The main expo floor was initially daunting, but we quickly got used to it as we meandered from booth to booth. As expected, Nintendo didn’t make much of a showing, though Phantom Hourglass was a blast when we got to try the multiplayer features. The rest of their games consisted of slightly sub-par titles like Brain Age for the Wii, Mario Soccer (which looked almost identical to its Gamecube counterpart), and the all of the differently colored Pokemon titles. I believe they are up to about, oh, 73 different versions now.

Sadly enough, Sony’s booth wasn’t too much better, as their main attractions were God of War II and Fl0w. What surprised me the most, however, was that Microsoft didn’t have their own booth on the main Expo floor at all. They had a booth set up in the North hall for the Independent Games Festival, and had one set up for the career booth area, but were strangely missing on the showroom floor. While disconcerting, I’m not entirely sure what to make of it. I’ll have to fish around for more clues before I can validate the cause for their absence.

Apart from the main industry giants, it was clear that this year’s theme in developing technologies was immersion, as Chuf points out. There were head sets that utilized player head motion to control the camera on screen (which could be amazing for first person shooters). A company called amBX developed a combination of lighting, wind, and rumble technology for PCs to follow in game scripting to produce the appropriate effect. The coolest device there was one that had already been announced a while ago: The Novint Falcon. A device that wouldn’t be out of place in the Minority Report, the Falcon is a mouse that operates in a 3D environment, with full feedback capabilities. By feedback, I mean rubbing the mouse against an in game surface will produce ridiculously realistic feelings: the Falcon emulates the visceral feelings associated with sticky surfaces, rough surfaces, bouncing balls, drawing bow strings, etc., with remarkable similitude. It is truly difficult to describe how realistic and powerful the feedback capabilities are unless you try it yourself, but, well, that requires money, doesn’t it? Sorry to come up short on that front, but there is no way around it unless you’re willing to drop over $200 dollars on the beast.

As always, the free swag is always one of the best reasons to keep attending events like the GDC. I myself walked away with some nice Bedlam items from the Canadian company that shares my moniker, and plenty of beer cups from various companies that were at one point filled with deliciously frosty brews. And, since enough companies were good about the free beer, let’s just say that the award ceremonies at the end of the night were certainly more entertaining than they ought to have been.

In any case, that’s just a tertiary look at our day one highlights from the GDC, we’ll have pictures and more detailed articles for you later.

-Bedlam-

INDEPENDENT GAMES FESTIVAL WINNERS

Best Mod (awarded 5,000$):
Weekday Warrior (Mod for Half-Life 2)

This game was an interesting third peson Half-Life 2 Mod that put you in an office solving problems. Though I was not that impressed I also did not get much time to really play it.

Best Student Game (Awarded 2,500$):
Toblo, developed by students from the Digipen Institute of Technology.

This game won over ….And Yet It Moves. This really disappointed me because after trying ….And Yet It Moves I was extremely impressed with him addictive it was. If you can find it, you should try it. The cool thing about this team winning the awared was that one of the Toblo makers proposed to his girlfriend on stage. It was touching.

Excellence in Audio (awarded 2,500$):
Everyday Shooter

This game was like Geometry Wars in a lot of respects.

Excellence in Visual Art (awarded 2,500$):
Castle Crashers

The artist was really touched to have won. Although I felt numerous other contestants in this field were also great artists, Castle Crashers has such an unforgettable art style that it was no contest.

Design Innovation Award (awarded 2,500$):
Everyday Shooter

Granted I have not played this game…but I was a little distraught that Armadillo Run did not win.

Technical Excellence (awarded 2,500$):
Bang! Howdy

I did not get a chance to play this game but all the entries were extremely impressive.

Best Web Browser Game (awarded 2,500$):
Samorost 2

Though I have not played this title I have to say it is extremely visually impressive for a web browser game. The art is truly impressive. It was my runner up to Castle Crashers for Excellence in Visual Art.

GameTap Indie Awards (awarded 5,000$ and a distribution deal through GameTap):

Everyday Shooter, RoboBlitz, and Blast Miner

A rep. for Tuner Broadcasting came out and gave these three games awards which to me felt really out of place. Have a Turner rep. there felt like some part of the Indie spirit was stolen, even after the rep. tried to convince the audience that Turner is like an Indie company. I hope GameTap really is trying to help out the Indie game companies and not just turn a profit and fuck them. The good news of this is that I can try these games out soon since I do have a subscription.

Audience Award (awarded 2,500$):
Castle Crashers

I was really pleased to see Castle Crashers win this title because to me, it was the most telling. This game was chosen by people who played the games and voted online. The people spoke, and Castle Crashers walked away as the most loved game (and rightfully so).

Seumas McNally Grand Prize (awarded 20,000$):
Aquaria

I wish I could say more about this game but I did not play it at all. The game certainly looks beautiful and was made by two only two kids. I would look out for future releases from their studio BitBlot.

