Jul
27
Are you a BMF at FFA? Prove it a the 2008 2o2p Chicago Lan. It’s not just for bragging rights. There are serious cash prizes at stake. More than $1,000 will be awarded.
Jul
27
As we predicted earlier Sega is going to release PictoImage overseas and in North America. The game is similar to Pictonary and somewhat similar to Agetec’s LOL, which is scheduled to come out at the end of this month. LOL’s rather unique feature is its only multiplayer game. Players pass questions to one another and vote on who has the most amusing answer. In traditional Pictonary style Pictoimage has players guess what one person is trying to draw. Pictoimage has a single player mode where players try to guess the drawing from a database of 300 pictures.
However, unfortunately for Agetec, LOL will only be released online while Pictoimage will have a full retail release when it comes out in August. In terms of sales Pictoimage is destined to be the clear winner. If Chibi-Robo developer Skip just had some kind of single player mode LOL we could have had a real battle.
On the other hand LOL will probably become an obscure collectors item in the future remembered for its rarity. Collectors take note?
Images courtesy of Sega.
Jul
27
['Design Lesson 101' is a regular column by Raven game designer Manveer Heir. The challenge is to play a game from start to completion - and learn something about game design in the process. This week we look at Steven Spielberg's first foray at an original game for the Wii: Boom Blox]
The name Steven Spielberg is synonymous with big Hollywood movies, such as Jaws, Jurassic Park, and Minority Report. When it was revealed that he signed an exclusive contract with EA to produce three games for the next-gen consoles, it was assumed by most that all three games would be like his films: huge blockbusters. So, like many others, I was very surprised to find out that his first title would be a simple physics-based puzzle game on the Wii.
Don’t let appearances fool you. Even though the production values aren’t epic, Spielberg’s Boom Blox manages to produce a very entertaining set of puzzles that can appeal to gamers of all ages. Part of the reason is the fun, kinetic style of play that does a great job of utilizing the Wiimote’s motion features. Additionally, Boom Blox does an excellent job of setting regular, small goals for the player, which is the focus of this design lesson.
Design Lesson: Give regular micro-goals during gameplay, so that the player knows what is expected of him and exactly what to do at all times.
This is a fairly basic rule of design, and complements the design lesson from Sam & Max Season Two, where I talked about the player needing to feel constant progress. Playing Boom Blox re-emphasized this point, so I felt the need to expand on the original lesson.
Boom Blox has a number of types of puzzles within it. Some of the puzzles require the player to topple down structures in the fewest amount of throws. Others require the player to remove blocks Jenga-style for point. There are even some shooting gallery puzzles, that focus on quick reflexes in small amounts of time.
No matter what the puzzle, a couple of things are always true. First, the player is always told exactly what conditions must be met to get a bronze, silver, or gold medal for the puzzle. Second, the puzzles usually last under five minutes. In fact, most of the puzzles take about a minute to complete.
The effect of having such short puzzles, with specific goals, is that the player is constantly aware of exactly what to do at all times. If some of the puzzles took fifteen minutes, you may get frustrated at your inability to make progress or even forget exactly what is needed for a gold medal. If you weren’t told what was necessary for a gold medal, only that it exists, you may have an even harder time reaching that goal.
Think about action games for a moment. How many times have you progressed through a level in a shooter, not knowing exactly what you are trying to do, only because forward is the only way to go? Eventually, you get to the boss or the level objective, at which point you are reminded of why you were running through this particular graveyard on this particular night shooting these particular zombies.
Boom Blox is a completely different type of game, but to me the lesson is still valid. Let the player know, at all times, exactly what to do for the next few minutes of gameplay. String that together enough times, and you are at engaging the player by giving him constant feedback as to his progress.
Boom Blox’s positive feedback results in the unlocking of more puzzles. Completing the first set of puzzles opens the second set, and so-on. One of the more frustrating parts of the game was when I had unlocked all of the single player puzzles, except for one set (“Master Challenges”). The game didn’t tell me what I needed to do to unlock this set of puzzles, so I had to guess.
