Posts tagged Game Development
Damnation studio dismantled – Report
Jul 2nd
Entire Blue Omega team laid off, according to programmer’s Twitter feed; lawsuits show troubled development process for Codemasters-published action game.
Blue Omega Entertainment’s Damnation launched in May for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC to critical disdain. Now the alternate-history shooter may wind up as Blue Omega’s suitably named epitaph.
According to a Twitter post from Blue Omega programmer Geoff Rowland, “the entire Blue Omega team was laid off,” effective last Friday. It was not certain if Rowland was referring to the entire film-and-game production company or simply those employees with a focus on game development. Multiple inquiries to Blue Omega and its representatives went unreturned as of press time.
A pair of lawsuits spotted by Shacknews and confirmed by GameSpot depict a significantly troubled development for Damnation. In January, the company filed a lawsuit against Point of View, a company it subcontracted for work on the game. The complaint states that Point of View violated its contract by seeking payment directly from Damnation publisher Codemasters.
According to the suit, Codemasters “consistently was delinquent in making the payments it owed to Blue Omega,” and the direct payments would have enabled development on the game to continue despite the publisher’s refusal to pay its debt to Blue Omega. The suit alleges that Codemasters missed almost every payment deadline and that the publisher’s liaison to Blue Omega said the tardy financing was happening on a number of its projects.
Point of View wasn’t the only subcontractor to run afoul of Blue Omega. The production company also filed suit against Velvetelvis Studios the following month, saying the subcontractor failed to meet milestone deadlines and failed to work “using sound, professional practices and in a competent and professional manner.” The suit against Point of View has since been dismissed, while the Velvetelvis dispute has been stagnant since March.
Damnation isn’t the only game project on Blue Omega’s slate. The company’s Web site lists an unannounced “high-octane shooter” for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, as well as Attack of the Dust Bunnies, an Apple iPhone game set for release this month.
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Electronic Arts Discuss Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’s Authenticity (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)
Jun 22nd
For the first time in a Harry Potter videogame, it’s possible to read the emotion in characters’ faces as they talk, thanks to the advanced facial animation system that was used during development. Many of the film’s actors provided their voices for the game, and the development team at EA had access to photos and body scans of all the characters, so every raised eyebrow and fluttering cloak is accurately portrayed in the game.
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Spot On: British game-ratings changes broken down
Jun 19th
Restrictions to be harsher–and legally binding–under just-adopted PEGI system; new body being set up to focus on selecting which games will be banned in the UK.
When the British government presented its thoughts on how to keep Britain at the cutting edge in the digital age, gaming got its fair share of attention. As well as a number of issues around game development, the most important thing for UK gamers was the conclusion to the long-running UK ratings saga.
Currently, every game released in the European Union receives a rating under the Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) system. However, not all games reach UK shelves with a PEGI rating attached. Depending on a game’s content, UK law requires some to instead carry a rating from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) that is then legally binding. (PEGI ratings are considered advisory labels only.) Under the proposals outlined in the report, PEGI will now be the only source for UK ratings, and those ratings will now carry legal weight.
The old BBFC ratings (above) and new PEGI ratings (below).
Previously legally binding ratings, BBFC ratings were only needed for a minority of games that either had significant non-game content, were tied into film releases, or if they depicted or encouraged any of the following: human sexual activity or acts of force or restraint associated with such activity; mutilation or torture of, or other acts of gross violence toward, humans or animals; human genital organs or human urinary or excretory functions; techniques likely to be useful in the commission of criminal offences. These provisions were laid out in the Video Recordings Act 1984, which forms the legal basis for both criminalising underage sale of rated “video works,” and criminalising the sale of such works that were refused classification.
The power to ban games by refusing UK classification will now pass to the Video Standards Council, a UK body that jointly administers the PEGI system with the Netherlands Institute for the Classification of Audiovisual Media. Also, every single game on UK store shelves intended for anyone over the age of 12 will now have a legally binding age rating on it, with stiff penalties in place for any businesses that sell games to those who are underage.
The single most significant change for UK gamers is likely to stem from the fact that PEGI has a history of rating games more conservatively than the BBFC. According to the VSC, since 2003, approximately 50 percent of PEGI 18+ games have received more lenient ratings from the BBFC. As of the end of last year, according to a PEGI statement at the time, 24 of 50 titles rated 18+ by PEGI had had their ratings reduced by the BBFC. Two of these–Mass Effect and PSP game SWAT – Target Liberty–were released in the UK with 12 ratings from the BBFC, but with a PEGI 18+ in the rest of Europe. The other 22 received 15 ratings in the UK–among them, big games, such as Resident Evil, Silent Hill 3, and the original God of War.
