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[bishoptl]

What's up fellas - I'm at the Nintendo booth chilling right now. Gotta love that Brain Training DS, it's ridiculously good!

Hit a lot of presentations over the past few days, I'll do a proper writeup later.

 

[bud]

Did F5 ever show new footage of Lair?

 

[Vaandaviii]

Did F5 ever show new footage of Lair?

I've been pressing it for 2 days and nothing has happened

 

[Ark-AMN]

Not a bad day so far. Got to see Gears of War character creation, and then met Gabe Newell (Valve) and Ray Muzyka (BioWare), so it was pretty cool.

Spend the rest of the day in the expo till it closes then head to the final session I'm attending which is the Nintendo Wireless presentation

As for Lair, it was scheduled on GDC's website to be shown yesterday, but it was never actually schedule here at the show, so I assume it didn't take place, so no Lair.

Oh well, GAF Fairmont meet-up at 6pm should be the highlight of the day. Hope you'll show up Bishoptl

 

[TekunoRobby]

You're a ghost dude, I've met everyone but you!

 

[element]

I'm in the fairmount pit right now

 

[element]

Did F5 ever show new footage of Lair?

I asked the F5 guys and they were clueless.

 

[Straightballin]

With the addition of 60gb harddrive in the ps3 im expecting something big from sony. I have no doubt in my mind that there will be Psone game downloads but what else?

 

[sonycowboy]

GDC 06: Molyneux no-show fuels rumors

Famed developer skips his session at San Jose event, fueling rumors his studio has been bought by Microsoft.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--One of the main events at last month's D.I.C.E. summit was the "Battle of Bunker Hill," a Revolutionary War-themed mock gameshow in which some of the industry's leading luminaries engaged in a combination trivia/Pong tournament. Scheduled to lead the two teams were legendary game designers Will Wright (The Sims, SimCity) and Peter Molyneux (Black & White, Populous).

When the event kicked off, though, Molyneux was nowhere to be seen. His absence fueled rumors that his shop, Lionhead Studios, was the subject of a bidding war. Among the potential suitors mentioned were Electronic Arts, Microsoft, and Ubisoft.

Over the subsequent month, the rumors festered. On March 3, Lionhead laid off between 50 and 100 people, and reduced its number of projects-in-development from three to two--a Black & White 2 expansion and a Fable sequel. Today, the floodgates of speculation re-opened, when Molyneux's session at the 2006 Game Developers Conference in San Jose was summarily canceled.

No official reason was given for the termination of the session, which was titled "Inspirations for Next Generation Designs." However, word on the GDC show floor was that Molyneux hadn't shown up because he had pressing matters back at Lionhead headquarters in the UK.

According to Gamesindustry.biz, those matters are the "final stages of negotiation" between Microsoft and Lionhead. Citing sources inside Lionhead, British site says that the deal could be closed within days, and that no job losses would result. The site also claims that Ubisoft was outbid by the software giant, and is none too happy as a result.

But, as is often the case with all matters Microsoft, nothing is official until it's announced. A weary-sound spokesperson told Microsoft told GameSpot, "As always, Microsoft does not comment on rumors or speculation." Lionhead reps had not returned requests for comment.

 

[j^aws]

Graphics Rendering with OpenGL ES - GDC 2006 presentations

March 24, 2006 The presentations from the day-long tutorial on March 21st at Game Developers Conference 2006 are now online. These PowerPoint slides provide an in-depth look at the latest technologies in OpenGL ES and how they can be applied to cutting-edge game graphics, with special attention is given to the unique performance and design requirements of embedded applications. Topics include Advanced Rendering, ColladaFX, PlayStation GL, Portable Engine Developement, Performance Optimizatin and more.

The following ppt's are available from the link,


All_OpenGL_ES_Tutorials_GDC_2006.zip

GLESTutorial01-Khronos_Overview.ppt

GLESTutorial02-OpenGLES_Overview.ppt

GLESTutorial03-Advanced_Rendering.ppt

GLESTutorial04-OpenGL_ES_Performance_Optimization.ppt

GLESTutorial05-OpenGL_ES_On_Symbian.ppt
GLESTutorial06-

Portable_OpenGL_ES_3D_Engine_Development.ppt

GLESTutorial07-PlayStation_GL.ppt

GLESTutorial08-ColladaFX.ppt

http://www.khronos.org/developers/content/GDC_2006/

Enjoy! Haven't read them yet though!

