[Big sister site Gamasutra's editor-at-large Chris Morris talks to game industry analysts on what 2011 might bring for the struggling Western retail game biz -- with predictions of another slump in retail sales that might only be forestalled by the launch of Nintendo's 3DS, a "primary driver" of any possible retail rebound.]

There’s good news aplenty from gaming companies these days – but as financial analysts begin crunching the numbers for next year, many fear that the holiday cheer could be short-lived.

The shifting business models of the Western video game industry will continue to impact retail sales figures, even with the relatively easy comparables 2010 has established, say many analysts. The good news is that digitally downloaded content should continue to grow – and help make up some of the difference.

“At this point, I’d say it looks like the industry could be down again from a software perspective – maybe low single digits,” Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets tells Gamasutra.

“But the overall industry would be up - due to mobile games and DLC. And maybe the Facebook-like games will accelerate a bit. … That’s a story that investors may not understand. The packaged goods business is challenged – and publishers are publishing fewer games each year.”

Sebastian’s not alone in his predictions.

”If you looking at data like NPD is likely to report, I’d say there’s a good shot we’ll see a similar trajectory to this year, where you see a negative comparison – though maybe not as negative, depending on the success of the 3DS,” Edward Williams of BMO Capital Markets tells us. “We should see the category grow in calendar 2011, though, when you incorporate all aspects (including digital). … I would call it mid-single digits.”

Not every financial analyst is expecting the retail numbers to continue falling, though. Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities tells Gamasutra he expects two factors will lead to mid- to high single digit growth in the NPD numbers next year.

“The primary driver is the 3DS,” he says. “The secondary driver is any console price cuts. If all three consoles go down by $50, that’s an easy 5 percent incremental growth for software – and I think all three are going to go down by $50 next year.”

Packaged software, he forecasts, will grow by $800 million. DLC and other digitally-themed revenue, he says, should be up by roughly $500 million - a 20-25 percent growth curve.

All of the analysts we spoke to agree that DLC will play an increasingly important role in the overall economy of video games – and will contribute more to the industry totals in 2011 and beyond.

The problem, though, is there’s no real authoritative source of information on DLC, making it hard for analysts to get a complete picture on the size and scope of the revenue it generates. The range of it is also very extensive – there’s DLC for console games; digital sales via Steam, Direct2Drive and other similar services; there are MMO subscriptions; and there are mobile sales – particularly with Apple and Android devices.

”There is no central integration of data to tell us that digital sales are ‘$X’,” says Williams. “That said, digital is clearly becoming more important to packaged goods. What’s increasingly happening is the game is generating incremental sales after the packaged good sale.”

Analyst predictions are, at their core, guesses – but educated ones. While gamers sometimes roll their eyes and enjoy pointing out inaccurate forecasts, the predictions often come from conversations with gaming industry executives and insiders.

Complicating their job in looking into 2011, though, is the fact that aside from a few big titles and products, publishers really haven’t given a lot of insight into what we can expect.

“Other than THQ, a lot of companies have played it very close to the vest about what’s coming out,” says Eric Handler of MKM Partners. “There’s not a lot of visibility into next year.”

Nintendo’s 3DS is expected to add some growth – and Move and Kinect could do so as well, if the second round of titles for those peripherals is strong. Among the expected big titles are the next Gears of War and BioWare’s Star Wars: The New Republic, which Williams predicts will be “one of the best performing MMOs we’ve seen in quite a while.”

Missing from that list are any Blizzard titles (until Mike Morhaime gives a date, it’s not safe to assume the developers will release Diablo III next year) or any guidance on the next Call of Duty. Expected is a futuristic installment of the series from Sledgehammer Games – and while Activision COO Eric Hirshberg recently said the company will “never, ever charge for… multiplayer,” not everyone in the analyst community is convinced.

“It’s disingenuous at best,” says Pachter, who has been a proponent of the charges. “At worst, it’s disconcerting that Activision would forgo such a huge opportunity. … Why would you say ‘never’? Manage it so you can charge and not alienate people. How stupid does [Hirshberg] think people are? And if they (Activision) don’t charge, the shareholders should fire the entire management team.”

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

[Every week, IndieGames.com: The Weblog co-editor Tim W. will be summing up some of the top free-to-download and commercial indie games from the last seven days on his sister 'state of indie' weblog.]

This week on 'Best Of Indie Games', we take a look at some of the top independent PC Flash/downloadable titles released over this last week.

The delights in this edition include the Windows and Mac release of a BIT.TRIP game, a short story-driven adventure game with monochrome visuals, a port of Daniel Benmergui's Today I Die, and a multiplayer game where the rules are set by the players themselves.

Here's the highlights from the last seven days:

Game Pick: 'BIT.TRIP BEAT' (Gaijin Games, commercial indie)
"BIT.TRIP BEAT is the first in the BIT.TRIP series, and plays out like a rhythm version of Pong, only far more insane. Over a few different levels, blocks fly at your paddle from the right-hand side of the screen, and your job is to simply hit them back. Every block that hits your paddle will make a noise like a bleep or a bloop, and always approaches you in time with the music."

Game Pick: 'A House in California' (Jake Elliott, freeware)
"A House in California is a short story-driven adventure, with mainly monochrome visuals. In each scene, you must use the available actions to push the story onwards. Each character in the game is based on one of Jake's family members, and each little story revolve around family memories."

Game Pick: 'Skydive' (Let It Roll, browser)
"Skydive is a simple collect-em-up freefaller that requires you grab parachutes out of the sky and reach the ground in as quick a time as possible. Every parachute in a level must be collected, else you'll go splat when you reach the bottom."

Game Pick: 'Today I Die Again' (Daniel Benmergui, commercial indie)
"Today I Die Again is an iPhone version of the IGF Finalist Today I Die. This version features a few of the same ideas and features from the original, but also explores a number of extra scenes."

Game Pick: 'Tea Time Quarrel' (No Fun Games, freeware)
"Tea Time Quarrel is a multiplayer arena collect-em-up with an interesting concept - the players choose the rules of the game, then vote on whether a rule should be passed. Rules can be anything from 'Most Kills Adds Points' to 'Least Jumps Removes Health' and whoever reaches 100 points first wins."

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

Brian "Doctor Popular" Roberts, Lilia Markham, Mike Hales recently got together to code a follow-up to last year top-down action game Knifetank, creating Knifetank: The Hauntening. Completely unlike the original, this is a funny browser-based point-and-click adventure title.

You'll find a lot of gags and mocking up adventure game conventions, and not to mention a lot of knives! It's free, has an awesome chiptune soundtrack provided by Crashfaster, and takes like five minutes to play -- why not try it out?

"Just about every clickable item is full of jokes, and I think the art is some of Mike’s best yet," says Doctor Popular. "The game feels fantastic on touch devices too, so try it out on your iPad if you get the chance."

[Via Freeloader, Minusbaby]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Composer Christopher Tin has received two Grammy Awards nominations, one of which is for his work on Civilization IV's opening theme -- the first time a video game song has received Grammy recognition.

The track, "Baba Yetu", which features the Soweto Gospel Choir, was shortlisted for the "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists" category. It will compete against Roger Treece's "Baby", Vince Mendoza's "Based On A Thousand True Stories", Geoffrey Keezer's "Don't Explain", and Herbie Hancock and Larry Klein's "Imagine".

Tin originally created "Baba Yetu" for Firaxis' 2005 turn-based strategy title, but local and professional choirs have extended its popularity beyond Civilization IV, singing it at nearly 1000 live concert performances. It's also a staple of Video Games Live, the concert tour featuring game music played by orchestras and choirs.

The composer's other Grammy nomination is for his debut album, Calling All Dawns, which has been selected for the "Best Classical Crossover ALbum" category. The classical/world fusion CD features over 200 musicians from around the world singing in 12 different languages. "Baba Yetu" serves as the album's opening track.

Tin has contributed music to other video games, such as World of Cars Online and Fantastic Four: The Rise of The Silver Surfer. He's also composed music for films (e.g. X2: X-Men United) and advertisements, working with clients like Apple, Microsoft, Puma, and Verizon.

Winners for the categories will be announced at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards on February 13, 2011.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

[Nevercenter's John Plewe tells our own Ian Adams about his team's experience developing iOS-based Shibuya, and how the gap in quality between indie and studio developed games is "becoming a thing of the past."]

Recently released independent game, Nevercenter's Shibuya is a challenging and fast-paced color matching puzzle game that features a vibrant art style that draws influence from its visually-striking namesake, Tokyo's Shibuya district.

The iOS title tasks players with matching colored blocks within a single column, and players must focus on combos and chain reactions if they hope to succeed.

Shibuya is the first game from Nevercenter, a team who had previously only released 3D modeling and photo-manipulation software.

The game was recently featured in the Penny Arcade Expo's indie showcase, the PAX 10, alongside titles including Bastion and Super Meat Boy.

We spoke with Shibuya's lead developer, John Plewe, to discuss the game's mechanics and and platform of choice, the team's experience with indie development, and the shrinking gap between the quality of indie and studio developed games:

You had the only iOS game out for the PAX 10. How do you feel about the platform and the distribution channel being inextricably linked?

John Plewe: It actually works pretty well. We'd love to see some changes to the app store and the ways people can find new games, but for us it's great to have a situation where anyone with the device can instantly see and purchase our game. We are considering a port to Android so our fortunes are not too closely tied to one platform.

Shibuya works really well as a multi-touch title. Do you feel it could have worked as well with a gamepad or mouse and keyboard implementation?

JP: Well, that was one of the things we wanted to be very careful about. We've played a lot of iPhone games -- and I think the same thing happens on the Wii -- where they're ports or knockoffs of a game designed for a different control mechanism.

We wanted to design something that felt native and unique and really had a reason to be on that specific platform. Having said all that, we would love to do a port to PC or consoles if the opportunity arose and if we could nail down a control scheme that works on a gamepad.

What are your favorite things about independent development?

JP: A lot of our best decisions have been spur-of-the-moment choices, the kind of thing where you need the freedom of being independent to drop a project if it's not working, or take some time to explore an entirely different idea.

That's how we ended up with such an odd collection of products - a full-scale 3D modeler, several photography applications, and now games. We're always working on the thing we're most interested in, and we hope that shows in the final product.

What are the worst things?

JP: There's a lot of risk involved. None of our team members have families yet, which gives us a little more room to make mistakes. It's also the kind of job that is flexible but you never leave behind, which can be good or bad depending on your personality.

Have you, or any other members of the team, had to keep any part time work going while you fund this game?

JP: Not since the very beginning, when Tom Plewe, Nevercenter's President, was making the first version of our first program, Silo. We've always been careful to make sure we choose a project we can afford to work on, and have never gone into debt or taken out a loan because once you do, it feels like you're working for someone again.

How did you originally imagine the game and development would be, and how did it actually turn out?

JP: I think the main thing, which manages to surprise me every time, is that there's always something unexpected which will take up a ton of development time. I have no idea how people make games under strict deadlines. You also really need to iterate and try new things as you go. Shibuya turned into a very different game from the original design, and is hopefully better for it.

Is there anything about your game that you feel makes you inherently indie, something that means it never would have come out of a larger studio?

JP: Not necessarily. There are certainly areas where we could have done a lot more with those kinds of resources, but I think the most indie thing about it is simply that it's an unproven game design. We also had to focus on making a very small game, because of our team size.

In general, though, I thought the indie games in the PAX 10 were some of the best games at the show, and several of them, like Bastion and Super Meat Boy, were studio quality. I think any perceived gap in quality is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

How has being a part of the PAX 10 impacted you guys?

JP: The PAX 10 was an amazing experience. We've ended up having a lot of contact with Penny Arcade because the game became a source of competition in their office, and they're just fantastic people. PAX itself was also wonderful, meeting all the other developers, and of course all of the gamers who really make the show their own.

It was just the kind of thing you need when launching a new iOS app in particular -- a way to attract attention. We were lucky enough to have Shibuya approved for sale on the first day of PAX, so people could download it right there if they liked it, and I guess it spread quite a bit among attendees.

The only game that immediately comes to mind as a touch point for Shibuya is Klax. Do you have any other big influences?

JP: I'm actually not familiar with Klax, though I have heard that comparison before. I think our most direct influence is probably the original Lumines, particularly in terms of style. We also took a lot of inspiration from the area of Tokyo called Shibuya, which has a really vibrant atmosphere and all these kids in arcades playing bright, colorful games and getting insane high scores.

