[Is a better-designed game really "better" -- and what does that really mean? Gamasutra's Leigh Alexander takes a look at how Grasshopper Manufacture's No More Heroes 2 for Wii evolves on its predecessor.]

In the original No More Heroes, Suda51 had a brilliant concept which critics largely agreed stumbled slightly on the execution -- the main criticism being that the open world lacked depth. With very little to do in the city of Santa Destroy, most seemed to feel the sequences in between missions were sprawling empty space, listless filler that could have just as easily been bypassed.

In No More Heroes 2, that bypass wish is fulfilled; gone is the player's ability to take Travis' motorcycle to the streets, and in its place is a streamlined, 8 bit-inspired (naturally) navigation menu.

The game is still challenging enough that it requires a little bit of grinding -- as with the original No More Heroes, this takes the place of menial odd jobs that luckless otaku Travis can do to earn cash for weapons upgrades, or visits to the gym by which he can become stronger, and these are the spots that players can visit from Santa Destroy's new interface.

Continue reading "Analysis: The Design And Spiritual Evolution Of No More Heroes 2" »

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[Finishing up our Art History of Games coverage - here's Part 1 and Part 2 -- and this one has the ever-controversial Tale Of Tales guys kicking off a ruckus, as well as Celia Pearce weaving some absurdist art references into a look at art and games.]

At the Art History of Games conference, Tale of Tales, the indie studio behind The Path, argues that "games are not art," and "largely a waste of time." Meanwhile, one professor examines where art and play have collided.

Tale of Tales: Games "Not Art," Largely A "Waste Of Time"

Tales of Tales has never been shy about making bold statements. At The Art History of Games conference in Atlanta, GA last week, Michael Samyn and Auriea Harvey, who also worked on The Path, which many pigeon hole as an "art game," laid out their case for why video games are not and never will be art, and why games are never going to evolve.

"One thing need to be said first, we're not trying to not fit in on purpose," said Samyn. Instead, he maintained that they had tried to carve out a place for Tale of Tales in the game industry but room was never made for them. Samyn and Harvey listed the problems they have with games. Games, according to Tale of Tales, were not beautiful enough, or immersive enough, or welcoming enough for a large audience.

Harvey announced, "some of the members of the audience are confused," as he displayed a presentation slide that boldly said: GAMES ARE NOT ART. Samyn then argued that play was driven by a biological need, and that over time play had been turned into games. On the other hand, art was not created out of a physical need but in a search for higher purposes.

Unfortunately, according to Harvey, art is dead. After the rise of Modernism art has been co-opted by capitalism and restrictive forms of government. The speakers maintained that the real artists were no longer working in the art world, but instead were experimenting in the less explored corners of the internet.

Continue reading "The Art History... Of Games? Games As Art May Be A Lost Cause" »

Posted by Simon Carless at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been watching a whole ton of Steven Seagal: Lawman. That show is incredible. Did you know that, besides being a cinema action hero, Seagal has been a cop for over 20 years? (Well, according to the man himself, anyway.) And now, at least on US television, he's also a Reality Television Star.

But according to game historian Frank Cifaldi in this fascinating vaporware retrospective, in 1993 -- which I estimate is about when Seagal began to pursue hobbyist lawmanship -- publisher TecMagic licensed the action star's likeness for use in a Genesis and SNES cross-platform game titled The Final Option.

"At the time," Frank writes, "the project was being touted as the first example of a movie star -- rather than an actual movie -- licensed for use in a video game." (Fascinatingly, though Seagal's visage itself was licensed, his digitized video game character was portrayed by none other than Some Other Dude.)

Then Frank gives us this great morsel:

"Celebrities are more stable than films," TecMagik director of marketing Jeff Tarr told The Hollywood Reporter, saying that Seagal was specifically signed because of his film's performances in the video tape rental market, especially among the game-playing demographic.

