Stumbled upon another article while researching lol…here’s more proof to why the Gaming industry is so captivating and amazing to get into.
For many ‘normal people’, stop bluffing yourself to think of stereotypes the moment you here “Games” or “Gaming”. You’re losing out on one of the strongest Industries in the world, and we’re still growing. For me, and the ones doing business in this industry, it’s all about the revenue & profits, while at the same time enjoying our work in this ‘fun & colorful’ industry. You don’t have to be a “gamer” to work in this industry. There’s so many aspects to this field, that so many of us won’t think of right off the top of our heads. You could be a lawyer and still be heavily involved in this industry, or a Marketing/PR manager, or even a musician.
Reportedly, Nexon America rakes in $1.6 million a month on microtransactions. Its game cards in Target Corp. stores are said to be behind only Apple Inc.’s iTunes cards in popularity.
Take note the date of this article, 2008. Global economic crisis? 1million a month?
The article references a few other successful MMO companies, and as usual, uses WoW (World of Warcraft) as one of it’s main references. Yes yes, it’s not easy, to simply start your own MMO, and hope it will achieve this kind of success. It’s a big big big picture to setting up an MMO, not to even talk about running and maintaining it after launching the game. But is it worth that hardship in the early days? heck yes.
Again, not every MMO (there’s over a thousand or moreeee MMOs worldwide, some quiet ones included, just do your research you will be surprised) is going to be making this same amount of giant revenues, some even completely shutdown after a short period of time. But it does not mean ‘dont try’…if there’s a will, there is a way.
GDC: 2009 (Game Developers Conference) had news about a new CryEngine development… CryEngine 3. Sounds like an upgrade to the already beyond-kickass CryEngine 2.. but is it really?
From what I collect after watching the interview with Cevat, I don’t think this is any upgrade. At least not this soon. CryEngine 3 is pretty much, CryEngine 2, but developed for the console market. While the console market/developers now are going “omg”, “wooo” “wow incredible”…we PC goers have already, seen all this “futuristic engine” can deliver. Welllll, maybe it’s nice that finally, consoles are catching up to PC, and now, all this PC action can be viewed on the big TV screens instead of puny LCD monitors
Cevat did mention that there’s ongoing research development for the PC engine, so thaaaat’s the one to take interest in and keep eyes peeled for..perhaps Cryengine 4?
Here’s the interview for those interested:
and here’s my old post showcasing Crysis, a game built on CryEngine 2: Sam’s Crysis: Warhead writeup
this totally caught me by surprised, and instantly perked my interest all the way up.. because i saw the word, Singapore, in the title of the original article.
Carneyvale: Showtime … i’ve never heard anything about this game.. but being showcased on Gamasutra.. must mean something good about it regardless. It’s another indie game, with what seems to be a fairly small, core team of Singaporean developers. It’s developed with XNA (a fairly new application from Microsoft targetted for Indie developers), and appears to incorporate a physics system in the game.. any game with phsyics simulation always promises some kind of fun
Ima try to check this game out soon. I also look forward to one day, collaborating with a team of Singaporeans on a given game project.. Singapore is still a new face to the Game Industry, but by no means should you underestimate them either. Being new, means higher demand for talent, means getting selected to be on the team will be a little easier, since there’s still not enough to compete with.
This is another great inspiring article for me personally. It shows me what obstacles they encountered developing a game like this one..and i too can learn from them. Being a Singaporean myself, and seeing that the country’s name has now broken onto huge top game industry sites like Gamasutra, is really very motivating for me as an aspiring game artist/developer..and of course, gives me a sense of pride to have been Singaporean (i recently gave up my citizenship of the country due to a decision forced upon me by the Singapore government, but my roots is still all Singaporean).
I don’t know much about this game at all, but i just so happen to stumble upon the video review for this title, and boy… it looks soo awesome, from an artist’s point of view.
Early in the video, the narrator says the game has been under development since it’s E3 2005 show..and it looks to me all these years of work, paid off, especially visually. Kudos to the art team that worked on this game.
Lighting is great, effects are great, textures..gosh. Modeling, those environments look massive…there’s sooo much extra detail you wouldnt notice unless you actually took the time to look.
Can’t say much about how the game really plays out, but i would say judging from this video alone, this is one game to look at for inspiration..it’s up there with the Gears of War and Crysis specs.
And this is currently a PS3-only title too, hinting that the Xbox360 is too weak to support all this beauty ? Can’t and won’t say much about that either.
Yess. Another spectacular game is finally here for the PC.. the “greatest gaming platform” for the greatest gaming experience ever. Burnout: Paradise is, not to say an all new release..being so successful on the console market with great critics about this game, and i think the in-game videos already prove how much fun this game can be. Burnout Paradise has been out for the XBox 360 and PS3 console platforms for a year or so already, and have since already recieved a great deal of game updates/expansions..showing just how dedicated Criterion Games (possible studio for future career? ) is to their fans. It’s not often you get this much additional content/gameplay updates in just a span of one year..so thumbs up to Criterion for the undying dedication to their franchise.