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

In a plentiful week for new job postings, Gamasutra's jobs board plays host to roles across the world and in every major discipline, including opportunities at Digital Extremes, Snowblind Studios, Telltale Games, and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted this week include:

Digital Extremes: Gameplay/AI Programmer:
"Located in the heart of South-Western Ontario, Digital Extremes is dedicated to making AAA quality, successful games, with the best and brightest talent available. Digital Extremes prides itself on providing a warm, inviting, creative work environment for its team and has been named as one of 'Canada's Top 100 Employers'. Competitive salaries, profit sharing, stock options, retirement matching, ample vacation and free daily homemade lunches are just a few of the many perks our employees enjoy."

GameSalad, Inc.: Game Engine Developer (Performance, C++):
"GameSalad is a new kind of game company that blends powerful, accessible, and rapid game creation technologies with independent publishing. GameSalad’s flagship product is a game creation system for creative professionals. GameSalad enables non-programmers to create sophisticated 2D casual games for Apple’s mobile iOS platforms, such as the iPhone and iPad. GameSalad is looking for energetic and dedicated individuals who would be excited to join a stable and quickly growing startup in Austin, TX."

Snowblind Studios: Sr. World Artist:
"WB Games Inc. seeks a senior world artist to be responsible for creating exceptional 3D game assets. This person will work closely with the lead world artist and art director to ensure aesthetics quality and continuity is kept at the highest-bar throughout the product. This person will be well versed in the game engine and art tools and will help more junior artists ramp up their skills. A senior artist is also expected to have strong communications skills and be able to convey and assist in maintaining vision throughout their team."

Telltale Games: Producer:
"Telltale is an award-winning independent developer/publisher pioneering landmark episodic content. Founded in 2004 by LucasArts veterans with decades of experience, Telltale is now an industry leader, establishing the model for episodic downloadable games and releasing more than 35 episodic games to date. Telltale's titles have won numerous awards including numerous "Adventure Game of the Year" accolades from publications such as IGN, PC Gamer, GameSpy, and Adventure Gamers, and have been recognized by mainstream outlets including USA Today, CNN, The New York Times and Variety. Telltale is continuing to expand its lineup recently announcing new episodic game series based on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park."

Carbine: Level Designer:
"At Carbine Studios, it is our goal is to build high-quality, cutting-edge, and conceptually innovative massively multiplayer games. We are realizing that goal as we work on the development of our unannounced title. We have assembled an exceptional team of industry professionals, and we encourage and reward our employees for their creativity, ingenuity, and hard work. But it’s not all work and no play here at Carbine. Our team enjoys a myriad of social activities together, from gaming groups of all sorts and bad movie nights, to group mountain biking and company parties and events. We know how to have a good time."

To browse hundreds of similar jobs, and for more information on searching, responding to, or posting game industry-relevant jobs to the top source for jobs in the business, please visit Gamasutra's job board now.

Posted by Tom Curtis at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nearly 14 years since work began on the project and 18 months since we featured it here, that full-color remake of Ocean Software's 3D isometric Batman game (CPC/ZX/MSX) is finally completed and available to download for free!

Shipped in 1986, Batman was developed by Bernie Drummond and Jon Ritman, who later went on to create Head Over Heels and Monster Max. This unauthorized remake comes from Tomaz Kac (who also previously remade Head Over Heels), David Vassart, Infamous, and Cheveron.

As with the original release, which was the first commercial Batman video game, this remake has players helping Bruce Wayne find the seven pieces of his BatCraft that have been scattered around his Batcave and mansion. Also, Batman's sprite is super adorable.

You can download the Batman remake and see more screenshots here.

[Via RetroRemakes]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Uglysoft's supremely odd and crass game Mark Leung: Revenge of the Bitch is out. Developed over the course of two and a half years by a team that formed at University of Hong Kong's School of Design, this is a parody RPG inspired by "christianity, double rainbows, Kim Jong Il, flaming trolls and Final Fantasy".

Before you watch the trailer above, please note that it's packed with immature humor, farting dogs, and lots of cute animals dying. If you don't watch it, though, you'll miss seeing the game's live-action cutscenes, spoofs of Wall-E and Pikachu, pianos falling on pterodactyls, and the best fast food special attack I've ever seen.

Here's a quick description if the trailer hasn't either scared you away or convinced you to buy the PC game:

"Journey into the world of Untitled with Mark Leung -- a selfish Communist and hapless Ginseng collector. He finds himself caught in a petty rivalry between two wacko religions -- and haunted by his ex-girlfriend to boot. Help Mark as he battles cute, blood-spewing cats, unremorseful loltrolls and the gun-toting McFunny."

You can buy Mark Leung: Revenge of the Bitch for $12.99 here. There's also a free demo you can download to try out!

[Via IndieGames.com]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Social game developer Zattikka has announced The Ministry of Silly Games, its collaboration with revered comedy group Monty Python that features minigames based on the troupe's sketches and films.

Previewing the title at an event with Monty Python stars Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam, Zattikka revealed that The Ministry of Silly Games takes place "within the madcap Monty Python virtual world" and will launch as a free game on Facebook in the first quarter of 2011.

The UK-based developer points out that this will be the first Monty Python game in 13 years. CEO Tim Chaney says the company aims to transport the brand into the 21s century with "a totally new experience for their unique comedy that will delight old and new fans alike."

Its full list of minigames include the following:

• King Arthur's Knight Fight – "Frantic 'slice-'em-up", featuring the Black Knight, The Killer Rabbit, Tim the Enchanter, the Holy Hand Grenade and God."
• Monty Python's Scratch 'N Sniff – "Observation game featuring Zattikka's original Flash 'Scratchcard' mechanic."
• Camelot Smashalot – "Catapult livestock, Holy Hand Grenades and Trojan rabbits at the fiendish French fortresses."
• Twit Russian Roulette – "Keep your Upper-Class Twit alive for as long as you can in this wacky game of Russian Roulette!"
• Mr Creosote – "Feed Mr Creosote his favourite nosh but avoid the wafer thin mints in this fun one-button reaction game."
• Gumby Flower Arranging – "Help the Gumby match three flowers of the same kind, otherwise he's going to hit himself with bricks!"
• Gillaxian – "Arcade-style shooter that's also a tribute to a great game and a great artist."
• Aerial Antics – "Balance your TV aerial on household objects to tune in your telly in this fun puzzler."

"The Ministry of Silly Games brings Monty Python characters and scenes to life like never before," says Jones. "For years, people have wondered what it would be like to catapult livestock at French fortresses, or play Russian Roulette with an Upper Class Twit. Well now they finally can, thanks to The Ministry of Silly Games."

You can see screenshots for The Ministry of Silly Games and sign up for the social game's beta at its official site.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Organizers of the 2011 Game Developers Conference have announced initial line-ups for major Summits at the 25th edition of the industry’s leading digital entertainment event next February.

Held alongside the GDC tutorials on Monday, February 28th and Tuesday, March 1st in San Francisco, a large range of key one- and two-day Summits will kick off GDC week with innovative and informative programs led by industry experts -- including notables from Zynga, Area/Code, Google, Klei Entertainment, MIT, and more.

As the overall session list for GDC 2011 continues to grow, organizers are highlighting the top initial talks for the seven Summits, including the expanded Social & Online Games Summit, the new Smartphone Summit, and the long-running Independent Games Summit -- all open to GDC 2011 pass-holders with a Summits & Tutorials or All Access Pass.

Newly announced GDC 2011 summit sessions of particular note include ones from the following Summits:

- The always popular Independent Games Summit includes newly announced lectures such as 'The Journey to Creating Shank,' in which Klei Entertainment CEO Jamie Cheng (formerly of Relic Entertainment) will share in detail his path of trials and tribulations in making the original, self-funded PSN/XBLA game.

Also newly revealed in the IGS 2011 talk schedule are 'Living with Drop7: A Long Tail Postmortem', revealing "how Area/Code teamed with minimalist game designer Andy Nealen of Osmos to bring Drop7's sequel to life", as well as Wolfire's John Graham on the Humble Indie Bundle, discussing the promotion that raised $1.3 million for indie developers and charity in just 11 days.

- The Social and Online Games Summit is expanding even further for 2011 after a blockbuster 2010 Summit, with initial technical-specific highlights including 'Social Speed: Improving Flash Performance for Social Games' from Zynga director of engineering Amitt Mahajan, centering on the different approaches studios can take to making their social games both "load and run fast."

The full lecture list to date for the Summit includes 'Business', 'Essentials', 'Tech' and 'Vision' themed mini-tracks, and spans everything from Playdom's Peter Fishman on 'Behavioral Economics and Social Games' through Spry Fox's provocative Daniel Cook on 'How to Survive the Inevitable Enslavement of Developers by Facebook'.

- The freshly formed GDC Smartphone Summit has a host of sessions for the fast-emerging smartphone game platforms, including Chris Pruett of Google Japan presenting 'Replica Island: Building a Successful Android Game,' discussing "concrete lessons about Android software design and phone-oriented game design" through his self-created, popular title.

The rest of the schedule thus far announced for the Summit includes leading mobile developers, spanning Smule's Ge Wang on 'Tapping Into Innovation Strategies for Developing Successful Apps' through NewToy/Zynga With Friends' Vijay Thakkar on 'Changing the Way We Make Games: Lessons Learned in the Transition from AAA to Mobile Development'.

- The Serious Games Summit focuses on health & healthcare in the first day, and the rising trend of "gamification" on the second day, with the line-up including first-day talks such as 'Video Game Play as Nightmare Protection' and second-day talks including 'Hyperlocal Game Design: Connecting Social Currency to Real World Currency'.

Other notable Summits include the Localization Summit, which debuts 'Game Markets in the Middle East: Opportunities and Challenges" with Mahmoud Ali Khasawneh of Quirkat and Oded Sharon of Corbomite Games, plus the Game Education Summit, which features 'Building and Growing a Game Lab', including speakers from the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab and the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

As it enters its historical 25th edition, Game Developers Conference continues to deliver key insight and inspiration into market innovations, new technologies, and practices to game creators - and over the next several weeks, organizers will be releasing a host of additional GDC 2011 Summit, Tutorial, and Main Conference content announcements.

Game Developers Conference 2011 -- part of the UBM TechWeb Game Network, as is this website -- will be held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco from February 28th to March 4th, and registration is now open. For more information on all aspects of the show, visit the official GDC 2011 website.

Posted by Simon Carless at 3:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[This week, our partnership with game criticism site Critical Distance brings us a fresh new roundup of links from Ben Abraham, including rewards in games, the concept of 'you', and some perma-death Minecraft japes.]

First up this week, from a little while back, Jonathan Stickles at Preparing for the Apocalypse talks Splinter Cell: Conviction, feeling that the latest entry in the series lacks its titular characteristic.

In previous iterations, says Stickles: "I felt like a real hero. I could work hard to avoid killing people as I achieved my objectives, and the game not only enabled that, it supported it. You’re the kind of person who prevents wars, stops trouble, and does so with the lightest touch possible. You could be an unstoppable assassin, but you aren’t. You’re better than that."

Robert ‘Radiator’ Yang writes in response to Jim Sterling’s Destructoid piece of the previous week in which Sterling held up a Fallout: New Vegas character as a positive, matter-of-fact depiction of a gay character. Yang has ten points expounding on why he thinks that kind of thinking is (while seductive) actually harmful in the long run.

Dan Kline at Game of Design has been reading Alfie Kohn’s book about rewards as extrinsic motivations (which Chris Hecker spoke about at GDC in March) and whether or not they actually encourage ‘explorer’ type players and exploration in general:

"I remember when Fallout 3 came out, how exploring felt *different* somehow in a way I couldn’t explain.  I thought maybe it was just an added layer of randomness – not just random places but random objects in random places.  But that never sat right.  Maybe it was getting back to the essence of what Exploring meant."

Brendan Keogh at the Critical Damage blog writes about a draft paper he is writing about the strange features of the player/game hybrid entity. Keogh’s thesis centres upon the concept of ‘You’ in games: "‘You’ is a necessary construct to talk about the hybridisation between player and game, but just what ‘you’ consists of has never been adequately accounted for. Who, or what, is ‘you’? The instinctive answer to this question is also the most problematic. ‘You’ is not the player. Or, more specifically, ‘you’ is not just the player."