GAME DEVELOPER’S CHOICE AWARDS WINNERS

Innovation:
Okami, Wii Sports, and Line Rider

It’s good to see all these games, especially Okami, recognized for their achievement in innovation. The most exciting news about this though was that Line Rider is coming to Wii and DS.

New Studio:
Iron Lore Entertainment

Best Writing:
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

In my opinion this was the most misplaced award of the whole show. Twilight Princess won over Bully, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, Sam & Max Episode 1, and Oblivion. Now I am not a Zelda naysayer, but Twilight Princess’ writing pales in comparison to either Dreamfall or Oblivion. I even feel Sam & Max had much better writing than Twilight Princess. What do you guys think? I was extremely disappointed.

Game Design:
Wii Sports

Again I felt this was a misplaced award, but not as much as the previous. While Wii Sports is truly a game with amazing and unique game design, I felt that titles such as Okami or Viva Pinata deserved much more recognition in this category. Poor Viva, you never had a chance in that crowd.

Maverick Award:
Greg Costikyan

This developer has helped produce far too many games to name but was recognized for his independence in thought and action.

Audio:
Guitar Hero II

This award hardly seemed fair. I mean Guitar Hero II does have awesome sound, but it is a game based on music. I was slightly disappointed that LocoRoco did not pick up this category.

Character Design:
Okami

While I was really impressed that Okami won an award, I was again disappointed that Viva Pinata had to share a category with such an esteemed title. With competition like Okami and FFXII it was like it never had a chance. I still love you VIVA!

First Penguin:
Alexey Pajitnov

The First Penguin award goes to someone who tested the waters for the rest of the world. Alexy was certainly a deserving winner. Even if you do not think you know who this man is, I can almost guarantee that if you read this site you have played his game. Heck, your mother has probably even played his most famous title, Tetris. I am glad he is finally getting more and more credit for his early achievement.

Technology:
Gears of War

Although Gears is certainly an excellent game I was not sure if this warranted it enough to win over other titles such as Wii Sports or Company of Heroes. Graphicallly I can understand the award going to Gears over Wii Sports, but I thought Wii Sports pushed the technological envelope a little more.

Visual Arts:
Gears of War

Again Gears took home an award. This time I felt it was truly justified. Gears is the most beautiful next-gen title I have yet to see. I was disappointed that Okami or Viva Pinata did not win, but that is because I wanted the underdog to win, not because I felt that they were truly deserving. Don’t get me wrong, those titles are fucking gorgeous, but Gears has some of the best Art we’ve seen in years.

Community Contribution:
George “The Fatman” Sanger

This man has helped make sound and music in so many games that you have played that my fingers would start to bleed if I typed them all here. He has helped compose music for any number of venues and hopefully will continue to make beautiful game music for years to come.

Lifetime Achievement:
Shigeru Miyamoto

He spoke in Japanese with a translator for those of us who speak English, because he wanted to say so much more than his english would allow. He received a standing ovation and appeared quite moved. My favorite line though was when he said something to the effect that he was sucking the life force out of young people in order to keep going in gaming. Oh vampiric Miyamoto, how I can see you now.

Game of the Year:
Gears of War

Gears took the award over Okami, Oblivion, Twilight Princess, and Wii Sports. I could tell from murmurs that many people were displeased with the victory of Gears over the likes of Twilight Princess. Though Twilight Princess is a great game I feel that Gears was the most deserving. It really brings out all the best elements of shooters and combines them with great art, dialogue, and plot. Say what you will, but Gears is not winning awards from the Game Developer’s because of fanboyism.

So there you have it. We’re still working on our full report from our first day at the GDC but we wanted to at least drop you the winners for the awards shows that we attended. Stay tuned to this weeks podcast for full discussion over the GDC, the awards, and all the other crazy things that have been announced during this week in march.

Chufmoney

So far the show has been treating us pretty well.  We have met some really interesting folks, and we even saw the creator of Tetris here at the show.  We’re still planning on attending a few of the events that we’re allowed into as well as trying to get into a Hotel Party tonight.  We should have plenty of pictures.

We played Castle Crashers as well as several other entries into the Independent Games Festival.  I think that based on what I saw from the crowd that Castle Crashers will take it this year.  We’ll let you know for sure tonight after we attend the awards ceremony.  We have seen several peeps from IGN and Gametrailers here but have yet to see any 1up staff members. 

That is all I have for you tonight until after the day’s festivities end.  Pictures up soon.

Chufmoney

The graphics aren’t blow your mind amazing; however, as you watch the trailer (with music from The Go! Team), they have a sort of slow burn, where you think, this looks good, that looks good, holy crap this all looks so good. The interaction between the 4 players is especially interesting, and, dare I say it, compelling? This is the first time I think I’ve been excited and jealous for a PS3 game, and it’s a palpable excitement that similar to, but not on par with, the excitement when I see Mass Effect and think about how close it is to release. This may not be the critical killer app that Sony needs after so much bad PR, but it sent me from well into negative interest territory to positive in about 2 minutes of footage. No wonder it looks so good, and has such interesting physics; apparently it’s made by the team who created RagDoll Kung-Fu. More importantly, the implementation of user created “plots” into a youtube-esque searchable and filter-able database is bordering on brilliant. Yes, it’s an idea appropriated from youtube, and from Miis, and from PC FPSs that have allowed user generated content for ages, but if Gears of War taught us anything, it’s that clever recombination and refinement of previous concepts can equal an amazing experience. It’s not worth 600 dollars, but again, fuck if it doesn’t excite me.

