['Game Mag Weaseling' is a weekly column by Kevin Gifford which documents the history of video game magazines, from their birth in the early '80s to the current day.]

Since I have about 100,000 words' worth of text to edit this weekend, I thought I would lay off from typing so much and instead just show off my magazine room for a bit.

      

The first two pics cover the dedicated video-game magazines, while the third pic covers the computer magazine section.

These pics were taken back in December, and the magazine collection has grown a fair bit since then, taking on large-scale collections of such illustrious tomes as EGM and Edge, and the end result of it is that the shelves have gotten a lot fuller and I need to reshelve and reorder everything again. Ah well. That, and the ferrets keep on pulling mags off the bottom shelves.

One special note I wanted to make is that Weekly Famitsu, the largest and most well-known console game magazine in Japan published its 20th-anniversary issue last week. The editorial team tends to treat their "birthday" issues pretty seriously, and this one was no exception -- it came with a booklet of all the major "cross reviews" (the review format that they invented in 1987 and EGM liberally borrowed a few years later) from their first era of publication, with further booklets due in later issues.

I am not so mad as to have a subscription to Famitsu these days (and, to be honest, my magazine-collecting budget is at an all-time low right now), but I thought I would commemorate this milestone with a shot of one of my favorite possessions -- issue one of Famicom Tsushin (Famitsu's progenitor), alongside the miniature edition they gave away with issue 800 a couple years back. (I also included a pic of the first issue of Gamest, another 80s game mag that concentrated primarily on arcade games. I'll get to that mag later.)

Like Nintendo Power up until a few issues ago, there is more that is the same with Famitsu between its inaugural and current issues than there is different. There's the worrying amount of strategy, the busy and constantly eye-catching visual design, and arguably the most "paid off" coverage in all of game mag-dom. You could argue that it's really not their fault, though -- since Japanese copyright law dictates that publishers have to get permission for pretty much everything they publish about a game from its creators, mags over there are pretty much forced to have extremely cozy relationships with game makers. (It's the same way with Newtype USA, actually. Since we're technically a Japanese magazine, we're required to get copyright permissions for every bit of visual art in every issue of the mag -- none of this "Oh, yeah, go ahead and take whatever screenshots you want" stuff. It certainly tests your organizational abilities.)

[Kevin Gifford breeds ferrets and runs Magweasel, a site for collectors and fans of old video-game and computer magazines. He owns enough magazines to smother himself with should the need arise, and his secret fantasy is for someone flush with game-publisher stock options to give him a monthly stipend so he can spend a year researching their full history and finishing the site. In his "off" time he is an editor at Newtype USA magazine.]

Posted by Kevin Gifford at 11:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So sure, it's not the 'video game' flavor of games, but Slashdot Games has an informative post on the U.S. Google Puzzle Championship, in which brain-based conundrums are the order of theday.

As is explained: "Registration is open until June 15 for the 2006 Google U.S. Puzzle Championship, to be held Saturday, June 17, 2006—it's 25 or so mind-bending pencil-and-paper puzzles that you have 2-1/2 very short hours to solve. The USPC is a qualifying test to choose 2 members for the U.S. team at the 2006 World Puzzle Championship to be held in Borovets, Bulgaria in October."

But wait - there's more! "For a mild taste of the puzzles try the 2006 Practice Test (as has been noted here in the past, if you can't get the Practice Test open you should probably give the real thing a pass!)." Nope, we couldn't get that far, so we're officially dumb. No spoilers in the comments, too (as if!)

Posted by Simon Carless at 9:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm sure all of you have been keeping up with Weird Al Yankovic's career, right? Right? Well, for reasons of RSS oversubscribage, GSW has, and it turns out he's released a new parody song, 'You're Pitiful', which apes James Blunt's ubiquitous 'You"re Beautiful' in, well... Al-like style!

The track (which fans think is being left off Al's upcoming album because somebody won't give permission!) starts off, after a good gag about the weird 'pre-vocal' intro : "My life is brilliant, Your life’s a joke, You’re just pathetic, You’re always broke... Your homemade Star Trek uniform really ain’t impressing me, You’re suffering from delusions of adequacy."

But wait, there's some GSW relevance here! Nearing the climax of the song, Al spits the following: "You're half-undressed, eating chips off your chest... while you're playing Halo 2, no one's classier than you." Bungie, what do you think of _that_, huh? Though the game did just reach 500 million online games played, so there are certainly plenty of pitiful, appropriately self-deprecating fans out there. Now, back to balancing the chips on our chest...

Posted by Simon Carless at 5:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We got news from the folks at Ziff Davis that: "The 1UP Show's summer season has officially begun as of 10 minutes ago" - this was last night, mind you, that's how breaking news we are. But you can go check out the summery-themed videocast yourself, and we're mainly posting this so we can quote the frankly hilarious PR email.

Apparently: "The Summer Break episodes begin with an original new tongue-in-cheek Beach Boys-esque theme song composed by co-producer Jane Pinckard, featuring 70s-retro-style freeze frames of the various 1UP Network staff teams leaping through a sunlit park in San Francisco." What follows is "summer travelogue and outdoor zaniness", apparently! [Also, we noticed that the guys from CGW are too sedentary to jump around quite so much in the intro pics!]

But kidding aside, here's the line-up for the new show, which still seems to be one of the most watchable online video game type things online, so there: " Liberty City Stories got ported from PSP to PS2 this week, and John and Greg explain to Joe why this is a good thing. Ryan's been obsessed with Half-Life 2: Episode 1... Patrick checks out PLAY!: A Videogame Symphony over in Chicago and gets to interview Nobuo Uematsu of Final Fantasy fame, Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka, and Bungie composer Marty O'Donnell...Jane tags along with Dana and Sharkey to check out an early build of Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom." Watch and learn!

Posted by Simon Carless at 1:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We like Jiji's Namako Team blog (so much, in fact, that he's starting a regular column at GSW on retro compilations soon!), and right now on it, he's released his regular OCD monthly update on D3 Publisher's Japanese weird-ass games.

Particularly interesting: "The only non-PS2 game in this update, the DS version of The Kanshikikan (or The Investigator) has been released to a warm reception. Developed by D3 stalwarts Tomcat System, the original game involves CSI-style forensic investigation in an adventure-game framework and was published as part of the Simple 2000 series, and this new version has added puzzles that use the stylus to good effect. This looks like a prime candidate for US release, either by D3 America themselves or somebody like Atlus, so let's hope somebody takes a chance on it. ITmedia and GAME Watch have previews."