Kate Simpson of the blog Falling Awkwardly concludes her stunning four part series on ‘The Metaphysics of Morrowind’. As I said in the comments on the final entry, this series is in my opinion one of the most important and special pieces of games writing/criticism of the year, spanning the spectrum of issues from the nature of videogame fictional universes to the nature of the player character and agency. It’s an hour well spent reading through parts one, two, three and four.

Trevor Owns at the new games & history blog Play The Past looks at Sid Meier’s Colonization and asks ‘Is it offensive enough’? - "In short, at the codebase, Colonization is racist and offensive. But wouldn’t, and shouldn’t, any game about that period in the Americas be racist and offensive, if it were even remotely faithful to that time period?"

Also at Play The Past, Jeremiah McCall says ‘The Unexamined Game is Not Worth Playing’, echoing the words of the great philosopher Socrates, with one small caveat: “When the focus shifts to simulation games and the formal study of the past, however, there is little point to the unexamined game.”

Scott Juster at Experience Points writes this week on the counter-intuitive decision Treyarch made to hide the names of its voice acting stars. The decision, says Juster, only makes sense in light of its dual nature as both a single-player and multi-player game: "So as not to subvert its strangely democratic nature, the game must avoid becoming too focused on charismatic leading men, even as it yearns to sit alongside the great war stories found in other media."

Brad Gallaway at his blog Drinking CoffeeCola examines ‘The Problem with Blaming the Gamer’ for expecting games to be long. In essence, Gallaway is on board with shorter, less time-involved games, but wants to see a reciprocal attitude from publishers – after all, if it’s half the length it should be similarly reflected in the price: "Asking players to modify their standards and expectations makes sense, but that’s only half the battle. Where’s the compromise on the part of the publisher?"

Elsewhere, Tom Francis is playing Minecraft in a perma-death style, where he deletes each world after dying, for the PC Gamer blog. He’s up to ‘Day 4 – The Cove’. And Radek Koncewicz at the Significant Bits blog brilliantly looks at Segues in games: how they are functional from a technical perspective yet rarely present a ‘smooth’ transition, belying the very name.

In another notable post, Dan Apczynski at Gamer Melodico considers the difficulty he had in connecting with the characters of Final Fantasy XIII in ‘Much ado about “…”’: "The sights and sounds of Final Fantasy XIII were certainly capable of stimulating the senses, but why did I have such difficulty relating to the cast, or even understanding their most basic motivations and likely outcomes of any given interaction?"

Matthew Burns writes for Gamasutra this week on Japanese Game Development and ‘The Path Forward’. Which kind of reminds me of JC Barnett’s now defunct blog Japanmanship. Also over on GameSetWatch, James Bishop on Pokémon, the ‘coming of age’ story, and Joseph Campbell’s monomyth idea.

And lastly for the week, Jim Rossignol (one quarter of the Rock, Paper, Shotgun hivemind) has written a lengthy essay for BLDGBLOG this week on ‘the inevitability of prophecy among models of New York’:

"Occasionally, even, the simulations might accidentally model things that have yet to happen. Conspiratorial cyber-fantasy Deus Ex was awash with its own ideas about the sinister possibilities of our politico-military techno-future, but what was the meaning behind the twin towers missing from its future skyline? A year before the towers were destroyed? The silent bells of paranoia began to ring."

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

This Sunday, Shibuya's Club Axxcis will host an "8bitream Retrogaming Party" organized by Japanese site Kotaro Blog, the Digital DJ Network, and retro video game store chain Super Potato. The cover charge is quite expensive!: ¥3,000, or around $36.

The event opens around 3:30PM with a talk of some sort -- possibly on video game collectibles? At around 5:15, 8bit rap group Plugnet will put on a performance (see a music video by the group after the break), followed by Sexy Synthesizer.

I didn't know much about Sexy Synthesizer before, other than his involvement in January's killer Fami-Mode 2010 show, but after seeing the above video with its Space Invaders sound effects, I had to feature his music here!

For more on the group, GSW contributor Jeriaska interviewed Sexy Synthesizer's Takeshi Nagai for Chiptuned earlier this year. You can find additional details about 8bitream (in Japanese) here -- after Sexy Synthesizer, the party will feature "Best Hot Videos Related On 8Bit".

Afterward, all these gamers/chiptune fans need to clear the venue to make way for a group of Japanese DJs spinning classic hip-hop jams -- a lot of New York rap and probably some Notorious B.I.G. Ladies get in free.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

With Junction Point Studios' Epic Mickey for Wii now out in stores, those who worked on the game can now come out and share some of their contributions, like this great character art for a Pete design that didn't make it in the final release.

Sam Nielsen of Avalanche Software/Disney Interactive Studios painted this piece with Jon Diesta, who worked on the line art and character design. I love that even in this advanced robotic form, Pete still has his peg-leg!

"Sadly, they went a different direction on that character in the final game," explains Nielsen. You can see another impressive piece he worked on for the 3D platformer at his personal blog.

[Via Super Punch]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

['Defying Design' is a bi-weekly GameSetWatch-exclusive column by Jeffrey Matulef analyzing gaming conventions and the pros and cons of breaking them. This week's column explores the evolution of cooperative play in 2D platformers.]

Over 20 years ago when Mario first changed his career from carpenter to plumber, he starred in a two player cooperative arcade game with his brother, Luigi. Curiously, all of Mario's adventures since then were solitary affairs.

It wasn't until recently with New Super Mario Bros Wii (NSMBWii) in 2009 that co-op was reintroduced and its endemic of a larger trend in the industry. Co-op is all the rage these days and as much as I'd like to examine how its evolved across all genres, for the purposes of this piece I'll narrow it down to 2D platformers.

Butting Heads

One of the greatest challenge in crafting a co-op experience on a 2D plane is ensuring the players don't get bogged down with too much moving on screen at once. While most 2D platformers have allowed players to pass through each other like ghosts, NSMBWii has instead chosen for players to occupy the same space.

This can lead to lots of frustration as two or more players attempt to land on a tiny platform. I can't count the number of times I bopped into my partner mid jump, resulting in us both falling to our doom. Instead of trying to make co-op easier, Nintendo knew that co-op was inherently more unpredictable and decided to make it easier for players to inadvertently sabotage each other.

The scrambling mayhem of playing NSMBWii co-op is what I always imagined being on a the sinking Titanic would be like. Destined to ruin friendships, relationships and lives, I can't say I liked it, but it succeeds at creating a unique experience that harmoniously blends cooperation with competition.

Getting Benched

There is one design choice in NSMBWii that does make the co-op experience more user friendly. If facing a particularly grueling bit of precision platforming, players can opt out by placing themselves in a bubble out of harms way.

This essentially turns it into a single-player experience with a couple important twists. Players can opt back in at any time, which is far less cumbersome than having to exit a level, go to a menu, reconnect a controller, etc. Furthermore, if multiple players are in a bubble, they may be safe, but their lives are still in play. So if three players decide to opt out and nominate one champion to lead them all to glory, that person has not just their head on their hands, but that of the whole party's if they fail. No pressure!

The recent Donkey Kong Country Returns (DKCR) utilizes a similar concept, where Diddy Kong can ride on Donkey Kong's back, leaving all the responsibility on the big ape's (literal) shoulders.

Riding mine carts, rhinos, and exploding barrels allows either player to assume full control over the party, so it's best to let one person control the action when this happens. Much like NSMBWii, failing in DKCR when only one person is controlling the action still results in a loss of lives for both players. It's a delicate trade-off as not all sections lend themselves well to co-op play, but I like the idea of temporarily transforming the game into a single-player experience for parts that require it.

Like a Tree in a Forest...

While keeping track of what's happening on screen is a problem, it's not half as bad as keeping track of what's happening off screen. Games like Contra failed miserably at this since lagging behind the camera resulted in a loss of life in its vertical levels.

Bionic Commando Rearmed attempted to get around this by utilizing a splitscreen (horizontally or vertically, depending on the level's orientation) if players got too far apart. It was a good idea in theory, but still lead to problems as your field of view would constantly shrink and grow based on your proximity to your partner.

DKCR gets around this admirably by transporting players left off screen for more than five seconds to their partner's location. Not having to worry about leaving someone behind during such intensely scripted sequences is a godsend.

There's No I in Team...

While sharing screen real estate can be an issue, it doesn't alter the game design drastically as it does in Trine. When played solo, the player can switch at will between three distinct characters: a knight who can bash enemies with a sword or defend with a shield but can't jump, a rogue with a grappling hook and bow, and a wizard who can summon boxes and planks at will and move them around. You'll frequently have to switch between all three characters, making the best of each's abilities.

In co-op, no two players can occupy the same character at once. If you want to play as a wizard, but someone else is already assuming that role, they'll have to switch to one of the other characters first. Playing with two players this isn't much of a problem since you can essentially play musical chairs, swapping out roles as needed.

Playing with three characters, however, is a whole 'nother story. With no room to switch roles, all three players will have to work together to get everyone across. For example, the rogue can grapple ahead with her hook, then push a box back towards her two companions.

The wizard can summon a box for the knight to stand on, then move it with the knight on it (which is easier said than done. Physics matter a lot and balancing the knight on an object requires concentration from both the knight and the wizard). Finally, the wizard can forge a path of his own by summoning boxes and crates to jury rig a bridge of sorts.

Co-op turns the game on its head. By allowing more players with fewer abilities each, it encourages cooperation, teamwork, and often different solutions than its single-player counterpart.

While I'm still a pretty selfish player most of the time, over the last couple years I've started to appreciate the challenge of playing with another human being with their own thought processes that can't be calculated through trial and error.

It can be limiting at times, and has no doubt turned me into a pedantic wanker on more than one occasion, but lately my oldest and dearest genre has won over my selfish tendencies to create co-op experiences that are every bit as compelling as their single-player counterparts.

[Jeffrey Matulef is a freelance writer whose work can be found at G4TV.com, Eurogamer, and Joystiq among other places. He's also a regular on the Big Red Potion podcast. You can contact him at jmatulef at gmail dot com.]

Posted by Jeffrey Matulef at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Dutch indie developer Ronimo Games announced the launch of Swords & Soldiers, its fun sidescrolling real-time strategy game originally released on WiiWare and PS3, for Windows and Mac this week.

Swords and Soldiers HD, which is available to buy right now from Ronimo's site for $9.99 (Steam will have it later today, too), features a 30 level single-player campaign, customizable skirmishes, three highscore bonus games, and Steam powered online functionality.

With this launch, Ronimo has also released a patch that adds Move support for the game's PS3 version, allowing players to direct an on-screen cursor around with a wand controller. The PSN demo has also been updated with Move support and more levels.

And don't forget that Two Tribes will soon release Swords & Soldiers for the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad, too!

Posted by Eric Caoili at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A full year since we featured the 8-bit title screens he created for the project, Levi "Doctor Octoroc" Buffum (8-Bit Jesus, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Game) has finally released his album of chiptunes based on classic TV shows, cartoons, and commercials.

Titled "After These Messages", the 30-plus-track release offers arrangements for themes like The Fresh Prince, Big Red Gum, Beverly Hills 90210, Night Court, Diff'rent Strokes MacGyver, Fraggle Rock, ALF, Saved By The Bell, and many others.

"Each track is arranged as the theme song for a theoretical 8-bit video game, much like titles found on the Nintendo Entertainment System," says the artist.

The complete collection is available for a "pay-what-you-want" price, so you can donate as little as a penny (or much more, if you're nicer and have the money to spare) to get it. You can preview five tracks from "After These Messages" on Doctor Octoroc's 8bc page.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IGF Mobile 2009 finalist and lauded iPhone game Edge is now available as a PS Minis game in the European and Australian PlayStation Store -- gamers in North America and Japan will also receive the PSP/PS3 puzzler "soon", but here's a new trailer you can enjoy in the meantime.

As with the iOS edition, Edge for PS Minis has players developing their "telekinetic strength by pushing a cube within a geometric universe", sharpening their reflexes while trying to make it across a constantly shifting landscape filled with moving blocks and platforms.

In Europe, the game is priced at €4.99. If you don't have a PS3, PSP, iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad to play this game, don't forget that Two Tribes plans to port it to PCs via Steam, too!

Posted by Eric Caoili at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Game Developers Conference China organizers have now debuted a completed schedule for the December 5th-7th Shanghai event at the Shanghai International Convention Center, with late additions including Ngmoco's Caryl Shaw and Zynga Beijing's Andy Tiang.

