GDC recap
Well after spending the week in San Jose I am back and feeling jet lagged. I don’t travel much so I guess I am feeling it more than I should.
This was my first GDC so I really didn’t know what to expect. I have been to the E3 numerous times and it was my understanding that the GDC was more about learning that um… giant booths. I was happy to find this was the case.
My days were filled with lectures and demos. I primarily followed the “game design” track with some high-level programming tracks thrown in. Most of the programming lectures were not applicable to web-based games. Let’s recap each so I don’t forget what I learned.
Day 1
Wednesday 9:00 am
“Lemke’s Algorithm: The Hammer in Your Programming Toolbox” by Chris Hecker
After a free breakfast and about 5 cups of coffee I went to “Lemke’s Algorithm: The Hammer in Your Programming Toolbox” by Chris Hecker. Chris referred to the old saying, “if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. While this normally a negative outlook, the speaker was saying this isn’t always bad. If you can make math problems fit one uniform format you can use one easy equation to figure them out. He was to show us how to format five varying math problems into Mixed Linearer Complementary Problems (MLCP) and inspire us to learn about “hammer” (LA) on our own. Actually he just showed formatting the problems and we didn’t see LA at all. We were given web resources to go find out about LA on our own. Sounded pretty exciting, but didn’t turn out as I had hoped.
The first math problem was easing. Ok, easy enough. The second example was using multiple easing equations to produce splines. Ok, still following.
The third example was network balancing. Ok, not relative to my area of games, but relevant especially in MMO games. There was a lot of network flow diagrams and thing started to get confusing but I wasn’t sweating it, as network balancing isn’t really my area of interest. The speaker was getting faster and faster by this point and I couldn’t have followed if I wanted to.
The fourth example was finding point inside of planes. We were back on track to something I could use, but the speaker was getting more and more hurried and there was no way I could follow what was going on. The last example was blown through, I don’t even remember what it was as the speaker was already running over time. He gave a very quick run down (rush through) of formatting the problems using Legrangian math and told us to go read about Lemke’s algorithm and email book authors if we had questions.
This started out great and ended terribly. He should have had 3 examples and delved MUCH more into formatting the problems and using Lemke’s Algorithm.
Wednesday 10:30 AM
“Game Design: Risk and Return” with Masahiro Sakurai
Sakurai is the designer of such legendary games such as Kirby’s Dreamland and Super Smash Bros. Melee. He spoke on the machines of making games fun and how this can be accomplished in a pseudo-scientific method.
This risk/reward method is what makes games fun. For example, in Mario you cannot kill a koopa from across the screen. You have to get (literally) right on top of your enemies to defeat them. This is satisfying and give you a sense of accomplishment and hence, the fun.
Based off this, you then build strategies. Using Street Fighter as an example (the best game ever made) he showed how using certain moves to beat other moves. An uppercut beats a jump kick, etc. He showed other examples of strategy with rock/paper/scissor type scenarios like Fire Emblem’s “triangle” method.
Building these strategies and letting your player execute them makes them feel as if they have made the right decisions and given them satisfaction and again, the fun.
He then gave the most insightful breakdown of Space Invaders ever conceived, how shooting each enemy you are placing yourself in a risk/reward scenario. Also how if you lead the enemies as they are moving to the side as opposed to following them, you are placing yourself in a better shooting position (strategy!)
The translator was terrible, but this was one of my favorite lectures.
Wednesday 2:30 PM
“The Evolution of a Franschise: The Legend of Zelda” with Eiji Aonuma
Aonuma is the director of the Zelda franchise nowadays. The translator was about 100x better, which was nice. He spoke on what made Zelda good, the Zelda-ness he called it.
Pretty interesting talk, he was a very good presenter. He told some stories about Miyamoto which were hilarious. He went over a few scenes and showed the subtle nuances that make Zelda so great.
Too much history, this was a theme, especially with the Japanese presenters. I guess they think people at the GDC had never played games or something. Maybe they didn’t know what GDC stood for. I am a freaking game fanatic. I know what Zelda is, I freaking cry when I hear the theme song. They left out the CDI Zelda history conveniently enough.
Wednesday 4:00 PM
“Game Design Methods of ICO” with Kenji Kaido & Fumito Ueda
This was not educational at all, but being it was about ICO it was great. The showed their original concept movies and the progress of the game. In the original the girl had the horns and was apparently shopping at Hot Topic.
It looked like they were about 60% done on the PS1 before they migrated to the PS2. Basically I got that if you know you have an awesome game idea, stick with it and don’t compromise or give up.
More on the GDC tomorrow.
Here are couple patterns. Here is a weird pattern that emerged while trying to make this one. I kept it cause I had a desire to fly through it. I will make a little ship next time so you can fly about in the patterns.
