Control Magazine 34 [Eng.] by Control Magazine

Control ISSUE #34 • CONTROLMAGAZINE.NET

MADE IN... AMSTERDAM?!

HALO SPARTAN ASSAULT INSIDE STORY

STEAM SALES YES: IT’S THAT GREAT FOR DEVS ANALYSIS

BRAIN GAMES DO THEY ACTUALLY WORK?

BEYOND THE HARDWARE

NEXT-GEN GAMEPLAY

Need to break out? Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking for a Senior Programmer* We do Perfect Ports, New Tech, Own IP and provide Lots of Variety

* Senior Programmer: 6+ years experience in C++ covering all parts of the language Good grasp of mathematics Good grasp of computer graphics Sense of gameplay Console experience Fluent in written and spoken English

Interested? ralph.egas@abstractiongames.com +31 40 78 79 990 @abstractiongame www.abstractiongames.com

Control MAGAZINE

GAME DEVELOPMENT MAGAZINE Control Magazine Neude 5, 3512 AD Utrecht, The Netherlands T: +31 (0)30 - 231 99 14 M: redactie@control-online.nl www.Control-Online.nl (Dutch) www.ControlMagazine.net (English)

Magazine team

Contents

Next Gen

ISSUE #34 / SUMMER 2013

10games

Opening p.4

INDIGO rOADShOW

mooFmooF by melkonian games (ios)

you don’t know, but should

10 Games You Don’t Know, But Should p.6 

Introducing ten indie games worth your attention. All of these games – and more – are playable during INDIGO roadshow at Gamescom booth B-030 in hall 4.2.

MoofMoof is a unique little character that guards the universe, which consists of five elements: water, fire, wind, lightning and earth. MoofMoof uses a special harness that contains the characteristics of all these elements. By strategically using the right element at the right time in the right place, the player can overcome any obstacle. Solve challenging puzzles and fight against infected enemy elements to restore balance.

metrico by digital dreams (ps vita)

Metrico is an atmospheric puzzle action game for the PS Vita that strives to create a unique mindset of its own. Under development by studio Digital Dreams.

verdun by m2H and blackmill (pc, steam) Inspired by the ferocious battle of Verdun that took place in 1916, M2H and Blackmill are proud to present Verdun, a unique online first person shooter set during the First World War. Verdun delivers a dedicated World War I shooter experience for the first time.

ru-pam by team tonev (pc)

dark daY la (ios)

RU-PAM is a two-player game, winner of the Global Game Jam 2013 in Breda, the Netherlands. Both players control a single sniper: one of them is the mind, the other one is the heart. The first one utilises an Xbox 360 controller, the second a Playstation Move. RUPAM is an incredible cooperative experience in which full concentration and trust are keys to success.

In a film noir themed gangster town, a killer tries to mingle with the crowd, while a cop tries to find him. The killer feeds on his prey, unseen, and barely heard. From the safety of a police helicopter, the cop needs to track down and shoot the perpetrator. But kill too many civilians, and you’re off the case. A two player game of cat and mouse that was created in just 48 hours during the Global Game Jam 2013.

made in... amsterdam?!

moonscrapers by Better late than never (pc)

tHe Flock by vogelsap (pc) - big picture The Flock is an asymmetrical first-person suspense multiplayer game. Every player starts each game as the Flock. Their goal is to find and get the powerful Light Artifact. Upon being picked up, this Artifact transforms the player into The Carrier until another Flock kills him and pries the artifact out of The Carrier’s hands. The goal of the game is to hold onto the artifact for a set period of time. The Flock are not allowed to move in the light and have to freeze their movements if they don’t want to get killed. However Flock are bigger, faster and can jump higher than The Carrier.

Moonscrapers is a 3D Strategy Game set during the Cold War era, in which the US and Russia engage in a space race - quite literally. By building large towers, both nations battle for the glory of reaching the moon. Outwit, out-build or obliterate your enemy using strategy, guile and force, and claim the moon!

2 last inua by glowforth (ios) Under development by studio Glowforth, Last Inua is a platform adventure game in which one player controls two characters: an Inuit father and his sick son. Father Ataataq has the near impossible task of guarding his son, Hiko, and saving the world from the ancient, devilish Tonrar. But maybe Ataataq underestimates the strengths of Hiko... Last Inua features rich visuals, compelling characters, immersive gameplay and a unique setting: the mythical North.

Indigo Roadshow is an event by Dutch Game Garden www.dutchgamegarden.nl

marcH oF War by isotX (pc, steam)

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March of War is a free-to-play cross-platform episodic online strategy game set in an alternate 1940’s conflict, in which players fight for world domination. Six unique factions engage in vividly rendered 3D battles using a rich mix of dieselpunk inspired weapons and war machines.

Control

Control issue #34 • controlmagazine.net

tank takeover by third time’s the charm (pc) Tank Takeover is a multiplayer arena tank game where four players face each other in a battle arena, firing bullets that allow them to take control of enemy tanks and use them against their opponents. The objective is to take over all tanks on the map in order to win.

You can argue that there’s no real need for the transition to the next generation of consoles. Just look at games like The Last Of Us or Tomb Raider, both incredibly detailed HalO and technically steam sales impressive on brain eight year old ma- Games chines. But that’s Beyond the hardware just the point. Next-GeN Gameplay We’re getting at the very end of the life cycle. A time when developers know the console through and through and push it as hard as they can. And that’s why you get such incredible games like Journey. But now it’s time for a new main course.

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spartan assault

inside story

yes: it’s that great for devs

Halo: Made in... Amsterdam?! p.8 

HalO INTErVIEW

analysis

made in... amsterdam?! What’s it like for a relatively unknown studio to suddenly get the chance to work with a major IP? Control Magazine spoke with Vanguard Games about the story behind hALO: Spartan Assault. • By: Matthijs dierckx

Publisher / Matthijs Dierckx matthijs@controlmagazine.net

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do they actually work?

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eric@controlmagazine.net

Editor / Alessandra van Otterlo alessandra@controlmagazine.net

Additional layout / René Bartelson Manager Operations / Arno Landsbergen Website & network management / Martijn Frazer

Editorial contributors Martijn van Best Romar Bucur Dennis Scimeca

steam summer sale:

Dream or Drama

Steam Summer Sales - A developer’s perspective p.12 

for developers?

Consumers love it to pieces: Valve’s periodical sales. But what about the people actually selling the games? Control Magazine spoke with Abbey Games, the biggest surprise of the Summer Sale 2013. • By Martijn van Best

a card up their sleeves

valve’s recently introduced trading card system was incorporated into the summer sale, allowing players to craft a summer sale badge after they had unlocked sale-specific cards for discounted games, including Reus. The trading cards are a metagame to keep players more engaged with the

“D

on’t get me wrong, this years’ steam summer sale blew our minds”, recalls 25-year old creative lead adriaan Jansen of abbey games. Reus, the debut title of this young Dutch indie studio sold pretty well after its release on steam a couple of months ago, but by July the long tail had set in as sales dropped to about 300 per day. Enter the Steam Summer Getaway Sale, which prominently featured Reus at half price. Within days, the 2D god game had sold over 120,000 units, more than all sales up until that point combined. The title’s total revenue before the Summer Sale hovered around 800,000 euros, the sale instantly added another 400,000. Not bad for a young studio of four university graduates with zero experience in running a business.

products available on Steam, although they are entirely optional. The cards can be traded or sold to other users, or exchanged to unlock player-profile extras like game-themed emoticons, background images or additional discounts. For Abbey Games, the trading card system required about 80 hours of work creating additional assets.

“Reus was one of ten daily featured games at the top of the storefront”, says Jansen. “We were featured in the same spot as Tomb Raider, Skyrim and BioShock Infinite, how cool is that?

“

Valve controls most aspects of the sale: which games are discounted, whether they get a prominent feature and when.

On the shoulders of giants

It’s safe to say 98 percent of our extra sales can be ascribed to that feature alone.”

During the annual Steam Summer Getaway Sale, which this year lasted from July 11 until July 22, hundreds of PC and Mac games available in the online store are temporarily discounted. Gamers worldwide flock to the platform and go on a bargain binge. Valve Corporation, Steam’s proprietor, encourages impulse buying by promoting daily discounts

for dozens of titles as well as flash sales that last for only eight hours.

The power of Valve

For small studios and indie developers, being part of a Steam sale can mean vastly increasing their audience and thus their potential customer base for future titles. “Bananers!”, was indie developer Phil Fish’s ecstatic response when he shared the boosted sales numbers of his title Fez. Although a sequel seems to be cancelled, his game sold 105,000 copies during the two days it was discounted, more than it had done in its previous three months on the platform. A similar example is Dustforce by multinational studio Hitbox Team. A Midweek Madness promotion last May caused a spike in sales amounting to a 37 percent boost in lifetime revenue, according to a postmortem on the team’s website. Valve controls most aspects of the sale: which games are discounted, whether they get a

Control

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mingle Player is one of the innovations that defines the current generation.

nexT game

I died. Again.

