The GDC 2010 Microtalks session was a frazzling experience in many ways. The format of the event essentially assures it. Ten lecturers — all from different sectors of the game industry — each spoke for five minutes and each were allowed to use 20 different slides. Naughty Dog’s Richard Lemarchand set the stage for the speakers, announcing the theme of the talks as “come play with us.” The goal of the microtalks, said Lemarchand, was to help game creators capture the “radicalizing exuberance” of games and give them the energy to “transform the world” through the power of play.
The resulting cavalcade of images and ideas — ranging from methods of play to behavioral economics — is a bit difficult to distill. Thankfully, we were taking notes. There was too much at the event to condense here, but it was definitely a thought-provoking event. We’ve highlighted a few of the more interesting speeches after the break.
Continue reading GDC 2010 Microtalks: Big ideas, tiny speeches
GDC 2010 Microtalks: Big ideas, tiny speeches originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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For several years now, Japanese developers have realized that there are bigger markets outside Japan — namely, the U.S. and Europe. Isn’t that limiting?
In his new “Itagaki’s Thought” column, former Ninja Gaiden designer and currently Valhalla Game Studios developer Tomonobu Itagaki is looking at the bigger picture.
“I’m doubtful about the Japanese game industry’s stance these days,” he writes. “Many say things like, ‘How do we sell games to Americans?’, ‘What games sell well in Europe?’, and ‘How we should face the world as Japanese?’”
“However, to me, that just seems to be narrowing down one’s own market,” he continues. “I would like to ask, but what about Moscow? How about China? Mexico? Or even Sicily? Brazil?”
According to Itagaki, “I’ve always been of the belief that there’s no nationality to entertainment. You need to make a game for everyone on Earth, one that anyone can enjoy. I have lived for a long time thinking this way, and it’s only getting stronger.”
Bet those living outside the U.S. and Europe are happy to hear that at least one game developer understands that the audience for games is truly global.
Valhalla Studios also has interview with some of the studios’ programmers — all of which were programmers or lead programmers at Tecmo.
Valhalla Game Studios | Itagaki’s [Valhalla Thanks, Matt!] [Pic]
According to Gamasutra, a recently released report from the NPD Group claims online gaming increased by 10 percent in 2009. Furthermore, the number of games purchased via digital distribution increased by 20 percent in the same period, marking a 19 percent increase over the previous year. Meanwhile, the number of gamers that play online decreased by 2 percent. The overall increase in online gaming was the result of gamers playing online longer — an average of eight hours per week, up from 7.3 the previous year.
Breaking it down by platform, the PC sees the most use overall with 85 percent of PC owners playing online. Among gaming consoles, the Xbox takes the online cake, with 43 percent playing it online. The PS3 and Wii both tie at 30 percent, though it’s worth noting that PS3 online use is up 10 percent over the previous year.
The question has to be asked: What are all those Wii owners playing? There can’t be that many copies of Mario Kart Wii out there. Oh, wait …
NPD: Online gaming up 10 percent in US originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Outcast was one of those games that was so amazing most people never even got to play it. It just…shone too damn brightly. So much so that this 2010 remake of a 1999 game may well get more exposure.
Open Outcast is a fan-made mod for Crysis Wars, which seeks to recreate Appeal’s brilliant open world adventure title with visuals a little more appropriate for this third millennium. Not that Outcast’s graphics were bad – indeed, for 1999 they were revolutionary – it’s just, running on Crysis’ engine, it now looks better.
All you need to download the mod is a trial version of Crysis Wars. After that, you can grab a demo of Open Outcast from the mod’s official site. If you’ve never played the original, I’d highly recommend it.
Open Outcast [via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]
Between the Q1 rush of games and the looming wave of March gaming conferences, we’re really starting to feel the pressure here at Joystiq HQ. However, we’ve still found time to peruse the ever-expanding webcomicverse for the choicest selections. Our secret? Multitasking. Why just take a shower when you can take a shower and read a few dozen online comic strips? Other than the fact that it’s extremely dangerous, of course.
Below our are seven favorite strips from this past week. you can vote for your favorite in the poll after the jump, and tell us what notable strips we may have missed out on in the comments!
A Cyclical Argument with a Literal Strawman (Penny Arcade)
Choosing the Impossible (Digital Unrest)
Press Start (Professor Hobo)
Underwater Overshare (Virtual Shackles)
Random Comic (Dueling Analogs)
Pots (Brawl in the Family)
The First Pokemon Trainer (2P Start)
Continue reading Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is pressed for time
Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is pressed for time originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It seems that the yet-to-launch Green Man Gaming website has figured out a way for consumers to make back some of the money spent on digitally distributed games. According to a press release from earlier today, the company will accept digital trade-ins of used “digitally purchased and downloaded games,” though nothing explicit is spelled out in terms of what exactly you’ll get for your trade-in.
The company’s COO (and ex-Play.com head) Gian Luzio claims in the release that publishers will receive “substantial remuneration” from Green Man Gaming (that means money, folks) and the site is planned for a “Q1 2010″ launch — it’s said to open up with 400 games and grow to “over 2000″ by the end of the year. We’ve contacted GMG for more info on how this whole thing will work and will update you when we know more.
[Via Big Download]
UK-based site ‘Green Man Gaming’ to allow digital trade-ins originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It seems like the cast of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing will never cease to expand. Not only has Sega tapped almost all of its memorable characters (including Shenmue’s Ryo), but its roster is also starting to encompass games outside of the Sega realm, including Banjo-Kazooie, Avatars and Miis. Today, the Sega blog reveals Space Channel 5’s Ulala and Crazy Taxi’s BD Joe. Check ‘em both out in the new trailer above.
Ulala and BD Joe get behind the wheel in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Frankly, we don’t get Nier. In Japan there are two different Nier games with different names and slightly different plots coming exclusively to the 360 and PS3, but in the US, we’re just getting one of those, but it’s coming to both the 360 and PS3! And if it wasn’t bad enough we’re expelling all this energy keeping Nier straight, we already sort of hate it.
At least one thing — the release window — is now clear: Square emailed this morning to let us know that the game would arrive in spring this year. Square also haughtily informed us that the game is an action RPG rather than a pure action game, and should be classified as such. Hey, isn’t it enough if we remember how many of them exist?
Nier gets close in spring 2010 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Not content with just stuffing a card full of ROMs inside the old-school Atari VCS case, one modder installed an LED screen in the cartridge bay that allows the operator to cycle through and select games.
Hack-a-Day says the console has “somewhere around 1200 ROMs” on an SD card inside the case. With the three switches on the front, the user can cycle through them and then flash the title over to the EEPROM inside. The display’s size is 2×16.
Atari 2600 Mod Features LCD Selector [The Bits, Bytes, Pixels and Sprites]
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