EGN
European Game Network was very much a business orientated show – very few games were actually on show, and it was obvious the time here was intended to be spent in meetings. Despite that, a few companies were only showing their goods in function rooms above the EGN show floor.
Ignition
Ignition are SNK’s partner and publisher in the UK, set to publish Metal Slug 3, KOF 01/02 double pack, Metal Slug 4,5 double pack and SVC Chaos in Europe before the end of the year. Most excitingly for me their PR person, Leo Tan from PR firm Barrington Harvey, grew up about 3 miles away from where I grew up, in the west coast of Scotland. Which gave us plenty in common, other than, of course, our propensity to go on and on about how great SNK games are (except I’m not paid to do that.) The titles listed above for release in the UK were on show in their PAL conversions, each one perfect.
Metal Slug Advance
On show yet again in an unfinished form, even Leo had to shrug with bemusement when faced with the question of when (indeed if) this game was ever going to come out. Playing it, personally I’m not a fan of the way it attempts to straddle the middle ground between the arcade experience and the NGPC versions – with arcade quality graphics but levels you have to explore and an energy bar, something seems lacking that isn’t from the frantic, no return gameplay of something like Metal Slug 3. Perhaps it’s simply how unfinished the game remains – with no text on the menus, slowdown, glitches. It’s still playable, and it’s still Metal Slug, but somehow it’s not as good as either the arcade or the NGPC. But, obviously, there’s still time.
Play It
Play It are one of the top budget games companies in the UK, having released titles such as the Choro Q conversion Road Trip for £9.99. This year they’re releasing Psikyo’s 1945 I&II under the title ‘1945’, and early next year they’re releasing Gungrave OD – again both games at their budget price. I got a chance to talk to the president of the company, Mark Cale (who used to own System 3, creator of the Last Ninja series) about their releases.
Well, interestingly, he saw no problem with the changes XS games made when releasing Shikigami no Shiro and Gunbird in the US, as he considers some Japanese titles to be weird enough that they have to be localised. “After all,” He stated, “At the budget price, you’re going to have a lot of kiddies buying it.”
Well, you know, you sometimes have to concede – at least those games got released to a wider audience. He’s not impressed with anything from Japanese budget developer D3, however – though this may have something to do with the fact that most of their games are localised and released by a competitor, Midas games, in the UK.
Despite this, the choice of Play It to pick up and release, unchanged, an excellent conversion of 1945 is to be lauded – as is their choice to pick up a game like Gungrave OD, which is, by it’s short length is made for budget (though released at full price in Japan).
Radica
Radica are releasing the Arcade Legends Sega Mega Drive TV game unit in the UK, which features Sonic, Golden Axe, Altered Beats, Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, Kid Chameleon, and Flicky! For an RRP of £24.99-29.99. The tiny megadrive unit is a beautiful thing to behold, it really, really is. The 6 games included, however… Eh. Apparently Radica plan to release more than one version of this unit with different games (the next is to include Sonic 2 and Ecco the dolphin, apparently, with a two control pad Street Fighter 2 unit coming soon after) which makes me wonder why they didn’t just create a tiny cartridge system, really, as no one is ever going to own more than one of these, cute as they are.
EDF
The European Developer’s Forum, a young upstart challenging the crown of the Game Developer’s Conference, seemed to get off to a somewhat faltering start. Despite the wide range and quality of talks on offer, the attendance seemed low though those who attended seemed to enjoy what was on offer. I made what talks I could, and the conference showed promise, though simple fact that the development community was, and may continue to be split between two shows can only be to it’s detriment.
Making Of GoldenEye 007
It truly surprised me that a talk given by the producer of one of the most celebrated games in recent history wasn’t better attended. This may be something to do with Martin Hollis’ dry oratory style, in which not a word is wasted in a slow, measured set of statements. The interesting facts seemed to be lost either because of this or because maybe it wasn’t that interesting. That the game took inspiration from, of all places, Virtua Cop seemed most surprising to me, as was the revelation that the game, ahem, evolved into it’s final form. The main reason, it seems, that the game became what it was, was that they were a completely inexperienced team who just ‘did what they thought would be cool’. Rumours Hollis had heard within the company claimed the original idea was for it to be a side scrolling shooter (Though he dismissed those as probably bogus) and claimed that one of the reasons for the game’s success was that “the enemies are ugly. Really ugly. Makes it easier to shoot them.”. He feels the game was rushed, but by the end of it he was sick of it, so was somewhat torn – he still considers the lowest point to be the vague level and objective descriptions, ending his talk with the almost completely unbelievable statement –
“It took us about two years to realise it was a… Pretty good game.”
