Inplay Interactive, a company that is not that famous MMO company in Korea. They were known recently by developing F.E.A.R.: Origin Online which also licensed by Warner Bros. Entertainment...
Following the footsteps of Angry Birds, the popular Cut the Rope game made the transition from mobile devices to your web browser.
Now you can feed the cute, candy-gobbling monster, Om Nom straight from your browser simply by going to http://www.cuttherope.ie/.
The game, which has been downloaded over 60 million times on the iOS and Android platform is converted to HTML5 and optimized for Internet Explorer 9 (although Chrome, Firefox and other modern web browser users can also play). This web version is developed by a partnership between Microsoft, web design agency Pixel Lab and ZeptoLab’s lead creative team to showcase the rich interactive capabilities of the HTML5 web standard.
IE9 users get more fun though. Aside from being able to pin the game to your Windows 7 task bar for one-click access, you will also unlock 7 unique levels that’s not available to other browsers. I just wonder how it will reflect those levels where you need two fingers to swipe at the same instant when all you have here is a mouse.
Inplay Interactive, a company that is not that famous MMO company in Korea. They were known recently by developing F.E.A.R.: Origin Online which also licensed by Warner Bros. Entertainment. Inplay Interactive could be recognize by developing more and more western games as they might develop a Lord of the RingsMMO and another MMO that could be like Batman and DC comics in cooperation with Warner Bros. Entertainment. There are reports that Warner Bros. Entertainment has become the investor and shareholder of Inplay Interactive and that the Korean developer is licensed to use the IPs owned by Warner Bros Entertainment. There is no detailed info about what could be the looks of Korean version of Batman Online and Lord of the Rings Online will be. But there are rumors that it could be AOS style online game.
TERA, a published game by En Masse Entertainment announced today that the award-winning and highly anticipated action MMORPG, TERA, will conquer all the online gamers wold on May 1, 2012. It will be available in retail and online Standard and Collector's Editions.
TERA receives many awards at last year's E3 expo, which are "Best MMO" and "Best PC game" of the year. TERA is really an anticipated game wherein it brings the new generation of online game combining all the aspects of traditional MMO with the pleasure to play an action game. While inside the world of TERA, players must be focus when attacking, blocking and even dodging as it is like the real-time combat system takes into a real playing game into account player position.
TERA consist of seven races and eight classes wherein when you create a character, players must join in an alliance to defend the world of TERA from the threat of bloodthirsty armies of monster to destroy the very gods who hold their world together. Player versus player (PvP) combat skill is also a revolutionary political system feature in TERA wherein players battle each other according to their faction on their in-game superior ability.
Joymax, major activity creator and manager, declared these days the estimated inclusion of two new Mercenary Digimon for there on the internet large multi-player name, Digimon Masters. An amazing galaxy where our community and the Digital World is more detailed than anyone would have thought is about to modify in techniques never expected! Digimon Masters carries on the tale and increased sensation of emergency discovered in the Digimon cartoons. Now becoming a member of the thrown of available Instructors are the fiercely estimated duo of Keenan and Falcomon!
Introducing Keenan Crier: lost in the Digital World as a baby, he was increased by a type Frigimon; upon her loss of life during a dreadful turmoil, he ongoing his youth with Merukimon. Keenan views himself a Digimon and not a people, developing an issue within his center he has yet to negotiate, as people are risking his precious Electronic World. Keenan's Lover Digimon is Falcomon, a prudent chicken who can Digivolve into Peckmon, Crowmon, and beyond.
The new introduction of Keenan correlates with the begin Joymax's "New Tamers" occurrence. New to the game? Welcome! When your Lover Digimon actually grows to stage 41, gamers will get a Secret Mercenary Digi-Egg, 3 Evoluters, and a 7-day Intelligent University Consistent. Coming Tamers will get a 30-day EXP Apparatus Set, Leap Pills for the Yokohama and American places, 50 thousand precious metal, AND at random tough Mercenary Digi-Egg! This is moreover to the New Season occurrence - log on every day during the special event interval and get a Dracomon Mercenary Digi-Egg.
Digimon Tamers are challenging at function exercising their Digimon to the new max stage of 75. It's a good time to obtain one of the three new Mercenary Egg - V-mon, Patamon, Dokunemon and Salamon can now all be discovered by an experienced instructor with real mercenary expertise. Five new charts will also be available for gamers to run on, such as Snow storm Town, the horrific Freezing Floor, pleasant Snowman Town, the threatening Altered Information Town, and the Unlimited Ice Walls. Find out a wide range of new Digimon in these enhanced places as well as extra missions and techniques to find.