 

[Lathentar]

You're a ghost dude, I've met everyone but you!

I don't think you ever met me!

So, I hung out most of the time in the Independent Games Area next to my booth (NERO). We had a lot of interesting people drop by and I demoed the game for a couple of people. I was around when Gabe Newell dropped by and looked at the game. It was funny to see the inventor of the technology behind the game and Gabe debate and argue with each other over its uses. I was sitting there holding back a laugh.

Anyways, I had a BLAST at my first GDC. A couple of great talks (Nintendo Keynote, Civ4 Prototyping, and Left/Right Brain) really were exciting. I got a ton of free swag (10+ shirts from Nintendo alone) and some great connections. I'll be hanging out with a guy from Retro tomorrow at the airport and should have an interview with them sometime in April. Very very cool stuff.

Super Mario Bros. was awesome.
Brain Age is amazing. (Especially considering it was free)
So tiring, though I wish I got a chance to party more and meet some gaf people.

 

[gofreak]

Amazing what some random blog browsing can find you...

Resistance:

Ratchet & Clank:

Motorstorm:

F1/Interface:

 

[gofreak]

Warhawk:

The Getaway:

Vehicle Dynamics:

HS/Havok Ragdolls:

That's all the game/demo shots, but there are more slides and stuff here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sgda/117465171/in/photostream/

Found from this blog:

http://www.wonderlandblog.com/wonderland/2006/03/gdc_phil_harris.html

It also has a transcript-ish summary of the conference.

 

[yoopoo]

Wow R&C looks so damn hot. But nothing else looks anything above 360 stuff.

 

[Goreomedy]

Finally! Motorstorm and Warhawk look so early, it isn't even funny. I know they said December/2005 builds, but what should we expect at E3. Given time, I'm sure the games will be excellent. But probably not polished until around TGS... Motorstorm even later than that.

R & C looks better than Dreamworks' Robots.

 

[Wollan]

Awesome find gofreak. Games looks much better than what certain impressions seem to say.

 

[jarosh]

maybe you should post them in a separate thread. i don't think people are still following this thread and/or expecting new stuff in here.

 

[gofreak]

maybe you should post them in a separate thread. i don't think people are still following this thread and/or expecting new stuff in here.

True enough, I guess. Mods can always delete it if it's surplus to requirement, but a new thread might get more attention at this stage. Gimme a minute or two..

 

[Goreomedy]

maybe you should post them in a separate thread. i don't think people are still following this thread and/or expecting new stuff in here.

Yeah, this thread is pretty much dead.

:lol @ the blog entry for the desert car demo:

Now another demo.. once again, much more in a game environment. Based on physics. Vehicle dynamics. Here’s SCEE London. We start here with a car – this is definitely not a car that you would see in a traditional racing game. Check out the paint shaders on this. We can simulate the imperfections you see in paint on a car. Let's add some by shooting at it. The car is being procedurally destroyed by the bullets here. This is a combo of graphics, physics and dynamics all combining to extend the sophistication .. this is from a forthcoming title that we haven’t announced, so.. well, you can see it’s clearly an action game. [Alice note: It’s Halo, guessing by the environment]

Halo? ... :lol

 

[SolidSnakex]

Finally! Motorstorm and Warhawk look so early, it isn't even funny.

Motorstorm looks early but Warhawk still looks like the E3 video in those pics just in a different section. I wonder if Brian will update his website about this again like he did for the TGS showing (which also looked just like the E3 footage)?

Good call. Yes, it really is real gameplay footage. Yes, that really is the water that will be in the final game. Yes, you really can battle against several hundred enemies at a time.

 

[bishoptl]

Wow R&C looks so damn hot. But nothing else looks anything above 360 stuff.

You weren't there in person. Insomniac's FPS looked kinda meh, as did the car decal demo, but everything else...whoa.

 

[Matlock]

You weren't there in person. Insomniac's FPS looked kinda meh, as did the car decal demo, but everything else...whoa.

what did you think of miss cunty

 

[inpHilltr8r]

You weren't there in person. Insomniac's FPS looked kinda meh, as did the car decal demo, but everything else...whoa.

