Speaking at DICE Summit 2012, Epic boss Tim Sweeney said the Samaritan Unreal tech demo unveiled at GDC 2011 required 2.5 terraFLOPS to run.

Develop reports that’s ten times the power of an Xbox 360, at .25 terraFLOPS.

The Samaritan demo was demonstrated on Unreal Engine 3; the next iteration of the tech may have very different requirements. Epic described the demo as a target for hardware manufacturers to aim for with next-generation platforms.

Unreal Engine 4 is due for reveal this year, with a release expected in 2014.

“I feel like the obligation is to be as creative as possible, which is a really unique force to have. It’s intimidating that I think the audience for this is going to want us to go nuts and do something really, really creative and not play it safe.”

“I’m not vilifying or saying publishers are evil, or that they’re not doing what they should be doing,” Schafer told IndustryGamers.

“It’s just it’s inherent in that set up that they risk a lot of their own money and, therefore, they need to invest in mitigating that risk and there’s a cost or a burden with that risk mitigation that affects development in a negative way.

“But I don’t think that they’re jerks – well some of them are, the ones that sue us,” he added, probably referring to Activison’s suit against Double Fine following its cancellation of Brütal Legend.

Although Schafer noted that there are “great people at the publishers” who are “doing the right thing for themselves,” he doesn’t feel the model necessarily gels with Double Fine.

“Our MO is we like to make up a lot of stuff. We like to make up new worlds and characters and we like to come up with new ideas, and so that goes against that kind of risk mitigation because when you sand off all the sharp edges and you curb your ideas just to play a safe thing and that’s not what we want to make,” he said.

“This is allowing us to make things and to take risks – every game can be totally different, like Happy Action Theater; it’s completely different than anything we’ve made before and anything that has been made before and I think that’s what people who really like our company want us to do. They don’t want us to play it safe.”

Publishers and gamers have different expectation when backing a project, Schafer said.

“If I took money from a publisher, then I’d say, ‘Hey, publisher. You’re going to risk all your money on me. I’m going to try my best to make you some money,’” he explained.

“But to my creative self and my team and my fans I’m like, ‘I’m going to make a great game.’ So for the fans, I’m saying, ‘I’m going to make the most awesome game possible.’

“I feel like the obligation is to be as creative as possible, which is a really unique force to have. It’s intimidating that I think the audience for this is going to want us to go nuts and do something really, really creative and not play it safe.”

That said, Double Fine is aiming to make money from the new adventure.

“The reason to make it profitable is that we want to do this again. We want to show that it works. It’s not a charity; it’s a business plan. Just an innovative business plan, and we want to make them work and do more of them,” Schafer said.

Speaking to Hookshot, the developer said even supposedly indie-friendly mainstream platforms like the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade haven’t lived up to their initial promise.

“Ever since I played Geometry Wars I thought, what a great new portal. But it seems that this year, the idea didn’t explode like it should have,” he said.

“Back when Castle Crashers came out, it seemed it was going to grow and grow. I just wish there was more support, more marketing, more placement on the dashboard. It could have been our own little Sundance Film festival, a great sandbox for indie development.”

Instead, Schafer believes the indie community has moved on to more supportive environments – including those it manufactures for itself.

“We’re figuring out how to fund and distribute games ourselves, and we’re getting more control over them. Those systems as great as they are, they’re still closed. You have to jump through a lot of hoops, even for important stuff like patching and supporting your game. Those are things we really want to do, but we can’t do it on these systems. I mean, it costs $40,000 to put up a patch – we can’t afford that!” he exclaimed.

“Open systems like Steam, that allow us to set our own prices, that’s where it’s at, and doing it completely alone like Minecraft. That’s where people are going.”

Double Fine’s Kickstarter has raised over $1.7 million at time of writing, although that figure may well be out of date within a few hours.

Pachter said, according to Gamasutra which was in attendance, publishers were “great in the 80s and 90s when consumers didn’t understand what games were,” but today, games can be sold directly to consumers.

“They needed someone to bring their games to market. But that’s not necessarily the case anymore, so the traditional publisher’s role has lessened,” he said, adding that today, a publisher is much more risk adverse, and unless it a game can sell 3 million units, “they don’t even try [to release] the game.”

“I think you’re going to end up with a lot more companies like THQ,” said Pachter, which recently announced it switch to “core”-focused titles and digital. “I think it’s interesting that in the last eight years, we lost Acclaim, 3DO, Eidos, Midway. What new publishers have emerged? Yeah, Chillingo, Playfish, but they’re not the same.