Now that we know all the technical details of the next generation consoles, it’s time to talk about a more important issue: gameplay. By maTThijs dierckx

It was my own fault – I chose to ignore the obvious signs. Just before I had entered the cavern, there was this red glowing message on the floor in front of me. “Beware of the trap ahead”, it read. I didn’t see one. What I did see however, was a ghost. A milky white, translucent warrior. Walking away from me before, suddenly, his body was jerked violentely to the side, crumbling to the ground. Then the ghost disappeared. The warrior had died and his ghostly reflection had shown me the last seconds of his live. It was yet another warning. Notwithstanding the danger, I continued. Only to be killed at the exact same spot, by the exact same spikes that did in the warrior a few minutes before. Stupid me. The game, obviously, was Demon’s Souls. The first true Multi/Single Player-hybrid, or Mingle Player as I like to call it. It brilliantly added a multiplayer layer on top of an allready engaging single player experience. In essence the player was alone in this hostile world, but made fully aware of the thousands of other people playing the game all over the world. The aforementioned ghost being the most interesting example of how From Software managed to achieve this. Every time you died, the last few seconds of your movements were recorded, uploaded to a server and – if applicable – presented in the form of a ghost to another player entering the same area. It served as a warning, but the fact that the other player saw just your ghost dying, not what had killed you, left the threat basically intact and heightened the suspense. The same was true for the messages that players left for each other. From Software didn’t let you write an epistle, the choice was limited. It prevented messages from containing real spoilers. An ambigiuous warning, that was the best you could do for your fellow ‘souls’. Demon’s Souls’ Mingle Player stands as one of the greatest examples of translating new technical

features into completely new kinds of gameplay. In this case, From Software translated the online capabilities that came with the current console generation into an incredible enhancement of a Single Player experience. No matter how you look at it, that’s a fair step up from just pitching players against each other, leaving the basic gameplay intact (although Demon’s Souls did feature PvP and co-op, it did so, unsurprisingly, in an unconventional fashion). Mingle Player is one of the innovations that defines the current generation. Together with Journey, ‘Souls’ showed the rest of the development world there’s more to online gameplay than the infinite variations on ‘versus’ and co-op.

A lot have been said about the next generation consoles’ relevance, or lack thereof. Why should the games industry even consider this a ‘generation’ whilst we continually witness the launch of different devices on which people play more and more? Well, first of all, there’s us – the press. We certainly like our labels and won’t pass up an opportunity to act accordingly. It saves so many words to refer to a certain era by ders will instantly know what you’re talking about. But obviously the more important answer is to be found within the games industry itself. In general the

t’s easy to dismiss the importance of hardware when talking about gameplay. But take a minute to think about it, and you realise the exact opposite is true. Every kind of digital gameplay could simply not exist without the hardware running it.

bigger development teams are put to work on projects for the latest generation consoles. The same is true for investments (or the other way around). With the new consoles on the horizon, a lot of developers are eyeing features that were previously

That might be stating the obvious, but considering the cynicism that accompanied the recent hardware announcements, not everyone seems to acknowledge that fact. It takes time before new technological features spawn new ways of gameplay. The first swat of next generation games will enhance in predictable areas (especially since the PC has been showing the way for the last three years or so). Think more players on the same server, 1080-rendering, higher resolution textures and larger environments. But what comes next? What kinds of new experiences are we to expect due to new hardware? Admittedly, that’s asking an inventor what his next invention will be. But at least we can try and identify in which areas developers are expecting the biggest leaps forward. So, we asked them. For starters, some developers declined – or were outright forbidden – to comment on the subject of next generation gameplay, afraid as they were to spill the beans on their, well, next generation

only possible in theory. And we’re not just talking graphics. As stated in the main article, most developers expect great innovations in the field of AI. That will raise the bar across the board, not just on consoles. Even though it’s mainly its visual fidelity, Infinity Blade is an excellent example of how consoles drive development on other devices to new heights. Expect the same kind of overflow this coming generation. So yes, the next generation consoles still matters – at least for now.

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SCIENCE OF GAMES

Advertising Print and Online / www.control-online.nl/sales T: +31 (0)30 - 231 99 14 E: sales@control-online.nl

do Brain training games work?

Do Brain Training Games work? p.22 

When psychologist and game developer Pamela Kato was asked if Brain Training games actually work, her answer was a wholehearted...

Yes!

About Control Magazine

Opnion: Incidental Douche p.25

Control is the leading Dutch publication on game development. With a readership exceeding 3,000 professionals and relevant students, the magazine is a pivotal platform for news, information, opinion and job opportunities within the game industry.

Interview: ibb & obb-creator Richard Boeser p.26 

The Stroop Test is about how quickly you can correctly name the colors of words. It is not as easy as it sounds. It’s really easy for you to name the colors if the words match the colors (so the word red comes in the color red). But you will probably struggle to name the colors if the words are different from the color they’re in (so the word red comes in the color blue). With brain games you basically do tasks like the Stroop Test and get a score on how well you did based on how many errors you make and how long it takes you to respond. You can then try to improve your score which is often indicated as your game IQ (BPI with Lumosity) or age (with Brain Age). When you start a game like Brain Age, your mentor may tell you that your brain age is something like 80 years old. Your fear of being an old person with an old brain probably motivates you (even if you are very old!) to practice many times to improve your performance.

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It feels like there is a place for me in this industry

This game mechanic of feedback loops and motivation incentives engages players to practice cognitive tests like the Stroop Test over and over. With practice, players improve as their game IQ or brain age improves. In sum, Brain Training games are really good at getting you to practice a cognitive test like the Stroop Test and improve your performance on that specific cognitive test. So YES! Brain games can improve your performance on that specific cognitive task. They are ‘good’ in this way without a doubt. However, the assumption is that as your score improves, you are improving your ability to focus your attention, process information, and inhibit unwanted responses not just on this task but in other areas as well. The question is whether or not taking a test again and again and improving one’s score in brain games indicates a real improvement. Are performance improvements on a cognitive task real improvements? For example, I can take an IQ test and get a score of 100. Then I can figure out what I did wrong and take the IQ test again and again until I get a score of 115. The question is then, do I REALLY have a higher IQ? Or does my new IQ of 115 simply reflect the fact that I took the IQ test multiple times. Most people would say that my IQ improved because I practiced the test but I’m still as smart (or dumb) as I was before I practiced and got better on the IQ test.

“

yes it is diﬃcult to measure things in the real world, but can we at least give it a try?

no!

maYbe...

The results showed that the apparent cognitive gains on tasks that people were trained on did not transfer to cognitive tasks they were not trained on. Humph, it looks like a testing effect. This looks like a big NO for brain games being ‘good’. Brain games and the research on them point out some problematic thinking when people design games and when they set out to do research on them.

But, as much as I bring up criticism of brain games and the tactics they use to get people to believe they work, I am actually not fully convinced that they don’t work. Science is probabilistic and depends on converging evidence to help us understand how things work. There simply have not been enough good studies of brain games to convince me they don’t work (or do work for that matter). The time is now to do a few really good studies to gather more good evidence to get at whether or not brain games are any good.

Big problem #1: Using in-game metrics to show efficacy They use in-game metrics to show that their game “works.” They say that improvements on cognitive tasks in their game means that they improve in the real world without measuring what happens in the real world. Listen. I love games and I believe in the power of serious games. But I couldn’t give a @!#$% about what people do in a game. I care about what the game actually leads them to do in the real world. And yes it is difficult to measure things in the real world, but can we at least give it a try?

What exactly can we expect from the new machines? Let’s just step away from the raw numbers and focus on features that are possible thanks to the new machines. What are the gameplay improvements made possible by the new hardware? What is truly next gen about the next gen?

In the meantime, I will probably still enjoy playing a brain game now and then with the hope it is helping to keep my brain young. But I would probably enjoy them even more if I saw some more really good research coming out examining its claims in the ‘real world’. •

Big problem #2: Using self-report qualitative assessments to show efficacy It happens when researchers attempt to get at what is going on in the real world by asking people: “Did you think the game made you change the way you do things in the real world?” When a significant number of people say yes and believe it very strongly, the researchers then conclude that their game “works.” I don’t believe these statements if they are not supported by similar changes in observable objective behaviors or physiological changes compared to placebo control group. There is just too much pressure on people to say positive things about an intervention in an experimental situation and to be very bad at objectively evaluating their own performance.

pamela m. kato, ed.m., ph.d. Pamela Kato is the owner of P. M. Kato Consulting which provides expert support for making serious games for education and training in healthcare. She was involved in the development of Re-Mission and more recently, Plan-It Commander, a serious game to help children learn to plan and manage their time. PAMKATO.COM Control

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Do coNsole geNeratioNs still matter?

just calling it ‘last generation’. Rea-

Control

Slow summer

“But then again, we think Valve knows better than us about the best times to feature or start a discount. They take work out of our hands in many other areas. Besides, all those extra players we didn’t have before make it all worth it. Having so many more people download Reus also encouraged us to keep working on improving the game and adding extra game modes. You know, instead of taking it slow during the summer.” •

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The

“It’s Time For Another Console Generation.” p.20

prominent feature and when. Doesn’t it bother studios like Abbey Games that Valve has so much power over their product? Not when you consider all the advantages, the studio responds. “Sure it’s kind of strange not to be able to control important parts of your marketing, like the exact moment you’re getting featured”, admits Jansen. “Especially because the surge in downloads often means a lot of extra mails from players or additional support needed on our part.”

