screen play

Cinemaniax interview @ MIGS

2011-11-21T22:33:00.001-08:00

A small games and movie portal called Cinemaniax gave me the opportunity to chat about my MIGS talk, specifically outlining some of my views on the current blockbuster games market, the opportunity for a growing "mid-core" games market, and some of the advantages of the shift to a 'digital only' delivery paradigm.

NOTE: The text on the page is in French, but the video is in English.

(Mis)quoted in CBC article about Blockbusters

2011-11-09T10:31:00.000-08:00

My older brother sent me a link to this CBC story, discussing the launch of Modern Warfare 3. It seems the author attended one of my talks at the Montreal International Game Summit, and references my talk in the article.

To clarify -- I didn't actually suggest that the *solution* to the current challenge around blockbuster games was to separate SP and MP into different products, but I did say that the all-digital world makes it possible to do this, and that this is a Good Thing (tm) for consumers, just as it has been a good thing to be able to buy a single song on iTunes vs. an entire album, which is what you used to have to do to get the song you wanted.

In my opinion, blockbusters like Call of Duty will never go away, and nor should they -- they are in many ways the lifeblood of the mainstream games industry. But, I think the current boxed-product retail model really forces publishers to focus almost solely on these huge established franchises, to the detriment of the industry as a whole -- innovation stagnates, players get bored, etc. We've seen it with franchises like Guitar Hero, and who knows, it could happen to CoD as well. Activision has already announced another CoD title for next year, on the eve of MW3's launch. I don't think anyone wants to consider what might happen to the industry's biggest publisher if players were ever to tire of the CoD franchise...

In any case, if you're interested in knowing more about my views on blockbuster games, I welcome you to check out the slides of my recent presentation at MIGS_2011.

As a fan of the CBC, it's cool to be mentioned there, nonetheless.

Another Capt. Titus Fan

2011-11-09T08:19:00.001-08:00

Andrew Galbraith, a journalist for the Chicago Examiner, has posted a lengthy article where he describes why Captain Titus, the protagonist of Space Marine, is his favourite game character.

Excerpt:

Static characters lacking dynamisms are all too common in many contemporary video games. Characters that are tough guys, who spew a line or two, fire their weapon, slit a throat and keep moving forward without ever giving a player something to look at with a desire to emulate in a way that could truly better themselves. Captain Titus breaks this mold succinctly. He shatters the box and shows players that there are still video game characters out there that can serve as heroes and amongst the weeds and chaff of cheap narratives, stands amidst the shoulders of Triple-A title giants, wielding a Thunder Hammer and ready to take on all challenges that stand in his way.

I'm always thrilled when characters like Titus or Lt. Mira resonate with players, because given the nature of the IP, it was extremely difficult to find ways to make them compelling and not just cardboard cut-outs of generic heroes. I was always determined that, despite superficially being the quintessential 'Space Marine', that Titus would have some depth and would come across as competent and honourable, but not a Boy Scout asshole.

With Mira, it was important that she represent the "voice of humanity", in a universe where the individual human life has little to no value, and through her strength of character I hoped to capture the spirit of what humans could be. In many ways, they are the true heroes of the 40k universe, because they face the fight despite not having the indoctrination, training, and super-human abilities of the Space Marines.

MIGS 2011: The Blockbuster is Dead. Long Live the Blockbuster!

2011-11-07T11:05:00.001-08:00

Here are the slides from my recent talk at the Montreal International Games Summit. It was a really fun talk to present, and judging by the feedback and number of requests for my slides, it seems to have resonated with the audience.

(Unfortunately, Slideshare doesn't respect the 'animation' within PPT, so you'll have to forgive this. When I present the slides, I gradually reveal content (text and imagery) as I'm presenting, so that people aren't faced by a wall of text. So, you'll have to imagine these slides presented with some flair and better timing than can be reconstructed in a linear slideshow.)

I hope you find the talk interesting!

MIGS_2011: The Blockbuster is Dead. Long Live the Blockbuster!!

View more presentations from Raphael van Lierop

First Space Marine Dev Diary -- the Universe of Warhammer 40,000

2011-04-07T23:14:00.000-07:00

Check out our first Developer Diary for Space Marine.

This one focuses on the 'Universe' of Warhammer 40,000, trying to introduce people to the fiction and setting and give them a sense of what they can expect from the aesthetics, and what kind of experience we intend to deliver. This is also to show the die-hard fans that we understand the world and will be delivering a game that lets them experience their favourite setting in a way they've never been able to experience it before.

We'll be getting into more details about Gameplay in future Dev Diaries.

Hope you like it, and feel free to post comments and share your thoughts -- we listen!

Steering the Rocket -- Leading Creative Teams (GDExpo 2010)

2011-02-16T22:42:00.001-08:00

Here are the slides from my GDExpo 2010 talk on leading creative teams. I really enjoyed giving this talk -- although I could have probably spoken for twice as long, I'm a bit of a rambler and this topic is pretty broad. Hopefully you find somethings useful in here. I find new experiences always challenge old ideas, so maybe next year I'll have a completely different point of view. But, I feel pretty strongly about these ideas and I really do my best to uphold this line of thinking in my daily work with the team. I may not get it right all the time, but I do think for the most part it's the best way to handle these sorts of relationships in highly charged, highly creative craft areas that depend on individual empowerment and self-expression of the craftsperson for the whole thing to be successful.

Steering the Rocket -- Leading Creative Teams (GDExpo 2010)

View more presentations from RaphLife.

Short Update

2010-12-12T10:14:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been a while since I've had time to update this place. Apologies to all my loyal readers. I hope that at least some of you have shifted to following me on Twitter. 140 characters is about all I can find time/energy to muster these days.

Work has been incredibly busy these last few months. We've been working hard and steady on Space Marine, blasting through milestone after milestone. We have had several breakthroughs lately, and the game is really shaping up. The team has been super dedicated and has worked really hard to get us here. I'm excited for us to be able to talk more publicly about the game and get into some more detail, some time in the new year.

In case I don't get a chance to write more before the holidays, I wanted to wish all of you a happy, safe, and restful holiday season. Looks like there is some *awesome* gaming to be had over the holidays. I'm looking forward to having a bit of downtime to enjoy some of it myself, as well as regenerate and reconnect with family. I hope you all find some time to do the same.

2011 is going to be a huge year for us. I'll be starting to tweet more and more updates on how Space Marine is going, so if you're curious, feel free to follow me at www.twitter.com/raphlife

Twit

2010-09-09T22:58:00.000-07:00

I'm a twit. I've resisted getting all Web 2.0 for so long now, accepting LinkedIn as the furthest I would go in abandoning my curmudgeonly ways, and yet now I've finally relented and signed up for a Twitter account.

Main motivation -- I don't have time to blog much these days but there are lots of short bits of info to share with people following Space Marine, etc. So, if you care, you can follow me here.

I'll try to make it worth your while...

More Space Marine previews landing like a...1 ton heavy thing

2010-08-12T20:18:00.001-07:00

The previews are coming fast and furious! Expect more Euro-centric coverage in the aftermath of Gamescom...

Gametrailers
Kotaku
Eurogamer
Videogamer.com
Shacknews
Destructoid

And my favourite so far (since it seems so casual and personal an interview)...

Giant Bomb

Joystiq preview of Space Marine

2010-08-11T21:08:00.000-07:00

And now Joystiq weighs in on their first look at Space Marine.

Excerpt:

I got to see the game in action for the first time this week at THQ's headquarters in Agoura, California, and while the influences from other shooters are very clear, Relic producer Raphael Van Lierop wants you to know that Space Marine is Relic's big opportunity to step outside the genre they've become known for. "It's about putting our foot down and making a statement," he said. "And saying we're not just really great developers of RTS games, we're great developers of entertainment."

Gamespot Previews Space Marine!

2010-08-11T20:39:00.000-07:00

Some early results of our First Look press tour are starting to hit print mags and online. Gamespot put their preview up today -- you can check it out here.

Inception

2010-08-01T22:24:00.000-07:00

Inception is proof positive that video games are now the most culturally significant form of entertainment medium.

After decades of chasing Hollywood, struggling to adapt cinematic concepts, structures, and tropes in the effort to make them meaningful within our interactive paradigm, we finally see an ingenious work of linear storytelling that is really only possible because 30+ years of video games have groomed a mass market audience capable of grokking the movie's game-like structure and terminology.

So, not only is Nolan's work a brilliant piece of storytelling and filmmaking, it's also something of a landmark, a milestone in the development of our medium.

And If There Was Any Doubt...

2010-07-26T20:27:00.001-07:00

...of course Space Marine is shipping on PC.

Just because this isn't an RTS doesn't mean we've totally forgotten our roots...

Proud

2010-07-26T15:25:00.001-07:00

I know Pride is a deadly sin, but I just can't help myself today!

Kotaku released their 'Visual Guide to RTS' today, and made a point to call out the top-5 most highly rated RTS games of all time, crowned by Company of Heroes.

I haven't worked on any RTS since CoH, and I can't say I miss the genre per se, but I still get a kick out of seeing us at #1 (for at least a few days longer...we'll see how Starcraft does critically...).

Nominated for Best of E3 2010!! Space Marine E3 Trailer

2010-06-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

Cool to see Kotaku nominate the trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine as one of their "Best of E3 2010" picks!

If you thought the trailer was cool (and it was!), wait until you see the game...

New Screens!!

2010-06-15T12:19:00.001-07:00

Some new screenshots from Space Marine. These are all in-game shots, by the way.

E3 Teaser for Space Marine now live!!!

2010-06-15T12:17:00.000-07:00

Check it out. Exciting to see this go live.

Gamesauce Article: What Makes a Good Producer?

2010-06-02T20:17:00.000-07:00

I was interviewed for a recently published Gamesauce article (in print and online) entitled "Producers: Essential Glue or Useless Bags of Meat?". The article outlines the many ways in which effective producers can help teams and projects achieve success, and also the many ways in which bad producers can...well...really fuck things up.

I actually think the various things that make a *good* producer are really just a subset/superset (depending on where you work) of what makes a great lead, supervisor, senior, and even just an effective all around developer.

Thank to Dan Magaha and Kenn Hoekstra for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts with other industry notables from Blizzard and Infinity Ward.

Marianne & Klei

2010-05-18T12:03:00.001-07:00

This week, EA Partners announced that famed game writer Marianne Krawczyk (renowned for her work writing the God of War series) would be working with Vancouver-based Klei Entertainment on their stylish new 2D fighting game, Shank.

I'm happy to see this announcement go out, partly because I love the idea of big-name industry writers *and* smaller independent developers partnering up and people actually giving a shit about it, but also because I have a personal connection to both these parties.

I worked with Jamie Cheng, Klei's founder and CEO, in 2004 on the original Dawn of War. Back then, Jamie was a fresh-faced AI programmer, super young, super keen (he's not much older now, and looks to be ageless). He had a little office in the corner of our team area, and used to 'relax' by playing chess with one of the other programmers on the team, Kris Botha. I knew that Jamie had been working on a little hobby game project on the side -- he had all my interest and passion for creative independence, but he also had the ability to make things happen in code. At one point I asked to see the project he'd been working on with some friends as a pure hobby endeavour -- it was Eets. Jamie was pretty modest about the game and looked at it as a tiny diversion of no consequence. When I saw it, it was clear to me that the game already had a kernel of something magical.

Jamie would go on to leave Relic to strike out as an independent developer, and Eets would go on to become Klei's first shipped game. They've come a long way since then.

As for Marianne, I knew her by reputation, and when I needed an external writer to help out with my project at Ubisoft Montreal, she was at the top of my list. We had some phone conversations, and it was clear to me that, unlike many of the equally qualified writers from 'outside' the industry -- several of them prominent TV and film writers who came across with their loud Hollywood personas -- the combination of Marianne's interactive writing experience, the strength of her characterization and dialogue, her passion for writing, and the quiet, gentle way in which she communicated her ideas, really elevated her from simply being a veteran writer, to being a true collaborative writing partner.

Over almost a year, we had a very fruitful collaboration, with a few week-long 'on site' visits which I came to really look forward to. We mapped out vast story arcs, deep character backgrounds, debated endlessly on details of plot and characters, never never ever succumbing to that seductive way out, "it's a game...nobody will care about story in the end." We both tacitly subscribed to the religion about storytelling where every story you hope tell should be worthy of any treatment in any medium, worthy of any audience. We aimed to create something truly memorable, dramatic, deep, rich, emotional, transcendent.

Over this time, not only had Marianne become a truly integral creative partner, but I dare say, a friend. We spent countless hours talking about story, character, often directly related to our project, often not, and engaged in that sometimes rambling process that you submit yourself to when discussing story, and which in our case resulted in some extremely fruitful, energetic discussions that were inspirational, infuriating, enlightening, and always, always enjoyable. Working with Marianne has been one of the high points of my video game career so far.

I wish both Jamie and Marianne the best. If their collaboration is half as productive as ours, the power of Shank's storytelling will be truly exceptional.

Good luck, my friend

2010-05-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

A regular fixture of Ubisoft Montreal, and a major source of its creative lifeblood, has announced he's leaving the studio. Clint Hocking, creative director for Splinter Cell, SC: Chaos Theory, and Far Cry 2, is departing for adventures unknown. Knowing how hard this decision must be for him, I wish him all the best.

Clint, I'm sure you'll continue to do incredible things no matter where your journey takes you. Best of luck.

Overlawyered!

