GDC 2009: Talking the Talk (Part 1 of 2)
I wrote this article for Henry Jenkins, and am reprinting it here for you. Enjoy!
Hi Everyone! Henry, thanks for inviting me back for my annual round up of all the interesting things that happened this year at the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC). For those of you who are reading my posts for the first time I’m Eitan, local Boston game nerd and developer. I used to be a grad student at MIT doing games research, and now I’m the founder and creative director of Fire Hose Games.
But enough about me, let’s talk about games! This year I’ll be doing two posts: Talking the Talk, and Walking the Walk. The first (today’s post) will be all about interesting talks, lectures, rants, and totally inappropriate outbursts heard at the conference. The next post will be all about the amazing developers I was lucky enough to meet who are making things happen. So let’s get started – what was awesome?
Usability, Motherfuckers!
Sure, it’s a little self serving to talk about your own session first, but it was a damn good talk and I want you to hear about it. A lot of people out there can’t play video games due to some sort of disability (this applies to computer systems in general). However, with a bit of extra thought and planning game developers can frequently make their titles work for many of these disabled groups, and in the process make their game more usable for everyone. This can even lead to increased sales, so spending money on making a game highly usable will often earn money! I covered a bunch of concrete tips for things that developers can do to make their games more usable, and pointed out examples of games that exemplify this behavior (like Half Life 2 and Peggle) and games that could do so much more (like Trespasser and Puzzle Quest). If this sounds interesting you can grab the slide deck here.
March 30, 2009 | | Comments Off
Category: Words of Wisdom
Tags: accessibility, design, development, GDC, henry, jenkins, principals, usability, will wright
GDC Slides Available
Yesterday I gave my talk to the GDC 2009 Serious Games crowd, and it went pretty well! I covered why we made AudiOdyssey and what we learned in the process, and then doled out some extra large scoops of take home tips for developers in the crowd. It seemed to go over pretty well, I only saw a few audience members fall asleep and I got some great feedback afterwards.
I’ve gotten a bunch of requests for my slides from the talk, so go ahead and grab ‘em!
Eitan’s GDC 2009 Talk on AudiOdyssey, Usability, and Accessibility
March 24, 2009 | | Comments (1)
Category: Events, Words of Wisdom
Tags: accessibility, audiodyssey, Eitan, GDC, geordi, laforge, lecture, serious games, t-rex, talk, usability
Top picks for GDC 2009 lectures
Going to GDC this year? Not quite sure what is worth checking out? Well never fear, I’ve got your back with a list of what I suspect will be some of the more interesting talks at GDC this year. Of course, I think the highlight will probably be my 1:30 talk on Monday at Serious Games on AudiOdyssey and all things accessible/usable, but here are the other great choices:
Monday, 11:15 – 11:45am, Simon Carless talks about Indie games sales and stats in room 304 of the Indie Games Summit.
Monday, 1:30 – 2:00pm, I’ll talk about Mega Man 9 errr AudiOdyssey in room 305 of the Serious Games Summit
Want more? Follow the link!
March 21, 2009 | | Comments Off
Category: Events, Words of Wisdom
Tags: audiodyssey, GDC, lecture, talk
Don’t Listen to Ford – Customers Know Best
Studying entrepreneurship at MIT, I constantly hear the importance of engaging customers early on in the development of new products. To create a successful new product, you have to listen to the customers and really understand their needs.
But some companies don’t do it. A common reason not to engage the customer is the feeling that its a waste of time because customers can’t conceive of breakthrough products. Henry Ford once said “if we asked our customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” The key to this quote for me, though, is the question that’s being asked. You can’t just ask a customer what they want. You have to really get to know them, observe them riding the horse and ask questions about the experience.
This is where marketing comes in. The last thing we need is another Segway.
When I started helping Fire Hose on the business side, I wondered how marketing would work at a video game company. Without a clear customer need to address, I wondered if games were developed in a bubble, without any input from customers at all.
It turns out, that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, startups everywhere could learn something about marketing from a video game company. Since the first week of development, Fire Hose has brought in potential customers to test and the input received has strongly influenced the direction of the game. Rapid prototyping has allowed the team to test every couple of weeks or so. What other startups are getting that much feedback on their product, especially in the very early stages? I can’t imagine many. It’s been refreshing to see and I think the final product will reflect the valuable input from customers.
March 19, 2009 | | Comments Off
Category: Random
Tags:
Powering Up: Boston cares about Game Developers (Really!)
Boston cares about us! Really! Or so my good buddy Tom Menino would have us believe. It seems that he’s done a bit of an about face on his prior stance towards our local games industry, probably when he realized that we provide a ton of high tech jobs in the area and not all of our titles are murder simulators. The local government has unveiled Powering Up, a portal for developers in the greater Boston area. I don’t know exactly where this will lead, but I’m happy to see that the people in charge recognize the business video games bring to Boston.
I’m also hoping that Jason Schupbach had something to do with this. Jason is our local government cheerleader, and has been busting his ass trying to win us the support that we need. Perhaps he was successful? Who knows.