Though it's left implicit, Cifaldi's column suggests that the partnership with Seagal largely contributed to publisher TekMagic's untimely demise. The Final Option never saw the light of day and, however arguably, Seagal's star, too, has faded. I keep trying to tie this all into something profound about how celebrity, too, has changed -- about how, in these modern times, you no longer need to be a "star" to be "famous" -- but I can't quite grapple the thought.

[1UP's Retro Gaming Blog: Lost Levels]

Posted by Jennifer Frank at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So here's some splendid news -- Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, who together founded Harmonix in the mid-90s, are included among the honorees of the second-annual Character Approved Awards, a ceremony that celebrates meaningful contributions to the humanities.

And those software developers are in good company: included among this year's luminaries are Nora Ephron, for her contributions to writing; the band Green Day; Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow; Jessica Jackley, founder of kiva.org; and for design, Yves Behar, creator of the hundred-dollar laptop. Rigopulos and Egozy will be honored for their contributions to New Media.

The Character Approved Awards ceremony is a USA Network initiative -- get it? Because, the motto, "Characters welcome"? -- and as such, little narrated profiles of each of the honorees are slated to air on, you guessed it, USA.

I gather those segments will ultimately air piecemeal (the event itself isn't televised, unfortunately), with each honoree's profile presented as an autonomous human interest clip between other, longer television shows. So as for when to catch the Harmonix segment, your guess is as good as mine, although I'm told all those "vignettes" will begin airing on the 25th.

Last year's first-annual Character Approved winners included musician Lupe Fiasco, chef David Chang, Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales, and pop artist Shepard Fairey.

[Character Approved]

Posted by Jennifer Frank at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Valkyria Chronicles 2's producer Shinji Motoyama and director Takeshi Ozawa talk to Game Developer magazine EIC Brandon Sheffield on scaling the neat SRPG console game down for portables, and how to design great maps in strategy games.]

Valkyria Chronicles was Sega’s acclaimed entry into the tactics RPG genre from Sega, with innovative active battle sequences that incorporated non-grid movement with dice rolls and finite turns. Valkyria Chronicles was on the PS3, and sported an appealing pastel pencil storybook visual style.

Sega has just released a sequel to the original on PSP in Japan, designed around a multiplayer experience for the Monster Hunter crowd, but without following the Capcom juggernaut’s playstyle (incidentally there is still a single player campaign).

In the past, Gamasutra interviewed the original game’s producer Ryutaro Nonaka and director Shuntaro Tanaka extensively, but this time around the game is getting some new blood.

We spoke with Valkyria Chronicles 2’s director Takeshi Ozawa, and producer Shinji Motoyama to see just how they scaled the experience down – and up. One method not mentioned in the interview is splitting levels up into multiple areas, allowing tiered maps to save on geometry while still allowing a vast playfield:

Graphically the new game looks pretty similar to the PS3; maybe just fewer polygons. How much of a challenge was it, making it work on the PSP?

Takeshi Ozawa: Well, without going into the nitty-gritty, there are assorted issues that the engine has to work with. The hardware platform's completely different, of course. The PS3's a high-end machine while the PSP's lucky if it's half as powerful. You just can't expect to output as many polygons on that machine, and the way light coloring and so on works is also different.

Continue reading "Q&A: Sega on Bringing Valkyria Chronicles 2 to the PSP" »

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[Just a note on my colleagues' new Game Developer Research report - probably a bit expensive for GSW readers unless you're a senior tool company exec, heh, but with some interesting public conclusions anyhow if you're reading for free.]

GameSetWatch sister service Game Developer Research has debuted its latest report, the 2009-2010 State of Game Development Survey, revealing among other things a surge of iPhone developers and a lull in those making games for the Wii.

The 100 page report is a result of a survey of more than 800 video game professionals from North America and beyond who read Gamasutra, subscribe to Game Developer magazine, or attend Game Developers Conference. Those complete results are available as a 100-page report from Game Developer Research, and more information from the survey is also available in the February 2010 issue of Game Developer magazine.

The results of the comprehensive 55-question survey help to illustrate which platforms Western game creators develop for, which market sectors they work in, which tools they use and how much they spend on these tools, and sheds light on which factors determine the target platforms for game development.

