Not Your Average Music Game

Last week, I attended an evening of good food, generous raffles and game design presentations at Mt. Ida College in Newton, Massachusetts. Great Eastern Technology sponsored the event, dubbed Not Your Average Game Night. I actually won a seat of Craft Animations software, and that blew me away. It's been a long time since my days as an Indigo 2 jockey on WaveFront, Alias and Vertigo software! This should be fun, tinkering. Thank you, GET and C2i!

Speakers for the night included:

Yuris Mangolds, from C2i Studios. He demonstrated his Craft Animations Director Tools workflow.

Jason Arnone, Art Manager, from Harmonix. Jason shared the role his art department played in creating the new Beatles Rock Band game.

I loved seeing the glimmers of life inside Harmonix as told by Jason. The poor guy had one of those dry, tickling coughs at the beginning of his presentation. But he hung in there and the audience was entranced by his stories, visuals and behind the scenes Beatles Rock Band stories. I would like to share some of what he told us.

Mandatory Band Practice for ALL EMPLOYEES

His opening slide featured a montage of band shots from employee gigs. Many coworkers have formed their own bands, and they take full advantage of the free studio time in the evenings, after the official business of designing music games leaves the tasty sound studio empty and up for grabs. This is, after all, a music company that happens to make games. Not the other way around, Jason clarified.

Blow it Out

Beatles Rock Band was originally conceived as a simple reskin of Rock Band 2. But once they got into the two year project, they realized that they needed to "blow it out" and create something unique. Of course, they kept the schedule the same! That sounds so very familiar. ;-) The need to bring in lots of project partners to hit their epic 9-9-9 release date probably accounts for some of the noticeable stylistic changes in different areas of the game's visuals. Passion Pictures in the UK did the intro for the game. MK12 did the chapter movies in the career mode.

A Very Touchy Game

The user interface team is comprised of Graphic Design, Motion Graphics, Illustration, Typography and Interaction Design. "It's a very touchy game," Jason explained. I was especially enthralled by the simple storyboards that he showed, trying to explain how they tied the camera's movement to the user interface. Those rollercoaster swoops of motion as you select different parts of the Dynamic 3D Environment... and your cloud scape banks dramatically to one side to reveal another level of the UI. These are the first things that I loved about Beatles Rock Band. And I wanted to see more storyboards explaining their technique.

A Very Dangerous Decision

The Environment arm of the company is made up of Concept Art, Story Boards, Lights, Cameras, and Special Effects. It was decided to create Historical Venues where the Beatles played *and* create Dreamscapes. These dreamscapes evoked the look and feel of key pieces of Beatles music and were a great challenge, Jason said. "It was a very dangerous decision to create dreamscapes," he admitted. I love when creatives share honest feedback about their creative process. He must have been referring to the schedule and artistic approvals. But I think he mentioned something about the new techniques that the team was inventing to deliver on these fantasy environments --> a far cry from the simple club or stadium venues of previous Rock Band game incarnations. He played the full Yellow Submarine dreamscape "video" and it was wonderful to experience all of its beauty and wonder without needing to concentrate on the notes streaming down the screen!

The Joy Filter

To bring the Beatles and their world to life required Animation, Sequential Art, Skin Shaders, and Special Effects. They used motion capture (or "mocap" as Yuris from C2i Studios called it!) on a really good Beatles tribute band. The faces and hands were built to accommodate any Beatles song, so that the animators could match the artists computer models to each Beatles tune. The intentional asymmetry of the facial modeling was impressive. Such dramatic eyebrows, all around! We viewed giant computer models of Paul's head, then Jason clicked to show John. Then a giant floating head sang an entire song. To make the singing faces look less somber, the animators used what they dubbed "the joy filter" or... an over-exaggeration of the many small movements in your face as one sings. The final touch, which really intrigued me, was the addition of tiny eyeball animations, so that the members of the Fab Four darted glances around the stage, audience and at each other, almost as if they were aware of what was happening. Jason said he was astounded when he watched a flawless animation of the band go to an unimagined higher level with the simple inclusion of these gracefully darting eyeballs! A company called Curious Pictures in NYC used Motion Builder to work on these animations.

