Tag: GDC

Google Unveils Stadia Game Streaming Platform and is Dead Serious About Eliminating Barriers and Making High-End Gaming Accessible for Everyone

Google CEO Sundar Pichai unveiled their Stadia game streaming platform at the 2019 Game Developers Conference in San Fransisco today. Stadia is designed to bring high-end gaming to Chrome and other devices and aims to eliminate the many barriers to gaming. It will likely be a subscription service similar to Netflix but focused on games that can be played without a console right in Chrome or other devices.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, introduces Stadia, Google’s new streaming gaming platform at the 2019 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco:

Biggest Impact of Gaming is How it Pushes Technology Forward

Perhaps the biggest impact of gaming is how it pushes us to make big leaps in computing and networking power, high fidelity graphics, and the infrastructure that supports it all. All of it is pushing computing and technology forward and I find it really exciting. At Google, we have always believed that technology should adapt to people. Not the other way around. We’ve been building towards this vision for some time. For example, when we launched Chrome a decade ago we envisioned that it could be a modern platform for web applications. We wanted to bring the power of the web to everyone including use cases that seemed impossible at that time like high-quality games.

Finally, we are making progress towards that goal. In fact, over the last two years, we’ve been hard at work on game streaming technology. Last Fall, we launched our first public test with Project Stream. But a technical test wasn’t the whole view of our ambition. It was probably the worst kept secret in the industry. Internally, we were actually testing our ability to stream high fidelity graphics over a low agency network. We learned that we could bring a triple-A game to any device with a Chrome browser and an internet connection, using the best of Google to create a powerful game platform.

Google Committed to Paying Billions to Game Developers

When we say best of Google, it always starts with our cloud and networking infrastructure. Our custom server hardware and data centers can bring more computing power to more people on planet Earth than anyone else. Today, we are in 19 regions, and in over 200 countries and territories connected by hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber optic cables. The best of Google also includes our open platforms that allow us to reach billions of people. With Google, your games will be immediately discoverable by over two billion people on a Chrome browser, Chrome Books, Chrome Cast, Pixel Devices, and we have plans to support more browsers and devices over time. That’s in addition to all of the people playing and watching games across YouTube and Google Play.

When we build these ecosystems, we always take the approach that we only succeed when our partners do. Collectively, our partners across web, Google Play, and YouTube have earned more than $110 billion over the last four years alone. We are committed to this approach here as well. So now, we have focused on our next big effort, which is to build a game platform for everyone. And, when we say for everyone, we really mean it. It is one of our most cherished values as a company. Be it Android or Chrome or AI, we are dead serious about making technology accessible for everyone.

Google is Dead Serious About Eliminating Barriers

But, if you think about games, there are a lot of barriers for users to play high-end games. Beautiful graphics really need high-end consoles or PCs. And games don’t have instant access. Think about the way the web works. You can easily share a link and it works seamlessly. We want games to feel that way too. Instantly enjoyable with access for everyone.

I think we can change the game by bringing together the power and creativity of the entire community, people who love to play games, people who love to watch games, and people who love to build games. That means all of you. We are really excited to work with you. We want to build a platform and we want you to show us what’s possible. And together, I think we can create a new games experience powered by best of Google and built for everyone.

March 19, 2019
Here’s 8 Hours Of Google Developer Day At GDC. Go Wild. [Video]

Google held (and livestreamed) its Developer Day at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco yesterday. The recording, which is over 8 hours long, is now up for all to view.

Dig in.

Below is the full agenda via the GDC site, so you know what your’e in for.

10:00-10:15am
Developer Day Kick-Off

10:15-10:45am
Growth Hacking with Play Games
Let’s look at how you can harness the incredible growth of Google Play Games to rapidly expand the user base of your game, and how Play Games assists in discovery, engagement and retention.

10:45-11:15am
Engaging Your Entire Community
Your player community is stronger when they can all play together. So why are you needlessly dividing them up into arbitrary groups across screens and devices? Let’s look at how Google Play Games is letting all of your players play together as one big happy family.

11:15-11:30am Break

11:30-12:00pm
Making Money on Google Play: Best Practices in Monetization
To be successful, you need to learn from the best. This talk will review commercially successful games on Google Play and common themes they share.

12:00-12:30pm
Grow Your Game Revenue with AdMob
Google advertisers spend more ad dollars in games than any other type of app! Discover how you can maximize your game’s earnings with awesome ads and recent innovations from AdMob.

12:30-1:20pm Lunch

1:20-1:45pm
Okay Glass, Play a Game

1:45-2:15pm
The Next Level of In-game Advertising
Ever wonder how the mobile ads ecosystem works and how ads reach your game’s inventory?