Now in its third edition, Game Developers Conference China -- a sister event to the major GDC shows taking place in San Francisco, CA; Austin, TX; and Cologne, Germany -- offers valuable and timely insight into the art and business of making games for an audience of both local and international developers

Leading Chinese and Western developers have once again been recruited, with late additions to the schedule including Ngmoco's Caryl Shaw, a veteran of notable studio Maxis (SimCity, The Sims, Spore). She will discuss 'The Future of Game Production', and another new confirmation sees Zynga Beijing head Andy Tiang presenting a lecture called 'Building Sustainable Social Game Experiences'.

Also now locked down are Sunday's tutorials, with Autodesk presenting two half-day seminars on 3DS Max, Maya, and Mudbox, and a rare Asian appearance from Visceral Games' Matthias Worch (Dead Space 2), presenting 'Level Design in a Day: Best Practices from the Best in the Business'.

A Serious Games Summit is also now confirmed, with speakers including Realtime Associates' David Warhol and NewGame Solutions' Shigeru Bart Chigusa discussing games used for learning, corporate, education, and other uses.

Another highlight of this Summit is a featured lecture from Crystal Digital Technology, analyzing the company's game featured in the recent Shanghai World Expo.

All talks at GDC China will be simultaneously translated into both English and Chinese for attendees, and the two confirmed keynotes for GDC China 2010 are from Square Enix's Hiromichi Tanaka -- on building Final Fantasy XI and XIV, as the latter is poised to become the first-ever official Final Fantasy title to debut in China.

The other keynote features Blizzard, Flagship and Cryptic alumnus Bill Roper on "how the game industry in the Western world has learned from Asia's successes in both development and business models", promising plenty of insight into the history and future of online games.

With the entire schedule locked down, organizers are drawing highlights from the tracks as follows:

- The Global Game Development/Outsourcing track includes major talks by notables from Activision, Intel, BioWare, Volition, and Slant Six, as it concentrates on the "unique cultural, geographical, legal, channel, and competitive landscapes" birthed from both exporting Chinese games overseas and providing assets for Western titles in China.

- In addition, the Online Game Development track includes a host of valuable Asian speakers from companies including NetEase, Joyport, Kingsoft and XPEC, plus CCP on EVE Online and Riot Games on League Of Legends, as the "opportunities for innovation, creativity, and revenue" in the vibrant space are explored.

- The Indie Games Summit at GDC China centers on discussions around successful development and marketing tactics from leading independents, including Andy Schatz (Monaco), Erin Robinson (Puzzle Bots), an Osmos postmortem, insight from Joe Danger creator Hello Games' Grant Duncan, and a Chinese indie-centirc talk from 4399.com.

- The Social Network Game Summit features major lectures from Playfish China's Andrew Mo, PopCap's Long Vo, and representatives from Disney-owned Playdom and major Chinese SNS firms 6Waves and Five Minutes, as they explore the new wave of social gaming.

- Finally, the Mobile Game Summit includes Rovio's Peter Vesterbacka on the firm's rapidly-expanding Angry Birds franchise, as well as lectures from notable companies in the iPhone, Android, and other cellphone space including PikPok, Gamevil, Coconut Island Studio and Noise Buffet.

In addition, a significant Expo Floor is hosting over 40 companies, including HP, Intel, China Telecom, The9, Autodesk, 6Waves and more. And the 2nd annual Independent Games Festival China will have finalist games playable on the GDC China Expo show floor, with the IGF China Awards Ceremony open to all show attendees on Monday, December 6th at 7pm on the 7th floor of the Convention Center.

GDC China's online registration has now ended, but in-person registration starts on Saturday, December 4th, the day before the show, and is available from 1pm to 6pm in the lobby of the Oriental Riverside Hotel, Shanghai (the hotel connected to the Shanghai International Convention Center).

Registration is also possible on-site from 8am on Sunday, December 5th, the first day of the show -- for more information on all aspects of GDC China in both English and Chinese languages, please visit the official GDC China website.

Posted by Simon Carless at 3:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Continuing his 'GDC 25' archival research ahead of the 25th Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next February, official GDC historian Jason Scott makes available online for the first time audio of a GDC 1998 talk about storied adventure game studio Boffo Games.]

I had the pleasure of interviewing Mike Dornbrook a few years back related to a gaming history project.

As the marketing genius of Infocom, he figured somewhere in the story I was trying to tell, although at the time I wasn't sure how much. It turned out he was extremely prominent in the story, and beyond that, was one of the best interviews I've done throughout the years (out of over 300).

Involved with companies such as Infocom (some time ago!) and Harmonix (more recently!), Mike has been a playtester, marketer, salesman and no doubt a bushel of other, less formal roles. He's been in the games industry for three decades, a remarkable achievement.

Mike's talents are two-fold - he's great at marketing and management for a video game company, and he's got a razor-sharp memory. While asking someone to remember events of a quarter-century ago is at best a fishing expedition with a lot of chances for bringing up old shoes and tires, Mike provided story after story and backed it up with facts; an interviewer's dream.

So it was with pleasure that I found an audiotape called "Look Before You Leap: The Rise and Fall of Boffo Games", presented by Mike Dornbrook at Game Developers Conference 1998 in Long Beach, CA.

Digitized by myself and available online for the first time via GDC Vault and the 'GDC 25 Chronicles' project, the lecture is a post-mortem for an adventure game-centric video game company (Hodj 'n' Podj, The Space Bar) he co-founded with Steve Meretzky and Leo DaCosta.

Along the way, Mike steps through Boffo's history, decisions, finances and dealings to produce a saga of how the three years of its life had gone. (The company had closed for good the previous year.)

What's remarkable about this presentation is the clarity and forthrightness of Mike's speaking style.

Here you have a company that had just shut its doors after years of work, and yet we don't hear narrative-halting bitterness or wild accusations, hallmarks of this tough business. Instead, he provides names, places, dates, like a historian explaining the events of an era long past.

And what names! Everyone seems to make an appearance, cameo or otherwise: Microsoft, Rocket Science, Time-Warner Interactive, EA, Accolade, IBM, Broderbund... the amount of people that Boffo Games comes into contact with, be it light discussions or intense contractual negotiations is amazing. (Boffo had over 30 projects in the pipeline, and two ultimately shipped.)

His lessons are clear as well: be careful who you negotiate with, assume nothing even in the face of apparent perfect arrangements, realize a start-up will be subject to a lot of forces outside of its in-house skill and talent.

After 35 minutes, the speech switches to a Q&A, which is worth it for the directions it heads in. Steve Meretzky gets in on some of the answers (he was in the front row of the presentation). Mike has great answers for everything, like he always has.

If only everyone in the game industry could talk like this! Well, I guess that's asking a bit much, but nonetheless, the talk is well worth listening to.

Posted by Jason Scott at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With hardly any time to rest since last weekend's IGF closing party, indie arcade Babycastles is launching another exhibit on December 2nd that features a large scale physical project from Gamelab co-founder Eric Zimmerman and architect Nathalie Pozzi (Sixteen Tons):

"Incorporating Eric's collection of approximately 200 game boards, Flatlands is a game about aesthetics, strategy, and argumentation. Two players select boards from an archive-like structure and play cards that make statements about them.

The third player - the judge - decides on the truth of the statements. A contest of linguistic and social smarts, Flatlands forces players to look at the artifacts of games in new ways."

The show's curator and GSW contributor Matthew Hawkins comments, "It’s quite different from anything I’ve been involved in and from what Babycastles has presented, yet just as awesome and exciting, plus very much in line with what we’ve been trying to present! "

Babycastles will also present other titles from Gamelab's catalog on its custom arcade cabinets, as well as performances by Foci + Loci ("improvised audio by interacting with Halo 3 and LittleBigPlanet simultaneously") and lo-fi ambient composer Arturo en el barco.

The free opening party begins at 7PM in Manhattan's The Showpaper 42nd St. Gallery. You can RSVP for the event and find more information on this Facebook page.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't know it manages to do this every week, but MonkeyPaw is releasing two more PS1 classics through the PSN Import Store: Athena's shmup creator Dezaemon Plus and 3D Breakout-style game Blockids, both priced at $5.99 ($3 if you're PlayStation Plus subscriber).

• Dezaemon Plus: "Ever wanted to make your own game? Here’s your chance… Dezaemon Plus allows you to play god and create your own shooting game. Design your own sprites, level designs, boss characters, music and more! Then play or trade with friends on either the PlayStation 3 system or PSP (PlayStation Portable) system."
• Blockids: "Blockids offers a new twist on the classic arcade Breakout mechanic. You’ll be able to bounce your balls over their barriers to get more points and score special power-ups. The game allows you to play from a 3D perspective, right behind the paddle."

MonkeyPaw is imploring supporters to tell their friends about its efforts: "We know our core fans are dedicated gamers and that you've picked up titles aplenty. But we need to have more people in our kitchen if we're going to make a better soup."

"We need a bigger response so that we can influence more Japanese companies. We need to show them there is a viable market and that it is worth their effort. It is like voting with dollars. Spend more on the candidates of your choice!"

Posted by Eric Caoili at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Editor-at-large of big sister site Gamasutra, Chris Morris, examines the surge in Nintendo's U.S. sales around Black Friday, and asks whether this holiday season turnaround is enough to influence the company's slowing growth curve.]

Over the course of the past year, gamers and the gaming press have written Nintendo off as a company in steep decline; hailed it as the savior of the handheld industry; written it off again (a couple of times, in fact); and called it greedy.

With Tuesday’s release of the 2010 Black Friday sales figures, the winds have shifted once again and Nintendo is now being called a powerhouse. The latest moniker is, of course, a temporary one – but it begs the question: exactly what is going on with Nintendo these days?

The answer is anything but simple. This year’s Black Friday numbers were right on pace with 2009 – which turned out to be one of the best holidays on record for the company. Fueled by a September price cut, the company sold over 3 million Wiis in December 2009 and the DS and DSi set sales records.

So matching those numbers is good, right? Well, yes – but this year’s numbers come amidst serious discounting at retail, meaning the margins likely aren’t as high as a year ago – though that doesn’t in any way lessen the critical nature of the season to Nintendo.

"The holidays are more important to Nintendo than to other manufacturers," said Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America earlier this month. "Almost half of all Nintendo hardware sales in 2009 occurred in November and December, with rivals accounting for just over 40% of all sales during the same time period."

Whether this year’s buying surge has long-term benefits is something no one will know for months. The tie-ratio for both systems is the best barometer of how enthusiastic these new owners will be. Given the vast catalog of both platforms, though, things look good.

“I think you’re going to see a decent tie ratio with the people who are buying the Wii right now,” Eric Handler of analyst firm MKM Partners tells Gamasutra. “The consumer who is buying now has a wider range of games to choose from and that should help.”

The gaming landscape has changed dramatically over the past year – and no company has been as affected as Nintendo. The astonishing success of the Wii – and its then-revolutionary control system – spawned the motion control craze that Sony and Microsoft are pushing so hard this year.

While neither company offers anything that’s light years ahead of the ground Nintendo broke, the Move sufficiently improves the experience and Kinect is just evolutionary enough to make the Wii’s remote control device seem dated.

“Kinect is being very well received,” says Handler. “And Kinect is a direct shot across Nintendo’s bow. … Nintendo definitely has a big head start (in motion gaming), but if you’re Microsoft, you say ‘what can I do to stimulate demand?’ Kinect is a very interesting product that’s doing quite well right now. Does it eventually catch up to the Wii? Probably not, but it doesn’t have to in order for it to be a success for Microsoft.”

At the same time, Nintendo is also dealing with rapidly changing price models in gaming as casual players buy more and more apps on mobile devices – and quickly get used to price points of $5 and less. The DS has seen software sales suffer as a result and some worry the 3DS could be hobbled as well – especially if those games carry a price point that’s higher than the $35 average for DS games.

That’s possible, of course, but given the unique qualities of the 3DS, many analysts feel the system will help support premium price points. As Kinect has shown, one radically different feature on an existing technology can be all it takes to spark a sales rush.

“Regular DS [software] prices are going to have to come down, but with the 3DS, because of the innovation of the product, they’re going to be more able to get that $35 price – because of the uniqueness of the platform,” says Handler.

There are, of course, other hurdles. The Wii’s lack of high definition graphics is more and more apparent the further we get into the cycle. But that’s easily offset by the argument that the Wii can be set up in a basement or secondary TV, letting kids play while parents watch programs on their high-definition set.

The lack of a strong online presence is harder for supporters to defend, but so far, Wii players have done little more than grumble quietly. The same-room social interaction the system encourages seems to offset the criticism.