But also of note: "The Earth Defense Force Tactics (out July 27) has been getting lots of attention lately. Rakuten posted screenshots and the cover art, the official site is up and ITmedia posted a preview. The strategy maps use an overhead 2D view, and the game resembles other hex-based military strategy games like Nectaris and Daisenryaku quite a bit." Amazing round-up, as per usual.

Posted by Simon Carless at 9:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you read GamersWithJobs over the past few months, you'd know that there was an excellent article series, 'The Retail Games', written by Elysium on his experiences as an EB Games manager. Well, now there's a follow-up piece named 'If You Can't Join 'Em, Beat 'Em'.

Elysium notes: "Since posting my original three-part series on The Retail Game, I have received voluminous correspondence in formats digital from people who were left with no shortage of comments and questions... Most common among the messages have been inquiries from would-be entrepreneurs who want to play David and Goliath against the established purveyors of video-gaming accoutrements if, in this particular case, David were an asthmatic, if plucky, gamer and Goliath were an angry, noxious planet hurtling at superluminal speeds toward that gamer."

However, he also comments: "So, you want to start a small video-game retail location, and you want some advice. * Don’t do it! – No kidding, if you have the start-up money, the time, the freedom, and the desire to start your own business, pick something better like independent tech-support or prostitution. The number of hurdles in your way when starting any new business, particularly if it’s your first attempt at entrepreneurship is staggering and unpredictable, but when you consider the multiplicity of additional difficulties involved in staring a gaming retail outlet, you’d be better off dumping your money into Amway or Quixtar." Hah, honest advice that's sassy too, we love it.

Posted by Simon Carless at 5:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lawrence Wright, aka NFGMan, has been enlivening the fan community for a few years now with his idiosyncratic stylings, and now he's gone and co-produced a book, named 'Character Design For Mobile Devices', which is available for pre-order from the various Amazons, and is published by neat design imprint Rotovision.

Wright comments: "The book focuses on sprites and character design, and portable game devices from the GameBoy to modern mobile phones. It's stuffed full of sprite histories, developer commentary and interviews, a history of mobile game platforms, some pixel tutorials and more exciting stuff besides." Oh, and we happen to know that GSW co-editor Brandon of IC fame helped wrangle a bunch of the content, if that helps your buying decision.

Some of the artists profiled are as follows: "There's an interview with Michael McWhertor, creator of Marios 64, and Sato Takayoshi who ported Sexy Parodius to the Sega Saturn. Army of Trolls, eboy, Jan Halfar, and Chris Hildenbrand - who creates graphics for over 20 games a year - are also featured."

Also, for developers: "Glu Mobile, Jadestone, Game Loft, Capybara and Blue Label Games graciously contributed images, stories, anecdotes and fascinating info about their development methods. The book is jammed with images from their cutting edge games, as well as past releases and several secret looks at unannounced and unreleased titles." Fun!

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So we made it back alive from the Game Advertising Summit, and have posted a couple of extra write-ups over at sister site Gamasutra, but here's some random highlights that we're far too tired to write up properly, but you might dig.

- If you ever get a chance to see EA Chicago's Kudo Tsunoda talk, do it! He's a hilarious natural public speaker, and his riffing on how EA got 'The King' from Burger King into Fight Night Round 3 (complete with disparaging comments about hardcore gamer forum weenies who, in his mind, whine overly about the product placement) was pretty darn hilarious. He also mentioned that EA Chicago is working on a next-gen version of the Def Jam wrestling games in which there's lots of licensed clothes and bling, and you can get virtual clothing in-game, and then click a button to order those same exact clothes in real life - whoa.

- Nielsen VP Emily Della Maggiora had some really interesting new stats she's researched on in-game ads per platform - in particular, when asked if they felt games were more realistic with real ads placed in them, 29.7% of Xbox 360 owners strongly agreed, vs. just 14.3% of PS2 owners and just 11.4% of PC owners. Even more so, an insane 50% of Xbox 360 owners said that real ads make them more interested in the game, versus just 29.9% for Xbox and less than that for PS2. This may be down to the amount of hardcore gamers and/or the amount of suitable sports and racing titles on X360 right now, of course, but it's still impressive in showing acceptance for _relevant_ in-game product placement/ads.

- The publishing panel that I moderated (featuring Activision, THQ, and Midway reps) was enlivened by the last-minute addition of Julie Shumaker, EA's in-game ad czar, who had some interesting comments on the current well-integrated 'static' product placement in games. If you go with static ads that are woven into the game, this tends to work much better in terms of authenticity, but of course, you don't know how many copies the game is going to sell when you sign the contract.

Shumaker noted that all EA's product placement deals have minimum shipment amounts, and they've only failed to reach those once in 5 years, but also noted that the minimum ship for last year's Need For Speed was stipulated at 3 million units across all SKUs, but the game actually shipped 11 million - great for the advertisers, but hardly the best financial deal for EA, since they're giving away all those extra eyeballs for 'free'. Woops.

Posted by Simon Carless at 7:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

For those wondering why updates will be a little bit slow today, that's because we're at the GDC Focus On Game Advertising Conference in San Francisco (both reporting on for Gamasutra, and moderating a panel), thus... you won't see so many wacky NES garage sales posts!

Nonetheless, the Microsoft keynote, as covered on Gamasutra, is actually pretty neat - Microsoft's Kevin Browne commented that the company's wholly owned Massive Inc. subsidiary is "reaching out to Sony and reaching out to Nintendo" to help get a standard for in-game ads, and commented that completely different ad serving technology would simply not work, he believed: "We're going to hold ourselves back."

So, in other words, Microsoft wants to set the standard, which could be a big deal for making in-game ads more prevalent (and relevant). Oh, and in other news, Frank is at the Sex In Games Conference, so were he to post, it'd probably be much more 'perky'. But also NSFW, so there! More later..

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Posted by at 9:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Parentally informed website GamerDad has just posted an interview with Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software, quizzing the Exile, Geneforge and Avernum creator on being a parent and developer.