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The Next Game p.14 

garden in the netherlands. They’re a typical studio to be found there: straight out of school and supported by a larger community and experts. ronimo games (Awesomenauts) and vlambeer (Super

Although Abbey Games didn’t turn its nose up at the extra cash involved, the team claims their decision to partake in the sale rather was motivated by long term opportunities. “The chance to connect with more players who notice and appreciate our work is most important”, says Adriaan Jansen. “Next time we release a game, people who bought Reus at a discount might remember they liked it and buy at full price.”

Daily discounts

Reus is a 2d god game in which players control up to four giants to do their bidding. the giants are used to turn a barren planet into a fertile, mineral-rich landscape capable of supporting human settlements. creator abbey games is located in the dutch game

Crate Box, Ridiculous Fishing) occupy neighbouring offices and provided Abbey Games with tips and advice.

“

Editor-in-chief / Eric Bartelson

INSIDE LOOK

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jumping through the mirror

release us!

Find out in our coverstory starting on page 14.

With the release of ibb & obb, creator richard Boeser ends a period of six years of development. Now, if he could only get the two creatures out of his head... What was the moment of inspiration for ibb & obb? ibb & obb is the result of my graduation project back in 2007. I build many prototypes in search for a simple and original mechanic harboring complex possibilities. I remember walking outside, looking at a puddle after some rain and imagining how great it would be to jump through and end up in the mirrored world. That idea translated well to two dimensions and I started prototyping the double gravity world. I knew I wanted to create an experience for multiple players and the idea of two players in two opposing worlds seemed to fit perfectly. so how long did the total development of the game take? When I graduated I had a prototype of one level. Most people seemed to enjoy it a lot, so I wanted to find out how far I could take it. I submitted the game to IndieCade and they chose to showcase it at the E3 in 2008. There it caught Sony’s eye and we started talking about getting ibb & obb for PS3. Back home Roland IJzermans and I founded Sparpweed and we started a long period of negotiating with Sony, but we could never really work it out. We tried a different path after that and managed to find a budget through a combination of subsidies and investment. At the same time we managed to find partners, like Codeglue and Kettel, to work with and about three years ago we started the production of the PlayStation 3 version. Why did it take so long? The team was small and it’s a lot of work. This being my first game production didn’t speed up things either and on different occasions production slowed down because of the need for paid work. Was there ever a time you were fed up with it? When we were looking for ways to finance the Control

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production I was never sure whether the whole thing would become a reality, but as soon as we started production I always felt we would make it. I really enjoyed all stages of the project, though the very last months were quite demanding. There were so many little things that needed attention and at the same time I needed to think of the most complex puzzles for the last set of levels. What does the release of the game mean to you? Throughout the last six years there have always been these two small creatures in my head demanding some attention. To finally be able to consider ibb & obb finished is a great feeling. I had expected to feel relief, but after the launch I haven’t so far had the time to really look at it from a distance. I feel absolutely no fear of what lies ahead. It feels like there is a place for me in this industry and I look forward to exploring new game ideas. you are not a schooled game designer, you majored in industrial design, how did that help developing ibb & obb? Studying industrial design helped me to look at designing on an abstract level. Trying to fully grasp the reason why something is or isn’t exciting, helps you create an elegant and focused game. Quite a lot of the people that worked on ibb & obb had never worked on a game before. I believe you can feel that mix of both fresh and naive ideas in the game. How did the remarkable look and feel of ibb & obb came about? During my graduation it was just me working on the prototype, so I knew I had to find an art style that would be manageable on my own. The current style is quite efficient. I create compositions using a smaller set of decoration items. All items have a single gradient and link

Eric Bartelson & Matthijs Dierckx Editor-in-Chief & Publisher editorial@controlmagazine.net

Did you have to cut many ideas from your original vision? Cutting ideas isn’t really a bad thing. Sure, we had some ideas that would have been great to try out, but focusing on the ones that really matter is more important. What I envisioned from the start was a game fully focused on two player co-op. I believe we stayed true to that concept while adding more and more interesting mechanics. What do you hope people will get out of playing ibb & obb? The feeling of sharing an adventure with a good friend.

you have been doing a couple of small games on the side, are there plans for your next big game? Yes, it’s brewing. But I want to create some smaller games first. I have learned so much from this first production. Going through a few smaller projects will help me grow and get ready for something bigger.

Who is sparpweed Richard Boeser and Guerrilla Games’ Senior Visual Designer Roland IJzermans make up the indie studio Sparpweed. For development of ibb & obb they worked together with Codeglue, best known for Rocket Riot and PlayStation Home outfits store Cardboard Cartel. Music is done by musician/producer Kettel.

so what’s next for you? I want to get Chalo Chalo in releasable shape, explore ideas for Platformerman and maybe read some books on genetics.

ibb and obb? Richard Boeser: “ibb and obb are named after two characters in Jasper Fforde’s ‘The Well of Lost Plots’. For some strange reason the names just seemed to fit perfectly. I asked permission to use the them and was very pleased I got it.”

and for ibb & obb? please don’t say kart game... For now, releasing in Japan and the rest of Asia and the PC version.

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Game in the City

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Holland’s got game talent! Almost fifty Dutch game students will participate this year in the Game Developers Conference Europe and Gamescom. Dutch game students are famous for their creativity. These students are also classified as ‘top students’, so grab the opportunity to meet them! The students study at 14 different research universities, universities of applied sciences and vocational education throughout the Netherlands. They have backgrounds in for example game design, game art and game and media technology. Recent Dutch graduates like Vlambeer, Game Oven and Abbey Games excel in entertainment games. The Dutch are also schooled in developing applied games, for example for health and education. In the Holland Pavilion you will find 55 games developed by Dutch game students!

Framed Shots

The Dutch top students will have the opportunity to broaden their network and discuss their portfolio with international gaming experts. Juney Dijkstra: “As a student, you do not just have the opportunity to get access to the best en and most interesting places of the GDC and Gamescom. I hope to extend my network and to meet many new people.” Would you like to meet this talent or have more information on Dutch game education, visit the Holland Pavilion at the Gamescom, or contact: Dutch Game Garden Romar Bucur Mail:info@dutchgamegarden.nl WWW.GAME-EDUCATION.NL Level Up! is a co-operation project between several partners in the game industry and knowledge and education institutes, initiated by Task Force Innovation Utrecht Region. The project has received a grant from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Province of Utrecht and the city council of Utrecht.

Sometimes concept art or even screenshots are just so pretty, you’d wanna put them on your wall. So, what’s stopping you? Well, oftentimes the answer is simple: the material. A flimsy paper poster hardly does justice to the beauty of a floating Columbia. Self-proclaimed next-gen art dealers Cook & Becker are looking to remedy that. They don’t merely produce official, limited extreme

resolution prints of game art and screenshots, the art dealers employ a process that encompasses this next-gen art in acrylic glass. The result is a rather expensive but very classy piece of art – fit for even the most sophisticated office walls. Currentley available art: Journey, Bioshock: Infinite, Mirror’s Edge, Killzone and Mass Effect. More publishers will follow suit.

Rock Opera Video Game

Karmaflow: rocking the educational system

ith eight days to go it seems highly unlikely that Karmaflow will reach it’s 50,000 Euro goal on Indiegogo. But the 20,000 allready pledged will go into development of the game anyway thanks to the Flexible Funding option. The money facilitates a bold experiment of the School of Arts in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

the people surrounding him. His passionate pleas even got the professors of the School of Arts so far to step out of their comfort zone and initiate an bold experiment unlike anything they ever did before. Van Dijk and a handful of this co students are allowed to set up a studio and develop Karmaflow as way of their final year.

Karmaflow is the passion project of Ivo van Dijk, student sound design and composer of Rock Operas. This is actually his second full fledged Rock Opera, the first one -Equilibrio- was performed live on stage with the help of the Metropole Orkest, Holland’s largest Sympony Orchestra. Mind you, Van Dijk was a freshman.