A number of 16+ PEGI games were also downgraded, including Call of Duty 3, Tomb Raider Anniversary, and Soul Calibur IV, which were all released in the UK with a 12 rating. Whether or not young teens will still be able to buy games with split ratings, such as Mass Effect and SWAT, remains to be seen and is a matter the VSC has told GameSpot it will be taking up with government.
There are a number of reasons for these increased ratings; the first of these is the use of sexual expletives in a game. Such language automatically results in the application of a PEGI 16+ rating–which may then be upgraded, depending on other factors. However, under the BBFC’s guidelines, occasional use of “the strongest language” only results in a 12 rating.
“A single act of violence in a film will be seen once,” a VSC representative told GameSpot. “The single use of a sexual expletive in a film will be heard once. This being the case, it is entirely legitimate to put the act of violence or sexual expletive into the context of the overall film. This is not the case for games.”
He went on to explain that while each instance of violence and vulgarity occurs once during the course of a film, players might be made to replay cutscenes and fights complete with all their objectionable content numerous times before advancing in a game.
“This being the case, it is not appropriate to put the act of violence or sexual expletive into context,” the VSC representative concluded. “Once the act of violence or sexual expletive is there, it will attract the PEGI rating attributable to it.”
The one other change that will be made is in respect to banning games. While the criteria for the refusal of UK classification will remain the same as it did when the BBFC was administering the process, the VSC has said it is to set up an advisory panel to which it will refer all games that it fears may need to be banned. Under the act, any game “likely to cause harm” to those viewing it, with special consideration being given to criminal behaviour; illegal drugs; violent behaviour or incidents; horrific behaviour or incidents; or human sexual activity would be referred. This does only apply in the UK, however, so a banned game in the UK would almost certainly still be released in the rest of Europe with a PEGI 18+ rating.
Because the key point is the likelihood to cause harm, the advisory council is to contain a senior clinical psychologist and a senior media psychologist, as well as a senior media lawyer. According to the VSC, the panel will not make the final decision to ban a game, with the VSC only saying its advice “will be taken into account.” This will, the VSC hopes, mean that if it does elect to ban a game, the decision will not be reversed on appeal.
It should be noted that the legal weight of classifications is only relevant when the supply of a video work is “for reward” or “in the course of furtherance of a business,” and so games bought by others then given as gifts would not fall foul of the legislation, as they did not before.
It is currently unclear as to when the new system will come into force, as Parliament needs to approve some of the changes. The VSC confirmed to GameSpot that it plans to meet with appropriate members of government in the near future to work out a timetable.
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Spot On: Fixing UK game development
Jun 18th
The Digital Britain report contained dire warnings about the state of the British game industry–but also laid out plans on how to get things back on track.
Earlier this week, the British government published its long-awaited plans for keeping the UK at the forefront of the global digital economy, Digital Britain. While the main thrust of the report dealt with updating the country’s broadband networks, reforming the BBC, and cracking down on piracy, it also addressed the thorny issue of game ratings, as well as discussing game development in some detail.
In 2008, UK-made games accounted for more sales than those of any country except for the US or Japan, in no small part thanks to the massive success of Rockstar’s epic Grand Theft Auto IV. By the end of this year, the report projects the country will be overtaken by Canada once again and–for the first time–South Korea. By 2010, China is expected to overtake the UK, relegating it to the sixth largest producer of games.
Three main problems for UK game development were outlined in the report. Firstly, the cost of development in the UK is too high, thanks to the high cost of labour and the lack of tax breaks and other financial incentives. Secondly, problems in education have led to a burgeoning shortage of people with the skills UK game developers need to keep their studios stocked with fresh talent. Finally, there is a lack of UK ownership of British intellectual property in the gaming sector–while British firms are recognised for their ability to create original properties, they often end up being owned by non-UK publishers due to lack of adequate local support.
Of these issues, it is the lack of tax breaks that has seemed closest to the hearts of the British development community of late, given the explosive growth of development in Canada, as well as recent advances in France. Quebec’s development boom, for instance, began in earnest after $4 million in grant money was doled out to Ubisoft in 2005. Since then, the province has attracted significant new investments from the likes of EA and Eidos thanks to a very generous array of tax breaks, subsidies, and other financial incentives far in excess of what the European Union would allow or the UK government can realistically afford.
While the report stopped short of promising tax breaks, the government did affirm that because games have the same potential as film “to engage us and reflect our cultural particularism,” developers should be considered for the same sort of incentives that are currently in place to encourage UK filmmaking. The aims of such relief would be to nurture the UK’s development talent pool, help it create and retain new IP–rather than seeing British-developed ideas being published by companies based abroad–and “encourage the production of culturally significant video games that may otherwise not be made in the UK.”