He did say the FPS wasn't using the SPUs yet. The car demo was kinda unpolished. The fish were underwhelming. Motorstorm looked pretty good, as did the exploding army thing. BUT these were all tech demo's. We didn't really see anything that could be considered an actual game that you would buy. But then this was GDC, not E3. Technology demos and announcements were exactly what I expected for an audience of developers.

 

[gofreak]

An amusing/interesting anecdote from Dean Takahashi at GDC here (sorry if already posted):

I was sitting in the Xbox Live Marketplace lecture by James Miller, the Microsoft manager on the business that alllows gamers to download demos or even buy games to store on their hard drives on the Xbox 360. So far, gamers have downloaded more than 10 million items on Xbox Live Marketplace. It's been a very successful program, and Sony announced yesterday it would duplicate it with the Sony e-distribution network on the PlayStation Network. A Sony executive walked in and I asked him, "Are you here for competitive analysis?" He said, pointing at the screen, "Yes, this is going to be our strategy." I laughed. But then I saw Phil Harrison, executive vice president of Sony's worldwide studios, walk in and take a seat. I guess the other guy wasn't kidding.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2006/03/xbox_live_marke.html

 

[SolidSnakex]

An amusing/interesting anecdote from Dean Takahashi at GDC here (sorry if already posted):



http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2006/03/xbox_live_marke.html

I guess that makes it all the more amusing that Sony is often accused of being arrogant even though they're doing things like this.

 

[Raistlin]

I guess that makes it all the more amusing that Sony is often accused of being arrogant even though they're doing things like this.

While their PR generally has a lot of bite ... and Ken has practically made hyperbole and art-form ... Sony is a pretty solid business.

Many would argue that that is what has put them in the position they are in today. Nintendo and Sega left a lot to be desired in this arena, so once a well organized multi-faceted business came along … things weren’t pretty.

If anything, it looks like Sony is simply getting better at this game with the PS3. Not only does it appear they have listened to gamers wants in many respects, but they are also keeping a very keen eye on the competition.

 

[Striek]

So no one went to the Softimage/Matthias Worch lecture on Lair; FrankenDragon Flies Again! Creating Playstation 3 Art for Lair ?

The lecture was on Thursday morning, and it went over really well. The talk description hadn't made it into the conference schedule (not even the white sheet addendum they add to the bags!) and I was worried that not many people would come. I mean, would you get to the show at 9 in the morning for something you didn't even know existed? But surprisingly I had a full house and people had to be turned away at the door. Okay, it was a small room. But it's still a nice feeling to have. I showed two Lair demos on my PS3 devkit and looked at various production assets in detail, fielded questions and even managed to finish on time (that's a first for me!). From what I hear the feedback has been very positive, and Softimage seemed to be happy with it, as well.

I would've hoped for impressions from GAFers..

 

[gofreak]

So no one went to the Softimage/Matthias Worch lecture on Lair; FrankenDragon Flies Again! Creating Playstation 3 Art for Lair ?


I would've hoped for impressions from GAFers..

Nooooo. It seems a lot of people, at least in these circles, missed this presentation because of the conference schedule screw-up. Damn, I hope someone, somewhere posts about this presentation sooner or later :/

 

[bigfurb]

So no one went to the Softimage/Matthias Worch lecture on Lair; FrankenDragon Flies Again! Creating Playstation 3 Art for Lair ?




I would've hoped for impressions from GAFers..

So Lair was shown? I am so disappointed with our GDC atending Gaffers right now

 

[Ark-AMN]

F***!

Those bastards at CMP (GDC business) had no clue what was going on. I kept showing them at the press room the posting on the GDC website and they didn't understand. They said that if it wasn't on the printed schedule, it wasn't happening.

Factor 5 should sue or something for that oversight.

 

[element]

So no one went to the Softimage/Matthias Worch lecture on Lair; FrankenDragon Flies Again! Creating Playstation 3 Art for Lair ?I would've hoped for impressions from GAFers..

They totally fucked up. It wasn't on the schedule board or the guide. It was on the website, but the website doesn't tell you what room it was in. I even asked the Factor5 guys at their booth and they were confused. I was pissed, because it was a 9 am session, and I would have enjoyed that extra hour sleep.

