democratizing game development (2007)
DESCRIPTION
In September 2007 I gave this presentation at CoFesta, a Japanese conference associated with Tokyo Game Show. It's fascinating to see how things have progressed since then!TRANSCRIPT
Democratizing
Game
Development
Mark DeLoura
Democratizing
Game Development
Democratizing
Game Development
Democratizing
Game Development
What does THAT mean?
Democratizing
Game Development
Democratizing
Game Development
What does THAT mean?
Democratizing
Game Development
Democratize: to make democratic
Democratizing
Game Development
Democratize: to make democratic
Democratic: of, relating to, or favoring
government by the people, rule of the
majority
Democratizing
Game Development
Democratize: to make democratic
Democratic: of, relating to, or favoring
government by the people, rule of the
majority
Democratizing
Game Development
Democratize: to make democratic
Democratic: of, relating to, or favoring
government by the people, rule of the
majority
Democratizing
Game Development
Democratize: to make democratic
Democratic: of or relating to the Democratic
party in the United States
Democratizing
Game Development
Democratize: to make democratic
Democratic: of or relating to the Democratic
party in the United States
Democratizing
Game Development
Democratize: to make democratic
Democratic: of or relating to the Democratic
party in the United States
Democratizing
Game Development
Democratize: to make democratic
Democratic: relating to, appealing to, or
available to broad masses of people
Democratizing
Game Development
Democratize: to make democratic
Democratic: relating to, appealing to, or
available to broad masses of people
Democratizing
Game Development
Democratize: to make democratic
Democratic: relating to, appealing to, or
available to broad masses of people
Democratic: favoring social equality, not
snobbish
Democratizing
Game Development
Democratize: to make democratic
Democratic: relating to, appealing to, or
available to broad masses of people
Democratic: favoring social equality, not
snobbish
Making game development “available to broad masses of people” while “favoring social
equality”
Democratize: to make democratic
Democratic: relating to, appealing to, or
available to broad masses of people
Democratic: favoring social equality, not
snobbish
Making game
development
available to
broad masses
of people while
favoring social
equalityMark DeLoura
Making game
development
available to
broad masses
of people while
favoring social
equalityMark DeLoura
• Making game development available!
• Making game development available!
• What about distribution?
• Making game development available!
• What about distribution?
• We want development AND distribution
Making game development AND DISTRIBUTION “available to
broad masses of people” while “favoring social equality”
Making game development AND DISTRIBUTION “available to
broad masses of people” while “favoring social equality”
Giving
Everyone the
Ability to Make
and Share
Games
Mark DeLoura
Giving
Everyone the
Ability to Make
and Share
Games
Mark DeLoura
Who is Mark?
Geek
Nintendo
Game Developer Magazine
Sony
Ubisoft
Independent
Game Programming Gems
Other roles
• Game Developers Conference
• Independent Games Festival
• Siggraph Sandbox
• Journal of Game Development
• Sharing information
• Making game development easier
• Keeping people from recreating the same
work
• Why do we keep recreating everything?
• What if we could make game development
easier?
What if?
What if it were easy?
What if it were easy?
Why not??
For that matter, why??
• Should it BE easy?
Why games?
• Why is this important?
The Newest Communication
Medium
• They have infused into all parts of our culture,
and our world
The Newest Communication
Medium
• For many people, games have always
been a part of their lives
– These people are used to seeing games
around, they are part of their vocabulary
The Newest Communication
Medium
• Games aren’t solely for kids
The Newest Communication
Medium
• Games aren’t just for entertainment
Games = Entertainment + ...
• Games can make learning more fun
Games = Entertainment + ...
• When something is made fun through a
game, it can also be used to educate,
inform, tell stories
For Good…
For Bad…
Games = Entertainment + ...
• But really, games are neither “good” nor
“bad” – they simply are a medium for a
message
• And the message... can be whatever you
want!
Games CAN Convey Messages
• Games tell a story through an experience
– Player gets engaged, immersed
– And player then controls the outcome, so can
learn from mistakes and successes
Games Can Convey Messages
• Games are the best way to EXPERIENCE
someone else’s world or viewpoint
Games Can Convey Messages
• And most importantly
– Games are fun! So the player wants to keep
playing!
Games Can Convey Messages
• And most importantly
– Games are fun! So the player wants to keep
playing!
Darfur is Dying
Howard Dean for Iowa
Food Force
September 12th
Tetris
Messages
• Modern games increasingly carry
messages
• Whereas older games did not
• Evolution of game as media
Why everyone?
• Getting many perspectives can be very
valuable
• You can EXPERIENCE another person’s
viewpoint
Kenya: Adventures of Nyangi
Iran: Special Operations 85
Lebanon: Special Forces 2
Who else?
The Participatory Culture
• The new phenomenon on the Internet
– Web 2.0
– Everyone is sampling their world and sharing
their viewpoint
• Blogs, flickr, youtube, facebook, etc
Blogging – Thought sharing
Flickr – Picture sharing
Youtube – Video sharing
Facebook – Friend sharing
Game sharing?
• Why shouldn’t we all make and share
games, too?
“Web 2.0 for Games”
• Like Rock’n’Roll was in the 1960’s,
videogames are this generation’s media
Web 2.0 – it’s hot!
• Old media are evolving
• New media are expanding
• Fewer mainstream media outlets, more
new media
– New media gaining more attention
More Voices
• If we can enable many voices, we can
experience many perspectives
• When it is easy to create the media,
everyone can share their perspective
Game Development for Everyone
• It sounds like a good idea! But what do
we get out of it?
Old Media Today
• TV today: mainstream
– CNN
– Fox News
– NHK
• Publicly supported channels
– PBS
• And then...
– 500 other channels!
Games Today
• Games today: mainstream publisher titles
– Big budget, big reach
• And... And...