2010-04-06T08:48:00.001-07:00

I guess my rants against Gamestop's used games business are getting some attention. My posts got picked up by Overlawyered:

Overlawyered began in July 1999 and is regularly described as the oldest law blog; at least, no one seems to be able to name one that’s older. Its founder and predominant writer is Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of several books about the U.S. litigation system, with (since 2003) frequent contributions by Ted Frank, who founded and directs the Center for Class Action Fairness; he was formerly director of the American Enterprise Institute’s AEI Legal Center and a practicing lawyer with O’Melveny & Myers. New Jersey lawyer David Nieporent, has also contributed occasionally, and the site has had dozens of visiting guestbloggers.

Wow...that's pretty cool! Welcome, Overlawyered readers. And for the record, I'm not a lawyer; I don't even play one on TV.

And just in case someone from Gamestop is reading -- here's a freebie. Why don't you just agree to a moratorium on re-selling new games for a fixed period after launch? Most games make the vast majority of their revenue in the first 3 months after they hit the shelves. Even if you delayed reselling for a month, this would have a huge positive impact on the bottom line for publishers and developers, and keep the industry healthier as a result, which means you get more games to sell in the future! Imagine that. The pillar of a mutual symbiotic relationship (as opposed to a parasitic one) is that one symbiote doesn't kill the other.

formspring.me

2010-04-03T21:19:00.001-07:00

Ask me anything http://formspring.me/raphlife

Gamestop as Parasite: A Developer-centric View

2010-03-28T22:43:00.001-07:00

Let me take a moment to explain my previous post in a little more detail.

The reason I think this lawsuit is relevant is that it speaks to a larger issue -- the perceived value of the contents of a game disc. The reason I think this class-action suit is something we, as developers, should pay attention to is that it shines a light on a practice that is damaging to us all.

Consumers have no real qualms about buying a pre-owned game for $5 less than new, because for them what they lose by buying it pre-owned is worth much less than $5. As long as the disc is not scratched, the pre-owned game offers 100% the same experience and product value as when it was new. This is really the main reason why the pre-owned market is so viable for Gamestop and so damaging to us as developers. They get all the money the second (and third, and fourth) time around, but the publisher and developer only see revenue from the first sale. Subsequent sales are probably cannibalizing further sales of new copies as well. But as soon as people start feeling like a $5 discount isn't enough, then that puts pressure on Gamestop.

The fact that these consumers 'lose' access to DLC content when buying pre-owned changes the equation. Now they are having to give up something tangible by buying pre-owned. Something they may want. Something that has a dollar value attached to it, if they have to buy it themselves.

This small issue has the potential to become a big pain in the ass for Gamestop, which could damage the viability of their pre-owned business, which in the end is good for us developers, as that business accounts for hundreds of millions (over $1B last year, actually) of dollars of lost annual revenue for our industry. That's money that could have helped prop up publishers who instead have had to cancel projects, close studios, and lay off hundreds if not thousands of developers, many of them people you may know. Many of them certainly work for studios that you know, or have made games you played and loved. It's money that could have allowed developers to reap better royalties that would have enabled them to partially self-fund their own efforts, which would have put them on a stronger footing to negotiate better terms for their next contracts with a publisher, which all would have been steps towards a healthier independence, which benefits developers, publishers, and gamers alike.

Instead, it's money that has gone to Gamestop, which they can use to pay their army of lawyers to fight these kinds of "nuisance" lawsuits.

The fact that the resale business is 100% parasitic and exploitative of the developers and publishers who make it possible for there to be a product that can be resold makes it all the more distasteful, and therefore I feel that much less sympathetic for Gamestop's plight in having to defend against this lawsuit. In as much as the legal system seems to give a shit about "right and wrong", I don't see how Gamestop isn't wrong in doing this. If not legally, then certainly they are morally wrong, if for no other reason than by showing bad faith with their business partners (us) and not trying to come up with some better system that could be mutually beneficial. Instead, they succumb to massive greed, and we stand by watching dumbly as they take the axe to our necks.

I'd love to see publishers go even further with this kind of thing. Want multiplayer? Buy new, or pay $9.99 to buy an MP code you can access with your pre-owned disc. Want more than 1 save slot? $0.99/slot for pre-owned discs. You get 2 with a rental disc, unlimited if you are the original owner. Tie achievements and perks from an individual game to the gamertag of the original owner. You want all the perks? Well...it's always better to by new, because you never know if the previous owners might have used them all up. Etc.

So yeah -- just to be clear, I'm not a supporter of frivolous lawsuits, and I understand that even corporations can be victims, but this one time I'm going to root for the proverbial "little guy" who's pissed off that he can't get free DLC from his pre-owned game. Maybe next time, he'll buy new.

Gamestop: Stop Stealing from Developers

2010-03-25T21:46:00.000-07:00

Sounds like EA's "Project Ten Dollar" may be paying off, but perhaps not as they intended (or, depending what you think of EA, maybe exactly as they intended).

http://kotaku.com/5502426/gamestop-hit-with-class-action-sui...

The gist:

quote:
According to a class action suit spotted by IGN, GameStop is being sued for "fraudulently, unfairly, unlawfully and deceptively [misleading] consumers at the time of their purchase to believe that the game comes with free downloadable content, when it fact, it does not." Basically, the suit is being filed over the fact that downloadable content—characters, maps, gameplay modes—are promised on the box, but are not available to second hand buyers, unbeknownst to those consumers.

Not sure how this will play out, but anything that puts the screws to Gamestop and makes it harder for them to carry out their parasitic practices at our expense is music to my ears.

First Screens: Space Marine

2010-02-25T11:12:00.001-08:00

The first screenshots for Space Marine have gone live on the THQ site and on Kotaku. Check them out!

UPDATE: Space Marine is on Gamespot's list of most anticipated games of 2010. Huzzah!

Are Producers Necessary?

2010-02-24T22:57:00.001-08:00

I'm involved with an online community of game developers, and every once in a while the discussion of "what is a producer and why do we need them" rears its ugly head. I frame it that way because the conversation typically digresses into a lot of disparagement of the role and general feelings of disgruntlement on the part of people who've suffered under bad producers.

So, I thought I'd weigh in with some of my own views on the matter. Keep in mind that I've been on both sides of the fence (have been a producer, as well as a discipline director reporting to a producer). Also, I'm limiting myself to discussing internal, developer-side producers here -- external publisher-side producers are a different beast altogether.

------

Producer seems to be the role that is most open to interpretation, and definition, based on the existing structure and development philosophy of a given studio.

It is useful to consider the role of 'producer' independently of the possible contributions or areas of focus for producers. Depending on the studio, the role, the individual, the level, etc., these areas of focus could include:

- project and team leadership
- team management (performance, morale, etc.)
- resource management (project-wide)
- insulating the team from unwanted external influences
- establishing project goals and deliverables
- defining deadlines
- interfacing with publishers and other external parties
- scheduling, tasking, tracking
- team structure and inter/intra-discipline communication
- assessments of "game quality"
- saleability of the game
- timely delivery

Etc.

It's certainly possible that many of the above areas of focus could be owned by people on a project or team who are not called 'producers'.

It also seems likely that for teams who have (a) been working together for a long time and/or (b) been essentially making the same game over and over again with only incremental modifications, there will be less of a need for a dedicated person to focus on things like resource allocations, scheduling/tasking/tracking, assessing "game quality", team management and morale, etc. For the most part, the risks will have been identified, working relationships will be clear, time estimates will be a matter of looking up the previous project's data, etc. Where the dedicated person that would normally look after this stuff might be called a 'producer', saying that a studio working within these parameters doesn't need producers would probably be accurate.

It's also true that individual leads may have the skills to naturally hold a subset of the 'producer' responsibilities/focus outlined above. But, in my experience those people are a rare breed, and highly cherished. They are like those programmers who are also strong designers -- multi-talented and valuable because they can have useful perspective in more than one discipline. But, the fact that there are programmers who are also good at design, or designers who can code, doesn't diminish the value or importance of the other discipline.

Certainly the lack of standardization in the relationship between the title and the roles/responsibilities doesn't help this discussion. There are many different, often conflicting, views of what a producer is or does, and the thing is that most of them are -- to some degree -- right. Because they are describing the version of producer that exists within the context of their development environment. When it works, the form and function of a producer is exactly what it needs to be. Taking a producer from that environment and dropping him or her into a different environment would not necessarily be successful.

One point I disagree with -- and this is purely a personal thing -- is the notion that the best producers are "invisible to the team". On one hand, it smacks of a huge lack of respect for a discipline that is actually quite hard to be good at. It may be mostly "soft skills" but it's no easier to be a good producer than it is to be good at anything else. On the other hand, my personal belief is that a good producer is exactly the opposite from "invisible to the team" -- they are visible all the time, recognizable and present and huge contributors to the satisfied, empowered productivity of the team they are part of.

Our producers (all levels) are on the floor, amongst the team, which is exactly where they need to be. They are visible, present, listening, supporting, engaged -- sometimes watching, sometimes leading, as is needed.

Just my 2 cents.

Duke Nukem, Wired

2010-01-14T23:51:00.000-08:00

I was interviewed by Clive Thompson (Wired, Fast Company, New York Times) recently for an article in Wired magazine about the development of Duke Nukem Forever.

Seems like ancient history now, but I was officially an employee of 3D Realms for about 6 months in 2007 when Scott Miller (3D Realms CEO) and I were transitioning the third-party development efforts around original IP (which Scott had established first with Remedy on Max Payne 1 and 2, and Human Head on Prey -- we were to extend that to multiple new projects and I was establishing production and creative process for managing these external projects and guiding the development teams) to a new startup company that would become Radar.

During that time, I had a chance to see and play DNF a couple of times. The Wired article makes mention of one anecdote, but the article didn't mention a few things I had hoped would get in there -- that George was (and surely still is) one of the most passionate game developers in the industry, and has an unparalleled 'shit filter', a nose for fun and entertainment. He also, I felt, viewed the company and team as his extended family. Seeing the group together, interacting, eating out, going to movies -- it didn't feel like exploitation or naivete. It just felt like a bunch of guys who really loved the game they were making, and wanted it to be great.

Anyways...there's more to be said about that time, but not for now. I thought the Wired article was interesting, perhaps even more so because the story of DNF's development is not actually such a rare story in our industry. It's just not typically a story that involves such colourful, outspoken characters in the lead roles.

Change Management ver. 2010

2010-01-11T19:05:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update to mention that I've returned to the Wet Coast, having taking on a producer position at Relic Entertainment, working on the new 40k console action game, Space Marine.

I've reunited with Andy Lang, someone I worked with on the original Dawn of War when he was the art director and I was an assistant producer. He and I are sharing leadership of the project and every day I feel grateful that we're in the trenches together. It's been a big transition, softened somewhat by being able to return to a studio I know well, with a lot of people I've worked with before. The project is looking great and it's exciting to be here helping guide it to (hopefully) becoming a great shooter franchise for Relic. My old friend and mentor, Jonathan Dowdeswell, is now running the studio, and I'm excited as hell to be able to work with him again.

I really enjoyed my experience at Ubi Montreal, and if the city had been a better fit for my wife and kids, I would have happily stayed there. There are some enormously talented people there, and the organization is extremely dedicated to creating innovative games -- it was a great place to be for a creative person who wants to push the limits. But, those of you who have families can understand how out of sync things can begin to feel when the people who give your life meaning feel themselves that something is amiss. So, I'm thrilled to be back on the West coast where we have some family and roots (although I'll miss my own family out East), and we're ecstatic that our kids will be able to grow up in the Pacific Northwest, which really suits us as a family. We've already been able to reconnect with old friends, and as soon as our stuff arrives from Montreal and we complete the transition into our new home, I'm sure we'll all feel really settled about stuff.

Anyways, hope you all had enjoyable holidays and wishing you all the best for a healthy, happy 2010!

Tips on Writing Design Docs

2009-11-16T17:49:00.000-08:00

I get a lot of emails asking about how to write design documents, so I thought I'd write up some short bullets here to cover the questions that seem to come up most regularly. Hopefully they are helpful, and if you have specific questions that aren't covered here, please don't hesitate to ask!

I've written a fair few design docs, and have had to decipher many more, so although there are people out there much more qualified to provide direction, I have some ideas based on my own experience -- take them if they're useful, ignore them if they're not.

Tips for Writing Design Docs

It's become common wisdom over the past several years that writing monolithic game design docs is really a thing of the past. With projects being as vast and complex as they are today, and teams being as large and as multi-disciplinary as they are, the notion that an individual, or a small group of people, can design an entire game on paper and have that documentation be relevant is...kind of silly.

But, equally silly is the notion that design docs are a complete waste of time and have no place in today's modern development environment. Documentation is very useful, very important, and if nothing else a critical part of the concept development process.

That said, there are probably a few 'best practices' that, if kept in mind, will help you ensure your documentation is of the useful variety.

