Global Game Jam to Commence on Jan. 30th

Posted by Alex Lifschitz Categories: Culture,

For those of you who may not know, the Global Game Jam is a worldwide game-off where hundreds of indie game developers will try to rapidly create games based on set criteria in just about 48 hours. This, if you couldn’t tell, is difficult as hell to pull off, but usually leads to a bunch of interesting games. It’s set to go from Jan. 30th to Feb. 1st, in which time the Game Jam will roll over time zones and get the developers cracking. If you’ve played a number of indie games released this year (such as Braid), you know what kinds of minds are going to be fueling this. On the same note, a worldwide keynote will be broadcast for the Game Jam by none other than Kyle Gabler, developer of indie game World of Goo (which, if you haven’t heard, is very very good). The description per the site:

In a Game Jam, participants come together to make video games. Each participant works in a small team on a complete game project over the course of a limited time period, usually over a weekend. With such a small time frame, the games tend to be innovative and experimental. The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the first of its kind: a game Jam that takes place in the same 48 hours all over the world! The global Game Jam will start at 5:00PM Friday, January 30, 2009 through 5:00PM Sunday, February 1, 2009, (all times local). All participants in the Global Game Jam will be constrained by the same rules and limitations, with each time zone having one distinct constraint.

Look forward to more coverage and information about the Game Jam as we learn it, or head over to the site to get it all straight from the horse’s mouth.

Read More | Global Game Jam

Gallery: Global Game Jam to Commence on Jan. 30th

Ready At Dawn Talks PSP, Daxter, God of War

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, PSP,

The Ready At Dawn game studio had already made a name for itself with the impressive Daxter release on the PSP when rumors started swirling that the studio would be tasked to develop the portable version of the God of War franchise. Eventually, the rumors proved true, and now Gamasutra has interviewed Didier Malenfant about the company. Malenfant and Gamasutra discuss the ins-and-outs of the PSP platform (Ready at Dawn finds the 222 mhz default CPU speed most limiting), original vs licensed IP, and the Daxter and God of War engines. Gamasutra also covered the recent phenomenon of reverse ports going from the PSP to the PS2; Ready At Dawn left open the possibility of seeing Daxter hitting the PS2.

Read More | Gamasutra

Gallery: Ready At Dawn Talks PSP, Daxter, God of War

Getting The Most Out Of Cell

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,

It has been said that leveraging the power of Sony’s Cell processor and its architecture will be a lengthy learning process for game developers; Vivendi Games recently participated in a workshop with IBM to try and get a leg up on the process. One of the participants, High Moon, talked with Next Generation about what they learned. High Moon discussed the complexities of utilizing the SPE cores and balancing load; they also talked about new methods of game development and world generation, like “procedure synthesis.” Gamers best exposure to the concepts behind “procedural synthesis” in the future would probably be Wil Wright’s Spore, but one could see the technology being used in a number of different types of games. Still, learning the architecture sounds like it will take time; it could be years before the full power of the Playstation 3 will be unlocked.

Read More | Next Generation

Gallery: Getting The Most Out Of Cell

Gears Of War: $10 Million To Produce

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Third Person Shooters, Xbox 360,

Mark Rein, VP at Epic Games, recently discussed game budgets at the London Game Summit. According to GamesIndustry.biz, Rein claimed that Gears of War production has cost around $10 million. Rein also put the Gears of War development team at around 20 to 30 people, with a development time of two years.

Rein used this as an example of game development that didn’t require “20, 30 million” dollars like other studios have claimed, but Rein doesn’t include the engine development costs in his estimate; since Epic used the Unreal Engine 3 for the game, they basically got that for free. Rein claimed further savings were achieved by outsourcing development. Rein also slid in a slam at other developers claiming that their budget was held tight because “…smart developers don’t go over [deadline].”

Given the uneven feedback that Gears of War has seen, perhaps they might have wanted to go over their deadline for this release. And for all the independent developers out there looking at breaking into the industry, apparently for an A-list title, all that is needed is $10 million, a free next-generation game engine, and a little outsourced development work.

Read More | GamesIndustry.biz

Gallery: Gears Of War: $10 Million To Produce