 

[Mrbob]

This may be old, but 1up had an interview session with Phil Harrison a couple days ago at GDC:

http://1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3148957

Confirmed free online gameplay for the Playstation Network Platform:

Question: Will the free PlayStation Network allow things like multiplayer gaming?

PH: While there will be content offerings that will be premium, we are aiming to have a free platform, so things like multiplayer gaming will be free. We have no plans to charge for that at the moment.

Final controller shown at E3 as well:

Question: Did you not show the new version of the PS3 controller because of the Immersion lawsuit?

PH: That has no impact on why we didn't show the controller. The controller will be revealed at E3.

I hope Sony has something up their sleeve regarding the controller. If it is just another Dual Shock variation I'm going to be disappointed.

 

[Beer Monkey]

At the various parties tonight, I heard that Microsoft gives 70 percent of the cut from a downloadable game to the developer of the game. The prices range from $5 to $20 per game, but games such as Geometry Wars are priced at the low end. These games have an astoundingly good 20 percent conversion rate from demo to purchased game.

Awesome for developers. Hopefully Nintendo and Sony follow suit.

 

[hukasmokincaterpillar]

Awesome for developers.

The emasculation of 3rd party publishers has begun? Lets hope. Sony/N would have no choice but to follow suit.

 

[Striek]

Damn GDC organisers :/ Disappointment total.

The emasculation of 3rd party publishers has begun?

Unfortunately no. There simply isn't enough money in XBLA.

 

[hukasmokincaterpillar]

Unfortunately no. There simply isn't enough money in XBLA.

Not just XBLA but downloadable content as a whole. This business model is just in its infancy of course, but in 5 years time the landscape could start looking very different due to the seeds being planted now. *hops in Delorean*

 

[xsarien]

Damn GDC organisers :/ Disappointment total.

Exactly what were you expecting? I don't know how many times it needs to be repeated: GDC is not E3.

 

[Mmmkay]

So err, this was used in a Factor 5 presentation at GDC, though not the one 'everyone missed' it seems.



There was also a new (I think) MOH shot from EA:

 

[Vaandaviii]

So err, this was used in a Factor 5 presentation at GDC, though not the one 'everyone missed' it seems.

OMFG

 

[BlueTsunami]

So err, this was used in a Factor 5 presentation at GDC, though not the one 'everyone missed' it seems.

Damn, we need videos of ALL the GDC presentations...

 

[saelz8]

Oh shit! Lair!

 

[Ceb]

Meh, so Lair really is Rogue Squadron with dragons. =/ Crazy visuals though.

 

[Doom_Bringer]

So err, this was used in a Factor 5 presentation at GDC, though not the one 'everyone missed' it seems.



There was also a new (I think) MOH shot from EA:

Yay!! The plastic dragons are gone!! ! Amazing shot! Is someone riding the dragon there? ~_~

Background looks kinda weak though

 

[BlueTsunami]

Is someone riding the dragon there? ~_~

Yep, looks like an Armored Knight

 

[Falch]

Wooh, Lair looks incredible. I had no doubt Factor 5 would impressive visually. I'm still a little worried gameplay wise though, looking at F5 latest games.

 

[-SD-]

Seriously, though... both Lair and MOH: Airborne look fantastic

 

[ram]

here is another bunch of GDC PS3 presentation fotos.

http://photobucket.com/albums/a142/sunwontshine/PS3/

-> songstar / motorstorm / the getaway

 

[BlueTsunami]

here is another bunch of GDC PS3 presentation fotos.

http://photobucket.com/albums/a142/sunwontshine/PS3/

-> songstar / motorstorm / the getaway

So transactions will be in Motorstorm. The screen shows the interface that would allow you to buy a track for $2.50

 

[kaching]

So transactions will be in Motorstorm. The screen shows the interface that would allow you to buy a track for $2.50

That was basically what Harrison was saying about all PS3 games - transactions would be accessible at the API level for all games so that the store could be accessed within the game itself, with the ability to skin the transaction interface based on the game's theme.

 

[Jim]

That was basically what Harrison was saying about all PS3 games - transactions would be accessible at the API level for all games so that the store could be accessed within the game itself, with the ability to skin the transaction interface based on the game's theme.

Fingers crossed that you can download WHILE playing. Though, if that is indeed the interface, I can't see how you couldn't.