When asked: How has being a father changed the dynamics of your company, and the personal dynamics of being a gamer and a game developer?", Vogel interestingly comments: "I only started to play Everquest really serious after my first daughter was born. I don't know. I guess I needed a fantasy world to escape into. I stayed awake late at night, so I could look after her if she woke up while my wife slept. Everquest helped fill up those hours."

In addition, when the question is posed: "Is your older daughter a gamer yet? If so, what do you have her playing?", Vogel commets: "She is four, and she's starting to get into the game thing. Her favorite game is Animal Crossing for the Nintendo. Though I tend to think of it as less a game than a "game"."

[Actually, slightly dry interview notwithstanding, it's good to see parents quizzed on how they merge being a gamer or game developer with birthing small versions of themselves.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 5:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The game collecting community is apparently buzzing thanks to a new eBay auction, only a small fraction of an insane array of Nintendo rarities unearthed at a garage sale in New York State.

Excuse us for not retyping the all-caps, but here's the explanation from the seller: "ON A TRIP TO THE HAMPTONS THIS WEEKEND I STOPPED AT A GARAGE SALE. AS I WALKED UP TO THE HOUSE I NOTICED A BIG PILE OF SUPER NINTENDO/NINTENDO GAMES. AFTER SELLING ME AROUND 100 GAMES FOR $40."

"THE SELLER TOLD ME HE WORKED AT NINTENDO FOR 10 YEARS AND PART OF HIS JOB WAS TO GO AROUND TO THESE NINTENDO COMPETITIONS. HE SOLD ME ALL TYPES OF GAMES THAT HE SAID WERE PROTOTYPES(INCLUDING 5 COPIES OF THE STARFOX COMPETITION GAME." A serious find!

So basically, the seller has now uploaded pictures of his haul, and it includes insane rarities such as the Nintendo Campus Challenge NES cart (only copy ever found!), the second ever (?) English language prototype of NES Earthbound, a Zelda 3 SNES proto, a work in progress version of NES Tetris, and a whole heap of other goodness. Co-editor FrankC of Lost Levels can describe it better, but suffice to say that the collecting world is rather hyped about it.

[UPDATE: a newly listed eBay auction by the same seller has his full haul detailed (yes, caps lock alert again!): "(5) SUPER NINTENDO STARFOX SUPER WEEKEND TAPES--THE ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE 1992 NINTENDO CAMPUS CHALLENGE GAME PAK WITH THE GAMES SUPER MARIO 3, PINBOT, AND DR. MARIO, THE 2ND KNOWN REAL COPY OF NINTENDO EARTHBOUND, THE 2ND KNOWN SUPER NINTENDO NTSC PROTO OF ZELDA 3, (2) SUPER NINTENDO PROTO'S TRUE GOLF CLASSICS PEBBLE BEACH, (1) NINTENDO BASEBALL STARS 2 (1) GREMLINS 2 (BOTH PROTO'S), (1) NINTENDO TETRIS PROTO IN A MIKE TYSON PUNCHOUT, (1) KEN GRIFFEY PRESENTS MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL DEMO GAME, (7) NINTENDO EMPLOYEE LIBRARY GAMES (INCLUDING ZELDA 3) AND ABOUT 60 VARIOUS NOT AS IMPORTANT SNES/NES GAMES."]

Posted by Simon Carless at 4:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Over at New England paper In Newsweekly, Alexander Sliwinski has put out an in-depth article on what the paper describes as "the first study ever of GLBT gamers or 'gaymers'", from the University of Illinois and activated this week at Gaymersurvey.org.

Sliwinski notes: "The survey is long at 91 questions and takes approximately 30 - 45 minutes to complete. The questions are mostly multiple choice, covering a variety of topics from general gaming habits, sexual identity, online gaming to recent purchases. An initial concern of those within the industry who received advanced copies of the survey was regarding its length."

But overall: "Paul S. Kollist of the "Fraggots Clan," one of the few GLBT first person shooter clans that exist said that he really enjoyed reading over the advanced copy and that his straight friend who looked it over thought it was excellent as well." There's also actually a detailed article on GLBT guilds and clans, including Kollist's clan, as part of an extended gaming section at In Newsweekly.

Posted by Simon Carless at 1:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We haven't linked to fun shooter-related indie blog The2Bears for a while, and now they've come up with a freeware indie game creator to watch, Sweden's very pseudonymous 'DrPetter'.

The2Bears folks are particularly singling out 7th Swarming Of The Machines, done for the recent Ludum Dare competition, commenting: "It’s a nice little shooter of sorts. All you need to worry about is left and right, thrust and fire. And not getting crushed between platforms."

But they also note: "I've become a fan of DrPetter and his games. There's Shmester 5000 [and] POC06." We particularly like the look of Shmester 5000, which "...has an interesting power-up system. Catch and collect orbs, which will act as shields for you (they’re able to absorb 1 or 2 hits based on colour). Or, convert your orbs into a weapons upgrade, 4 orbs per upgrade. You can even go down a notch, gaining 4 orbs again. Cool, very cool."

Posted by Simon Carless at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So, as Joystiq points out, all kinds of game journalists got their DS Lite consoles from Nintendo today, complete with a 'booby-trapped' box that plays a cute little audio fanfare when opened - see the attached movie on the page. [And thanks for the cute pic caption!]

Well, over at the tragic world that is Chris Kohler's Game|Life at Wired News, he also got a package from Nintendo, but, well - just play the movie and see what happened with his. Poor guy.

[We'd like to take this opportunity to note that the extended pause for the fanfare to stop, followed by 'God-DAMMIT', is one of the funniest things we've heard this week. Though we do know teh Kohler, and he's not generally very sweary, so maybe that's why we're amused. Also, Nintendo and swearing - just say no!]

Posted by Simon Carless at 8:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So, in the world of ARGs (alternate reality games - keep up, class!), EDOC Laundry is one of the most innovative and oddest, revolving, as it does, entirely around items of clothing that you buy which have clues embedded in them.

The Wired Magazine article introducing the concept last year explained: "This is the first time that apparel has been used to disseminate clues in an ARG; the games usually rely upon hidden messages in TV shows, movies, Web sites, faxes, emails, or IMs. “Fashion as the story delivery mechanism got me really excited” explains designer Elan Lee, who was also behind I Love Bees, the award winning ARG used to virally market Halo 2. As players decode the messages in Edoc Laundry garments, an alternate world unfolds. Poor Richard, the band fabricated to provide the plot for the game, lost its manager."