Tips for Writing Design Docs

Keep them short and sweet, but without sacrificing necessary detail. Being succinct isn't useful if the reader doesn't find the information they're looking for. So, focus on being thorough but avoid unnecessary detail.
Focus on function. If you're a designer, it's probably not your job to go into incredible detail about how a particular UI element should look, or what an audio cue should sound like. You need to identify the function of the feature and describe what it does and how you as a designer need to be able to use it, including what elements of 'tunability' are inherent in the feature. Then, you let the experts in other fields weigh in on the supporting elements that help manifest the design feature into content the player experiences in the game.
Rely on formatting. Proper formatting can do wonders to help communicate important elements of your design. Don't be afraid to use the *full range* of text formatting tools available to you in any decent word processor or online documentation tool (wiki, Basecamp, etc.). Yes, that includes indentation, colour, and even underlining! Don't be shy about using tables or charts, add imagery if it helps. Once you've written and iterated on several designs, in collaboration with the people who will work with you to implement the systems, you'll have a good idea of the type of information people need, and the best way to present it. Build a template and use it consistently, incorporating the best elements of other people's design documents into it, until you have a robust template that your entire design team can use. Consistency in documentation is of paramount importance, especially when you have many design clients and they need to be able to find information quickly, which leads us to...
Know your audience. Are you writing your doc (I prefer to call them 'specs' myself, since they are meant to be the design specifications of a feature, not a document per se) for other designers? For your design lead? For an artist? A programmer? Internal stakeholders or external publisher people? All of the above? You need to know your audience in order for your documents to be effective. Write in clear language using common terms, and if you introduce new terminology remember to note the terms in a glossary, and make sure you use them consistently (and that other people use them consistently as well -- I can't tell you how many cycles I've burned trying to sort out confusion over inconsistent use of terminology...it's the enemy of clear decision-making!).
State the intent. State the intent of your design right away. It gives immediate context, helps calibrate the reader, and puts them in the proper frame of mind to internalize the information you're about to deliver to them in the rest of your spec. Stating the intent first is also a very good way to find out if you're really ready to write your spec; if you can't outline the intent of the system you are documenting in a few short, concise sentences using clear language, then you may not actually be ready to write about it. Take the time to understand it fully in your mind before you go too far in your documentation. It's a common fallacy that writing design docs is the same as designing features. Do your design work up front, and use the documentation process to make sure your ideas are as bulletproof as possible.
Layer your information. If some perpetually harried lead only has a few minutes to review your design, what do they need to understand and retain about it after they've moved on to the next thing? Present your information in layers, beginning with the basic foundational knowledge that is critical to understanding the spec, and add increasing layers of detail as you progress. It's a common documentation 'truth' that you should never use a new word or mention a new concept before you've had an opportunity to introduce it to your reader properly, so be organized about how you present your information so that you've built up the conceptual framework before you expect people to start building on top of it.
Remember that information is personal. Or at least, the way we present it is. I'm a huge believer in the value of using white-boards and/or mindmapping software to brainstorm ideas (not just for design, but for story developing, and even project planning), but you need to remember that 100 people using mindmaps to design the same feature will come up with 100 different mindmaps that really only make sense to them. The information came out of your mind, wholesale and unfiltered. It's not supposed to make sense to anyone but you! So don't expect you'll be able to simply pass it on to someone else and they'll immediately grok the brilliance of your system. For me, mindmappers and whiteboards are simply a tool -- a hugely indispensable tool -- but a tool just the same. The map is not the territory, so try to remember that. If you can take the results of your mindmapping adventures and translate them into coherent documentation that follows some established 'best practices' (as they exist for your studio or team) and even use documentation templates, then you're way ahead of the game.

Well, that's all I can think of for the moment. If any other useful tips or 'best practices' come to mind, I'll be sure to update this post. In the mean time, feel free to shout out if you found this useful, and request any clarifications or updates you'd find helpful.

Stalker (Film); Metro 2033

2009-11-16T17:33:00.000-08:00

Been super busy lately but sadly nothing I can really talk about, which sucks.

One recent highlight was that I *finally* managed to get my hands on a copy of Andrei Tarkovsky's film 'Stalker', the adaptation of the Strugatsky brothers' novel 'Roadside Picnic'. It is a truly fascinating, unusual film that I'm pretty sure deserves multiple viewings. It's an extremely minimalist film by today's standards, and yet manages to capture this wonderfully simple surrealism and a sense of beautiful abandonment in its settings. It's definitely not an action film by any stretch, so those of you who love the game (which is very loosely based on this film and the novels) may be disappointed to discover that the film and game have very little in common. The notion of throwing bolts ahead of yourself to expose dangerous hidden anomalies is a part of the film, but frankly very little happens that isn't almost entirely in the characters' (or the viewer's) minds. A very slow-paced film that is really quite perplexing. I recommend it highly, if for no other reason than to say you've seen it!

***

In another note, many of you have already clued in to the existence of a new 'Stalker-like' FPS called 'Metro 2033', which looks to deliver a lot of the atmosphere of the original Stalker game but with more advanced visuals and, if the trailers are to be believed, in a much more polished package. And, the game is set to be released on PC *and* the 360, so console players will finally get a chance to experience the Wasteland/Fallout experience as seen through Russian eyes. Metro 2033 is, apparently, also based on a novel, but not one I've ever encountered. In any case, the game looks very promising, and I find the premise really grabs you immediately.

This is one thing I always found lacking in the original Stalker, and it's something that the developers at GSC just don't seem to have clued in to (or else, they are intentionally hanging on to a style of presentation that is overtly clunky in nature) -- the studio just doesn't seem to have a very refined sense of how to present content to players. It's not that your game can't be noodly and complex and deep in its mechanics, but it doesn't also have to be clunky in UI, controls, and presentation of story and quest elements. But even looking at the latest trailers for the new Stalker game coming to NA in Q1 2010 (and already available in Russia and parts of Europe), it seems the developer hasn't really refined many of these elements.

In any case, I'm really looking forward to seeing more of Metro 2033 and I applaud THQ for having the balls to publish something one tick off the mainstream dial.

Breaking Story & Fringe

2009-10-21T18:41:00.000-07:00

Time flies. It's been a little while since I posted -- apologies for that. Been super busy at work lately. I recently finished a really intense story-breaking phase, the end result being a complete throughline treatment of our game story. It's about the sixth or seventh iteration on the current game story, but the first version that I feel flows like a complete story. It's not perfect, but even getting here feels like a huge triumph.

Now we'll go through the inevitable process whereby everything gets broken into a million pieces again and hopefully it can be put back together in a coherent fashion. I have a huge amount of respect for writers who can go through this process and emerge with their ego and passion intact. I can see why for some writers who've been working in the industry for a long time, they switch into a kind of service-oriented mode where they abdicate any sense of real ownership over the work and take a very 'work-for-hire' type view on things. It's extremely challenging -- mentally, physically, and emotionally -- to invest the massive amount of passion and brainpower into trying to create something of truly lasting value (and hopefully of excellent craft), and then be able to switch it off and release it into the meatgrinder of the feedback and iteration machine, and twist and tear it out of shape to meet all the various requirements of seemingly endless lines of internal and external stakeholders.

But hey...that's the deal. Nobody said it was easy. :)

* * *

As a total aside, I'm happy Fringe is back on TV. It's not as good as X-Files was, but it's picking up steam and they seem to be trying to address some of the failings of the last season. They've removed that completely annoying idiotic external FBI overseer who was a constant pain in the ass and extremely unlikeable. They've started to focus on making Peter a more prominent part of the story, and develop his link to Anna a bit more strongly. I'm not sure I buy into the whole 'alternate universe' concept but hey, you know it's J.J. Abrams so it's gotta have some kind of weird hook and I guess this is it for Fringe. At least it's not time travel (tsk, tsk).

Interview with Narrative Designer's Network

2009-09-23T17:04:00.000-07:00

Cool! I just did an interview with Stephen at the Narrative Designer's Network. The NDN is a new site dedicated to the art and craft of narrative design, and is meant to be a content and community hub for people dedicated to the work.

In the interview, I give my perspective on what narrative design is, what some of the day-to-day work is like, and some ideas of what the future might hold for the discipline. Check it out and post your feedback, either here or on the NDN.

District 9

2009-09-13T18:57:00.000-07:00

WARNING: PLOT SPOILERS!

I'm always late to the party, but yeah, I finally managed to get to seeing District 9. It came very highly recommended by multiple friends and work colleagues and so understandably I went into it with very high expectations, which for the most part were not really met.

I think it was an entirely competent film, and went a long way towards satisfying several great geek sci-fi fantasies, but other than the unconventional setting, I found the movie to be overly predictable. The plot followed the expected beats pretty much to the letter, and there really wasn't much of a twist per se, so the whole thing -- while very competent as a production -- didn't come across as particularly inspired in terms of a piece of storytelling.

I may have missed something, but I'm not really sure how we're to believe that the aliens, who produce weaponry in such quantities that they use it as currency to trade for food, and whose weaponry is clearly massively more powerful than anything the humans can cobble together, have allowed themselves to be forcibly ghettoized for more than 20 years! I mean, a couple of those power armour things and a hundred 'prawns' with their lightning weapons should be enough to take on pretty much anyone.

But, if we ignore that, the notion of the mega-corporation trying to exploit the aliens for their weapons technology came across as a bit cliche, as did the entire hero's 'turn' when he, now marginalized by the power group he once represented to the underdogs he is now part of, sees the light and sacrifices himself to save the alien and his son.

Frankly, this film wouldn't have garnered nearly as much attention if not for Peter Jackson's name being attached to it, and the promise of some sort of overarching (and possibly controversial) message as suggested by its being set in South Africa. If they were intending for the story to be allegorical, it was clumsy at best.

Hopefully Blomkamp's next attempts will be a bit more ambitious. Overally it feels like District 9 flirted with greatness but fell short simply because it didn't push hard enough. It flirts with a lot of ideas and content without exploring them enough to present anything truly powerful or even lasting.

If you saw it, how did you feel about it?

Jesse Alexander interview

2009-09-01T19:17:00.001-07:00

I had the good fortune to meet Jesse a few months ago in a really casual setting and spend some time soaking up his thoughts on story. It was an awesome experience -- he has this really cool energy that is simultaneously manic and calm, and it's really infectious. I left our conversation feeling really invigorated about what I do every day, which is to try to find new and better ways to get video game players engaged in a storytelling experience.

Anyways, I noticed on Jesse's blog that he did an interview with io9 where he talks about his new show, Day 1, and discusses some of his influences. Check it out.

Switch!

2009-08-20T19:22:00.000-07:00

Much to the surprise of my friends and family, I've made the switch to Mac! I'm typing this entry from my shiny, new-smelling Macbook Pro. It's an absolutely beautiful piece of industrial design and really forces you to ask the question -- why shouldn't a computer look and feel like a piece of functional art?

In any case, I intend to keep my desktop PC for gaming, and switch the bulk of my writing work to the Mac. I'm still in that early awkward stage where I can't find anything and I'm having to try to unlearn some of the little habits and quirks I've developed over years and years of using Windows. I'm actually finding it quite refreshing to have to learn some new software and shift my way of thinking about workflow, etc.

When I have more time, I intend to delve into Keynote more deeply, since I imagine it's a hell of a lot more intuitive than PPT and therefore it should (theoretically) result in some interesting new presentation styles for me. I've found that in so many of the presentations I've been doing for work lately, my brain has adapted to thinking of ideas and information in terms of how PPT works, versus simply using it as a tool to express those ideas and information. In many ways PPT has been extremely useful -- like a whiteboard or Mindmap is useful -- in that it forces you to be organized and methodical in how you think and work, but in other ways I suspect it's been constraining.

In terms of the packaging and user experience of using a Mac for the first time, I think we game developers can learn a lot from Apple. Clearly, you are meant to feel like using this computer is an enjoyable experience, catered to your preferences -- it's all about you. And, while the consoles have made great strides towards this in services like Xbox Live! and the PSN, once you're in the games themselves it's still a bit of a free-for-all. We should remember that the entry into a game experience is like the entrance to a beautifully architected building -- it's meant to be an experience in and of itself, designed to put you in a frame of mind to fully appreciate and open yourself to what's to come. If Apple can do that -- and imbue an inanimate piece of technology with such a pleasurable aesthetic -- we should be able to use all the tools at our disposal (visuals, audio, interface, etc.) to do the same.

When was the last time you had an emotional reaction (that wasn't frustration or disappointment) to your first entry into a new game experience. I'm talking about the pre-game feelings -- the animated logos, the music stingers, the main menu, etc.? A reaction that really put you in the right frame of mind for the experience that was to come?

So Say We All?

2009-07-22T19:02:00.000-07:00

Warning....MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Not sure if any of you caught the last episode of Ronald Moore's re-imagined Battlestar Galactica TV series. I got hooked on this show a couple of years ago and have been playing catch-up ever since. I found the show to be very fresh, the writing to be quite good, and the plot lines to be compelling.

Looking back on five years of episodes, I must say I still enjoy Season One the best. That's where I think the show really shone because it remained pure to the core of the conflict -- being on the run from the Cylons, being the underdog, the last bastion of the human race, having to always scramble to stay one step ahead, having to improvise, fight, fear, love, hate, etc., and sqeeze every last bit of human ingenuity left in their sad tired bodies to stay alive against an overwhelming force bent on their very extinction.

I won't complain about how the show tended to exhibit a lot of soap opera-ish qualities at times -- after all, despite my best attempts to convince my wife that we were sitting on the couch together to watch the next episode of a great science-fiction show, she and I both knew that we were watching it primarily to see how the various relationships -- always complex, always fiery -- would evolve in this next episode.

I suppose it's not fair or reasonable to expect that a show that has entertained for so many years -- primarily due to being able to juggle several tangentially related plot-lines and convince us that they were going to somehow connect them all at some point in the future -- would manage to meet or satisfy our massive expectations. Aside from having kind of lost the threads of the 'core story' for the past season or so, I'll have to admit I was kind of blindly following the show believing that at some point, my loyalty would be rewarded.