This will, as many know, be Burnout’s debut on the PC. I’ve previously played the PSP versions of this game, prior to Paradise (Burnout: Dominator, Burnout: Legends), and have always wondered why the heck isn’t this game on the pc yet? Hardware limitations? clearly not, if a puny psp is able to run the game this well, then a pc could any time too. (yes the psp burnouts also had, in my opinion, one of the best graphics for any racing game, even the newer Need For Speed Underground PSP/Midnight Club: LA PSP graphics sucked in comparison to Dominator, the textures in NFS:Ug PSP felt too undercut for the system’s capabilities).
Well finally, it’s here. And this is gonna be another of those games that will highlight the PC as the premium gaming platform choice.
Burnout Paradise The Ultimate Box will be officially released on the 6th of Febuary, 2009. Anxious fans can opt to pre-purchase this game, and as a reward, recieve the full game, 3 days in advance to the rest of the world.
There’s plenty more to say about Burnout Paradise, but i’ll save that for later on, when i get some of my own in-game videos of me playing it, and you’ll get to see what it looks like on the pc and compare any differences it has with the console versions.
‘Til then, read more ’bout this game at Criterion Games. Have fun.
Enjoy the preview video below
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Mirror’s Edge has finally arrived on “the most powerful platform around”..the PC.
Mirror’s Edge is a unique first-person action adventure where players are introduced to Faith, a ‘runner’ in a world where communication channels are highly monitored and the movement of information is closely watched. When Faith’s sister gets framed for murder, Faith finds herself on the edge of the city, on the wrong side of the law. The PC version of the game uses the NVIDIA® PhysX™ physics engine to bring the world of Mirror’s Edge to life with real-world visual effects of wind, weapons impact, and free-motion movements.
Featured on the front cover of over 40 gaming magazines in 2008, Mirror’s Edge also won numerous critic awards including the Game Critics Award for “Best Original Game” and the IGN award for “Best Action Game” at E3. Mirror’s Edge was developed at EA Digital Illusions CE AB (DICE) in Stockholm, Sweden.
I love the art style in this game.. seems like there’s quite a bit of use of Ambient Occlusion (a rendering technique i recently learned from my previous Games class )..and i have a thing for anything AO..hehe.
Well waiting to get my hands on this, i have and played through the demo on the PS3 system, and it was a great experience, too bad it was only a demo..im really interested in seeing how the devs pushed the level designs to fit this really unique and different gameplay system. Level design is key for a game like this one..a complete understanding of the game engine’s abilities as well as the game’s virtual space i bet, was something the level designers had to grab a hold of in developing the levels.
Anyways before it gets too late, this is one i’ll post more about in greater detail later..along with my personal opinions/thoughts about the winning title.
Best Game of The Year 2008 Award (Most Prestigious Award any game can achieve)
So i’ve randomly stumbled onto this, really, neat..gaming website.
This seems to be the first of it’s kind, and truely groundbreaking? i think…
With InstantAction, (http://instantaction.com), all you need is an email address, and you are able to access some really cool games, in a full 3d game engine, without having to download any big, heavy files.
It pretty much is Instant Action, at any pc, from any where.
And, the best part, it’s multiplayer! Meaning you’re not just playing another ‘flash game’. Here you play fully built Capture the Flag or Deathmatch First-Person shooter games, or clash marbles online against other people all over the world.
I’ve been particularly attracted with the “Fallen Empire Legions” game. It’s a full first-person game, with a greaaat feel, Unreal tournament fans would feel at home, just that the game has pretty much only your typical Rocket launcher, grenade, sniper, and chainguns.
The game feels awesome, the graphics are smooth, pretty high standard, for a no-download, free, game.
I’ve been poking around this game’s technical aspect, and i believe all the Instant Action games are based off a really sophisticated yet fundamental game engine, called Torque, developed by GarageGames (if i have my facts right). There’s full physics in it too.
It’s a great engine, and they seem to push it for XNA, and Indie developers, so this is one game engine i will definately be checking out some time soon.
So, go check the site out if u’ve never heard about it yet.
Make an account, and log on..hopefully get a game or two with me soon!
It’s finally here. one of the next biggest anticipated games of 2008.
Gears of War 2 releases tomorrow, november 7th.
The art is this game is outstanding..the models are all so well polished and finely detailed, and muddied up with all that grime and dirt texturing, together with it’s cinematic gameplay approach, GoW2 looks like it’s going to deliver to it’s hype. “Bigger, Badder, Better.”
