome from the room. But his game was probably the least well-conceived and there was no favoritism.

All in all, the Game Design Challenge was a huge hit, as always. Afterward, I spoke with someone I know who had attended a session in an adjacent room. He said he was disappointed not to have been able to be in the Game Design Challenge room.

With a somewhat sad face, he said that while listening to his own session, he kept hearing the raucous cheers from the design challenge, and that only made him more frustrated not to have been able to be there.

LucasArts' new game, 'Star Wars: The Force Unleashed,' centers around the redemption story line surrounding Darth Vader's apprentice.

(Credit: LucasArts)

SAN FRANCISCO--During the Game Development Conference, which is happening this week here, it's rare that I, or any other journalist cover it, would leave the area immediately surrounding the confab.

But when LucasArts invites you to its famous facilities in San Francisco's Presidio to show off what is being regarded as a ground-breaking game, you get the heck out of dodge.

That's why I rushed across town Thursday afternoon--to see what I believe was the first public demo of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the studio's forthcoming game, and a title that seeks to fill in the chronological gap between the end of the unsatisfactory film, Episode III and the original Star Wars, now known as Episode IV.

In this new game, the main character is an apprentice of Darth Vader, and the story line, according to Haden Blackman, the game's project lead, centers on that apprentice's path to redemption.

According to a recent article in Vanity Fair, the full story line of the game does a good job of letting players feel as if they're getting to actually be in what could almost be a seventh Star Wars movie. The article insinuated that the storytelling was that good and that the graphics only helped cement the illusion.

'Star Wars: The Force Unleashed' features two new, ground-breaking technologies, Euphoria, a bio-feedback AI system that makes it possible to have things happen differently every time rather than looking the same each time; and Digital Molecular Matter, a new physics system that makes it possible for things to break realistically rather than in the sort of cartoon-like way they always have in games.

(Credit: LucasArts)

Based on what I saw Thursday, I'd say the graphics were good, but not movie-quality good. Still, I got a chance to see what should be two pretty ground-breaking technologies that the game showcases.

First, is what is known as Euphoria. It is a new form of artificial intelligence software, developed by a company called Natural Motion, which is designed to make it possible for things happen just a little differently each time in the game, even if they begin the same way.

In other words, in most games, if you do the same thing twice, the result will be exactly the same both times because there's no brain in the game allowing for a little chaos to creep in. Euphoria is meant to be that chaos. So things would turn out just a little bit different each time.

The other new technology is called digital molecular matter, from a company called Pixelux, and it is designed to bring more realistic consequences to things like a door breaking, or something smashing into a big piece of metal. That is to say, again, in most games, if you break a door down, it will shatter into a disturbingly unrealistic set of shattered pieces. If you break a door in real life, it would splinter and shatter and bend and there would be shards. DMM, as it's known, is meant to depict that realism.

I would say that the results of DMM, as I saw them, were good. I didn't think I was seeing real physics, or the kinds of special effects I might see in a real Star Wars movie, but it did look pretty good.

All in all, I think the game looked fun, and very complex. I'm not a big fan of the previous Star Wars games, though, so perhaps I'm missing a little context.

And only time will tell whether it really is like being in an actual movie.

This concept art for the forthcoming online game, 'Lego Universe,' is from a player zone of that virtual world.

(Credit: Lego)

SAN FRANCISCO--On a regular basis, two of the things I most like to write about are Lego and virtual worlds. So when I first heard about Lego Universe, a Lego-themed virtual world, well, I was more than a little interested.

Lego Universe, which, sadly, is still about two years from public release, will be a full-scale MMO (massively multiplayer online game) aimed at Lego's core audience, kids ages 8 to 12. But in keeping with the company's awareness of the millions of adults who are utterly devoted to the iconic toys, there is expected to be something for the big kids, too, said Mark Hansen, Lego director of business development and a guiding force behind the game.

In fact, Lego Universe is being developed by a Denver company called NetDevil, and not long ago, Lego flew 50 "partners" to the Colorado capital for some in-depth discussions about what the game should entail.

Exactly what came out of those meetings, of course, is secret, but it's safe to say they were about creating the types of environments the adults would like to see the game include and which would be suitable for children.

A big part of the game is expected to be building--as in letting players build houses, vehicles, and so forth, all out of the famous plastic bricks. Well, at least digital versions of them.

Another piece of concept art from 'Lego Universe.'

(Credit: Lego)

During a meeting Wednesday at the Game Developers Conference here, Hansen explained to me that Lego Universe is very much a part of the, er, Lego universe. That is, the game will be just the latest part of the huge ecosystem. Practically, Hansen said, this means that players--or their parents--will be able to order actual, physical, sets of their creations.

