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[In a GameSetWatch-exclusive set of blog posts covering the week of GDC 2010, Magical Wasteland blogger and Game Developer magazine columnist Matthew Burns concludes his journey through the San Francisco-based show. Previously: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6.]

For me, the 2010 Game Developers Conference was a little like standing in the center of a three-way collision between art, technology and business– three trains barreling into each other with the full weight of their cross-cultural inertia behind them, the impact releasing tremendous energy and particles of a new, unknown type.

The trend-spotters registered, of course, the noise around social media (most of it seemed little more than just that: noise) and the still-echoing boom of free-to-play with real money transactions.

Three-dimensional displays requiring glasses continued to confound me as to their worth, even though a man in a business suit I randomly encountered at the Intel booth told me he thought in no uncertain terms it was the future. Strange “virtual reality” peripherals, exhibited at shows like this year after year and to no subsequent momentum, persisted in their search for relevance.

Many of sessions had to do with going or being independent in a world dominated by increasingly monolithic publishers. There was also tangible worry about layoffs, accompanied by an unsubstantiated hope that casual games or serious games might magically pick up the slack in available openings. Cell phones were an accepted, legitimate platform that nobody thought once to deride. Game developers are still mostly white males.

I must remind myself, however, that the eighteen-thousand strong attendance was only a fraction of the total developer community. For everyone who was there, many more stayed at home for monetary reasons, or because were stuck at work, unable to come because all hands were needed on deck for an upcoming milestone.

Some companies are willing to accept only a limited number of “slots,” ensuring that only the most important or most desirous were able to get one. I’d even heard tales of studios discouraging their employees from going at all because they were afraid networking at the show could lead to their finding better jobs elsewhere.

Back home in a familiar bed, recovering from the flu I picked up, I have trouble falling sleep even though I’m exhausted. There’s simply too much for me to be spun up about from the last six days. I drift in between wakefulness and dreams of a type I’ve never had before, feverishly plotting my next steps towards the realization of ideas both new and old. Like a student in a martial arts class, I’m beaten up, but oddly invigorated by it.

“Video games.” Someone started saying the phrase to punctuate the end of conversations: conversations about Bayonetta’s addiction to lollipops, forum-organized Activision “boycotts,” or Sonic the Hedgehog fans. Video games. The usage spreads, because what else can you say about this wide-ranging, incomparable, baffling land, with its sublime peaks and dispiriting trenches, its rich veins and its unexplored territory?

For every promising, flag-waving triumph of there are ten facepalm moments, but we stick with it regardless. We know that despite every disappointment, that there is something special to be found here.

Even Senator Yee in his amicus brief wrote that “the interactive nature of video games is vastly different than passively listening to music, watching a movie, or reading a book.” In this case the video game advocates and their would-be censors agree: games are a medium apart, something uniquely powerful (and perhaps, due to that very power, dangerous).

The natural instinct is to try to take its reins, and steer it like a beast in the direction we want it to go: to wrestle it into a career, or into money, or into the approval of others. We want to take what we see in video games and make it about us; or try to sum it all up in a few easy words or split it into overly simplistic categories. Agendas are advanced, ulterior motives lurk, and everyone holds in his or her mind some kind of ideal state.

But the whole of the thing– this gigantic ball of ideas and expectations and initiative called the game industry– is much too big, too disparate and too absurd to understand in any rational way, except as a inexorable force of nature. So to believe one could somehow control it is nothing more than fantasy.

[Special thanks to Simon Carless and Darius Kazemi for making this series possible.]

Original post editors@gamesetwatch.com (Matthew Wasteland)

[In this opinion piece, Game Developer EIC Brandon Sheffield takes Electronic Arts and Visceral to task for their competition asking fans to "design a kill" for Dead Space, calling it "incredibly regressive for our industry."]

Here we are in an era of video games coming under intense scrutiny for their violence, and for any hint of sexuality. This is an era in which the Australian and German governments are rejecting the sale of certain games by the handful, Venezuela has banned all “violent” video games with sweeping terms, and psychologists study the effects of violent games on behavior around the clock.

It’s in this climate that EA has chosen to launch its Design a Kill for Dead Space 2 contest, which to me runs second only to Acclaim’s attempt to buy ad space on tombstones in terms of irresponsibility.

Here’s the text from the press release, describing the contest:

“Have you ever played a video game and thought ‘wouldn’t it be cool if…’ Well, Visceral Games announced that fans of the critically-acclaimed Dead Space franchise can make their “what if” dreams a reality. This is their chance to design a kill and get it in the game. Players can submit ideas via text, video or still images.