Personal Touches

Character Art included Character Illustration, Fashion Design, 3D Modeling and Texturing. The stack of fashion design sketches for all the costumes that were modeled for the game was staggering. All those rocker accessories! The Beatles and their families opened up their homes to share personal stories and photographs of the Beatles years. Yoko Ono, an artist herself, was instrumental in the design process and she provided great feedback, Jason said. Apparently, there is a part of the game where the Beatles are chattering with each other in the sound studio before the game play starts. This "background conversation" is based on a never before heard track of Beatles audio. Actual audio from the Beatles! How cool is that? Such passion and attention to detail should be commended and celebrated. I can't wait to visit my friend Dave in the Berkshires and play some more of the Beatles; this presentation by Harmonix gave me an even greater appreciation for this musical game masterpiece. Or is that a gaming musical masterpiece?

Virtual Vertigo and Outlandish Tales

I sat down to write this blog post about another seminar that I attended at the Games in Education earlier this summer. The topic of that seminar shall be set aside for a moment, so that I can put down some thoughts about this tangled web of connectivity that we call the blogosphere.

It started innocently enough. I pulled out one of my sketchbooks and began reviewing my notes (loading them into my brain's RAM). Some of my insights from the original seminar piqued my interest once again. There was a name of an author -- and his book. I'm still very interested in checking out this book. So I do an internet search. Find his website. A very simple website. His book now has a second addition. The color graphic of the book cover fills my screen. A few links on places to buy this book. And two or three reminders to "click the box" at the bottom of the screen to Email the author regarding his Books, Seminars and Consulting Services.

He is just trying to make a buck, like the rest of us!

I'd been digging around online this evening, following threads from one game design theorist to another. The lawlessness of these blogs has left me physically dizzy and a bit put off. Any specialized field probably has everyone linking to everyone else's blog. It can feel intimidating. Like you've just entered a room where everyone knows everyone else.

I'm very interested in the connections that reading blogs and writing blogs can offer. Yet I can't help but wonder how these technological tools will best suit me. Will blogging support my existing correspondences with people... or will I begin to interact with people in a whole new way; perhaps building relationships that are predominantly based around computerized interaction?

Last week, I attended a story-based game night at a local book and game store. I played some Baron Munchausen game with 5 strangers. It was really fun. Everyone pretended to be an arrogant 17th century baron. You turned to the person on your left and made up some crazy statement about one their adventures... and they picked up the thread and tried to create the BEST story based on the starting point you gave them. Each player had a stack of coins equal to the number of players at the table. (Six in this case, since there were six of us). At any time, a player could pay the storyteller a coin... and interject an outlandish comment in an attempt to de-rail the storyteller's tale.

Such as, "But Baron! Isn't this the time that you slipped on a threadbare rug and impaled yourself on your dinner fork?

The storyteller could accept the coin... and weave the comment into their grand tale. Or give them back the offered coin PLUS a coin of his or her own. At the end of the game, after everyone had told a 4-5 minute story, each player votes with their remaining coins. You simply give your entire of stack of coins to the Baron who you thought gave the very best story.

Anyway, reading through some people's blogs reminded me a bit of this Baron Munchausen game. Just like real life, some people just go on and on and brag about their accomplishments.

It's tough because their is such a fine line between self promotion and vanity.

Blogging is such an *unnatural* way to talk about yourself. First off: it's written. Second: you often don't know who your reader is in the first place. How do you keep what you say appropriate and real?

Like anything, I am simply going to take this one step at a time. Limit my deep-sea diving of the blogosphere to a finite amount of time per sitting, focusing on a short list of characters who I've met or wish to meet. It is so easy to get overwhelmed. And / or distracted.

It all comes down to good people, really. And if my spider sense starts to tingle when a blog seems to have crossed the line into egotism, well then, I suppose I don't need to read any further. Unless I'm in the mood for another one of the Baron's outlandish tales!

GES Writing Panel -Or- Favorite Lee Sheldon quips.

At GES 2008 a panel told attendees that the videogame industry does not hire writers; that writers and designers are the same thing; and that game writers cannot be taught. This panel I was attending at GES 2009 @ Carnegie Mellon's ETC was challenging these assumptions. It was a lively discussion and I picked up some great quotes!

Panelists:

Sande Chen. 10 years, 14 published credits "The Witcher" USC Film School

Lee Sheldon. Writer / Producer in Hollywood. Worked on soaps, Star Trek: The Next Generation (STNG), Charlie's Angels. Virtual worlds to ARGs.

Elisabeth Nonas. "I do not write games." Teaches screen writing for 15 years. "Should I be here?" she wondered aloud.

Richard Dansky. Red Storm / Ubisoft.

Lee Sheldon had good things to say, and contributed some of my favorite aspects to this discussion. Some samples of his thoughts and ideas early in the talk:

• "TV soaps have story and character. But no special effects."