• Well, we have a small hobbyist community
– Flash games
Media Comparison
• Some of the nice things we get on U.S. TV
– Comedy Central, with Jon Stewart and Steven
Colbert
– LinkTV
– Current
• What about in games?
Social Commentary
• Popular in many art forms• Old graffiti: AD 79
• Books: “Animal Farm”, AD 1945
• Music: Rock music, AD 1960’s
• Comics: “Maus”, AD 1973
• Movies: Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth”
• Games
Social Commentary
• Why use games?
– Games are the new media for our generation
– The most immersive and educational form
– You can gain understanding of other people’s worlds
by EXPERIENCING them
– Of course, they can be used for “good” and “bad”...
• So they are the best media format to use!
– But games are hard to make…
How Do We Do It?
• How do we enable everyone to make
games? How do we actually do it?
– Make games as easy to create as possible
– Game development must be made less
expensive
Giving Everyone the Ability to Make
and Share Games
• Making the creating and sharing of games
simpler, and less expensive!
How?
• How can we make games simple to create
and share?
– Technology
• Tools and Game Engines
– Distribution
• Platforms
Important Technology
• What is important in technology to make
games easy to create and share?
– Simple to use tools, game engines, and
development environments
– Inexpensive – free is good
• What do other media forms use?
Movie Technology
• Professional
– Avid Media Composer, Media 100 HD Suite
Movie Technology
• Mid-range
– Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro
Movie Technology
• Hobbyist
– Windows Movie Maker, iMovie
Music Technology
• Professional
– Music: Avid ProTools|HD, Cakewalk Sonar
Music Technology
• Mid-range
– Music: Cakewalk Music Creator, Encore
Music Technology
• Hobbyist
– Music: GarageBand, Band in a Box
Game Technology
• We use a LOT of tools
– Programming tools
• Game engines and libraries
• Development environments
– Art tools
• 2D art
• 3D modeling
– Video tools
– Audio tools
Game Engines
• Professional
– Unreal Engine 3, Id Tech 5, CryEngine 2
Game Engines
• Hobbyist
– Garage Games’ Torque, PopCap Games
Framework, OGRE 3D, and a lot of freeware
libraries
Development Environments
• Professional
– MS Visual Studio (C/C++/C#)
• Hobbyist
– MS Visual Studio Express (C/C++/C#)
– Flash
– Silverlight
Hobbyist Environments
• Multimedia Fusion 2
– Pretty interesting, designed mostly for 2D
– Interface still a little complex
Hobbyist Environments
• Scratch
– MIT research
3D Art Tools
• Professional
– 3DS Max, Maya, Softimage, Lightwave
3D Art Tools
• Hobbyist
– Blender, Wings3D
Hobbyist 3D Art Tools
• Google Sketchup
Hobbyist 3D Art Tools
• Google Sketchup
2D Art Tools
• Professional
– Photoshop, ZBrush, Deep Paint
2D Art Tools
• Hobbyist
– GIMP, Paint Shop Pro
Free Art
• Asset libraries
– Google 3D
Warehouse
Free Tools
• Environments
– MS Visual Studio Express
• Video Editing
– VirtualDub
• Audio Editing
– Audacity
Game Technology
• What we need:
– Easy to use game engines and environments
– Free and simple tools
• Draw art and go
• Sample or create audio and go
– More art asset libraries
• Upload and download capability
• What we have:
– Hmmm…
What about distribution?
Movie Distribution
• Old style
– Videotapes, DVDs
• New style
– AVI, Flash, streaming
• Professional channels and hobbyist channels
– All formats can be created and shared by everyone!
Music Distribution
• Old style
– Records, CDs, tapes
• New style
– MP3, iTunes, streaming
• Professional channels and hobbyist channels
– All formats can be created and shared by everyone!
Game Distribution
• PC / Mac Games
– Create whatever you want!
– Distribution
• Via Media or Internet, easy
– Installation
• Hard for grandma!
• People should just be able to click and play
Game Distribution
• Console Games
– Xbox360: XNA Creators Club.
– PS3: No access. Little Big Planet? Home?
– Wii: No access. WiiWare?
– Distribution
• Hard! Expensive!
• XNA Creators Club only good for people in the club.
– Installation
• Easy via disc, harder via download
• Ideally we want a clickable site to download from (youtube)
Game Distribution
• Handheld Games
– Sony PSP: Nothing
– Nintendo DS: Nothing
• Mobile Games
– Varies significantly by region
– Variable handset capabilities
– Java applications
– Distribution, Installation: Hard
Game Distribution
• PC / Mac is the easiest format right now
– Distribution easy
– Installation hard
• Web-based Flash games make it easier
• Consoles
– Still hard, but some progress (X360)
• Others
–
Web Flash Games
• Sites
– www.jayisgames.com
– MSN Games, Oberon Games, Real Arcade,
etc
• User-created games
– www.kongregate.com
• Engines, tools?• Nothing complete… lots of little sites.
How do you make a game?
• One final area we haven’t touched on is
education
Game Design Education
• 496 schools worldwide• http://www.gamecareerguide.com/schools
• Lots of books are available (unlike ten
years ago)
Game Design Education
• Borrow ideas from others!
In Conclusion
• Games can communicate messages as experiences– They are excellent for education and information
sharing, in a fun way
– Games are difficult to make, distribute, and install
– Current game development tools and technology are too complex for hobbyists
– Web Flash games are the best option at the moment
• It is slowly improving; please try to make your own games to share!
Thanks!
• Resources in the translated handout
• Contact information
– Email: [email protected]
– Blog: http://www.satori.org
– LinkedIn, Facebook
• Thanks to camstudio, audacity, virtualdub, media-convert.com, K-Lite Codec Pack