Game Developer - February_2012.pdf

(20006 KB) Pobierz
t
b
t
o
r
w
a
u
p
p
e
l
n
e
g
a
a
i
n
k
n
n
-
s
a n d
c e s :
g
a n
w o r l d
s t a c k i n g
p o s t m o r t e m
POSTMORTEM
36
STACKING
S
TACKING
, a matryoshka nesting doll- and silent film-inspired
adventure game, is one of the results of Double Fine's big experiment;
to break its larger teams into smaller chunks, allowing for more
directors, more (smaller) games, and more visions. This model has
proved Double Fine's saving grace, but was not without its pitfalls.
By Lee Petty
D E PA R T M E N T S
2
4
GAME PLAN
By Brandon Sheffield
Freedom's Downward Spiral
[EDITORIAL]
CONTENTS.0212
VOLUME 19 NUMBER 2
F E AT U R E S
7
10 YEARS OF SALARY SURVEYS
Game Developer
has been conducting salary surveys for 10 years
now. With that much data, we presumed some interesting trends
might result. This feature is the result of that analysis, showing
ultimately that while individual disciplines have fluctuated, by and
large industry pay has remained relatively stable.
By Ara Shirinian
ALWAYS ONLINE
In the past, some studios developed online and offline features
separately, due to SDK differences and myriad other issues. With
Insomniac's first multi-platform game
O
VERSTRIKE
, the company has
integrated its systems, and now, author Peter Kao says, "we are all
network programmers."
By Peter Kao
BALANCING A BIG HUGE RPG
Western-style open world RPGs have proved immensely popular in
recent years. RPGs are huge undertakings on their own, but when you
add the ability to go anywhere at any time, it's tough to know when
players will be leveling up, how they will be buffed, what sword they'll
have in which battle, et cetera. Ian Frazier shares his tips for balancing
an open-world RPG, employed in the creation of Big Huge Games' new
game
K
INGDOMS OF
A
MALUR
: R
ECKONING
.
By Ian Frazier
HEADS UP DISPLAY
IGF finalists announced, what's new with
Game Developer,
and top pirated games of 2011.
TOOL BOX
By Carey Chico
SpeedTree 6.0
THE BUSINESS
By David Edery
What's Mine Is Yours
THE INNER PRODUCT
By Ari Silvennoinen
Chasing Shadows
AURAL FIXATION
By Damian Kastbauer
Dude, History?
PIXEL PUSHER
By Ryan Consell
Breastplate Vs. Boobplate
GDC JOBS
By Staff
Recruitment at GDC
DESIGN OF THE TIMES
By Soren Johnson
The Coming Storm
GOOD JOB
By Brandon Sheffield
Q&A with Kenan Alpay, who went
where, and new studios
EDUCATED PLAY
By Tom Curtis
V
OID
ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT
By Matthew Wasteland
Ask a Frost Dragon
[NEWS]
44
19
47
49
55
56
61
63
66
[REVIEW]
[BUSINESS]
[PROGRAMMING]
27
[SOUND]
[ART]
[JOBS]
[DESIGN]
[CAREER]
69
80
[EDUC ATION]
[HUMOR]
WWW.GDMAG.COM
1
GAME PLAN
//
BRANDON SHEFFIELD
GAME DEvELOPER
MAGAzINE
w w w. G D M A G . c O M
Freedom's downward spiral
Why you should be angrier about ndaa than you Were about soPa
By now, everyone's aware of the
U.S. House bill SOPA, the Stop Online
Piracy Act. And the related PIPA—
the Senate's PROTECT Intellectual
Property Act. Internet denizens
have correctly rallied against these
bills, which had vague, overly
broad language that would have
given the U.S. Government and
rights-holders the means to block
certain web sites deemed to be
"primarily dedicated" to copyright
and trademark infringement.
These would have bypassed
due process, and given the U.S.
Government and giant media
corporations the power to be
judge, jury, and executioner
over what U.S. internet users are
allowed to access online.
The ability to imprison anyone
without trial or appeal should make
you angry enough—but before
I lose my audience, let me get
straight to how this relates to games.
Consider
C
ounter
-S
trike
. One team
plays as the terrorists, one as the
counter-terrorists. In this game, Valve
allows players to take on the role of
terrorists, and encourages them to
win. Is this supporting terrorism?
You and I understand the concepts of
fiction and role play, and the power
and intrigue of imagination. But does
our government?
Laws have a very curious
tendency of serving whomsoever
has the authority to twist them, and
governments worldwide have been
in a mad race to remove freedoms
in the name of national security.
Under the new NDAA laws,
C
ounter
-
S
trike
’s designers could absolutely
be detained until the concept of
“terrorism” no longer exists, which,
as things are going, seems a long
way off.
How many of our games allow
players to see war from both sides,
even if briefly? Quite a few, really.
And while President Obama says
that he definitely won't use this
against Americans, even though he
could, who's to say situations won't
change? And even if he doesn't, what
if the next president in line does?
Here's an example from another
angle. Tahadi Games has brought
the Korean FPS
P
oint
B
lank
to the
Middle East. I think of the Middle
East as the birthplace of much of
ancient culture and religion. Others
though, think of the Middle East as
a hotbed of terrorism, and would
swear up and down that giving
Arabic-speaking countries access to
an FPS is akin to training up a legion
of terrorists. If you sell your game
in Arabic-speaking countries, are
