Wow, Pyschonauts is a really fun game. Just finished it and must say that (despite some pretty tough final levels) I thoroughly enjoyed playing it. Tim Schafer’s zany sense of humor shines through in spades and you never know what crazy thing is going to happen next.
Highlights among many include the Godzila-like lungfish level and the Bonaparte wargame. I really did not expect either scenario. The little joke on scrap-booking was particularly apropos given my wife’s newfound fascination with the hobby (and, I’m guessing the same with someone from the dev team).
I wonder how the game is doing sales-wise. Given it is original and doesn’t fit nicely into standard game genre silos, this could easily be a game that’s left to wither on the vine (not to mention it had several false starts before finally getting out the door via Majesco). At least it has been scoring really well.
Anyway, a great fun humorous innovative game. A must play.
Wow, it has been a hectic June! A big contributing factor was my recent jam packed trip to Vancouver (arguably one of the largest game-development cities on the planet). While in town I participated in Vidfest, DiGRA and a local IGDA chapter event.
First up, Vidfest. In its second year, Vidfest is a well produced “new/digital media” event. The emphasis seems to be more so on digital film, animation and webby type new media forms, with a dash of games and mobile content in the mix. This diversity is both a strength and a weakness: It is nice to see the diversity, but a bit hard to build a critical mass with such a broad approach. I’m hoping the IGDA’s Vancouver chapter can work more closely with New Media BC (the event organizers) to get more game content on the agenda, possibly an indie game fest style contest…
Next up, DiGRA. The second conference of the Digital Game Research Association was just as inspiring as the first one back in the Netherlands. The conference program was bursting at the seems with content (every time slot had way too much competing content!). Check out the list of papers for a sense of what was presented. (Also, check out more thorough event coverage via Terra Nova, Greg Costikyan, Flickr, Grand Text Auto, etc.)
Yet, despite all the great work being presented (and the huge local game development scene), there were not many developers on hand. Kudos to the Microsoft Playtest Lab guys for showing up (Tom, Marcos, etc) and Backbone’s James Everett for getting involved in the action. Despite many examples of great collaborations, there is still such a divide between industry and academics in general (something the IGDA is working to improve).
In part, that was the motivation to get an “industry panel” onto the DiGRA schedule. So, in coordination with the DiGRA folks, the IGDA Vancouver chapter hosted their June meeting as part of the conference program (ie, as a special event at the end-of-day Friday, followed by a reception). I moderated the panel, consisting of the following local developers: Steve Rechtschaffner - VP & Chief Creative Officer, EA; Ron Moravek - General Manager, Relic; Douglas Tronsgard - CEO, Next Level Games; Dan Sochan - Producer, Backbone Entertainment; and Vlad Ceraldi - Producer, Radical Entertainment.
It was a great opportunity to have the academic crowd interact with a panel of pros. Although, it did get heated at times when such topics as unionization, industry openness to academic research, and gender diversity came up for discussion. The less-than-acceptable responses to “how many women work for you studio” (under 10% in most cases) elicited hisses from a back row of female academics! Anyway, despite these few flares, it was a productive event, providing insight into the realities of game development and the challenges/opportunities of the impending next gen of consoles.
And, here are a few snaps from the various events:
A Vidfest panel on digital film distribution and funding. You could replace each time they said movie with the word game and you’d not be able to tell the difference (ie, we’re both facing similar challenges of risk aversion, lack of funding, etc).
On lunch break from Vidfest, IGDA chapter co-coordinator Mike Corey shows be around Granville Island.
Vidfest’s closing party and awards gala was hosted at Radical Entertainment’s studio. I must say, it was a pretty hip place. I’m still awed by the fact that they had a log cabin in the communal/lobby space. That’s Canadian for you, eh?
Ian Bogost, Andrew Stern, Robin Hunicke and Nicole Lazaro waiting for the first DiGRA keynote to start…
T.L. Taylor opens with a discussion on virtual worlds, modes of play, and other fascinating aspects of MMO games.
Eric Zimmerman, Robin Hunicke and ? wailing into the microphone/game controller for the freaky Organum game, part of the “PoV” alternative games exhibition.
Another PoV game, Blowhard was really exhausting, and intrigueing…
The symbolic rhino. You’ll have to ask an academic what it all means…
After the industry panel, EA’s Steve Rechtschaffner (pink shirt) hangs around for extensive questioning.
Post Panel Mind Meld: Industry folks from the IGDA Vancouver chapter schmoozing with academics from the DiGRA conference.
Who says academics are behind the times? Jason Chambers, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, examines in-game advertising.
DiGRA chair Frans Mayra chat’s with MIT’s Henry Jenkins and conference organizer Suzanne de Castell.
I really enjoyed Jim Gee’s lecture on games as learning machines. It is quite amazing how much he actually plays games…
Robin Hunicke snapping a shot of Jim too, with EricZ and Michael Mateas sitting nearby.
Is it any surprise that there’d be hockey research (”Implementation of a ‘karma factor’ affects behavior in a sports-action game”) presented during the poster session at a Canadian conference ;)
Stanford’s Henry Lowood (blue shirt) leading a “lightning” round series of 5-minute mini-paper presentations - it was a cool format, like getting nice bite-size research appetizers.
Finally! The vids we recorded during the Quality of Life Summit are online. There’s nearly 6 hours of free video content (well, the keynote is restricted to members only, but it is still free ;)
Anyway, not that I am trying to “sell” the keynote, but ALL producers, project managers and studio heads/execs should listen to what McConnell has to say. There’s just so much to gain by just following through on a fraction of his guidance.
The cases and other lectures are all good too, but in particular the big closing panel is a good show. To hear industry greats like Dave Perry going on about passion to only get confronted by a developer who said something to the effect of “I’m all out of passion hit points” was priceless. I tried to keep the discussion more productive than accusatory, but you could sense a few of them backtracking and/or re-tracking to a certain degree…
So, grab the vids (and the accompanying slides/files), zap a fresh batch of popcorn and enjoy!
