Presentation: The Language of Game Environments

Back in December, Creative Director Matt Small flew out to Washington DC to talk about "The Language of Game Environments" to a group of government and university researchers.

The Game Changers conference was hosted by the University of Maryland Center for Advanced Study of Language (CASL) and the Foreign Service Institute (FSI).  Attendees were mostly language-learning researchers interested in finding ways to use video games to aid in education and language acquisition.

Matt's presentation is a high-level overview of how game environments have changed during the last 30 years, and explores some of the techniques environment modelers and level designers use to guide players through these increasingly complex 3D spaces and interactions.

The presentation slides and video have now been posted on the CASL website.  The video of the full 45-minute presentation and Q&A is here.  If you're watching the video you may find it helpful to grab the PDF first, since you can't see many of the slides in the video. You can download the presentation PDF file here.

Also, the full roster of presentations are here:  Game Changers Roundtable.  

Particularly good are Brian Upton's presentation on how designers use and manipulate player anticipation, Mark Dank's on the changing game audience and how it's affected the industry, and Sarah Stocker's on the virtuous cycle of addiction in games.   Keep in mind the audience here are all non-gamers, so some of this stuff may be a little "introductory" for the hardest of the hard-core, but it's all interesting stuff.  You may also want to check out David Traum's presentation on the university research going on around natural language simulation.

HTH meets H2O

Matt Small, Andrew Silber, Detmar Peterke, and Ralf Knoesel prove they are masters of water physics and beer drinking.On Thursday night, March 3, 2011, history was made when Hydro Thunder Hurricane developers Matt Small and Ralf Knoesel sat down to dinner with two of the developers of H2Overdrive to eat foods, drink beers, and gossip about the wet, wild world of water racing video games.

Andrew Silber and Detmar Peterke of Specular Interactive were in town for GDC 2011, and agreed to meet with us at Thirsty Bear Brewery in San Francisco.

We were pretty stoked to meet up with these guys.  For one thing, as I've said before we're huge fans of water racing games of all shapes and sizes, and H2Overdrive is a primo example of the genre.  Detmar actually worked on the original Hydro Thunder at Midway (as did several of the Specular team) and Andrew worked on Offroad Thunder around the same time, so it was awesome hearing about the bad old days of arcade development and getting a little behind the scenes scoop.

For another thing, reading the forums out there you'd think there's this intense rivalry between our two studios -- particularly since Specular has the HT pedigree, and because H2Overdrive and Hydro Thunder Hurricane came out around the same time. 

And maybe there is a little element of competition there.  But it's the healthy kind that still gives you room to drink beers together and share war stories. 

So thanks again for meeting up with us, dudes.  We'll definitely swing down to Irvine one of these days for Alco-Thunder Part 2.

GDC: We Out

Well GDC is winding down and it's been a really great week.

I gave my presentation this morning on game startup advice, and I think it went pretty well.  Didn't barf or flip out so that's good at least.  And got some really good, really specific questions from the audience afterwards.  

Feels good to get that out of the way because it was definitely taking up a lot of my brain space over the last week or so.

Now that the presentation's done, I feel like I can finally look around and take stock of the week.  It's been pretty productive, lots of great meetings and all -- but my favorite part of GDC is always the chance meetings, running into people on the sidwalk that you haven't seen in 5 years and catching up.  Always reinforces what a small industry we all work in.  And what a vital one -- the energy, the vibe around GDC is great.   There's something I love about walking around downtown SF and seeing it overrun with OUR PEOPLE. 

Now just a few more meeting and we're out.  Looking forward to relaxing this weekend.  And not practicing my speech in my sleep.

Interview: Vector Unit on what it takes to run an indie studio

Steve Conger at The Gamesman posted a great interview with Vector Unit's Matt Small and Ralf Knoesel.

Get a behind the scenes look at the development of Riptide GP and Hydro Thunder Hurricane, and learn a little more about the indie game development roller coaster.

It's really a pleasure for us to talk with someone like Steve who's genuinely interested in the process of game development.  Hopefully this discussion can give people thinking of starting their own business a little more insight into what it takes and how to go about it.

Link:  Special Edition Riptide GP/Vector Unit Interview

Riptide GP teaser trailer is out

The first ever HD video of Riptide GP live gameplay is now out and about on YouTube and elsewhere.  