Imagine my disappointment, then, with the final episode!

I've tried to make sense of the contents, unsuccessfully. Aside from the first half -- the battle against the Cylon colony ship -- which was visceral and incredible and reminiscent of Season One battles (and frankly, highlighted how little the show has focused on this kind of action over the past couple of years, preferring to focus on a lot of internal struggles which, frankly, are a lot less compelling to me for being so damn drawn out and melodramatic at times) -- the episode was a convoluted mess of flashbacks mixed with aftermath recaps and the occasional shot of (gasp!) present day!!! I mean...WTF?

I feel it's a sad statement on humanity's struggle, and a relatively cynical conclusion, that after all these years of fighting to get to the safety of their paradise, the first thing everyone wanted to do was get the frack away from one another and head off to live like hermits.

Of the mess of flashbacks, the best I could figure out is:

Roslyn's story was to cement the reality that she really had nothing to lose and no family to mourn when Caprica was annihilated by the Cylons; I'm not sure how this reveals anything meaningful about her character except perhaps explaining how meaningful it would feel for her to have found, in Adama, someone she could feel a deep and familial connection with
Same story for Adama really; his flashbacks in the strip club with Tigh made me feel borderline uncomfortable, but clearly he had nothing going on back on Caprica and getting assigned to the museum-worthy Galactica was probably the best thing he had going for him
Lee and Kara -- really, we see a pattern of behaviour that is repeated over and over (for both of them) throughout the show, to the point of being irritating. I must admit that while I really liked these characters through the first two seasons, they started to really grate on my nerves in the later years of the show, to the point where I feel they were both essentially sidelined and made fairly irrelevant.
Cylon reconciliation WTF? Chief Tyrol's revenge for Kali's death throwing the possibility of human/cylon reconciliation out the window WTF? Hera as human/cylon hybrid/messiah WTF? Baltar and Caprica 6 existing to guide Hera to the Galactica CIC at the defining moment WTF? I'm sure the writers had that exact moment in mind when they started that whole Concert Hall stuff back in...was is Season 2 or 3?
Starbuck as angel and ghost? WTF?
Fast forward 150,000 years and we see...what was that, Time Sqaure? Japanese robots as Cylon prototypes? WTF?

I'm not as bitter as I seem about this. The show provided me with a lot of entertainment over the past couple of years, but honestly...this finale feels sloppy and doesn't really do justice to the quality of the show as a whole, and the follow-up interviews I've read with RDM where he's asked to explain some of the decisions made as they were wrapping up the mythology in the last 10 episodes are downright silly ("whoops...we never even thought that people might think the "shutdown Cylon Artist Daniel" and the "Daniel as mystical piano-man and Starbucks' father" were meant to be the same character -- our bad for not being more fucking clueful about how we've trained our fans to pay attention to details that we actually don't think about for more than 2 seconds!!!"), and personally make me quite angry. I mean...jesus man...have you no pride! You knew a year or more ago that the show was going to be ending in a season...surely you could have taken the time to plot out a more elegant exit.

Can anyone recommend a good TV show as a pallette cleanser?

Showrunner --> Gamerunner?

2009-07-19T09:16:00.000-07:00

The TV industry has the notion of a 'showrunner', essentially the person who literally runs the show, is creatively empowered, and is responsible for budgets, timely delivery, casting, hiring/firing directors/actors/writers, etc.

As I understand it, this role largely emerged from the fact that in TV -- unlike in the movie industry -- writers have the 'real power', as networks are dependent on a reliable source of high-quality content under very short timelines. Most of the producers and exec. producers you see in the TV industry -- people like J.J. Abrams, Aaron Sorkin, etc. -- started out as writers and then became show creators, and are still responsible for writing but also all the production aspects of their shows. When, just like in film, titles like 'executive producer' became abused (they were often conferred to people who had provided funding for the show, or as an honorific for senior industry people who didn't really have that much to do with the day-to-day operation of a show), the TV industry created the role and title of 'showrunner'.

From wikipedia:

Traditionally, the executive producer of a television program was the "chief executive," responsible for the show's production. Over time, the title of executive producer became applied to a wider range of roles, from those responsible for arranging financing to an honorific without actual management duties. The term "show runner" was created to identify the producer who actually held ultimate management and creative authority for the program. The blog (and book) Crafty Screenwriting defines showrunner as "the person responsible for all creative aspects of the show, and responsible only to the network (and production company, if it's not his production company). The boss. Usually a writer."

Los Angeles Times columnnist Scott Collins describes show runners as:

..."hyphenates," a curious hybrid of starry-eyed artists and tough-as-nails operational managers. They're not just writers; they're not just producers. They hire and fire writers and crew members, develop story lines, write scripts, cast actors, mind budgets and run interference with studio and network bosses. It's one of the most unusual and demanding, right-brain/left-brain job descriptions in the entertainment world...show runners make — and often create — the shows, and now more than ever, shows are the only things that matter. In the "long tail" entertainment economy, viewers don't watch networks. They don't even care about networks. They watch shows. And they don't care how they get them.

So, these are people who are very strong creatives, but also very strong managers, who understand all aspects of the business and are ultimately responsible for making all creative and production decisions for a show.

I find it interesting that the TV industry would have evolved this way, while film and games still really tend to keep these roles apart. In fact, in games, the common wisdom seems to be that it's a "bad idea" for the same person to be responsible for budget/quality/team *and* creative, as though for some reason it's impossible to be good at both. We also seem to have this notion that the people in the high-level creative roles should intentionally stay away from any production-related responsibilities or concerns, and that producers should really keep their noses out of the creative aspects of a project.

Why is that? Why does it work for TV but not for games? Is it really something systemic to the way games are made? Is it a historical artifact of old thinking that just hasn't evolved?

Next, we take Manhattan...

2009-07-07T17:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, not really. But this is good news for Ubi, good for Canada, and probably even good for Toronto!

Ubisoft is opening a studio in Toronto and plans to hire 800+ developers over the next 10 years.

I've often wondered why a city the size of Toronto, with such a vibrant creative culture (tons of arts, film, animation, TV, etc.), couldn't sustain a substantial game development industry. I honestly can't think of a studio there except maybe Rockstar Toronto. Sure, Digital Extremes and Silicon Knights are in Ontario, but they're far from Toronto proper.

In any case, hopefully this is a win for everyone. Ubi could be to Toronto what EA was to Vancouver. Another strong hub for game dev in Canada isn't a bad thing!

Bethesda + id

2009-06-24T17:05:00.000-07:00

Ok, so truthfully it's more like ZeniMax+id, but in any case, the company that owns and was spawned by Bethesda Softworks, developers of (amongst other things), Fallout 3 and Oblivion, have today announced they are purchasing id Software, creators of Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein, and of course, Rage.

This is a pretty big deal for both companies, and says a lot for how successful Bethesda has been in their expansion plans over the past couple of years. Clearly their publishing of Oblivion and Fallout 3 (both 4M+ selling games) has given them a pretty substantial warchest, not to mention they've probably received other outside investment to fuel their strategic growth. So, between Bethesda's mastery of the open-world RPG, and their new internal capacity for FPS IP and technology, they are well positioned to go head-t0-head with any other publisher in the industry in these specific genres.

The id side of the equation is a little harder to decipher from the outside. Not too many years ago, id turned down a $100M+ offer by Activision to purchase the company. Now, they've been absorbed (although the PR is putting a good spin on it -- id is now "becoming their own publisher" -- it's pretty clear that Bethesda is the one wearing the financial pants in this relationship) for an indeterminate sum (one must figure above the $100M they turned down from Activision). In exchange, they get financial resources they would not have had themselves (??? this part I don't get...id has always been small and uber-successful considering their incredible developer:unit sales ratio) and no longer has to try to navigate the increasingly challenging publisher landscape. Presumably technology licensing has not been a big revenue driver for them in the past few years, since we rarely hear of id tech licensees that aren't also externally developed projects of id IPs (Splash Damage's recently announced 'Brink' being a rare exception to this).

It's likely that id has had to grow teams, like every other developer in the industry, and saw themselves at over 100 developers for the first time ever and realized that at that rate they just can't afford to work on things until "they're done". Given how that strategy ultimately worked out for 3DR, perhaps there's something in the Texas air that told id they might not survive until the next great acquisition offer came along.

In any case, the number of super-devs is really dwindling. Looks like Valve and Epic are some of the last to hold out. I doubt Valve has any reason to sell (other than founders wanting to cash out) because Steam revenue alone could keep them going for a long time -- Valve is essentially already a publisher. Epic on the other hand...as long as they can keep releasing 5M unit sellers every couple of years, they'll be ok, but...the buyout offers will only get higher and sooner or later money talks...

Interesting times!

The Pitt

2009-06-18T19:28:00.000-07:00

So, I finished the Pitt DLC for Fallout 3 last weekend. It was really enjoyable, and surprisingly robust for a relatively small DLC. I'd say I got about 6-8 hrs. of gameplay out of it.

The transition from the Capital Wasteland to The Pitt is really quite well done, and the way they use colour and small flavour highlights -- the skies are this perpetual burnt red colour, tall smokestacks loom on the horizon of the industrial city giving it this ominous feeling, the bridge into the city littered with the remains of abandoned cars, etc. -- really make the Pitt feel quite different from the very grey environments of the CW.

The level design for the Steelyard area is especially fresh, using a lot of verticality and heavy industrial props to present a really different take on the environments.

Probably the Pitt's most impressive feat is that it presents the player with what I consider to be the most morally challenging choice of any Fallout 3 quest. I won't spoil it here for those who haven't played it, but I really found the choice to be genuinely challenging -- it made me stop to think about not only what would be right for my character, but what I myself would choose to do in that situation. Pretty powerful stuff for a game that can often be quite clunky in its presentation of narrative moments.

So, kudos to the team at Bethesda, for continuing to make FO3 my game of choice. It's the first game I've put over 100 hours into, and with Broken Steel waiting for me, I have a feeling my time in the Capital Wasteland is far from over...

Pixar

2009-06-14T08:34:00.001-07:00

Had the opportunity to attend a great seminar at work, presented by a Pixar 'story artist' named Matthew Luhn. Luhn went into some detail about Pixar's creative process and methodology for coming up with movie ideas, and most notably, for developing story.

It's always interesting to hear from creative leaders working in industries where "story" is considered of paramount importance, whereas in games we constantly manage to get lost in the "gameplay trumps everything" debate, failing to recognize that gameplay and story don't have to be mutually exclusive (and in fact, when the two have lived symbiotically, the results have been groundbreaking, as we've seen from Half-Life 2, CoD4, Bioshock, and others).

In any case, Luhn mentioned (in a very matter of fact way) that Pixar is the only company in the history of film to have a 10-film blockbuster streak. He also mentioned they spend, on average, two years developing characters and story for each of their films.

Hmmm...

3DR, R.I.P.

2009-05-08T17:45:00.001-07:00

This has been an absolutely shocking week. To think that after all these years 3D Realms is just gone...poof...it's just absurd. It's a bit like the feeling you might have if someone told you the sun wasn't going to come up tomorrow. It's not that the industry revolved around 3DR, but they were such an institution. The studio shutting down helps you to realize how vulnerable we all are, really.

3DR was always a bastion of developer-centric thinking and George and Scott have always advocated strongly for the rights of developers to be masters of their own destinies. Given how generous they have always been with their own time and advice, it's a real shame for it all to come down to this -- shuttered doors.

I was officially a 3DR employee for about 6 months back in 2007, while I was working with Scott to start up the company that would eventually become Radar. Even though I was working out of Vancouver at the time, I had an opportunity to visit 3DR in Dallas a few times, and hang out with George and some of the rest of the dev team.

One thing that was painfully clear from the minute you walked through the studio doors was...this was a company that loved games. Absolutely loved games. And there was a history there on the walls that would make any developer...hell, any publisher...proud. A legacy of innovation and quality and pushing the boundaries in business and design.

The people were extremely friendly and open, even given that I wasn't working on DNF and had very little interaction with any of them. You immediately had a feeling of walking into a tight-knit family that really believed in each other and really just wanted to make a great, great game.

It's a sad day. It's often easy to forget all the emotion and personal sacrifice that goes into developing a game. Then, to see that all dissipate into the ether with nothing to show for it, and on top of that to have to say goodbye to the company you built with your own hands, and your friends that are more like family...well.

I can imagine that heartbreaking doesn't really do justice to how it must feel. Words fail, really.

You'll be missed. All the best. Good night, and good luck.

Escape from City 17

2009-02-15T19:20:00.000-08:00

Here's a great fan-made short movie mixing live-action with some in-game assets (mostly enemy models, sound effects, and some visual effects) from HL2.

Very impressive work considering the budget was apparently "less than $500". It was put together by the Purchase Brothers, a small film production company that's done mostly some commercial work until now. Apparently the City 17 shorts were originally created as a test-bed but have evolved into a series, so expect more to follow.

Seeing the HL2 world in live-action shows you how well the fiction stands up to adaptation. Even the 'uniforms' of the resistance members end up looking a lot less dorky than I would have expected.

In case the link above doesn't work, you can check out a lower-res version on YouTube. With almost 1M hits (as of this writing), the piece seems to have brought the Brothers some much deserved attention.

Hopefully Valve is watching and gets these shorts up on Steam.

