What has happened… #09game

By jim.t | Published: September 15, 2009

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Generating new game concepts and getting them to players

By jim.t | Published: September 15, 2009

All to often we hear game developers bemoaning the fact that they cannot get new game ideas off of the ground due to lack of funding or risk adverse publishers sticking simply to existing IP.Yet still some of the most critically acclaimed games are the ones that challenge some of our existing ideas of games and provide us with innovative and challenging game play. So what do we do to promote creative and innovative games? How are they taken to an eager market and how can we explore ways of encouraging producers and developers alike to bring these much needed games to a mass market?

Meanwhile university courses drill the need to be as creative as possible into their students from day one, and there is no shortage of small independent developers utilising the web to bring their new ideas to a larger audience. The creativity is there, the audience has the appetite, lets explore how to bridge that gap!

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  • "bridging the gap" is the problem! We have seen large amounts of public sector funding poured into business support for smale companies. But how many truly understand the business models that inform the game development sector. Everything from large console development to IPhone development. Creativity is important but how do we also connect those young creatives to engage in new opportunities and new business models. Is this the emergence of the bedroom game developer once again?? or should we be encouraging this?

    posted by: srobertshaw - view / reply

  • One good way to "bridge that gap" is to have teams of staff on our educational games courses who have worked in the games industry and are aware of the market demands. This, coupled with the desire to promote innovative and unique game generation amongst the students and linking them back into industry seems to be a successful path to follow from my point of view.

    posted by: abbush - view / reply

  • By bringing industry professionals into the creative environment of the University, they can nurture an innovative approach to games and feed this through to the students. Students in turn can then feed their ideas into industry and engage in new opportunities and new business models.

    posted by: abbush - view / reply

  • I see the functionality of the game engine becoming more used in the creation of living spaces as with VR. These will not be seen as games per se but as virtual space that are used to promote social, business, and entertainment; finding the initial formula to start this kind if media is the challange.

    posted by: rob rigby - view / reply

  • Where does the bridge go to? What at the other side? The video games market is in saturation creating more of the same but with faster and higher definition graphics is not working. The future lies with Virtual Reality Environments that will entertain, educate, and inform all classes, genders, and ages with the ability to interact and communicate issues and information.

    posted by: rob rigby - view / reply

  • The bedroom game developer should have died in the 1980's; cottage industries have no standardisation; Standardisation enables re-usability, efficiency, and reduces time to market considerably. The new techniques and methods are very productive in the right hands.

    posted by: rob rigby - view / reply

  • I have created
    http://gamescourse.blogspot.com
    to explore and record the creative ideas of the students on the B.A.(hons) Games Design Course at the Northern School of Design.
    During September and October we have been discussing how to bridge the gap between Academia and Games Industry.
    Please checkout the movies on the blog.

    posted by: abbush - view / reply

  • New 3D environment “MellaniuM Dome” see http://ec3v3.projectchainsaw.com/

    Comments welcome; bring a headset

    posted by: Ken Rigby - view / reply

  • Sounds like we will get a mention at the Windows 7 launch later this month; works perfect in Win7.

    posted by: Ken Rigby - view / reply

  • I'm interested in Rob's posts as they seem (in one way) to confirm my fears that nobody is thinking this through. Just because we cannot see the other end(s) of the bridge yet doesn't mean that we shouldn't look. Likewise yes the majority of the game industry seems to be producing similar fare with the only difference being better graphics, but that isn't every games company and not what every games player wants. Part of our job as a University and being creative people is to ask what options there are and explore different potential opportunities. We have the time and the creative space to do that. Going back to the bridge metaphor we are inviting the games industry and other interested folk to come and have a constructive input. No obligation!

    If you look at a variety of innovators and inventors throughout the ages you will often find the lone maverick developing their ideas against the resistance of the establishment only to find that eventually they are celebrated as such when we realise the value of their ideas. Bedroom coder dead? I would suggest on the contrary these lone voices of creativity should be nurtured and encouraged.

    posted by: jim.t - view / reply

The potential of employment for design students through virtual environments

By abbush | Published: November 3, 2009

Through my particular research and area of investigation I have learned of the rich and untapped vein of potential employment for students through the developing world of immersive technology.
Through exploring the educational and networking potential of Second Life and other virtual spaces with a view to opening up this immersive technology to our researchers, artists and designers I have come into contact with people who are evolving in this area. There will soon be a need for a large work force to fill libraries with 3d models and textures ready for the world of education through virtual space.
This will take place in schools across the country.
At Uclan we aim to encourage creative thinking through the use of digital design and 3D building techniques across a variety of courses and we intend to using our virtual island as a social networking portal and a universal stage for designers of varied backgrounds to explore, exhibit and learn.

Dancing on the Monopoly board

Dancing on the Monopoly board

A British Icon

A British Icon

Scanning the Horizon

Scanning the Horizon

 

 

 

Bridging the Gap

Bridging the Gap

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  • That's good to hear Bev.