This is the reason we decided to make this game for Tegra 2.  Notice the shiny hydro jets and the realtime reflections on the water.  Marvel at the procedural wave simulations.  Ooh and ahh over the multipass shaders.  

But most of all please enjoy the sweetness.

Not too bad for a phone/tablet game, right?

"Art of Video Games" coming to Smithsonian

The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC will feature a special exhibit called "The Art of Video Games", opening to the public on March 16, 2012.  

I know, it's a long time away.  But you can participate in the selection process today -- they have open voting on which games should be showcased at the exibit at the website www.artofvideogames.org.

Unfortunately you can't nominate games for voting -- you have to vote from the selection they offer.  I'm sure any self-respecting gamer will find a few favored titles that should be on the list but aren't.  The omission of PC games pre-1995 is pretty puzzling.  And there are some serious head-scratchers in there (ET the Extraterrestrial?  Really?  No, wait....  Really?)

But overall the selection is pretty decent, considering it's been compiled by a bunch of museum curators.  Shadow of the Colossus, Okami, Shenmue, plus some very old faves (Shadowgate, Gunstar Heroes). 

So vote up people!  This is too important to leave to the noobs.

Source article:  Smithsonian to Feature Video Game History

[Thanks to Steve M for the tip!]

See anything you like?

If you're like us, you head over to the Nvidia site every now and then to check out the latest and greatest news about Tegra and all the other sweet graphics magic that comes outta that place.  Or maybe you're not like us at all.  

In any case, we were pretty excited when we stopped by Nvidia's home page yesterday and noticed a screenshot for a certain futuristic Supercross-on-water game prominently displayed on their Tegra banner.  

Mm... tasty.  I can't wait for that game to come out.  I wish those guys making it would get a move on and finish the damn thing.

Source:  www.nvidia.com 

Vector Unit unveils Riptide GP at Mobile World Congress

Game developer bringing console-class water racing to Tegra 2 powered tablets and phones

San Rafael, CA – February 15, 2011.  One of the new Android games optimized for the NVIDIA® Tegra 2 making waves at Mobile World Congress this year is futuristic water-racer Riptide GPTM, the newest title to come out of independent studio Vector UnitTM, developers of Hydro ThunderTM Hurricane for Xbox LIVE® Arcade.

Set against the backdrop of a futuristic Earth, Riptide GP features daredevil watercyclists rocketing through canals and rivers across a dynamic, ever changing surface of glittering water. Riders jump each others wakes and catch huge air off rolling waves as they battle to be first across the finish line. It's Supercross on water, played out on twisting, undulating waterpark racetracks.

The developers at Vector Unit are no strangers to the technical demands and gameplay opportunities of water racing games. Their previous title, Hydro Thunder Hurricane, a sequel to the Midway Games arcade classic, was released last year as part of Microsoft's Xbox LIVE Summer of Arcade and featured gorgeous water visuals and a sophisticated hydrodynamic simulation.

“The thing that's great about racing on water is that the track is always changing,” says Technical Director Ralf Knoesel, the man behind the team's procedural water. “It's not like racing on a static road where every lap is completely predictable. When you're riding over huge swells of ocean waves you have to make decisions about when to carve through a trough or jump a crest – all while battling the other riders for the best line.”

When asked about bringing their next-gen technology to the Tegra 2 platform, Knoesel is enthusiastic. “Until recently it just wasn't possible to create the kind of game we wanted to make on a phone or a tablet. With Tegra 2, we've been able to create a racing experience that combines sophisticated physics simulations with console-class visuals.”

Riptide GP is being developed by Vector Unit in partnership with Flashman Capital LLC.

Prepare to rev up your watercycle and shred the waves Summer 2011.

New game will be announced Tuesday!

Comin' up, pipin' hot and fresh from the ovens!  Vector Unit will unveil its latest game next week, on Tuesday February 15.  

We can't say much about it just yet.  But we can give you some hints:  It's not another Hydro Thunder game.  It is another racing game.  It takes place in the future.  You can put it in your knapsack.  You can also play it on your TV.  It is not un-awesome.  And...let's see....oh, I know, it involves robots, but there aren't any robots in the game.

We've been working our socks off on this for a while, and we're really excited to finally be able to show it off and tell people about it.  

Check back Tuesday for more info and, of course, pretty pretty screenshots.