CABAL 2 project has been underway at ESTsoft Corp.'s R&D Center in South Korea for several years, and is one of the highly anticipated projects in company's history.
Tecmo Koei announced today that Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus will join the massive list of PlayStation Vita launch titles when the system launches in North America next month.
While we already knew that the game was part of the handheld's launch window, Tecmo Koei has now confirmed that it will be available alongside the system on February 22nd.
According to Tecmo Koei, the game combines "the high speed unique action of Ninja Gaiden with the exciting new features of the Vita, including the touchscreen, gyro sensor, and the rear touch pad." The game will alternate between first and third-person views, "using the gyro sensor to target your enemies and shoot projectiles, and launching stronger Ninpo using the rear touch pad." The game will include multiple difficulty settings, as well as Mission Mode and Ninja Trials.
"The Ninja Gaiden series lends itself to a great experience on this amazing new platform," said Yosuke Hayashi, head of Team Ninja. "We're confident that gamers, both our fans and those new to the series, will find Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus to be a thrilling and challenging experience that lives up to the spirit of what the series is best known for while offering a host of new and portable gameplay mechanics."
The guys return with another episode of the Skyrim Show, and because James intentionally deleted his backup saves and accidentally deleted all his regular saves, they decided to start the game over at the beginning.
Hilarity ensues, because this game is totally glitchy and nothing goes right at all. Eventually the show ends with an epic whimper. Watch.
We've all heard talk that The Old Republic would be fully voiced, with every bit of dialogue spoken by an NPC acted out by voice talent. But what some people may not have realized is how impressive a feat that is — so much so, that it landed the game a spot in the Guinness World Records 2012 Gamer’s Edition.
The specific record TOR broke was “Largest Entertainment Voice Over Project,” with more than 200,000 lines of recorded dialogue performed by several hundred voice actors. Not only does this make it the most massive game in terms of voice acting, this record makes TOR a more ambitious recording project than any undertaking for a feature film.
Some prospective players were concerned that, over time, the voice acting would grow tiresome — have you found this to be the case?
As you would expect, not everyone has been happy with the new Dante in Ninja Theory’s DMC reboot.
Some people are so unhappy, in fact, that they’ve threatened to murder Ninja Theory. Yes, they want to put a gun to the studio’s head and pull the trigger.
OK, so that’s a joke. What’s not a joke is that folks who work for Ninja Theory have received death threats. Here’s what Tameem Antoniades tells OXM about it.
Alex Garland warned me about it because he experienced a similar thing with 28 Days Later where people were upset that it didn’t feature real zombies.
So I was half prepared for it, although I have to say that it has been pretty eye opening to see some of the creative ways in which people have chosen to vent their hatred. We didn’t expect death threats in comic book form or anti-DmC death metal songs!
OMG comics? I’d like to read those. Y’all should totally release them to the internet so we can all enjoy their probable greatness. I mean, they’re probably funny at least.
North American fans who pre-order Prototype 2 at GameStop between January 1, 2012 and April 23, 2012 will unlock this alternate version of one of Prototype 2′s unique, viral-powered abilities, the Bio-Bomb. Watch the video, and you’ll understand why this ability is named the “Buttkicker.”
Bruce Willis may have shot a helicopter with a car in Live Free of Die Hard, but shooting a helicopter with a dude by giving him a swift kick in the rear is so much more satisfying. I wonder how long it’ll take for that trick to get old. My best approximate is: never.
Disguising malware as a free version of a popular game (such as Cut the Rope and Assassin’s Creed) seems to be a popular tactic that the bad guys are using to scam users of Google’s Android Market app store. Overnight more malware appeared in Google’s official app repository.
The Trojanized games have been uploaded by a company calling itself Eldar Limited. This is the second time in two weeks malware disguised as free games has been uploaded to the Android Market.
These have now been removed by Google, but their appearance in the official Android Market in the first place is worrying. Not only is Google putting Android users into contact with malware, it is also allowing the brand names of reputable companies to be tarnished by letting the bad guys upload this stuff to the Android Market in the first place.
The folks at F-Secure have a tip to help you figure out whether a free app is genuine or not.
A useful tip for users out there is to search for the paid version of the app and take note of the developer's name. If the name on both paid and free versions matches, then it is very likely to be a safe app. Otherwise, don't proceed with the download.
Good medicine!
If you’ve downloaded and installed these apps then needless to day you should uninstall them immediately. Oh, and watch out for more malware over the holidays.
When Zynga’s Word Scramble Challenge Edition
recently went missing on the App Store, nobody knew exactly what
happened, and the developers weren’t telling. A few weeks and fruitless
Google searches later, we now know why: The app’s been redesigned and
aligned with the “With Friends” series.