Join us to learn the inner workings of programmatic and direct sales advertising, including an overview of the tools you can use to take your in-game advertising revenue to the next level.

2:15-2:30pm Break

2:30-3:00pm
From Players to Customers: Tracking Revenue with Google Analytics
What makes your players spend in your game? Who are your high value users and how do they play your game? Learn how Google Analytics can help you find the insights for the users that matter the most for you.

3:00-3:30pm
Take Your Users to the Next Level
Small tweaks to your game can result in significant revenue increase. However you cannot rely only on personal opinions; hypotheses need to be confirmed by users. In this session you will learn how to use Google SDKs to control experiments and configuration without shipping a new version of your app.

3:30-4:00pm
Build Games that Scale in the Cloud
Your game is a living, breathing creation that takes a lot of time and attention even after launch. So why worry about your technical infrastructure? Come hear how to build games that scale that run on Google’s state-of-the-art infrastructure.

4:00-4:20pm Coffee Break

4:20-4:35pm
Looking to the Future

4:35-5:00pm
From Box2D to Liquid Fun: Just Add Water-like Particles!
LiquidFun, Google’s new extension to Box2D, adds realistic fluid physics to any game. We’ll show how it works, and explore how it can enliven your next game with gooey, sticky, powdery, or jelly-like fun!

5:00-5:25pm
Bringing the Power of YouTube to your Games

5:25-5:45pm
Texture Wranglin’ : Getting your Android Game Assets Under Control
Bloated APKs make customers sad, and with >60% of sizes coming from textures, it’s easy to see the culprit. Get your texture footprint back under control. This talk will focus on advanced processing techniques to reduce PNG sizes; Migration to GPU formats, as well as WEBP; and advanced techniques for compressing sprite animations.

5:45-6:00pm Wrap Up

Image via YouTube

March 20, 2014
Mobile Game Developers Prefer iOS Over Android

There was a time many years ago when Android was a land full of cheap mimics of the more popular mobile titles that were exclusive to iOS. Over the years, those same mobile developers are now building their games for both platforms. It looks like their love for iOS hasn’t subsided though.

As part of its State of the Industry report, GDC surveyed 1,700 North American smartphone game developers on their preference between iOS and Android. Ninety percent of those surveyed said they were making games for iOS, while a respectable 80 percent said they were making games for Android.

So, what about the other guys? The survey found that 21 percent of mobile developers were making games for Windows Phone while 5 percent were making game for BlackBerry devices. A relative newcomer to the mobile space – PlayStation Mobile – only has 5 percent of developers working on games for the platform as well.

The results show that there’s now a lot of overlap between development for iOS and Android. Most developers now feel that they have to release on both platforms to target the widest audience possible considering that Android is the largest mobile platform in existence.

While there’s no reason stated why iOS still has an edge over Android, we can make a couple of educated guesses. For starters, it’s still easier to develop games on iOS as you don’t have to worry about fragmentation nearly as much. Sure, over 60 percent of Android users now use Jelly Bean, but ignoring previous versions cuts out 36 percent of your potential audience.

Another possible reason is that the piracy rate on iOS is much lower than it is on Android. A report from SlashGear last year said the piracy rates for a single game on Android was at 95 percent. The same game on iOS had a 5 percent piracy rate. While you can argue it’s unfair to compare the piracy rates between platforms based on a single game, most developers aren’t going to be thinking about that when developing their next game. There’s still a preconception that iOS is the safer platform to release games and apps on even if it’s not the case for every game.

Despite all this, Android still has 80 percent of North American mobile developers making games for it. That’s nothing to sneeze at. As Google continues to mature the platform, more and more developers will likely start to move towards cross-platform development.

Image via iTunes

February 20, 2014
Developers Focusing On Next Gen, PC And Mobile In 2014

On March 17, game developers from around the world will gather in San Francisco for the annual Game Developers Conference. Before the show, GDC surveys attending developers to find out which platforms they’ll be releasing their next game on. Since this is the first year the Xbox One and PS4 are showing up, it will be interesting to see how they stack up against the other platforms.

In the 2014 State of the Industry report, a majority of the 2,600 North American developers surveyed revealed that their next game is going to be on mobile and/or PC. Thanks to the low barrier of entry and relatively low cost of development, these two platforms have risen in popularity over the last few years as easy ways to get your foot in the door.