So it seems Van Dijk and his team are in business. Not reaching his goal on indiegogo is just a minor setback, it will in no way shake his belief in this project. The list of participating singers and musicians reads as a Best Of Metal handbook with names like Cradle of Filth, Epica and After Forever. And of course all 52 musicians of the Metropole Orchestra are there to make sure the music has the right amount of ‘epic’.

WORLD’S FIRST EVER ROCK-OPERA VIDEO GAME According to creator Ivo van Dijk Karmaflow is the world’s first rock-opera video game. The player takes on the part of the Karmakeeper in order to restore the balance in different universes. The narrative of the game will be told through music and song. Karmaflow features a cast of ten singers featuring Marc Hudson of Dragonforce and Henning Basse of Sons of Seasons and Metallium. Currently

His burning ambition to create a Rock Opera Video Game has seem to strikken a chord with

slated for a Q4 2014 release on PC an Mac.

(advertisement)

Can games save lives? A major leap in medical training tools has been made with the medical simulator abcdeSIM developed by IJsfontein. For the last couple of years hospitals have been experimenting with innovative digital technologies for providing better care, including the use of serious games as training tools. The abcdeSIM is the ﬁrst serious game in the Netherlands ofﬁcially accredited for medical training. The goal of the game is very simple: the player has to stabilize a patient brought into the E.R. Under time pressure he has to follow the step-bystep approach dictated by the ABCDE-method.

More information? Contact Naomi van Stelten. Naomi@ijsfontein.nl T. +31 20 33 00 111

The game stands out from traditional simulators by providing a game experience. Being designed with game ﬂow, competition and replay value in mind it creates an intrinsic motivation with the player to outdo his fellow students and provides players (and teachers alike) with feedback about their performance. The fact that the abcdeSIM game is now ofﬁcially accredited and can be used as compulsory periodic training goes to show that the industry is ready for the next step in digital training. www.ijsfontein.nl Amsterdam, The Netherlands

games 10 INDIGO ROADSHOW

you don’t know, but should

Introducing ten indie games worth your attention. All of these games – and more – were playable during INDIGO Roadshow at Gamescom booth 2013.

1 THE FLOCK by Vogelsap (PC) - big picture The Flock is an asymmetrical first-person suspense multiplayer game. Every player starts each game as the Flock. Their goal is to find and get the powerful Light Artifact. Upon being picked up, this Artifact transforms the player into The Carrier until another Flock kills him and pries the artifact out of The Carrier’s hands. The goal of the game is to hold onto the artifact for a set period of time. The Flock are not allowed to move in the light and have to freeze their movements if they don’t want to get killed. However Flock are bigger, faster and can jump higher than The Carrier.

2 LAST INUA by Glowforth (iOS) Under development by studio Glowforth, Last Inua is a platform adventure game in which one player controls two characters: an Inuit father and his sick son. Father Ataataq has the near impossible task of guarding his son, Hiko, and saving the world from the ancient, devilish Tonrar. But maybe Ataataq underestimates the strengths of Hiko... Last Inua features rich visuals, compelling characters, immersive gameplay and a unique setting: the mythical North.

Indigo Roadshow is an event by Dutch Game Garden www.dutchgamegarden.nl Control

MOOFMOOF by Melkonian Games (iOS)

METRICO by Digital Dreams (PS Vita)

Metrico is an atmospheric puzzle action game for the PS Vita that strives to create a unique mindset of its own. Under development by studio Digital Dreams.

TANK TAKEOVER by Third Time’s the Charm (PC)

VERDUN by M2H and Blackmill (PC, Steam)

Tank Takeover is a multiplayer arena tank game where four players face each other in a battle arena, firing bullets that allow them to take control of enemy tanks and use them against their opponents. The objective is to take over all tanks on the map in order to win.

Inspired by the ferocious battle of Verdun that took place in 1916, M2H and Blackmill are proud to present Verdun, a unique online first person shooter set during the First World War. Verdun delivers a dedicated World War I shooter experience for the first time.

DARK DAY LA (iOS)

RU-PAM by Team Tonev (PC)

MOONSCRAPERS by Better Late Than Never (PC) Moonscrapers is a 3D Strategy Game set during the Cold War era, in which the US and Russia engage in a space race - quite literally. By building large towers, both nations battle for the glory of reaching the moon. Outwit, out-build or obliterate your enemy using strategy, guile and force, and claim the moon!

9 7

MARCH OF WAR by ISOTX (PC, Steam)

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HALO INTERVIEW

made in... Amsterdam?! What’s it like for a relatively unknown studio to suddenly get the chance to work with a major IP? Control Magazine spoke with Vanguard Games about the story behind HALO: Spartan Assault. • BY: MATTHIJS DIERCKX (TRANSLATION: TEXTCASE)

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“I know it’s wrong to boast about your own game, but just look at it!’ - says Martin de Ronde, pointing at the Windows 8 tablet”

game had been available for some time on XBLA, the PlayStation 3 commercial prospects for Gatling Gears had been ruined. But now, the HALO logo looms large, representing one of the most successful and influential game series ever produced. With a wide grin, Creative Director Martin de Ronde announces something that’s already obvious, but seems inconceivable. He proclaims, “We’re going to develop a HALO game.” How this world-famous franchise found its way to Amsterdam is a story that starts in Scotland. In 1983, ten year-old Frankie O’Connor walks into an Edinburgh arcade. He watches employees install a new arcade cabinet emblazoned with Moon Patrol in classic 80’s font.

mployees of the Amsterdam-based Vanguard Games gaze in disbelieve at the logo on the big screen in the meeting room. It is late 2011 – a year that hadn’t exactly delivered what the company had hoped for. The company’s games have received rave reviews from the critics, but there’s been too much time between releases and sales have been initially disappointing. Take Gatling Gears for example. This twin-stick shooter received an enthusiastic reception in the spring of 2011, with IGN.com rating the game 8.5 and the Official PlayStation Magazine rating it as high as 9. With such high ratings and EA as a publishing partner, what could possibly go wrong? A lot, it turns out. Just before Gatling Gears became available in digital shops and EA’s marketing campaign peaked, the PlayStation Network suffered an unprecedented crash. The network’s security failed hopelessly and Sony was forced to suspend all online services for a month. And even when this essential sales channel made its cautious comeback, the nightmare was far from over for Vanguard. To compensate users, Sony gave each of them three PlayStation 3 games absolutely free of charge. Although the Control

Frankie is smitten when he plays the game for the first time. Never before has he seen a game with separate foreground and background movement, resulting in a spectacular sense of depth. It’s called parallax scrolling. In the game, players drive a buggy across a lunar landscape, dodging UFO attacks and avoiding mines and enormous craters. The young Scot is so mesmerized that he never forgets Moon Patrol.

More than thirty years later, he works for 343 Industries and manages a franchise called HALO. O’Connor’s team knows that he dreams about an isometric HALO reboot of Moon Patrol in which the original buggy is replaced by a Warthog and the entire backdrop is relocated to the universe of the Spartans. For some time, 343 Industries has considered developing an arcade-based HALO game for use on Microsoft’s new mobile platforms. When Publishing Director Dan Ayoub recalls a presentation by a couple of developers from Amsterdam, the puzzle pieces fall into place. One of those Amsterdam developers is Martin de Ronde, one of a few Dutch games veterans 10

with truly global influence. As co-founder of Guerrilla Games, De Ronde had negotiated a deal a decade earlier with rival gaming giant, Sony. Upon departing the Killzone-developer, he founded charity games publisher, One Big Game, and later became joint owner of Vanguard Games.

When we interview him a few weeks before the release of HALO: Spartan Assault, De Ronde can barely contain his enthusiasm for the touch-based twin-stick shooter. “I know it’s wrong to boast about your own game, but just look at it,” he says, pointing at the Windows 8 tablet on the table. He has a point. “Be the first, or be the best,” De Ronde once told a posse of Dutch developers. And today he says, “Spartan Assault is

both the first and the best. I can’t think of another mobile game with the same production values. And the bar is set very high. During the development of Gatling Gears, an ‘8’ rating on certain aspects was enough. Now, we can’t accept anything less than ‘9’. After all, we are talking about a HALO game.” Cynics may consider the Windows 8 game just a thorough upgrade of Gatling Gears, the game previously developed by Vanguard. But the Creative Director doesn’t take this seriously. “It’s nothing but a skin job!” he says with a smirk. It certainly isn’t a simple skin job, but more about that later. Spartan Assault is undeniably rooted in Gears. De Ronde adds, “After the game was released, we started work on

“Obviously everyone in the studio was super excited to get the opportunity to work on such a major IP.”

a spiritual successor - a game set in our own Mistbound universe, but geared much more towards online gaming.”

