Archive for Opinion

grand scheme (?)

// February 9th, 2010 // View Comments // Opinion, Project B

Whoa, it’s been a while. I’m really trying to update this site at least once a week and/or two topics really worth discussing a month. With that said, this post will most likely expand from the previous post. This is one way I would like to state my goals as a game developer and developer who also happens to own a business. 8)

So, what do I want to do? Plain English: To be able to play ‘core’ quality games, anywhere. That deserves a little bit of explaining! There’s two aspects to this statement. A design side and a technical side. Let’s start with the technical.

It’s obvious that there are established companies trying, intentially or not, to make it possible so that we can play games “anywhere”. To have a game in the backend, running anywhere is a novel concept for sure. I don’t want to repeat what I said in my last post, so refer to that if you want my thoughts on gaming as a service. In the short term, it’s crucial that we get our game out there. Don’t really care how (Flash, Unity, etc) as long as the quality is there. But looking at it from a bigger picture, our platform ideally should be built on open standards, if not open source. Would be great if we can avoid plugins altogether but I’m not sure if that’s feasible seeing how the goal is to play anywhere. We can’t forget about that very important “native” layer that we all want access to. Taking advantage of that $300 GPU would be nice if it’s there. Maybe if the plugin was open source, like panda3d, browser developers wouldn’t mind including them in the distribution. (*cough*Unity*cough*) Sorry about that, getting over a little cold. As a side note, it’s known that I’m from the programming side of game development. But I know deep down there are a shit load of better programmers than me, which I hope to work with some day. They’re expertise and knowledge will definitely have a hand in how all of this turns out, no matter what I think!

Now with the design side. I really don’t want to use the term “hardcore” game. For that I point you to A New Taxonomy of Gamers (NTG). But for the time being, hardcore will have to do. I want to make hardcore games, that play anywhere. Now, that is nothing against “casual”/”indie” games. I’ve play a dozens of games that can fall into those categories. Nothing against them at all but I don’t want to make those types of games, not now at least. Who knows what I’ll want to make tomorrow! (Nice escape right?) At the same time, we might have different definition for what a casual/hardcore game is (Read NTG). Plants vs Zombies is a game that first popped into my head as a casual/hardcore game. Is it for you? For some gamers, the determining factor are the graphics alone! With that out of the way, I would love to develop Halo/CoD/Prince of Persia/etc quality games you start playing on the PC, then a little bit during your break with a mobile device, to finish the day on the couch. The same exact game, not a stripped or slim down version. I know this a little far off but I can dream, can’t I?

I know Gaming Anywhere will be a reality, it’s just a matter of time. I think this sums it up pretty well. If there is any doubt or questions, please feel free to ask. I’m here listening!

Update: They beat me to it…


the everything platform

// January 2nd, 2010 // View Comments // Opinion

As of this writing, December 27, 2009, I see a very interesting change in the game industry. My point of view comes from various sources so nothing I’m about to say is really “mine”. There have been other interesting/smarter people that have stated in one way or another the same concept, or question, that I have. Which is: Is there a point to have a gaming specific platform anymore? Now before you call for war, lets think this through. And to set the record, the type of gamer I see myself as is a Completist-Tourist. Here we go.

This is definitely not a discussion about a “one console” to rule them all. Some might argue that’s the PCs role. No, this is much more than that. This is about no longer needing a device that is specifically designed for gaming. There will always be a market for such devices but I see that being a niche market in the future. Image for a second PSN built right into a Blu-ray player or an Android-powered (phone, netbook, etc) device? Or Xbox Live (the service) built into the next TiVo? That’s the simplest way to describe how I see the game industry changing: Gaming as a service. Steam-esque services on various devices. Wow, never thought I would ever say, or even want, that. But in some weird way I do and I think it’s for the best.

Thanks to facebook, web/browers-based games are all the rage at the moment. And really it’s nothing new. It’s do to facebook’s huge community that companies realizing the potential of such games. When the biggest “hardcore” game of the year, Modern Warfare 2, as of now has 6 million units sold and compare that to say FarmVille with it’s 69 million monthly active users . Of course we’re comparing apples to oranges. One is free to play and the other charges you $60. Being realistic MW2 will never reach anywhere close to 70 million units sold. What the industry is starting to realize is why should they limit themselves to platforms that have a very limited install base compared to facebook, PCs, the internet, mobile devices (that also happen to be phones and play games), etc.

This obviously won’t happen over night. Just like Steam took a couple of years to fully develop into the kickass app that it is now, gaming everywhere will take a while as well. But it has begun. Apparently for the moment Flash seems to be the dominant platform of choice for said movement. But it’s not the only one and won’t be the last. Who knows what will be possible with future tech such as HTML 5 or WebGL. Very interesting ideas to say the least. Ideally it would be built on an open platform, but we’ll see.

I really believe gaming as a whole will benefit. No longer will be limited to devices that are expensive and serve one purpose only. Heck we’re even seeing our current generation of consoles turn into multi-purpose equipment. Limited but still branching out. Exciting times and I’m proud to be apart of, and hopefully influence, this gaming renaissance.

** Interesting update after this post went up.
** Really?!