As the third social word game in Zynga’s growing iOS library, Scramble With Friends
is another surefire success, presenting users with the franchise’s
familiar, inviting layout and language-based interaction. Following in
the heavily-influenced footsteps of its forbears, the app is a blatant
“homage” to the Parker Brothers classic, Boggle.
Scramble With Friends is a two-player affair, and you
compete with your opponent over three two-minute rounds. Presented with a
four-by-four grid of letter tiles, the goal is to construct as many
words as possible before time runs out. As usual, you’ll have the
typical array of power-ups and tokens to help amplify your offensive
attack; and, when the match finally ends, whoever has more points wins. Scramble With Friends is available now on the App Store for a worthwhile $2.99, but an ad-supported free version will let you try before you buy. For now, both are iPhone only, but those HD releases can’t be too far off.
The Xbox Live gatekeepers have decided to cut their faithful indie game
developers some slack -- but not too much, mind. New changes for 2012
include a new 80 point ($1) entry price for smaller games, expanded size
limits (up to 500MB) and the ability to create up to 20 titles -- devs
were previously limited to half of that. However, there's still no
access to Xbox Live Achievements or Leaderboards for those impoverished indie developers. Way to keep the little people down, Microsoft.
Scored an iPhone this holiday season? Or perhaps just delicious iTunes Store credit? We have assembled this list of the best iPhone games; if you’re a gamer, these are the must-have apps for your device. Loosen your thumbs, loosen your wallet, and start playing.
Angry Birds Rio
Angry Birds Rio - Angry Birds Rio is a sequel to Rovio’s award-winning physics puzzler, Angry Birds. Though it’s a tie-in to the animated film Rio, the game is surprisingly compelling in its own right, with dozens of stages to solve and a more polished bird-flinging mechanic. Though the fiendish green pigs are nowhere to be found, merely saving your feathered friends also proves to be a persuasive reason to keep playing.
Dead Space - Malevolent aliens called Necromorphs confront you at every turn in this harrowing action/survival-horror title from Electronic Arts. Adapted from the iconic console series, Dead Space for iOS is a surprisingly intuitive and fun game that proves that your iPhone has a few good scares in it.
Contre JourContre Jour - There are few platformers as original and visually distinctive as Contre Jour. Instead of manipulating a character across a variety of obstacles, you’re instead tasked with manipulating the ground itself to guide your character to its destination. The app’s unique use of contrasting color and lighting also ensures that Contre Jour is one of the more aesthetically pleasing apps out there.
Cut the Rope - The point of this adorable physics-based puzzle game is to help Om Nom the dinosaur eat a piece of candy. Sound simple? It’s not. Cut the Rope throws all kinds of tricks and obstacles in your path—including spikes, spiders, and a surprisingly realistic physics engine. While it’s easy to “cut the rope” with a quick swipe on your iPhone, timing your actions and planning your moves are the ultimate keys to success.
Infinity Blade - There is no game on the iPhone more “epic” than the fantasy action title Infinity Blade from Epic Games. Empowered by the graphically stunning Unreal Engine, Infinity Blade lets you see every dodge, slash, and block in brutal detail.
Tiny WingsTiny Wings - There are few games on the App Store as elegantly simple as Tiny Wings. Using a one-touch control scheme, the easily-accessible and brightly-colored app is a breeze to learn, but nearly impossible to master: Guiding your little flightless bird through multiple islands before the sun sets will keep players coming back time after time.
Tiny Tower - Tiny Tower is exactly what it sounds like: You play as the landlord of a small skyscraper who seeks to augment his bustling tower with businesses and citizens. With many different “bitizens” to satisfy and tons of shops to unlock, Tiny Tower is the definition of “time sink.”
Flight Control - The first game to pioneer the line drawing mechanic on the iPhone platform, Flight Control is a surprisingly clever puzzler with millions of fans (and many, many imitators). You play as an air traffic controller who needs to draw a route for every airplane on the screen to land safely, ensuring that each plane avoids the others in an increasingly-crowded sky.
Real Racing 2Real Racing 2 - Despite stiff competition, there’s really only one marquee racing franchise on the iPhone platform, and that’s the Real Racing series. With its licensed cars, realistic graphics, and multiple controller options, Real Racing is a joy to drive and only gets better when you speed into the game’s rigorous multiplayer for a match against your friends.