Well after spending the week in San Jose I am back and feeling jet lagged. I don’t travel much so I guess I am feeling it more than I should.
This was my first GDC so I really didn’t know what to expect. I have been to the E3 numerous times and it was my understanding that the GDC was more about learning that um… giant booths. I was happy to find this was the case.
My days were filled with lectures and demos. I primarily followed the “game design” track with some high-level programming tracks thrown in. Most of the programming lectures were not applicable to web-based games. Let’s recap each so I don’t forget what I learned.
Day 1
Wednesday 9:00 am
“Lemke’s Algorithm: The Hammer in Your Programming Toolbox” by Chris Hecker
After a free breakfast and about 5 cups of coffee I went to “Lemke’s Algorithm: The Hammer in Your Programming Toolbox” by Chris Hecker. Chris referred to the old saying, “if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. While this normally a negative outlook, the speaker was saying this isn’t always bad. If you can make math problems fit one uniform format you can use one easy equation to figure them out. He was to show us how to format five varying math problems into Mixed Linearer Complementary Problems (MLCP) and inspire us to learn about “hammer” (LA) on our own. Actually he just showed formatting the problems and we didn’t see LA at all. We were given web resources to go find out about LA on our own. Sounded pretty exciting, but didn’t turn out as I had hoped.
The first math problem was easing. Ok, easy enough. The second example was using multiple easing equations to produce splines. Ok, still following.
The third example was network balancing. Ok, not relative to my area of games, but relevant especially in MMO games. There was a lot of network flow diagrams and thing started to get confusing but I wasn’t sweating it, as network balancing isn’t really my area of interest. The speaker was getting faster and faster by this point and I couldn’t have followed if I wanted to.
The fourth example was finding point inside of planes. We were back on track to something I could use, but the speaker was getting more and more hurried and there was no way I could follow what was going on. The last example was blown through, I don’t even remember what it was as the speaker was already running over time. He gave a very quick run down (rush through) of formatting the problems using Legrangian math and told us to go read about Lemke’s algorithm and email book authors if we had questions.
This started out great and ended terribly. He should have had 3 examples and delved MUCH more into formatting the problems and using Lemke’s Algorithm.
Wednesday 10:30 AM
“Game Design: Risk and Return” with Masahiro Sakurai
Sakurai is the designer of such legendary games such as Kirby’s Dreamland and Super Smash Bros. Melee. He spoke on the machines of making games fun and how this can be accomplished in a pseudo-scientific method.
This risk/reward method is what makes games fun. For example, in Mario you cannot kill a koopa from across the screen. You have to get (literally) right on top of your enemies to defeat them. This is satisfying and give you a sense of accomplishment and hence, the fun.
Based off this, you then build strategies. Using Street Fighter as an example (the best game ever made) he showed how using certain moves to beat other moves. An uppercut beats a jump kick, etc. He showed other examples of strategy with rock/paper/scissor type scenarios like Fire Emblem’s “triangle” method.
Building these strategies and letting your player execute them makes them feel as if they have made the right decisions and given them satisfaction and again, the fun.
He then gave the most insightful breakdown of Space Invaders ever conceived, how shooting each enemy you are placing yourself in a risk/reward scenario. Also how if you lead the enemies as they are moving to the side as opposed to following them, you are placing yourself in a better shooting position (strategy!)
The translator was terrible, but this was one of my favorite lectures.
Wednesday 2:30 PM
“The Evolution of a Franschise: The Legend of Zelda” with Eiji Aonuma
Aonuma is the director of the Zelda franchise nowadays. The translator was about 100x better, which was nice. He spoke on what made Zelda good, the Zelda-ness he called it.
Pretty interesting talk, he was a very good presenter. He told some stories about Miyamoto which were hilarious. He went over a few scenes and showed the subtle nuances that make Zelda so great.
Too much history, this was a theme, especially with the Japanese presenters. I guess they think people at the GDC had never played games or something. Maybe they didn’t know what GDC stood for. I am a freaking game fanatic. I know what Zelda is, I freaking cry when I hear the theme song. They left out the CDI Zelda history conveniently enough.
Wednesday 4:00 PM
“Game Design Methods of ICO” with Kenji Kaido & Fumito Ueda
This was not educational at all, but being it was about ICO it was great. The showed their original concept movies and the progress of the game. In the original the girl had the horns and was apparently shopping at Hot Topic.
It looked like they were about 60% done on the PS1 before they migrated to the PS2. Basically I got that if you know you have an awesome game idea, stick with it and don’t compromise or give up.
More on the GDC tomorrow.
Here are couple patterns. Here is a weird pattern that emerged while trying to make this one. I kept it cause I had a desire to fly through it. I will make a little ship next time so you can fly about in the patterns.
posted by Brad Merritt at 5:09 PM
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