Gears of Awards

Microsoft’s 360 action romp Gears Of War has picked up three awards at the annual Game Developers Choice Awards. The title won trophies for Best Technology and Best Visual Art, as well as Best Game at the event, held as part of the Games Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Capcom’s Okami and Nintendo’s Wii Sports were the other big winners, with two awards each. Both titles collected a prize in the Innovation category, with Okami also picking up a gong for Character Design and Wii Sports triumphing the Game Design category.

Guitar Hero 2 picked up the trophy for best audio – following on from the original Guitar Hero's win in the category last year – and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess won for Best Writing.

Creator of THQ’s Titan Quest Iron Lore Entertainment was recognised as Best New Studio.

Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto was singled out for a Lifetime Achievement award.

http://www.developmag.com/news/26059/GDC-Gears-of-Awards

Global multiplayer mobile games for j2me platforms using GPRS connection

Mobile phones are no more used for just making calls and sending messages. It has become a valuable source for entertainment on the move. Creating multiplayer games for mobile using Bluetooth has not created a big craze with mobile gamers, so moving to a global multiplayer game using GPRS which says play from anywhere and with anybody around the world, is going to hit a big market on entertainment industry soon. This idea has just been implemented by some big manufacturers. The idea of going with their option for most multiplayer mobile game developers is a bit unimaginable, because of the cost they charge for each game to interact with their server. This article explains about how to create a great multiplayer game for mobile platform using GPRS.

Requirements:

1. A good web hosting server with a strong database server.

2. A GPRS service that allow http connections.

3. A finished game ready to go globally multiplayer.

4. A bit Server side scripting knowledge. This is all that are required to develop a global multiplayer mobile game using GPRS connection.

The game server:

The total concept of the game server is to build it like a router which gets data from any client and redirects to the right destination client. Our game server is going to do the same work.

Server client architecture:

The client SDK, which we are going to develop later, should first post a login username details and wait for the response of the server. The server should add the client details to the queue table and should respond back with a game Id which is unique for each game played. Then the client should wait for the opponents. Till then the client should post for the game status. Whether the game has started or still has to wait for another opponent. Now when the other client logs in, the server responds with the same game id. And the status of the game is changed to “started". Now for reference the game id and the details of the game like who played when and who started will be stored in a different table.

Now both the clients should be removed from queue table and taken to the pairs table which holds the game id and client ids. Now the server allots ip address like on a network. Both the clients should then get their ips from the server. Mobile Game Developers should write a routine which creates ips randomly. Ip here we call is not the actual one which we use in networking. It is similar to a GUID (16 byte value) so that we don’t have to check for uniqueness in the game. Once all these transactions are over, the clients start to exchange there usernames and details to display with whom the player is playing with. These transactions are handled in a different table where each entry represents a data transfer between clients. The details “who has sent to whom" and “what" will be stored there.

Once all transaction has been taken before the game, both the clients transfer the game data to the other client. In SMNA we use acknowledgment make sure the other client has read the previous transaction. Unless a client acknowledges the message the other client will wait for the next transaction to take place. This is to avoid loss of data. To make it a complete featured game server we need to implement a high score list on the server. This is all what we do in SMNA. In this server script we have developed separate url script for every requests and posts, so that the load on the server gets spread during the game.

The Multiplayer game SDK development:

Coming to the development of SDK, the developer has almost completed most part of the project. Now having it as SDK will be more useful in the future, so that any game can be made multiplayer easily. The SDK should contain classes and functions like this, login(userdetails), checkForOpponent(), getGameID(), getOpponentName(), getIP(), sendData(), readData(). All these functions should use http post and read the server’s response back and feed the game routine with the information. Additional features like posting high scores and adding communities and rooms are very essential for the game server to reach the large market.

SMNA:

, a custom mobile game development company with a passion on multiplayer SDK development has developed a game server. The game server and SDK both are for sale. The game server is coded in PHP and J2ME. This is a cross platform game server, where people from a website or PC connected to internet can compete with a person playing on mobile. It has a good high score database and a community management system to review on the game.

http://www.smackall.com/viewresource.php?resource=10

Philips to bring virtual world to Life

A partnership between Philips and Rivers Run Red will enable virtual world Second Life to take advantage of its amBX ambient experience hardware. The amBX kit includes lights, rumble and fans all designed to add an extra dimension to on-screen action.