Menino, now that we’re good friends and all how about giving us that 15% tax credit that you give the film industry. What do you say?
March 15, 2009 | | Comments Off
Category: News
Tags: Boston, menino, powering up, schupbach
Vote for your favorite Indie Game!
Voting has opened for the independent game festival audience award for the best indie game of the year. It’s where you, people of the internet, get to vote for what you think is the best indie game to come out in 2008. It’s super easy, just go here to vote.
Me? Well, I’m probably going to vote for CarneyVale: Showtime. Granted I have a bit of a bias, but honestly the game is awesome and deserves to win (if you haven’t yet try it out on the XBox community channel!) I also like The Maw, Incredibots, Between, and Dyson, but those are just the ones I’ve played. I don’t think You Have to Burn the Rope should be on there – while it’s certainly amusing, the game is definitely not in the same league as the other titles.
March 11, 2009 | | Comments Off
Category: Events, News
Tags: audience, award, between, carneyvale, dyson, igf, incredibots, maw, showtime, vote, voting, you have to burn the rope
Who watches the Watchmen?
I’m totally obsessed with Watchmen. I think it is one of the most amazing works of fiction ever created, and would certainly put it in the same tier as classics like The Lord of the Rings and Catch-22. Now that the movie and the game is out (Watchmen: The end is Nigh) the movie has been thrust into the mainstream, is there any way that they can gather the same acclaim as the original?
I suspect not, and I believe it has to do with the media involved (disclaimer: I have not played the game or seen the movie yet, will do so this following week). (more…)
March 8, 2009 | | Comments (2)
Category: Rant
Tags: end is nigh, goldeneye, movie, Rant, street fighter, watchmen
Food for Thought
Last night I attended the 7th annual Hamentashen vs Latke Debate, in which world-renowned MIT professors in various fields of study discuss the socio-economic, scientific, historical and philosophical implications of triangular and circular foods. As the artist and sole non-MIT graduate here at Fire Hose, I am regularly amazed at the sense of play that pervades this dev team and the school from which they graduated.
A Biology prof offered a defense of Latkes (potato pancakes fried in oil) that transected the history of Tuberculosis immunology, recent Boston activity by the Center for Disease Control, and pre-WWII immigration. A mathematics professor on the side of Hamentashen (triangular cookies) explained with Photoshop and geometric trickery a solution to world hunger through the careful management of the sex lives of pastry. The entire event caused me to wonder what kind of video game could possibly bring to bear the intellectual passions of such diverse people. What games have been created with the creative flexibility to allow anyone, from any field of interest, to bring the best of themselves into the equation of play?
Games located in social networking sites would seem to offer a platform for such interactions, but they tend to narrow the communities involved rather than expand them. MIT takes advantage of the multi-disciplinary nature of a college campus to offer the diversity of this annual game. The closest community I can think of on the web, where varied peoples produce and consume diverse content that expresses the best of their creative process is the t-shirt website Threadless.com, where arguably the regular competitions work as a game.
How would you apply this to a console game?
Hamentahsen vs Latke, yo
7th Annual Hamentashen vs Latke Debate, MIT 4/4/09
March 5, 2009 | | Comments Off
Category: Random
Tags: game design, MIT, Purim
What We’re Playing: Dino Run
Ever feel like the world is just crashing down around you? Like you can’t seem to get ahead of impending deadlines? Like you’re in a race with other losers who do nothing but slow you down and keep you from reaching your goals? Like the tar pit is too far to jump and you wish you had a pterodactyl to help you clear it?
Well then do we have a game for you! Dino Run is a phenomenal game about outrunning your doom made by the talented guys over at PixelJam. In it you play a small dinosaur who is just minding his own business when all of a sudden, BAM, an asteroid hits and it’s the end of the world. The game is beautifully done with 8 bit style graphics, and features an amazingly high amount of replay value as you can play against friends online, unlock acheivements, and evolve your dinosaur (though why would you bother evolving if it is the end of the world?) You can even get hats for your thunder lizard if you donate, which you should do!
March 4, 2009 | | Comments (2)
Category: Games, What We're Playing
Tags: 8 bit, armageddon, Dino Run, dinosaur, pixel, PixelJam, What We're Playing
Prototyping and Dinosaurs at IGC East
The Independent Game Conference East is going to be held right here in Boston this May 7th and 8th. It’s going to be a fun conference where small indie gamers can get together, learn tricks and tips for making games with real impact, and meet their peers. A lot of our friends are going to be there giving talks, including Ravi Mehta (Viximo), Darius Kazemi (Orbus), and Scott MacMillian (Macguffin Games). You can see a full list of speakers here.
But there not the only ones! Ethan Fenn and I are going to be giving a talk as well, titled “Rapid and Iterative Prototyping, or How to Rip Off Dinosaur Comics”. We’re basically going to talk all about the super sneaky ninja techniques you can use to make games quickly before you work out every detail of a game. It’s going to be really fun, and yes, we really are going to talk about how we used Dinosaur Comics. Follow the link for the full talk synopsis – (more…)