Now, ARGN has a fresh update on the ARG, explaining: "Anticipated for months, the EDOC Laundry game rushed to the stage to belt out its ARG rock this week with a preview of the next season of clothing, two new websites, and more mystery swirling around its characters. Also new to EDOC Laundry is the unveiling of their eStore, where customers can purchase clothing online directly from EDOC." There also a fan Wiki if you want to explore further - intriguing stuff.

Posted by Simon Carless at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over at Shacknews, Chris Remo has an excellent interview with Valve's Robin Walker and Gabe Newell on Half-Life 2 Episode 1, episodic content, and Doritos. Ok, we lied about the Doritos.

Remo notes of the episodic content: "Having only just released its first piece of episodic content, this type of game creation is still new to Valve. However, the company is fully committed to the method. "We are definitely doing this instead of Half-Life 3 right now," said Valve's Robin Walker." Swines! Do both! But they're right, as Walker notes: "There's a lot of depressing evidence out there indicating that not very many players are finishing out games. As a creator, you want people to see all the cool stuff you've made."

The piece ends on an interesting point: "Early reports indicate that Episode One is doing nicely in retail, not just online; Valve announced today that the retail version of Half-Life 2: Episode One debuted at #1 on the European retail PC sales charts upon its release."

Sure, that's because it's Half-Life 2, but if you can sell episodic/digital content at retail as _well_, then won't the eventual transition be smoothed over a whole lot better for all game companies?

Posted by Simon Carless at 4:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over at the mercurial 1UP, Jeremy Parish has a fun post on games that use the infamous Konami code for the NES, outlining the shared cheat method for some rather classic titles.

Parish notes: "Kazuhisa Hashimoto, the man who crafted many of Konami's NES home conversions, was a kind-hearted saint. Well, no, basically he was as weaksauce as the rest of us. Whatever; he was nice enough to add a debug code to some insanely difficult games so that he could actually finish them, and no one bothered to remove the code before the game shipped. And because we're all mere mortals, once we learned the code we abused it."

After going through games like Gradius, Contra, and Life Force, Parish also steps in to point out that Gradius III on the SNES brought the code back, albeit in tricksy fashion, and Harmony of Dissonance on GBA continues the tradition ("This is a game where the best magic spell causes your hero to be supported by a shield straight from Gradius, featuring arcade-accurate sound effects. So, yeah, it's little surprise that this is where the Konami Code made its Castlevania debut, allowing you to play as Simon Belmont in Boss Rush mode.") This is the kind of rich geek tapestry that only a toasty frog can weave, y'know?

Posted by Simon Carless at 1:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Selectparks blogger Chris Dodds mails over to links to his special questionnaire on MMO surveillance, which "is being used to garner experiences and opinions of game administrators (and other players) monitoring game play", in games from Second Life to World Of WarCraft and beyond.

The intro explains: "Many players are unaware of surveillance being conducted by game administrators, often justified as a means to enhance game play and control cheating. Players within some MMOs are also tracking and recording other player’s movements, and conversely, creating methods to protect the privacy of their own digital personas. The rise of surveillance (and counter-surveillance) techniques and technologies within these virtual worlds is an extension of the pervasive monitoring of individuals in real-world environments. Many real-world technologies (such as bugging, video recording and location tracking) are being reproduced in virtual worlds and can be classified as a form simulated surveillance."

Before you get too scared, the three parts to the issue are: "Parents monitoring their children’s computer play... Game administrators monitoring players... Players monitoring each other." If you're convinced that the CIA is communicating to you through your virtual teeth, or if you're not, you'd better go take the survey now, eh?

Posted by Simon Carless at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

['Game Ads A-Go-Go' is a bi-weekly column by Vintage Computing and Gaming's RedWolf that showcases good, bad, strange, funny, and interesting classic video game-related advertisements, most of which are taken from his massive classic game magazine collection.]

Welcome back, friends. In all my...two months of game ad punditry research, I've discovered that blatantly taking things out of context is a time-honored comedy tactic that rarely fails. So, in the interest of entertainment, I have assembled some of the best out-of-context illustrated game ad faces in the universe and turned them into a little quiz. On each question, you will be presented with a number of choices, only one of which is the correct answer. After you've thought hard and written down your answer (no cheating!), you can view the correct answer by clicking on each link below the question. Doing so will reveal the full ad and put the faces in context. Then see how you stack up against your friends. Good luck!

Question #1

Look at the picture above. Is this man:

a. Fighting a demonic gladiator summoned from Hell
b. Begging for mercy from his abusive mother
c. About to be dissected in an alien prison
d. Stuck behind the answer board on Jeopardy
e. A really bad volleyball player

Click here for the answer.

Question #2

Look at the picture above. Is this man:

a. Being tackled by a policeman at an outdoor rock concert
b. Having a colonoscopy
c. Badly piloting a jet pack
d. Sticking his head out of a train window
e. Both b. and d.

Click here for the answer.

Question #3

Look at the picture above. Is this man:

a. Narrowly dodging plasma blasts
b. Taking part in a live action Pac-Man reenactment
c. Playing tennis
d. Eating a really fast hamburger
e. Really a woman

Click here for the answer.

Question #4

Look at the picture above. Is this man:

a. All of the below
b. A midget
c. A bodybuilder
d. A pissed-off vigilante with a thirst for alien blood
e. Secretly measuring his penis

Click here for the answer.

Bonus Question (Extra Credit)

Look at the picture above. Is this man (to the left):

a. A king among men, ready to lead a brave band of adventurers to victory
b. A sport spectator with a gay-looking hat
c. Richard Garriott making a cameo in a tennis game ad
d. All of the above

Click here for the answer (look carefully).

Making the Grade

So, how well did you do? Tally up your score (one point for each correct answer), add seven to that, then divide it by two. The resulting number you get will be completely meaningless, but you can post it on your refrigerator and feel proud. Heck, I'm proud of ya -- but I'm your mom, so I guess it doesn't count.

Well, that's all for now. Until next time, this is the RedWolfster saying, "Eat your prayers, say your vegetables, and don't forget to punch your uncle in the kneecap."