The problems outlined in the report reflect concerns that the UK games industry has been attempting to make to government for some time. Speaking last year, ELSPA’s director-general said, “The Canadians have driven a tank over the French Citroen and have now parked on our lawn. It is becoming very challenging to keep core development studios here.”
Speaking to GameSpot earlier this week, both Dr Richard Wilson, CEO of Tiga, the UK’s trade body for game developers, and Jon Kingsbury, the director of the creative economy programme at NESTA, reaffirmed that the issue of taxation and government assistance was the most serious issue facing UK game development today. While Wilson conceded there is no way that the UK will ever get financial incentives to the degree that has triggered Montreal’s exponential growth, due to European Union regulations and the different political climate in the UK, he did express the hope that we could see tax breaks at a similar level to those found in France.
Both Wilson and Kingsbury indicated that there is cross-party support for such an initiative, a sentiment since backed up by statements from Labour MP–and chairman of the new all-party parliamentary group on gaming–Bill Olner. The MP hosted a gathering of developers in parliament on Monday, where he promised lobbying for such tax breaks would continue even though it was “not the most auspicious time” to be attempting to persuade the treasury to part with funds. He also indicated that MPs on the whole were becoming much more accepting of the games industry, making it clear he thought claims that playing games had negative psychological impacts on players were “quite plainly nonsense,” while later stressing the importance of the industry to the economy.
There was further support for these ideas from the other side of the House, with Conservative MP John Whittingdale–currently the chairman of the Commons Select Committee for Culture, Media, and Sport–making it clear he too supported tax breaks for game developers. Talking to GameSpot on Monday, Whittingdale accepted that while he found some games “profoundly disturbing” and supported the BBFC’s decision to attempt to block the sale of Manhunt 2, he had seen no evidence whatsoever that they caused harm to anyone. He also said he felt that many comments from fellow parliamentarians on the subject were “completely ridiculous” and that many anti-games claims made by politicians were “quite plainly out there,” made by those who had not taken the time to actually investigate the facts of the matter.
Whittingdale echoed Olner’s earlier comments about changing attitudes in Westminster, indicating that the battle for support of games was “being won,” and that many did now realise the industry was “of real importance.” The problems of the past, he said, were in no small measure due to the fact that the vast majority of MPs had never played a computer game. While Whittingdale admitted his own knowledge of games was less than thorough, he has logged time with both the Civilization and Age of Empires series. In addition, he said his experience dealing with his younger daughter’s fresh obsession with The Sims 3 has added a certain amount of perspective.
While many seem cautiously optimistic about progress on tax incentives, assessments of the UK game industry’s educational woes were direr. In fact, Wilson and Kingsbury were both nothing short of damning when it came to the state of UK higher education and its failure to supply staff qualified to enter the games industry.
“Loads of games courses are just not fit for purpose,” Kingsbury told GameSpot. Of the 80 or so games courses currently on offer at UK universities, he said only five are officially certified. The problem, he said, was that the ways that universities were now funded led to courses of “ever-increasing specialization,” which were of limited utility to the industry. He also lamented the lack of real incentive for universities to become certified, thanks to the surfeit of prospective students and the fact that all programmes are funded equally irrespective of certification.
The Digital Britain report did acknowledge that the skills shortage was an issue, stating that, “Instability and lack of adequate skills provision threatens to undermine the growth of the UK games industry,” and that this would be dealt with fully in the upcoming Higher Education Framework. While the full details of the Framework are still under wraps, the report states universities will see a “shift in incentives from purely demand-led emphasis in courses toward meeting recognised skill gaps.” Universities will then be encouraged to “combine ‘hard’ excellence in science, technology, and mathematical skills with the ’softer’ excellence in business and creative skill.”
Finally, the report promised a thorough examination of proposals for a new “Usability Centre for Video Games.” Potentially located in Salford’s MediaCity complex, it would “address issues around skills development offering graduates the work-related training necessary to enable them to secure their first job in the industry.”
While encouraged by the acknowledgment that the system needs repair, Wilson said more detail was needed about these proposals. He also suggested that games courses should be managed in such a way that programmes that were formally accredited or had strong industry links receive “preferential funding,” and that tuition fees for mathematics and computer science degrees should be cut. He also suggested that financial incentives be provided to encourage more students to study the sciences and mathematics in school, which would in turn naturally lead to increased take-up of those subjects at university.