In other words, I was unsure of my micro-goals that needed to be completed in order to reach my macro-goal of unlocking the “master challenges”. The game told me what I needed to do for all the other unlockable puzzles, tools, and characters, so I didn’t run into this problem until after playing the game for a long time. When it occurred, I got frustrated and looked up what I needed on the internet. It made me realize what a great job the rest of the game had done at setting small, manageable goals for the player.
Spielberg and EA may not have brought us a blockbuster game, in terms of budget, but they have built it from very sound design fundamentals. Boom Blox does an excellent job of setting player expectations up front, with respect to its goals. If its puzzles were longer or the requirements for getting a gold medal unspecified (I’m looking at you Guitar Hero and your inability to tell me what score I need to get 5-stars on a song), the game would have been less enjoyable.
Luckily, the majority of the game focuses the player on small, obtainable goals for completing puzzles and unlocking new puzzles. This makes sure the player is always aware of exactly what to do next, but not necessarily how to do it. This allows the player to make constant progress, which is important to keep a player engaged, and part of why Boom Blox is so much fun.
Bonus Lesson: Destroying things is fun!
This is the other big (and more important) reason Boom Blox is so much fun. There’s not much more to be said about this. Knocking down towers of blocks is just, at its core, enjoyable. It reminds me of being a kid and playing with Lego. More games where I can knock down towers of blocks please!
[Manveer Heir is currently a game designer at Raven Software. He updates his design blog, Design Rampage, regularly. He is interested in thoughtful critique and commentary on the gaming industry.]
Jul
27
Last night, the gates to Hyboria opened to the Early Access masses and I was among the lucky players to get inside. For those unfamiliar, Age of Conan is an MMORPG five years in the making. The game boasts an exciting and revolutionary combat system and jaw-dropping graphics. Blood and gore and partial nudity have earned the game a Mature (18+) rating.
Pre-ordering the game granted players the chance to purchase a limited spot in the Early Access event. For the US players, the Early Access grants them three extra days in Hyboria, while for the European players it grants them six. The game will be launching May 20th and May 23rd respectively.
I participated in the Age of Conan Open Beta, an event that many players criticized for its awful playability and stability. Funcom promised a smoother launch and as far as I’m concerned, they delivered.
The Early Access event got off to a rocky start, as Funcom promised players a 5pm GMT launch time and ended up with a four hour delay. I’m glad for whatever Funcom did in those four hours, though, as the gaming experience was particularly wonderful.
The game ran smooth as silk for me, save for a couple of spots when my FPS dropped down into single-digits. I merely waited it out for a few seconds and it climbed back up. There were no server/client crashes whatsoever. I was suprised by this given the amount of people trying to access the game at the same time.
The loading screens loaded quickly and the opacity effect toward the end of the load gave it a very smooth, transitional look.
I will note, however, that was I on the EU side of things and that there was at least one server that had to be brought down for emergency maintenance. So I’m certain that the experience was different across the board.
Overall, I was incredibly impressed with the improvements Funcom managed to drop into the game the past week. I noted a lot of people praising Funcom in the general chat, so I’m confident that I wasn’t the only one having a smooth time of things.
Today is a new day in Hyboria, so I’m uncertain what it will bring, but I’ll be sure to keep you guys updated from news on the other side.
Feel free to share your tales of adventure or frustration!
Image courtesy of Eidos/Funcom.
Jul
27
Screenshots of Ubisoft’s upcoming next-gen Prince of Persia have surfaced — let the drooling begin.
The new game, which rumors have labeled Prince of Persia Prodigy sports a cel-shaded look, and the new screenshots pretty much confirm that this will be by far the best-looking entry in the series.
More gorgeous shots of the Prince in action at the link.
Prince of Persia Prodigy screeny [Tiscali Games, via NeoGAF]
Jul
27
(Oh yes he did.)