As a reflection of recent economic difficulties and resulting layoffs, this year’s survey reveals that many experienced developers have founded smaller studios, or have begun developing games on their own.

This trend is marked by a 7 percent growth in the proportion of developers employed by companies of 50 employees or fewer, while in sharp contrast, the proportion of developers at companies of 500 or more employees has fallen by two percent since last year’s survey.

Continue reading "State Of Game Development Survey Reveals iPhone Support Surge, Wii Lull" »

Posted by Simon Carless at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Vince Noir: Welcome to the Mighty Decider!

Howard Moon: Where... you can decide things... as and when... you need to.

Noir: What is the Mighty Decider, Howard?

Moon: It's a... it's an incredible way of deciding about things.

Noir: Really.

Moon: Yeah.

Noir: It's a decision-maker?

Moon: Someone comes at you with a...nnn.... option.... You have a quick way of finding out... which one you... which way you want to go.

Noir: Really.

Moon: Mmm.

Brian "Doctor Popular" Roberts -- and I only know his actual, given name from an earlier GameSetWatch entry, incidentally -- flew out to LA late last year to meet with the men of The Mighty Boosh, where they recorded soundbytes for an upcoming iPhone app. Now, after several months of hard work, the game is finally ready for download.

Continue reading "Mighty Boosh For Your iPhone" »

Posted by Jennifer Frank at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

That zany Donald Kennedy (perhaps better known to the Internet as KodyKoala) has done it again.

Over at his custom toy blog, Donny writes that he has long played with the idea of having Mario characters "drive giant Mechs of themselves." And here is the first in Donny's planned series:

For his latest custom work, Donny bedazzled an ordinary Mario figure with rivets -- I love how the sideburns are ostensibly bolted on! -- before giving it a thick coat of metallic paint. What was formerly a Mario keychain is now perched high aloft at the control center, like some kind of homunculus doppelgaenger thing. Very nicely done.

I also recommend KodyKoala's earlier King Hippo custom, his version of Dr. Wily, and his paramountly frightening Mario action figure collection. And then -- this is only tangentially related to games, I guess, but it is inspired -- there's his Bubs' Concession Stand Soopa Coin Up custom.

[Via kodykoala.com]

Posted by Jennifer Frank at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

[Here's the final announcement before GDC on the Independent Games Festival, including multiple new things - hosts, audience award, and IGF Mobile category finalists, which will all be playable at GDC - fun times.]

2010 Independent Games Festival organizers have revealed the five IGF Mobile category finalists battling it out for Best Mobile Game at GDC, also debuting the IGF Audience award and revealing the hosts for this year's IGF Awards.

IGF Mobile Category Winners

After announcing finalists and honorable mentions late last month, the 2010 Independent Games Festival Mobile has named the category winners that will show their games at GDC and battle for the Best IGF Mobile Game prize.

After battling it out from a field of 170 top-notch entries, winners thus far include Secret Exit's physics-heavy Stair Dismount for iPhone, Powerhead Games' cunning color-based puzzle game Glow Artisan for DSi, and Tiger Style's acclaimed action game Spider for Apple's handheld.

The category winners for the 2010 IGF Mobile competition -- an event that celebrates excellence in games for the iPhone, other cellphone and smartphone OSes, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, and other handheld devices -- are:

Continue reading "2010 IGF Reveals Mobile Category Winners, Audience Voting, Award Hosts" »

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[NOTE FROM SIMON: It's guest editor time, since the stalwart Eric Caoili is out on vacay, and this is the first post from our designated awesome backup QB, for which... heck, read on, you'll work it out.]

So, your regularly scheduled GameSetWatch co-editor Eric is taking a deserved holiday -- vacationing in a tropical climate, we can only hope, perhaps with a little paper umbrella in his drink, maybe with a maraschino cherry skewered on the end of a tiny plastic sword.

This is probably not the case, but it's how we like to picture him. When we ourselves last went on a tropical vacation, we made the mistake of bringing our laptop along, and we ultimately wasted the whole holiday hunched over the Internet in a big, floppy sunhat.