    The biggest challenge we face as developers of Virtual World Environments is skills - or rather the lack of them. Experience in Maya is invaluable - particularly when its combined with an understanding of the limitations and possibilities of platforms like Second Life and OpenSim.

    Its good to see Uclan taking a lead on this.

    posted by: domraban - view / reply

  • I agree Dom. The more I explore, I'm finding the possibilities within the virtual realm are full of promise, especially for students with 3D modelling skills.
    They may be preparing for a career in Games Design but as the future unfolds, they'll find that their abilities can also be put to use in the creation of virtual spaces, which will be very much in demand. They're inadvertently preparing for a world that some of them are not even fully aware of yet.

    posted by: abbush - view / reply

  • http://martysmind.com/2009/11/15/future-of-web3d/

    Future of the 3DWEB

    posted by: Ken Rigby - view / reply

Doomed to Sequels

By jim.t | Published: October 28, 2009

I got an email from a new contact yesterday, offering help to provide some input to the teaching of the Games Design course. This individual had worked at farily senior levels at Atari,  EA and Blizzard. So apart from gratefully accepting the offer of help, we had opportunity to chat about this and that. One of the items that came out of this chat was the reluctance of big companies to sign up an game idea unless it has 2 obvious sequels!

Personally I find that very depressing, I can accept some business and marketing ‘realities’ but not giving a game the go ahead unless the sequels are identified before the start just seems so miserly in terms of supporting new developments. In my mind some of these larger companies are idealy suited to take a little risk on an idea and give some new material a try. They have plenty of established games would it hurt to try and support innovation a bit more?

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  • Are you saying they wouldn't accept a game unless there were 2 FUTURE sequels on the cards? AKA You had to pitch a trilogy not a singe game?

    I find that rather surprising.. I understand the desire to see oppurtunities for a new IP they can rely on beyond the one title, but I always felt it was presumptious for designers to design games with a sequel in mind. Too Human and Assassins Creed are two obvious examples, games that announced trilogies before releasing the first game. Considering the bleak mediocre quality of both those titles on release particuarly, this seems rather ridiculous to me as a gamer and a designer.

    Speaking of "as a designer", it isn't a problem I guess for me to "think ahead" but personally I always try to put those kind of thoughts out of my head. You shouldn't be thinking "I'll put that in the next one", you should put your all into an idea, then sequels can be considered if they are truly warranted; and if they are, they can REALLY take the concept to the next level.

    This makes me thinks companies will be "holding back" with the first entry of a new IP...

    posted by: steve_t - view / reply

  • Sorry to double post (no edit function) but isn't it alot more risky to invest in THREE new games instead of one? Even WITH all the shared props/code/materials? Seems like a much larger gamble to me.

    posted by: steve_t - view / reply

  • Unfortunately when you look at what games are really good, it tends to be sequels and games further down the line.

    Timesplitters 2, Call of Duty 4, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Fallout 3 and Halo 2 and 3. All examples of games that surpassed the original idea.

    I don't like the idea of creativity being stifled because it's not quite as marketable as a company would like, but at the same time unless the game itself is brilliant from the off - which is unlikely - then it's sensible to have an idea for future expansion and improvement. Usually if an idea is well thought out then it instantly has potential for expansion and is nothing to worry about.

    posted by: lsheasby - view / reply

Mother in law

By jim.t | Published: October 18, 2009

OK here is a very personal observation. I bought Angie (my wife) the new Prof Layton this weekend for her birthday. Angie is not a dedicated gamer, she has come to it more by osmosis (you can’t escape it in our house). She enjoyed the first game so the second is a no brainer for me. The important part of this post is that Angies mum Joyce was here and was definitely interested in what was going on and the game. So here we have it a game on the DS and a potential girl gamer (Joyce) of a growing demographic (retired) quite into a digital game, but there is just no way that Joyce will buy a DS much less the puzzle based game that intrigued her so. Now I can see Nintendo putting a lot of effort into pushing the DS/DSi into non gaming areas by the use of familiar faces in their adverts but still it isn’t quite making the connection. Yet I bet the over sixtymumble (sorry Joyce) market is a significant and growing one. I can’t help but feel that we are all missing something here.

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  • Although the Wii has become their flagship "everyone can play!" platform, I think Nintendo's real winner in that regard is the DS. The approach they have taken to the DS' range and later models may be off-putting to me as a rather traditional gaming consumer, but as a designer I cannot help but marvel at the steps Nintendo made to make the DS attractive to new markets. You didn't really say why you felt Joyce would never make the purchase, but based on my own grandparents, I'd guess it's due to a general reluctance to dabble in new technology and products which despite all the soft white interfaces and familiar celebs in the ads, still seem scary to the retirees.

    How to fix that particular form of reluctance is a real tough question... given that the DS has gone so far as to branch off into a varied platform where you can listen to music, draw pictures, take photographs, read and play traditional paper games like Sodoku and Tic Tac Toe, AWAY from videogames even, and begun to instill it as a cultural item on television via the celebs, cameos in shows and sponsorship of charities and events, to the sixymumblings it's just still too much like a digital product.