Since the contest began last week, there are over 1,000 entries already, so the cooler the kill, the better chance it has of winning a place in the upcoming Dead Space 2 video game. To prove to the Visceral development team that they have the right stuff, players have to demonstrate Isaac Clarke defeating or dismembering various Necromorphs including the Slasher, Lurker, or Leaper using their own signature kill.

The grand prize winner will not only have an opportunity to have their dismemberment move recreated in the game but they’ll also win the opportunity to have their likeness modeled onto a non-player character in the game.”

Where To Draw The Line?

I don’t believe we should shy away from violence in games – violence is a part of life, and can make for very interesting scenarios in games. And it’s no secret that a large majority of fun video games are based on conflict, much of which is combative. But I also believe that asking fans to think as hard as they can about an innovative way to kill someone is a very regressive thing for our industry.

Just think for a second about what EA is actually asking people to do. Yes, this is what many of us do every day – there are those of us who design combat and combat scenarios for a living. But asking fans to do it is just too much.

First, it’s acknowledging that games can inspire fans to think of ways to kill. Second, through promotion, the contest is saying this is a good thing to do, or that it would be fun, posing ‘wouldn’t it be cool if…’

Third, it’s implied that this is a proper way to enter the industry (that’s part of the implication, that this design will be your foot in the door). That really hammers home the misconception that all we do is think of ways for things to kill each other.

Fourth, it asks for documented evidence of this fan violence. EA must certainly have plenty at this point, with over 1,000 submissions, which anyone will be able to view once the competition is over at the official Facebook page.

Fuel For The Fire

Many in the mainstream media, parent-advocate groups, and in the public opinion at large consider the game-playing population to be mostly children. And for better or for worse, it’s likely that a number of children have in fact played the M-rated Dead Space. This kind of contest is amazing fodder for the groups that want to limit and restrict games, and it’s hard to believe EA or Visceral would not be aware of this.

If they are not aware of the regressive nature of this competition, as the video on the official page seems to suggest, that is incredibly unconscious, and certainly indicative of the immaturity of our industry. This seems like the sort of thing you should really think through. Perhaps we’re all so desensitized to violence in this industry that they did not think about it in this light.

If the intention is to get the contest to stir up controversy, well I suppose they may achieve their goal. If the mainstream media does get wind of the competition, and they get hold of even one video of a kid doing a “brutal kill” on his brother, the shitstorm begins. I do not think the results of this storm will be positive for anyone.

Little To Smile About

One of the images that accompanies the press release (above) shows a sample entry from an actual fan, in which all the descriptions of actions are accompanied by smiley faces, such as “knee in the head ^^.” This description comes after the one that says “grabs the head and shoot in the neck.”

You could argue that since the creatures you kill are not human, this is not so bad. I would disagree. They are humanoid enough, and asking fans to figure out a way to kill anything is enough to cause a horrified gut reaction in any parent or politician that may see it. A company as large as EA cannot simply make the “games are just fun” excuse. I do not believe this is an overreaction. I believe the reaction from those outside the game industry would be magnitudes above what I write here.

You could argue I’m bringing more attention to this contest by mentioning it here, and you’d be right. I think we have to take these things to task when we see them, and I can only hope that if an intrepid journalist is researching this “brutal kill” phenomenon they might see this article and pause before decrying the entire industry as actively breeding violence in its players.

Know that the assumptions and drives of one marketing campaign do not reflect the majority. There are those among us who recognize that this is regressive, and I would caution any game company against taking this sort of action in the future.

Original post editors@gamesetwatch.com (bsheffield)

With this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco complete, organizers have been collecting the event’s substantial volume of visual documentation.

This volume chronicles many of the speakers who highlighted the main conference tracks during GDC, part of the UBM Techweb Game Network (also this website’s parent company), from inspiring creative manifestos to in-depth discipline-specific talks.

These include notables such as Blizzard’s Rob Pardo and keynote speaker Sid Meier of Civilization fame, as well as last-minute secret speaker addition Will Wright (The Sims), and many more from the over 450 GDC speakers this year. An earlier roundup collected images from the Independent Games Festival Summit, Pavilion, and Awards.

Game Developers Conference 2010 Sessions

These pictures capture moments from a wide variety of talks, drawn from the considerable official GDC photo archive.

Firaxis design legend Sid Meier (Civilization, Pirates!) headlined this year’s conference with his keynote “The Psychology of Game Design (Everything You Know Is Wrong).”

…and fellow design legend Will Wright (The Sims, Spore) closed out the show with his sprawling and fascinating “The Metaphysics of Game Design,” initally presented under the pseudonym Phaedrus.