Mr. MacReady

2009-01-18T17:46:00.000-08:00

A couple of updates on Dark Horizons that caught my attention.

Apparently, Ronald Moore of Battlestar Galactica (remake) fame has selected a director for his 'The Thing' prequel project -- a Dutchman by the name of van Heijningen. I've not heard of him before, but a quick IMDB search shows him to be very experienced (even if he mostly holds producer and not director credits), so we'll have to see how this turns out.

According to the DH piece, van Heijningen is pushing for the prequel to revolve around the exploits of the ill-fated Norwegien expedition, putting MacReady's brother as the protagonist. I have to admit, this sounds painfully contrived to me. One of the great things about MacReady is that you get the feeling that he's in Outpost 31 not by necessity, but by choice, probably out of some misanthropic motivation to get away from people. So, I don't personally like the idea of fucking around with this mythology and suggesting that he might have been out there to "find his brother" or some such bullshit. I suppose it could be pulled off if done well, but...it makes me nervous. File this one under "wait and see".

When scanning for the Thing prequel piece, I discovered another interesting tidbit on Dark Horizons. Apparently, John Turtletaub (National Treasure) is planning to take his cancelled TV series, 'Jericho', to the big screen. Along with the bigger screen comes a larger scale exploration of the apocalyptic scenario outlined in Jericho. If any of you missed it when it was on TV, you should definitely get your hands on the DVDs. It was a surprisingly compelling show, with a great premise, solid cast, and a rather thought-provoking, multi-layered narrative. The show surrounds the events of a nuclear terrorist attak on US soil, perpetrated by...nobody knows, but there are strong signs that the attacks were orchestrated by domestic dissidents. The majority of the show revolves around the citizens in the small town of Jericho, Kansas, in their attempts to understand what the hell is going on, and try to survive in the face of the attacks. As in these types of scenarios, all the worst 'small town'attitudes emerge and neighbour turns against neighbour, and of course there are many triumphs (small and large) along the way. Overall it was a really enjoyable show, and I have high hopes for the movie.

In gaming news...I am utterly addicted to Fallout 3 (where my character is also called MacReady). I've put in about 45 hours into it over the past few weeks, which means I've sacrificed 45 hours of sleep to play it. That's how much I'm enjoying it. I'm lvl. 13 and tripping around the D.C wastes. I've just completed the "Reilly's Rangers" quest and am on my way to Rivet City. I'm looking forward to completing the main quests so that I can go back through the world and revisit all the smaller towns and hideouts I missed in my first pass. In the past, I've always stayed away from the 100+ hour games due to anxiety around the investment required to experience them. But, I think Fallout 3 will be the first 100+ hour game I actually finish.

Are you playing Fallout 3? If so, where are you? If not, why not?

New Year

2009-01-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

A bunch of random thoughts and updates...

- My friend, science-fiction author Tom Maddox, is working on a new novel. He's been giving me sneak peaks and it's shaping up really nicely. Tom's been a writer for a *long* time -- he was one of the original cyberpunk authors and is a contemporary of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling (not to mention our industry's very own Marc Laidlaw (Valve) who also started out as a science-fiction writer before turning to games). I've known him for many years, and we had the opportunity to work together on a couple of projects at Radar.

In any case, it's been extremely interesting to be able to witness the birth of a novel and I wish Tom the best of luck. Simultaneously, his work with Radar is all wrapped up so if you're in need of an experienced writer who has also delved into interactive narrative, feel free to contact me and I'll put you in touch.

- Despite some softness in the opening hours, I have become fully addicted to Fallout 3. As a huge fan of the originals and a big fan of Bethesda, I was really looking forward to seeing how they modernized and re-interpreted the gameplay to make it relevant to a mainstream gaming audience. Looking at the metacritic and sales figures, I'd say they've definitely managed to strike a chord with players. I'm about 30 hours into it and still enjoying it, although I'm approaching the Washington Monument and I'll say the difficulty curve has just skyrocketed upwards, which is a bit jarring. In any case, this is likely the first 100+ hour open world game that I will see to the end.

In playing Fallout 3, and thinking about most of the games that have resonated most deeply with me as a player, I'm beginning to realize just how fundamental the promise of "reward through exploration" really is as an underpinning for compelling gameplay. Fallout 3's RPG mechanics allow the game to make the reward aspects really literal, moreso than other open world games like GTA4, where your rewards for exploring the world are more anecdotal and have more to do with optimizing your navigation of the environment than they do with collecting loot and grinding. But, it appears that many of the action games that resonate most deeply with players manage to satisfy some innate need to explore and discover. Particularly, the promise of exploring abandoned spaces and the possibility of discovering loot that's been left behind (buried treasure!) is extremely compelling, and seems to really pull on an inherent need we have. Maybe it has something to do with reptilian brain survival and resource gathering, and the fact that most of us have very little opportunity, in our daily lives, to truly discover new spaces, particularly physical ones. The allure of archeology becomes more apparent to me...

- Just saw "The Day the Earth Stood Still". What a truly horrible movie, and the perfect example of how a good high concept can be destroyed by poor execution. The director had all the necessary pieces to make a successful film -- big budget, high production values, capable cast, etc. -- yet somehow the film just falls flat. Weak script and poor editing are the likely reasons for this. The film suffers a bit from the same issue as the Spielberg "War of the Worlds" (granted, a much better film) -- the 'heroes' do nothing to earn their own salvation.

Oh, and this is my first post of 2009, so Happy New Year!

And Now for Something (Not So) Completely Different...

2008-12-20T08:11:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to say that I've moved on from Radar, and have taken a position at Ubisoft Montreal. I'll be working on narrative design and story development for an unannounced open-world action game. Very exciting stuff and I must say it's great to be here.

Apologies for posting so infrequently over the past couple of months. In between moving across the country, starting a new job, getting the family settled, etc. I've managed to play a bit of Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, Prince of Persia, and Braid. Will post some thoughts on those games as time permits.

If I'm not able to post before then, I would like to wish all of you a safe and restful holiday season, and all the best for 2009. Despite being pretty "recession proof", our industry is experiencing a fair bit of turmoil right now, and my thoughts go out to all my colleagues who have been swept up in it.

What the heck is up?

2008-10-19T19:42:00.000-07:00

Good question. Lots has been happening, enough to keep me from posting more frequently. I've been busy, with some new stuff on the horizon. I promise to post something more substantial and much less mysterious soon. I will say, however, that some big changes are afoot.

In the mean time, I've been playing a bit of Stalker: Clear Sky. I've not played enough yet to decide whether I like the additions and alternations over the original. My first impression is that the faction-oriented game structure feels a bit heavy-handed, and that the world feels a bit too populated for my tastes. Understanding that this is a prequel set several years before the events of Stalker, I think they have solid fictional reasons for making the Zone a little busier, but one of the huge draws (for me) of experiencing the world of Stalker was that your time there was mostly long periods of solo wandering punctuated by bursts of collaborative activity. The balance in Clear Sky, so far, seems to have shifted a bit towards the collaboration side of the spectrum which offers some new and interesting possibilities for gameplay and mission structure, but does something to unbalance the tenuous beauty of the original game.

In any case, once I have several more hours of play time under my belt, I'll try to post some more coherent thoughts.

Stalking the Zone

2008-08-07T13:40:00.000-07:00

Wow, is Stalker ever an easy game to underestimate.

First, a bit of history. I had followed the story of Stalker's development ever since it was announced back in...2004? It promised to deliver a great post-ap styled experience in an extremely atmospheric real-world setting that holds a lot of...well...romance might be the wrong word, but if you love anything Soviet and remember Chernobyl I think you'll understand why the whole setting is so compelling. Even Call of Duty 4 couldn't help but explore some of post-Chernobyl Pripyat.

I think the event has some kind of iron hold on the collective consciousness of those who grew up in the 80s. I was 10 when reactor #4 suffered a meltdown and spewed radioactive dust high enough into the sky that it quickly spread over the Atlantic. I still remember when we were told in school about the cloud creeping towards North America. In our young minds, it was probably only superceded by full-on nuclear war as our prime concern.

Those memories are galvanized into something almost tangible as soon as you enter the zone in Stalker. It easily ranks along with Half-Life and Deus Ex as one of the most atmospheric FPS games I've ever played. No game comes close to delivering the promise of exploring a decaying, abandoned nuclear wasteland (although, I'm going to give my friends at Bethesda on Fallout 3 the benefit of the doubt).

Unfortunately, my enjoyment of this experience was delayed -- for almost a year -- for the simple fact that my initial impressions of key game systems were rather negative. It's too bad that over time, I've become so much less patient and willing to invest time in learning how to play a game. My first play sessions with Stalker turned me off, mainly because it was buggy and the quest system was truly perplexing. Also, the whole game had a patina of clumsiness that caused me to turn my nose up at it. This less than triple-A experience was certainly not good enough for my palette.

A month ago, I went back to it. I fired it up again, persisted, and -- to my surprise -- was richly rewarded. I worked past the initial areas of the game (which are somewhat weak and uninteresting), and broke through some parts that had turned me off before, and managed to get -- literally and metaphorically -- to a new place, a new level of experience and immersiveness that I don't think I've felt since playing Half-Life 2.

I definitely encourage anyone who, like me, was turned off by the early levels and bugginess of the game (much of which has been addressed by subsequent patches), to find the time to return to the game. Keep searching. The richest rewards only come to those brave enough to persist to the depths of the Zone.
---------------------------------------------
Oh, and even if you don't have time to check out the game (again, or for the first time), have a look at this amazing footage filmed by the Ukrainian filmmaker Shevchenko, who died a couple of weeks after taking it. It shows some of the response teams called in to deal with the disaster, and is haunting and unforgettable.

Here's another bit of footage, this one a Greenpeace film, from 2006, 20 years after the original disaster. It shows some of the recent work to improve the sarcophagus around Reactor #4, as well as some great footage of the actual reactor itself. Incredible.

And finally, in case you didn't know, a sequel (prequel actually) to Stalker is coming out at the end of this month. It's called Stalker: Clear Sky, and looks to include many enhancements to both visuals and gameplay.

David Cage on Heavy Rain, Interactive Storytelling, MMOs

2008-07-28T10:06:00.000-07:00

There's a great interview with David Cage on Gamasutra, where he talks about Indigo Prophecy, his studio's new game, Heavy Rain, and shares some thoughts on MMOs that dovetail nicely with my previous post. This thought, in particular, is one I definitely share:

I've played many MMOs these days, and most of the time, the experience is really poor, because you end up doing not very exciting things. I think the value of the experience is not on that. It's really about building yourself - the vision of yourself, like, "Oh, I want to be a hero, because I've spent so much time at level 16. I'm so strong. Look at my weapons and my helmet." These are the core mechanics these games are based on.

I think that's fine for people when they need to build self esteem, and it's a very important core complementing experience, but if you're not into that, what's the real narrative or emotional value? Sometimes it's really interesting when you're in the guild in a massively multiplayer game and you attack the fortress or whatever. Some great things can be told, but it's not guaranteed. The value is not always there.

I also really agree with Cage's assertions that our industry needs to grow up and tackle some more mature, meaningful content and themes in games. He has some interesting thoughts on how easy it is to build empathy between players and game characters as well.

Overall a great interview, and I have to say I'm really looking forward to seeing more about Heavy Rain, which from the sounds of it might really push the medium forward.

On a separate note, Funcom shares are down with some reports that many early Age of Conan players have cancelled their subscriptions because, among other reasons, the game really thins out later on. Perhaps, as I experienced, they realized that it was pretty thin to begin with.

I Don't Get MMOs

2008-07-15T16:14:00.001-07:00

So, I'm probably one of the few people on the planet who didn't get sucked into the phenomenon known as WoW. I watched curiously over colleague's shoulders as they were drawn into the world, only to raise their heads months later with hundreds and hundreds of hours invested into their various characters. Usually, their heads only stayed up long enough to take in the next expansion pack, thus throwing them right back into an orgiastic frenzy.

I had a sense back then that if MMOs were as addictive as they appeared to be, I had better give them a wide berth. I don't regret the decision.

About a year ago I decided to put aside my qualms and try to get into WoW. I created a character, and spent a few days wandering around the world. Leveled up a bit, met some people, carried out some quests, etc. As beautiful as the world was visually, the experience just didn't grab me. It was akin to the game equivalent of a reality TV show -- lacking the scripted nature that makes entertainment entertaining (for me). Also, I couldn't shake the feeling that WoW was a game for...kids. The primary colours and stylized aesthetic made it difficult to feel truly imperiled by the conflicts in the setting.

I was really excited when the Conan MMO was announced. I thought that perhaps here, I would find an MMO experience that had the maturity of tone and content WoW lacked. I was looking forward to the excellent visuals, rich and compelling setting, deeper story content, and the mature veneer that would make it feel like a game for adults. I was looking forward to crushing my enemies before me, stealing their treasures, and spending money on drinking and whoring -- to make Conan proud and live up to the legacy of the novels and comic books I had grown up with.

