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Tag: GDC 2013

  • Missed Facebook At GDC? Watch These Videos

    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.

  • GDC 2013: Unreal Engine 4 Will Make You A Believer In The Next Generation

    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]

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • GDC 2013: Sony Announces Increased Indie Support For PS4, PS3 And Vita

    The annual Game Developers Conference is already underway this week, and Sony came out the first day announcing a number of titles for all of its platforms, including the PS4. Interestingly enough, all the of the titles announced for its platforms are indie titles created by small studios. It speaks volumes to Sony’s renewed commitment to indie titles that it touched upon at its PS4 reveal event in February.

    Indie games may not be what some gamers were expecting from Sony, but the focus on these small titles is a major boost to Sony’s reputation at an increasingly indie-focused event like GDC. It doesn’t hurt that the majority of the titles shown at GDC also show an incredible amount of promise.

    For the PlayStation 4, Sony only announced two indie games for the platform – Blacklight: Retribution and Primal Carnage: Genesis. The former is a free-to-play shooter supported by microtransactions. Sony is already experimenting with free-to-play on the PS3 with games like Dust 514 so it will be interesting to see what the platform holder does with FTP games on the PS4.

    As for Primal Carnage: Genesis, the game is an episodic first-person shooter title that could very well be seen as the spiritual successor to Dino Crisis.

    As for other platforms, a number of games are being developed for both the PS3 and PS Vita.

  • Rain – PS3
  • Divekick – PS3 and PS Vita
  • Spelunky – PS3 and PS Vita
  • Velocity Ultra – PS Vita
  • Limbo – PS Vita
  • Metrico – PS Vita
  • Sportsfriends (including Johann Sebastian Joust, BaraBariBall, Hokra and Super Pole Riders) – PS3
  • Ibb & Obb – PS3
  • Guacamelee! – PS3 and PS Vita
  • Hotline Miami – PS3 and PS Vita
  • Dragon Fantasy Book II – PS3 and PS Vita
  • Thomas Was Alone – PS3 and PS Vita
  • Luftrausers – PS3 and PS Vita
  • Friend Network App – PS Vita
  • Last but not least, Sony announced a number of titles for its fledgling PlayStation Mobile platform. These games are intended for mobile devices, like those from HTC and Sony, but the games can also be played on the Vita as well.

    If you were expecting major announcements out of Sony, you will probably have to wait until E3 when the company is expected to reveal more about the PS4 and the AAA games coming to the platform. For now, start setting aside a bit of money to purchase Thomas Was Alone for when it launches on the Vita.

  • Not Many Developers Are Working On Wii U Games

    The Wii U has a few obstacles it needs to overcome, but the biggest is definitely its lack of software. A recent poll of developers shows that the Wii U’s software drought may not be ending anytime soon.

    A new survey out of the Game Developers Conference polled a number of developers asking which platforms they’re developing for. Surprisingly, the Wii U came in dead last with only 4.6 percent of developers saying they were working on a title for Nintendo’s console. Other consoles didn’t fare too well either as only 13.2 percent of developers are making a game for the Xbox 360, whereas 13 percent are working on the PlayStation 3.

    Drops in console development leave plenty of room for PC and mobile development to pick up the slack. An astonishing 55 percent of developers said that they’re making their next game for smartphones or tablets. Another 48 percent said that their next game would be on the PC and/or Mac.

    Now, before everybody starts freaking out, these numbers need a little context. For starters, GDC is no longer attended exclusively by people working at a major publisher. In fact, most of the attendees at GDC these past few years have been indie developers. The latest numbers only reinforce that fact as over 53 percent of respondents to the GDC survey identified themselves as an indie developer.

    So, how does tie into the low console numbers, and high mobile numbers? It shows that indie developers are flocking to the PC and mobile markets because they’re easier and cheaper to develop for. It doesn’t hurt that PC and mobile platforms are far more open than consoles, despite Sony’s and Nintendo’s best efforts to fix that.

    In short, the high number of indie developers attending GDC ensures that the numbers for indie platforms, like mobile and PC, are going to be higher. Now this doesn’t mean that Nintendo gets away without any criticism. It needs to do a better job of courting third-party developers and indies. The Wii U launched with a great selection of indie titles, and the hardware maker needs to continue that trend going into the future.

    As big AAA games start to cost more and take more time to develop, the smaller indie titles will become increasingly more important to the livelihood of any platform. Sony seems to embracing the indie developer with the PS4 saying the console will support any kind of game. Nintendo is reportedly doing much the same with the Wii U. Now these hardware makers just have to prove it by securing quality indie content while supporting these developers with the help they need to realize their vision.

    [h/t: Gamasutra]