you at risk for detention in America?
The incredibly vague law leaves that
possibility open, should someone
have played your game before
committing some malicious act.
they could, and that should scare
you. Former U.S. Marine Amir Mizra
Hekmati was recently sentenced
to death in Iran for aiding in the
development of
k
uma
\W
ar
, which
lets players engage in “real life”
scenarios, including an episode
titled “Assault on Iran.” The Iranian
government says
k
uma
\W
ar
was funded by the CIA to help
"manipulate public opinion in the
Middle East." His sentence has not
been carried out yet. Tommy Vietor,
a spokesman for the White House's
National Security Council, says that
"The Iranian regime has a history
of falsely accusing people of being
spies, of eliciting forced confessions,
and of holding innocent Americans
for political reasons."
And that is precisely the power
that NDAA’s new language grants our
own government. What if Hekmati
had worked on a game like
k
uma
\W
ar
that showed what might happen if
Iranian forces landed on U.S. shores?
We could legally give him nearly the
same treatment we're now decrying.
UBM LLC.
303 Second Street, Suite 900, South Tower
San Francisco, CA 94107
t:
415.947.6000
f:
415.947.6090
suBsCription serviCes
For inFormation, order Questions, and
address ChanGes
t:
800.250.2429
f:
847.763.9606
e:
gamedeveloper@halldata.com
For diGital suBsCription inFormation
www.gdmag.com/subscribe
editorial
puBlisher
Simon Carless
e:
scarless@gdmag.com
editor-in-ChieF
Brandon Sheffield
e:
bsheffield@gdmag.com
produCtion editor
art direCtor
desiGner
Jade Kraus
e:
jkraus@gdmag.com
Joseph Mitch
e:
jmitch@gdmag.com
Cliff Scorso e:
cliff.scorso@ubm.com
ContriButinG writers
a Greater threat
»
The internet blacklist bills have
pretty much united everyone in
game development against them,
and after a recent day of internet
blackouts, voting on them has
been postponed. But another, far
more dangerous bill passed in late
2011, that could limit our freedom
of expression in an even grander
scope than SOPA/PIPA ever would.
No citizen voted for or against
this law. Much like with SOPA, that
opportunity was not afforded
us. The article in question is the
National Defense Authorization
Act, and it is the greatest threat to
intellectual and personal freedom
in America.
NDAA is not new—the bill has
been in effect in various forms for
almost 50 straight years. But the
big deal is some new language
that was added to Title X, Subtitle D
sub-sections 1021–1022 of the bill,
which I encourage you to check out
for yourself. (Alternately, you can
read Salon.com's excellent article,
“Three myths about the detention
bill.”) This new language allows for a)
the indefinite detention without trial
of anyone, American or otherwise,
who is perceived to support
terrorism, and b) an expanded view
of what the war on terrorism entails
(which can now be continued until
“the end of hostilities”).
2
Tom Curtis
Ari Silvennoinen
Carey Chico
Ryan Consell
Damian Kastbauer
Soren Johnson
David Edery
Matthew Wasteland
advisorY Board
Free Game development
Mick West
independent
Brad Bulkley
Microsoft
Clinton Keith
independent
Brenda Brathwaite
loot drop
Bijan Forutanpour
sony online entertainment
Mark DeLoura
thQ
Carey Chico
globex studios
Mike Acton
insomniac
advertisinG sales
GloBal sales direCtor
»
As of 2011, video games are
protected as free speech, but that
only goes so far as the letter of the
law, as SOPA, PIPA, and NDAA prove.
When laws are so open ended, an
official with an agenda could cause
serious damage to our industry, and
to America at large. With the outcry
against SOPA and PIPA, we could
be on our way to winning back the
freedom of the internet—now let’s
fight for our freedom of expression
and humanity.
If we want to make games
that address issues like war and
military occupation, we need to fix
NDAA. I urge you to write to your
representatives, or do whatever
you can. Remember though; even
if we fix NDAA and kill SOPA/PIPA,
we only get back to square one.
There's lots more work to be done
to support our industry and our
society's freedoms. But if we don't
fix these problematic laws, we all
lose. Every one of us.
—Brandon
Sheffield
twitter: @necrosofty
Aaron Murawski
e:
amurawski@ubm.com
t:
415.947.6227
media aCCount manaGer
Jennifer Sulik
e:
jennifer.sulik@ubm.com
t:
415.947.6227
GloBal aCCount manaGer, reCruitment
Gina Gross
e:
ggross@ubm.com
t:
415.947.6241
GloBal aCCount manaGer, eduCation
Rafael Vallin
e:
rvallin@ubm.com
t:
415.947.6223
advertisinG produCtion
produCtion manaGer
Pete C. Scibilia
e:
peter.scibilia@ubm.com
t:
516-562-5134
reprints
WRIGHT'S MEDIA
Jason Pampell
e:
jpampell@wrightsmedia.com
t:
877-652-5295
audienCe development
e:
nancy.grant@ubm.com
list rental
Peter Candito
Specialist Marketing Services
t: 631-787-3008 x 3020
e:
petercan@SMS-Inc.com
ubm.sms-inc.com
audienCe development manaGer
Nancy Grant
Could it happen here?
»
While these laws haven't yet
been used to the effect described,
GAME DEvELOPER | FEBRuARy 2012
www.uBm.Com

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika:

Zgłoś jeśli naruszono regulamin