Gamesauce: Global Inspiration for Game Developers » Seattle 2010

Ten Years of Keeping People Working – Mat Noguchi, Bungie

Jessica Tams — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:14:28 +0000

Ten years is a long time for a game engine to survive. Bungie has managed to ship four (and soon five) games based off of the Halo engine. In this talk, Mat will go over one of the critical components of that engine, the tag system. The tag system is how everyone at Bungie thinks about and works with content, from designers who need to populate levels with gameplay and AI encounters, to artists who need to get textures and geometry into the game, to programmers who need to write the features that use all that content. Over the years, it has had to scale to an ever increasing amount of data, all while remaining surprisingly stable and consistent enough for people to get work done. It has been a long and arduous journey, and Mat will be sharing various lessons learned, not only practical but philosophical as well.

- Mat Noguchi, Senior Programmer, Bungie

Train: How I Dumped Electricity and Learned to Love Design Brenda Brathwaite

Jessica Tams — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:18:25 +0000

How does a game designer fall deeply, passionately in love with their field again? How does one come to believe that the game mechanic is more powerful than photography, paint and the written word? Veteran game designer Brenda Brathwaite chronicles her journey on this path. Returning to her native paper prototyping, Brathwaite started work upon a series of six intentionally non-digital ‘gallery games’ each designed to explore a difficult topic. Currently working on the fourth game in the series, One Falls for Each of Us, Brenda’s work so far has resulted in both awards and the highest praise she’s ever received for a game. In this talk, Brathwaite discusses her inspiration for the unlikely series of games, shows work in progress, and provides a postmortem on the most famous game in the series, Train.

Motivating Casual Players in An Online Game – Laralyn McWilliams

Jessica Tams — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:08:22 +0000

Many online games rely on leveling up, stat increases, and item unlocking for the carrots that retain players. Sony Online Entertainment launched Free Realms as one of the first, large casual MMOs, and learned a lot in the first year about what motivates casual players to play, return, and spend money. This presentation presents examples of alternative player motivation and progression, using games like Free Realms, Pogo and Farmville for development examples. It includes a methodology that steps you through the usual and some unusual choices in player motivation techniques. It also takes a critical look at how casual games, social games and large brands are innovating in player progression and motivation.

- Laralyn McWilliams, Senior Producer, Sony Online Entertainment

How Nine Women Can Have A Baby In A Month: Making the Most of Multiple Cores – John Harries

Jessica Tams — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:07:26 +0000

How Nine Women Can Have A Baby In A Month: Making the Most of Multiple Cores Efficient Asynchronous Engine Design for the PS3 and 360 In the hectic, time-pressured world of game engine creation, engine architecture for new hardware starts from the most readily available solutions. This has lead many developers to build current generation multi-platform engines based on simplistic context-free multi-threaded job schedulers. In this talk, John contends that, not only is this inefficient, but it spreads inefficiencies throughout the game; and John presents an alternative model for building a robust, and easy to maintain, high-performance multi-core engine.

- John Harries

How to Train Your Publisher – Jamil Moledina

Jessica Tams — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:06:54 +0000

Do you find that your pitch falls on deaf ears? Once signed, do you find that you have to dig in your heels and demand things be done? Or do you find yourself caving at every request? In this session, Indie developers as well as seasoned studios will have the not-so-accessible opportunity to hear candidly from the “other side of the table.” Pick up practical pointers on the importance of relationship management, project planning, and responsibility ownership during the whole life-cycle — from the pitch, to development, and on through the marketing and distribution process. You will hear how to make the changing market work to your advantage, and how to develop a long-term mutually beneficial relationship with a publisher.

- Jamil Moledina, Outreach Director, Business Development EA Partners

You’re Doing It Wrong: The Creation and Survival of Runic Games – Travis Baldree

Jessica Tams — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:02:08 +0000

During a year of economic downturn and the closure of countless studios, how Runic Games survived and released their first title. These are Travis’ observations on what worked, what didn’t, and what was absolutely most important to their success ( it’s the people! ). If you’ve ever fantasized about starting your own shop, Travis will give you an unvarnished tour of the steps involved in their own startup.

Designer Vs Coders: Flawless Victory. How designers can work with coders and nobody dies – Dan Boutros

Jessica Tams — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 17:59:37 +0000

Using anecdotes of his own and from friends, Dan makes suggestions on how programmers and designers can get on better instead of needlessly bickering all the time. Because programmers are stupid, and they smell.

- Dan Boutros

Practical Applications for Art Outsourcing – Greg Foertsch

Jessica Tams — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 17:58:16 +0000

In order to provide the volume of content needed to compete in today?s market, the use of outsourcing is a necessity. However, is one outsourcer the same as someone in house? This session will examine realistic expectations for quality and ways to bridge the gaps between artists that are in and out of house in a way that maximizes your outsourcing dollar.

- Greg Foertsch, Art Director, Firaxis Games

Just Getting Started – Ian Fischer

Jessica Tams — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 17:56:29 +0000

Just Getting Started : The role of emergence in gaming and the part it plays in the future of the medium.

- Ian Fischer, Design Director, Robot Entertainment

Q&A: The Evolution of the FPS – John Romero & Rick Johnson

Jessica Tams — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:24:55 +0000

A question and answer session with John Romero, one of the early pioneers of the FPS genre, relates his experiences and thinking on the evolution of this paradigm.

- John Romero, President, Gazillion Entertainment
- Interview by Rick Johnson, Programmer, Valve