Playstation Home though… man.

I hope they talk about LittleBigPlanet after showing Sony Home to give people something to cleanse their palettes with. It looks like they shoehorned Poser into the PS3 and hired a bunch of programmers from Second Life. From what we’ve seen so far, it’s the quintessential example of Sony not getting the spirit of what makes things like Live and Miis compelling, and trying to co-opt some of the ancilliary aspects. The avatars lack, for lack of a better term, character (and that dancing makes me die a little inside), something Miis have in spades (which, to be fair, is partly due to the hardware limitations of the Wii). Meanwhile, the collectible objects, entitlements, pieces of crap etc that they’re allowing people to gain from PS3 games lacks the simple functionality and overall numerical versus unique gain that Achievements bring to the table. Achievements are compelling as an aspect of the community that Live brings to the table, and part of their overwhelming advantage here is the year or more (depending on when Home actually releases) that gamers have had to build their online identities on the 360. Home doesn’t seem like enough. It has some interesting ideas though, like the arcade games within the Home online environment (and the wii-sports-riffic pool and bowling). I guess we’ll have to see where it goes from here. And how many times it gets delayed.

Oh, and Sony showed 1up Killzone. They didn’t sound especially impressed, but they also implied that it’s very early. So, there you go. I’ll try to post more thoughts throughout the day as the lone editor who isn’t actually at GDC. Ironic, no?

-Aegies

In many ways, I feel sorry for the people at Sony that have to be the talking heads for the corporate message; as the comic implies, it often seems like they’re selling something less than desirous as though it were the cure for cancer. It’s unfortunate, because with the proper marketing message, the PS3 would be in a completely different boat than it is right now. 600 dollars is a lot of scrilla, to be sure, but it would be swallowed with far more ease if you didn’t feel as though the slime Sony thinks it needs to coat the console with to sell it would get all over your hands and clothes when you sidled up to take a drink off that mother. Perhaps I’m being desperately naive, but I don’t think that it’s too late for Sony to make a game of this console war, though they’ve made misstep after misstep. Regardless of your console allegiances, should you have any, it would be difficult to really put forth that fierce competition isn’t a benefit to most gamers. I would just prefer that competition be on the merits of gameplay experiences (under which I do include graphics), rather than the skill of their marketing departments.

I would write more, but I’m fucking exhausted. And I’m barreling toward finals at an alarming rate.

-Aegies

Now, enough sap, let’s talk GDC.

Based on the structure of the event, we can expect to attend the five introductory conference sessions, whose topics range from the trend towards creative stagnation, to attracting the non-gamers with simple pickup games. Our passes will also grant us access to the booth crawl and main Expo floors, which should be the areas that we as gamers will appreciate the most.

In fact, it might actually be the only thing we can appreciate, since the vast majority of those attending the conference will be industry insiders who are intending to purchase tools and other assets for their respective companies. However, as this is one of the last few venues for developers to strut their stuff (alas, E3, I shed a tear for thee), I find it almost impossible to believe that we will be disappointed. And with 12,500 expected attendees, most of whom will be the veritable who’s who of the gaming world, I’m sure we can expect to see some seriously innovative material. Or at least something flashy, and at worst, something only moderately regurgitated.

With a little luck, we’ll have some juicy info to distribute on the prospects for our gaming future, so check back over the course of the week.

-Bedlam-

From the look of things, Miyamoto is bringing along plenty of friends.  Joining the big man as event speakers, Nintendo’s Ejii Aonuma – producer, software development manager, and the man responsible for the Zelda games – will talk about Link’s progress over the years, and will give us some info on the next installment slated for the DS, the Phantom Hourglass.  In addition, the composer for the Mario and Zelda titles, Koji Condo, will also be speaking.  Who knows, based on the title of his venue, “Painting an Interactive Musical Landscape,” maybe we’ll get some sort of performance piece or musical presentation.  If Ejii starts dancing or singing along, then I’ll be sure to take plenty of photos.

There will of course be more speakers, as the event is supposed to last from the 5th to the 9th of March.  The only one I can confirm is Square Enix, but no doubt more will announce their intentions over the next month.  Nevertheless, it seems as though Miyamoto’s presence will certainly dominate this year’s GDC.

The three of us here at ESG will be most certainly attending this illustrious event, hopefully for free (working for the industry does have its perks).  We’ll post more about it after the event, probably around the ides.  By then I’m sure we will have some of the juicier announcements written up and available for your reading pleasure, so stay tuned.

-Bedlam-