• "The game industry is finally realizing the importance of story."

• "Story is normally added to a finished videogame. Or done first. And then dismissed."

Art - Programming - Design - Writing --> this is the core team before a project gets huge.

Companies do not have iterations built into the schedule for writing. (This sounds familiar: my experience at Hasbro Games as a senior designer was that game design iterations were not built into the schedule, either. Improving your game was for evenings and weekends!)

Drew Davidson asked, "How can we get students to explain their game without always resorting to telling a story of the game?"

Metal Gear Solid 4: "A video with sporadic fits of game play." Hilarious.

Emergent story telling. Lee likes seeding player behavior. (I assume he is referring to ARGs.)

Club Penguin takes chat room rumors and turns them into real content. Brilliant!

MMO's are notoriously hard to write.

Lee Sheldon admits, "I have given up on the people who create (video) games right now. We need Pixar to start doing game development." Gasp. Wouldn't that be incredible? (Or is that Incredibles?)

Some one asks, "Should game writing be taught in an English department?" This sets off a flurry of passionate discussion, mostly about entrenched academia and how difficult it is to change the curriculum in high school english. Members of the audience moan about how tough it is to collaborate with some people in academia. Again, Lee Sheldon comes to the rescue: "Work with them until they die." Meaning, new ideas mainly take root when those people who are in positions of power move on and no longer cause road blocks. But I like how bluntly Lee put it!

Someone quipped this observation: "Game writing and game design is considered the evil step child of academia." It could have been Lee Sheldon, but it's been a few weeks since I took these notes.

Lee Sheldon works with 60% of the department's grants. Money is flowing in. Industry identifies that games are a tool. "Games are a server with an AI over it." Very interesting perspective! Thanks Lee...

Building Northeastern U's Game Design Curriculum From Scratch

Terrence Masson, Director of Creative Industries @ Northeastern and Siggraph 2010 Chair, spoke at the Games in Education Summit 2009.

As a producer he appreciates clarity of communication. He saw a funny tag on a piece of luggage at the airport; it said, "No, yours is the other black bag." haha

Terrence's background is similar to my own: animation, visual effects, game development, and commercials. He also does special venues, which sounds very interesting. He used the the ETC as a model and designed his curriculum on the team based environment of "Left / Right brain development."

He still has his 1974 Dungeons & Dragons graph paper! And he shared a photo of himself with Gary Gygax, the creator of D&D, who sadly passed away last year. Terrence was thankful that he did some game design with Gary Gygax. Very cool! Game Design is Terrance's passion. Awesome.

Terrence's 15 minute claim to fame: He helped the South Park creators to build an animation pipeline for their now successful show.

Why create a Game Design program? Some statistics: the 2007 world market for movies was $26.7 billion. The 2007 world market for games? $40 BILLION. That's pretty convincing.

Terrence sits on the advisory committee for Boston's Mayor Menino, who is trying to stimulate the local creative economy with City and State initiatives. (My thoughts: the Mayor's link is an interesting article in Edge magazine, even though some angry game industry-insiders rage against Menino's efforts to address inappropriate video game content.) Terrence explained that 16 game companies came to Boston in the past 2 years. Very cool.

I'm excited for the 2010 Powering Up Boston conference...

At Northeastern, a 10 year program called "Multimedia Studies" has now evolved into the current Creative Industries Program.

He promised his colleagues that he would say "pedagogical." Ripple of laughter in the audience from the educators. Oh... pedagogy means "the principles and methods of instruction. (I think it is much cooler to spell it "paedagogy"; love the 'ae' as a one letter thing...)

Terrence researched over 60+ game design curriculums around the world. He found it is the rare institution that offers a BFA in Game Design. Teaching game design, Terrence stressed the quest for excellence, and how he "scares the crap out of the students." New students are shocked, "This is really hard!" He advocates constant feedback and constant critiques.

Not surprising, Terrence admits that "Today's 18 year olds have abysmal writing skills."

A course in Games in Society is mandatory for all students. The audience loved looking at the slides with course loads for a a typical load of classes for a game design student. Just fascinating.

Class Structure. The admission of 12 kids per class drew wide-eyed stares of envy. (I love watching the crowd during presentations; they really put things in perspective.)

Pitch Structure. Students must create 3 pitches for a game. Each 'elevator pitch' is 30 seconds in length and illustrated on white boards with story thumbnails. Nice!

Capstone Structure. Team based collaboration is key. Projects are created with a range of specialized students from across the university to mimic how games are created in industry; Graphic Design, Music, Art, Psychology, Computer Science + Project Managers.

