MrPhil Makes Games

April 8-9 Game in a Day J (19)

Originally Posted by Tom Bampton Garage Games Associate

Greetings!

Sorry it's been a bit quiet on the GID front lately. It's been rather hectic around here lately and I've been trying to hold off the next GID til the site update was done. Unfortunately, finding time to get the GID site rewritten has been harder then I thought it would be. As with GID18*, time has ticked by far to quickly and people are starting to get withdrawl symptoms so its time for GID j** ...

So, join us in #gameinaday on irc.maxgaming.net on the 8th and 9th of April 2006 for GID j, the theme being Extreme Forces.

* - GID17 was cancelled because we didn't have Constructor.
** - Game in a Day got bored of plain old decimal and has now switched to a base 62 numbering scheme.

[The theme is extreme forces.]

Video Games Help Kids

I read this fascinating article on News.com: Video game therapy--a new frontier. It is about how video games are being used to help children with brain damage recover! These creative uses of video games are sure to grow more amazing over time. I hope that eventually the general public comes to recognize that video games, like anything else in the world, have positives and negatives. I also hope they also come to understand that governments should not be allowed to make something illegal just because it has some bad qualities. Politician do not really wants to apply their philosophy of “bad and mean stuff should illegal” to the real world because this would mean outlawing the car.  Did you know car accidents are one of the most common causes of death (US)? How about the fact that over 43,000 people a year dies in car accidents? Would it surprise you to know that it is the number one killer in people ages 1 to 34? Don’t let the politicians fool you; they don’t have your best interest at heart. Their real goal is getting headlines, media coverage, and securing that cushy six figure salary for another term.

Politicians like to ignore reality

The politicians are at it again, trying to use the game industry to score points, all the while ignoring reality. I’m always suspicious when politicians want to make people stop doing something, especially if it has to do with the free market. The war on drugs is a great example of politicians wasting money, energy, foreign relationships and society’s good will to score political brownie points. I’d even argue that more people have died as a result. The reality is that as long as people want to do drugs someone is going to provide them. If supplying the market is illegal it will only marry it to hard core criminals. Politicians should focus on the real issue: Why do people WANT to do drugs and play violent video games.

It is also ignorant of them to think they can stop the creation of games that contain violence for two reasons. First, violence and death are a part of the real world and games must reflect reality to appeal to people becuase they live in the real world. Two, the Internet makes it very easy to distribute a digital product into the US. Just as the car companies move their headquarters over seas to Germany, Japan and Korea to avoid the US’s draconian tax system to survive so too can game developers move to avoid laws restricting content.

Videogame market set to double by 2011

"According to the study, the videogame market will expand from $32.6 billion in 2005 to $65.9 billion in 2011. Online and mobile gaming will be the primary source of the growth, while the rest of the market will see growth, but to a lesser extent." (Link)

That sounds like good news for Indies!

It'll ship when it is ready

GameDailyBIZ is reporting, "Sony will not be releasing the PlayStation 3 until the company is completely prepared." (Link) They didn’t have any quotes that I felt confirmed this view, but it is an interesting idea. A few game development companies operate in this manner. Id, Blizzard and Valve have all put off releases until they where ready and it paid off in the high qualify of their product, loyalty of their fans and a nice bottom line. This policy often looked down on because it make retail scheduling and buzz building difficult.

I think that is short sighted. In the long run, making great games is way better for sales than any of these supporting processes. If any thing, it sounds like the supporting process are too ridge and need to be made more flexible. This is the first time I've heard it from a big company like Sony. In some ways I think it makes sense because more and more video games are an art form and art doesn't exactly work on a schedule. It is also cutting edge innovation in many situations. The bottom line and the gaming public are better served by products that not only work, but expand expectations. 

Gamer's brains work better, but I still wouldn't want my kids to play them.

Studies show that gamer's brains work better and are more resilient to aging.

"A new study of 100 university undergraduates in Toronto has found that video gamers consistently outperform their non-playing peers in a series of tricky mental tests. If they also happened to be bilingual, they were unbeatable."

Ironically the researcher ends the article with the typical anti-game blather: "I'd still be plenty concerned if my child played them all the time," Prof. Bialystok said. "Sure, they're getting better at rapid search and response problems, but I really would prefer my child read a book."

Link (via boingboing )

ESA: Sales, demographics and usage data

The ESA (Entertainment Software Association) has released 2005 ESSENTIAL FACTS ABOUT THE COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY.
"19% of Americans over 50 play video games"
Link

Band albums sales take off because of... a game!?!

Chicago band Fall Out Boy sold 70,000 copies of their new album in one week after the music was featured on "Tony Hawk's American Wasteland," a skateboarding game, music scout Tim Riley said.

"They weren't on the radio," he said. "The only thing you can attribute the sales to is the game." Activision has doubled its music spending in the last five years, Riley added.

Link (via Ars Technica)

Texas proposes 100% Game Tax

Gamespot has a disturbing article about Texas politician Star Locke. Apparently his platform for governor includes a massive tax on 'violent' computer games. Link

Marble Blast Ultra Goes Live on Xbox 360 Arcade

"The journey to Marble Blast on the 360 has finally come to an end. Today at around 2:30pm PST, the game went up on XBox Live Arcade servers. Since then, over 1000 people have posted high scores on the leaderboards, and the online forums have lit up with discussion of the game." says Alex Swanson of GarageGames in his nice post doing a quick post mortems of art production.  Even if you don't read it, it is worth looking at the pretty pictures of the marble reflecting its surroundings.  Link

Fun Pause gets swallowed up by a Big Fish

Big Fish has aquired Fun Pause. Fun Pause's founder Emmanuel Marty is well known in the indie game dev community and surely this will be an inspiration for many.  Congrates!

MaxWorld Link  Yahoo! Link

Verizon and Allegheny Power halts Christmas Lights

The Washington Post has a story about how Verizon and Allegheny Power put the brake on a Christmas tradition going back over sixty years.  The city of Lonaconing, Maryland has a Christmas tradition of hanging lights on its streets during the holidays.  This year the city made the mistake of trying to modernize their lighting system and once they got their utility company's involved the corporations refused to help citing safe reasons. So instead of acting like a member of the community and working with the very people they depend on for revenue they left the city demoralized and lightless.   Demonstrating part of the Corporate Fantasy; all activities must have a sufficient Return on Investment (ROI) in order to burden risks of the engagement. Unfortunately, large companies have mediocre middle management types perform these analyses and they do not have the imagination to consider the needs of the community, their moral, or the potential for goodwill generation.  The gooey center of Large Corporation only understands one thing: “How much is it going to cost us?” Image if they had helped and this article was about how they saved the city's 60 year old Christmas tradition!  That would have been good for business and the community, right? Oh well, they are getting at little payback. A large display of The Grinch who Stole Christmas has been put up in front of the Verizon office.

Link

325,902 Xbox 360 sold in November

More at http://www.gameinformer.com/NR/exeres/2A7C6498-633B-4EE2-A453-BA241BB736D6.htm