IndieCon 2002
by Nicolas Quijano · in General Discussion · 11/19/2002 (10:49 am) · 2 replies
Hi everyone, Already back for 2 weeks, and I'm still catching up with loads of stuff, mostly not game related alas...On to the point of this post : I think it would be nice for everyone, whether you attended or not, to have a central thread where we can put links to all the content relating to IndieCon 2002- Links to Slides and Presentations' text- Links to scribes' notes (mine are still to be done, but Dan MacDonald has done an impressive job already, and David, from Midnight ryder, has posted the contents of his [presentation, etc.)- All Press coverage, Web or traditionalAnd whatever else relating to the Conference, and that you think would be of interest to the community at large...I think the authors should post links to their stuff themselves, so we get as little duplication as possible (in other words, do as I say, not as I did above 8p)Why ? Well, I had trouble finding the little info I did before handing in my "coverage" (more of an editorial than play by play coverage) of the Conference for MacGamer, which btw, is not yet online. And today, I noticed some more stuff linking to notes or presentations from the conference. Sure, I can update, or append a list of link to the article once it's online, but it'd be easier, and not just for me, to have one single place where anyone can go and find everything there is about IndieCon 2002. What you all say ?Does it makes sense to do this ?Start posting your ressources !!!And maybe we can turn this into a ressource, once everyone is done with their notes, the slides and presentations are all up, etc.Have a good one all !!!
Torque Owner Jay Moore
Default Studio Name
Jeff Tunnell - IGC Keynote: Birth of the Indie Games Movement
Justin Mette & Dave Myers - Remote Team Management
John Quigley - Torque Linux
Scott Crabtree - Feature Creep
David Michael & Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr - Can I Make Money as an Indie?
Cyril Zeller - Cg Overview & Details & Optimizing the GPU Pipeline Performance (nVIDIA)
Thank you to Keith Sink, John Riney & Nick Heyman for getting me these four session notes. Full text of the notes posted here for now as I have yet to get these hosted elsewhere:
"Torque Toughies" Hands on user questions for TGE problems. - Tim, Rick, Mark, Melv
Discussion was very informal so the notes here are sparse. There was no slides for this session.
Shaders can be added to the Torque engine by adding OpenGL extensions.
Some discussion centered on using nVidia’s CG in Torque.
Talked about client/server checksum interpolation.
Questions was asked about how they handle band width issues:
network system is designed to reduce band width for each client.
Projectiles that are heading to the player are giving higher priority than those heading away from the player.
Objects evaluate their own priority
In Marble Blast, physics are done on the client only.
Question: Asked if the ignition Library would be an open (non secure) download site.
Answer: The response was that they didn’t know the details. However they knew that it provided temporary download URLs to prevent bandwidth problems. When a user buys a product, they will get an email, and be routed to a download site for the program. They will also have an account that they can come back into later and download again, if there are any problems.
Question: Can you pull out the network code from the Torque engine if you just want to use it?
Answer: yes, but not easily. There are a lot of hooks to deal with.
Question: What is your philosophy on one engine being used to create multiple platform games?
Answer: There are many engines coming out that do this.
Discussion: Discussion from other people confirmed that this approach does work well. For example, Intrinsic has a product called Alchemy.
Question: Level of Detail
Answer: Torque uses continuous LOD on terrain and characters. There is no popping, however one person noted that water pops every once in a while. It is very CPU extensive.
Question: Discussion of Marble Madness
Suggestions by observers:
1.More Marble Madness like features
2.Allow the user to change the color of the marble. Some didn’t like the tie-dye look.
3.Pinball Level
4.Needs more variation between Beginning to Advanced.
There was a discussion about the hardware industries attempt to move physics and ai libraries to the video cards.
Open Source Tools - Rick Overman
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Garage Games supports open and shared source methodologies.
Internally, GG uses Open Source tools in three major areas: web systems, office software, and development tools.
The Torque engine works well under Linux (porting effort by John Quigley)
Office tools: Open Office used extensively.
Browsers: Mozilla used primarily due to IE virus concerns. Opera also an option.
Email: Not yet a suitable Outlook replacement for Windows. Evolution by Ximian a good option for linux. Can work well with Exchange servers with inexpensive plugin.
Source control / Configuration Management: CVS used at GG. Other options: SourceSafe, Perforce, Subversion (Tigris), Bitkeeper, Arch(Tom Lord) Perforce has various licensing schemes - it's free of charge for Open Source projects, or projects with two or fewer developers.
Compilers: MinGW is a GCC and GDB port for windows. Dosen't need cygwin.dll for compiled binaries, as would a binary compiled with vanilla GCC + cygwin.
IDEs/Editors: DevC++ is a Visual Studio clone. Others: Codewright, Brief, JEdit, Eclipse, Emacs, XEmacs, SlickEdit, UltraEdit, Textpad.
Servers: Apache, PHP. chronolog, mod_log_mysql are logging tools for Apache.
Sendmail, along with Cyrus IMAP and QMail (spam protection)
File formats/APIs: libJPEG, libPNG, fmod, Miles Sound System, Ogg Vorbis, SDL.
Engines: Crystal Space, Ogre Engine.
Be careful to fully read and understand the details of the license of any code you use.
freshmeat.net a good source for Open Source tools.
Marble Blast Post Mortem - Brian Hahn, Tim Gift, Mark Frohmayer
Marble Blast officially started end of last year. The goal of the project was to create a very different-looking game than the other Torque engine games.
