Jaffe writes "Playing GOD OF WAR 3 this weekend and really, really loving it.But it being a great game aside, it is an AMAZING and RARE game design learning opportunity. To play a game based on your initial design formula that you had nothing to do with is eye opening! Because for the first time, I can actually see how the game/God Of War formula feels to a normal player!"
In an interview with french magazine Joypad, David Cage tells that he "had originally designed a game design three times longer which would have generated more than 120 scenes". It had to be cut off because of the costs it would make.
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) held the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (IAA) show on February 18, 2010. The 13th Annual IAA recognizes the best games of 2009, as well as lifetime industry pioneers.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves swept many awards including Game of the Year. Brutal Legend was distinguished for its strategy gameplay elements and Soundtrack. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was recognized for its online play and action. Scribblenauts swept the portable game awards categories, as well as Outstanding Innovation in Gaming. Batman: Arkham Asylum received a fair share of awards as well, including Outstanding Achievement in Game Design.
See the complete list of winners here, as well as the three distinguished game industry pioneers.
Glow Artisan, the first self-published game by Powerhead Games, was awarded the Best Mobile Game Design award by the Independent Games Festival. Glow Artisan is a unique puzzle game for DSiWare that requires the user to recreate a design using a blueprint of the design and matching colors and coordinates. It has been highly lauded by fans and critics alike, receiving a 9 out of 10 stars from Nintendo Life.
As a result of this win, Glow Artisan is now eligible to win the Best Mobile Game prize at the March 11 Independent Games Festival Awards in San Francisco. “Glow Artisan represents a lot of hard work by a lot of great people,” said Jason Schreiber, CEO & Chief Creative Officer of Powerhead Games. “It’s one of those rare games that anyone can pick up and play and get right away but also has depth, loads of features, and, with the picture-to-puzzle tool, is a fun gadget too.”
VGArabia: No one can argue with the fact that FF XIII is one of the most anticipated games this generation. But since the game was released in Japan, criticisms have had started to pop up on the internet regarding some aspects of the game. FF XIII new design ideas in reinventing the JRPGs genre are the same points that will bother the most devoted fans of the series. We take a look at both of the good side and the bad side of those points.
Split-Screen: "Aaron Butler, a former Senior Game Designer at Guerrilla Games responsible for the SixAxis systems and gameplay mechanics of Killzone 2, got his hands around Bungie’s Halo 3: ODST around the time of launch. Surprisingly, he’s found many of the intended new features as plus points in the overall scheme of the game’s design. He especially approved the use of two separate discs for single- and multi-player modes, which had become a point of criticism for Bungie’s inclusion of all previous Halo 3 MP content."
Dennis Zopfi former Guerrilla Games developer joins Kojima Productions to work on the upcoming stealth game Metal Gear Solid: Rising. Zopfi, a senior designer during Killzone 2 development was responsible for game design, level design, storyboards and communication between game and level design. He is now working for Kojima Productions on Metal Gear Solid: Rising as a level designer.
Terminal Reality, the studio behind the thoroughly enjoyable Ghostbusters on PS3 and 360, has posted a couple of job positions online, looking for people to work on an "exciting AAA Natal Title" with a slant towards open-world game design.
Game: Battle Tanks
Platform: PlayStation 3 / PlayStation Network
Developer: Gameloft
Price: $9.99
Pros: Another interesting game design comes exclusively to the PSN
Cons: The lack of variety makes the game wear out its welcome
Acquired via Developer
It is no secret that the PlayStation Network is home to some of the most outstanding downloadable offerings available on any platform. In hopes of banking on that legacy, Gameloft, who are more prolifically known as iPhone developers, looks to combine equal parts pinball and high tech artillery in the arcade shooter, Battle Tanks. After all, when you can meld mortar shells and physics puzzles, what’s not to like?
When you think of dual stick shooter mechanics, classics like the Geometry Wars or Super Stardust franchises predominantly come to mind. The common thread that these games share is a flare for the quick, twitch-like action. Though tanks would be one of the last objects imaginable when you think of mobility and quickness, the game manages to convince you that this could in fact exist; granted it would have to be on a parallel planet where engineers thought it was smarter to make a tank mobile, but vulnerable to even the mere thought of gunfire.