“We are getting fewer choices as consumers because financial guys are taking over. Financial guys are making the decisions. I think the power is going to ultimately shift from the publisher to the developer.”

EEDAR’s Divnich, is of the opinion that the publishing model isn’t broken, and is still a major factor in brand awareness for consumers who have almost too much too choose from on the market.

“Innovation happens every day… but without publishers, there’s no way for us to experience that.” he said, adding that “innovation would cease to exist” without publisher backing.

“Innovation doen’t occur at the publisher level, but they do put it in front of a mass market so that [the masses] can experience it,” he continued. “Your Limbos, Braids, Bastions — those games wouldn’t have been successful without a publisher.

“At the end of the day the publisher plays a huge role broadcasting new IP.”

Pachter said, regarding Divnich’s list of indie examples, that indie developers can be a bit naive when it comes to publishing deals, as most are just happy to have their creations played.

“It’s endearing, but the publishers are going to walk all over them,” he said.

You can read the full thing though through the link.

Speaking in a DICE discussion panel with Epic’s Mike Capps and Insomniac’s Ted Price, Pearce admitted the firm “grossly underestimated the demand” for the MMO when it shipped.

“We had to stop shipping boxes to stores,” he explained, and said the firm decided to take a “more aggressive” approach in its estimates for future shipments. The new business model came about through contact with the online community, and allowed the firm a better idea of how many allotments to ship through perceived demand.

Pearce also touched upon the subject of addition to videogames, MMOs in particular, saying he felt it was not a phenomenon pertaining to just the games industry as there are cases of “overindulging” with all forms of media.

“We think about it all of the time… if there’s something that you’re really passionate about, whether it’s video games, a book, a TV series [or something else]… we have to consume it in moderation,” he said.

When Blizzard launched World of Warcraft it had around 500 employees, and now, with Mists of Panderia looming, 4,700 staffer across 11 cities work for the firm, the majority in customer support.

On the development end, Blizzard as 750 employees working on WoW, StarCraft II and Diablo III.

Thanks, Gamasutra.

Looking over a teaser site launched by the firm, if you click on the image, it transports you to a Google Maps overview of China – and that’s about it really.

RPG did some digging, and found the site is indeed registered to Friction along with the following description: “3D game, Frictional Games, advanced physics, survival horror, action adventure, first person, horror, scary, HPL, work in progress, upcoming game, next frictional game, game development.”

Furthermore, RPS found some interesting text accompanying the domain registry: “Welcome to the next Frictional game site, a site with information about our game projects in development. We use this site to post content about a project in development, during the period it does not have a final name decided.”

Hopefully something more concrete will be revealed from the firm soon, but an Amnesia game set in China? Sign us up.

According to Gamasutra, Jaffe said an over-emphasis on narrative “is a bad idea, waste of resources, of time and money and worst, has stuffed the progress of video games, to our own peril”.

The designer said games or sequences within games which have “the intent purpose of expressing a story or giving the player the designer’s narrative” fall down. He criticised Batman: Arkham City for a short section which promotes story over gameplay, in which the player is handcuffed and unable to do more than walk around and look.

In contrast, he praised games in which the gameplay itself “is so compelling and engaging that the player by the very nature of playing the game is the story”, name-dropping The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Those who focus too much on narrative are in the wrong business, Jaffe declared.

“A lot of these people will say ‘I have something to say, I have a story to tell.’ If you’ve really got something inside of you that’s so powerful, like a story you’ve got to share or a philosophy about mans place in the universe, why in the fuck would you choose the medium that has historically, continually been the worst medium to express philosophy, story and narrative?” he scorned, as reported by GamesIndustry.

“Why wouldn’t you write a book, why wouldn’t you make a movie? It’s like being one of the world’s best chefs and working in the world’s best restaurants, you ply your trade in McDonalds.”

“I think we need to adjust our thoughts, we need to change what we think this medium is. We’ve let the gameplay muscle atrophy,” he added.

Jaffe has made similar comments in the past, but has directed them to press and fans rather than trade events.

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“Double Fine Adventure has broken Kickstarter records for most funds raised in 24 hours and highest number of backers,” the company revealed on Twitter.

The records were smashed hours before the fundraiser hit $1 million, less than 24 hours from inception. It

The independent developer initially requested just $400,000 – $300,000 to make the game and $100,000 to develop a documentary delivered to the project’s backers – and has promised to roll extra funding back into the project.

Double Fine boss Tim Schafer told Kotaku the extra money could fund a number of special effects and extras beyond the initial budget.

“If we really really really exceed the goals, I think it will make people really notice, and see that there are a lot of different unique, creative ways to fund a game,” he said.