With a demo of the game in hand, Vanguard set out to find partners. This search ultimately led to 343 Industries, since a couple of years responsible for the HALO franchise. “343 said: ‘Okay, show us what you can do.’ We developed a concept proposal and a non-interactive demo that demonstrated how we would capture the spirit of HALO, as 343 put it. And that’s when production started.” “Obviously, everyone in the studio was excited to get the opportunity to work on such a major IP. But the team was very professional and didn’t feel intimidated. Within a week it was business as usual. There is nothing daunting

about 343. We are a really good match and there is great chemistry. They give us plenty of freedom and only reject one out of every ten proposals. That builds confidence and trust.” “When we started, Windows Touch 8 devices weren’t available yet. During the initial development phase, we used regular controllers. Once we got our hands on the devices, it took us months to tweak the controls. It was hard to get it right, but we eventually did.” “Capturing the Spirit of HALO also required some adjustments. We definitely couldn’t simply copy the Gatling Gears gameplay. That game offered virtually unlimited ammunition, something that HALO avoids at all times. One of the core elements of its gameplay is a limited amount of ammunition, which requires frequent weapons changes.”

“The large backdrops are also a typical HALO element. These are hard to incorporate into top-down views. We tried a lot of different methods. One idea was to use lakes that reflect the sprawling landscape. That didn’t cut it. The final solution involved depth, or differences in elevation. Players cross bridges or walk along cliffs, and these give an impression of vertical depth.”

responsible for the impressive HALO 4 cinematics. But De Ronde is quick to add that “they were produced based on concept art developed by us.”

“Some aspects were completely scrapped. Exploration is a significant part of HALO games, but we deleted long treks between combat. These simply didn’t work in this setup. Instead, focus is on the missions and combat. That suits the plot, because missions take place in a simulator on board the UNSC Infinity. Those familiar with the HALO 4 multiplayer know what I’m talking about.”

Vanguard has a turbulent past. Originally founded as the gaming division of interactive advertising agency Woedend!, it debuted with the horseback riding game My Horse and Me. Ambitious plans for developing games based on its own IP yielded the previously-mentioned Gatling Gears and Greed Corp, but no commercial success. Between the release of the first and second game, the studio merged with Karami Games, owned by De Ronde and Lost Boys founder Michiel Mol.

After Spartan Assault was revealed, many believed that the game ran on Unity. So did we.

Day-to-day management was handed over to De Ronde and Arthur Houtman, former Atari

“Absolutely not,” says De Ronde. “It uses the latest version of our proprietary Blue Engine. We used existing tools, but needed our own engine to optimize performance on new platforms.”

VP and Disney Online Studios Product Development Director. Asked whether the deal with 343 Industries was Vanguard’s saving grace, de Ronde raises his eyebrows. “Are you saying that this deal saved us from bankruptcy? No way. We pitched several ideas to different parties. In fact, one of these ideas even led to a contract.”

In that respect, Vanguard faces another challenge, with half of Windows 8 touch devices based on the ARM-chipset, while the rest have x86-architecture with i7 processors. “This was no major hurdle. Yes, we had to reconfigure the pipeline, but this didn’t create any major issues.”

Does this mean that Vanguard has three teams at work? “That’s right. One for HALO, a second for Games Gurus [the casual Karami game], and a third working on an unannounced project.”

Cinematics were designed abroad in Vancouver by prominent The Sequence Group, also 11

And what does the future hold for the Mistbound universe, backdrop of Greed Corp and Gatling Gears? Has Vanguard abondoned it? “Never say never,” replies De Ronde with a meaningful, but perhaps unintended smile. Control

INSIDE LOOK

Steam Summer Sale:

Dream or Drama for Developers?

A card up their sleeves

Valve’s recently introduced trading card system was incorporated into the Summer Sale, allowing players to craft a Summer Sale badge after they had unlocked sale-specific cards for discounted games, including Reus. The trading cards are a metagame to keep players more engaged with the

“D

on’t get me wrong, this years’ Steam Summer Sale blew our minds”, recalls 25-year old creative lead Adriaan Jansen of Abbey Games. Reus, the debut title of this young Dutch indie studio sold pretty well after its release on Steam a couple of months ago, but by July the long tail had set in as sales dropped to about 300 per day. Enter the Steam Summer Getaway Sale, which prominently featured Reus at half price. Within days, the 2D god game had sold over 120,000 units, more than all sales up until that point combined. The title’s total revenue before the Summer Sale hovered around 800,000 euros, the sale instantly added another 400,000. Not bad for a young studio of four university graduates with zero experience in running a business.

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“Reus was one of ten daily featured games at the top of the storefront”, says Jansen. “We were featured in the same spot as Tomb Raider, Skyrim and BioShock Infinite, how cool is that?

“

Valve controls most aspects of the sale: which games are discounted, whether they get a prominent feature and when.

It’s safe to say 98 percent of our extra sales can be ascribed to that feature alone.” Although Abbey Games didn’t turn its nose up at the extra cash involved, the team claims their decision to partake in the sale rather was motivated by long term opportunities. “The chance to connect with more players who notice and appreciate our work is most important”, says Adriaan Jansen. “Next time we release a game, people who bought Reus at a discount might remember they liked it and buy at full price.”

Daily discounts

On the shoulders of giants

Reus is a 2D god game in which players control up to four giants to do their bidding. The giants are used to turn a barren planet into a fertile, mineral-rich landscape capable of supporting human settlements. Creator Abbey Games is located in the Dutch Game Garden in the Netherlands. They’re a typical studio to be found there: straight out of school and supported by a larger community and experts. Ronimo Games (Awesomenauts) and Vlambeer (Super

Crate Box, Ridiculous Fishing) occupy neighbouring offices and provided Abbey Games with tips and advice.

for dozens of titles as well as flash sales that last for only eight hours.

The power of Valve

Slow summer

THE

NEXT GAME

Now that we know all the technical details of the next generation consoles, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to talk about a more important issue: gameplay. BY MATTHIJS DIERCKX

Control

Mingle Player is one of the innovations that defines the current generation.

I died. Again. It was my own fault – I chose to ignore the obvious signs. Just before I had entered the cavern, there was this red glowing message on the floor in front of me. “Beware of the trap ahead”, it read. I didn’t see one. What I did see however, was a ghost. A milky white, translucent warrior. Walking away from me before, suddenly, his body was jerked violentely to the side, crumbling to the ground. Then the ghost disappeared. The warrior had died and his ghostly reflection had shown me the last seconds of his live. It was yet another warning. Notwithstanding the danger, I continued. Only to be killed at the exact same spot, by the exact same spikes that did in the warrior a few minutes before. Stupid me. The game, obviously, was Demon’s Souls. The first true Multi/Single Player-hybrid, or Mingle Player as I like to call it. It brilliantly added a multiplayer layer on top of an allready engaging single player experience. In essence the player was alone in this hostile world, but made fully aware of the thousands of other people playing the game all over the world. The aforementioned ghost being the most interesting example of how From Software managed to achieve this. Every time you died, the last few seconds of your movements were recorded, uploaded to a server and – if applicable – presented in the form of a ghost to another player entering the same area. It served as a warning, but the fact that the other player saw just your ghost dying, not what had killed you, left the threat basically intact and heightened the suspense. The same was true for the messages that players left for each other. From Software didn’t let you write an epistle, the choice was limited. It prevented messages from containing real spoilers. An ambigiuous warning, that was the best you could do for your fellow ‘souls’. Demon’s Souls’ Mingle Player stands as one of the greatest examples of translating new technical

DO CONSOLE GENERATIONS STILL MATTER? A lot has been said about the next generation consoles’ relevance, or lack thereof. Why should the games industry even consider this a ‘generation’ whilst we continually witness the launch of different devices on which people play more and more? Well, first of all, there’s us – the press. We certainly like our labels and won’t pass up an opportunity to act accordingly. It saves so many words to refer to a certain era by just calling it ‘last generation’. Readers will instantly know what you’re talking about. But obviously the more important answer is to be found within the games industry itself. In general the

Control

“

“Creating a link between the ‘real’ game, the cloud, other players and other devices will become a large and important area in game design”

THE CURRENT GENERATION’S LASTING LEGACY Mingle Player

As mentioned in the main article, one new kind of gameplay will certainly stick around for the coming generation: Mingle Player, or Online Enhanced Single Player. As seen in: Demon’s Souls and Journey, but also in Social Games like FarmVille. Touch Control

Now there’s a piece of hardware that gave birth to an incredible amount of new gameplay. Tapping, slicing, pinching... Although touch and play finds its genesis in mobile devices, it’s one of the few features that actually managed to trickle ‘up’ considering Wii U and The new PlayStation 4 controller. Cover based shooters

Yeah, we know, it’s not a mechanic that was invented during the current generation. However, it did rise to prominence thanks to games like Gears of War in TPS’es and Killzone 2 in FPS’es. And it’s definitely not going anywhere the coming generation.

