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INTRO
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Nintendo has stock obligations. Microsoft charges for online PC gaming, just like they do with Xbox Live. And Sony is doing something that is not dumb for the first time in a year, apparently. Yeah, GDC is interesting this year and it has barely even started. 1:30PM(EST) on March 7th is the first time point you want to watch... lots of stuff stops being embargoed. As always, GAF hype and expectations explode and only 2% of people actually keep it in check and come away pleased.
I'll try my best to keep things updated, but I'm extremely busy so I can't give exact times for updates. Just keep checking periodically and you'll see the summary expand. Check the bottom for the last update time.
Enjoy the show!
FOR A COMPLETE SCHEDULE OF GDC'S SHOW, PLEASE VISIT THIS LINK OR THIS LINK.
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SUMMARY
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~ Thanks to Gamasutra, Gamespot, 1up, IGN, GDC themselves and more over the course of these days. ~
For a summary of Phil Harrison's keynote speech, visit this link.
For a video of Shigeru Miyamoto's Keynote, visit this link.
Conference Overviews
● "And Make it Snappier!" Writing is one of the less discussed bits of game development; Vicarious Visions producer Evan Skolnick has been doing his best to redress the balance. Whereas last year's session dealt with dialogue, this year Skolnick chose to discuss general structure. (Article, Session Details)
● "The Casual Cash Cow?" GameLab, the New York City based independent game studio co-founded by Eric Zimmerman is now in its seventh year of operation. Starting with a deal from Shockwave.com, he and Peter Lee moved the company from a small computer game developer to a much less small and still successful developer of casual downloadable games. Throughout, gameLab has maintained its focus and identity within the game industry. (Article, Session Details)
● "The First Decade of Mobile Games" At his keynote at his year's GDC Mobile, event founder Robert Tercek gave a presentation covering the ten-year history of mobile games, from perspectives of business, innovation, and gameplay. (Article and Session Details)
● "Analyzing Innovation in Indie Games" Monday afternoon continued in high style at the Independent Games Summit, as Jonathan Blow, Kyle Gabler, Jon Mak, Jenova Chen, and moderator Steve Swink of Flashbang Studios gathered in a panel looking at the space and place for innovation in independent game development. All were extremely excited as they delivered impassioned speeches to an attentive audience. (Article and Session Details)
● "Jeff Minter Independent Games Summit Keynote" The Independent Games Summit started off slowly as Jeff Minter apologized for being more used to speaking to machines than people. Few in the capacity room minded as Minters love for independent game development shown clearly. (Article and Session Details)
● "The Evolution of RPG Development" While Blue Dragon, Fable 2, and Mass Effect are three strikingly distinct games in style, setting, and execution, they are all considered role-playing games. Microsoft today gathered the men behind these games--Mistwalker's Hironobu Sakaguchi, Lionhead Studios' Peter Molyneux, and BioWare's Raz Muzyka, respectively--to discuss "The Evolution of RPG Development" in a 40-minute panel moderated by GameHead host Geoff Keighley. (Article and Session Details)
● "Camera Theory: Interactive Cinematography" Adam Thiery, a designer for Ubisoft Montreal, gave a short talk today on interactive cinematography. His basic point was that game cinematography is player-driven. Simple it may sound; real application is always trickier. One of the big sticking points is that camerawork, being player-driven, is limited by current understanding of game design and player psychology. (Article and Session Details)
● "From 'Ouendan!' to 'Help!': Inside the Development of Elite Beat Agents" Keiichi Yano's retrospective on the Ouendan phenomenon (his second speech in English!) is both enlightening AND cool. And with the sequel just announced, you may want to brush up on what it took to deliver the concept into the hands of adoring fans. (Article and Session Details)
● "Interactive Music: Mario Maestro Shares His Secrets" Kondo is the mastermind behind the tunes that define Mario, Zelda, Star Fox and more. And more than that, he forged those games' entire sound design, as the 8-bit era required him to craft the whole sound package: Sound engine, effects and music. His hour-long talk covered the gamut of his career, from the integrated sound design of SMB to his more subtle work in Twilight Princess. (Article and Session Details)
Miscellaneous
● Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopoulos has revealed that Electronic Arts are to publish the developers first new game since being acquired by MTV Networks, without revealing any further details of the project. (Article)
● Major publisher Activision has confirmed previous reports that it is to acquire Dublin, Ireland-based online middleware firm DemonWare for an undisclosed sum. "The acquisition will enable Activision to gain efficiencies related to online game development and positions the company to take advantage of the growth in online gameplay that will be driven by the next-generation consoles." (Article)