Hideki Kamiya, creator of Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe and director of Okami, made some opening remarks on the Platinum Games’s new Bayonetta website that might just pique PS3 and 360-owning Sega Nerds’ interest. With a bravado usually reserved for Team Ninja’s Tomonobu Itagaki, Kamiya-san wrote the following:
“How have 3D action games evolved since we blazed a new trail with DMC? Can you even go so far as to say they’ve evolved?
Seven years ago, we put everything we had into Devil May Cry. But since then, like the hands of time for the 3D action genre were frozen at that moment, it seems like the drive to push users further has stopped. There is so much more that should be done now. And we are the only ones who seem up to the task. This is the spark that has lit the fire within me.”
But wait! There’s more!
“Pushing 3D Action to a New Dimension”
With that goal in mind, we are going to set the clock on 3D action back into motion. Where we once gave birth to true 3D action, we return to unleash a new truth on the world. A truth only we can create.
We will prove this with BAYONETTA.
Believe us. It will be worth the wait.”
Those are some big words, to say the least.
While Kamiya-san would never be so rude as to directly mention any rival developers, the fact that this opening volley was fired during the lead-up to one of the biggest 360 action games of the summer might say something about his intentions.
[via the Bayonetta official website]
Tags: Bayonetta, Devil May Cry, Hideki Kamiya, Okami, Platinum Games, Viewtiful Joe
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Jul
26
The status quo is that video game play methods are patentable subject matter, provided the game play methodology is new, useful, and nonobvious. Never before has there been a case with the potential to limit video game patents as with the In re Bilski appeal. Today the Federal Circuit heard oral arguments in this case, en banc (i.e., the entire court), including arguments from two amicus parties, which is almost unheard of. A summary of today’s arguments is provided below, as prepared by Bradley C. Wright of Banner & Witcoff. The views expressed in this posting are the views of Mr. Wright, and not necessarily the views of Banner & Witcoff:
FEDERAL CIRCUIT MAY CLAMP DOWN ON PROCESS PATENTS
by Bradley C. Wright
Banner & Witcoff, Ltd.
On May 8, 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held a rare en banc hearing to determine what constitutes a patentable process under the patent laws. The appeal was from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), which had rejected Bilski’s patent application for a method for managing consumption risk costs of a commodity. The claimed process included three steps involving various transactions between a commodity provider and market participants in a way that balanced risk. The PTO rejected the patent application on the basis that it was not a “process” as that term is defined in the patent statute and earlier court decisions. According to the PTO, in order to be patentable, a process must either be tied to a particular machine, or it must transform a tangible article to a different state. Because Bilski’s claimed invention did neither, it did not meet the definition of a “process.”
Bilski’s attorney argued to the court that a process should be patentable if it produces a “practical result,” regardless whether it is tied to a machine or transforms something tangible. According to Bilski’s attorney, the various transactions recited in the claim were very specific and involved real-world activities. Several of the judges appeared to have difficulty agreeing with Bilski’s proposed “real-world” test for patentability. Bilski also argued that the more specific a patent claim is, the less likely it is to constitute an abstract idea, which the Supreme Court has stated is unpatentable. Several of the judges also appeared to question whether the “useful, concrete and tangible” test seemingly created in its earlier State Street Bank case provided a workable standard to judge patentability, but Bilski’s attorney endorsed the continuation of that standard.
Professor Duffy argued on behalf of the Regulatory Data Corp., one of many amicus parties in the case, that the PTO has taken too narrow a view of what is a patentable process, and urged the Federal Circuit not to draw any bright-line rules. Instead, Duffy proposed that the court look at various factors to determine whether a process was patentable. He argued that the breadth of the claim should be one factor to consider, and seemed to agree that the degree to which the claim was connected to “real-world” activities could be another factor, but the judges seemed to have difficulty eliciting a clear list of factors that should be considered or which might be more important than others. He also criticized the requirement that there must be something tangible and physical in order to constitute a patentable process. Some of the judges appeared to have difficulty accepting the lack of any concrete standard under this “factor-based” test.