Philips has also been experimenting with Rivers Run Red itself to market the amBX products via virtual demonstrations in the world itself.

Most importantly now, however, Philips will be creating solutions for open source Second Life client software that will allow users, via an SDK, to create amBX experiences and scripts themselves.

"Second Life offers an entirely new market for amBX and we feel this is the start of a very special relationship," said Jo Cooke, chief marketing officer, Philips amBX.

“Second Life offers amBX an unparalleled opportunity to bring our revolutionary ambient intelligence technology to an expanding global market of many millions of tech and media savvy users who are not only hungry, but also open-minded for new online experiences."

http://www.developmag.com/news/26062/GDC-Philips-to-bring-virtual-world-to-Life

Anaglphs in Games / Automated Game Testing

HONOR AMONG THIEVES (released in 2004 for the PlayStation 2) included an innovative anaglyph 3D feature. With the red/cyan glasses included with the game, players could experience real-time stereographic visuals in most gameplay areas. Producing stereographic anaglyph images (AKA anaglyphs) is a fairly mature practice among photographers.

Even so, special problems arise when generating anaglyphs for consumer televisions, in real-time, and within a "free" camera system. This talk presents the pro forma methods for producing anaglyphs, as well as several tricks for producing effective stereographic effects within a video game.

Alexander Jihn:

Automated game play testing in casual games development, including research into operant conditioning and it's uses in the development of a released game title.

http://www.igda.org/seattle/reports/02_2007r.htm

Gears of War,' 'Okami' and 'Wii Sports' Lead the Recipients of the 7th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards

Epic Games and Microsoft Game Studios' Xbox 360 shooter Gears of War was the recipient of three honors including Best Game at the 7th annual Game Developers Choice Awards. The blockbuster hit game also received the awards for Technology and Visual Arts. Following close behind with two awards each were Clover Studios and Capcom Entertainment's Okami and Nintendo's Wii Sports. The ceremony, produced and hosted by the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and presented by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), is the only peer-based, open nomination awards program in the industry where honors are bestowed to developers by developers. Recipients were announced tonight at the 2007 Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco.

"A Game Developers Choice Award is like no other award presented in our industry, as it is the only prize that gives the community the chance to appreciate and honor individual developers," said Jamil Moledina, Executive Director of the Game Developers Conference. "By celebrating our visionaries by name, we give the audience and the public at large a chance to give credit where credit is due."

Nominations were free of charge and open to all IGDA members, ensuring that the nominees reflect the international development community's opinions. The IGDA membership voted on the finalists.

The recipients for the 7th annual Game Developers Choice Awards are:

Best Game

Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Cliff Bleszinski, Michael Capps, Rod Fergusson

Audio

Guitar Hero II (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
- Jeff Allen, Eric Brosius, Izzy Maxwell

Character Design

Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
- Mari Shimazaki, Sawaki Takeyasu, Kenichirou Yoshimura

Game Design

Wii Sports (Nintendo)
- Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki Yamashita

Technology

Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Michael Capps, Ray Davis, Tim Sweeney, Daniel Vogel

Visual Arts

Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Jerry O'Flaherty, Chris Perna

Writing

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
- Kyogoku Aya, Nate Bihldorff, Mitsuhiro Takano

New Studio

Iron Lore Entertainment (Titan Quest)
- Paul Chieffo, Jeff Goodsill, Brian Sullivan

Recipients for the evening's special awards were:

Lifetime Achievement

Shigeru Miyamoto

First Penguin

Alexey Pajitnov

Maverick

Greg Costikyan

Community Contribution

George "The Fat Man" Sanger

"Once again, the Game Developers Choice Awards have shown that gaming greatness can be found within every type of game -- from the most hardcore of experiences, to those that have brought all new audiences into our industry's fan base," said Jason Della Rocca, Executive Director, IGDA. "Each year, I am humbled by what our members can do with this great art form."

http://www.igda.org/newsroom/press_030707.php