Hunting Arrows

Hunting Arrows

Ben Cousins on Paying to Win

Ben Cousins, former general manager of Easy EA (the division that spearheaded F2P games) gets down and dirty with a very controversial subject: how would players react if a competitive game would start selling “performance influencing” items?

It would fail, you say, just like Battlefield Heroes (the main focus of this presentation) did, right? Well, you might be surprised…

Ben Cousins – Paying to Win

Make sure you can see the notes in the ppt, it makes everything much clearer.

Hawken

Hawken

4fourths

4fourths – 2v2 mayhem

Glitch

Glitch

Newcomer – 20 years in the making

Newcomer, a C64 RPG 20 years in the making! Here’s what the guys at Protovision have to say about their project:

“We work on a freely available role-playing adventure, called NEWCOMER, for 20 years by now – this project started well before our attempt to become a formal, commercial developer studio.
This game was developed for the Commodore64, a cult retro computer, and is still meant to be played on real 8bit hardware, with added support for modern C64 peripherals and Hw hacks, but also has dedicated support for running under emulation like a native app.”

Want a feature list? Here’s a feature list for you, then!

• 70-280 gaming hours for the 1st play-through
• 180’000+ words of in-game text
• 180+ character portrait GFX
• 130+ inventory item and gadget GFX
• 100+ cutscene GFX
• 50+ game areas
• 30+ level GFX sets
• Animated Intro and Outro
• Total game size of 2 MB

The history of the game, as the initiative itself, is fascinating, and I urge you all to read about it here.

Could we hope this to be the beginning of a new trend? Huge games, with modern design (but not dumbed down) developed for archaic game systems? Could something like this actually succeed with enough financial backing, hype and marketing? A future where games don’t have to prove themselves as technological wonders and just be good games sounds fascinating.

Bastion

Bastion

Art History of Games

Here are all the sessions from the Art History of Games symposium in Atlanta, recorded for your viewing pleasure. Haven’t gone through all of these myself but just looking at the topics and the names present on stage, it’s safe to assume this is something that you have to watch:

The Art History of Games	Sharp, John; Savannah College of Art and Design; Georgia Institute of Technology. College of Liberal Arts
Doorknobs and Butterflies: Games After Art	Lantz, Frank; Savannah College of Art and Design; Georgia Institute of Technology. College of Liberal Arts; NYU Game Center
Image Games	Paul, Christiane; Savannah College of Art and Design; Georgia Institute of Technology. College of Liberal Arts; New School (New York, N.Y.); Whitney Museum of American Art
Interactive Storytelling is our Project Xanadu	Rohrer, Jason; Savannah College of Art and Design; Georgia Institute of Technology. College of Liberal Arts
Keynote Panel Discussion: John Romero, Christiane Paul, Harvey Smith, Richard Lemarchand; Moderator, Ian Bogost	Romero, John; Paul, Christiane; Smith, Harvey; Lemarchand, Richard;Bogost, Ian; Savannah College of Art and Design; Georgia Institute of Technology. College of Liberal Arts; Id Software; New School (New York, N.Y.); Whitney Museum of American Art; Arkane Studios; Naughty Dog, Inc.; Georgia Institute of Technology. School of Literature, Communication, and Culture
Masters Among Us	Romero, John; Savannah College of Art and Design; Georgia Institute of Technology. College of Liberal Arts; Id Software
One Falls for Each of Us: The Prototyping of Tragedy	Brathwaite, Brenda; Savannah College of Art and Design; Georgia Institute of Technology. College of Liberal Arts
Over games	Harvey, Auriea; Samyn, Michael; Savannah College of Art and Design;Georgia Institute of Technology. College of Liberal Arts; Tale of Tales
Panel Discussion: Jay David Bolter, Celia Pearce, Henry Lowood ; Moderator, Michael Nitsche	Bolter, J. David; Pearce, Celia; Lowood, Henry; Nitsche, Michael;Savannah College of Art and Design; Georgia Institute of Technology. College of Liberal Arts; Georgia Institute of Technology. School of Literature, Communication, and Culture; Stanford University
Panel Discussion: Jesper Juul, Frank Lantz, John Sharp ; Moderator, Christoph Kluetsch	Sharp, John; Juul, Jesper; Lantz, Frank; Kluetsch, Christoph; Savannah College of Art and Design; Georgia Institute of Technology. College of Liberal Arts; NYU Game Center
Panel Discussion: Nathalie Pozzi, Eric Zimmerman, Tale of tales ; Jason Rohrer, Brenda Brathwaite ; Moderator John Sharp	Pozzi, Nathalie; Zimmerman, Eric; Harvey, Auriea; Samyn, Michael;Rohrer, Jason; Brathwaite, Brenda; Sharp, John; Savannah College of Art and Design; Georgia Institute of Technology. College of Liberal Arts; Tale of Tales
Players are artists too	Lowood, Henry; Savannah College of Art and Design; Georgia Institute of Technology. College of Liberal Arts; Stanford University
Play’s the Thing: Games as fine art	Pearce, Celia; Savannah College of Art and Design; Georgia Institute of Technology. College of Liberal Arts; Georgia Institute of Technology. School of Literature, Communication, and Culture
The Pure Game: A Short History of Video Game Aesthetics	Juul, Jesper; Savannah College of Art and Design; Georgia Institute of Technology. College of Liberal Arts; NYU Game Center
Sixteen Tons	Pozzi, Nathalie; Zimmerman, Eric; Savannah College of Art and Design;Georgia Institute of Technology. College of Liberal Arts
Videogames & the two avant-gardes	Bolter, J. David; Schrank, Brian J.; Savannah College of Art and Design;Georgia Institute of Technology. College of Liberal Arts; Georgia Institute of Technology. School of Literature, Communication, and Culture
What is an Art History of Games?	Nitsche, Michael; Bogost, Ian; Sharp, John; Savannah College of Art and Design; Georgia Institute of Technology. College of Liberal Arts;Georgia Institute of Technology. School of Literature, Communication, and Culture

Catherine – Studio 4C

The awesome Studio 4°C decided to make a game: Catherine.

Hummingbird Mind

Hummingbird Mind