Still, it’s hard to argue the company’s growth curve is slowing. Nintendo has lowered its sales estimates for the year from 30 million DS units to 23.5 million – and it cut Wii estimates by 500,000. The 3DS will help boost overall sales figures, but the system is expected to be supply constrained – and will likely remain that way for a while.

Of course, there’s still one way around that: Price cuts. Nintendo has firmly said it has no plans for any such action this year, but they’re cleverly sidestepping that with select discounts at retail for short periods. The action (which, admittedly, is sometimes enacted by the retailers themselves) moves product, but lets Nintendo keep its current price structure intact – letting it see another sales boost when it officially lowers prices.

It’s the retail equivalent of a double dip. And that second dip is something we’re likely to see in the first half of 2011.

“If you look straight at the numbers, they’ve definitely been on decelerating path curve,” says Handler. “When that happens, you have to reevaluate your pricing strategies or make some big games. They need to do something to regain some of their lost momentum.”

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

As creator of the very first video game console, 1972's Magnavox Odyssey, Ralph Baer is one of the industry's greatest cultural icons. Today's game industry bears very little resemblance to the climate in which Baer built his creations, but the veteran still remembers where he came from.

"When it takes $10 million to do a video game and a group of 75 to 100 people with all kinds of different qualifications -- guys that do sound, guys who do the graphics, guys who do nothing but worry about shadows or clouds -- it's a production like a movie today," he says. "There's no comparison with what I was doing."

Baer is speaking as part of the first in a series of previously-unpublished interviews conducted by Tristan Donovan in 2009 for his recent book 'Replay: The History of Video Games' that will be published on GSW big sister site Gamasutra in the coming weeks.

"Today if your company doesn't make a million, a billion dollars worth of business they're a non-entity. When we were in business in the '60s and '70s, if you were doing a million dollars it was a big deal. This is a totally different world," Baer adds.

But Baer, also creator of the 1980s UFO-shaped Simon toy-game with the colored lights, says he's been learning too: "The choice of games I design nowadays aren't the same as I did in the Simon days. But when you look at progress, you've got to remember that everything in video games follows the development of semiconductor technology."

Baer reflects on his early days of programming on an Apple with 16K of memory and another 16K on a plug-in card. "That was a big deal. That was utterly fantastic. People have no sense of where we are today in respect of where the world was 50 years ago. It's a totally different world."

"You may think that you can appreciate the difference. Mentally you can appreciate it, but you really can't," he adds. "When I grew up they were still delivering milk in milk bottles, in glass bottles with a horse and wagon. Forty, 50 years later they're putting a guy on the moon... But there's no sense, no feeling for that -- we're taking everything for granted."

The full Baer interview is now available on Gamasutra.

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

Game Paused, makers of fine cosplay-style shirts like the Legend, Spartan 117, and Sackboy designs, has put out a new "Exploded Mega Drive" tee. Despite its title, the shirt isn't a stylish exploded parts-style design like the shop's Game Boy tee.

"It's pure genius when a single instant defines a game, a console, a generation, a whole collection of memories," the gaming apparel store explains. "That moment is etched into our collective memories, it still rings in our ears and reminds us of the golden age of gaming."

It continues, "We took that moment in time and packaged it up for us all to enjoy again - a memory for the AGES." Like many other gamers, for me that moment in time was when I opened up my Genesis to find a huge "16-Bit" text cut-out and dozens of golden rings spilling out.

The 100% cotton shirt will set you back £16 ($25) and £3.50 ($5.47) for worldwide shipping. It's expensive, but if you have a Mega Drive fan in your life (Like me! I'm your friend, right?), here's n easy holiday gift you can grab for him or her.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Publisher Zoo Games revealed that its online indie gaming community IndiePub Games will host its first Independent Propeller Awards competition -- the winners will be announced on March 13 at SXSW ScreenBurn, the gaming portion of the SXSW Interactive Festival.

IndiePub will accept new and original PC/Mac/browser-based submissions for the contest starting today through February 18th (see the full competition rules here). A panel of judges will select the finalists in several categories: Best Art, Best Audio, Best Design, and Technical Excellence.

Organizers will pay for finalists' flights and accommodations so they can attend SXSW and demo their games during the event. IndiePub will offer a possible publishing deal with Zoo and $150,000 in total prizes, including $50,000 for the grand prize and $25,000 for subcategory winners.

"Like SXSW, IndiePub Games was founded to create a channel for artists where they can share their work and their ideas," says Zoo Games CEO. "We are thrilled to partner with SXSW Interactive to showcase the inspiring talent and innovation found within the independent gaming community through the inaugural Independent Propeller Awards."

Posted by Eric Caoili at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Minneapolis artist Rob McBroom has painted a series of tributes to Atari game covers -- Dig Dug 2600, Dig Dug 5200, (pictured above) and Pengo 5200 -- that look as if they were created by an alien civilization or future neo-humans in a psychadelic state or alternate dimension beings.

As odd and captivating as the artwork might look on your screen, I'm sure they looked even more unusual when they were originally exhibited several years ago, as they also have glitter, rhinestones, hologram stickers, and Swarovski crystals decorating the acrylic/phosphorescent on canvas.

I've added the Pengo 5200 piece after the break. You can see more of McBroom's work on his MNartists page.

[Via .tiff, Game Scenes]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[We round up the week's top news and new digital releases from console digital download site GamerBytes, featuring new information about Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, WiiWare, DSiWare and PSN Minis.]

It's an incredibly strong line-up over the past few days, featuring games games games galore for the major console digital download systems.

The week's seen the release of Pac Man CE, Crazy Taxi, Pitfall II, Funky Lab Rat, Auditorium, Spelunker HD, Magic The Gathering, ilomilo, and more. What are you waiting for? Go play some damn games!

Store Updates

XBLA Update - Crazy Taxi, Blades Of Steel, Pitfall II And More
NA PSN Store Update - Completely Ridiculous Amount Of Games, DLC, and Deals
EU PlayStation Store Update - Pac Man CE DX, Funky Lab Rat, 40 Winks, Impossible Mission And More
NA Nintendo Update - WiiWare Demos, Tetris Party Live And More
EU Nintendo Update - Flowerworks, Need for Speed Nitro-X, DodoGo! Challenge, Frenzic, Faxanadu And More

Top Stories

In-Depth: Xbox Live Arcade Sales Analysis, October 2010
We look at the Leaderboard statistics for October to see what sold and what didn't on the Xbox Live Arcade.

Xbox Indies - Will you save the world, Commander? (Ephemere Games) (XBLIG)
A fantastic looking XBLIG Tower Defense game joins the fray.

Game Room Pack 012 Includes Sunset Riders, Twinbee, Detana TwinBee, Blades Of Steel, Pitfall II And More (XBLA)
The best Game Room update yet?

Double Fine's Stacking To Be Their Second DLC Title (XBLA / PSN)
Splinter Cell with stacking dolls.

You Can Play ilomilo Right Now (XBLA)
Go to website, get demo download!

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

Namco's Pac-Mania, one of my favorite arcade titles, is now available on the App Store -- just in time to help close out the franchise's 30th anniversary, which has already given us gems like Pac-Man Championship Edition DX, Pac-Man Battle Royale, and, um, that 3D Pac-Man show.

As with the original Pac-Mania introduced in 1987, this iOS version tilts the maze to an isometric perspective and gives Pac-Man the ability to jump over ghosts. The game adds two new enemies, Funky and Spunky, who have jumping abilities, too.

This Pac-Mania edition features the arcade game's original 23 stages and a new Scramble Mode, in which players have 120 seconds to eat as many dots as possible, picking up speed with each dot consumed. It also adds leaderboards (via Game Center) and virtual pad/touch/flick controls.

You can grab Pac-Mania now for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad for just $1.99.

[Via FingerGaming]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dwarf Complete, the popular Flash game originally created by Mr. ON of Eyezmaze (GROW) as a promotion for NCSoft's MMORPG Lineage II, is now available for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad with a free campaign.

Played by more than five million gamers, this adventure/puzzle title features the dwarves of Lineage II and has players unlocking dungeon rooms, collecting items, and looking up a walkthrough at Jay is Games to figure out what to do next.

More Eyezmaze games on the App Store, please!

[Via @brandonnn]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Organizers of the 2011 Game Developers Conference have debuted initial lectures from the Art and Audio Tracks for the Main Conference, spanning Gears Of War 3, Pixar, Limbo, Final Fantasy and beyond.

As the overall session list for the event further expands, organizers are specially highlighting the initial Main Conference session announcements around these two areas.

The Art and Audio Tracks take place from Wednesday March 2nd to Friday March 4th, 2011 during the pre-eminent, San Francisco-based event, alongside other discipline-specific Tracks dedicated to programming, design, business and management, and production.

All of the above Track sessions are open to those with a Main Conference or All-Access Pass, with a special Audio Pass also available, and some of the top sessions debuting in the Art and Audio Tracks are as follows:

Art Track

One of the notable Art Track reveals at this early stage is 'Fast and Efficient Facial Rigging in Gears Of War 3' by Epic Games' Jeremy Ernst, showcasing the methodology used for the much-awaited action title.

The lecture is designed to "show developers of any level how to create and think in a way that leads to faster and more efficient ways of building not only face rigs, but any kind of rig or tool."

Also likely to be a major draw is 'Successful Traits Of An Animator', by Pixar's Andrew Gordon. Using examples from the acclaimed Toy Story 3, Gordon looks at some of the points that the Bay Area animation powerhouse believes make animators stand out, including factors like "attitude, appeal, acting, entertainment value and good ideas" -- with plenty of practical specifics.

Other major Art Track talks include a discussion of lighting in Battlefield 3 by EA DICE's Kenny Magnusson, a talk on animation in Halo: Reach from Joe Spataro and Tam Armstrong of Bungie, plus an in-depth discussion on art directing Dead Space 2, courtesy of Electronic Arts Redwood Shores' Ian Milham.

Audio Track

Some of the early Audio Track highlights include a lecture by Square Enix's Mitsuto Suzuki discussing how he helped to compose and arrange soundtracks for two major Final Fantasy titles -- The Four Heroes Of Light for Nintendo DS and Final Fantasy XIII for PS3, discussing "how he dealt with the drawbacks and the advantages of the two platforms."

Another highlight is 'Dead Rising 2: How Real-time Game Integrated Tools Saved the Audio Team', during which Capcom Vancouver/Blue Castle Games' Jason Jarvis and Dieter Piltz discussed "our approach to audio state and event flow and how we communicated changes from tool to game and back" with regard to the best-selling zombie action title.

Also notable is 'The Environment is the Orchestra: Soundscape Composition in Limbo' from Playdead's Martin Stig Andersen, Ubisoft's Olivier Girard and David Kristian and David Kristian on 'Between 4 Ears: Splinter Cell 5's Co-op Sound Strategies', plus an all-star panel, including noted composers Inon Zur (Fallout: New Vegas) and Richard Jacques (Sonic R/007: Blood Stone), on how game soundtracks "work with themes and leitmotifs to achieve specific goals in their game scores".

At the forefront of game development, Game Developers Conference -- part of the UBM TechWeb Game Network, as is this website -- continues to deliver the most pertinent and informative updates in digital entertainment, with a host of GDC 2011 Summit and Main Conference content announcements to come over the next few weeks.

Game Developers Conference 2011 -- the 25th iteration of the industry-leading show -- will be held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco from February 28th to March 4th, and registration is now open. For more information on all aspects of the show, visit the official GDC 2011 website.

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

Production company BlinkWorks has posted another clip from Indie Game: The Movie, it's upcoming documentary about independent game developers and their projects, sharing an interview with Derek Yu and the first footage of his roguelike/platformer Spelunky HD XBLA.

For those who haven't played Spelunky, it's a 2D PC title that has you exploring randomly generated dungeons, collecting treasure, and trying to survive traps/enemies using whatever you find along the way. It's coming to Xbox Live Arcade with new visuals, music, modes, and more.

If you enjoy this talk Yu gives at TIGJam San Francisco, you can watch more (and uncut) video that BlinkWorks captured at the event -- including sessions with Mark ten Bosch (Miegakure), Matthew Wegner (Off-Road Velociraptor Safari HD), and more -- on the company's video page.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you bought Bread and Butter swanky "Gamepads Complete Collection 1979-2009" poster that we featured two weeks ago, you can now complement it with a "Consollection" print that showcases 170 video game consoles, each lined up as miniatures in chronological order.