● The 2007 Game Developers Choice Awards was topped off by Gears of War, despite some fierce competition in many categories. For the full break down on what won and what didn't, hit the link. (Article)
● The 2007 Independent Games Festival Awards was headlined by such games as Aquaria and Everyday Shooter. Haven't heard of them? Well, these are independent games! And maybe you should start digging deeper so you can play some of these gems. The breakdown is at Gamasutra. (Article)
Microsoft
● LIVE for Windows won't be free, it seems. At a GDC press conference, Microsoft revealed exact pricing for the service. Just like with the Xbox 360 there will be a free Silver package as well as a Gold package which retails for $49.99 for a year subscription, $7.99 for one month, and $19.99 for three months. If you already have a Gold Subscription, congrats - you're subscribed already. (Article)
● Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Q Entertainment (Lumines, Meteos) has announced a new version of its freeware rework Every Extend Extra Extreme (E4), due on Xbox Live Arcade in 2007. (Article)
● Microsoft announces that it has hit 6 million Xbox Live users, a full 4 months ahead of their goal. Along with this, they revealed a host of other statistics that range from interesting to mundane. Check it out at the link. (Article)
● Finally, Microsoft relaxes limitations for XBLA. Officials from Microsoft have confirmed that the maximum total size of an Xbox Live Arcade download has been increased from 50MB to 150MB. (Article)
● Microsoft has also announced a new 512MB memory card for the system. The new 512MB memory card will be available worldwide from April 3rd and will sell for an estimated retail price of $49.99 in North America. The card will also come pre-loaded with popular Xbox Live Arcade game Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. At the same time the price of the original 64MB memory card will drop from $39.99 to $29.99. (Article)
● Not only did Mistwalker reveal that Lost Odyssey, its Final Fantasy-esque RPG, will have a simultaneous release for US and Japan... but they also revealed that Blue Dragon was coming out in August in North America. For previews and other info, visit the links. (Article 1, Article 2)
● Journalists got a first look and hands-on with Halo 2's PC single player campaign for Windows Vista. Check out the impressions and more at the link. (Article, Images)
● BioWare has showed off some early content for its sure to be 2007 megahit, Mass Effect for the Xbox 360. There's impressions, details and more where you'd expect it. (Article, Images)
● In an interview with Gamepro, Peter Molyneux unveils various details about the much anticipated FABLE 2 for the Xbox 360. In it, he says that emotion and love are key aspects of the game and that instead of a HUD, you will have a dog sidekick that scouts for you, fights enemies and finds hidden items. Not only that, you can get a chick pregnant. Or, if you are a female character, you can get pregnant by choosing to have unprotected sex. Seriously. (Interview, Article, Image)
● Sacred 2 is coming to the Xbox 360, Ascaron announced at GDC today. Sacred 2 is a deep fantasy RPG where players are immersed in an epic journey through the medieval-like kingdom of Ancaria. (Article)
● Mercenaries 2 is being demoed at GDC, and it looks stunning. Showcasing a vertical slice from the game, developers show off destructibility, physics and more. Impressive stuff all around. (Movie 1, Movie 2)
● Remember the X06 keynote, when Peter Jackson stumbled on stage and awkwardly spoke about a concept he clearly didn't even have a grasp on himself? Only, it had something to do with Halo. Well, we now have a bit more light shed on what exactly is gonna happen. According to Shane Kim at a Blogger's Breakfast today, Peter Jackson will head the development of a series of episodic Halo titles. (Article)
Nintendo
● SquareEnix shows its "serious side", by revealing details of its newest Nintendo DS videogame. Its intention, apparently, is to "teach the joy of game development" to players everywhere. What this means exactly is vague, but to be sure it will interest many folks. (Article)
● Nintendo isn't going to have a huge presence at GDC, outside of Miyamoto's keynote, because of the stockholder thing. But they have a single little game to make up for all of that. It's called SUPER PAPER MARIO, and it is so awesome they need to find a new word to describe how awesome it is. (Article, Video, Video 2, Video 3, Video 4)
● Zelda: Phantom Hourglass has been in hiding, after some revelations that only ten people were working on it. Well, GDC delivers some goods for you Zelda stylus DS fans - new video of the multiplayer! Oh, and a trailer. You might want to check that out. (Video, Video 2)
● Nintendo has announced information regarding its upcoming 2nd quarter release dates for the Wii and DS in North America. Suffice to say, it's uh... well, you can see for yourself. Just read the list as 'Super Paper Mario' repeated 30 times. (Press Release)
● "Burning Mad - Game Publishers Rant" That was the name of the conference with one of SPORE's developers Chris Hecker. While this was a full fledged session and can be summarized elsewhere, the 'big' news came from a controversial comment lodged at Nintendo's Wii. Calling the system "a piece of shit" and "two GameCubes stuck together with duct tape", he took the company to task for crippling the systems potential. My kind of guy. (Article)