And that means that Lego is in the process of developing a logistics team, Hansen said, that would be able to put such sets together, package them up and send them off to their eager recipients.

Lego Universe players will start out with a fully customizable "mini-figure," the little Lego people that are so well known from all our many years of play. From there, they'll explore the virtual world, building, interacting with other players and potentially engaging in the kind of make-believe that kids the world over have been doing with Lego bricks for many, many years.

That is to say, they can build a castle, and then get invaded by a friend. Or vice versa.

"As you go through the game," Hansen told me, "you gain accessories and you gain bricks...You earn points through play. As you do that, you get more property, more property to build on (and) you get to explore more."

As the game development process moves on, Lego will work hard to get parents involved because it is very aware that to build a game aimed at kids but which will put kids in the same environment as adults, safety must be a major concern.

But Hansen said that Lego also wants parents' input on how to make the game a good place to work on the kind of child development and learning processes that the physical toys are good at.

Whether I really see a game like this as a tool for child development is not clear to me. But I can understand their point. Still, I view it much more as a tool for getting kids to demand that their parents pull out their credit cards so they can buy the real-world versions of their in-world creations.

Microsoft unveiled its Creators Club, an initiative that will allow community members to have their games distributed on Xbox Live.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)

SAN FRANCISCO--In a frenetic keynote address at the Game Developers Conference here, Microsoft showed off the next phase of a strategy it claims will "democratize" game development and distribution.

For several years, Microsoft has been working on its XNA Studio, a platform that allows anyone to create games for the Xbox and for Windows.

But now, the company is expanding the XNA offering to allow the best community-created games to be uploaded to and distributed from Xbox Live.

Microsoft is calling the new offering its "Creators Club," and the idea is to present the Xbox Live and XNA communities with a way to create games using the XNA tools, submit them for peer review, and then put the best of them up on Xbox Live.

And while Microsoft Corporate Vice President John Schappert was designated the actual keynote speaker, the most important news that emerged from the talk was delivered by Chris Satchell, head of Microsoft's game development group.

He talked at length about the Creators Club initiative, explaining how game developers in the community would be able to get their games examined for possible inclusion.

"This is gaming created by the community, managed by the community, and enjoyed by everyone," Satchell said.

Essentially, he explained, just about any game created by someone in the community would be eligible to be included in Xbox Live, though he did say that peer reviewers would be tasked with excluding those with "objectionable" content. He didn't define it. It's probably a little bit of that old Supreme Court definition of obscenity.

Satchell also offered up another of the most notable pieces of news in the Microsoft keynote. He said that it would now be possible to take games created using the XNA tools and put them on Zunes, the company's portable music players.

And because the Zune is a wireless device, he added, Zune games can be multiplayer. Additionally, music from someone's Zune library can be used as the soundtrack for a game.

All told, Satchell said, the XNA Studio initiative has proved to be a success. He said that since the tools were first introduced in 2006, there have been more than 800,000 copies downloaded.

For his part, Schappert began the keynote with some impressive statistics about the video game industry.

He said that the industry netted $18 billion in revenue in the United States in 2007, a figure that now not only eclipses Hollywood box office figures, but also worldwide music revenues.

For Microsoft, the Xbox 360--which has become a hard-to-find game machine recently--has been a winner, with seven titles selling more than a million copies during the 2007 holiday season. The Xbox is currently the leader in total sales among the three next-gen consoles.

Schappert also touted the success of Xbox Live, which he said has earned more than a quarter billion dollars in money spent on downloadable games.

In addition, he said that one feature built into Microsoft's hit game Halo 3--a tool that would allow players to upload video clips from their play to Xbox Live--has generated unprecedented popularity.

There are more than 100,000 clips uploaded every day, a number he said was 30 percent higher than the number of YouTube clips added daily.

That was pretty much the noteworthy news from what was altogether a fairly mundane keynote address.

There were a few additional tidbits, such as the fact that Grand Theft Auto IV would be available for the Xbox on April 29, and that Gears of War 2 would be released this November.

This morning at the Game Developer's Conference here in San Francisco, Alex St. John, the CEO of WildTangent, will announce a new version of the company's gaming software that he hopes will make people think twice about buying a video game console.

Taking a cue from the growing number of casual gamers buying consoles, St. John, who is most famous for helping create Direct X specification for Microsoft, figures that people are itching to get their hands on video games, but that they shouldn't have to buy a proprietary piece of hardware and pricey software titles, or even relegate gaming to one room in the house.