Industry insiders have been quick to point out that Double Fine can use every cent it gets; BioWare’s Manveer Heir estimated that $1 million would pay around 20 people for five months at an average studio when all costs are considered.

Double Fine’s success hints at a future for games foreshadowed by the music industry.

We saw an indie drag in close to $1 million in a matter of hours today by directly engaging the community and dropping publishers completely. It won’t work for everyone, but it did for Double Fine, as it did for Radiohead. And, like Yorke and the gang, Schafer is unlikely to look back.

Eight hours. It took just eight hours after it was first announced for Double Fine to reach its Kickstarter goal of $400,000 for a brand new click-and-point adventure title. This is a game bought not by a big-name publisher, but by fans and gamers around the world.

In going down the Kickstarter route, as it says on the fundraising page, Double Fine can “make the game they want to make, promote it in whatever manner they deem appropriate, and release the finished product on their own terms,” instead of being set to a publisher’s goals as it has before with the likes of THQ, Microsoft and EA.

The truth, though, is that Double Fine’s success is about much more than fundraising. In 2007, Jonny Greenwood posted on Dead Air Space, Radiohead’s blog, to say the band’s seventh album was finished and would release within a week. The LP, known as In Rainbows, would launch as a pay-as-you-like affair, the first time anything of the sort had been attempted by a major name in the entertainment industry.

Double Fine today gave to games what Thom Yorke and friends gave to music nearly five-and-a-half years ago.

House of cards

Double Fine’s not the first studio to go down the Kickstarter route. For one, Tony Hawk developer Robomodo has attempted to use it to fund development for an Xbox Live Arcade Kinect pinball title called Bodoink, seeking $35,000.

Unfortunately, that ultimately failed; the studio only attracted $5,547.

And while it hasn’t used Kickstarter for its efforts, Slightly Mad, the UK-based developer on Need for Speed: Shift and Shift 2, has relied on community donations and feedback for its upcoming racing sim Project CARS.

So far, that’s held up reliably well. Those involved on the highest level get access to weekly development builds and have serious input towards development. The game’s set to come out for PC, Wii U, Xbox 360 and PS3, although a date is yet to be set.

But Double Fine is the first established games studio to genuinely succeed with the model. The middleman publisher has been entirely removed in the same way Radiohead managed to eschew record companies for the making of In Rainbows.

The band handled the record’s release, made the album at its own pace, and wasn’t pushed to deadlines as would have been likely had it still been with EMI Parlophone.

Go slowly

So far, the funds keep pouring in. As of writing this piece, the total has passed $820,000. The excess will be used to make the game better and possibly bring it to more platforms. Happy ending?

Yes, but there are potential downsides. Since the announcement, there’s been a peer debate on Twitter and Facebook as to the objectivity of writers covering the game if they’ve donated.

One of those journalists whose donated is our own Brenna Hillier, who summed up my thoughts on the situation in the comments of the original story.

“You don’t get any kind of profit from Kickstarter,” she said. “It’s like pre-ordering and donating.”

And then there’s the prickly issue of user entitlement. We’re fully aware it’s a user-driven fundraiser for a much-loved game studio, but does Double Fine really know what it’s getting itself into? Yes, it’s fully disclosed the game will be a point-and-click adventure on the Kickstarter page, but we’re in a world where gamers can get really fussy over the slightest detail. And this time, they’re paying for the game to be made.

Ex-GamePro editor Julian Rignall said in a tweet just before Double Fine hit its $400,000 target: “Kickstarter’s fab bar one teensy potential entitlement issue: ‘I dun put muny in ur pokets + u dint maek the game wot I payded u 4 u ahoels.’”

The gaming community is a jungle. Sense of entitlement is a lion. But maybe with Double Fine’s community backers are of a better breed.

Maybe.

Down is the New Up

So. Is this the end of the world as we know it? Or to be more specific, the end of traditional publishing efforts, even for partner schemes like EA Partners or THQ?

Absolutely not.

For, as well known as Double Fine is, one studio isn’t going to shake the current publishing model, at least in the short-term. Double Fine is exceptionally well-liked, and the games it makes don’t fit into the traditional model any more. The gamers putting up money today are saying, “We want this studio to keep making games, and we’re prepared to pay for it.” Could any old studio attempt the same and hope to succeed on this level? There are some – imagine if Valve tried this for Half-Life 3? – but there are many that would fail.

This was the right choice for Schafer. He told Digital Spy this week that he’d pitched Psychonauts 2 to publishers “several times,” but no one wants to do it. He’s well aware of how many people want that game.