Coop Program. Students go on coop in their "Middler Years" for two 6-month stints at professional game companies in Boston, New York and Los Angeles. This Coop Program keeps the faculty on the "bleeding edge," Terrence admits, as students return from work and share their experiences with the technology that is being used to make computer games today.

They don't teach tools. I repeat, Northeastern's game design program does not teach tools. They teach 1 credit Tool courses and prepare students for the ever evolving nature of computer tools. Their lab is replaced every 3 years. And best of all? It is all Mac based, currently with Leopard and X Grid servers.

Such a great look into a professional game design program! I can't wait to check in with Terrence this summer and continue this conversation.

Games Across Media

Drew Davidson, Director of ETC-Pittsburgh, spoke about storytelling across multiple access points on Day 1 of the Games in Education Summit 2009. Know as "cross media", "trans media" and "convergent media" (a term attributed to Henry Jenkins).

The idea with trans media? It's storytelling with multiple access points to a fictional world. We all are familiar with books being made into movies (and vice versa.) But also think about a story (be it a novel, movie, TV show, comic book, etc.) existing in games, websites, and even on billboards! (where clues to an ARG, or Alternate Reality Game, are hidden on a real world advertisement; for example, you notice something on a poster in the subway and input that data into a web browser to launch a "secret" game. Very cool.)

OK. Enough linkage. I want to share some points that I found interesting in this talk.

• Sims3. This game was released on the iPhone for $10 at the same time as the PC version.

• Giant Eagle. (Pronounced "gine iggle" to native Pittsburghers) now offers fuel perks that "track and follow you." Huh? First I'd heard of this. I need to read more on this idea of giving up a little privacy for additional benefit and convenience (like those Speed Pass transponders we put up on our car windshields to zip through tolls. Big Brother now knows where you vacation!)

• Fan Fiction. J.K. Rowling shut down fans writing stories about her characters. But you can write a fan fiction of the Star Wars universe.

• Tent Pole. Define the "Tent Pole" or central experience that holds up all the other experiences.

• The Lost Experience. Clues to this Lost TV show game are hidden in the episodes. People are expected to DVR the show and go through frame by frame to find these hidden nuggets of gameplay. Really? I thought the Wii showed that most people are hungry for game experiences that don't consume all of our free time.

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This property started out as a movie, then became a TV show for 7 seasons, after switching networks. Then Joss Whedon, the show's creator, did something very cool and is now offering a Season 8 of the show as a comic book!

• One Life to Live. "The Killing Club" This one is hard to follow: a character in a soap opera writes a mystery novel. The book actually gets published and is so successful that the character in the soap opera goes on real world book tours promoting the book that she "wrote" on the soap opera. This makes my head spin. A fictional author! Writing fiction when you yourself are a fictional character. Kind of like the A.I.s in the holodeck lounge on Star Trek Next Generation writing their own stories, huh?

• Give us a reason to hop between media. Too often, extensions of a core property are marketing driven opportunities that don't ask "Why am I doing this?" This sparked a memory. When the Pokémon game was released on Game Boy in 1996, it was originally available in *two* cartridges: Red and Blue. This was a brilliant ploy to get players to buy more cartridges (of course) and make gobs more money (that's what it is all about for many people). Yet the interaction of Red and Blue cartridges was core to the game experience. Reason? If you *traded* a Pokémon from a player using a different colored cartridge, then that creature would grow in strength and gain new powers *at a faster rate* than an untraded Pokémon! It was brilliant.

• Stories In Between. This is Drew Davidson's book. He wanted to make some available to sell at this talk. But Don Marinelli "gave them all away last week!" :-) I wanna check it out.

Don Marinelli's GES Keynote

Last month, I attended a seminar about games for education. I expected that we'd hear and discuss the many uses, challenges and advancements in games that teach. I was also excited to visit my hometown, Pittsburgh, and see family, friends and design colleagues. After two days of listening, wonderment and sparks of discussion at the ETC, I returned to Boston thinking in much grander terms.

Keynotes on Twitter

Billy Cain, self professed Geek / Catalyst did an outstanding job Twittering the two keynote addresses and I will not attempt to recreate his efforts. I encourage others to review Billy's rapid-fire tweet coverage of the presentations given by Don Marinelli, Executive Producer and Cofounder of the Entertainment Technology Center and Richard Hilleman, Chief Creative Director Worldwide of Electronic Arts.

Billy's reporting accuracy matches my own notes.

