Intelligent Artifice

The Simpsons Movie: The Game - Made in Vienna July 31, 2007

After the WiiWare post a while back, more news about games made in Vienna.

It turns out the Flash game on the website of The Simpsons Movie (which I found pretty funny by the way (the movie, not the website)) was written by Root9, developers of local game phenomenon Yeti Sports. And in fact the Simpsons game is highly similar to the Yeti pinguin-bashing game.

Still, nice to hear some more game development news out of Vienna, and impressive that they got to make something for such a global website.

There’s an article (in German) about the game and the company in Der Standard, a big Austrian newspaper.

(Thanks Clemens!)

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Warren Spector starts blog, sells studio to Disney

I just found out via Robin that Warren Spector has started a blog. And what’s the first thing I read? Junction Point has been acquired by Disney. (I am not a game news junkie anymore, so it was news to me.) Congratulations!

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Rockstar Vienna lives

This Gamasutra article about Rockstar Games contains a small anomaly: the Rockstar Vienna logo. Each Rockstar studio has its own color, light blue, the color used in this article, was Vienna’s.

Not a big deal, but slightly amusing in the context of the somewhat 1984-like denial of Rockstar Vienna’s existence ever since they got closed down.

(Thanks Markus.)

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How To Get Into The Games Industry July 30, 2007

I recently* was asked a quite common question which, oddly, I had not been asked before, namely: how do I get into the games industry?

To which I almost have to reply: I have no clue. I could tell you how I did it (I answered an ad I saw at a demo convention late 1990 and showed some of the demos I’d worked on), and there’s a core in there that still applies today (be able to show something finished), but I doubt it’s the most reliable way to get into the industry nowadays.

Apparently, these days you no longer get laughed out of the interview room when you mention that you have a degree in something vaguely relevant. Tisk tisk… things were different in my day - we wouldn’t even invite people who’d gone to university. Excuse me, I have to go yell at some kids on my lawn.

Anyway, in lieu of actual advice, how about some links instead?

David Perry writes a ton of stuff about getting into the games industry. He’s a good guy.

Tom Sloper’s Sloperama is also a treasure trove of information about a career in the games industry.

Finally, CMP Media has an entire website dedicated to the topic: GameCareerGuide.com.

I am sure much more can be found. Programmers need to show code and do tests, artists need to make portfolios, designers have it tough. The old start in QA move to production or design “hidden short-cut” still seems to work. Ack, don’t get me started on QA.

Let me know if you have some favorite advice about getting into the games biz!

* … in February actually, zomg.

Update: Darius Kazemi has a series of articles about networking in the games industry, and Mark made a good point: the IGDA has some relevant information on their website.

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Games Buddha won’t play July 28, 2007

This is a list of games Buddha said he wouldn’t play. Who knew? This is the earliest known list of games, according to Wikipedia.

(Via Daniel Solis.)

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Where World of Warcraft’s dance moves come from July 27, 2007

Someone has gone to the trouble of doing the research. I knew quite a few, but not all:

It even has the Murloc pet… BUT NO UNDEAD. Tsk, tsk. Some of the sources are quite obscure. I wonder if the female Blood Elf dance really was taken from an amateur Korean video.

(Via Alice.)

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Working at Rockstar Games July 26, 2007

A guy called Jeff has written a long blog post about what it’s like to work at the head office of Rockstar Games in New York.

I haven’t read it myself yet.

(Thanks Tobi.)

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First news of Doug Church’s new project July 20, 2007

Newsweek has an exclusive article about two of the games that are being made by Electronic Arts in collaboration with Steven Spielberg. The second one, code-named LMNO, is executive-produced by Doug Church, who joined Electronic Arts about two years ago. It sounds intriguing:

The second game, code-named LMNO and made for Xbox 360 and PS3, can be described as “North by Northwest” meets “E.T.” —if E.T. were female, grown up and, um, hot. You don’t play as the girl, however. You’re an ex-secret agent, and the bond that you forge while on the run with the computer-controlled woman—good, bad, indifferent—determines the nature of her special abilities and the ways in which she’ll assist you. Says Spielberg: “The challenge is, can the game have an emotional impact on players while they are actively manipulating the world?” Based on the clever ways in which he and EA are extracting a genuine performance from their digital Eve—complete with eyes that widen, lips that curl and translucent skin that lights up in different colors to express her quicksilver moods—we think Spielberg’s got yet another hit on his hands.

(PQRS and LMNO… I like project codenames. Too bad this scheme doesn’t scale.)

Very smart to focus on making one character more believable. Knowing Doug I expect that the game will be heavy on AI, and that the AI will serve the player experience. Making the artificial character an alien is a good way of dealing with the uncanny valley, and working with Mr. Spielberg (especially with the ‘E.T.’ connection) makes that palatable. Try pitching it without that.

Even before I heard Mr. Spielberg was involved, I tried to somehow join that project - one of the few cold calls I made when looking for a new job last year. Obviously, it was an extreme long shot and didn’t work out (and I rationalize wonder if I would have liked EA, and LA, and working on a project that has as big a name as Spielberg involved). Still, AI and storytelling, that’s still pretty much my dream project.

We will see if it’s fun. I admire many aspects of EA as a company, but after The Godfather I no longer underestimate their ability to turn promising ideas into something that is somehow less than exciting (which is why I haven’t reported on their upcoming Simpsons game, even though what they’re doing sounds cool). I wonder how much Doug has been able to influence that.

(Via roBin.)

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Checkers has been ’solved’

New Scientist reports that Checkers has been solved and joins the ranks of Tic Tac Toe and, apparently, Connect 4. Computer games expert (in a different sense than usual within the context of this blog) and spoilsport Jonathan Schaeffer worked on the problem for 18 years!

(Via BoingBoing.)

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“Nobody Knows” by Aya Karpinska July 19, 2007

Aya Karpinska sent me a very nice email today, which included a link to Nobody Knows, a digital poetry piece / VJ application that uses a game controller to allow players (readers?) to manipulate the visuals. It sounds very playful.

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