His solution is to take WildTangent's gaming marketplace software and tune it to work on the go, or in the living room on large televisions. The application, called "Orb" (not to be confused with the Orb media-sharing software) is designed to let anyone with a laptop and a gamepad navigate the various games available for play without having to use a keyboard or mouse. St. John notes that a majority of machines that have shipped out in the last year or so can more than handle the graphics capabilities of the Wii and original Xbox, and if users are looking to take part of that software ecosystem, they don't need to buy anything new.

WildTangent's Orb interface has been made friendly for large screens and aging eyes. Instead of paying, users can now opt in to play games for free after sitting through preroll commercials.

(Credit: WildTangent)

Orb has also been created from the ground up with a new advertising model that lets home users play titles for free as long as they're willing to sit through a commercial from sponsors that's inserted at the beginning of each gaming session. St. John equates WildTangent's model to that of television programming, noting that advertisers have been more than willing to get on board, whereas users aren't always into shelling out the cash up front to play a game.

Besides advertising, WildTangent runs off a micropayment system similar to what you see on Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace with packages of credits that are purchased several at a time instead of an a la cart model. With the new system users don't even have to invest in the micropayments if they're willing to opt in to the advertising in front of each gaming session.

In addition to the new software, Orb will be launching with developer support to get various titles into the marketplace. The two being announced today are Sierra Online and THQ. St. John says other developers will likely want to join up to place their games on Orb in time for software that's slated for release in April.

Emotiv's headset allows users some control over objects on a computer. It is possible to move things around, with limited application, with your mind.

(Credit: Emotiv)

I've just made a small orange cube disappear with my mind. No hands necessary.

I'm testing out the San Francisco company's so-called brain control interface, the latest iteration of technology it first showed off a year ago, but which, unlike last year, is now almost ready for prime time.

The idea is a blending of hardware and software: A headset that seems a little like the one from the James Cameron-written 1995 film, Strange Days, complete with a set of sensors that are built to read your brain waves.

The software then is designed to interpret those brain waves in such a way as to allow users to manipulate objects onscreen with nothing but their mind.

So that's why I've come to this office in downtown San Francisco, where I'm face-to-face with this little orange cube. It's kind of mocking me, daring me to make it disappear.

The headset is designed to fit snugly on a user's head. The data it produces can, in theory, be plugged into a wide variety of software.

(Credit: Emotiv)

Here's how it works: The software has several choices for actions you can take. So, taking the disappearing cube as an example, once you're hooked up to the headset, you're directed to run a short, six-second test, where you concentrate on doing something, anything, with your mind--relax, focus, whatever.

Then, once you've completed the test, it's you against the cube. And the challenge is to see if you can reproduce what it was you were doing with your mind during the test; If so, the cube slowly disappears.

In my case, it disappeared, then came back, then disappeared again and then came back. Repeat.

They also ran me through another example, this time trying to pull the cube forward. This one was harder because the brain function I chose to do to synchronize with the challenge was more concentrated. It involved me sort of tensing up my head and imagining the act of pulling the cube forward. It didn't work very well.

But with the disappearing act, I simply relaxed my mind, with much better results.

Of course, there's no relationship at all between brain activity that is consciously trying to "pull" the cube forward and what happens. That is to say, it doesn't matter in any way what you're doing with your mind, so long as what you do during the six-second calibration matches what you do when you try to enact the action.

So really, the software is just looking for a pattern match. It's not all that complicated a concept, though I'm sure it's a pretty difficult engineering feat.

Emotiv has also built technology designed to read your facial expressions and emotions. So while there, I saw a demonstration where someone wearing the headset would smile, frown, smile again, and so forth. And a goofy-looking face on the monitor would repeat the expression.

For now, this is all still just in prototype phase. But Emotiv promised me that the headset would be available in time for Christmas this year, at a price of $299. It'll come bundled with a game that is geared toward using the technology, and presumably, more games will follow. The success, I think, of this product, will be how easy it is for developers to build the technology into their games. And that, presumably, is why the product is being showcased during this week's Game Developers Conference, here in San Francisco.

Emotiv also said that the company is working on a partnership with IBM to integrate the brain control interface technology with Big Blue's virtual worlds projects.

To be perfectly honest, I think this technology is a ways from being ready for any hard-core application. Based on what I saw, it's very interesting and even quite impressive. But I just don't know if it can improve fast enough to make a real difference in the market in the next year. Perhaps it can, and if so, that would be fantastic.

Nintendo's Wii and Guitar Hero have opened people's eyes to all-new interfaces, and I'm sure that this would fit into that category. But the things that have made the Wii and the Guitar Hero controller so successful is that they are easy and intuitive to use. Whether Emotiv's technology is as well is something I'd have to reserve judgment on.

Still, I was able to make that cube disappear without using my hands. And that's something.