Warren Spector (Deus Ex, Epic Mickey) waxed curmudgeonly about the dangerous of obsessing over progress during this year’s incarnation of the annual invitation-only “Lunch With Luminaries” event.

These game developers just can’t wait to confer at the Game Developers Conference! Soon, they will get their chance.

How does Blizzard make so much money? It’s the game design! Rob Pardo (World of Warcraft, StarCraft II) “explains it all” in a practical development lecture.

“You’ll love our new game this much,” gestures Peter Molyneux (Fable II, Fable III) in a detailed talk explaining the Fable series genre metamorphosis.

Much like the children, connectivity is our future. A panel of esteemed game developers consisting of, from left to right, Jason Holtman (Valve), Brian Reynolds (Zynga), Ray Muzyka (BioWare), Min Kim (Nexon America), and Rob Pardo (Blizzard) discuss what it all means.

Much like connectivity, free games are our future. Kristian Segerstrale, founder of social game developer Playfish (Pet Society, Who Has the Biggest Brain?), argues that the game industry shouldn’t fear the concept of “free.”

Moscone Center’s North Hall is overrun by game developers at the Game Developers Conference!

Noted game designers Jenova Chen (Thatgamecompany), Kim Swift (Airtight Games), Heather Kelley (Kokoromi), and Erin Robinson (Wadjet Eye Games) battle to the death novelty prize with game designs based on “real-world permadeath” during this year’s Game Design Challenge. (Spoiler alert: Chen wins.)

Denki’s Gary Penn was just one of numerous presenters at this year’s Microtalks session, three of whom are highlighted in Gamasutra’s coverage of the event.

Veteran game designer Brenda Brathwaite (Wizardry series, Train) explains how board games led her to dump electricity and learn to love design.

“We’re all doomed,” Chris Hecker doesn’t actually really claim as he reflects on the potential dangers of gaming’s nightmare scenario in his talk “Achievements Considered Harmful?”

“Now that was some mighty fine conferring,” these people are probably thinking as they decompress during this year’s evening Speaker Party.

[More pictures of the Game Developers Conference as a whole, taken by Vincent Diamante, are available on the Official GDC Flickr stream.]

Original post editors@gamesetwatch.com (Chris Remo)

Australian iPhone developer and accessory manufacturer 22Moo posted an updated render of its GameBone, its accessory designed to attach to an iPhone/iPod Touch and add console-style controls with a physical directional pad and real buttons (the new photo now shows only four face buttons, leaving out the two shoulder buttons visible in the previous render).

The GameBone’s new design also features a 2000mAh battery for additional power, an LED to show charging state and capcity, start/select buttons, built-in stereo speakers, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and an omni-directional microphone. The accessory now attaches to the handset instead of using a Bluetooth wireless controller setup.

The controller won’t automatically work with every game, as developers will need to incorporate GameBone into their titles first, but developer Manomio has already pledged support for the pad. Manomio’s releases include Flashback for iPhone, the Commodore 64 emulator app, and an upcoming Amiga emulator app.

22Moo plans to release the GameBone in the fourth quarter of 2010. The company plans to make the GameBone software development kit available for free to all iPhone SDK developers who want work with an alternative to cumbersome virtual joysticks in April 2010.

[Via FingerGaming]

Original post editors@gamesetwatch.com (Eric Caoili)

Organizers of this May’s GDC Canada event in Vancouver, BC have confirmed the first social game and iPhone lectures for the event, with speakers from Zynga (Farmville), iPhone experts IUGO, and Diner Dash creator Nick Fortugno discussing major emerging markets.

Registration is now open for the event at the Vancouver Convention Centre, which talkes place on May 6th and 7th — with early, reduced-price passes only available until the end of March.

This year, new tracks will focus on more hot games industry topics including digital distribution, social games, and iPhone games.

Some of the initially announced highlights for these vital tracks, many of which are bringing major creators to speak to the Canadian market for the first time, are as follows:

- In ‘Building Social Games: Games at the Speed of Light’, Zynga VP and Farmville GM Bill Mooney discusses how “The social gaming market is exploding - viral propagation across the world, low barriers to entry which create agile competitors, and a rapidly changing and imperfectly understood marketplace.” In this key lecture, Mooney “walks through key learnings from his time making [major] Zynga franchises Mafia Wars and FarmVille.”

- A lectures called ‘A Tale of 14 Apps: IUGO’s App Store Journey’ sees Sarah Thomson, business development director of the Toy Bot Diaries and Zombie Attack! iPhone game creator discuss “what is working on the App Store and what isn’t, what factors, internal and external, contribute to an app’s success or failure.”