What I found, instead, is a game that feels a lot like WoW. Now, you can't really argue with WoW's success -- 10M subscribers is no small feat. But, I can't help but feel let down by Age of Conan. I expected the age warning and ESRB label to actually mean something, but with several days of play time behind me, I find that I'm in a fairly tame experience. My main gripes:

* Inconsistent art direction. Some vistas are beautiful, others fall flat. Generally, the visual quality would be unacceptable in a triple-A action game, but somehow here it is considered groundbreaking (for an MMO).
* Weak writing and quest design. How do I reconcile my role as a hero with the pithy tasks I'm meant to carry out? Also, there is vast inconsistency in the scope of challenge. One minute I'm perpetrating the fiery demise of an army in an overflowing Volcano, the next minute I'm fetching three spools of thread for a pathetic tailor. Am I a hero, or an errand boy?
* Poor story delivery. The attempt at cinematic presentation for dialogue sequences really falls flat.
* Interface. Holy shit there is a lot on the screen at once. While the trend in most other games is to contextualize as much player-facing information into the in-game world, MMOs seem to still hold on to the belief that everything must be represented in an on-screen menu or button or chat window filled endlessly with ridiculous commentary from other players.

I'm no expert on MMOs, clearly, so perhaps my criticisms are unfair. But, I can't help but leave the game feeling disappointed with what I experienced there. Some flaws are undeniable, and rebuttals usually carry the flavour of "well, it's an MMO...", as though that excuses everything.

Why are MMOs held to such a different standard than other games?

Pixar Innovation

2008-04-23T10:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a great article on how Pixar fosters innovation and creativity in its teams. It's basically an interview with Brad Bird where he talks about his own personal approach to building team morale and creating an atmosphere in which innovation can really thrive. Very inspiring stuff.

(Note: The article requires free registration but in my opinion it's definitely worth it.)

Little Foot

2008-03-28T19:52:00.000-07:00

Rem van Lierop, our new son. Born March 26th @ 12:45AM. 7 lbs, 4 oz. Mama, Big Sister, and I are all doing well. Miracles do happen. They can even happen twice.

Gamasutra Coverage

2008-03-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a Q&A I did with Gamasutra, where I attempt to answer various questions about Radar, including our focus on original IP, our collaborative relationship with studios and pubs, our focus on core-gamer IPs and platforms, and the partnership with Depth Entertainment.

Check it out here.

Over the Radar

2008-03-17T19:14:00.000-07:00

So, finally. The company I have been secretly working for for the past 8+ months is finally not so secret anymore!

Radar Group is officially announced today. Check out the IGN piece, and a press release that should be hitting the wires any minute now.

It's funny how after a while you get so used to not talking about your work, you start thinking nobody will ever know about it. Getting this message out is, somehow, a huge relief. Remember what the government teaches us -- if it's not public knowledge, it doesn't exist!

The best part about Radar is all the talented people I get to work with everyday, whether they be actual Radar employees or people at the developers (like Recoil Games in Finland), or people at one of our several unannounced partners.

Wish us luck in this new venture! Hopefully we can make some great games, and change the industry at the same time.

Mass Effect

2008-02-22T12:51:00.000-08:00

Finally got around to playing this, and boy is it amazing! Despite various blemishes pretty much throughout the game, the overall experience is truly incredible. Obviously BioWare has set a new bar for interactive narrative with ME, both structurally and in terms of presentation. It is truly a stunning achievement. I was very sad to finish it.

While playing it I generated a list of nitpicks as long as my arm, but even so, the game manages to deliver something very special. I'm actually contemplating starting over so I can play a different character and explore the side-content I pretty much ignored in my first playthrough. Those that know me understand what a huge complement this is, as I pretty much never spend more than ~10 hours on a game (unless it is truly exceptional!) and the list of games I've played through more than once is very, very short.

So, kudos to BioWare. You've created a brilliant game and a rich world that I want to come back to.

Vortal Combat

2008-02-12T11:35:00.000-08:00

Got the soundtrack for the Orange Box. I think Kelly Bailey is really underrated as a game music composer. I found his track 'Particle Ghost' from the HL2 soundtrack to be so evocative that I used its name in my blog URL. 'Vortal Combat' on the Ep2 soundtrack is equally good. The HL2 games are not known for their music, and the music in HL2 has always been relatively understated compared to the bombastic scores you tend to hear in most games, but every once in a while there is a track that really stands out in my mind. Love it.

"Whatever it is...it's winning."

2008-01-21T11:05:00.000-08:00

Saw Cloverfield this weekend. Going into it expecting a lot of shakycam footage of NYC under attack by a giant monster, and was not at all disappointed. I could have lived with seeing less of the creature, to be honest -- I just love the tension that comes from the situation, and seeing normal people finding their way through the underbellies of the city to try and escape. In typical J.J. Abrams fashion, he shows you enough to get you interested but doesn't really resolve anything. Based on the success of the first one (it's already pulled in over $40M in NA and it only cost $30M to make) my guess is a sequel is inevitable. I predict a similar film taken from a different point of view, casting the events in a very different light.

Pure Creativity. I Heart Portal

2008-01-17T17:19:00.000-08:00

Wow, just wow. Just finished playing Portal (yeah, I'm a bit late to the game, but what else is new). I had finished HL2:Ep2 (masterful!) a few months back, but my vid card didn't support PS3.0 so I wasn't able to try Portal. Thankfully, I just got a shiny new system and Portal was the first game I loaded up.

There is more creativity and innovation in this short game than in any I have played in recent memory. Between the mind-bending puzzles, the irreverent writing, or the clean art style, Portal just oozes with personality. It's really humbling to think that this game started out as a student project by a group at DigiPen. Of course, at this point it's clear that Valve can do no wrong, and any project they back is going to be a hit, without question.

Portal really instructs on how to do a lot with a little, and hearkens back to a day when games were solely about gameplay. While I personally look for a lot more story in the projects I work on, Portal is ingenious in that it tells volumes through what it doesn't say. And unlike many puzzle-focused games, the designers never teach you to mistrust them -- you know that everything you need to make sense of the puzzle in front of you is right there, if you can only just put it all together in your head.

This game proves to me that players do look for far more than aimless action in their games. Feeling rewarded for your own ingenuity is a hugely compelling hook, and one very few games really deliver on.

Really, really amazing. If you haven't played this yet, you need to get to Steam and grab it. If you're a developer, you need to study this game. You'll soon see why it's been winning GOTY awards all over the place, against the $20-30M+ behemoths of the industry. My hats off to Valve and the team that put this masterpiece together, and I can't wait for Portal 2!

Radio Silence

2007-12-14T14:12:00.000-08:00

Whoosh. The sound of time flying by. Can't believe I haven't found time to post in here since August. The past months have just raced by -- what with moving, extensive travelling for work and just project stuff, etc.

In November, I spent 10 days with the team at Recoil in Helsinki (my third trip this year). It was great to see them again. We have daily communication, but nothing beats working with people face to face. We always seem to blast through about a month's worth of work each week I spend "on the ground" with the team. There's a great energy there.

They've moved to a new office, which feels a lot more spacious and frankly, a lot more like a game studio, and they seem to have settled in there very nicely in short order. Earth No More is going very well -- we're tackling all sorts of interesting challenges and working closely with the team to find solutions is an incredibly rewarding experience.

Speaking of which, the team is growing and there are various positions to be filled, so if you see anything you like on the Recoil jobs site, fire them an email or get in touch with me via my LinkedIn profile.

Looking forward to being able to speak a little more openly about my work later in 2008. Being under the radar can be handy, but sometimes you just want to be able to shout out and talk about the exciting stuff you're involved with.

Hopefully I'll have a little more time in 2008 to catch up on blogging, and dig into some meatier topics.

Have a great holiday season!

Here comes the Sunshine

2007-08-30T21:40:00.001-07:00

Wanted to blog about the absolutely divine and restful family holiday I came back from a couple of weeks ago (yes, it's taken me a while to catch up on work stuff). It's so good to get away and put yourself in an entirely new context and entirely new environment for a little while, even if it's 'only' a week in a sunny waterfront cabin on the Gulf Islands. Lots of great family time, and I came back feeling more focused, centered, and ready to kick ass.

Speaking of sun, got a chance to go see the latest Boyle/Garland collaboration -- Sunshine. Definitely had shades of 2001. Quite an esoteric and thought-provoking sci-fi in the 'classic' sense. Enjoyable, with some tense drama and pretty eye-bending effects and cinematography. Check it out if you're feeling bored of blockbusters and want to cleanse the palette a bit. Not a particularly hopeful film, but worth seeing nonetheless. Overlaps a bit with a game concept I've had on the back burner...hmmmm...

Hey, how you enjoying Bioshock anyways?

Riffing on the End of the World

2007-07-23T13:24:00.001-07:00

Rented this interesting mockumentary last week, 'Ever Since the World Ended'. If you're a fan of post-apocalyptic films, you should definitely check this out. It's super low budget but somehow manages to address a lot of the more 'real world' implications of a post-ap setting than the recent 'Children of Men' did, in my opinion. And also, it's refreshing to see post-ap explored through a lense that doesn't invoke zombies and/or muties.

(Not that there's anything wrong with zombies and muties...they too have their place. Preferably that place is between me and a baseball bat or loaded shotgun.)

And on the topic of the End of the World (without zombies and muties), there's a new preview for Earth No More in PC Zone magazine. Samuli and I answered some high-level questions about the game. Hope you like.

Earth No More

2007-06-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

Finally, the cat is out of the bag -- one of our new game IPs, 'Earth No More', has been revealed in this month's Game Informer magazine. It's really exciting to finally be able to acknowledge the game's existence, even if it's far too early to discuss any details publicly.

I will say that I just got back from my second trip to Finland since we started working with Recoil. They are a really talented studio and it's a great pleasure to work with them -- I've never worked with such a collaborative group of people. (Also, they are hiring.) We always get a ton of work done during these trips, and we always part ways feeling even more excited and energized about the game than before.

In some of the comments and forum posts related to the Earth No More (very) early sneak peak, I can see there is some confusion surrounding the nature of 3DR's relationship with Recoil in this project -- did 3DR create the IP, did Recoil create the IP, are we 'developing' the game or are we 'producing' the game, etc. The short answers is -- yes. :)

As I mentioned in my recent Gamasutra interview, our relationship with external studios is fundamentally collaborative. The Earth No More game concept was created through a healthy, strong collaboration between Recoil and 3DR. They did not bring the concept to us, we did not bring the concept to them. We got together, both parties knowing that we wanted to create a game concept that would hit very specific gameplay, story, and character hooks, and Earth No More is what was created through that exciting (and ongoing) process.

As a game concept creation and production house, we live in the dual worlds of 'development' (perhaps more in the film industry sense of the word than in the game industry sense of the word) and 'production' (focused on high-level guidance for gameplay, aesthetic, storylines and characters, branding and positioning, etc.). Since we're one of only a handful of game companies championing this specific relationship with independent teams, I can see why it might not fit into the traditional notion of what a developer is or does, and why people might find the relationship confusing.

In any case, I hope you find the preliminary info about Earth No More intriguing. I'm really excited about how it's shaping up.

Shameless Plug

2007-06-12T15:14:00.000-07:00

My quick Q&A with Gamasutra's Jason Dobson went live today. Seems like he only caught about 50% of the stuff we talked about, but maybe I just rambled on way more than I thought (those who know me realize this is entirely possible, of not likely).

In any case, as expected people are whipped into a frenzy about (there not being) any breaking DNF news (hey, it's not my news to break!), but hopefully it'll get people wondering about our next announcement (coming soon!).

Achievements

2007-06-06T16:23:00.000-07:00

Recently I inadvertently stirred up some hot debate in the IGDA forums (and Gamasutra editor Simon Carless' blog, Game Set Watch) regarding my thoughts on 360 Achievements. The crux of my feeling about Achievements is that, while they are cool and add an interesting layer of external reward to *some* types of games, they can also (in my opinion) distract and detract from the experience offered by other types of games.

Specifically, I think for exploratory (multi-linear), competitive, or puzzle games, Achievements make a lot of sense. They in some ways replace the antiquated idea of the 'high score', popularized by arcade games. Back then, games didn't have much to offer in terms of intrinsic rewards -- gameplay was largely repetitive, and the primary reward (outside the enjoyment of the actual game) was to be able to attain a high score and, ultimately if you were good enough, get your three initials in the coveted top-10 list.

But, for the kind of gamer I am and the kinds of games I prefer (character-driven narrative based), I find Achievements to be largely a distraction. Call me a purist, but I feel that for games with strong storylines, the reward is really to see what happens next. To find out what happens to that character, or to see how you save the girl, or how the villian foils you at every turn, etc. I don't think having an (often arbitrary) set of external rewards really adds much to that experience, and in fact I think it can take away from the narrative cohesion of the game by encouraging you to explore atypical game behaviours.

Some people argue that encouraging this exploration is a Good Thing (tm), and for some games I would agree with them. Dead Rising is an example, in my opinion, of a game where the concept of exploratory gameplay (rewarded by Achievements) really resonates with the core of the experience. You are in a vast mall. Almost everything is interactive. You are surrounded by thousands of zombies. At some point, you are going to need to pick up that baseball bat/potted plant/shower head/patio umbrella/skateboard and beat on zombies. The game is about trying unusual things, in an order of your choosing, so rewarding "atypical" behaviours does make a lot of sense. It fits. The whole game is an atypical behaviour.

But, take a game like Half-Life 2 or Shadow of the Collossus, and tell me how Achievements would make those games better (for HL2, we have only to wait for the Orange Box to find out). Finish a level only using the crowbar (10 points). Drive over 50 Antlions with the Dune Buggy (10 points). Get through the entire game without looking at Alyx's ass (100 points). I just don't see how Achievements are going to make the game any better than it already is.