Mojang co-founder Notch is also less than stupid, and immediately said to Schafer on Twitter: “Let’s make Psychonauts 2 happen,” adding in a later tweet he was “serious” about the offer.

Whether anything will come of that is anyone’s guess right now, but that’s besides the point. We saw an indie drag in close to $1 million in a matter of hours today by directly engaging the community and dropping publishers completely. It won’t work for everyone, but it did for Double Fine, as it did for Radiohead. And, like Yorke and the gang, Schafer is unlikely to look back.

According to the blog post, Nintendo’s recent unveiling of its online strategy piqued the firm’s interest, which feels the 3DS eShop has been “a big step in the right direction compared to the Wii and DSi online shops.”

“It would be strange if they did not at least match it’s functionality on Wii U,” said the firm. “Since Toki Tori 2 is designed to be a downloadable title, these things are vital to making the correct choice of which platforms to develop for.

“Up until now, we could just focus on the initial release for Steam, where we decided to go for traditional directional controls on keyboard or joypad. The translation of those controls to the Wii U controller should be smooth sailing as it features two analogue sticks and we only need two buttons for the whistle and stomp moves. But the Wii U controller offers many more options of course.”

The post goes on to state that the developers would include the ability to play Toki Tori 2 on the Wii U screen directly, and since the game has been designed with “minimal use for a graphical user interface,” it should be “perfectly playable on the controller’s smaller widescreen display.”

“As for the motion controls, we don’t think Toki Tori needs those and adding them to the game as it is currently designed does not make much sense,” Two Tribes said. “What could be very interesting, and what’s been requested countless times from the fans, is if we could incorporate a level editor utilizing the Wii U controller. This could mean that the game runs on the TV while you make adjustments to the level on the touchscreen in real time.

“We think that would work really well.”

The studio said all these ideas are “pure speculation at this point,” since there is nothing known about the Wii U’s ability to share and store levels, but is prepared to “do everything in our power” to make sure folks get to play Toki Tori 2 on Wii U.

Sounds like a day-one for us, then.

Toki Tori 2 is slated for release on PC and iOS this spring.

Speaking with CVG, Hill said it was “definitely” the powers-that-be in the UK started supporting its games studios in order to stop the “talent drain.”

“A lot of my friends have moved abroad to get work; there’s a real talent drain,” he said. “Montreal is a central place for development and it’s mainly because the tax breaks they give are so phenomenal. It’s a real shame… we have some of the best talent in the world in this country. That situation is rapidly changing and it’s such a shame.

“We have great developers here but those numbers are dwindling. You just think about quality developers like Bizarre Creations, Black Rock – people who are making really good games and going out of business. Those guys were so talented so how can that happen?

“I just think that we could have been in Montreal’s position with that backing from the government. It’s such a big industry now and we could be world leaders. Britain’s home computing history is just incredible.”

Hill isn’t far off in his opinion on tax breaks, as a Tiga study published in January reported that 41% of laid off UK developers moved overseas between 2009 and 2011, and the country’s overall games development workforce has fallen 10%.

Various UK trade bodies have been trying to implement change in the sector for ages, something the UK government has been dragging its heels on for ages.

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It’s weird to think about how tiny the gaming industry used to be. I mean, I still remember risking life, limb, and wedgie-swirly combo to pipe up about my affinity for Final Fantasy back in grade school. Back then, games were a niche. As gamers, we collectively had our own little treehouse with a paper sign that read, “No normal folks allowed.” Feeling like an outsider was rough, sure, but on some level we relished the ownership. Games were ours – and nobody else’s.

Flash forward to today. Everybody plays games. Maybe it’s your best friend who cracks “arrow to the knee” jokes until you want to crack them in the face. Maybe it’s an old lady on the bus playing Words With Friends. Maybe it’s half your friends on Facebook, who – pending their refusal to stop sending you Farmville/Cityville/Frontierville invites – won’t be your friends for much longer. Point is, gaming arrived some time ago.

And that frightens you. Because, while you may not have had much in common with people around you as a kid, you had the attention of an entire industry. Now? Not so much. Slowly but surely, even your favorite game developers are defecting to the Social Side.

But is that really such a bad thing? Insomniac CEO Ted Price most certainly doesn’t think so. With his company’s social arm, Insomniac Click, ratcheting and clanking away on its first big mystery project, he couldn’t be more excited. I caught up with him during SMU’s Game::Business::Law Summit to discuss gaming’s newfound mainstream acceptance and what that means for gamers like you and me.