- Presenting a lecture called ‘The Art of Conversion: How to Manage Players through Your Game Service’, Playmatics co-founder Nick Fortugno (lead designer of casual smash Diner Dash) and Media Shifters’ Andrew Mayer will discuss new digital models of monetizing game players, including “converting platform users into game players, converting players into viral advocates, and, most importantly, converting your user base into paying customers.”

The event will also once again host tracks about game design, business and production, programming, and visual arts. GDC Canada, presented by Reboot Communications and this website’s parent the UBM Techweb Game Network, will also host evening networking events, as well as an expo hall.

More information on the 2010 GDC Canada event, including pricing specifics, lectures announced to date and registration deadlines, are available on the official GDC Canada website.

Original post editors@gamesetwatch.com (Simon Carless)

If you’re sick of waiting for Super Meat Boy to release on your platform of choice (WiiWare/XBLA/PC) so you can spend all day hanging out with its chunky characters, Team Meat has come up with a solution to cure your loneliness and simultaneously decorate your home’s bare walls.

The developer has partnered with LTL Prints, which also sells those neat Jet Set Radio Future decals, to offer “peel and stick” wall graphics of Super Meat Boy’s characters, including the titular hero, Bandage Girl, and Dr. Fetus.

You can even buy a graphic for Gish, the protagonist of another Edmund McMillen 2D platformer. The stickers are available in sizes as small as 10” x 8” (ideal for laptops) or as big as 66” x 52”! You can see them all at the Super Meat Boy aisle in LTL Prints’s site.

Original post editors@gamesetwatch.com (Eric Caoili)

[Finishing up our GDC written coverage, we were going to pick just one lecture, but we decided to just go with all of the major ones, as well as the big announcements - lots of neat stuff to check through here.]

With Game Developers Conference 2010 now at an end, we’ve rounded up the top announcements, from Sony Move through OnLive’s release specifics, and write-ups of the biggest talks into one handy news story.

The official GDC 2010 page on Gamasutra has more than 100 news stories on one of the biggest events of the gaming year, but we’re now highlighting the biggest product-related announcements of the show.

This will be followed by our pick of the top ten most intriguing write-ups from the more than 450 sessions on display at this year’s GDC in San Francisco - created by the UBM Techweb Game Network, as is this website.

Here are some of the top announcements and write-ups from last week’s show:

The Announcements

GDC: Sony’s Motion Controller Is ‘PlayStation Move’
“At GDC on Wednesday, Sony revealed more details about its PS3 motion controller, which isn’t called Arc or Gem, but ‘PlayStation Move,’ a product Sony says will bring on ‘the next generation of motion gaming.’”

GDC: OnLive Gets Launch Date, Reveals Initial Publishers
“Cloud-based game streaming service OnLive has announced an official U.S. launch date of June 17, 2010, including games from Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, 2K Games, THQ and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.”

GDC: Microsoft Announces XNA Game Studio 4.0
“Microsoft has announced version 4.0 of its XNA Game Studio development package, which includes support for its new Windows Phone 7 Series, as well as enhancing features for Xbox 360 and PC game development.”

GDC: InstantAction Reveals Platform For Instantly Playing Large-Download Games
“InstantAction unveiled its platform allowing users to play full PC games in their browser as they download titles, made possible with a delivery mechanism that CEO Louis Castle tells Gamasutra is superior to OnLive.”

Valve Confirms Mac Versions Of Steam, Valve Games
“Valve will release its Steam digital distribution service for Mac along with Mac-native versions of its own games, the company confirmed today, calling the Mac a ‘tier-1 platform.’”

Other notable GDC-timed announcements include: Bigpoint Announces Battlestar MMO, Unity Partnership, San Francisco Office; Unity Announces 3.0 Platform, Support For PS3, iPad, And Android; Palm to Debut webOS Plug-in Development Kit at GDC 2010; MySpace Launches New Games Experience, Tools.

The Top Lectures

GDC: Will Wright Peels Back Layers Of Entertainment, Games
“Will Wright (The Sims, SimCity) explained how ‘perspectives are more valuable than solutions’ in a fascinating talk during the closing hours of the Game Developers Conference 2010 on Saturday.”

GDC: Jenova Chen’s HeavenVille Wins Game Design Challenge
“HeavenVille, Jenova Chen (Flower), took this year’s top prize at the GDC Game Design Challenge, which also featured games by designers Kim Swift, Heather Kelley, and Erin Robinson.”

GDC: Sid Meier’s Lessons On Gamer Psychology
“‘Gameplay is a psychological experience,’ according to legendary Civilization creator Sid Meier, who gave tips on taking advantage of player psychology during his GDC keynote Friday.”