● Miyamoto revealed during his keynote that Nintendo is working on a Mii channel that allows you to compare Mii's in a contest, perhaps beauty-pageant like fashion. An interesting concept... (Article)
● Anyway I hear the keynote was pretty boring. Oh, except for a little thing called SUPER MARIO GALAXY. And a video of said game. This here is some hot stuff. This is the reason every true gamer purchased the system. Looks hot as hell. (Video, Alt. Video 2, Alt. Video 3)
● Big Brain Academy Wii. It's like the DS game, but on Wii. 1,000,000,000 copies sold etc etc. Check the video if you're interested. (Video)
● Suda 51's NO MORE HEROES is getting quite a bit of nerd buzz around the 'ol neoGAF, and predictably so - Killer 7, also from this developer and with a similar style, was an original, abstract outing that speaks to the sort hardcore gamer that might post here. And so with that, we've got brand new video to view. (Article, Video)
Sony
● Sony Previews PlayStation® Edge PS3 Toolkit at GDC. Three first party technology teams within Sony -- the WWS Europe Advanced Technology Group, WWS America ICE team, and WWS America Tools and Technology group -- have combined to create PlayStation® Edge, a set of cutting edge technologies for imminent release to all PlayStation 3 developers. (Session Details)
● Warhawk has changed from a game with a deep single player, to a multiplayer-only online title for the PSN. There will be 25 different maps, 32 or more players, 20 different types of weapons, 2 types of aircraft, four ground vehicles and four different types of heavy ground turrets. (Article, Images)
● Sony reveals HOME for the PlayStation 3. Reportedly a mix of Nintendo's Mii's and Microsoft's achievements, it allows players to populate a room with items and trophies from their titles as well as create a character that represents them. This will all become available, according to the New York Times, in the Fall. More as it comes. (Article, Article 2, Video, Press Release)
● Electronic Arts says Sony's Video Game Dominance is Over. While they still expect them to win, there will not be the sort of dominance they have become accustomed to these past two generations. (Article)
● Are you hot for Nariko? Well so is all of neoGAF. Well, for her panties anyway. But either way, the game she stars in sure does look stunning. After a brief 5 second clip on NBC's Heroes, we all got a new movie to drool at courtesy of Sony. Check this shit out. (Movie)
● Mercenaries 2 is being demoed at GDC, and it looks stunning. Showcasing a vertical slice from the game, developers show off destructibility, physics and more. Impressive stuff all around. (Movie 1, Movie 2)
● Sony announces a brand new innovative title called "Little Big Planet", which is a PS3 HOME-based multiplayer platformer. Curious indeed... but that's not all. One of the coolest aspects, revealed in the 1up podcast, is that developers - any of them - can go and use LBP tools to make their own levels and puzzles for the game and let users download them. So they can make a "God of War" themed level, for example. (Video, Video 2, Video 3, Press Release, Images, Article)
● Yes, Killzone 2 was demoed behind closed doors. Did it live up to expectations? According to everyone, no. In fact, not even close. In fact, it seemed more like just a quick engine demo than anything else... obviously, not even close to done. 1up noted it seemed almost like an 'afterthought' to show the footage. The next time people will see the game is in July. (Article, Article 2)
● Mistwalker, the now prolific developer of games such as Blue Dragon and the upcoming ASH for DS, has reported they have been testing the PS3. When asked about it, Sakaguchi replied succinctly, "it is difficult." (Article)
● Even Singstar got to walk in the light today during the Phil Harrison keynote. Demonstrating various aspects of the game, including online functionality, Phil toyed around with it for the audience. It's big in Europe, apparently. (Video)
● Wanna see an image of Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction without buying EGM? Well, here's your chance. Along with details for the title, Bryan Intihar of 1up fame has delivered the goods. (Article)
● And what about LAIR? Yes, the dragons still haven't gone anywhere and neither has Factor 5. At a conference Mattias Worch, technical art director for the title, spoke to GDC attendees about creating textures and normal maps in a next-gen environment. After that a reportedly "amazing" tech demo was shown, highlighting the graphics of things such as the stunning water techniques. Hopefully we'll get video of that soon. (Article)
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OUTRO
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Obviously, much more to come... soon. There's stuff that's been basically confirmed - like Little Big Planet videogame and Killzone behind doors impressions - that is not in the summary yet. That is because there are no real official articles about it, and I'd rather wait 'til the embargo ends to really give them the attention and bulletpoints they deserve.
Until then, have fun. GAF. You crazy dogs you.