However, not everyone was upbeat about the proposals. The lack of detail and action promised in the report also raised concerns from the Conservative party. Jeremy Hunt, the shadow secretary of state for Culture, Media and Sport, poured scorn on the report in Parliament, branding it a “colossal disappointment,” and as further evidence that the Labour party was simply providing “government of the management consultants, for the management consultants, by the management consultants.”
Vincent Scheurer, a video game law expert from Sarassin LLP, also sounded several notes of caution: “Anyone encouraged by the tax breaks will move to another country if they can get better breaks elsewhere–compare [them] the benefits of long-term investment in education,” he said. The concept of cultural significance being attached to the tax breaks was also given short shrift by Scheurer, as such requirements often come with wider restrictions, such as age ratings or limits on the level of violence in a game.
“A mature creative industry should not face content requirements of that kind,” Scheurer said.
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EA confirms ’small team’ working on Mirror’s Edge 2 (Mirror’s Edge)
Jun 12th
A ’small team’ is working on Mirror’s Edge 2, EA has confirmed.
Speaking to VideoGamer.com at E3, the outspoken Patrick Soderlund, who as senior vice president at EA Games Europe oversees all European game development, said he was "excited" by what developer DICE, where he is based, will do with the game.
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Verbinski rethinking BioShock film – Report
Jun 1st
E3 2009: Pirates of the Caribbean director likely bidding bon voyage to Rapture, but will be getting his feet wet in game development.
It’s been anything but smooth sailing lately for the big-screen adaptation of 2K Games’ BioShock. The project reportedly ran into budgetary problems in April, and now Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski is having second thoughts about whether he’ll helm the project after all.
“The bottom line is it has to shoot out of the States for budget reasons and my schedule may be prohibitive,” Verbinski told The Los Angeles Times. “There’s a great script and a really interesting cast. It really comes down to the financial model now. Big movies are just not being shot in the States. I’m weighing whether I can physically go the UK or Australia or one of those other places with a tax rebate for a year and a half.”
Even if he doesn’t direct the BioShock adaptation, this likely isn’t the last gamers will hear of Verbinski. The Times also reports that Verbinski’s production house, Blind Wink, is currently working on five different gaming projects. To help develop the games–one of which has reached the prototype stage–Verbinski enlisted former Pandemic Studios designer Will Stahl.
“They’re wildly diverse,” Verbinski said of the projects. “Some of the stuff we’re doing is taking a conventional [first-person shooter] experience and tweaking it in a way that hasn’t been thought of before. We looked at it from a different angle and changed the experience.”
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iRacing — The Next Step for NASCAR Gaming?
May 20th
For a while there, the future of NASCAR gaming looked grim. Earlier this year, EA Sports made the announcement that they would not be releasing a traditional console NASCAR game in 2009. EA Sports' president Peter Moore even went so far as to openly speculate about the future of organized racing games coming out of the company. And while it can be argued that EA's NASCAR games have lounged in varying degrees of mediocrity for years, the thought of a major American sport without an accompanying annual game release felt like a sign not just of a waning economy but the beginnings of NASCAR's slide in popularity as the country's most popular form of motorsport.
Enter iRacing, the subscription-based PC racing simulation co-founded by Dave Kaemmer who just happens to be responsible for one of my all-time favorite PC racing games, Grand Prix Legends. iRacing has been around for nearly a year now in public release and, yesterday, the company announced a partnership with NASCAR to create an online racing series set to begin in early 2010. While that still means that NASCAR fans will be bereft of console oval racing for 2009, the promise of driving on iRacing's meticulously laser-scanned recreations of real-life should keep racing fans–at least those with a powerful PC–looking ahead to next year when the series launches.
While the formal partnership between NASCAR and iRacing began in earnest last summer, according to Kaemmer, the two groups have had a connection for many years. “On a personal level, the acquaintance with the folks at NASCAR goes back to the Papyrus days.” Papyrus, of course, is the game development studio responsible for the critically acclaimed NASCAR Racing series as well as the legendary Grand Prix Legends. In fact, the NASCAR Racing series was one of the early pioneers of online PC racing games; a seed of sorts from which iRacing's online feature set has grown.
“NASCAR has been interested in sanctioned on-line competition as a form of motorsport for a long time, as have we,” said Kaemmer. “The technology in most peoples' homes is now to the point where it is possible, and NASCAR was impressed with what we had produced at iRacing.”