[RedWolf is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Vintage Computing and Gaming, a regularly updated "blogazine" that covers collecting, playing, and hacking vintage computing and gaming devices. He has been collecting vintage computers and game systems for over 13 years. He is also a very silly person.]

Posted by Benj Edwards at 8:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Over at shmup blog Shoot The Core, they've linked so some awesome-looking pictures from a Japanese-sourced Ikaruga manga which we had no idea existed.

Webmaster Posty simply comments: "Courtesy of the Shmups.com forum, here are some pics of the Ikaruga manga, created by cantHUE. These look absolutely beautiful, and unfortunately I know very little about them, since they are extremely difficult to acquire outside of Japan. If anyone can get their hands on some copies, shoot me an email!"

There's also a link to the cantHUE website from whence the manga originated - these are unofficial, right? Japanese speakers can intercede here! Also... can anyone else recommend any video game-related manga with particularly fine art? I think someone said the Kingdom Hearts official manga was on the fetching side, from memory.

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Over at Kotaku, they have a neat post summing up a series of articles on getting pregnant in Second Life, as originally published in multiple parts in the alt.newspaper the SF Weekly.

This leads into an extended comment on the extended Snowcrashism of SL by Kotaku's Eliza Gauger: "I find myself more and more intrigued by the aspect of futurism in the various articles I read about Second Life. Remember back in the days of Shadowrun and Snowcrash, we all thought the internet was going to be a totally immersive, avatar-based, 3D virtual reality experience? I was baffled during the nineties because we seemed to have been completely wrong. The internet was just a big BBS with no user limit and onscreen graphics."

She continues: "So I realized a few days ago that with the advent of widespread MMORPGs, we're finally getting the immersive, graphical internet we always dreamed of. We just took a roundabout route to get there."

[Oh, and another SL-related follow-up - Daniel 'Puzzle Pirates!' James has updated his weblog with a long, v. interesting discussion on the earlier Second Life server-related story in which he was quoted, noting: "Second Life has been built and operated more like a religion than a consumer-oriented business. I like to joke that Philip went up the mountain and came down with stone tablets describing how to build ‘The Metaverse’. Indeed, when I’ve seen him speak, he likes to refer to these immutable laws... My problem is that I think that most of these beliefs are basically wrong, or at least, not necessarily the case for a successful player-created world. Moreover, I think that they have absolutely nothing to do with what the player wants to experience in what is most definitely an entertainment product." Interesting!]

Posted by Simon Carless at 3:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The wacky japesters at Vintage Computing have returned to previously profiled Mario modder DahrkDaiz, and are now wandering through his early back catalog of weird and wonderful hacks.

The game they profile this time (albeit an unfinished hack!) is Mario Seasons, "...a colorful, impressive overhaul of the original Super Mario Bros. for the NES. Notable changes to Super Mario Bros. in this hack include a new power-up, new levels, a new enemy (”Dry Bones” from SMB3, which even comes back to life when you stomp him), completely new graphics (most of which were taken from Super Mario Bros. 3), “slightly different physics” (according to DahrkDaiz), and the ability to save your stage progress between games."

Writer RedWolf notes: "DahrkDaiz did such a good job with the graphics and animations that it’s often hard to remember that you’re not playing a Super Mario Bros. 3-based hack (Try to remember that you can’t pick up a stomped Koopa in this game like in SMB3!)." Mm, we wonder if mashing-up Mario makes Miyamoto mad?

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Something we wanted to remind everyone, cos it's another 'sister site' thing - we just posted another audio lecture from a previous Game Developers Conference (2002, in this case!) on the official GDCRadio.net website, which now has weekly game development-related podcasts - every week!

The latest free audio lecture is from Ion Storm's then-Project Director Randy Smith discussing stealth gameplay fundamentals in the Thief series, in a talk titled 'GDC Radio: Design Fundamentals of Stealth Gameplay in the Thief Series' - some neat design concepts on sneakin' around. In addition, previous lectures have included a very neat GDC 2006 talk on community in Spore from Maxis' Caryl Shaw. [You can also pay to grab other specific lectures from the pretty darn comprehensive archives.]

The 'GDC Radio' archived podcasts from previous Game Developers Conferences are on alternate weeks, and then you'll see the Gamasutra podcasts on the other weeks - consisting of panels moderated by Fat Pixels Radio's Tom Kim, these are turning out awesome so far, and the upcoming Next-Generation Development one (hopefully debuting next Tuesday!) should be particularly good. Here's the podcast feed URL for all of the GDCRadio podcasts, if anyone hasn't signed up yet.

Posted by Simon Carless at 9:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Having just given away some fun Death Jr. swag, we're continuing on the marvellously random competition front, and this time, we're giving away a crazed pink handheld with a whole bunch of built-in retro-styled games - the VG Pocket 50-game edition!

As you can see from the official website, the VGPocket series works as both a handheld with 2-inch color TFT screen, and (when plugged into a TV!) as a 'TV game', runs on included batteries, and includes a whole bunch of custom-created NES/SNES-style 2D games, with titles as varied as 'Street Racing' (looks a bit like Spy Hunter), 'Table Ball' (looks a bit like Shufflepuck Cafe), Pool Pro (hey, it's pool!), and, uhh, 'Pop The Lop'. Whatever the hell that is. Oh, and 'Road Works', which is a bit Pipemania-y!

So, thanks to the VGPocket guys, we can give away one Retro Classic version of the VGPocket handheld, if you can answer the following multiple-choice, and not terribly difficult question relating to another handheld with 'Pocket' in the title:

"What year was the Game Boy Pocket released In?
a) 1991 b) 1996 c) 2001"

Please send your answers to editors@gamesetwatch.com any time before Tuesday, June 14th at 12 noon PST. There will be only one winner randomly picked from the correct answers, the judges' decision is final, and that's that. Have fun!

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

That wacky new VH1 Game Break site has pointed to something quite neat - Nokia is now offering both playable demos and digital downloads of full N-Gage games, apparently as a precursor to the next-gen N-Gage platform, which will be almost entirely Xbox Live Marketplace stylee, from what we can divine.

Game Break notes: "You can play everything from “Mile High Pinball,” one of last year’s best games, to “Pathway to Glory,” which has great multiplayer capabilities." Actually, we didn't like Mile High Pinball that much, but a bunch of N-Gage titles, particularly those released later in its lifespan, are seriously good fun - the official site has a full list of downloads.