The PTO argued that the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Diamond v. Diehr made it clear that in order to be patentable, a process must either be tied to a machine or must transform physical subject matter. The judges explored whether throwing a baseball “transformed” the baseball in a patentable way, which the PTO answered in the negative. One of the judges asked whether a method of performing chiropractic might constitute a patentable “transformation,” but the PTO did not take a position one way or another on that question. Some of the judges expressed concern that adopting a rigid rule might eliminate patents on software, but the PTO responded that most software implemented on computers would still be patentable because they transformed the computer and the software was tied to a machine. Chief Judge Michel pointed out that the Supreme Court had previously ruled that not every process tied to a machine would be patentable if there was insignificant “post-solution activity.”
Bill Lee argued on behalf of the financial services industry (another amicus) that the court should adopt a factor-based test based on three principles: First, abstract ideas and mental processes should not be patentable. Second, a process involving a physical transformation of matter would normally be patentable, but he rejected the idea that throwing a baseball “transforms” the ball in any way. Third, a process that is tied to a physical machine in a non-conventional way might be patentable, but not if it was tied in a conventional way. Several of the judges questioned whether “non-conventional” should be an added requirement for a process, given that every process must already be novel and nonobvious in order to qualify for a patent.
Finally, Bilski’s attorney in rebuttal argued that the information recited in Bilski’s patent application constituted something that was “physical” and he reiterated his point that there was real-world interaction recited in the claim, which was all that was needed to satisfy State Street Bank’s “useful, concrete and tangible” test.
Although it is difficult to predict what the court might say in ruling on Bilski’s patent application, it seems likely that the PTO’s decision will be upheld and Bilski’s claim to a method of managing risk will not be deemed to be patentable. Two of the judges appeared to take a broad view of patentable subject matter, leaving patentability to be determined under the remaining the standards of novelty, nonobviousness, and definiteness. Several judges appeared concerned about eliminating broad categories of invention such as computer software or financial industries. Some of the judges seemed concerned about allowing process patents only where the process was tied to a particular machine or transformed subject matter in some way. But a majority of the judges appeared to have difficulty accepting that Bilski’s claim was something that the patent laws were intended to cover.
In this author’s opinion, the most likely outcome is that the Federal Circuit will create two safe harbors for process patent patentability, and leave open the door to future technological developments that might fall within additional safe harbors. The two safe harbors would be that a process involving steps tied to another category of invention (e.g., a machine or a composition of matter) could be patentable, and a process that transforms something tangible could be patentable. Mere manipulation of numbers, without more, would not be patentable. Bilski’s claim, which seems to recite intangible principles of arranging a financial transaction in a certain way, would fail the test. Similarly, patents involving methods of playing sports or other activities lacking machinery or other tangible things might not survive the court’s decision. But the court is likely to tread carefully so that it does not wipe out patents in whole industry areas, such as banking and computer software. And the court will likely refine its earlier State Street Bank decision to clarify that “useful, concrete and tangible result” is not enough for patentability.
Jul
26
Há alguns dias postei um trecho de uma música da trilha sonora do filme Juno e os leitores queridos desse blog repararam que o cheat code citado na canção é o clássico [leia mais]
Jul
26
RGCD Issue Four
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RGCD is a downloadable CD-ROM based magazine containing retro reviews, features and developer interviews. Each issue of RGCD contains direct links (to files on disc) of each game, emulator or tool reviewed irrespective of platform.
Previews of each issue are available at www.rgcd.co.uk, but in order to actually read the rest of the articles and reviews you’ll need to download the .ISO image and either burn it to disc or mount it on a virtual drive. There is also a cut-down ‘lite’ version (excluding all games and emulators) provided as a downloadable .ZIP archive.
RGCD is 100% spyware free and all files are virus checked before uploading. Magazine contents are posted in the comments section.
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Jul
26
The dungeons section of the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King web site has been updated with a new dungeon from the upcoming expansion.
Learn more about the blue dragonflight’s home base in Northrend, the Nexus.
Check out the new Nexus page now!
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