Plants Versus Zombies - PopCap’s Plants Versus Zombies is a tower defense game with a sense of humor. You play as a homeowner with a green thumb and a zombie problem. You must fend off wave after wave of resourceful undead as they try to invade your home and, as zombies are wont to do, eat your brains. Luckily, you have a full arsenal of peapods, fungi, and vegetables at your disposal. The zombies don’t stand a chance.
In addition to Amazon's EA sale going on now through its PC digital distribution network, there are a couple noteworthy additions to the roster today and tomorrow. Today, Crysis 2 is available for $10, a 75 percent discount off the regular price.
Starting 2012 with a flashbang, Amazon will have Battlefield 3 for $30 on the first of the year. Also relevant here is customers who have purchased anything from Amazon's "best-selling games of 2011" should have a $5 coupon that can be applied in the new year, bringing it down to $25. That's a great price for a game that's been beta-tested since launch to the point of playability.
Many Playstation 3 gamers have both US and Japanese Playstation Network accounts, allowing them access to downloadable titles and content from both regions.
So, when Sony announced that the PlayStation Vita would not allow players to swap between PSN accounts, many gamers were a bit disapointed at the news. Thankfully, Destructoid has found a way to swap between PSN profiles using the Vita's 'System Restore' feature, and though it's a bit complicated, it's better than no solution at all.
In order to swap profiles around, Vita owners should first backup their Vita files to a PC or PS3 using the Content Manager app. Following this, players need to "restore" the device, returning it to factory settings, then "deactivate" it, which will de-associate it with the previously existing PSN profile. Following this, its simply a matter of logging in using the PSN profile you'd now like to use, then using the Content Manager to return all your game saves and other data to the device.
If that makes no sense to you, we advise you follow Destructoid's guide, which has pictures. Hopefully Sony will let this workaround remain in place, though given their reluctance to let players swap profiles around, this may only be a temporary exploit.
Last September, Shinji Hashimoto announced that Square would be re-releasing the PS2 RPG classic, Final Fantasy X, in HD for the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Vita.
Now, Yoshinori Kitase, producer of Final Fantasy X, said the game is in its early development stages and also described it as a remake.
According to an interview from German magazine, M! Games, Kitase explained Final Fantasy X HD is still very early in development and explained that he wasn't sure what his role would be with the new game, only stating that he would “ensure that the remake of the game will have the same quality as the original.”
Interestingly enough, Kitase also described the re-release of Final Fantasy X as a remake and not just an HD upgrade to the original game.
2011 marked the tenth anniversary for Final Fantasy X in the U.S. as it was released in 2001. Kitase's latest project is Final Fantasy XIII-2, which releases on January 31.
Call of Duty: Modern
Warfare 3. New recruits expect training simulations to be of the same
quality, forcing the Ministry of Defence to improve its own war games
The British military has had to radically improve some of its simulated training war games to keep the attention of recruits who have grown up in the Playstation and Xbox generation, a Ministry of Defence scientist has admitted.
Troops
are so used to playing high-quality commercial games set in combat
zones that they tend to lose concentration unless the MoD simulations
look equally realistic. This has become an important issue at the MoD,
which is increasingly turning to digital simulations to help prepare
soldiers for duty.
Thousands of troops sent to Afghanistan have
been trained on Virtual Battlespace2, a spin-off from a commercial game
that can, for instance, test their responses when they come under mortar
attack from insurgents.
Though the military stresses that these
games only supplement traditional methods, it reflects the way
technology is transforming military training. With budgets being
squeezed across the MoD, simulations are also a comparatively cheap way
of giving troops a "virtual'' taste of what they might come up against
in a warzone.
Another idea involves issuing RAF trainee pilots
with tablet computers such as iPads, to save the cost – and weight – of
printing bulky flight manuals that need to be regularly updated and cost
£1,000 a student.
The scientists and engineers at MoD's Defence
Science and Technology Laboratory in Portsdown, Hampshire, are at the
heart of the developments.
Andrew Poulter, the technical team
leader, said the military was trying to keep up with the advances that
have helped turned computer gaming into a hugely lucrative global
industry. Bestsellers such as Battlefield 3, Killzone 3 and the Call of
Duty series have taken this genre of video games, known as "first-person
shooters'', to a new level.
"Back in the 1980s and 1990s, defence
was far out in front in terms of quality of simulation," said Poulter.
"Military-built simulators were state of the art. But now, for £50, you
can buy a commercial game that will be far more realistic than the sorts
of tools we were using. The truth is, the total spending on games
development across the industry will be greater than spending on
defence."
Poulter is in charge of Project Kite (knowledge
information test environment), which has been tasked with putting the
MoD back in the forefront of simulation training, in part by buying-in
technology from the big gaming companies.
