Game Network Newsletter - October 2010
October 18, 2010 (Back to archive)
In This Issue
- Gamasutra.com - EA and Autodesk talk partnership on EA Sports MMA game
- Independent Games Festival - Interview with IGF Chairman Brandon Boyer
- Game Developer Magazine - Editor-in-Chief Brandon Sheffield shares editorial vision
Autodesk senior product marketing manager/games Mary Beth Haggerty and Electronic Arts Tiburon animation director Simon Sherr chat about their recent Gamasutra.com Webcast and partnering on "EA Sports MMA" |
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 Mary Beth Haggerty
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Q: Autodesk and Electronic Arts recently partnered for a Webcast on Gamasutra.com discussing how EA leveraged Autodesk HumanIK in its upcoming "EA Sports MMA" game. What was the main takeaway?
Mary Beth Haggerty: EA has accomplished an ambitious animation goal with MMA – realistic depictions of grappling between characters of different sizes and proportions. Simon talks about how they made the fighters' motions believable with EA's internal ANT middleware that uses HumanIK extensively. The Webcast covers techniques used for contact between the players while punching or kicking, resolving players of different proportions, making sure the players' feet plant correctly, and procedural awareness. The team used a pipeline with Maya for character modeling, MotionBuilder for animation, and HumanIK along with ANT for animation middleware to accomplish their goals.
Simon Sherr: The main goal of the Webcast was to outline key elements of how EA Sports utilized HumanIK in ways other IK systems would have been very difficult to use. Our use of auxiliary effectors and the way our pipeline so closely melds with Autodesk MotionBuilder (which is built around HIK) is something I really wanted people to know about.
Q: How did Autodesk and EA come to partner on this particular project? Are there future plans for collaboration?
Sherr: When EA and Autodesk made our strategic deal back in 2005, the relationship really took off. We are one of the largest users in the world of Autodesk tools, so it's only natural that some collaboration would occur.
Autodesk has been fantastic about our concerns and helping us mold their tools for our specific implementations. I definitely see a big future between EA and Autodesk with collaborative efforts, especially with Autodesk looking to move into middleware which is something I genuinely believe EA does better than anyone.
Q: EA's MMA game is one of the more highly anticipated titles. What key features do you feel give it an edge over "UFC Undisputed 2010"?
Sherr: One area where we do a fantastic job is breaking up the monotony of a single league with a single set of rules. The fact that this is such a huge global sport allows us to take advantage of various leagues and rule sets from around the world that do change the fight in fun and exciting ways. The rule sets force you to approach fights differently, and it adds a large degree of variation and depth to the game.
We also have an engine that allows a massive amount of tuning parameterization. What that means is that the tuning of the visuals is up to the artists and the feel is up to the designers -- and the two don't negatively impact each other.
As a former fighter myself, I wanted to play a game that feels like real fighting. In real life, I don't have to roll dice to punch someone or take someone to the ground, I have to set them up intelligently and wait for their defenses to be down. That's exactly what we did in “EA Sports MMA.” You have to beat your opponent and do it in a way that's as intuitive on the controls as it could be so you don't have to spend your time trying to remember which button combinations to press.
It's a very different game from the one our friends at THQ have made. We aren't trying to get a user to recreate great fights that have taken place in the past; we are trying to create brilliant new ones and teach users how to not only be better fighters but to have a much deeper understanding of the actual sport by putting you in the ring or cage in an actual fighting simulator.
Q: Why did you choose Gamasutra.com as the venue for the Webcast?
Haggerty: Gamasutra.com is a key industry site for game developers. I check the site daily to get the latest news and analysis on the game industry.
Q: How does Autodesk HumanIK differ from competing technologies on the market?
Haggerty: Autodesk HumanIK middleware is technology that helps create believable character animation for games. Characters interact with their environment and other characters with HumanIK middleware's full body inverse kinematics (FBIK) system. Teams can create, modify, and re-use character animations by dynamically layering FBIK information onto existing clips at runtime helping save valuable animator time. Workflows between HumanIK, Autodesk Maya software, and the Epic Unreal Engine 3 help streamline the process of creating top-quality games.
The Autodesk HumanIK and Epic Unreal teams worked in concert to bring game developers a robust integration into Unreal Engine 3. HumanIK 4.5 middleware has an artist-friendly toolset putting more control of the runtime results into the hands of the animator. Artists can retain the creative vision for their characters from initial animation authoring to the gameplay experience with HumanIK. There is also a Characterization Tool available as a plug-in to Autodesk Maya 2011 software and as a stand-alone program. Artists can specify bone mappings and validate their work using a friendly graphic interface. The tool helps make character configuration part of an integrated workflow. HumanIK 4.5 middleware also helps bring greater flexibility of animation environment and style to developers with squash and stretch functionality. Whether obtained through motion capture or key framed, character animation becomes more responsive to the real-time situation – characters can adjust their neck, spine, and limbs with squash and stretch. Animators have power over the activation as well as the ease-in and ease-out settings for greater control in creating characters that are more believable.
Q: Are there any other observations you'd like to make about the Webcast that might surprise our readers?
Haggerty: Simon explains the difference between forward kinematics (FK) and inverse kinematics (IK) fantastically. If someone wants to learn more about animation for games, this Webcast is definitely worth their time whether they are an artist or programmer. Even though the Webcast is targeted for people actively working in games, Simon explains both fundamental concepts and some sophisticated techniques in clear and easy-to-understand language.