VG247: So, why make the leap into multiplatform development after all this time? Are independent developers basically in an “evolve to survive” situation at this point?

Ted Price: A lot of us at Insomniac believe we need to reach a broader audience. Games of the future expect their experiences to be accessible anywhere. Being on multiple platforms is a step in that direction.

So is the age of the console-exclusive coming to a close?

It’s certainly possible. I mean, I can’t speak for first-party publishers. I believe that there are just more opportunities to get your IP out in front of a greater audience if you are on more platforms. So whether or not first-party exclusives continue is really up to those first-party publishers and whether or not they can find companies who are willing to restrict themselves to one platform.

However, if you look at the first-party publishers, it’s no longer about one platform. Sony has multiple platforms: PSP, Vita, PS3. And Microsoft has Xbox 360, Windows, and Windows Phone. So it used to be that, if you were working with a first-party, you really were on one console. Period. But that’s no longer the case either.

You just released Resistance 3, in which man fell and fell and fell until it stopped. But what about you? Is Insomniac stopping? Or at least giving Resistance a break?

We won’t be making any more Resistances. (Note: Price later elaborated on that comment here.)

“There are social games I’ve found to be incredibly entertaining. One of my favorites is a fairly hardcore game in terms of its sensibilities.”

You recently announced Insomniac Click, a social gaming initiative that’s actually aiming to make these things, you know, fun. How, though? Coming from a triple-A background, how do you intend to attract folks like, say, me to social gaming?

I’m not gonna say anything about our social games, but I will say that there are social games I’ve found to be incredibly entertaining. I mean, one of my favorites is Backyard Monsters, which is a fairly hardcore game in terms of its sensibilities. It doesn’t have a giant audience, but it has a dedicated audience. I found it incredibly compelling – as have a bunch of other folks at Insomniac.

Is it frightening to enter a landscape that’s seemingly transformed into a minefield of lawsuits and copycatting? I mean, the whole Zynga/Tiny Tower thing can’t be encouraging if you’re hoping to make a splash doing something new.

Well, I don’t think this industry has been free from lawsuits. There have been plenty. They just haven’t made headlines as often as what we’re seeing today. There are a lot more similarities between games in the social space, and everybody’s jumping on what seems profitable at the time. There are trends that are popping up and flaring out very quickly. Everybody wants a piece of it, so you get a lot of plagiarism.

Do you think the vaunted social gamer vs hardcore gamer schism is as abyssal as people claim? Is it even a thing? Or are the audiences – in theory – one in the same?

As a gamer and someone who plays both social games and hardcore games, for me mentally, there’s space for both. There are times when I do want to sit down and spend three hours or more with a game like Skyrim – which is really deep and compelling – and there are times when I want a five-minute experience where I can have fun, make progress, and look forward to coming back to it the next day.

And the same goes for mobile games. There’s a lot of mobile apps right now that have that five-to-seven minute experience that manages to be both fulfilling and gives you an incentive to check in the next day. For instance, one of my favorites is Hero Academy. Hero Academy is awesome because it’s wonderful asynchronous multiplayer. You spend about two-to-three minutes on your move, you submit it, and you come back later. And something cool has happened or you’ve been wiped out by the person you’re playing against. But it’s always interesting.

Yeah, it really seems like mobile games have begun to hit their stride lately. I mean, we’ve got titles like Hero Academy slowly snaking their way through social groups, and then there are mind-blowingly eye-popping hits like Infinity Blade leading the charge. Graphical fidelity and depth, especially, seem to have really come into their own. Do you think we’ll soon see a similar evolution with social games?

“There’s risk in every corner of our industry, and the social space is probably evolving faster than just about any other part of the industry. So the risks are higher.”

Yeah, I think that certainly over the next couple years, we’re gonna see a huge evolution in the visuals in social games. It’s thanks to improving technology. It’s thanks to browsers that are getting better. It’s thanks to development teams that are coming from the core, traditional gaming scene and moving into the social space.

Is it disheartening to see core publishers like, say, THQ having so much trouble transitioning into this new social-and-mobile-centric era?

I think that’s a case in every [time of change]. I think there’s risk in every corner of our industry, and the social space is probably evolving faster than just about any other part of the industry. So the risks are higher. In the social space, we and other people are still trying to figure out how to effectively market the games. Right now, there isn’t any traditional marketing of Facebook games and social games. You’re relying on word-of-mouth, you’re relying on social networks to get the word out, and you’re relying on the strength of your brand and the game itself to become a hit.

It’s very different from, say, console games, where people spend a lot on marketing to break through the clutter. If you have a good game and you spend enough on marketing, you can.

