Democratizing Game Development (2007)

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


Democratic: of, relating to, or favoring

government by the people, rule of the

majority

Democratizing

Game Development




majority

Democratizing

Game Development




majority

Democratizing

Game Development


Democratic: of or relating to the Democratic

party in the United States

Democratizing

Game Development




Democratizing

Game Development




Democratizing

Game Development


Democratic: relating to, appealing to, or

available to broad masses of people

Democratizing

Game Development




Democratizing

Game Development




Democratic: favoring social equality, not

snobbish

Democratizing

Game Development





snobbish

Making game development “available to broad masses of people” while “favoring social

equality”





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!


• What about distribution?


• 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


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


Medium

• Games aren’t solely for kids


Medium

• Games aren’t just for entertainment

Games = Entertainment + ...

• Games can make learning more fun


• When something is made fun through a

game, it can also be used to educate,

inform, tell stories

For Good…

For Bad…


• 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


• And most importantly

– Games are fun! So the player wants to keep

playing!


• 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.

http://www.jayisgames.com/

http://www.kongregate.com/

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)

http://www.gamecareerguide.com/schools

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

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.satori.org/

Democratizing Game Development (2007)

Technology

democratic party

messages games

game development easier

democratizing game development

older games

messages modern games

evolution of game

game developer magazine