    I think the only way to get the older markets interested and confident enough to purchase is for them to be introduced by people they know, Nintendo know this, which is why they also place so much focus on "Playing together", as they can have a knock on affect through several generations. I dunno if it would be like that in the case of Joyce and Angie, but generally this is probably the answer I would give. I find it hard to think how the DS could be made to look any safer or more accessible! lol

    posted by: steve_t - view / reply

  • I'm not a sixty something - neither am I so far off - but I find the DS format 'compact' - but also small - it feels like a diary or something, as its quite personal in its scale scale - so the idea that you use it to play with other people is not easy to relate to - especially when you have been brought up on cards, chess, or say Cluedo - where although the individual bits and bobs of the game are not big - the game spreads out all over the dining room table or the living room carpet.....

    posted by: fiona - view / reply

  • sorry- need to have another go at this one :) ....

    at any one time 'a society' is multi-layered, and made up of sliding scales of differing, multi-modal, shaping experiences and resulting attitudes- i.e. my own 'games brain' got formed through the games I played at school in the playground (girls: anybody remember that one with the elastic bands?). So how do we encourage today's 'games designers', who may be young people, with high levels of digital literacy but low levels of social and cultural experience, to consider others, and to value such insights as important components of their profession?

    Come to think of it, its the same pedagogic issue for all design courses - how do we aid young designers to learn how to empathise with people who are different from themselves, (i.e. in terms of age - but also all other aspects of diversity)?

    posted by: fiona - view / reply

  • In response to Fiona's query, " how do we aid young designers to learn how to empathise with people who are different from themselves, (i.e. in terms of age – but also all other aspects of diversity)?" and also partly a reflection on how do we encourage designers to make games more innovative?
    I believe that thinking creatively is the key to this.
    We're partly on the right track if we can approach new ideas for games in a way that aims at a wider audience and experiments with different ways of looking at things from unexpected angles and combining that with a solid understanding of game mechanics and strong design elements. However, it may also be worth questioning the diversity of the actual game DESIGNERS rather than the the diversity of the players as a clue to the generation of fresh ideas and empathy with a wider market .

    posted by: abbush - view / reply

Indepenent Studios and Television

By jim.t | Published: October 11, 2009

A nice article here about the collaboration between Channel 4 and Indie developers. Getting indie developers to work on ‘educational’ games for the Channels web site.  Given the success of the Beeb’s own web offerings, particularly Byte Size, this seems like a smart way of supporting smaller companies to explore some different ideas whilst giving them a good chance of publishing the finished result. Maybe a small step, but nevertheless an interesting one.

(It may seem like I snag all of my articles from Develop Magazine but it is just coincidence, OK?)

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Some candid views of students

By jim.t | Published: October 7, 2009

As posted below Bev Bush, B.A. (Hons) Games Design course leader, has created a blog for the course. First project is to ask our OPEN 09 question to the students. You might question the students knowledge and experience but don’t forget that they have made the not insignificant choice to spend several years studying to develop the skills to enter the industry. They have a stake in all of this. Coupled with this the students are also consumers of the game industry so as a bit of first hand market research you could do worse!

http://gamescourse.blogspot.com

gamescourse-blogspot
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Admission of failure?

By jim.t | Published: September 24, 2009

Recent article in Develop Magazine seems to back up the argument. A timely report from NESTA?

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  • I think the reliance on existing properties in order to avoid financial risks is just one more example of the inevitable paradox of all creative industries. As a business, companies are inherently selfish, concerned with their own survival and expansion. When it comes down to it, they need and want money and success. What results is callous "souless" business practices which clash dramatically with the imagination and creativity which ironically fuel their entire existence. Apart from the reluctance to try new things, this can be seen in the recent jumps in game prices. EA thinks "holy crap CoDMW2 is gonna sell millions GUARANTEED. Let's raise the price £10 because we know we can"

    Of course companies cannot be expected to risk their bouyancy (and the jobs of their employees) in order to push forward an agenda founded in comparatively idealistic thinking, so I think it will be immensely difficult to pull away from this status quo unless the company is already stable enough to try it's hand at planting the seeds for an IP which will in the future be none other than the existing property they can rely on. What I personally hate is when the risk of new IPs is so great companies use the names of existing properties in order to launch titles which are totally different. RE4 is a good example; many say it "redefined" RE for the better, personally I think it wasn't an RE game at all.

    The movie industry is not exactly innocent in all this, but it's reliance on "existing material" is somewhat different. Looking at the movie calendar, there is a huge abundance of sequels and remakes, but also a huge abundance of movies based on other materials such as books, comics and games. As these properties are "tried and tested" in other mediums, they can pitch them as movies and say "this sells, see?". Unfortunately, movies then do the same thing as games and launch basically unique properties on the back of an existing one. See: Wanted. NOTHING like the comic on which it was based. Games are kind of picking up this kind of risk-aversion with Dantes Inferno and Enslaved, 2 games nothing like the literature they are based on, but using them as a stable launch pad.

    posted by: steve_t - view / reply