And finally, for fun, Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventures. Why bother with all this social and mobile nonsense when we’ve already discovered the real future of gaming?

We have it at home. My kids are really into it.

It’s wild, right? I feel like Child Me’s mind would have exploded at the mere thought of it.

I’m really happy for the franchise, because – when we walked away from it years ago – I was disheartened by the follow-ups to the games we had made. And now, to see it back with a fairly innovative concept is really rewarding for those of us who were on the first three Spyros.

“Scott [Campbell, Eat, Sleep, Play co-founder] has been itching to get into iPhone and Android games for a while. I love those kinds of games, but the article that ran in Salt Lake misrepresented me by saying I wanted to do casual games,” Jaffe told Game Informer at DICE.

“I love those games, and one day I may want to make them, but I’m very interested in the browser space as well as the next-gen space. But I will be on Twisted Metal until the end of March at the moment and probably later. We’re working on patches and playing the game all the time and tuning things.”

Jaffe announced earlier this week he was leaving ESP following the completion of Twisted Metal to set up a new studio in San Diego for next-gen and browser-based core games.

He said to GI it could be as long as ten months before the new studio, its name and key staff are announced. If the new IP Jaffe is making goes to browser, he said he’d be looking at 25-40 people for the studio, but he’ll need “substantially more” if it’s next-gen.

Asked if it could go exclusive or multi-platform, Jaffe left all options open.

“Anybody who knows who I am knows who I am because of the kindness and faith of Sony. So I’m certainly loyal to that company. If they would like to have me I’d be honored and grateful to work with them,” he said.

“I’ve always been very open about being an Xbox and Nintendo fan, too. It’s more to the point about who’s the right partner. But it’s very new. The equivalent is something like just logging into my new online dating account. I just signed up. There’s nothing right now.”

Twisted Metal launches in the US next week and in Europe on March 7 for PS3.

Revealing that Skyrim’s total player base had reached more than ten million, Howard said the “millions” of PC players among them had clocked up an average of 75 hours playtime each.

If that weren’t proof enough that games are winning the battle for our free time, Howard made reference to a US Supreme Court decision of 2011 ruling games are an art form, arguing that games combine art and technology with something even more important – letting players be their own “directors”.

The veteran developer said games can give an emotion most entertainment and art media cannot – a feeling of pride in accomplishment. He gave a personal example: Winning an NCAA championship on the PS2.

“You can design for this,” he urged attendees, asking them to make great games however and wherever they can, “because games are the greatest form of entertainment.”

Citing Skyrim as an example, Howard said Bethesda’s goal was to tell the story through the player’s actions, and other character’s reactions to it, creating a loop of surprise, learn, play, challenge, and surprise again – but with the player in control at all times.

One example of this design manifesto is the game’s opening, in which the player can travel with another character or immediately pursue independent goals, and what that character does next depends on this choice – granting ownership of what’s happening.

Skyrim Feature Glut
Howard entertained the audience by giving some insight into Bethesda’s creative process. After the team wrapped up work on The Elder Scrolls V, they spent a week pursuing whatever projects they chose, and bringing it all back to Skyrim.

In an amazing video reel, Howard showed off a huge number of ideas Bethesda tossed around during this jam, from graphical effects like flowing water shaders, seasonal foliage, and better underwater visuals, to new enemy types, like different kinds of giants and gitan crabs. On the combat side, he showed different kinds of arrows, mounted combat, more stealth options, spears, kill cams for non-melee attacks, expanded follower commands, and a werewolf skill tree.

New mounts were spotted – a burning horse, and even a dragon – as well as fast travel waygates and building your own house.

Howard said some of these ideas might be developed into patches, mods, or premium DLC, while others were just for fun.

He also gave examples of ideas which had troubled development histories – horses were nearly cut, and at one point could carry items for you; dual wielding was added after Howard was inspired by a Conan statue; Bethesda considered a “Cinekill” system like Fallout’s VATS; and at one time dragons were going to remain in the air rather than fight on the ground.

One of the developer’s two golden rules of game design is “keep it simple” – he commented that feature glut is all too easy with RPGs, and commented that some of the ideas the team tossed around, like the a scrapped Sims-like relationship management system, were cut because in the end they couldn’t see any point to them.

Howard’s other rule is “great games are played not made”; he said for the last six months of development, the art team played Skyrim non-stop, and that ideas were trialled internally instead of through external focus testing. Bethesda wants to streamline design so developers can play games sooner.

You can watch a full replay of Howard’s keynote on Gamespot.