Too bad it’s a Xbox 360 exclusive..for now. Microsoft won’t allow itself to lose out on the other huge market of PC users, so fret not if you don’t own a 360…i can guarantee you a PC version will soon be made..with even better higher-res textures, more ambience, bigger battles..since a PC can now, no doubt, handle that much more than a 360 in technical hardware terms. ;]
The game i feel, looks on par with those Lord of the Rings, Matrix movies ‘epic-ness’…with hordes of bad guys assembling, gearing up for one big epic clash between good and evil. I still marvel at the immense detail put into the environments, the lighting, texturing, modeling, soo beautifully rendered. Someday, my art work will be up to that standard, if not better. I’m struggling now on this seriously rocky road to make my mark, but i am determined and will get there sooner or later..just you wait..
Take a look at this video, and as you watch, think and observe how much thought and design is put into developing a “Triple-A” title, and note down the development roles each of those people interviewed play..
Game art and development has no doubt, come a long long way from your old days of “just shooting”.
Enjoy.
and leave your thoughts & comments or sign my guestbook!
Wow. yea, probably ‘Wow-wee’d tooo many countless times now. I still have yet to do my personal write up on Crysis, and of course also for it’s Expansion, Warhead.
But this write up is just to blabber about how overly impressed i am with this game’s Mines. Well okay, the entire game is amazing and hard to put into words because it’s that good..but i just can’t get over how greatly detailed and rendered thier mineshaft is..just beautiful.
So there’s a level in the game, the expansion, Crysis: Warhead, where you find yourself crawling through underground deserted Mines (like you know..miner’s tunnels with all those carts and rails, like Indiana Jones). Many many games have mine tunnels exactly like this. Tunnel, carts, cart rails, caverns, wood, cracked wood, pipes running along the dirt walls, little underground shrubs n plants n roots..some leaks n steam here and there. It’s all done before, and very ‘typical’ when someone is asked to “Design an underground mine tunnel” for a game scenario.
But “Crysis: Warhead” has gone beyond and added sooo much much more detail into their work, it’s so beautiful. You get a serious sense of being inside this wet, dark, merky, deserted shaft..with great water effects and lighting and bump maps all around. I have never seen any other game with a better rendered mine shaft. I thought Half-Life 2 (by Valve, 2004) was mind-blowing at the time too, they had tunnels like this one too, just less detailed due to technical limitations and rendering technology..”Gears of War” has some outstanding underground tunnels and lairs too, but i feel that it being a console game, the limits were set a little lower compared to what Crysis has to offer..
This video i made on my own, with Fraps. I’m running the game at 1680×1050 resolution, with every visual setting cranked up to the maximum max, only no Anti-Aliasing (don’t need it with such a high resolution already) and no “DirectX 10 glory”…as you can see my frame rates are perfect for a good gaming experience..even with Fraps recording in the background.
This video has been compressed for Website limitations (upload/downloading times & bandwidth issues)..so, naturally, this video does not display the full richness of the environment/level..and if you’re impressed with what you see in the video, you have to go see the game real-time, and experience it yourself in it’s full beauty.
Hope you enjoy it.
Woohoo..successfully setup Fraps, and video embedding for the blog
And what better than to post up a video of one of my favorite racing games, Grid, by Codemasters. Grid is one solid racer. I play the game at 1680×1050 resolution with every Visual setting cranked up to the maximum max. And wow, this game is beautiful. Cars..are..rendered perfectly, the amaaaazing sense of speed the game captures, the audio of the engines, tires screeching and rubber on tarmac, AND the environments…breathtaking. I had a friend over and showed him a replay of one race (i dont have to control or touch anything since its a replay) and he had no idea what he was looking at, was in-game visuals, rendered real time at over 30 frames per second. “Omg that’s not a video Sam??” i giggled proudly, saying “yeah man, beautiful work isn’t it… this is what game art is all about.”
Well, enjoy. These videos i recorded from in-game (yes these are all real time, full framerates from the game on my pc!) are originally 1680×1050, and it looks waaay better than what you’re seeing right now in this vid. Too bad for website browsing compression.
Leave a comment!
Videos: (you need Quicktime player to view)
Crash 001: Feel that intense moment this game captures and makes you feel when the black car gets clipped. Awesomeness! (oh edit here: wanted to add that it was probably also 70% audio that made the video that much more immersive, so crank up the volume hehe)
RaceLap 001: This is was my final lap in one of the races through San Francisco…stunningly modeled and rendered in the game! (The funny part is right at the end of the video, i’m hanging onto a huge lead through the lap, when just at the last twist in the road i crash big time, all the other 20 cars pile up behind me, but i still pull out in time to secure a silver medal )
Download movie: (135mb) http://pencilgym.com/media/fraps/gridlap01.mov
I ran across this article some time ago, and have been planning to blog about it. I find it really interesting for my field, Game Development. MMOs (or Massive Multiplayer Online games) are, what i have come to agree with many other friends, the future of gaming and where the real money’s at..