Brandon Boyer, chairman of the Independent Games Festival, talks IGF success stories, digital distribution, and prize-winning advice
 Brandon Boyer |
Q: The Independent Games Festival has been around for 13 years and has been compared to the Sundance Film Festival. What makes it such a celebrated event?
Brandon Boyer: The IGF has always been a place for the games industry to get a sense of what was percolating on the outskirts. It's a celebration not only of the business of supporting yourself and your small team outside of the long-entrenched retail structure but, more importantly, of independent thought on what games can be and can mean to culture at large.
Q: How does the IGF differ from other industry award shows -- like Spike TV's, for instance.
Boyer: The IGF stands alone in being the longest-running and most influential celebration of indies. While the number of award shows has risen these past five years, none give the independents the primary focus; more often you see indie spotlights as a side-note to celebrating already-high-profile, multi-million-dollar retail successes.
Q: Can you give me one or two success stories about IGF winners?
Boyer: The IGF is littered with success stories throughout its past: The Behemoth, Metanet, 2D Boy, Polytron, Introversion, Number None, Cactus, Jon Mak, Hemisphere and so on. The list is long and it's heartening to see people struggling to create something beautiful be given the recognition they deserve.
Interestingly, two of the best success stories have come not out of the main IGF awards, but from the 2006 Student Showcase. That year, two smaller and more humble games -- thatgamecompany's "Cloud" and Nuclear Monkey's "Narbacular Drop" -- came from nowhere and went on, respectively, to create one of Sony's flagship downloadable games, "Flower," and to be the basis for one of Valve's biggest successes, "Portal."
Q: What's on tap for IGF 2011 that is different from previous years?
Boyer: Primarily, it's the first year to unify the IGF and IGF Mobile -- a sister festival with a focus on cell phone and handheld platform developments. We chose this year to combine the two because we've seen especially Apple's iPhone create one of the best new opportunities for independent survival and expression, and the indie devs themselves rise to that challenge with games that rival console and PC experiences.
Q: Tell us about the IGF's distribution partnership with Direct2Drive and how that benefits contestants.
Boyer: Digital distribution is the backbone that's allowed the indie community to thrive and flourish; it's a primary component of that tidal shift that separates the pre-2005 IGF and the artistic explosion to 2011. Every opportunity an indie gets to reach a wider crowd through any platform is an extremely valuable one.
Q: Finally, what advice do you have for independent and student game developers creating games for IGF and who are hoping to win those coveted prizes?
Boyer: The line I hope all developers take to heart – and that includes students, established indies, and those in the mainstream -- is a simple message about being themselves and putting their own unique perspective and talent into their games.
The IGF submission deadline is Oct 18th. You can also Subscribe to the IGF News RSS feed for regular competition updates.
Brandon Sheffield, editor-in-chief of Game Developer Magazine, discusses his editorial vision, how to get your products reviewed, and the importance of print as a medium |
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 Brandon Sheffield |
Q: Brandon, as editor-in-chief of Game Developer Magazine, what is your editorial vision for the publication?
Brandon Sheffield: Essentially it is to provide content that will help mid-to-upper-level game developers do their jobs better. In addition, I want the magazine to be a resource to which people can refer for solutions to common problems, so there needs to be a combination of immediacy, relevance, and timeliness.
Q: What makes Game Developer different from the other industry publications, especially in terms of content and reach?
Sheffield: Well, there aren't a whole lot of other industry publications! But the main difference is that Game Developer has the widest distribution of any game industry magazine. Content-wise, we've not had to lose any editorial pages over the years compared to the other magazines. And our content is much more in-depth and technical compared to the more surface trend articles elsewhere.
Q: Given the immediacy of the Internet, how has GD Mag evolved over the years in terms of its coverage and distribution?
Sheffield: These last five years we've certainly avoided writing any time-sensitive news unless it's tied to information that only we have. In terms of distribution, tying specific issues to specific trade shows has increased in importance, which is why most of our issues ship to at least one industry show in any given month.
Q: What advice do you have for companies looking to have their products reviewed?
Sheffield: Companies looking to have their products reviewed should just contact us. We're always interested in reviewing appropriate products, which generally means tools that game developers can easily buy and use. Anything that has to be outsourced generally is not reviewable, but sometimes we even review hardware if it's appropriate (such as haptics-based artist tools, but not graphics cards).
Q: Some say the Internet will be the death of print, but several publications – like Game Developer Magazine – are still going strong. Why do you think print remains such an important medium for both readers and advertisers?
Sheffield: We are an important medium for advertisers because of how targeted our publication is. Most game developers, from the top to the bottom, read GD Mag which is pretty much a one-stop way to reach a very specific market.
There's also the fact that some readers still like holding a physical publication in their hands when they are reading, say, on the train. And our magazine ties in with the game developer conferences and can be distributed there.
I should point out that we also have a digital edition which we're currently making more accessible to digital readers on, for example, the iPad.
Q: Anything else you'd like to add regarding GD Mag...perhaps something that this e-newsletter's readers aren't aware of?
Sheffield: Well, we've been slowly redesigning the magazine, making it much more attractive. The last three covers, for example, have been particularly striking, and the features are becoming more and more appealing. If you haven't taken a look recently, you really should!
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Paul has covered the videogames industry for over 15 years now, currently writes for Gamasutra.com, and was editor-in-chief of UBM's GamePower.com. He can be reached at phyman@gdmag.com.
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