It’s all part of Make Something Unreal Live, Epic’s independent game development challenge, which will allow four start-up studios to release games on the App Store this spring.

Under the Fighting Fantasy agreement, each team will select one book in the adventure series to serve as inspiration for a new app. Teams will be able to choose from The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, The Citadel of Chaos, Deathtrap Dungeon and Armies of Death.

Teams must stay true to the series’s “intellectual property guidelines,” and must submit regular milestone submissions under the leadership of senior industry veterans which will be serving as guest mentors in Make Something Unreal.

Advisors include Tony Bickley, COO, Deep Red Studios; Mike Gamble, European licensing manager, Epic Games; Rik Alexander, founder, AppCrowd; and Pete Hickman, head of production at Mediatonic.

“Steve Jackson and I are delighted to see our Fighting Fantasy gamebooks being developed as iOS games by new teams of talented and enthusiastic students,” said co-creator Ian Livingstone. “It will be really interesting to see how our IP will be captured and interpreted for the iOS platform.

“This competition is a great way to showcase the creative talent of a new generation. The evolving games industry is constantly on the lookout for design innovation and new ways of playing. I am really looking forward to playing one of my books as a game.”

The games will be revealed and refined during a real-time event during Gadget Show Live 2012, which takes place in Birmingham, UK, April 10-15.

The studios are building their games using Epic’s Unreal Development Kit, with the winning team walking away with a full source, commercial UE3 license for iOS.

First up, is a new title from Magicka developers Arrowhead Game Studios, which for the moment is titled “JFK”. It is described by the firm as containing “breakneck-paced multiplayer combat with a focus on killing your friends and looking cool doing it.” Coming from this development studio, it will more likely than not be a bit zany.

The second project, titled “Revenge”, is in the works at Critical Studio. It’s description sort of speaks for itself: “All you need is two friends and one mortal enemy in this action-packed, action game in a world that can be described as death trap for heroes and children.”

Finally, the third entry, and a real kicker, is from Zeal Game Studio codenamed “Silverado” for the time being, and it’s a combination of RTS and shooter elements. It also contains some sci-fi and tabletop wargame elements.

Paradox will also be showing War of the Roses, and A Game of Dwarves at the conference.

Thanks, RPS.

In a series of tweets, Jaffe said he’s to start a new studio focused on making core games. It was reported yesterday that he’s to leave ESP to move into the “casual” space. It seems, however, he’s sticking with the core.

“I am still with ESP and have not left, and will not leave until we get Twisted Metal launched (probably another 1.5-3 months),” he said.

Jaffe went on to add: “But I will be leaving to start new game studio. Talking to people about some big, huge next-gen game ideas I’d love for us to make, as well as cool stuff in the browser space (action-oriented, gamer-centric).

“Once DICE wraps and the game launches, it’s company-building time!”

Jaffe is to speak at DICE in Las Vegas tomorrow.

The God of War developer also clarified yesterday’s Salt Lake City Tribune report concerning his departure from ESP, which said Jaffe was “expected” to leave. The piece also detailed recent lay-offs at the Twisted Metal studio.

“if I may clear this up: I was not laid off. I co-own the company. There were a few lay-offs and they were very painful to do for all involved,” he said, adding: “I’m leaving because – again – games are just getting too big to direct from 300 miles away, and I miss the day-to-day of working direct with a team.”

Twisted Metal is to release exclusively for PS3 on February 14.

Brain in a Jar specializes in racing simulation and said it would be making “significant contributions to a large-scale development project” in the works at Eutechnyx.

“We’re very excited to be working with Eutechnyx on one of its biggest projects this year, as we’re keen to demonstrate the two pillars on which our company is founded on – great technology and intelligent staff scaling” said Brain in a Jar founder Carl Dalton

Brain in a Jar has previously released Euro Rally Champion, IndyCar Series, Sprint Car Challenge and Ultimate Racing Collection. Eutechnyx is a well-known British developer, responsible for System 3′s Ferrari Challenge, Test Drive: Le Mans and many more.

According to information posted on PlayStation Lifestyle, Spark is currently looking for a “senior combat designer for a 3rd Person Action/Adventure sequel in a high-profile science fiction franchise currently greenlit for full production development for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC markets.”

Then, sumitted for your approval are links to two LinkedIn resumes: one from a former senior software engineer who said he worked on an “unannounced third person sword fighting game (well known IP, Xbox 360, PS3)”, and another from a senior AI programmer who cited work on a “AAA third person shooter using Unreal Engine and Kynapse AI middleware.”