Herein lies the juxtaposition of the game: You man a super mobile killing machine capable of dealing large amounts of pain and destruction, but at the same time are so vulnerable that if you were to even sneeze inside of your tank, you may very well kill everyone onboard in a flash that would make the Hindenburg look like a firecracker. Plus, the exterior might as well have been made of eggshells, because they seem to have just about the same density.
Improbably asinine engineering aside, Battle Tanks is a game that brings together the world of physics puzzles and high explosives with relative ease. The goal of each stage is to clear out the enemy tanks. Sure, it sounds simple enough, but when all of the tanks on the grid have turned their fire on you, it is a completely different story altogether. Further complicating the action is the fact that most of the different weapons bounce off the walls, adding in an intriguing ricochet mechanic that takes some serious getting used to.
As the levels become more challenging, you can expect to have numerous missiles and assorted other projectiles bouncing off of the walls like the most deadly game of pong that you have ever seen. That said, this mechanic could be used in your favor, transforming things into an ever-evolving game of death billiards.
Fortunately, the battlefield will continually morph over the course of each match. Simple obstructions such as small buildings and trees can be destroyed, making way for a clearer shot at the opposition. However, there are two sides to every coin. On many occasions, clearing out these obstacles will also in turn make you more vulnerable. Adding further chaos to the action is the several different power-ups that you will come across during the course of the stages. These tend to give you such traits as invulnerability and tend to almost feel as if you are getting an unfair advantage.
However bad using a power-up may make you feel, it comes as no surprise that the limited number of lives that you have can lead to you exploiting these more and more frequently. Players will be equipped with a mere four lives and let loose on the single player campaign. Sure, you have the option to continue right where you left off if you do die, but once again, it feels like cheating in a classic coin-op game.
Don’t feel too bad, though. There are fifty levels in single player that are sure to catch your fancy. This doesn’t mean that you have to struggle by yourself though. Every single player stage can also be played through in two-player co-op, where teamwork and strategy are the true keys to victory. The real brilliance of the game shows through when you are completing the game in this manner.
For every place where the game thrives in co-op, it manages to take it to the next level in the four player, online competitive arenas. You and your four closest, or perhaps not-so-close, friends can showdown in a high-octane battle royale, the likes of which have never been seen on the PlayStation 3. Okay, maybe that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but needless to say, you will enjoy yourself while blowing your friends to kingdom come.
At it’s core, Battle Tanks feels like an experience that you could have been playing for a couple of decades in any number of arcades across the country. The visuals are competent for a PlayStation 3 game, but seem to lack the polish that you have grown to expect from other PSN classics like Super Stardust HD or Flower. There are really not a lot of new things that the game brings to the table that would have the “wow factor” necessary to hook the current generation of console gamers. If you are looking for a good way to pass an afternoon, give it a look, otherwise, nuke it while you have the chance.
Rob Pardo has been speaking about the prospects of Blizzard’s much talked about RPG Diablo III hitting the shelves in the next 12 months. The answer seems to be an emphatic no.
Speaking to Techland recently, Blizzard’s Executive VP of Game Design ruled out the possibility of Diablo III being released in 2010. “We always announce all of our games too early,” Pardo added, speeaking of Diablo III’s unveiling at Blizzard’s Worldwide Invitational in 2008. “We realize that and go, ‘You know what? Next time we’re not going to do that.’ And then we always fail at that. But I’d rather fail at that than fail at making the game great. I think it’s safe to say that, yeah, (Diablo III) is not going to be out next year.”
It’s not all bad news for fans of the Diablo franchise though. Pardo goes on to affirm that rather than rushing to meet concrete release dates, Diablo II will be out when its ready and not a minute before.
“We’re definitely not fiscal calendar-driven,” he said, “and we know that our fanbase is not going to hold us to a fiscal calendar. With (2007’s World of Warcraft expansion) Burning Crusade, we missed Christmas by about three weeks. We could’ve shoved it out the door, but we decided we didn’t need to get it into stores for Christmas. We just needed it to be great and our playerbase is going to buy it whenever it hits the shelves.”
At least one half of the games industry’s largest publisher can see sense. Perhaps Bobby Kotick can take a leaf out of Rob Pardo’s book.