Moving to game consoles, almost 20 percent of respondents said their next game would show up on the PlayStation 4. Most GDC attendees today are indie developers so the results aren’t too surprising considering Sony’s support of indie developers. It’s also the reason why almost 7.5 percent of those surveyed will be releasing their game on the PlayStation Vita – another indie friendly platform. In comparison, the PlayStation 3 only has 6 percent of developers working on games for it.

As for Xbox, almost 17 percent of developers will be releasing their next game on the Xbox One. Thanks to Microsoft’s ID@Xbox program, indie developers can now self publish their game on the platform. The same can not be said for the Xbox 360 where only 6 percent of developers plan to release their next game.

So, what about Nintendo? Last year, only 4.6 percent of surveyed developers said their next game would be out on the Wii U. This year, that number has dropped slightly to 4.4 percent. The original Wii fared much worse with less than one precent of developers releasing their next game on the system.

Nintendo’s handhelds didn’t fare any better. Despite the 3DS’ success in 2013, the handheld is still primarily a vehicle for first party titles. Only 1.9 percent of those surveyed will be releasing their next game on the 3DS while only .5 percent will be releasing their next title on the original DS.

Outside of traditional game consoles, game developers can now also choose to develop for Android-based microconsoles. Almost 11 percent of those surveyed will be releasing their next game on the Ouya and its ilk. While the barrier to entry is just as low as it is on mobile devices, Android microconsoles are still selling poorly enough to make investment in games for these platforms a risky proposition.

All of this paints a rosy picture for the future of next gen consoles, PC and mobile. All the other platforms aren’t doing so hot right now, but this is only a survey of North American developers. Game consoles would see more support if Japanese developers were thrown into the mix and European developers would give a major boost to the already dominant PC.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

February 18, 2014
GDC Awards Nominees Announced, The Last Of Us Receives 5 Nominations

By and large, gaming award shows don’t matter at all. Most are voted upon either by gamers or critics and don’t ever feel that important. In contrast, the Game Developer Choice Awards always feel important as this is only the awards show where the nominees and winners are chosen by the industry itself.

In early 2014, GDC will play host to the 14th annual Game Developers Choice Awards. It’s a chance for the industry to recognize the very best that 2013 had to offer in game design, story, art, technical achievement and more. As you would expect, a lot of this year’s GDC Awards nominees are the AAA blockbusters that defined 2013, like Grand Theft Auto V and The Last of Us.

Interestingly enough, 2014 is another year in which indie titles are represented in a major way. The Fullbright Company’s Gone Home received a nomination for game of the year as well as nominations in four other categories. In fact, the only other games to receive as many nominations were Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us and Media Molecule’s Tearaway. While it’s been obvious to many who follow the industry, it should become more obvious this year to those who don’t that non-violent, thought provoking games like Gone Home can stand tall among the industry’s best.

Here’s the full list of categories and nominees:

Game of the Year
Gone Home (The Fullbright Company)
Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar North/Rockstar Games)
The Last Of Us (Naughty Dog/Sony)
Super Mario 3D World (Nintendo EAD Tokyo/Nintendo)
Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix)

Innovation Award
DEVICE 6 (Simogo)
Gone Home (The Fullbright Company)
Papers, Please (Lucas Pope)
Tearaway (Media Molecule/Sony)
The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe)

Best Audio
BioShock Infinite (Irrational Games/2K Games)
Forza Motorsport 5 (Turn 10 Studios/Microsoft Games)
Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar North/Rockstar Games)
Saints Row IV (Volition/Deep Silver)
Tearaway (Media Molecule/Sony)

Best Debut
Blue Manchu (Card Hunter)
The Fullbright Company (Gone Home)
Galactic Cafe (The Stanley Parable)
Squad (Kerbal Space Program)
Undead Labs (State Of Decay)

Best Downloadable Game
Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons (Starbreeze/505 Games)
Gone Home (The Fullbright Company)
Papers, Please (Lucas Pope)
Resogun (Housemarque/Sony)
The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe)

Best Design
Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar North/Rockstar Games)
The Last Of Us (Naughty Dog/Sony)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (Nintendo EAD/Nintendo)
Super Mario 3D World (Nintendo EAD Tokyo/Nintendo)
Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix)

Best Handheld/Mobile Game
DEVICE 6 (Simogo)
Fire Emblem: Awakening (Intelligent Systems/Nintendo)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (Nintendo EAD/Nintendo)
Ridiculous Fishing (Vlambeer)
Tearaway (Media Molecule/Sony)

Best Narrative
Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons (Starbreeze/505 Games)
Gone Home (The Fullbright Company)
The Last Of Us (Naughty Dog/Sony)
Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix)
The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe)

Best Technology
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar North/Rockstar Games)
The Last Of Us (Naughty Dog/Sony)
Killzone: Shadow Fall (Guerrilla Games/Sony)
Tearaway (Media Molecule/Sony)

Best Visual Arts
BioShock Infinite (Irrational Games/2K Games)
DmC (Ninja Theory/Capcom)
The Last Of Us (Naughty Dog/Sony)
Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch (Level 5/Namco Bandai)
Tearaway (Media Molecule/Sony)

The 2014 Game Developers Choice Awards will take place during GDC on March 19 at 6:30 p.m. The event will last two hours.