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games. A quick survey however revealed somewhat of a consensus. Most developers we asked, were convinced that although graphics will see a big bump, it’s AI that will take the crown and improve most significantly. Some of them pointed specifically to multiplayer enhancements. That may sound a bit odd, considering the core gameplay of most multiplayer games involves close to none AI. However, should every kill be awarded the same score, for instance? Imagine server AI that acts not unlike a panel of (human) judges. One that’s actually capable of distinguishing a cheap kill from super human finger twitchiness or ingenious tactics. One that identifies a camper as such and consequently rewards mobility.

Trade-offs will remain

The more obvious improvements mentioned (‘envisaged’ would be an exaggeration) dealt with NPC behaviour: more realistic movement and pathfinding, procedurally generated dialogue, more individuality and uniqueness, better strategizing (basically: NPCs would cease being mind-blowingly stupid). Although none of this will win awards for originality, a game world inhabited by digital beings offering meaningful interaction, greatly enhances its immersion. One designer did add a warning, however: “We game designers should be able to step outside of our comfort zone and create a radically different approach to NPC AI. If we fail to do that, we end up improving NPC behaviour only gradually over the next years. All the extra horse power will be claimed – and granted – to the guys running the engine and graphics departments.” And it may not be just the designers and AIprogrammers doing their job that will decide the faith of next generation AI. Trade-offs between graphics and gameplay will not disappear this coming generation (you didn’t think that would be a thing of the past, now did you?). Developers – and if applicable, their publishers – must be willing to sometimes choose AI over graphics. Let’s illustrate the paradox using an imaginary nextgen game that allows console owners to host large scale battles on their own device (Warhawk springs to mind) and includes the AI-enhanced multiplayer features as mentioned earlier. Such a game would run all network-code and ‘server AI’ client side. Now, these kinds of games typically sell on looks, but their staying power lies in their online gameplay. Significantly enhancing that multiplayer experience 16

could involve extremely complex, and thereby taxing algorithms. So taxing in fact, that – indeed – a Trade-off between gameplay and graphical fidelity becomes unavoidable. Go for the long tail and sacrifice a few shaders for the sake of a better online experience, or up the esthetics and have better looking trailers, thus improving Day Onesales? (For the sake of completeness: this problem may be solved by offloading the bulk of the AIcalculations to another typically next generation console ‘feature’: the cloud.) Only time will tell if decision makers will show AI a bit more love than they used to. Niki Kuppens, Senior Game Designer of HALO: Spartan Assault anecdotally points at some generational similarities regarding AI. “During the announcement of the current generation, I asked several developers how they thought these new devices would improve games. Almost everyone answered: better AI. Looking back, the current generation mainly improved on graphics, not AI. More complex models, bigger textures and more detailed animation. That won’t change the coming generation, but I’m convinced AI will play a bigger part.”

Companion Apps

Stepping away from AI, Kuppens adds: “In general, the collection of new technologies offer a tremendous amount of possibilities for cool features and mechanics. Being able to come up with original implementations of those features, will be a great plus for your games and the reputation of your studio.” Connectivity, that’s what the mobile HALO-designer considers the most interesting improved feature. “Creating a link between the ‘real’ game, the cloud, other players and other devices will become a large and important area in game design. I think it’s particularly interesting to offer players a chance to be involved in your game outside when away from the console. There are tons of mechanics and features to be invented that will complement the base game. That’s an area in design I’ll gladly explore.” “So-called companion apps offer new options for co-op and competitive play. However, in the beginning the new tech will be used for improving existing elements. The better game designers will understand and apply the new possibilities, the more intersting the results become. I think that in the end, it will be these features that define this coming generation and become the de facto design standards and principles.”

“Personally I am convinced 60 fps is more important for the overall experience than adding more complex shaders”

Beside better AI and companion apps, increased graphical fidelity will increase immersion and thereby enhance gameplay, most developers agree, unsurprisingly. But what kind of esthetical jump should be considered most important for gameplay? According to Jelle van der Beek, Lead Engine & Tools Programmer on HALO: Spartan Assault, it’s not higher resolution or better textures. He explains: “The current generation struggled with the transition to HD. Most games delivered 720p output, but even those were oftentimes upscaled from a lower rendering resolution. 1080p is still pretty rare. Developers were experimenting with different kinds of anti-aliasing to produce a crisp image, even at lower resolutions. That is one of the reasons a frame rate of 30 fps became common place, whilst 60 fps being the exception. Personally I am convinced 60 fps is more important for the overall experience than adding more complex shaders. Higher frame rates mean better responsiveness and control – and a better sense of speed.”

REMAINS TO BE SEEN Motion Control

Motion Control, which was actually first introduced to the masses during the PlayStation 2 era, should have taken the crown as the single most important lasting addition to gameplay this generation. However, it’s still much more popular amongst console manufacturers than it is amongst players. We’re still waiting for Kinect’s killer app and even Nintendo seems to move away from having players swing

Sleepy You

there limbs around.

The programmer is disappointed in the way CPUs have evolved over the last couple of years. “The general expectation, going from multi-core to manycore, did not come to fruition. The most important development: low-wattage CPUs delivering decent performance. Of course, that has everything to do with the emerging mobile market. But now, we’re stuck with a fairly unspectacular eight cores in the new consoles.”

ARG

Augmented Reality Games did not manage to surpass the gimmicky

Despite all the fuss about increased processing power – so necessary for these AI ideas – Van der Beek is hardly the only developer who doesn’t feel too excited about the CPUs. Jurjen Katsma has arguably been developing nextgen games already. Nixxes, the company he founded, recently delivered PC-renditions of games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Tomb Raider and is currently working on the new Thief. “Although the increase in graphical power is impressive, CPU-wise it’s a whole lot less than we’d hoped for. But still, a lot of stuff that could only be done on PCs, is now possible on consoles. We have experience with that due to our PC-projects. And a lot of features that were only possible in theory, could become reality real soon.” (Although Nixxes will work with next-gen platforms as well, one of their main tasks is porting console games to PC. A job that now sees a sudden reversal. “Up until recently, our goal was to improve graphics quality. The next few years we’ll be doing the 17

status. Considering the install base of smartphones and Kinect, it begs the question if it ever will. Stereoscopic 3D

It’s kind of impressive, but having to wear glasses and lesser graphical fidelity, prevented stereoscopic 3D from making its breakthrough this generation. Also: not a single game translated 3D into a game mechanic, condemning it to remaining an optional extra.

“

“If new tech means more Assassin’s Creeds and The Last of Us’, it’s meaningless to me”

LOOKING PROMISING Forza Motorsport 5 • Turn 10

The fifth iteration of Xbox’s prime

racing game will send drivers data

to Microsoft’s Cloud, where it’s be-

ing processed into a ‘Drivetar’. If this really works, it could revolutionize

race games. Players will be able to race each other while not be in front of their console at the same time. Some genuine next generation gameplay, we’d reckon. Project Spark • Team Dakota & Untitled Media MoleculeProject ‘User Generated Content’ sounds like something from the past, while in fact it is brimming with life. Minecraft has shown that the actual creation of worlds can be a game in itself. Although it’s hardly the first to try the concept, it’s above and beyond the most successful. To no one’s surprise Microsoft and Sony revealed some creation tools themselves. Of the two, Project Spark (pictured at the beginning of this article) seems the most matured. However, it does feel a bit like GameMaker on Steroids. The untitled Media Molecule project seems a bit more adventurous. It uses the Move to create sculptures (and control puppets, apparently). It’s something we haven’t seen before, thus boasting a real next gen feel. Transistor • Supergiant Games Coverimage A clear sign of change: studios like Supergiant Games on stage during a manufacturer’s E3 pressco. The developers of Bastion are creating a beautiful and interesting new title... and it’s coming to PS4. Couldn’t this be done on current gen consoles? Maybe, but considering the love sony is giving this project, Transistor is a next gen game in the truest sense of the word.

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opposite: optimising for less powerful devices and making features optional so the games will run on lower-end PCs.”)

Real change

Having more computing power and memory to play around with, is as exciting for a couple of indie developers as it is for the AAA-devs. For Jeroen D. Stout, developer of IGF-nominated Dinner Date, the new generation means easier game development. “I think graphical power is being dismissed far too easily as useless. Especially for smaller productions, the onslaught of GPU- and CPU-power is fantastic! We don’t have to optimise every single thing anymore, the hardware is expecting way more taxing games than we will be making anyway. If this new graphical power is put to use in a meaningful way, that would be great. The fact that studios are wasting too much money on cinematics, is hardly the fault of the new hardware.” The pipe-smoking designer isn’t too optimistic though when talking about new kinds of gameplay. “I do believe the new tech will increase immersion in games, but ‘new gameplay’ comes from a new way of thinking. As an industry, we’ve been doing the same stuff for rather a long time. If new tech means more Assassin’s Creeds and The Last of Us’, it’s meaningless to me. Real change in games is initiated by people with new ideas on interaction. And those ideas rarely need the kind of hardware required to run games based on ‘intensity’.”