The 33.1" x 46.8" piece is like a version of Patrick Molnar's Consollection site/book that you can hang on your wall. It's designed to provide an "overview [of] over 38 years of video game history", listing the name, manufacturer, and release date alongside each console.

You can purchase the Consollection poster for €12, or around $15.64 (another €12 for shipping in Europe, €17/$22.16 for shipping everywhere else.)

[Via 4 Color Rebellion]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Indie Games Winter Uprising, an initiative looking to promote high quality titles on the Xbox Live Indie Games Channel and fight against the "mediocrity and lameness" on the platform, kicks off today with the release of Eyehook Games' dungeon crawler Epic Dungeon.

In honor of the Indie Games Winter Uprising's launch, this new trailer has been posted with clips of the XBLIG titles that will be featured during the event, including "new games from veteran developers like Ska Studios and Radiangames alongside promising newcomers".

This campaign will run all week and feature 14 new games, all of which you can find descriptions for after the break.

• Soulcaster 2 - "Equal parts dungeon crawler, strategy and adventure, MagicalTimeBean’s follow-up to the critically-acclaimed Soulcaster features an all-new set of worlds to explore and a soundtrack glossed in late-80's redbook audio excess. Also: exploding skeletons."
• Cthulhu Saves the World - "The next RPG from the creators of the popular parody RPG, Breath of Death VII: The Beginning, Cthulhu Saves the World features a new 16-bit visual style, a fantastic soundtrack, sophisticated yet streamlined gameplay, and an epic tale of insanity, romance, and redemption. Save the world to destroy it!"
• Radiangames Crossfire 2 - "Crossfire 2 features an all new upgrades and weapons systems, along with two main modes. Play through Conquest mode with a friend and save your progress through 60 all-new waves and new enemy types, or play Score Attack and match your best scores against your friends and the world."
• Chu’s Dynasty - "Chu’s Dynasty combines the strategic fighting of street-fighter with the multi-tiered 4 player mayhem of super-smash brothers. Chu’s then adds a new twist to the genre with time manipulation. Over 2 years in the making."
• Alpha Squad - "Alpha Squad is an adventure game that has mechanics primarily used in dual-stick shooters, to keep the action fast and heavy as you explore the world and its characters. Features up to 4 player co-op, a customizable storyline, a large world, unforgettable weapons, music from Stemage of Metroid Metal, and art from industry veterans."
• Epic Dungeon - "The ultimate dungeon crawling experience! Multiple character classes and fast paced gameplay make Epic Dungeon one of the most enjoyable roguelikes to date."
• Break Limit - "Prepare to go mind-numbingly fast as you Blast, Smash and Break Limit through every one and thing in your way! Featuring classic arcade style play – will you survive to be the champion of our online scoreboard, or will you end up a grease spot on the first asteroid you see?"
• Decimation X3 - "The thrilling sequel to one of the most popular shooters on the service features insane firepower and pure arcade action. From the creators of Duality ZF (coming soon to XBLA)."
• Asteroids Do Concern Me - "Test your piloting skills in this addictive one button action game. Featuring five different modes of asteroid dodging fun. The odds of surviving this game are 3720 to 1. Have you got the minerals?"
• Hypership Out of Control (Update) - "Space is a dangerous placed for even the most seasoned starship pilot, full of asteroids, multicolored floating blocks, and space mines. It’s even more dangerous when you your accelerator is stuck to the floor and your brakes are out. Can you survive long enough to get that elusive high score or are you destined to add a new crater to the face of an unsuspecting asteroid? Find out in this retro gaming tour de force featuring 10 Waves (forward and backwards), 5 game modes, 1 to 4 player co-op, and online high scores."
• Ubergridder - "You are in deep space, and nasty one-eyed tentacle toting aliens have broken your spaceship. Help Robert the maintenance robot repair the spaceship, one grid at a time."
• Rickenbacker vs. the Aliens - "From the developer of the best selling Drum Kit comes a new shooter in the style of the 1942 series featuring stunning cel shaded graphics."
• Aphelion: Episode Two: Wings of Omega - "The conclusion to one of the most popular RPG franchises on XBox Live Indie Games, players will reprise the role of Savion Mercarte as they pick up where Episode One: Graves of Earth left off. Featuring numerous new features and enhancements like improved animations, more side quests and optional content, faster paced combat, a new playable character, and much, much more!"
• ZP2KX: Zombies & Pterodactyls! - "In a dystopian future where humans love guns and zombies just want to be left alone, the pterodactyls have seen to it that everyone has to be miserable together. Take your jetpack online and splatter some fools with blades, guns, grenades, and other instruments of mayhem. Earn XP, level up, unlock features, clothes, and skills! Build awesome classes! From the developer of I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1 1NIT!!!1 and The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai."

[Via IndieGames.com]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Every week, we sum up sister iPhone and iPad site FingerGaming's top news and reviews for Apple's nascent portable game platforms, as written by editor in chief Danny Cowan and authors Tucker Dean, Jason Johnson, and Ryan Hibbeler.]

This week, FingerGaming covers BulleTrain, Gunstar Heroes, and the awaited iOS 4.2 firmware update.

Also within are the lists for top-grossing, most-downloaded free and paid Apps from Apple's store, as well as a review for Halfbrick Studios' Age of Zombies.

Here are the top stories from the last seven days:

- Top-Grossing Game Apps: Lego Harry Potter Sees Big First-Week Sales
"Rovio's Angry Birds reclaims the top spot in today's chart, while Lego Harry Potter finishes its debut week ahead of RAGE HD at third place."

- iOS 4.2 Software Update Out Now; Adds Multitasking, Game Center for iPad
"Apple has released an update to its iOS firmware, bringing a number of new features to iPhone and iPod Touch devices and adding multitasking and Game Center support for the iPad."

- Sega Releases Gunstar Heroes, Adds Multiplayer to Sonic 2, Streets of Rage
"After recently adding another title to its App Store catalog of emulated 16-bit Genesis games, Sega announced that two of its most popular retro releases to date have received new multiplayer modes."

- Top iPad Game Apps: Scrabble Heads Charts After Price Drop
"EA's Scrabble for iPad moves up to the top of today's iPad games sales chart, as Gameloft earns three chart spots with recent price drops for Let's Golf! 2 HD, The Settlers HD, and Splinter Cell Conviction HD."

- Review: Age of Zombies
"An excellent game often defies expectations. Brilliant writing is the last thing you'd expect to find in a dual-stick zombie game, yet for some reason the writing in Age of Zombies is superb."

- Downsized Games Launches EA-Skewering BulleTrain for iPhone and iPad
"A group of displaced veterans from Full Spectrum Warrior developer Pandemic Studios has released BulleTrain, an on-rails shooter inspired by the company's soured experience with Electronic Arts."

- Top iPhone Game Apps: RAGE HD Maintains Impressive Sales
"Id Software's iPhone 4-compatible RAGE HD takes third place in the iPhone game charts in its premiere week, trailing reigning sales leaders Angry Birds and Cut the Rope."

- Appy Takes on Angry Birds With Trucks and Skulls for iPhone and iPad
"FaceFighter and Zombie Pizza creator Appy Entertainment has launched its latest iOS title, Trucks and Skulls, a game in which players 'smash NITRO-BURNING MONSTER TRUCKS into piles of GIANT SKULLS!'"

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

Organizers for Interactive Fiction Competition, the annual contest (running since 1995) devoted to text-based adventure games, recently announced the winners of this year's event, ranking the top titles from 26 submissions.

The three highest-scoring titles are Matt Wigdahl's Aotearoa, C.E.J. Pacian's Rogue of the Multiverse ("cover art" pictured), and Colin Sandel and Carolyn VanEseltine's One Eye Open. Here are some quick descriptions for those titles grabbed from the Interactive Fiction Database:

• Aotearoa: "The Fish of Māui. The Land of the Long Cloud. Aotearoa. An entire continent of untamed wilds, and the last place on Earth where dinosaurs still roam. If only you'd come ashore under better circumstances..."
• Rogue of the Multiverse: "Congratulations, convict 76954! You have been selected for scientific experimentation! You will be matter-transmitted to exotic non-Treaty worlds - where opportunities abound to take in fantastic sights and mingle with colourful locals!"
• One Eye Open: "Had you known the bloody history of Corona Labs, you would never have signed up as a test subject. But now, plunged into that history, surrounded by the damned and the dying, you must find the truth. Perhaps you will even survive it."

Posted by Eric Caoili at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If playing difficult sidescrollers like VVVVVV and more recently Super Meat Boy has put you in the mood to play challenging sidescrollers with gravity-bending segments for the rest of your life, Jimmy Jansson of one-man indie studio Pennybridge has just released a new XBLIG title that can help you fulfill that dream.

The Deep Cave is a retro-style title following a little boy who has fallen down a deep hole and must "survive the ultimate danger". That ultimate danger includes lots of precision jumps, instant-kill enemies, and portions where both the floor and ceiling are covered with spikes. That giant worm beast might you trouble, too!

You can buy The Deep Cave now from Xbox Live Indie Games for just 80 Points. That seems like a great bargain considering you're also getting a great soundtrack from awesome chiptune artist FearOfDark.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Continuing his regular GameSetWatch column, psychologist and gamer Jamie Madigan looks at how a few simple psychological manipulations could tip players in online games in the right direction.]

Imagine that two people, Kim and Carlos, notice that their cars are filthy and both go to the same car wash to make things right. With their wash they each receive a special card that lets them earn a free car wash if they get the card stamped enough times during future visits.

Kim’s card says it requires 10 purchases for a free wash, but the perky girl at the counter gave her a head start with two free stamps. The card Carlos got doesn’t have any free starter stamps, but it only requires 8 future purchases instead of 10. So both Kim and Carlos are looking at the same number of purchases to score their complimentary car cleaning.

Who do you think is more likely to come back enough times to fill up his or her card? Kim or Carlos?

It turns out that it’s Kim, who got saddled with a card that required 10 total stamps, but who received enough free stamps to get her 20% of the way towards her goal. This is thanks to a phenomenon called “the endowed progress effect.”

Basically, the idea is that when you give people just a feeling of advancement towards a distant goal, they’re more likely to try harder and try longer to reach that goal, even relative to people who have an equally easy goal but who got no sense of momentum off the bat.

Researchers Joseph Nunes and Xavier Dreze coined the term in a paper where they did the car wash experiment described above. They found that 34% of people who got a 10-stamp card with 2 freebies ended up coming back enough to redeem the cards, compared to 19% of customers who started with an unstamped card requiring only 8 stamps.

This despite the fact that both sets of customers only needed 8 stamps for a free wash. Nunes and Xavier also found that those endowed with the two free stamps tried to reach their goal faster by waiting less time between washes.

Why? The researchers argue that the reason for the results is that by giving out free stamps, the merchant was framing the task (i.e., buying enough car washes to get a freebie) as one that has already been undertaken. There’s a substantial body of research that shows people are naturally motivated to complete tasks that they feel they’ve started and will want to remain consistent with previous intentions.

Other research has shown that the closer someone gets to completing a goal the more likely they are to increase their efforts towards closing that last little gap. Apparently, giving people a couple of free holes on a punch card is enough to trigger both of these effects.

This has a few interesting possibilities for game design. Imagine, for example, that I’m playing through Fallout: New Vegas and I get a quest to save 10 slaves from a nearby encampment. One way to deliver that quest to me would be to meet a NPC and have her say “Hey, there’s 10 slaves. Go free all 10.” And so I’d go off, and the quest would tick up “0 out of 10 slaves rescued, 1 out of 10 slaves rescued,” et cetera.

Alternatively, if the game designer wanted to invoke the endowed progress effect, I could first receive the request upon opening the cell door for a pair of slaves on the outskirts of the encampment. One of the slaves could say “There were 12 of us altogether! Free the others!” and my progress would start off as “2 out of 12 slaves rescued” as the first two sprint off over the horizon. According to everything discussed above, I’d be much more motivated to complete this quest if it were presented this way.

Other examples aren’t hard to imagine. What if some NPC wanting 12 Goretusk livers in World of Warcraft gave me two to start with and raised the request to 14? What if, upon learning a new crafting skill that requires combining 5 widgets into one superwidget, the game gets me started with 1 widget and makes the recipe call for 6?

What if, when I’m waiting impatiently in a multiplayer matchmaking lobby for Halo: Reach to find me 10 opponents, the game populates the first two slots with “Player Found!” after a couple of seconds even though it’s still looking? Would I be more likely to wait for the rest even if the search takes a long time?