Image via PlayStation/YouTube

January 9, 2014
Missed Facebook At GDC? Watch These Videos

Do you develop games for Facebook? Were you unable to attend the Game Developers Conference in March? If you answered yes to both, Facebook has quite a treat for you today.

On its developer blog, Facebook posted a recap of all of its sessions at GDC. The social network covered everything from the basics to advanced monetization strategies. Here’s some of the more interesting talks with links to the videos in blue:

Facebook Games Product Update

It’s been a record year for games. More than 250 million people, or one out of every 5 users, play games on Facebook.com each month. George Lee, Product Manager for Facebook Games, walks through improvements that have helped drive 75% more game installs year over year. He also discusses how games are part of the overall Facebook experience through News Feed, Timeline, and Graph Search.

Building Core and Mid-Core Games on Facebook

There are 84 million 18-35 males playing games on Facebook each month, which represents 32% of all monthly active gamers. In other words, there’s a huge opportunity for core and mid-core game developers to build on Facebook. Andy Katzman, Strategic Partner Manager, Colin Creitz, Partner Engineer, and Peter Chang, Partner Engineer, walk through the products we are building to help gamers find great games and stay connected with each other. In addition, Greg Richardson, CEO of Rumble, discusses how his team is creating a more immersive game experience, and David Helgason, CEO of Unity, talks about 3D gaming and how we’re improving the Unity experience on Facebook.

Monetizing Your Game on Facebook

More than 100 developers generated more than $1 million on Facebook last year. Our payments team is committed to growing the games payments ecosystem and driving developer revenue. Deborah Liu, Monetization Product Manager, Daniel Schultz, Partner Engineer, and Sara Brooks, Strategic Partner Manager, discuss how developers can prepare for the updated Facebook Payments and price virtual goods for a global audience.

There are many more videos at Facebook’s blog post to keep you busy for a few hours. You might even learn something.

April 29, 2013
GDC 2013: Unreal Engine 4 Will Make You A Believer In The Next Generation

The next-generation of game consoles is quickly approaching, but there are some who claim that we don’t need new hardware. The argument usually focuses on how there’s still ways to squeeze more power out of the current generation of consoles, and how games still haven’t reached their full potential.

At GDC 2013, Epic Games smashed that argument to bits with its latest real-time demo of Unreal Engine 4. The technology on display just isn’t currently possible on existing consoles, and it’s exciting to think what developers will do with it once they have the power to do so.

The most exciting part about this tech demo is that it’s running on currently available PC hardware. Epic confirmed that the demo was running on a single, unmodified Nvidia GTX 680. So, we know that Unreal games built on the PC will look great, but it will be interesting to see how the engine works with the AMD hardware in the PS4 and next Xbox.

[h/t: Polygon]

March 29, 2013
GDC 2013: The Phantom Pain Revealed To Be Metal Gear Solid V

At last year’s Video Game Awards, a title called The Phantom Pain from Moby Dick Games was revealed. Within minutes of being shown, the Internet was convinced that it was Metal Gear Solid V. Since then, all manner of conspiracy theories emerged all pointing to The Phantom Pain being the next entry in Hideo Kojima’s venerated franchise.

Well, Internet, pat yourselves on the back. You were right. At GDC 2013, Hideo Kojima unveiled Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. It would be much more of a shock if the Internet didn’t already have pages of evidence pointing to this conclusion, but it’s still nice to be vindicated nonetheless. What is legitimately surprising, however, is that Metal Gear Solid V is also Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, an open-world stealth-action game revealed last year.

So, how does this all fit together? Kotaku reports that The Phantom Pain trailer shown at the VGAs is the opening of Metal Gear Solid 5. It takes place right as Snake has woken up from a nine-year coma. Once Snake escapes the hospital seen in that trailer, the game becomes the open-world title that we saw in Ground Zeroes.