No matter what exactly Eric Caoili is up to, however, Jenn Frank will be GameSetWatch's guest editor for the next two weeks, and beginning with this very post. And here she is now: blogging in a Chicago coffeehouse where they offer free WiFi with every coffee purchase.

You may remember her work from such exciting adventures as the Retronauts podcast (most recently Episode 68), some reviews, perhaps a few features at 1UP.com, a single piece at Wired.com, or for that time she snuck into a Sony party using Phil Fish's IGF trophy as collateral.

Nowadays, she mainly flits around on her own ill-advised and scarcely-updated blog, Infinite Lives, where she used to write about herself in the third person, much like this, until she finally surrendered to first.

Probably her credentials are none too reassuring, but all the same she'll do her very best to fill Mr. Caoili's shoes, updating you (and on schedule!) with interesting (we hope!) bits of relevant (perhaps?) video game pop culture.

Posted by Jennifer Frank at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

As we wander around the notable long-form pieces of writing elsewhere on the network, here's the top full-length features of the past week on big sister 'art and business of gaming' site Gamasutra, plus our GameCareerGuide features for the week.

Headed by an interview with the Dante's Inferno folks at EA, other big features this week include a discussion on 'truth in game design', a postmortem of Vicious Cycle's flippant XBLA title, a couple of fun Game Design Challenge articles - both results and a new challenge - and much more besides.

Find a way:

The Road To Hell: The Creative Direction of Dante's Inferno
"Jonathan Knight, creative director of Dante's Inferno, discusses the thinking behind the path he and his team took in choosing and adapting the classic poem for use in the Visceral Studios action game."

The Sensible Side of Immersion
"Neils Clark examines the intimate bond between psychology and play, and how games might tap into the recesses of the ancient human brain in order to reach new levels of immersion."

Jumpstarting Your Creativity
"Experienced sound designer Brad Meyer (DJ Hero) espouses a creative philosophy of taking a step back and making common sense decisions as the best method for reinvigorating that elusive creative spark once it's fled."

Truth in Game Design
"What does "truth in game design" mean? Microsoft Game Studios producer/designer Scott Brodie explores the nature and implications of how truth can be created and communicated in game design, via several case studies."

Postmortem: Vicious Cycle's Matt Hazard: Blood Bath and Beyond
"Eric Peterson, president and CEO of Vicious Cycle, recounts the ups and downs of making the PSN and XBLA parody video game Blood Bath and Beyond, and explains important lessons learned in the development of the studio's first downloadable game."

GCG: Game Design Challenge: A New Vision
"Our latest challenge asks readers to take a game that's ahead of its time and bring it into the present day -- keeping what was good and smoothing out the rough edges."

GCG: Maxims of Game Design
"Game educator Lewis Pulsipher delivers a list of useful maxims for game design -- simple rules to ponder that will help you on the road to creating a game your players will enjoy."

GCG: Results from Game Design Challenge: Free To Play
"Game Career Guide's readers tackled the growing free-to-play market in our latest game design challenge, and found creative solutions to monetize their original concepts."

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You may recall that we've run some stories about the awesome Gamma IV 'one button games' event that's having an open-to-all showcase evening in San Francisco, around the time of GDC 2010 next month (as well as having the selected games playable on-site, for those who have GDC passes).

Well, some very generous indies have stepped up to help sponsor a chunk of their offsite event, but they need just a little bit more help with event funding and other costs, so they've established a Kickstarter appeal to do just that. We'll turn it over to them for the details:

"Kokoromi here. We're an experimental art game collective based in Montreal; perhaps best known for our annual Gamma event. Since 2006 we've showcased all-new short-form video games created on a specific theme, at a one-night-only music and gaming party. Our format of challenges + limitations + showcase has yielded such games as Jason Rohrer's Passage and Paper Moon by Infinite Ammo with Adam Saltsman.

Continue reading "Gamma IV Sets Up Kickstarter Appeal To Finish Funding GDC Event" »

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)