GDC: Hecker’s Nightmare Scenario - A Future Of Rewarding Players For Dull Tasks
“It’s possible that an over-reliance on metrics-driven design and extrinsic rewards for in-game actions could lead to a future of ‘designing shitty games that you have to pay people to play,’ warns independent developer Chris Hecker.”

GDC: Blizzard’s Core Game Design Concepts
“Blizzard EVP of game design Rob Pardo shares Blizzard’s core design concepts, offering examples of places where the World of Warcraft developer succeeded and failed in creating compelling multiplayer experiences.”

GDC: Nintendo’s Sakamoto’s Four Creative Tenets
“Nintendo’s Yoshio Sakamoto explains the methodology that allows him to create two franchises as polar-opposite as Metroid and Wario Ware — and drops hints on Other M.”

GDC: Peter Molyneux On Simplifying And Enhancing Fable III
“Lionhead’s Peter Molyneux talked about the ‘angst’ Lionhead went through on whether to de-RPG Fable III — and why and how the team went through that process, from a design perspective.”

GDC: ThatGameCompany’s Santiago, Hunicke Talk Exploratory Development
“An exploratory development process can be a solution to the anxieties of game development, but only if it’s managed with confidence and honesty, say Thatgamecompany’s Kellee Santiago and Robin Hunicke.”

GDC: Indie Keynote - Championing Immediacy And Depth
“Tiger Style co-founder Randy Smith (Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor) delivered the keynote of the Indie Games Summit, encouraging indie developers to embrace a philosophy of immediacy and depth to hasten their popular ascendancy.”

GDC: 2D Boy’s Carmel On A New Alternative For Indies
“At the 2010 Independent Gaming Summit at GDC, 2D Boy’s Ron Carmel talked about why traditional publishing just doesn’t work for indies — and why the newly-unveiled Indie Fund hopes to offer alternatives.”

Other notable GDC 2010 lecture write-ups include: Facebook Keynote Discusses True Multi-Platform Gaming; Taking Inspiration from EVE Online’s Espionage Metagame; Creating Deus Ex Human Revolution’s Cybernetic Renaissance; Refining The Real-Time Combat In Mass Effect 2; EA’s Cousins Talks Social Gaming’s Wal-Mart Parallel.

Original post editors@gamesetwatch.com (Simon Carless)

With nine months passed since its last issue, FORT90ZINE, the print rag from GameSetWatch NYC correspondent and Heavy.com blogger Matthew “Fort90″ Hawkins, is making its return next month with a new issue and this capital cover from Mariel “Kinuko” Cartwright. It has Servbots, Solid Snake, and a reverse-handed Momohime; what’s not to love?

Inside, the #3 issue includes a foreword by Life Meter’s Dave Roman, a pin-up by Hilary Florido, and video game-related text from Hawkins and Brian Liloia. I’ve also contributed a little article for this release, so I guess you can take that either as an incentive or a warning if you’re still undecided on whether to purchase the magazine.

Attract Mode, which offers a handsome collection of game zines like Raina Lee’s 1-Up MegaZine and Mathew Kumar’s exp., will sell the issue beginning next month. And while we’re talking about Attract Mode, the video game culture shop will be at PAX East next weekend, selling its wares alongside 2 Player Productions in a shared booth.

Original post editors@gamesetwatch.com (Eric Caoili)

Twisted Pixel, the indie studio behind beloved downloadable titles The Maw and ‘Splosion Man, revealed its next XBLA game at SXSW yesterday: Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley, a project it will co-publish with Microsoft Game Studios some time this year.

The game stars Captain Smiley, a hero that looks exactly like you’d expect with a name like that, and the talking star on his chest as they jump into different comic books (each with their own visual styles, plots, and settings) beating up and blasting thugs.

Twisted Pixel will demonstrate Comic Jumper at PAX East in Boston next week, according to sister site IndieGames.com, so definitely look for the company’s booth to try this out if plan on attending!

Original post editors@gamesetwatch.com (Eric Caoili)

Similar to Ashley Browning’s video game minimalism images, this set of posters employs simple vector designs and familiar color palettes to create a close-up shot of a game character that almost immediately identifies the hero, all without showing his or her face.

Artist Justin Russo says he envisioned these images as he fell asleep one night, then put them together in Illustrator and Photoshop the next morning. Each poster also includes a quote from the subject character (which reminds me of another simplified video game poster set).

I’ve included several of Russo’s images below, but you can see the full collection, which includes minimalist representations of Uncharted’s Nathan Drake, Left 4 Dead’s Louis, and several other game characters on his Behance profile.

Original post editors@gamesetwatch.com (Eric Caoili)