There are not many details available regarding Metal Gear Solid V just yet, but the trailer did offer a few tidbits of information. For starters, Kojima is back in the director chair on this one. He’s also credited as a game designer and producer. Series veteran Yoji Shinkawa is back on board as character and mechanical designer as well.

As for platforms, the game looks like a next-generation title. That might be because the trailer was taken from the PC build, but the trailer also said the game would be coming to the PS3 and Xbox 360. It’s unknown at this point if the title will show up on the PS4 and the next Xbox.

March 27, 2013
GDC 2013: Facebook Unveils Games Developer Center

Facebook games are currently in the middle of a transition from Web to mobile. Both are still very viable markets, however, and Facebook wants to make sure game developers have all the tools they need to succeed on both platforms.

At the annual Games Developer Conference, Facebook announced the launch of the Games Developer Center. Much like its regular Facebook Developers portal, the Games Developer Center collects all the information and tools developers need to create games for Facebook.com, or games that use the Facebook SDK for iOS and Android.

Facebook also announced today that it’s adding a games section to the new timeline that will “give people a way to express their favorite games on their timeline and About page.” Facebook also suspects that the new games section will “serve as another reengagement and discovery channel for game developers.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Facebook announcement without some stats and the games team didn’t disappoint:
More than 250 million people are playing games on Facebook.com each month
As of February, 55% of top 400 iOS apps are integrated with Facebook
Last month, Facebook drove 263 million clicks to the Apple App Store and Google Play, from mobile News Feed
20% of daily Facebook web users play games on Facebook.com
Game installs (on Facebook.com) are up 75% since this time last year (when compared to March 2012)
There are about 200 games on Facebook.com with more than 1 million monthly active users each
More than 100 developers generated more than $1M on Facebook last year
Year-over-year growth of the total number of payers on Facebook has increased 24% since this time last year (when compared to March 2012)
More than $2 billion was paid out to game developers in 2012. Most of our top developers generated record payments revenues on Facebook last year.

Last year, Facebook uploaded all of its GDC talks for developers for those who weren’t able to make it out to the show. If you weren’t able to make it to the show again this year, Facebook should have those talks up within the week.

March 26, 2013

Every game creator is inspired by the games of their youth, which in turn leads them to make the next set of games that inspires the next generation of developers.

Gamasutra is reporting that a panel today at GDC had four legendary game designers talk about the games that influenced them. The game designers in question were Will Wright, Sid Meier, Cliff Bleszinksi and John Romero.

For a bit of background, here’s what each designer is most famous for. Will Wright was the co-founder of Maxis who created games such as Sim City and the Sims. The last game he was a part of before departing Maxis was Spore.

Sid Meier is in the same boat as Will Wright as game designers that perhaps need no introduction as his name graces each game that he produces – Sid Meier’s Civilization. What you may not know is that he is also responsible for Alpha Centauri and Pirates.

Cliff Bleszinski may be the most contemporary designer on the list, but he shot up in notoriety as the creator of the Gears of War franchise. Before that though, he worked on Epic’s Unreal Tournament series. Cliff Bleszinski will always hold a special place in my heart, however, as part of the team that worked on Jazz Jackrabbit.

Finally, John Romero was a co-founder of id Software where the first-person shooter was born. He was involved in the creation of Doom and Wolfenstein 3D, but may be forever remembered as the creator of the ill-fated and absolutely trashy game Daikatana.

Now that introductions are out of the way, let’s get to the games that inspired them to make their most famous games. Will Wright was up first and his inspiration was more of a tool set than a game. He said that Pinball Construction Set for the Apple II was his inspiration for Sim City. The graphical editor was especially of great importance as it paved the way for the simplistic editor tools that were in Sim City.

Sid Meier said that if it wasn’t for the classic PC game Seven Cities of Gold, he might not have started making historical games like Civilization. The focus on history and real world events led him to realize that topics like this could enter video games and still take hold of the player’s imagination.

Cliff Bleszinski may have shared the most entertaining story with how his love of Nintendo and The Legend of Zelda led to him being made of fun at school. It may have not inspired any game at the moment for the young game creator to be, but it did put him on the path to becoming a rockstar of the games industry. In his talk, he mentions this ad for Zelda that didn’t really sell the game for him. I wonder why?

John Romero spoke on how color in video games was his first “wow” moment. He was so used to seeing black and white games and then saw Pac-Man, which was his first game in color.

While some of these creators went on to make vastly different games from what inspired them, there still is something to be said of the experience that leads us to choose gaming as more than just a hobby.

What game was your defining moment that led you to realize this was more than just a hobby? Do you have any particular awesome stories? Let us know in the comments.

[Lead image courtesy of Gamasutra]