Well, you get the idea. If you’ve got other examples, let’s hear them in the comment section.

[Jamie Madigan examines the overlap of psychology and video games at PsychologyOfGames.com and for GamePro magazine. He can be reached at jamie@psychologyofgames.com.]

Posted by Jamie Madigan at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Mission in Snowdriftland, the Flash-based advent calendar/platformer created by Extra Toxic and Nintendo, is returning this December! Except this time, instead of releasing exclusive downloads for Nintendo games (e.g. WarioWare wallpapers, Yoshi's Island DS ringtones), the game will now feature content from indie studios.

As players collect snowflakes in each of Mission in Snowdriftland: Indie Games Edition's 25 stages (a new level revealed each day starting December 1st), they'll unlock downloads from developers like Akaoni Studio (Zombie Panic in Wonderland), Gajin Games (Bit.Trip series), and Over the Top Games (NyxQuest).

Other featured studios include Spaces Of Play (Spirits), Ronimo Games (Swords & Soldiers), Press Play (Max and the Magic Marker), and tons of bits (chick chick BOOM). That last developer is putting together this year's Mission in Snowdriftland and plans to contact more indies to participate.

Make sure to hit up the Mission in Snowdriftland site on December 1st to play the first level and begin unlocking indie downloads.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Michale Molero's "MeggyCade" combines two of my gaming loves: homemade tabletop arcade machines and Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories’ Meggy Jr., the fully programmable handheld console with an 8x8 RGB LED matrix display.

Molero says he worked on and off for just under a month building this small setup from scratch, integrating the Meggy Jr. into the 7.6 lb cabinet and adding support for arcade controls. Not bad for what he says is the first thing he's ever built!

The music in the embedded MeggyCade video above can get annoying (you might want to mute it), but if you watch it for a few minutes, you'll see some footage of Steven Read's Donkey Kong clone for the LED system, Super Monkey Kong.

[Via Make]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Colorado-based artist and Etsy seller SeeChangeDesign has a neat and stylish poster to help you keep track of the days next year. This 12"x18" Space Invaders-inspired calendar invites you to cross off alien sprites from the bottom up, each group of colored enemies representing a month.

As Technabob points out, it's not the most practical way to manage your schedule, as there's not enough room to mark future appointments/events. Also, you're going to have a devil of a time hitting the UFO for bonus points when it flies across the top screen, behind over two dozen rows of aliens.

The poster is printed on matte heavyweight paper and is on sale for $19 ($7 shipping in the U.S. and $12 in Canada). You can see more photos of the Space Invaders 2011 calendar after the break.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[This week, our partnership with game criticism site Critical Distance brings us a fresh new roundup of links from Ben Abraham, including discourse on moral decisions in Fable 3, the need for new experiences in the AAA space, and much more.]

With an absolute surfeit of super games writing, collected from the very smallest blogs to the largest online newspaper columns, it can only be: This Week in Video Game Criticism.

First up, Laura Parker for GameSpot AU writes about “the need for new experiences in the AAA space”, and quotes at length a number of smarty-pants game developers and bloggers for their views on the issue.

Adam Ruch at Flickering Colours examines ‘The Metanarrative of Videogames’, looking at how videogames nature as deterministic systems affects just about every aspect of their reception.

Elsewhere, Matthew Burns at Magical Wasteland writes about Fable 3 this week, arguing that for games to present players with good moral decisions requires plenty of context. Until then it’s all ‘Just Another Trick of Perspective’.

Zachary Alexander at Hailing from the Edge takes inspiration from Burns’ post in ‘Low Stakes’, and relates a personal story from Fable 3 that suggests a different lesson: “…absurdist humor was able to get my attention, and create an ambiguous moral situation in a way heavy “evil enemy is amassing on the horizon” setups couldn’t.”

In another notable blog post, Nels Anderson talks about Amnesia: The Dark Descent and how that game manages to be an extremely disturbing experience to play, while working within tight constraints… or should that be restraints?

Troy Goodfellow writes on his blog Flash of Steel about ‘The Aztec National Character’ as seen through the lens of videogames, and in particular, the Civilization series. This is a cycle of posts well worth keeping up with.

Speaking of history, Roger Travis and co. at the new blog ‘Play the Past’ are interested in “thoughtfully exploring and discussing the intersection of cultural heritage (very broadly defined) and games/meaningful play (equally broadly defined).” Here’s their introductory post explaining their goals for the site.

And stretching the idea of history in an entirely different direction, this week, Gamers With Jobs have been partying like it’s 1998! Here’s Rob Zacny writing on Thief from a ‘98 perspective; Julian Murdoch on Baldur’s Gate as the hope for CRPGs; and Allen Cook on Alpha Centauri in ‘Once Upon A Future History’. Does the term retrospective even apply here?

David Carlton has been playing Dragon Age: Origins and looking at pacing, and is quite frank: “it’s a rare game that can make me look fondly back at JRPG pacing.”

And Dan Bruno at Cruise Elroy has been playing Super Mario 64 with the Vintage Game Club. This week he takes a look at ‘When Mistakes are Fun’: “The Lethal Lava Land case is interesting because the game is actually more fun if you mess up. The level is designed around a clever mechanic that skilled players won’t experience.”

Remember Michael Abbott’s paean to Super Meat Boy as our medium’s version of the Jazz standard from a couple weeks back? Well, Jason Killingsworth reckons that it’s actually more like a metaphor for the writing process.

Matthew Weise’s latest piece at Outside Your Heaven ‘How RPG elements hurt good games’ demonstrates why Weise is the go-to Metal Gear Solid expert. Comparing the puzzle-like nature of many earlier MGS bosses, Weise sees the latest game Peace Walker as leaning too heavily on JRPG tropes, with many bosses being reduced to what he describes as “stat-driven endurance battles.”

On a related tangent, at The Escapist, Brendan Main opines about the brilliance of super villain ‘Psycho Mantis’ from the Metal Gear Solid series, saying that: “The genius of Mantis as a villain is that he gets to rise above the usual cadre of Metal Gear Solid's half-vampires and nano-solidiers, to see the story for what it is. In a tale that oscillates between the natural and metaphysical, he gets to have it both ways. His supernatural stuff is technology: the system sitting in front of you. Standing apart from thousands of phony psychics, Mantis is the real deal, a seer who really can see something the rest of us can't - the parameters of the game.”

Jeff Jackson at the Game Language blog writes about ‘Cultivation Effects and Body Image in Gaming’, saying: “I have to admit there are some beautiful characters in video games. Not only do they look great but if they were any more photo-realistic and good-looking I might just develop a complex. The men and women running around saving the nation/world/galaxy from evil are not only fearless, but the finest physical specimens you will ever see. And that’s a shame.”

Mark Serrels at Kotaku AU this week wrote ‘An Open Letter to Metacritic’ – but be warned, it’s not exactly what you’re expecting.

In another notable post, Kris Ligman at Pop Matters looks at the dilemma of achieving the perfect ending through ‘gaming the system’. In other words, by playing to min/max rather than playing by engaging with the story on its own terms: “At that point, the game had ceased to be anything except the gleeful abuse of a system that was clearly unprepared for aggressive extremes.”

Mike Schiller at Unlimited Lives looks at what makes the ‘Soul of the Game’, responding to comments made by Ron Gilbert that ‘Plot is what gives a game its soul’. But Schiller asks: “Where is the soul in a game like Asteroids? It’s a stark, black-and-white game with no music. There is nothing memorable about it save for the experience of playing it. Not coincidentally, that is where the soul is.”

At Bitmob, Christian Higley writes about why Mass Effect left him cold while Red Dead Redemption and Bioshock felt like the real frontier: “Some time ago, I read an article about the molten-diamond oceans of Neptune and Uranus. Imagine that for a moment: entire seas of liquefied diamonds, dotted by solid diamond icebergs. That right there is a case of fact being stranger than fiction. I can’t recall ever seeing something so amazing and unimaginable in a video-game world.”

Staying with Bitmob for the moment, Omar Yusuf picks the low hanging fruit that is the modern military FPS, arguing that many games in the genre are part and parcel of the military-entertainment complex. It is, however, a persuasive treatment of the issue, through the lens of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Yusuf comes across as more exasperated than excoriating: “Though Black Ops blatantly lifts scenes and lines from cinema classics like Full Metal Jacket and The Deer Hunter, it fails to communicate the same anti-war message that Kubrick and Cimino did.”

Similarly, Brendan Keogh looked at the same commercial for Call Of Duty: Black Ops that inspired Omar Yusuf’s analysis, and looks at a range of responses to the video. His own take is that it further blurs the line between war and entertainment.

Cuppycake at The Border House writes about ‘Facebook games and the privileged people who oppose them’, looking at the kind of language that is often directed at players of Facebook and other social games. Which, incidentally, the following article by Laurie Penny at The Guardian is not entirely free from: ‘FarmVille: They reap what you sow’ is a pseudo-Marxist analysis of that particular social game, reading its unwitting player base as the new exploited worker class. Also worth reading at The Guardian this week, Keith Stuart looks at how Assassins Creed: Brotherhood “has turned the past into a gameplay feature – and why more developers don't follow suit...”

Angelo at Bergsonian Critique takes a look back at Final Fantasy IX, looking at its ‘Narrative Viewpoints and Perspectives’. It’s worth quoting at length: “Ultimately, what I am trying to get at is that by acknowledging the idea of Zidane not assuming the role of the main character, we can get to understand the function behind the shift of perspectives and viewpoints in the narrative among the main characters in Final Fantasy IX. Indeed, for not long after Zidane’s conference with his fellow Tantalus members, the game assigns us the task to control Vivi, a character who comparatively occupies a greater story arc than Zidane."

"And through the vantage point of the young black mage who has just arrived to Alexandria, we, just like Vivi, begin to familiarize ourselves with the bustling city, participate in a couple of its optional events, dapple into its latest craze (i.e. the Tetra Master mini-game), and understand its rich history and social structure. Though the narrative briefly switches back to Zidane, we seamlessly soon get inside the rusty shoes of another character, Adelbert Steiner, the noble Knight of Alexandria, and the Captain of the Knights of Pluto, who initially harbors a different agenda (i.e. viewpoint) that goes against Zidane and Garnet’s.”

Apparently that post about Minecraft-as-evangelical-Christian-game from a few weeks back was a parody (Poe’s Law strikes again!) but this one is allegedly more legit: Aleksandar Vidakovic of CoderGames writes about ‘Minecraft harmony and the joy of creation’.

And lastly for this week, if you’re at all interested in gaining a bit of insight into the process behind TWIVGC every week, semi-regular contributor Eric Swain has written at length about how we compile each week’s article. Over to you, Eric.

As always you can suggest blog posts and other articles for weekly inclusion via Twitter or get in touch via the contact page.

Posted by Ben Abraham at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Our own Tom Curtis spoke with Neowiz's John Nam and Mark Chang to discuss the company's expansion to the U.S., and how the developers "didn't actually have to make big changes" to tailor an MMO to appeal to Western tastes.]

Korean MMO developer and publisher Neowiz will begin its expansion into North America with War of Angels, its first game developed specifically for Western audiences.

Neowiz began as an Internet service provider in 1997, and has since expanded into a game publisher that operates a number of free-to-play online games in Korea and other Asian territories, including microtransaction based versions of popular EA franchises such as FIFA and Battlefield.

Hoping to expand beyond Asian markets and into the West, Neowiz developed War of Angels to suit North American audiences.

War of Angels is a free-to-play, microtransaction based fantasy MMO that features land, air, and underwater combat, and a good-versus evil system that helps players determine their faction, which will affect the game's endgame Player-Versus-Player modes.

Neowiz told us that War of Angels is the first of several games the publisher will release in North America, and four other titles are unready in development for a 2011 release.

We spoke with Neowiz Games America chief operating officer John Nam and Neowiz Games in Korea business developer Mark Chang to discuss the company's history and its expansion to the U.S., how the War of Angels was developed to suit Western tastes, and the important elements of operating a free-to-play game.

Could you talk a little bit about Neowiz's history?

John Nam: We started in 1997 with a ISP provider called OneClick, and later turned into something called SayClub, which was the most popular social networking site, back then called a chatting site. That's when we first got into microtransactions. Advertising revenue was good, but we wanted to try something else, and we wondered, "Would people really pay two dollars for a hat or sunglasses?" It turned out it worked, and we ended up crashing our servers, so we found that it worked really well.