Actually, we've previously discussed other people's surprising love for the software available on the console (even if the hardware is still horrid as both a phone and a handheld) - we quote: "Some key highlights of the N-Gage library (which is what...53 games strong right now?) are: Pathway to Glory and Pathway to Glory Ikusa Islands (86% and 78% on Gamerankings),High Seize (87% on Gamerankings), Glimmerati (87% on Gamerankings), Pocket Kingdom (70.1% on Gamerankings), Civilization (74% on Gamerankings), Rifts (83% on Gamerankings), Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (86% on Gamerankings) and soon Warhammer 40,000: Glory in Death."

Posted by Simon Carless at 3:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by bsheffield at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MMO enfant terrible Scott 'Lum The Craaaazy' Jennings has posted a fun entry on Second Life's server demands, for which he cites a CNET News article on the issue by Daniel Terdiman.

It's revealed, somewhat amazingly: "Second Life” currently runs on 2,579 servers that use the dual-core Opteron chip produced by AMD. Each server is responsible for an individual “sim,” or 16 acres of virtual “Second Life” land. At peak usage that means that each server is handling about three users."

Lum notes of this: "Philip Rosedale, Linden’s CEO, responded that their architecture was similar to Google, so no worries. Not mentioned: Google has slightly more concurrent users than Second Life, and probably serves more than, uh, three users per server. A more tenable response is that SL actually sells server space; owning “land” in SL can run a user up to $200 a month, which is in line with many rack-mounted server solutions for other web applications."

But nonetheless, as he says... "When thought of as a game server, it makes my wee head explode into goo." Gooooo!

Posted by Simon Carless at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A lot of people are linking to this, but we might as well join the band of merry adventurers - The Escapist's new article 'Secret Sauce: The Rise Of Blizzard' is indeed, pretty fun to page through.

The intro notes: "In 1991, videogame industry leader Sierra launched the Sierra Network (later called the ImagiNation Network). It was geared more-or-less toward children, with cartoon-ish art and themes, but it allowed users to play a variety of games and chat with friends in online chat rooms - all for an hourly fee, of course. It was, in every way, ahead of its time."

But, it continues: "The Sierra Network, not surprisingly, failed and was shut down in 1996 by AOL, who had acquired it from AT&T. Ironically, this was not too long after the internet had become both widely understood and easy-to-use, and right around the same time that several other online gaming services had begun to flourish. Among them, an exciting new service offered by a company called Blizzard." Learn more about Blizzard's sprouting into a very tall tree via the link.

Posted by Simon Carless at 7:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

We got a press release, and now we communicate it to you: "OverClocked ReMix (www.ocremix.org), a non-profit site dedicated to fan arrangements of game music, and its official podcast VGDJ (www.vgdj.net) recently attended Video Games Live in Philadelphia.

While there, they obtained exclusive interviews with several professional game music composers and musicians: Tommy Tallarico, Michael Salvatori (Halo), Gerard Marino (God of War), Jack Wall (Myst 3/4, Jade Empire), Marcus Henderson (Guitar Hero I & II), Martin Leung (videogamepianist.com), and more.

The 87-minute long episode, which includes news about projects like Guitar Hero II, God of War 2, and an upcoming album of arranged music from Tallarico's Earthworm Jim games, can be downloaded at the VGDJ site.

[Personally, we have a slight preference for the VGMix guys when it comes to video game remix sites, but since VGMix always seems to be down for horrid reasons - though "VGMIX 3 WILL HAVE A PHYSICS PROCESSOR", according to Rushjet1 on the VGMix forums, we'll have to give it to OCRemix, who have an, uhh, working site n stuff!]

Posted by Simon Carless at 4:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

We _believe_ that UK Resistance may have run this at some point in the distant past, but the scarily intense ASSEMbler over at ASSEMbler Games has posted one of the fruits of his attendance at the Acclaim bankruptcy auction a few months back - the cancelled intro for the Acclaim version of street racer Juiced.

As the thread notes: "Features: Mediocre rappers, Lame CG effects, Some of the worst blue screening ever, Sparkling lyrics such as "T*ts up foot down pedal to the floor".... This video is sure to leave you feeling warm and fuzzy all over." Still, it's a bit of grime, innit?

ASSEMbler has also posted (complete with annoying watermarking, etc), a video of the Acclaim version of Combat Elite, eventually released with significantly different gameplay, as we recall: " It has a lot of rough parts where you can see work in progress, like the programmer voiceovers, the soldier is name "Steve God of Hairdos."" And it's all about the boss barnet, right?

Posted by Simon Carless at 1:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Originally spotted via the revitalized Indygamer, which has several mini-reviews of the games featured there-in, the One Room One Weekend Competition #4 [mirror, the original thread got accidentally deleted!] just finished.

There's a ZIP with all 10 entries in it, all created with Adventure Game Studio, the excellent graphic adventure creator - there's a follow-up thread on the forums about the competition, which is another example of the grassroots support for indie graphic adventures still showing potency.

The overall winner was The Heist, which Indygamer reviews, explaining: "Featuring animated 3D graphics and several action sequences, your objective is to break into a mansion and steal some valuables before making a quick escape. Items can be bought with the money stolen from unsuspecting park visitors. Multiple solutions exist, and different cutscenes are shown depending on your approach to solving each puzzle." Sounds neat for just a week!

Posted by Simon Carless at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another GSW sister site, Serious Games Source, has news on what may be the video game-related hoax of the year - the appearance as the the UK-based International Serious Games conference of alleged McDonald’s representative Andrew Shimery-Wolf.

The executive, who was apparently from McDonald's Interactive, a hitherto unknown division of the fast food giant, lectured to a presumably confused audience on "McChange: Serious Games from Training to Corporate Social Responsibility", and apparently announced that it "is striking out on its own from parent company McDonald's." "We can no longer stand by while McDonald's corporate policies help lead the planet to ruin," said Andrew Shimery-Wolf, co-director of the former Interactive Division.

The full text of the speech and related press statement makes the amusement clear - "We began developing a simulation of the fast-food industry, for use by managers in developing market strategies." said Division CTO Sam Grossman. "When we added a climate simulation module, it showed those strategies helping lead to global calamity... Management doesn't seem to care, and we can't sit back and fiddle while Rome burns, so our team has decided to break away from McDonald's and do something about it."