Another thing I dislike about the concept of Achievements is that it commodifies your gaming experience. It's placing a value on how you play your games. An example of where this went terribly wrong (for me) was when I completed Call of Duty 3's single-player campaign and only received 250/1000 points. If I wanted more points, I would have to either replay the entire campaign at a different difficulty level (are we *still* doing that??? is it going to be that different the second time around?), or replay missions using bizarre atypical behaviours, like only using bolt-action rifles, only using rifle butts to kill enemies, etc. Stuff I would *never* do in so-called normal gameplay. Instead of feeling rewarded for investing time and energy in completing the campaign, I felt cheated. My investment in the game is only worth 25% of the points (but hey, I still had to pay 100% of the price!).

There are things about Achievements that I really like and appreciate. I think for some games they make a ton of sense and they can add some entertainment value. I also get that some people (many, apparently) are quite competitive and love to be able to show off to their friends (look! I got 10 consecutive active reloads in Gears...I p0wned you!). But, Achievements aren't only being used in the games that benefit from them. They are being used by ALL games, because it's part of the platform and Microsoft requires that you have them in your 360 title.

Don't force arbitrary value systems on me, and I won't ask you to add a storyline and characters to your Geometry Wars clone.

28 Weeks Later

2007-05-15T09:52:00.000-07:00

Saw this on the weekend. I found it to be a worthy sequel, answering the unspoken question posed at the end of the first film --"what happens next". There was some very horrific, yet beautiful, imagery, as well as some powerful emotional moments.

A lot of my friends and colleagues seemed to feel that the film lacked a story and that the individual characters weren't interesting. I'm not really sure what I expected going in to the film, except to see a continuation of the story presented in 28 Days Later, and to see it on a larger scale. I felt that even though the storytelling and character development was pretty light, there was enough of a framework in place to advance the narrative and keep me riveted. Of course, the brutal action scenes didn't hurt.

I don't think I was nearly as affected by 28WL as I was by the first film, but really the first film was groundbreaking in that it presented a very unique twist on the traditional zombie formula. Having established that, the sequel probably wasn't ever going to be as big a leap forward as the first. Overall, with the exception of a very few scenes, the movie felt tight and delivered on its promise. Definitely check it out if you enjoyed the original.

The Road

2007-04-10T14:21:00.000-07:00

I started reading Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road' over this long Easter weekend. I had read another of McCarthy's books, 'The Orchard Keeper', and while I really enjoyed his writing style, I couldn't really imagine how this very literary writer would present a post-apocalyptic setting. I didn't enjoy the results when Margaret Atwood tried her hand in 'Oryx & Crake'.

I finished 'The Road' in two sittings. I haven't read anything so riveting since...I can't remember when. I felt like I was being changed by what was written there. I really want to recommend it to my wife, but I'm afraid of what it might do to her. It is shocking and pure and brutal and...I don't know what else. When I told her I'd finished reading it and she asked me how I enjoyed it, the only thing I could think to say was, "I feel like I've been burned". Yes, burned. As in, lit on fire and left to die.

I hope one day to be able to deliver a game experience that strips the player down in the same way 'The Road' affected me.

Update: I just read that someone has bought the movie rights. Not sure how they will bring this to the screen without destroying it, unless it stays really low budget and very indie.

Science World

2007-03-26T13:07:00.000-07:00

This weekend, my wife and I took our daughter to Science World, a local exhibit (in the old Expo '86 geodesic dome that seemed to futuristic in the '80s) that features all kinds of kid-oriented interactive puzzles and contraptions ostensibly meant to get kids excited about science, but in reality meant to give kids lots of opportunities to run around throwing things at each other.

We had a blast. Watching my daughter experimenting with various puzzles (anything that has to do with water seems to be her favourite) reminded me of a few things.

First, the desire to explore and experiment is very fundamental to human nature -- we are very curious creatures -- and I think the best games also provide this outlet to us, which is particularly important for adults since we don't typically get the opportunity to carry out this purposeless exploration in our daily lives.

Second, that experimentation is most rewarding when we get to observe the cause and effect of our actions. If we don't get to see the results of our actions, the actions lose meaning and we become bored, ready to move on to the next thing. I think it's useful to keep this in mind when creating games, again because I think this interest in observable reaction to our actions is core to being human and satisfying this powerful urge to understand is likely also core to the experience of enjoying a game.

Third, variety is important. Once we have explored the extent of interactions provided within a given system, we need something new to stimulate us, otherwise we get bored. Variety of presentation is also important, and part of the brain being a pattern recognition computer means that we are always looking to apply the patterns we understand to new stimuli we experience. Often changing the way the stimuli is presented is enough to keep our brain interested, even if we are not learning any new fundamentals.

In any case, it was a fun excursion and I probably learned as much from observing my daughter as she did from observing the exhibits, which is to say, it was just a normal day. :)

3DR Visit & Sound as a Space

2007-03-11T20:57:00.000-07:00

I spent the latter half of last week hanging out with Scott and George in the 3DR offices down in Dallas (Garland). It was great to spend some time with them, chat endlessly about games, and spend a few hours playing DNF. The crew down at the 3DR office is a really solid group of very talented people who are also very very friendly -- I had some great meals with the 3DR executive crew (Scott, George, and COO Steve Blackburn), along with the DNF leads team.

One of the highlights of the trip was hearing Scott, George, and Steve reminiscing about their days managing arcades in the 80s, and the whole cult of competition and 'cool' that used to hang over those places like a thick layer of smoke. Although I recognize that things like XBLA have done wonders for the mainstreamining of the gaming experience, I also think we lost something special when we turned our backs on the arcades of our youth. In some ways, I think this is one of the reasons why Achievements resonate so strongly with gamers -- they are the new High Scores that you can tie your name to and stake your bragging rights on. In any case, it's great to work with people who have been gamers for most of their lives, and who really remember the nascent years of our industry.

On Thursday of last week, Julian Soule visited the offices to hang out. The Soule brothers had composed the soundtrack for Prey and Julian had stopped by to just do some relationship building stuff, and to stop by to say hello to his good friend (and 3DR's audio director) Jeron Moore.

I spent a couple of hours just shooting the shit with Julian, and I have to say I was really impressed with his vast knowledge of music and just the way he was able to talk about how sound and music helps create a 3D space within a game experience. I'd worked at an arm's length with Jeremy on two projects before (Dawn of War and Company of Heroes), but this was the first opportunity I'd had to really sit down and pick one of the Soule brothers' brains. It was really enlightening and I look forward to hanging out with them next time they're both in Vancouver. These guys do something very special with their music and I'm excited to learn more about how music helps deliver the emotional impact of a gaming experience. I think that anyone who can understand how to leverage this power from the very early concept development phase will have an edge over the competition.

Updating pic

2007-03-11T20:51:00.000-07:00

The last one was 2 years old and I got rid of the beard a while ago...blogger requires that I post a new pic here before I can update my profile so forgive the intrusion of my shameless mug.

Hello, World

2007-03-06T09:43:00.000-08:00

Apparently news of my migration to 3DR has hit the interweb, with Duke fansite Duke4Net posting an update on recent additions to the 3D Realms team. Excerpt:

Raphael Van Lierop, who worked on the hugely acclaimed Company of Heroes, is now the creative director of 3D Realms, and spends his time working on "very cool shit." Ralph "3.0" claims responsiblity for helping out 3DR CEO Scott Miller with expanding the number of third party games planned by the company.

So, I guess someone is finding this blog. :)

Just to clarify for anyone who cares, I don't just 'claim' to be working with Scott to manage external projects, I actually *AM* working with Scott to manage external projects. Some of these external projects are new IPs as well, which is the primary reason for my role at 3DR.

Cool to see that people are still excited about 3DR and what we're up to.

Splinter Cell & Stealth

2007-02-15T17:10:00.000-08:00

I remember when this game came out in 2002. My friend Ed Byrne, now a lead designer at Zipper on the SOCOM franchise, and one of the first 'real' game developers I ever met and chatted with about working in the industry, at that point was working for Ubisoft as a level designer for this game.

About a year prior to this, when I was employed as a technology writer for Kaydara in Montreal, I had responded to a Ubisoft job at in the local rag (the Mirror) for 'a writer familiar with video games and an ability to incorporate geo-political content into storylines'. At the time, I had no idea that this job was for Splinter Cell. I also met another guy, Chris Smith, when I was living in Victoria who had worked as a contract level designer on this game. I often wonder how my game career might have turned out had I actually landed that writing gig.

And finally, my colleague Clint Hocking, well-known in the industry for his game design insights, was a designer and contributed to the script, and has since become a creative director at Ubisoft, instrumental in delivering the third Splinter Cell game -- Chaos Theory.

This is actually leading somewhere. It's interesting to me that I had so many close brushes with Splinter Cell, and knew so much about it's development, before I actually really immersed myself in the game, which I've been doing recently. About a month ago I picked up a handsome SC 'Collector's Edition' from Future Shop -- $79 for all four SC games (including the latest, Double Agent) and a bunch of schwag (t-shirt, belt, knitted cap -- yes I am a geek), which is a steal.

So last week I installed the original SC on my PC, thinking that if I'm really going to analyze what makes SC compelling, and if I'm going to understand how the concept has evolved over the last five years, I need to start at the origin. And I have to say -- the game is still a blast. It is a tight, tight experience. It brings some of my all-time favourite gameplay from Thief, Deus Ex, and of course, Metal Gear Solid. And it wraps it all up in this somehow very 'Western' sensibility that it's closest competitor (it's inspiration, some would argue), MGS, doesn't quite capture (understandably, since it is a Japanese game). Now don't get me wrong, I'm a huge MGS fan -- love the games -- but it's just refreshing to see how there is room for two great modern stealth-action games, each with its own personality and quirks.

Stealth games are interesting, in that they present a second-order level of gameplay above and beyond what you experience in straight shooters. Things like movement, body awareness, camera control, are heavily emphasized over the run-and-gun experience of a shooter. The basic mechanics of movement (keyboard/mouse input controls your view of the world and how you move through it) and combat (aim, fire, reload, etc.) are at their core the same as for a shooter, but highly emphasized.

The overall pace of the sneaker is much slower than a shooter, of course. In fact, it strikes me that sneakers inherently offer more gameplay value than shooters for the simple reason that you will get more actual play time for the equivalent amount of assets. Hiding in shadows, avoiding guards, shooting out lights, etc. manages to slow down the game, meaning I tend to take as much as two to three times as long to get through a physical environment than I would if the game was a straight shooter.

Sneakers really play on that primal desire to hide from predators, as well. And I suppose, you also get to feel like a predator, although (and maybe this says more about me than it does about the typical gamer) these games tend to always make me feel like I am one breath away from being discovered and taken out, which makes me feel like less of a badass than the typical shooter. This sense is emphasized by gameplay, which rewards avoidance over aggression, and in fact penalizes you for frontal assaults by making you physically weak.

Splinter Cell really built on the 'destructible lights' concept introduced in the Thief games (where you could use water arrows to extinguish torches, which created darkness and allowed you to sneak around undetected). I remember that the ability to shoot out light sources was one of the biggest innovations in SC, and it was a big deal at the time since very few game engines could handle this sort of dynamic light system. In SC, you use bullets to destroy light sources, which creates an interesting choice for the player, because you can use ammunition to take a more combat-oriented approach (killing guards) or to facilitate a stealthier approach (destroying light sources).

Just as in the Thief games, my typical tactic is to take out the lights and avoid guards as much as I could, but if I felt at all threatened that a guard might come back and find me later, I usually find a way to take him out. As much as I enjoy the exhiliration of getting past a guard undetected, I hate the fear that I will become discovered after the fact. It would be really interesting to see statistics on how other people tend to play these games and how they face these situations. Personally, I find neutralizing enemies without them knowing it to be a lot more satisfying they bypassing enemies without them knowing it. But maybe I'm just bloodthirsty...

Computer Coma

2007-02-08T15:33:00.000-08:00

A small update on my computer situation. Once I got back online with my laptop and did a bit of cursory googling for symptoms loosely matching "computer is blowed up", I came across a few useful posts from people who had observed similar behaviour from their own PCs. Generally speaking, the consensus seemed to be that if your system boots and gets stuck at the motherboard splash screen, this is indicative of either a massive motherboard failure, or a massive power supply failure. Neither condition really appealed to my deep sense of adventure.

After a couple of phone calls to hardware-savvy colleagues, I got a useful tip -- to remove and re-insert every piece of hardware plugged in to my motherboard.

I tried pulling out each piece individually, then rebooting, to see what happened, and voila! As soon as I pulled out 1 of 3 RAM DIMMs, my system was happy to boot up into Windows. Cleaned up the RAM, blew dust out of the slot, and everything seemed fine after that.

SO...the moral here is: keep your case as dust-free as possible, to avoid hardware Spontaneous Massive Existence Failure (sorry, Douglas Adams).

Computer Go Boom!

2007-02-02T16:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning, as I was getting ready for work, Hill announced, somewhat ominously, that there was "something wrong" with my computer. Resisting the urge to run over and see what particular component of my rig was on fire, I instead slowed down to enjoy the remainder of my morning preparations, as though through sheer force of will and calm alone, I could psychically reduce calamity to a simple virus warning or driver update message.

Alas, there really was "something wrong". My system would not boot, but rather parked itself dully at the motherboard splash screen, promising me, evilly, "Press DEL to Enter Setup". These few words alone are enough to send any hardware-savvy individual's blood pressure skyrocketing. Adding insult to injury, pressing 'DEL' didn't do anything. Nor did it do anything when I replaced the keyboard and tried again (laws of hardware troubleshooting say to replace cheapest link in the hardware dependency chain first).

