Britton Peele's Blog

Originally published in The Daily Toreador.

Last week the 2008 Game Developers Conference took place in San Francisco.

Like the D.I.C.E. Summit earlier this month, GDC is a gathering of developers to share ideas and strategies. It is often considered a higher profile event in the general public’s eyes, as several developers also announce and show off unreleased games during the show. Some highlights from the event include:

- Gears of War 2 was announced, surprising no one in particular. Nothing else is really known, except that player will now be able to take part in chainsaw duels.

- Even if you don’t know the name Will Wright, you know his work. Sim City? His. The Sims? His. He’s been an extremely influential man in the video game industry. He gave a great speech one night at GDC to a room of drunken developers (really). He talked about stories in general, covering topics such as Gilligan’s Island, James Bond, Legos, Star Wars, Battlestar Gallactica, Godzilla, and lunchboxes. And his ‘Russian Space Minute’? Fantastic. Look for it online if you have a chance.

- Bionic Commando and Bionic Commando Rearmed were shown and demonstrated. Both games look very promising. Rearmed, the 2D remake of the original Bionic Commando released on the NES in 1988, should be here around May. The new game, coming to Xbox 360, PS3 and PC later this year, also looks like a lot of fun.

- Street Fighter IV was playable and looks great. As a fighting game fan I can’t wait to try it myself. The game has 3D visuals but 2D Gameplay, bringing back memories of the old arcade days. While Capcom claims that the game is only about halfway complete, it should arrive both on consoles and in arcades later this year.

- Too Human: I’ve been interested in this game for quite awhile now and I’m extremely glad to see it finally coming together. It’s an action RPG that focuses on the idea that the “gods” in Norse mythology were really highly advanced in the ways of technology. Thus, it’s a sci-fi adventure with some fantasy sprinkled in.

- Fable 2: Sequel to the original Xbox and PC “Fable” title. The key features announced were an interesting cooperative mode, plus a gambling Xbox Live Arcade side game that will net you money in the real game. Neat idea, at the very least.

- Final Fantasy: My Life as King: One of the more interesting titles that will be downloadable via Nintendo’s WiiWare service at some point (the services launches in May), it’s like Final Fantasy, but also like a strategy game… Or something. Sounds like it could be addicting.

- Mario Kart Wii: It’s Mario Kart… On the Wii! Lots of courses, online play, and bikes…

- Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode 1: It’s quite possible that this game – with a mouthful of a name – will be entirely bogged down with super crude language and content like the comics often are, but it looks like a ton of fun. Half point-and-click adventure game, half RPG, it’s based on the extremely popular web comic. It will be released episodically starting later this year.

- Lego Batman and Lego Indiana Jones: If you played either of the Lego Star Wars titles then you might know what to expect with these games. A popular franchise converted into little blocks and made into a great game. The results of the Star Wars experiments were quite successful, so hopefully these new games will be as well.

Last week, perhaps the most eventful thing in the gaming world was D.I.C.E.

No, there wasn’t a sudden resurgence of Risk and Dungeons & Dragons players (wouldn’t that be awesome?), but rather a 2008 game developers’ conference in Las Vegas, hosted by the Academy of Arts and Sciences. The D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit is a three day conference primarily for people who make video games to gather, bringing some of the most creative minds in the industry together in one place.

The show opened with a keynote address from Gore Verbinski, director of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies. He seems an odd choice for a speaker at an event for interactive entertainment, when he’s had little to do with video games, and sure enough he opened by talking about the “Pirates” movies and the criticisms they received.

He did eventually relate this to storytelling in games, warning game developers of what he called “the homogenization of voice.” He cautioned the industry against letting their creativity be stifled by commerce and the mass consumer. He also worked in some good bashing of licensed games – particularly games based on films – which are notorious for have rushed development cycles, low production values, and overall bad quality.

Above all, he discussed storytelling, advising game makers on what “Hollywood” traps to avoid, and how he thought it was best to handle interactive media. Near the end of his address, he seemed to stress “madness”, mentioning “Guitar Hero” as a concept that was a long time coming, as it took awhile to convince publishers that a plastic guitar would sell well. “But that wasn’t what the Guitar Hero guys understood,” Verbinski said. “They understood that, at one point, everyone has stood in front of a mirror with a tennis racket and just rocked out.”

Verbinski of course wasn’t the only speaker at the event. Over the course of the conference attendants were able to sit in on seminars by developers at companies such as Blizzard Entertainment, Microsoft Game Studios, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Insomniac Games, Q Entertainment, and more. Topics of this speeches were over a variety of topics, with titles including, “Characters in Games”, “Implementing Creativity”, “Designing for Money”, “Breaking the Broken Model”, and more.

On top of speeches and a few unreleased games themselves being playable, the summit also hosted the 11^th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. A show that definitely strives to be like the Oscars, the awards honored a variety of games for a long list of categories, such as “Best Multiplayer Game of the Year”, “Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack”, “Outstanding Achievement in Story Development”, and so on.

The big award, as expected, was “Game of the Year” (equivalent to “Best Picture”). The nominees surprised few people, with the biggest titles of 2007 being represented. “Bioshock”, “Call of Duty 4”, “Rock Band”, “Super Mario Galaxy”, and “The Orange Box.”

The overall winner, walking away with four awards total including “Game of the Year” and “Console Game of the Year”, was “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare” for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC.

For a full list of winners, as well as more on the D.I.C.E. Summit, you can visit www.dicesummit.org, or read the official coverage provided by www.gamespot.com.