Who's behind it? The SGS report notes: "As for the culprits, an update at serious games weblog Water Cooler Games indicates that an email response to a McDonald's Interactive press request came back as: 'Sent by: admin@rtmark.com', linking the stunt to the social activism group RTMark, which has previously "swapped the electronics of talking Barbie and GI Joe toys and then returned them to the store... and then issued a message as the 'Barbie Liberation Organization'", among other stunts." Oops, I bet the organizers of the event wish they'd vetted their applicants a bit better.

Posted by Simon Carless at 8:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The rather interesting looking Warhammer Online, by Mythic Entertainment, is slated for release in 2007 - after a whole separate Climax-developed MMO ground to a halt earlier this decade. Meanwhile, Mythic's website plays host to a cornucopia of video blogs by Design Manager Paul Barnett, which feature behind-the-scenes looks at Paul's time at E3, as well as his time spent at Mythic headquarters.

Along with an irreverent look at the team's office conditions, including the current state of their action figures, who is plotting the demise of whom, and why employees are allowed to walk around in space helmets, the blogs offer sneak-peeks at some of WAR's concept art, in-game mechanics, and character design. Some previously unreleased information can be gleaned about the upcoming game, and it's presented by a charming, sleepy Brit, which is how I would prefer to obtain all my news.

Posted by chasem at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So, we generally don't link to stories on sister site Gamasutra because we presume that you're reading them already (you are, right?), but this one is particularly GSW-ish, so worth checking out - an interview with Earthworm Jim creator Doug TenNapel (also notable for The Neverhood and current Nickelodeon animated series Catscratch) about "what game developers look for in an artist, transitioning between mediums, and why your fans don't necessarily know best."

TenNapel is particularly fascinating on why he thinks game companies don't always hire the right people: "I do think that the gaming industry is too immature to understand what classic artistry even is, because the ones I keep seeing them hire are just the wrong kind of people. Like for instance, if a guy maybe renders with his pencil really well, puts good shading on a creature, but his anatomy is completely wrong…they hire him because he tricked them with his cool detail, even though the foundation of his drawing is weak."

He also discusses what the Earthworm Jim PSP title currently in development (even after controversy) at a Dave Perry-less Shiny Entertainment may be like, commenting: "The team is made up of Shiny employees, the ones that are still around... Dave Perry is no longer with Shiny, and neither is the original Earthworm Jim game, except for some of my own sketches... We kind of wanted one direction and, while I love the team, they're good guys and everything, but no offense to them - it would dishonor the original team to say that these guys are going to throw down an authoritative Earthworm Jim." Well, we hope it turns out nice anyhow, Jim deserves it!

Posted by Simon Carless at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Kevin Gifford's recent article on the state of U.S. game mags has elicited _lots_ of commentary, both in the post itself and elsewhere online, and poking around in the Slashdot thread on the post, we found a very neat comment by Backbone Entertainment's Chris Charla, formerly EIC of Next Gen magazine, about the game magazine industry.

Charla is great at explaining the difference between the U.S. and UK game markets, by way of rebutting complaints about the amount of ads in game magazines: "In the US, magazine distribution is really inefficient -- there are hundreds of thousands of places to buy magazines, and to reach the realtively small number of people interested in a nich publication (games, fishing, knitting, etc), you need to print way more copies than you can possibly sell. Selling through 20 or 22% of your newstand copies is considered good, and hitting 30% or higher is fantastic. That means you're wasting the cost of 70% of your newstand distribution, which is a lot. At best, your newsstand sales might break even."

He also explains: "Then you have subscriptions. The $12.99 or $19.99 you pay for a year of a magazine doesn't come close to paying for the printing and shipping. It's a total loss leader. What it does, however, is ensure a certain level of readership for the magazine (vs. the uncertainty of newstand/retail sales). This number of readers -- the guarenteed circulation -- can then be shown to potential advertisers, along the lines of "hey, look, a quarter-million people subscribe to this magazine! Our research shows they each spend $600 a year on software! You should advertise, because this is your core audience." And then (hopefully) you sell some ads. Advertising is the *only* place a typical US magazine makes any money at all."

He concludes: "That all said, magazines are a fanastic bargain, and given that the ads are really very targeted, I don't mind seeing them in games mags, the same way I enjoy looking at the ads in car mags or other technology magazines." Do you feel likewise?

Posted by Simon Carless at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Over at the Excess Gaming website, they've got a pretty amazing collection of Sega logo anims from Genesis titles - all painstakingly captured into animated GIF form, presumably by running an emulator over the original ROMs.

Interestingly, the above linked page is just 'Vol.3' of a gigantic set all housed in the Special Sega Projects section, and some of our favorite anims include the obvious (yay, Earthworm Jim 2), the extremely obvious (Vectorman, and the crazed (uhh, a death metal zipper for Devilish?)

Also, the other 'Special Projects' stuff is pretty amazing - for example, all the fatalities from UMK3 on the Genesis, heh, and lots more besides. It's good to have bizarrely complete sites like this!

Posted by Simon Carless at 8:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

['Parallax Memories' is a regular weekly column by Matthew Williamson, profiling classic '16-bit' games from the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, and other seminal '90s systems. This week's column profiles Novotrade International's underwater adventure: Ecco the Dolphin]

Tide of adventure

One of the most important and difficult things for a game to accomplish is the atmosphere. From the newest sci-fi FPS to the earliest 8-bit platformers, they worry about sound, lighting, and color to immerse the player into their worlds. One of the key elements in this equation of atmosphere is audio, not only the sound effects from your actions, but also (and sometimes more importantly) the music.

One of the major problems with 16-bit and pre-16-bit games is that the music was entirely synthesized interpretations of real instruments. This style bores many people who don't enjoy chiptune music beyond humming the underworld theme of Super Mario Brothers (though this is not always the case). There is an artificial wall between the players and the game that prevents them from full immersion. If nothing else, the use of compact-disc media started tearing down this wall with Red Book audio. Novotrade International knew this and jumped on the opportunity to create one of the most immersive and atmospheric games of the 16-bit era.