While stock cars and oval tracks have been in iRacing for a while, the NASCAR online series will let stock car fans to race wheel-to-wheel against one another in officially sanctioned online events on nearly every track found on the Spring Cup schedule. Since its opening in August 2008, iRacing has seen more than 12,000 people sign up for the service and the company counts a handful of real NASCAR drivers such as Dale Earnhardt Jr., A.J. Ambrose, and Marcos Ambrose as members. According to Kaemmer, you might even run into a pro or two during your next race session. “They aren't 'guest stars'–they are your competition,” he said. “And because everyone races under his or her real name, if it says you are racing against Dale Earnhardt Jr., you are racing against him in real time.”
Among its current roster of road and kart courses, iRacing currently includes 25 oval racing circuits, including superspeedways like Talladega and short tracks like Bristol. The developers are currently working on rounding out the Sprint Cup Series track list, said Kaemmer. “We currently have built or are in the process of building all of the International Speedway Corp (ISC) and Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (SMI) tracks. Pocono, Indy and Dover are the only three independent tracks on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series circuit. We're in the process of building Pocono and we're in discussions with the other two.”
Creating those courses involves a painstaking process of laser scanning that Kaemmer says requires the developers to only process only about a half-mile of track per day. As a result, it can take months to build a completed track. The result, Kaemmer says, are “millimeter-accurate virtual tracks”, and it's that feature–along with realistic car handling and physics–that the game hangs its racing helmet on.
Ironically, it seems that iRacing's challenging realism might pose a problem for casual NASCAR fans looking to take a spin. With no new NASCAR videogame on the horizon in 2009, fans' only near-term option (beyond dipping in the back catalog) will be iRacing, a game whose reputation of demanding accuracy might turn off the casual drivers. How do Kaemmer & company plan on addressing the needs of the laid-back racers as well as the hardcore crowd? In a word: licenses.
“We assume that everyone who joins iRacing is a novice racer, at least in the virtual world, so the game is designed to be welcoming to new players while remaining committed to serious racing,” said Kaemmer. “Our realism means that if you're in it for big crashes and fooling around, this probably isn't the game for you. And that's OK.
“While any member can drive any car in the iRacing garage, including the cars for NASCAR's top three divisions–NASCAR Sprint Cup, NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Camping World Series–on any track in our inventory, you can only compete in officially-sanctioned multi-car events if you hold the appropriate license. All of our members begin on the oval-racing side of the service as rookies in a Legends Car and then, as their skills improve, they move up through the Late Model, etc. As they become more proficient in races and demonstrate their ability to drive safely with others, they will gain higher grade licenses, enabling them to race in faster and more demanding cars.”
When asked if EA's decision not to release a NASCAR game this year affected (or accelerated) the relationship between NASCAR and iRacing, Kaemmer is adamant: “Not at all. We've always been oriented to the PC, and addressing an audience that is looking for fun–but serious fun. We're looking for members who find it fun to learn new skills and who are willing to make a longer-term commitment to the activity. It's more like taking up skiing or tennis, rather than going through the traditional console game lifecycle of a few weeks.”
Of course, just like that skiing or tennis hobby, playing iRacing will cost you. Unlike most racing games, iRacing is based on a subscription model, which grants the user basic access to the game and a handful of cars and tracks. Members pay extra for access to additional cars and the lion's share of the extra tracks in the game but, as Kaemmer explains, access to the NASCAR online series won't cost anything extra: “We won't raise prices. There will be no additional fees to participate in any of the NASCAR-sanctioned series on iRacing beyond the regular membership charges. It's just another level of competition available to our members.”
And unlike tennis or skiing, you can't injure yourself playing iRacing.
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What do you think of iRacing's partnership with NASCAR? Do you think NASCAR games have a future on consoles? Let me know what you think in the comments below…
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XBLA, PopCap vet caught in Blizzard – Report
May 12th
Former Xbox Live Arcade boss, casual publisher executive Greg Canessa reportedly joins WOW maker to work on “unannounced project.”
In early 2007, Xbox Live Arcade veteran Greg Canessa left software giant Microsoft to lead PopCap Games’ efforts in bringing its casual games to an expanded breadth of platforms. Two years later, Canessa appears to be returning to big-budget game development with a new gig at the world’s largest third-party publisher.
Joystiq reports today that the longtime game executive has taken a position with World of Warcraft maker Blizzard Entertainment. Canessa will reportedly be working on an “unannounced project in the online space” and will report directly to Blizzard cofounder and vice president of game design Rob Pardo.
Blizzard is currently at work on at least one unannounced project, a top-secret massively multiplayer online role-playing game that CEO Michael Morhaime confirmed was in development in late 2007. In February, Blizzard lead designer Jeffery Kaplan confirmed that he had transitioned off the WOW team to work on this unannounced project, which will reportedly be completely different from the game maker’s current money-minting MMOG.
Neither Blizzard nor PopCap had returned requests for comment as of press time.
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