Early Adopters

“Specs are pretty meaningless to me”, says Jasper Koning, Co-Founder and Game Designer at Ronimo Games. The indie studio enjoyed quite a bit of success with their 2D MOBA-game Awesomenauts. “However, the start of a new generation opens up a lot of possibilities in terms of genres. There are few games at the beginning of a new generation, so you stand the chance of being the first one in a particular genre. Additionally, early adopters are more willing to try something new, because – again – there’s just not too much choice at the beginning of a generation.” It’s not that game designers aren’t impressed by the new power, they just basically don’t care. Take Joost Peters, Game Designer at indie studio Codeglue (Rocket Riot, ibb & obb). “As a designer I’m not very interested in additional graphical muscle. However, 18

I do hope the new Kinect will be more robust than its predecessor. Developers might use it this time around to create innovative gameplay. The fact that every single Xbox One comes with Kinect, kind of guarantees it at least will be used.” More than horsepower, it’s the promise of the cloud that’s tickling designer’s imagination. Peters: “Cloud storage, now, that’s where it becomes interesting. Forza 5 for example, will put race data of players in the cloud and use it to power AI during single player races.” Peters continues: “Games could potentially learn how a certain player responds and use that against other players. This opens the door for games to be more dynamic and sort of improve themselves as you play them.” “The boundaries between online and offline are fading. Games like Dark Souls [Demon’s Souls spiritual successor] apply that in a very interesting way on current gen consoles. I can’t wait to see what From Software will bring to the new devices.” “The big publishers will be playing safe the first year of the next generation. However, it’s great seeing Sony bringing indie talent on board and opening their platforms for these studios. If there’s any new kind of gameplay emerging this generation, it will be coming from the indie scene, rather than the publishers.”

Ridiculously Fishy

Indeed, more indies consider the opening up of the console market as more important than the devices themselves. Vlambeer’s Jan Willem Nijman (creator of Apple Design Award-winning Ridiculous Fishing): “Most important is changing the distribution models, so that we [indie developers] have an easier time getting our games on platforms like Sony’s and Steam and being treated the same way AAApublishers are.” And in the end, that might be the biggest revolution indeed. Easy access to consoles, whether they bare the logo of Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo or even Steam, Google or Apple. Especially in the last couple of years the indie scene has matured and is starting to deliver games that go far beyond experiments for the sake of experimenting. What the biggest innovations in gameplay will be during the next generation, no one can tell. But one thing is sure: it’s gonna be one hell of a ride in the volatile world that is the games industry and, personally, I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

two great shows one expo floor

a d c o n f. c o m | g d c n e x t. c o m

COLUMN

Oh my God!

It’s Time For Another Console Generation But hopefully the last one...

• BY DENNIS SCIMECA

“A

s a writer who covers the video game beat I am enjoying the transition to the eighth console generation – like watching Microsoft lose complete control over the messaging for the Xbox One, witnessing Sony’s moment of triumph at E3 when an arena’s worth of gamers signed their souls over to Jack Tretton, and observing the preliminary bouts of fanboy message board drama.

how it feels to be a child bouncing between divorced parents’ houses during the holidays. The hassle of switching up console hardware was salved in the past by big leaps in performance. 8-bit to 16-bit to 64-bit, from simple, arcade-like experiences to open, virtual worlds, the progression from the second to seventh generations offered definitive chan-

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As a consumer, I grumble at the thought of the upcoming console transition. It’s going to be expensive. Again. I wince at the sight of all the current-gen video games on the shelf in my living room and wonder how many of them will go, unfinished, into the dark cabinet where my video game collection is stored, and become fodder for the fantasy of finally sitting down and beating all those games in the early days of my retirement. Again.

as a challenge by the creators of other forms of art, and the thriving indie scene demonstrates that hardware improvements are not the key to innovation and creativity in game design anymore, if they ever were. Professional necessity or the need to upgrade in order to keep playing video games online with the majority of my friends, whichever comes first, will dictate my purchase of eighth generation hardware. My consolation for the hassle will be that this is likely the last time I’ll ever have to dance this dance. Everyone seems to agree that dedicated video game consoles are going the way of the dodo. The future lies in set-top boxes, and hardware like the Oculus Rift, and possibly in streaming game services.

My circle of online gaming friends begins to splinter as they prepare to purchase new consoles

Those are familiar console transition problems, but what’s new is watching my circle of online gaming friends already beginning to splinter as they prepare to purchase new consoles. Some will go with Microsoft, some will go with Sony, and as I bounce between consoles to keep in touch with everyone I’ll undoubtedly wonder if that’s a shadow of Control

ges in how video games looked, sounded, and played. Whether or not to upgrade was never a question in the past, but we’re not looking at such an obvious technical leap this time around. BioShock Infinite and The Last Of Us are arguments that the current generation of consoles still have plenty of life left in them. Rockstar is perfectly happy to skip the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 with Grand Theft Auto V. Working within limitations is celebrated 20

All of that will still require the regular purchase of new hardware, but hopefully in the future video game technology will evolve without necessarily excluding what came before. Video game consoles aren’t evolutions. They’re the continual embracing of new dead ends, and I can’t be the only one running out of storage room for old consoles and old games. Right?

SCIENCE OF GAMES

Do Brain Training Games work? When psychologist and game developer Pamela Kato was asked if Brain Training games actually work, her answer was a wholehearted...

YES!

The ability to practice and get better is at the core of what is fun about games and why serious games can be used to teach and train. Brain Training games present players with cognitive tasks in a game format that players can perform multiple times to improve their score on these tasks. So it seems at face value to make sense that you can improve your cognitive functioning by playing these games. The cognitive tasks that are in brain games have been around for quite a while. Psychologists have used them for years to assess things like attention and memory. For example, the Stroop Test has been around since John Ridley Stroop first published his seminal paper on the Stroop Effect in 1935. Brain games often include Stroop Tests among the many cognitive tasks in their lineup. The Stroop Test is about how quickly you can correctly name the colors of words. It is not as easy as it sounds. It’s really easy for you to name the colors if the words match the colors (so the word red comes in the color red). But you will probably struggle to name the colors if the words are different from the color they’re in (so the word red comes in the color blue). With brain games you basically do tasks like the Stroop Test and get a score on how well you did based on how many errors you make and how long it takes you to respond. You can then try to improve your score which is often indicated as your game IQ (BPI with Lumosity) or age (with Brain Age). When you start a game like Brain Age, your mentor may tell you that your brain age is something like 80 years old. Your fear of being an old person with an old brain probably motivates you (even if you are very old!) to practice many times to improve your performance.

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Yes it is difficult to measure things in the real world, but can we at least give it a try?

NO!

A very large scientific study conducted through the BBC that was published in Nature had very convincing findings. It showed that if one trained and improved their performance on cognitive tasks in brain games, one did not show improvements in similar tasks that they were not trained on. Doh! The results showed that the apparent cognitive gains on tasks that people were trained on did not transfer to cognitive tasks they were not trained on. Humph, it looks like a testing effect. This looks like a big NO for brain games being ‘good’. Brain games and the research on them point out some problematic thinking when people design games and when they set out to do research on them. Big Problem #1: Using in-game metrics to show efficacy They use in-game metrics to show that their game “works.” They say that improvements on cognitive tasks in their game means that they improve in the real world without measuring what happens in the real world. Listen. I love games and I believe in the power of serious games. But I couldn’t give a @!#$% about what people do in a game. I care about what the game actually leads them to do in the real world. And yes it is difficult to measure things in the real world, but can we at least give it a try? Big Problem #2: Using self-report qualitative assessments to show efficacy It happens when researchers attempt to get at what is going on in the real world by asking people: “Did you think the game made you change the way you do things in the real world?” When a significant number of people say yes and believe it very strongly, the researchers then conclude that their game “works.” I don’t believe these statements if they are not supported by similar changes in observable objective behaviors or physiological changes compared to placebo control group. There is just too much pressure on people to say positive things about an intervention in an experimental situation and to be very bad at objectively evaluating their own performance.

MAYBE...

Now, the BBC was just one study. There are other studies that look at Brain Training games. The findings are mixed and the scientific quality of the studies varies. There are also many, many anecdotal reports that brain games work and transfer to other areas of real life. These are usually put out by the makers of the game. But, as much as I bring up criticism of brain games and the tactics they use to get people to believe they work, I am actually not fully convinced that they don’t work. Science is probabilistic and depends on converging evidence to help us understand how things work. There simply have not been enough good studies of brain games to convince me they don’t work (or do work for that matter). The time is now to do a few really good studies to gather more good evidence to get at whether or not brain games are any good. In the meantime, I will probably still enjoy playing a brain game now and then with the hope it is helping to keep my brain young. But I would probably enjoy them even more if I saw some more really good research coming out examining its claims in the ‘real world’. •

Pamela M. Kato, Ed.M., Ph.D. Pamela Kato is the owner of P. M. Kato Consulting which provides expert support for making serious games for education and training in healthcare. She was involved in the development of Re-Mission and more recently, Plan-It Commander, a serious game to help children learn to plan and manage their time. PAMKATO.COM Control

Incidental Douche OPINION

Is our industry really as women unfriendly as people think? Alessandra van Otterlo investigates.