A sea of discovery

Ecco the Dolphin has been released many times on different platforms and is a fairly well-known game. I hope everyone can understand if I skimp on the details for this game under the assumption of familiarity. Besides, all you need to know about the game is on the cover. But more importantly, it's a game about loneliness. The game's atmosphere and plot details emphasize this theme, but its story elements are introduced gently enough that they never detract from the real star of the game--not the dolphin, but the dark, claustrophobic arena of the ocean depths.

Mood plays an incredibly significant role in the game, and so you must take music into great consideration when choosing which version to play. Obviously, this is where the Sega CD comes in. By placing special emphasis on the sound of the game for the CD version, Tassonyi Kadocsa created the quintessential version of Ecco. Spencer Nilsen produced the music for the CD version, and while some fan cliques accuse him of butchering the US version of Sonic CD, he created quite a masterful soundtrack to accompany Ecco's dark and desolate ocean setting.

Deep sea diving

It's quite a task to reproduce a pelagic setting in a game. The few earlier attempts failed, and most platforming games up before then had terrible underwater control, so it is a singular feat that the game moves so freely and smoothly. It captures the flow and elegance of fish through a glass tank, at an aquarium, or in a zoo. Navigating gracefully around the ocean floor and through the countless coral catacombs is just the start of the game. The backgrounds become darker and darker as you swim further and further underwater. You begin to run out of oxygen, and you are constantly harassed by enemies and obstacles while you attempt to reach each tiny pocket of air. The game keeps Ecco further and further from the surface until you are forbidden from returning there.

If the atmosphere and immersion of the CD version is not a good enough reason to track it down, its playability should be. The exceptionally frustrating difficulty of the Genesis/Mega Drive version has been toned down for the CD version. Restart points are now closer to the place of death, instead of much further back in the level (or even at the start). As well-known as this game is, most people haven’t really played it. For one reason or another (perhaps you were too young, or it was too hard, or you were struggling to be a man at an age where dolphins were totally just for girls) it goes overlooked, and people who've never played it assume they must have, once, somewhere, like at a friend's house or something. Perhaps, now is the time to go back and give it that chance.

[Matthew Williamson is the creator of The Gamer’s Quarter, an independent videogame magazine focusing on first person writing. His work has been featured on MTV.com, 1up.com, Chatterbox Radio, and the Fatpixels Radio Podcast.]

Posted by Matthew Williamson at 5:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

New blog on the blog alert! Awooga! Awooga!, This time, Matt Gallant, who admits to "a short stint as the editor of Kotaku when it first launched", as well as work for Computer Games Magazine, Computer Gaming World, GameSpot, GameSpy, and others, has launched Metafuture, "a videogaming and gaming-associated subcultures blog".

Matt notes: "If you find that other gaming blogs post too much rehashed, inconsequential, or even just plain boring information in the rush to meet their posting quotas, then Metafuture is the place for you." Dammit, does that mean we have to stop running our daily German PC game strategy game patch round-up in order to compete?

All 'joking' aside, though, the blog is off to a good start, with, say a tire render comparison post calling Motor Storm's tires "a solid brown cheese wheel covered with random bumpmapping", and a spectacularly random Halo 3 documentary harangue, including an indication that the game's teaser trailer "....may just provide you valuable hints about finishing your fights apart from my own personal hint, “stop trading all that fish you catch and the diamonds you dig up for AK-47s and machetes.”" Someone's been listening to too much Kanye West!

Posted by Simon Carless at 3:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We here at GSW have ranted before about Matt Sakey's regular IGDA 'Culture Clash' column, oh yes, and this month's upsets another nest of bees, albeit in a well thought-out manner - in discussing changes to the ESRB game rating system.

Generally, the ESRB is under such attack at any given point from extremely unreasonable people that many people around the game industry feel bad about pointing out issues. Not so Sakey, who nonetheless overall notes: "I admire the ESRB. My only true complaint is that they're over-sensitive post-Hot Coffee and a little too quick to re-rate games. The fact that Kim Possible shows more skin than the unhacked version of Oblivion, and the effort involved with hacking it, should have had more bearing on their decision to re-rate that game."

He goes on to suggest, interestingly: "Game rating scales are based on the cinematic model established by the MPAA, which creates an immediate problem that lawmakers can take advantage of by twisting the intent of those ratings to suit their needs... It's wrong to see [game] ratings as delimiters of purchasability. They're just guidelines. To combat this, content descriptors should have greater prominence than the rating itself. If game content is concisely and honestly defined, the rating system is protected."

Another comment is about sex and violence (snuggling up again!): "The ESRB is also wrong to separate sex and violence. In the U.S., R-rated films are open to kids under 17 if accompanied by parent or guardian. Many include some remarkably explicit sexual content, and there's no real limit to the gore and violence an R film can have. Films containing either or both carry the same rating... Sex and violence are both for grown ups. Implying that they should be delineated separately in games (I'm unaware of any released game receiving an AO rating for violence) plays right into the hands of those who want to label games as pornography, and therefore subject to government oversight." An interesting point of view, too, in a column which talks carefully about possible holes in a tricky grid of possibilities. What think you?

Posted by Simon Carless at 1:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Over at PopCultureShock, there's an excellent new column on the realities of game development, part of a continuing series by High Voltage Software lead designer David A. Rodriguez.

Rodriguez discusses how he talks about his 'dream' game designer job with friends, noting: "The problem is that they eventually make their way to telling me all about the awesome game they would make if “they” were the ones making the games. This is usually how it goes for most of my conversations with game fans and even interviews with new designers."

He explains, cannily: "I’m not an artist... Someone comes to my company with a contract. They give us money to make something. I make it. They take it and sell it. I don’t work in art. I work…in customer service. And fortunately or unfortunately, the customer is always right. That means that no matter how bad I think an idea is. That means no matter how unreasonable the request or how STUPID the last thing they said was, in the end they write the check, so they get to decide. I can voice my opinion. I can tell them what I think because that’s what they are paying me for, but ultimately, if they decide that something must be in the game…then you can bet your sweet ass it’s gonna be in the game."

Interestingly enough, Rodriguez is currently working on 50 Cent: Bulletproof - G-Unit Edition, a PSP game which is different to the underwhelming PS2/Xbox title released last year, and one can only imagine how whimsical shot-up rappers can be about gameplay - not that he's referring to that particular title in this case. But yep, it's all about customers, and it's a very fair point to make. [Via DubiousQuality.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 11:01 PM |