We've seen healthy expansion over the last couple years, and we recently had an acquisition in Japan with GameOn, the second largest portal in Japan. While we were preparing all these, three years ago we started a U.S. branch, and I came here to set things up, partnerships, publishing partners, acquisitions, licensing deals and all that kind of stuff.

So we are expanding globally, and now we feel like we have enough experience and data to come out to the U.S. ourselves and operate our own games. You may have heard about our deal with EA?

Yeah, you guys worked together to make an online FIFA game, right?

JN: Yeah, so the details for that deal, or at least the version I know, is that EA went around with FIFA to all the major publishers, and we looked at it and said, "No, we can't sell this, are you kidding?" EA said, "But soccer's crazy in Korea, it'll do well!" We told them we weren't interested, so they went around to the other companies. It turns out the EA guys came back to us and said," Alright, we're convinced. How do you make a game in Korea with FIFA?" We told them, "You make an online game."

We are real good at monetizing games and building the microtransaction economy and we know how this thing works. When you sell things in games, you can't sell whatever and throw off the balance of the game; there's a fine line, and we've made mistakes over the last 13 years to know enough to not make the most obvious ones. So we turned FIFA into an online game. We took the engine and the whole server structure behind it.

We made a five title deal with EA, with most of their titles, with the exception of The Sims and Spore, which we couldn't touch. So we did FIFA 1, FIFA 2, Battlefield Online, NBA Street Online, and we still have one more slot, and we are thinking about which one to do. FIFA 2, with the World Cup this year, has hit over 220,000 concurrent users, so at any given time 220,000 people were playing the game; it's been very successful.

To tell you more about why EA would join us, we were around for the invention of microtransactions, back with SayClub. We also were the first to successfully monetize a first person shooter, and you know, with games like that there is a very delicate balance, and you can't just give out things that throw things out of balance.

Right, you don't want people to buy their way to victory.

JN: Exactly, but no one will buy something if it's useless. For a long time, there were a handful of first person shooters in Korea, and they all just kind of tanked when they started introducing items. With Special Forces, which is kind of old now, we figured out how to add microtransactions without harming the balance. To this day it's still very popular in Korea.

What did you guys do differently versus the games that tried microtransactions and failed?

JN: That's kind of giving away the secret sauce, but it's all about keeping a fine balance. (laughs)

Fair enough. (laughs) In terms of bringing a game like War of Angels to North America, what was the driving motivation for you guys to switch your focus to another part of the world?

JN: We've actually been studying to get out in the U.S. for a while now, we were just figuring out the best way to do that. It's always been about expansion, like it Vietnam and China through Tencent we've seen great success. In China, one of our first person shooters called CrossFire has 2.2 million concurrent users. We've been trying to figure out our best strategy to come in. It's that something made us come in right now, we've been studying it for a while.

What sort of things were you looking when you examined the market?

JN: We did lots of market research, partnerships, indirect partnerships, some of which are public and some aren't. Some companies came in during the early 2000s and now they've come back out again, so we didn't want to make the same mistakes.

And where is War of Angels being developed? Is it being developed in Korea?

JN: Yes, it is.

What do you do to tailor the game to an American audience versus a Korean one? What are the differences between the two?

JN: So War of Angels is being developed by a partner called NJI, and what we are doing in the U.S. is we are running an extensive focus group right now with hardcore MMO players, and through these focus groups and online surveys, we are figuring out what they like, what they don't.

We also figure out what to do in terms of server management, localizations, what sort of items they may like. For example, the Gachapon system works well in Korea, but would it work here? We're looking into that kind of stuff pretty extensively. We are also using a pretty top-tier localization service. It's going through it's third iteration right now.

What's the relationship like between you guys and developer? How much influence do you guys have over the way the game takes shape?

JN: I used to work with a lot of the guys in Korea, so we talk a lot, perhaps too much. (laughs) It's an active discussion to see what's going on over there, what going on over here. I hesitate to say they have full control, but they have a good positive influence on the development process. For example, there's no Halloween in Korea, but in the game, we have items like a pumpkin head mask for the holiday.

So you are tailoring in game events to American culture specifically?

JN: Exaclty. That's an example of something that we thought would be cool, and all of a sudden it's done, it's in there.

What do you do to tailor the game systems for an American audience? Do you look at other successful MMOs in North America to see what tends to work well over here?

JN: We all play triple A titles, and the team knows what is going on. Asian gamers tend to be less averse to grinding, while American gamers are more accustomed to instant gratification. Within our focus group we had this thing called "The Pit." There was this level where it was very difficult to level up compared to what players were used to until that point, and the American users would say, "Oh my god, it was just so horrible."

We keep that stuff, and we say, "Okay, well did you know that at level 20 there is this big reward?" And they say, "No!" That is one of the solutions we could suggest, we could also add a mini quest that tells players they can get a certain item or a given a certain character advancing choice if they reach a certain level, and that would incentivize people.

It sounds like there's a lot of carrot-on-a-stick incentives for players to keep them motivated.

JN: That's one thing for sure. Korean users will just brush past those levels, saying "Ha, this is kind of taking me a long time, but whatever." But American users could rage quit at that point, and we are very aware that there are a lot of other choices out here.

People often tend to have short attention spans too.

JN: (laughs) Yeah. We want to address that issue, and the team understands what American gamers are used to.

What sort of audience do you hope to attract in terms of size and demographics?

JN: In terms of demographics, this is a 3D fantasy based MMORPG, so we expect most people to have already played or tried some free-to-play stuff. Those would be out hardcore gamers, male players from 15 to 35 years old - it's kind of broad right now. Through our focus group and research we've discovered recently that this style of game appeals to both genders, and the age range tends toward older players or at least older than 18 years.

This is good news for us, because if more women play, great. It seems like the graphical style has been well received; they thought it was charming, women thought it was nice and pretty and guys that it was kind of cool looking.

In terms of size, the bigger the better, and there is certainly a group of people out here that like to play these games, and with broadband penetration increasing every day, and with things like Facebook games, even Moms understand things like microtransactions and enjoy it. I think the market is ready to grow, and we want to be part of growing that market, and show people that "free" doesn't mean "crap," it's a different business model. For microtransaction based games, nothing is more social than a MMORPG, and I think there are a lot of people playing these games.

You mentioned you are primarily targeting a hardcore crowd, and perhaps I'm leaping to conclusions a bit, but a lot of these players are already committed to other MMOs, and they tend to stick with just one game. How do guys combat players' tendencies to stick with what they already have and convince them to try something new?

JN: Well, one of the reasons we chose this game was because first of all, we really respect the developers, we think they have so much potential, and this game has some unique features that we feel are pretty cool. For example, you can fight on land, air, and underwater, and it has a good versus evil system, where every choice you have will push you toward good or evil, and third, once you reach a certain point in the game, you can buy real estate and start building cities. These cities are limited, so you have to defend your city from other guilds.

Going back a bit to designing the game for American audiences, other than the Western-themes holiday events, were there other elements of the game that were custom-built to suit American tastes?

Mark Chang: The thing is, we didn't actually have to make big changes, because many other MMORPGs in the states are being serviced in Korea first, and everything was made for Korean gamers, so when they come here, they have to make some changes. With this game, we aren't servicing it in Korea.

The fundamentals of the MMORPG remain the same, because they come from the D&D ruleset, and it will be the U.S. audience that will play this game first. You could say that this game doesn't have any Asian or Korean ingredients in it yet. So we didn't have to make any big changes, but from the beginning we were providing input. We try to send information to the developers, saying that the game should be this way or that way.

When it comes to free-to-play games, there are a ton of games entering the market all the time, so how do you guys plan to make players aware of your product amid this sea of other titles, especially since this is your first game to launch in North America?

JN: Well, there's always the marketing, and of course talking to the press, but I believe a community grows when people genuinely enjoy something, and word of mouth is the best kind of marketing you can get. We are a significantly sized company in Korea, and we do have the marketing dollars that we'd like to come out here and spend, but we want to focus on the fact that the game is fun.

MC: One of our focus testers actually got her brother and her boyfriend to start playing with her, so as long as the game is good, people will pass on the information.

Do you have plans to release War of Angels in Korean markets after its U.S launch?

JN: Right now, we have the worldwide rights, and it's being serviced throughout the world. In Europe, it's through our partner Gamigo, but we wanted to focus on the North American market first. But for right now, the game will not be released in Korea.

Why did you decide not to launch in Korea as well?

JN: In Korea, we have more than 25 games operating right now, and we want to take time to focus on different things. Trust me, the bulk of our people at HQ are dedicated to the day to day operation of Korean games.

MC: Also, once we service the game in Korea, we'd have to suit the game to the tastes of Korean gamers. Typically, if we brought a game to the U.S. after a year, we'd have to make a lot of changes. We thought it would be better to start with the U.S. from the beginning.

When it comes to free-to-play mictrotransaction based games, how many players out of the total audience have to spend money on items to make the game financially successful?

JN: We have a lot of really good numbers, statistics, and historical data, and I can't tell you the exact numbers, but I can say that form our experience, if you take a subscription based game and turn it into a free to play game, and do it right, your player base should triple or quadruple, and your revenue would double.

What sort of plans do you have after War of Angels releases in North America?

JN: We have three more games that we are preparing for 2011. War of Angels is the first one; it's not going to be a one trick pony, so we are preparing more stuff.

How important do you consider the North American market to be when compared to the rest of the world?

JN: We consider the North American market to be one of the most interesting markets out there. Granted, free-to-play PC games are not as large as console games right now, but it's something we want to dig into. Getting a triple A title out there is risky, and there will always be a market for that, but the social aspect of creating a community and growing into a game that players want to see is the future, we believe.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

['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.]

   

There are a couple of weblogs I read which devote a pretty hefty percentage of their content to obituaries. Blogs devoted to old films or cartoons or comic books are notorious for that sort of thing. It's not something the authors deliberately set out to do -- usually, it's a drive more along the lines of "If I don't talk about and commemorate this fairly important person in my hobby who died, then who will?"

Oftentimes I feel like I'm in the same position whenever a print mag falls by the wayside. I'm not saddened by it -- magazines close for all sorts of reasons even when the economy and industry is doing fantastically well -- but I do feel obligated to write a bit about any title that shuts down because I'm not sure anyone else will note its passing otherwise.

So it is with Gameroom, a very small mag devoted to arcade collecting that officially announced its closure last week.

Gameroom is a neat magazine, although it didn't cover video games at all until nine years after it was founded. When it was begun in 1988 by Dave and Donna Cooper, a pair of Indiana-based collectors, most of its pages were devoted to jukebox collecting -- something that there was a huge marketplace for at the time, as the old vinyl-based jukeboxes got phased out and the generation that grew up with them grew old and acquired the discretionary income needed to save them.

Issues from the '80s and '90s gave coverage chiefly to jukeboxes, pinball machines, antique slots, and other things you'd find by the cash register at the Woolworth's once upon a time.

You'd see articles detailing how to date this or that particular line of penny-arcade machines, readers waxing nostalgic about how they built a side income out of hustling people for pinball bets in the 1940s, and so forth. Like a good computer fanzine, much of it is esoteric and useless, but the best of it contains a certain passion and dedication that's still electrifying to read, years after it was first published.

Gameroom officially began covering arcade games in 1997, later producing one of the first price guides for the hobby. As the years wore on, though, I suppose Gameroom was in sort of an unwinnable situation. The old audience, which read Gameroom for its coverage of jukeboxes and ancient pinball, was thinning out, either due to age or a lack of available product left to cover.

Arcade video game collecting was already a big thing by 1997, but that audience was a generation younger than the old one -- and they were connecting with each other online very early on, starting with Usenet in the early '90s, mainly because nothing else was covering their hobby.

The result is that I'm not sure a lot of folks -- including many hardcore arcade collectors, a few of which I talked with the other day at a local expo about Gameroom's passing -- were aware the magazine was still around at all.

Little niche mags like this one always have trouble advertising themselves, but in an era where MAME cabinets have become fun, cheap DIY projects and retro-everything is bigger than ever in games, I wonder if more could've been done to spread the name around.

Regardless, Gameroom had a solid 23-year run, and that's nothing to sniff at. Most of that run is available in digital form for a price -- so is Loose Change, a similar magazine that covered slot machines exclusively -- so seek it out if you're interested.

[Kevin Gifford used to breed ferrets, but now he's busy running Magweasel, a really cool weblog about games and Japan and "the industry" and things. In his spare time he does writing and translation for lots of publishers and game companies.]

Posted by Kevin Gifford at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)