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GDC 06 Reporters Notebook: Day 2, Epic, Garage Games, AGEIA, and Streamline Studios March 22, 2006 |
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Summary: In today's GDC 2006 report, JCal revisits AGEIA to spend more time behind the wheel of a PhysX-powered PC. Inside JCal reveals more impressions of the physics-based game Cell Factor, as well as inquiring more on AGEIA's retail plans for PhysX cards -- is a lower-priced sub-$200 PhysX card in the works? Also in today's report, JCal checks out Epic's latest build of Unreal Engine 3, as well as Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 2007. Also of note: Battlestar Galactica producer keynote address, Garage Games' Legions, Streamline Studios' XBLA title Hoopworlds.
 Introduction | Page:: ( 1 / 2 ) |
So what have I been doing? Glad you asked. In this second reporter's notebook story I'll tell you just some of the things I’ve seen and experienced at GDC. Of course expect more stuff in the next reporter's update.
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Battlestar Talk
Game developers are always working on franchises and sequels to already recognized brands, but how does one really make an already established property seem cool and fresh? Battlestar Galactica producer Ronald D. Moore knows.
At GDC he gave the conference's second keynote address on how he made the original 1978 Glen A Larson sci-fi TV series into the new version that is without a doubt one of the best shows currently on TV. Moore talked at length about how each character in the original series was remade for the new version as well as the themes of the series itself, which in the original version was a fairly lighthearted space opera but in Moore's hands has turned into a dark and serious look at the extermination of the entire human race. During the brief Q&A session, Moore says he has an idea for how the series might end which might deal with the discovery of Earth, but Moore said don't expect Battlestar Galactica to end with that discovery. As Moore indicated, finding Earth still has some consequences.
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More AGEIA Talk
The folks at AGEIA indeed showed off a LAN version of Cell Factor at their GDC booth as promised. The first-person shooter showcases the effects of the hardware physics chip and we got to see lots of new content that was not in the official press conference on Tuesday, including working vehicles in the environment that ran over objects realistically and a Capture the Flag mode that with the physics engine allows the flag carrier to use the flag as a weapon to stab objects and enemies. It's still up in the air when and if Cell Factor will be released (they are still searching for a publisher).
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One thing we did learn is that the demo we saw was LAN-only; because of the limitations of Internet bandwidth with all of the physics Cell Factor would not work as an online game. One thing we did talk about with AGEIA reps was the prices for the card on Alienware and Dell showing up as $275 for an add-on to their PCs. We asked if there were plans for a less expensive card with less memory. The AGEIA rep told us that there were no plans for such a card but added that they felt the price will be justified when people begin to see AGEIA-based games on the market. They also pointed out that high-end graphics chips are far more expensive, especially with SLI and Crossfire set-up.
| UE3, Hoopworld, and Legions | Page:: ( 2 / 2 ) |
Epic's Unreal GDC Demo
A demo was then shown of the FaceFX features in Unreal Engine 3 which show how detailed the facial and voice animations can be with the highly detailed characters in UT 2007. Yet another demo showed off how the look of the game could change from regular, to light bloom, and finally to a sepia tone just by linking shaders together. The final part of the demo showed off gameplay from the PS3 build of UT 2007 on a quickly made map (we were told it was made in just three days). Basically the demo looked like a high-powered version of UT 2007 with some cool effects for the rocket launcher exhaust and the game’s physics. Here Epic’s demo consisted of a ball that exerted gravity on objects around it. In some cases the force of gravity was strong enough to push the objects into orbit, and sometimes reach escape velocity. Overall the demo wasn't the "gosh wow" stuff that we saw two years ago when Unreal Engine 3 was first announced but it was still great to see the progress Epic has made for the game engine.
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Hoopworld
Streamline Studios is a European-based game developer that mostly does outsourcing jobs on games like UT 2004, Ghost Recon 2 and more. However they have been working on a simple but fun sports game called Hoopworld for some time that will soon be released via Xbox 360's Live Arcade. In a GDC demo Wednesday we saw a current, but still early version of Hoopworld that can only be described as "basketbrawl" with various characters battling it out in several different courts (forest, desert, etc) as they both attempt to outscore each as well as fight in the game. The game is very skill-based, as you must learn how to master both the scoring moves and the fighting moves. Overall Hoopworld is looking like it will be a fun game for Xbox Live Arcade. When it is released later this year the game will come with two levels with a content pack containing more levels to be released later.
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Legions
As promised, GarageGames did indeed show their tech demo Legions which looks at this stage an awful lot like a new Tribes game. Legions, however, is clearly just a tech demo at this point with not a lot of content; just two players in multiplayer with one rocket launcher as a weapon. What was cool in the demo was the vast outdoor level which we were told was the equivalent of 100 square kilometers. In short, it looks like the Tribes game we wish Tribes: Vengeance could have been. We hope that GarageGames releases this demo to the public soon.
That's it for Day 2 of my GDC reporter's notebook. I'll be back tomorrow with some more observations from the conference.
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