The Role of Architecture in Videogames
An excellent talk given by a Ernest Adams, a ludologist speaking of ludic spaces. A variation of this talk is actually available on Gamasutra and well worth a read – I highly suggest you check it out. (Requires registration.)
The speaker at the final keynote, Warren Spector, was there, and he’d prove to be a constant sight in, frankly, every talk - And he was loving it. The smile on his face and how he introduced himself before asking a question – “Hi, I’m Warren Spector, creator of such games as Deus Ex – The game of wacky conspiracies!” made it clear how much fun he was having. I instantly wrote in my notebook, so infectiously crazy he seemed – “Try and talk to Warren Spector.” Though it was only early afternoon on a Thursday, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see him doing tequila slammers throughout the next session.
The Emerging Emergence
Warren Spector’s talk, the closing Keynote on the Friday, was on his pet topic – emergence. Most simply described as when simple building blocks put together exhibit complex behaviours. His talk used many, many references to Deus Ex and Thief, I guess, as they exhibit emergent gameplay and, uh, he worked on them. He knows the subject so well that he managed to talk for half an hour more than he was expected to, with a light, breezy style and a million stories to tell (most of which he cut himself short from telling) he was a captivating speaker, also not adverse to a little self depreciation – “How many here have played Deus Ex?” (Most of the room put up their hand) “Awesome!”.
But emergence is such a complex topic it’s hard to summarise here exactly what he went into. Certainly it seems that games with emergence don’t come together until the very last minute, and this seems to be analogous to the development of some other, really great games – for example, Fable and Goldeneye, where the team really had no idea what they were going to end up with till the final stages of development. The fact that emergent gameplay is therefore a very high business risk means that due to the current publisher/developer system it’s not something we’re going to be seeing a lot of (especially due to the high profile, critical and commercial failure that was Deus Ex 2.) This is something Warren refuses to accept – “Our business model is hopelessly broken.” The spontaneous clapping and reaction from the crowd probably led him to his next statement –
“I want to destroy publishers.”
Now, I’ve quoted that, and emboldened it, almost as a personal joke with Warren Spector, because I did get to talk to him after his keynote, at a small drinks reception held to close the conference. Watching the groups of people mill around, most of them wondering how to get to talk to Warren Spector, and I myself, to be frank, one of them, made me realise just how interesting the game of interpersonal relations is – as people with nothing to offer Warren Spector attempt to engage his attention as he offers them a lot just by talking to them.
As it was one point I was standing beside the drinks, and I turned and he was standing right there, talking to Martin Hollis.
Well, I’d already met Martin Hollis. Fair enough that he didn’t really know me that well, but it was an in. I was in the conversation as soon as I said anything, essentially. I can’t even remember what the first thing I said was. I have a feeling it was at a point where Warren brought up the fact that Thief was originally intended to be called ‘Dark Camelot’ but he nixed it on the basis that Arthurian legends equal box office poison. “Tell me,” he said, “Of anything Arthurian that was successful.” I think Martin Hollis brought up ‘Excalibur’ which I swear the first time I heard of it was the night before when my girlfriend brought it up (and quite randomly, too.) “Yeah, okay, that’s got some cult appeal.” Warren countered. “All I can think of,” I said, “Is that Capcom fighter, ‘Knights of the Round.”.
I think everyone in the entire room gave me the same ‘WTF?’ look.
The conversation became really interesting when David Freeman (of Freeman Games, and the ‘Emotioneering’ trademark) and Ken Perlin, a Computer Science professor from NYC who gave a talk ‘Toward better virtual actors for interactive narrative’ which I’m now very sad that I missed, joined in. Essentially it became a discussion between these 3 while a group of hangers on watched in awe as they discussed Will Wright’s unusual habits, their feelings on Rythym Action games, Virtual Reality… All things that I’m sure they wouldn’t have shared if they thought I was going to spread it all over the Internet. Spector’s distrust for the press was evident as he remembered telling an audience that he wanted to destroy publishers – “Oh, I’m sure that’s going to be taken out of context, blown up and bold, misquoted, forever.”
So, yeah. Warren Spector wants to destroy publishers. He told me so, and he may yet.
--Mathew Kumar just lost the game again.
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