The most famous MMO around now is none other (i unwillingly admit) is World of Warcraft(WoW). No, i dont play it, never did. Blizzard (the producers of this monumental title) earned a Industry Record of $1billion+ USD in 2007 alone, just from this single game. Do you have to play WoW to be part of the development team? No. Do the developers of WoW ‘waste their lives in that game’ (aka “no-life Gamers”)? No. Developing a videogame and playing a videogame is two complete different worlds. You don’t have to love World of Warcraft to get a job in that studio, although having a passion for the game will be a plus, and you’ll enjoy your job and going to work everyday, instead of dreading it.
I don’t play WoW, never will, tried it for less than an hour literally, to get a feel for the game, but not my thing. But would I ever want to work for Blizzard to develop future installments of WoW? Heck yes!
This is taken from another blogsite:
Liz Lawley
What self-respecting virtual worlds blogger could pass up the opportunity to attend an all-star GDC panel on “The Future of MMOs”? Not me, certainly. So at noon on Thursday I found myself in the first row of a crowded room, listening to John Wood (managing editor of MMORPG.com) pose a series of interesting questions to:
* Jack Emmert (Cryptic)
* Matt Miller (NCSOFT)
* Ray Muzyka (BioWare)
* Min Kim (Nexon America)
* Rob Pardo (Blizzard)
What follows are my notes on the session; in many cases the responses are not verbatim, but instead are condensed versions of the key points. I was very impressed with how articulate and thoughtful these questions and answers were; it was an hour well-spent.
First Question: There has been a trend towards outside IP-based games. Can an MMO be successful today without an outside content IP?
Jack: Investors/publishers love outside IP because of the guaranteed fan base. Developers/designers, on the other hand, prefer the creative flexibility of original content. Because the cost of MMOs has exploded, the pressure for outside IP will increase.
Matt: Yes, of course, there will be a trend towards outside IP because people want to play what they know. But smaller publishers will be able to take advantage of the flexibility of original creation.
Ray: All IP is original to begin with, no? The tradeoff between outside IP and original is the licensing vs original cost. To take advantage of licensed content properly you need to really understand the fan base and their needs, so you’re simply trading one set of work for another.
Min Kim: We don’t typically go towards outside IP, because it’s too much of a headache to comply with the various restrictions. Depending on the genre, you may or may not need the name recognition of an outside IP.
Rob: WoW had the advantage of existing IP that the company owned (Warcraft world). It would have taken years longer to make if they’d started from ground zero on content/concept.
Second Question: Are MMOs headed towards consoles? Will companies in the future have to develop for cross-platform?
Jack: Yes.
(laughter)
Yes, of course. Champions Online (Cryptic’s just-announced MMORPG) will be developed for consoles as well as PCs, and MMOs will almost definitely migrate. (But, he says pointedly, Blizzard shouldn’t bother, it’s much too hard, not worth it, etc. More laughter.)
Matt: The console base is larger than the PC base, it only makes sense to target it. [ed. Huh? That doesn't seem right...]
Ray: Not necessarily. There’s a huge market on PCs, it’s possible to be successful without targeting consoles. There are economic benefits to PCs because it’s the largest “open market.” Play patterns are different in the two contexts. It’s a challenge that can be overcome, but you need to pick and choose your battles.
Min: I agree completely with Ray. Nexon is experimenting a bit with consoles. But for mass market, PC is still the way to go. It’s our core market. For example, will consoles allow you to distribute the game for free? If not, the consoles won’t work for our business model.
Rob: Of course there are going to be MMOs on consoles. We approach it as “what game do we want to make” and then “where should we put it”? RTS games don’t do well on consoles due to user interface constraints. But web-based MMOs have demonstrated they can be huge as well. You just have to pick the system on which your game will be most fun.
Third Question: Will microtransactions be the future of MMO business?
Jack: It’s ridiculous to think this is “the” future. Many people like paying one fee and not worrying about details. “Free to pay; buy the items” is fine for some contexts, but it’s not the future. This is a ‘buzz term’ and I hate it. Monthly subscriptions are a much better business model (and even better when people forget about their monthly subscription…bonus free money, he says!) Depending on microtransactions is likely to be about as successful as spamming a million people with “send me a dollar” emails.
Matt: Bizdev folks want subscription income, it’s much more..
Nope. It’s coming. To PC. No more words need describe the anticipation and excitement in me for this.. I knew they would bring it to PC sooner or later..can’t wait, keeping a close eye on this one.
) is to their fans. It’s not often you get this much additional content/gameplay updates in just a span of one year..so thumbs up to Criterion for the undying dedication to their franchise.