Do a Twitter search for "#GES BillyCain" to find his good stuff.

Background: my Game Design Game

A few years ago, I gave a couple presentations to first year ETC graduate students about game design and that is where I met Don Marinelli. I created a game about the process used to create games based on my experiences as a senior game designer at Parker Brothers and Hasbro Games in the 90's. The attendees played the game; I facilitated. It was a huge success.

Don Marinelli

Don exploded into his keynote with a booming greeting and a brief description of the ETC. And statistics. Some highlights from his talk:

• Our schools are still based on 18th century modes of thinking, so that children could spend the summer home with their families to help with the summer farm work!

• "Preaching to the choir?" Don asked, "Or a call to arms? We need a plan of attack. It is close to the time when kindergarten kids go on strike. Marching with little signs, 'Hell no, we won't go!'"

• In 1963, television was heralded as the technology that would transform teaching. As a young child, Don remembers marching into the gym to watch a beautiful woman on a single TV instructing everyone to listen and repeat phrases in Spanish. "This is a sham!" Don soon realized. "She said, 'Muy bien!' regardless of what you said or did. It was a technological solution that failed."

• Don is convinced that videogame technology will transform teaching.

• Games are games. The word itself has done us in. Hide or disguise the term. All attacks on games are focused on the extremes, he said. "The media loves a clear cut villain!"

• Education should be the essence of change. How can we make teaching and learning relevant to a changing world? "We could now get along fine without knowing Latin!" Don effused, much to the chagrin of the classical language academics in the room! LOL

• Angrily: "When Jurassic Park cleared 325 Million in sales, the movie was on the cover of Time magazine. That same year, a hedgehog named Sonic cleared 400 Million in sales. "There was no mention," Don growled. "Who is writing the news?"

• "When the home provides more cutting edge technology than what school can offer, things are bass ackwards!" So true.

• "Lawyers run companies and governments. Why not videogame students? Andrew Ender Wiggins, anyone?!" Great point, Don! (Referring to the oft-quoted science fiction story,

Ender's Game. Read it, if you haven't...)

• The secret of the ETC? Don said simply, "Let students teach each other."

• Share the fun, Don exudes!

• H.G. Wells began his writing career as a social class author. One of Don's favorite books by H.G. Wells is called Star Begotten. It is about a race of people waiting for The Enlightened Ones to return from the stars. Eventually, the people stop waiting and realize that they themselves are the Enlightened Ones!

More to Come...

Watch for additional short reports on my experiences at the following talks at the Games in Education Summit.

1. Games Across Media, a talk by Drew Davidson. He runs "the mothership" of the ETC in Pittsburgh, PA.

2. Building Northeaster University's Game Design Curriculum From Scratch, a presentation by Terrance Masson, Director of Creative Industries, Northeastern University + Siggraph 2010 Chair.

3. Should Game Writing Be a Part of the Curriculum? A panel discussion with Sande Chen, writer, Lee Sheldon, writer/producer in Hollywood, and Elisabeth Nonas, teacher of screen writing.

4. Creativity, Constraints and Compromises, a project discussion with Sande Chen, writer and Dr. Ricardo Rademacher, physics teacher and creator of Futur-e-scape, a fantasy MMORPG that teaches physics.

5. Making Serious Games Seriously Fun, a look at games by Aaron Vanderbeek, Long Distance: a board game and Todd Waits, VP of Product Development at Skill Life, an online game that aims to teach financial literacy.

6. Buddhist Death in Second Life, a fascinating and immersive experience created by Beth Davies-Stofka, teacher of religion and philosophy in Denver, CO. This was so amazing --- and was an "Aha moment" for me regarding the positive power of online worlds.

7. Physical Gaming: Beyond Mini-Games, a thought provoking and fun look at 6 games by Andrew Hieronymi's (SCAD) and his "deconstruction of a game." Brilliant stuff.

Note to self: ...

... Play more games!

Until then, meet interesting people, collaborate on cool game projects and attend game conferences as we all strive to elevate the Art of Game Making.

This blog has grown out of my desire to share my observations and insights while attending a trio of very exciting game conferences in 2009:

• GDC SF (the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco),

• IGC East (the Independent Game Conference @ Northeastern University in Boston) and

• GES (the Games in Education Summit in Pittsburgh, PA @ Carnegie Mellon's Electronic Entertainment Center, or E.T.C.)

It's kind of ridiculous how easy it was setting up this blog. I guess that's inertia for you; the smallest movement can get you *finally* moving in the right direction.