Initial work done by Kevin Ryan of Monster Studios. First demo completed Aug. 23. After a week-long hackfest, the game was submitted to IGF.
Additions were made to the Torque engine to support Marble Blast. Among these: ball physics, moving platforms, various camera work, stencil shadows, Gouraud shading.
The original concept had several multiplayer modes, team based gameplay, a multiplayer lobby, etc, but the decision was made to simplify the design.
The design decisions for Marble Blast were driven by and limited to the technology. The intent was to modify the engine as little as possible.
Marble Blast has fairly low hardware requirements due to less complicated graphics - P2-400 and nearly any 3d card.
Until recently, Marble Blast had no formal design document.
Many user interface elements are shared between Marble Blast and Chain Reaction.
The design of the graphical style went through many iterations, between realistic and cartoony, before settling on the final style.
The project was intended to be short, to allow rapid progess with small, simple projects. Staffing varied through the development cycle, with developers cycling on and off through the course of the project with occasional burst of combined effort.
The game should ship with 45 completed levels, and sell for $14.95.
Notes from James Hills & Jay Moore's - Marketing & PR Session
Marketing and PR for Independent Gamers 11/2/02
Presenting:
Jay Moore, Garage Games
James Hill, CyPR Media
One of the most important things about PR is to take it to the appropriate audience, and then target your message for that audience.
An example of this is how CyPR media has taken their story of Faith based gaming and pitched it to the conservative Wall Street Journal. The two fit dovetail nicely with each other.
It is important to recognize that as independent developers there is difference in how you market your games as opposed to publishers of boxed games. Independent game developers need to get inside the head of their target audience and tailor a story for that target. Getting inside the customers head is one of the most important things you can do.
Be aware of larger trends, for example: The media has an agenda in regards to games, the appropriateness of titles such as BMXXX and GTA3 is going to be used to demonize the industry. Garage Games is using this to their advantage by positioning themselves as the makers of “friendly” games.
In order to get access to the different types of media (TV, game press, main-stream press) realize that there are different barriers to that access. Taylor a message about your game for the type of media you want to approach and stay on message in regards to the game.
Huge opportunities for Indies exist as the media is hungry for new stories. It is vital to the gaming media that Indies are covered as it is where the next “Rock star” developers will emerge from. Readers are tired of the current media coverage cycle (Previews, Screenshots, news, and reviews) and want something new. The press is aware of this and is looking for new angles.
A golden rule in PR and Marketing; never let any stuff go out with out proofing it.
Question and Answer session:
Q: How important is PR / Marketing to Indy games?
A: (Jay) Marketing and PR is even more important to Indy games than boxed games. For Independents, word of mouth and a web presence are the only avenues for promotion, as opposed to publishers who have million dollar advertising budgets.
Take for example that you have a good game but no audience; you need exposure to get awareness in the space you are targeting. Both Independents and Publisher are in the same business of expectation management. You need to figure out when it is right to talk and get coverage for your game.
(James) Also be aware that difficulties will arise when previewing a game to the media. The media needs to be guided in these demos. Create a script and stick to it so you can get fluff PR piece. With Independent games, the game play needs to stand on its own because that is the only PR it has.
(Jay) Indy games need to hold on to their own Intellectual Property to create their studio brand. Make sure you have your own identity so there is no guilt by association in terms of things like BMXXX.
Q: If there is only one marketing thing you can afford to do as Independent game company what should it be?
A: (Jay) Look for a strategy you can sustain over the course of the life of the game as opposed to shooting the moon.
(James) The best thing to do is sustain a constant stream of information to web-sites. Provide gaming news sites with screen shots and developer journals start flame wars on boards like planetcrap but pick them strategically. Be careful because it could backfire but pick your battles strategically. There are lots of things to put in a “PR toolkit”.
Make sure you can tell your story well. If you can’t do it, get someone who can (shameless plug for James’s company www.cyprmedia.com ).
Q: How does a developer judge how much a marketing person is worth?
A: (Jay) Think of marketing as fuel for the game. 25% of the budget in published games is spent on marketing. 10 – 15% is the absolute minimum for marketing in an Independent game.
(James) Pick your time to speak to the media don’t approach them during E3 or Q4. Sundays are great to release demos etc, as it is a very slow news day.
(Jay) Use a forum like Indy game con to get to know people in the media.
(James) Personal relations in PR go a lot further than a press release. Understand when to bring your story / demo to the press. Create trust in your relationship with the press. Hiring PR is hiring those relationships.
Q: When trying to attract a publisher’s attention where do you go?
A: (James) MCV, gaming news sites (bluesnews, gamespy, voodooextreme), get media attention so you can create buzz.
(Jay) Feel free to contact me for information on agents etc… Very important to have an agenda when going to GDC or IDC.
Q: Say you have a game with climatic moments; is it better to show them off or save them for the player?
A: (James) Save the best moments for the player but use teasers to create hype.
Comments:
(James) Instead of a demo for the press, consider an .avi movie. If you do this make sure you send background information so the press knows what is going on. Sending a CD is helpful.
(Jay) It is difficult to keep to a deadline as an Indy, be aware of this and make commitments accordingly. Remember if you want it bad enough, you will get it. Look at all of the opportunities here at IDC and take advantage of them. Use the network effect that is going on right here right now.