Since I'm working out of a home office (admittedly, my choice, graciously permitted by my employer), not only do I have to do all my own IT support, it really becomes extra important that I don't spend entire periods of the day 'offline'. Facing potentially several hundreds of dollars of hardware replacement (mobo, CPU, memory, and possibly power supply as well), I elected instead to purchase a modest laptop.

And I was able to get back online within an hour of making the purchase.

I'll go back and fix up my gaming rig when I have the time, but for now, I will enjoy...no, appreciate...the simplicity of this little laptop, and the beauty of extended service plans, something you just don't get when you Do-It-Yourself.

Depth

2007-01-30T15:36:00.000-08:00

One of the greatest testaments to Deus Ex's greatness is the sheer depth of the experience. For example, I've been playing through the Hell's Kitchen area (about 3 hours into the game), and I've come across an entire subplot and section of underground tunnels and a secret base that I *never found the first time through*. I felt like a kid in a candy store going in there and realizing that I had no idea what was coming up, despite the fact that I've already played and finished the game.

The best part is that this section, newly revealed to me, is not like the type of generic dungeon complex you might encounter in a sprawling game like Oblivion. In this case, you get to experience a whole different element of the conspiracy because you managed to come across this section.

I think that this is one of the ways in which 'side quests' typically fall apart in the games that have them. You always feel like, no matter what you are doing when you follow through with them, it's truly 'secondary' to the experience. Even though I was obviously able to finish Deus Ex the first time without encountering this section I just discovered, playing through it doesn't feel like a second-rate part of the experience. It feels like I uncovered something carefully crafted that had been waiting there for me, all these years.

Kind of makes me wonder what I was doing the first time around, though.

What a great game.

Origins

2007-01-24T21:06:00.000-08:00

In my new role, I have to be a lot more 'design' focused than I typically have allowed myself to be. On previous games, when working as a producer, you usually end up walking a very fine line between suggestion and direction. To avoid meddling too much in design decisions, and to ensure you can empower your lead and senior designers to make good choices about gameplay, you have to favour the 'suggestion' side of the equation. Because ultimately, your job is about empowering other people to make those good creative decisions, and you have so much other stuff to deal with on a day to day basis, you really have no business delving into the minutiae of gameplay mechanics.

But now, my job is about helping to lead, even direct in a more hands-on way, people towards making those good creative decisions, and sometimes I have to really drive the decisions forward, never on a 'cause I said so' basis, but always through the presentation of compelling, well-researched arguments that are based on core tenets and key principles of game design. And of course, a bit of the old 'gamer instinct' doesn't hurt.

And in carrying out this research, and trying to get in touch with this instinct, I find myself returning to the game that really started me down the path of wanting to be a game developer. Although I'd played hundreds of games before it, Deus Ex was really the game that showed me the kind of depth and breadth of experience that was possible in a game. It's the game that sucked me in and didn't let me go until the very end.

I'm going back to it now, partly as a touchstone to remind me of why I'm here, and partly as a chance to experience it once again, with fresh eyes, and hopefully with the benefit of experience (now I can see things not only as a gamer, but as a game creator as well), in an attempt to extract from it, the core ideas that made it so compelling an experience in the first place.

Exciting to be on this journey once again!

Raph 3.0

2007-01-23T14:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I officially started the next chapter of my career and existence, coined Raph 3.0 by some marketing genius. The 3.0 refers to how this is the third major phase in my career.

Raph 1.0 was a freshly graduated n00b who worked as a technology writer and dreamed of one day making video games. Raph 2.0 became a producer at one of the best game developers in the world. Raph 3.0 is a creative director at another one of the best game developers in the world.

I'm really excited about this new direction my career has taken, and I'm especially happy to be working with a company who has made creating new game IP their bread and butter. I recognize how rare an opportunity it is to be able to work with them to build these new game concepts, and I'm going to work damn hard to make sure I live up to expectations.

I have a lot to learn but I'm invigorated by the challenge. I've left the creative side of my personality dormant for too long. It's time to get back in touch with the energy that got me into making games in the first place.

Wish me luck!

Gamespot Dev Diary

2006-08-27T12:28:00.000-07:00

Cool! The short article I wrote to accompany our latest CoH dev diary is live on Gamespot.

CoH is shipping to stores and should be available by Sept. 15th.

Also, we have our first official scores on Gamerankings & Metacritic: 96% from PC Gamer!

It's been a while...

2006-08-11T02:04:00.000-07:00

Wow...a long while I should say. Haven't had much time to post as I've been quite preoccupied with two things -- my family, and work. I'm fortunate to be able to say that both are going very well. Hill and I were able to spend 5 days together on Galiano Island with our wonderful darling daughter Esme, and Hill's parents. It was so great to get away and think about non-work things for a while. It made me realize how much I need a break, and how much I miss spending quality time with them.

The main reason I need a break is because my current project, a little game called Company of Heroes is coming close to being done. It's been a long slog but the preliminary results appear to justify the effort expended. Can't say much more about that but hopefully some of the review scores will be public soon.

Just a few more weeks and I'll be off for a month. I hope to have more time to post then.

Great screenplay templates

2005-12-07T12:38:00.000-08:00

Been doing some research on screenplay templates and formats, both for some personal script writing projects and also for use on current game projects.

Came across a good source of template material and also some good general info on screenwriting on the BBC website.

Been evaluating Final Draft as well. It's a piece of professional script writing software that's apparently widely in use by many of the more prolific film and television writers. We need something like this for use in our own game script writing efforts, but something that accounts for the interactive nature of the medium.

It's something I've been working on off and on for the past few years. Hopefully I'll have something to show for it before the aliens come and take me away.

It's official! Jack Thompson is a raging lunatic!

2005-10-15T02:17:00.000-07:00

Verbose and outrageously outspoken Florida-lawyer Jack Thompson, a professional game-industry poo-poo-er, has once again managed to make himself look like a total fucking dork. This, from a gamasutra news blurb (registration required to read full item):

Walsh ends his letter by explaining: "Even though we have no formal relationship your use of my name and your inclusion of my name in correspondence have created the impression that we condone these tactics. We do not. The result is that our position and reputation as a research based, non-partisan, solution-focused organization has been jeopardized. Consequently, I ask that you cease using the Institute's or my name in any way that would give the impression that we support your efforts."

The letter sent from Walsh to Thompson was CC-ed to a number of prominent figures, according to Gamepolitics, including Senators Hillary Clinton, Joe Lieberman, Sam Brownback and Rick Santorum; the governor and attorney general of Minnesota, Bill Gates, the CEOs of Target and Best Buy, Pat Vance of the ESRB, and Doug Lowenstein of the ESA.

In return, Thompson himself released a statement late Friday, in part alleging: "Dr. Walsh's efforts are funded by Target and by a foundation run by Best Buy lawyer and Best Buy Director Elliot Kaplan. This was revealed in a recent article about Dr. Walsh in the Pioneer Press... I am suing Target and Best Buy over [Rockstar's] Bully game, which both Target and Best Buy are pre-selling. You connect the dots."

Thompson also suggests: "The fact is, I have never suggested that Dr. Walsh approves of what I do. I have countless times told people that I believe he is an expert about the dangers of video games. The mistake I made, apparently naively, is in thinking that a person of his expertise would use it actually to help some bereaved families rather than choose to protect his relationship with portions of the video game industry and its reckless retail network."

Hey, Jack Thompson! We love your loco logic, but drop the conspiracy theories will ya? That shit is so last-gen.

Winter Assault selling like hot cakes

2005-10-14T09:04:00.000-07:00

According to this month's NPD report, as posted here on Gamecloud, Winter Assault is the second highest selling PC title in the month of October. We even outsold World of Warcraft, Battlefield 2, Sims 2, and the Rome expansion (yessss suckaz!), and Nancy Drew (wtf?).

I hear the money trucks backing up right now. Unload the gold bullion right here, boys.

I miss them

2005-10-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hill and Esme went to the Island for a couple of days to visit Hill's mom who's recovering from an operation. I can't believe how empty the house feels at night and in the morning. I think I need to see my little bug in the morning even more than I need coffee, which for anyone who knows me, is quite a statement!

My moment of pseudo-renown for today -- Winter Assault interview #2!!

2005-10-06T22:26:00.000-07:00

Here it is, yet another interview with yours truly where I talk about my latest shipped game, Winter Assault!

Great to see the game is getting good coverage, and the reviews have been pretty solid so far as well, particularly for an expansion pack. Where the original Dawn of War garnered a gamerankings average of 85% (which we were happy with!), Winter Assault is hitting around the 83% mark, which is respectable.

Now, to make sure the next game breaks that elusive 90% barrier. Better get back to work.

Games I Have Loved - F-15 Strike Eagle & Silent Service (1985)

2005-10-02T12:19:00.000-07:00

I developed a love for Microprose's military simulations early on in my life as a gamer. My dad bought me F-15 Strike Eagle for my 9th birthday, and Silent Service for my 10th. These games were the Half-Lifes and Dooms of their generation, featuring innovative gameplay with cutting-edge graphics and sound.

In F-15 Strike Eagle, you played an F-15 pilot tasked to carry out various interception and bombing missions deep in the international hot spots of that day. I remember flying missions in Iran, Israel, all along the Persian Gulf. The game featured an arcade mode, where pushing the control stick right or left would pan you along the horizon, as well as an advanced mode, where the Eagle responded to the stick as you would expect (by rolling). I remember having to work my way up to the advanced mode. Even today I remember the rush of seeing my targeting reticle surround an enemy fighter in the distance, loosing a couple of sidewinders, and watching my opponent erupt in...the monochromatic display of raytraced lines which passed for an explosion in 1985.

Silent Service was a different kind of simulation, in the way that submarine combat is much more thoughtful and deliberate than the high-octane world of jet fighters and SAM sites. Silent Service was largely a waiting game, hunting down enemy shipping and ranking up as much tonnage as possible without being sunk yourself. I still remember the tried-and-true tactic of weakening an enemy ship with one torpedoe, surfacing, and finishing them off with the good old deck gun. It's an experience that has perhaps been made more visceral, ten or fifteen years later, by games like Silent Hunter, but no more enjoyable.

It felt like games were much smaller back then, and truly the industry would have been a fraction of where it stands today. In many ways, the relatively weak technology forced a simplicity in design that allowed players to touch the true essence of an experience. In many ways, it sometimes feels like we've become so distracted by pixel shaders and normal maps and 7.1 suround sound and fully physics-driven destructible environments that we've lost some of the innocence and simplicity of those old days. It's a truly special game that manages to meld the base experience captured those many years ago with the cutting-edge technological advancements of tomorrow.

Even back then Sid Meier was a recognized name, and it's refreshing to know that he's still around and kicking, releasing new games and keeping his name alive.

Esme, 3 months young

2005-10-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

On Friday our beautiful daughter Esme turned 3 months young. I have to think about that for a second. It's hard to believe that it's already been 3 months since our little bundle of perfection entered this loud and scary world; it's been such an amazing experience. When you're older, Esme, I hope I have the words and courage to tell you how much I love you, how much you have meant and mean to me. You've changed my life in ways I could never have understood, before I became a father. Thank you so much.

My moment of pseudo-renown for today: Winter Assault interview!

2005-09-29T17:22:00.000-07:00

Cool! A short interview I did with an online gaming site about Winter Assault just went live!

Snippet:

WG:

 How have you made the game significantly different from Dawn of War without loosing the great feel of the Warhammer 40000 universe that was captured in the original game? 

RVL:

 Winter Assault features the introduction of an entirely new race, the Imperial Guard. That brings the total number of races in the Dawn of War experience to five, and these are five fully realized races with their own units, tech trees, tactics, and visual style. It’s not like trying to tell the difference between the Sumerians and Babylonians in some other games. So, when playing as the Imperial Guard in Winter Assault, you’re getting a whole new experience of Dawn of War, but it’s the same explosive, visceral cinematic battlefield experience that made the original game so successful.

You can check the full Q&A out here.

Games I Have Loved -- Gyruss (1984)

2005-09-28T22:50:00.000-07:00

This is the first in what will (hopefully) become a series of posts covering some of my all time favourite games. These are the games I played growing up that *defined* me as a gamer; these are the games that kept me awake much too late at night; in many cases these are the games that led me to a career making games. I hope you enjoy sharing these fond memories with me.

I grew up playing lots of games on my friends' Apple ][s and Atari 2600s, but the first game I remember ever owning was Gyruss. Here's a description of the game:

The entire solar system is being attacked by the vicious Gyrusians, and it's up to you to save the day! You will need to fly your spaceship to each of the nine planets and then clear three stages of enemies to rid that planet of the Gyrusians.

Originally released for the Atari 5200, we had a cartridge for our brand new Atari 800XL. I guess I must have been about 9. I remember playing this thing far too much with my older brother Johan, us trading the red-handled Wico joystick back and forth (as we died), blasting the heck out of spiraling asteroids and alien ships, moving, planet to planet, from the edge of our solar system, painstakingly towards Earth to provide its final liberation. I never made it (sorry Earth), but I still remember the music!

My brother claims he fought his way to Earth and won, but I don't believe it. I was a much better pilot than he was. ;)

Genesis

2005-09-28T13:33:00.000-07:00

First post. Hill got me turned on to this blogging thing.