Spark has pretty much stayed mum on the title in the works at the studio, stating earlier this week it was “working on a sequel for a well known sci-fi franchise,” and because of this, “all aspects must remain secret.”

“You want word on SWBF3, you should contact Lucasarts,” said another tweet. “I know I can speak more when the publisher speaks more.”

However, a tweet last year from the firm had a strong Star War reference in that it said the following pertaining to the secret project in the works for 2012: “Publisher hasn’t stated when or where the announcement will take place. The time and place could be close or far, far away.”

There are a gazillion tweets on the matter through the official Spark Unlimited Twitter account. Go through them and glean from it what you will.

Currently, the firm has two unannounced project in the works.

Thanks, Eurogamer.

The service’s suite provides APIs that plug directly into gaming engines such as Unreal and Unity for Xbox 360, PS3, Windows, Mac, IOS, and Android.

“We believe players deserve a great online experience, reliability, performance, more content and connectivity,” said Stephen Gaffney, CEO of Fireteam. “Together, we’ve gained years of experience integrating online services into some of the worlds’ best-selling multiplayer games. We’re now really happy to be completely dedicated to building this as a service and platform.”

“As with many developers, at Splash Damage we often outsourced this component to a multitude of varying specialist providers, most of which have since been acquired. Now, with significant planning and research, we’ve launched this as a separate venture to Splash Damage. This specifically allows us to focus on improving the quality of online services,” said Arnout van Meer, Fireteam’s chief technical officer “Because we’re going to help improve how smoothly games are launched and operate, we’re pleased to be offering our services to Splash Damage as one of our first customers.”

The firm said it will give developers a “single solution to easily integrate” online features into games, including: matchmaking, transmedia connectivity across other devices, friends-features, player stats, and an in-game store. It operates on a “secure and scalable global platform” which retains each development’s community through a white-label service.

“We’re here to help publishers and developers add a rich suite of features that help attract, engage and retain players,” added Ben Hopkinson, director of operations, “And we know Publishers will love the increased revenue that is a direct result of increased player engagement; players get more content that they want, they invite more friends, and together they spend more on your games.”

Fireteam is also in the market for software engineers, front-end web designers, and a producer to strengthen its ranks. Click the link to apply.

David Jaffe is to leave Eat, Sleep, Play (ESP), company co-founder, Scott Campbell has said, to pursue the creation of casual games.

The news comes after ESP laid off eight employees last week as it finishes its Twisted Metal and “transitions from producing console titles to mobile games,” according to the SLCT report.

“He’s excited to go into the casual space as well,” Campbell said of Jaffe. “He’s got some projects that he’s excited about. So we’re kind of going down two separate paths.”

Jaffe’s pushed back on the claim, speaking on his Twitter account.

T”he rumors of me making casual games post TM – as many of you define them – are highly exaggerated,” he said.

Jaffe is a well known developer, having been a designer on God of War and God of War II, and is notorious for his four letter tirades towards the press.

Twisted Metal will release for PS3 on February 14.

A survey TIGA conducted with a reported three-quarters of all UK developers found just 33% continued to produce only games destined for sale as physical releases.

Other data suggests the retail market will shrink by 3%, while digital and social games will grow by 21, every year until 2015.

“TIGAs new research shows that in the UK digital distribution is in the ascent and retail is in sharp decline,” TGA CEO Richard Wilson said, as reported by Develop.

“TIGA wants to see a flourishing developer and digital publisher sector, with rising numbers of start-ups and growing sustainable studios and declining business mortality rates. The rise in network gaming offers the opportunity to achieve these objectives.”

The report also noted that only 10% of new developers focus on retail, and 80% are independent.ckaged retail software. Some 80 per cent of these start-ups are labelled independent.

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Called the “Position-Dependent Gaming 3-D controller, and Handheld as a Remote,” the device appears to act as a controller which allows interaction between what’s depicted on its screen those on the television screen.

Here’s a description of the device according to the patent information:

“Methods and systems for using a position of a mobile device with an integrated display as an input to a video game or other presentation are presented. Embodiments include rendering an avatar on a mobile device such that it appears to overlay a competing user in the real world. Using the mobile device’s position, view direction, and the other user’s mobile device position, an avatar (or vehicle, etc.) is depicted at an apparently inertially stabilized location of the other user’s mobile device or body. Some embodiments may estimate the other user’s head and body positions and angles and reflect them in the avatar’s gestures.”

Through the USPTO link above, there are various descriptions of what the device could be used for, and how it goes about doing what it does. Other than being described as a mobile device with position-dependency, there’s not much else to go on – it could be some handheld device, or a controller.