The Security Guard

n June 19, Tina Amini wrote an article on Kotaku about The Creepy Side of E3. The first thing she mentions is The Touchy Security Guard. This part of the article deals with inappropriate behavior of a security guard on the show floor. A female game reporter gets grabbed and she feels very intimidated. She reports the misconduct to the PR people behind the booth and the security guard gets fired. The reporter says that the staff apologized multiple times and could have not been more helpful. Since this happened at a games event it ends up in an article on one of the major game media outlets, even though the security guard is not part of the industry. The people that are in fact part of the industry took the complaint seriously and reacted immediately. Let’s take the same case and stage it at a completely different event – a carpenters trade show, for instance, also a male dominated industry. Would this still have a reflection on the event or that industry? Or would we conclude that the security guard is a complete douche and that his grabbing is not related to the particular event and the industry people responded appropriately?

The Penis incident

Female blogger Ky (a self-proclaimed nerd with a huge passion for video games) attended the Minecraft party during PAX last year. She wrote a blog on the awful experience she had at this party. In short: at one point during the party she is sitting alone and some guy approaches her. They exchange some small talk but the conversation turns a bit creepy. He gets his phone out and starts showing her pictures of boobs. At one point he grabs her wrist and places her hand on his crotch. Then he unzips his pants and displays his penis. This must have been a very unpleasant experience, to say the least. Ky was in shock and bolted to find her friends. She blogged about it a couple of days later and the story went viral. Her blogpost was

just a way to vent, she didn’t blame anyone for it other than the guy that did this to her. But other people instantly started blaming PAX, Notch, Mojang and even the industry for this incident. But how can you blame a whole industry for the actions of one person? After all the comments and tweets, Ky edited her blogpost saying that: “The ONLY person who should be held accountable for what happened is the asshole himself.” In the corporate world sexual harassment is, sadly, not uncommon. In recent years various CEOs of large companies have made headlines by getting fired because of sexual harassment complaints. In those cases the blame falls completely on the offender and not on the company he works for or the industry he is a part of.

Do you play games?

This does not relate to any particular post we found online, but several women have complained about being asked this very question. During the Women in Games panel at GDC, Robin Hunicke used the example of a surprised taxi driver asking her if she played and made games. Often this question is viewed as being biased, offending and in no way positive. Even though recent studies done by the ESA show that the average age of a gamer is 30 and that adult women outnumber boys under the age of seventeen, to the general public a gamer is still a young pale pimply teenager. We know that there are millions of women out there playing games, but if you are not in touch with video games and its industry, that num-

ber might be surprising. Therefore, the question in itself is not that illogical and not necessarily negative. It is simply a question. The same type of question that a female construction worker probably gets on a regular basis. Should she feel offended when someone asks her “Do you build houses?”

Female game characters

The majority of characters in games is male and when a character is female it gets a lot more criticism than male characters. Rhianna Pratchett, the writer that created the new Lara Croft, told Killscreen: ”Lara Croft gets a lot more scrutiny than Nathan Drake does, as a female. Nobody talks about how well Nathan Drake is representing men, or male characters in games.” And it is not only Nathan Drake. Most male protagonists are immensely brave, fast, fierce and in excellent physical shape. Does that sound like the men we know? It is not only female characters that are subject to stereotyping. It is most characters, no matter what the gender is. Does this mean that women should stop complaining, because there is no sexism in the gamesindustry? No, because there is sexism in every industry and since the gamesindustry is predominantly male, chances are that we get our ‘fair share’ of male chauvinists and people who think that women don’t belong. But we do sometimes need to put things in perspective. Look at the bigger picture and try to take a different, perhaps more positive view. •

Alessandra van Otterlo has been working in the games industry for over ten years in various roles. Currently she works as freelancer for a serious games developer, the Dutch Games Association and is a freelance writer for Control Magazine. In the past, she worked for game publisher Playlogic and Festival of Games.

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Jumping through the mirror

RELEASE US!

With the release of ibb & obb, creator Richard Boeser ends a period of six years of development. Now, if he could only get the two creatures out of his head... What was the moment of inspiration for ibb & obb? ibb & obb is the result of my graduation project back in 2007. I build many prototypes in search for a simple and original mechanic harboring complex possibilities. I remember walking outside, looking at a puddle after some rain and imagining how great it would be to jump through and end up in the mirrored world. That idea translated well to two dimensions and I started prototyping the double gravity world. I knew I wanted to create an experience for multiple players and the idea of two players in two opposing worlds seemed to fit perfectly. So how long did the total development of the game take? When I graduated I had a prototype of one level. Most people seemed to enjoy it a lot, so I wanted to find out how far I could take it. I submitted the game to IndieCade and they chose to showcase it at the E3 in 2008. There it caught Sony’s eye and we started talking about getting ibb & obb for PS3. Back home Roland IJzermans and I founded Sparpweed and we started a long period of negotiating with Sony, but we could never really work it out. We tried a different path after that and managed to find a budget through a combination of subsidies and investment. At the same time we managed to find partners, like Codeglue and Kettel, to work with and about three years ago we started the production of the PlayStation 3 version. Why did it take so long? The team was small and it’s a lot of work. This being my first game production didn’t speed up things either and on different occasions production slowed down because of the need for paid work. Was there ever a time you were fed up with it? When we were looking for ways to finance the Control

production I was never sure whether the whole thing would become a reality, but as soon as we started production I always felt we would make it. I really enjoyed all stages of the project, though the very last months were quite demanding. There were so many little things that needed attention and at the same time I needed to think of the most complex puzzles for the last set of levels. What does the release of the game mean to you? Throughout the last six years there have always been these two small creatures in my head demanding some attention. To finally be able to consider ibb & obb finished is a great feeling. I had expected to feel relief, but after the launch I haven’t so far had the time to really look at it from a distance. I feel absolutely no fear of what lies ahead. It feels like there is a place for me in this industry and I look forward to exploring new game ideas. You are not a schooled game designer, you majored in industrial design, how did that help developing ibb & obb? Studying industrial design helped me to look at designing on an abstract level. Trying to fully grasp the reason why something is or isn’t exciting, helps you create an elegant and focused game. Quite a lot of the people that worked on ibb & obb had never worked on a game before. I believe you can feel that mix of both fresh and naive ideas in the game. How did the remarkable look and feel of ibb & obb came about? During my graduation it was just me working on the prototype, so I knew I had to find an art style that would be manageable on my own. The current style is quite efficient. I create compositions using a smaller set of decoration items. All items have a single gradient and link 26

to an external color palette. I like elaborate color palettes, so that’s what you see in the game. I had no audio in my graduation prototype, but when we started thinking about producing the full game I immediately had the feeling Kettel’s music would fit really well. Tomasz Kaye crafted the sound effects which to me feel very subtle and full of character at the same time. Did you have to cut many ideas from your original vision? Cutting ideas isn’t really a bad thing. Sure, we had some ideas that would have been great to try out, but focusing on the ones that really matter is more important. What I envisioned from the start was a game fully focused on two player co-op. I believe we stayed true to that concept while adding more and more interesting mechanics. What do you hope people will get out of playing ibb & obb? The feeling of sharing an adventure with a good friend. You have been doing a couple of small games on the side, are there plans for your next big game? Yes, it’s brewing. But I want to create some smaller games first. I have learned so much from this first production. Going through a few smaller projects will help me grow and get ready for something bigger. So what’s next for you? I want to get Chalo Chalo in releasable shape, explore ideas for Platformerman and maybe read some books on genetics. And for ibb & obb? Please don’t say Kart Game... For now, releasing in Japan and the rest of Asia and the PC version.

What is ibb & obb? ibb & obb is a cooperative game for two now available on Playstation Network and some months later on PC. In the game you work together to find your way through the world. But there’s a twist. In the bottom half of the world gravity is reversed, enabling ibb and obb to walk on both sides of the horizon. Warps allow you to move from one half to the other. This premise together with just a single button control scheme (jump) allows for some truly ingenious co-op gameplay. Who is Sparpweed Richard Boeser and Guerrilla Games’ Senior Visual Designer Roland IJzermans make up the indie studio Sparpweed. For development of ibb & obb they worked together with Codeglue, best known for Rocket Riot and PlayStation Home outfits store Cardboard Cartel. Music is done by musician/producer Kettel. ibb and obb? Richard Boeser: “ibb and obb are named after two characters in Jasper Fforde’s ‘The Well of Lost Plots’. For some strange reason the names just seemed to fit perfectly. I asked permission to use them and was very pleased I got it.” 27

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