The key to successful
virtual training is for the simulation to be realistic enough for people
to be properly "immersed'' in what they are doing.
"Certainly,
there is a level of computer games experience in recruits. So the plots
have to be realistic and the image generation has to be high quality. A
lot of the older systems can be very clunky. If you put someone behind a
block display, it is harder for them to be completely immersed." But
though the commercial games "may look graphically beautiful, they have
to be entertaining rather than realistic".
Poulter and his
nine-strong team will adapt the software so that the weapons perform as
they would in combat "The weapons need to be credible. If they fire a
rifle and the bullet travels three and a half miles, then that is not
right. If they are steering a vehicle, then that has to be right too.
Realism is more important than entertainment. Levels of immersion are
very important."
The MoD is using a variety of simulations, from
drills to put out a fire in an aircraft to what to do if a vehicle in a
convoy gets hit by a roadside bomb.
There are specific Afghanistan
simulations, designed to give troops an idea of the tough environment
they will find in one of the small forward operating bases in Helmand,
and the drills they need to use if they come under attack.
Putting
training simulations on tablet computers could be the next big shift in
training. It would allow sailors, soldiers and aircrews to practise
techniques wherever they wanted to. "Virtual Battlespace is quite good
fun, and we want trainees to want to do training," said Poulter.
"It is certainly a lot more fun than going through lists of checks and box-ticking.
"We
want them to think 'I would quite like to do a bit more of that kind of
thing'. So they might spend 10 minutes [on a simulation] after reading
papers in the morning, or in their spare time."
Cost has also
become a pressing issue. "If they have already learned some core skills
in a simulation, there is less to learn during live training, which is
much more expensive and may involve aircraft, tanks, and live round
explosions."
Poulter said a commander who came back from
Afghanistan told him that two soldiers in his unit had drilled
themselves so much on Virtual Battlespace2, he was sure the training had
saved their lives when they came under fire. "It has been invaluable.
It is being taken seriously. It's not just a game," said Poulter.
It’s not a stretch to assume that you’ve got another tab open
with a game waiting while reading this article. Video, computer and web
games are ubiquitous, addictive, fun—and local game developers are
already making their mark in the field.
Game development is a US$90 billion worldwide industry, of which
the Philippines has a mere 0.02% market share, but things are looking
pretty good at the moment.
“The local industry is
very small right now and we’re trying to get a bigger share of the
market,” says Darwin Tardio, president of the Game Development
Association of the Philippines (GDAP). “It's booming, and can be
lucrative. When GDAP started there were only four member companies. Now,
three to four years later, there are 22 companies working on a lot of
game projects, many of them big ones.”
Studying game development
Several schools currently teach four-year courses in game
development, including the University of the Philippines, Far Eastern
University and the College of Saint Benilde, which was the first school
to offer the full course in the country. It will graduate its first
batch of students with a degree in Information Technology with a
specialization in Game Design and Development in December 2012.
The course can be demanding. Playing games might be a way to pass the time, but developing them is another matter entirely.
“There’s tons of math, tons of physics,” says Norman Lee, Chairperson
of Game Design and Development Program at the College of Saint Benilde.
“Some might think that they’re just going to play games on this course
but they’re not. It’s going to really make them ask themselves, ‘Do I
really want to be part of this industry?’”
It’s a
good thing, he says, because it weeds out those who aren’t really cut
out for the job. “A person can be technical or artsy, but does he have
the passion?”
The program is already getting more applicants than it can
accept, and has had to set a cap of 160 students due to limited
resources.
Not much older than Lee’s students but already quite established in the industry are the six friends who make up By Implication —Levi
Tan-Ong, Jim Chao, Philip Cheang, Wilhansen Li, Kenneth Yu and Rodrick
Tan, friends who dabbled in film, music and games together in high
school and who continued to work together through university.
The group made its name when it won the grand prize in the game design category in Microsoft’s prestigious Imagine Cup in 2010. Wildfire, their winning entry, is a game about saving the world by defeating opponents like poverty and environmental degradation.
The win got them a lot of visibility and press, but they’re not
resting on their laurels. “We want to accomplish something that people
will know us by, so we keep pushing ourselves higher,” says Cheang. “ We
set out to do something as students; now that we’re [professionals],
we’re setting a higher bar for ourselves.”
They have a specific goal in mind: winning at the Independent Games Festival.
“If we win that it would mean we’re at the same level standard,” says
Yu. “But the market is a competition in itself. If you win in the
market, you’re already a success.”
Gamification
There’s a subcategory of games created to promote a specific product, known as “advergames”.
Komikasihas
created games for clients such as Oreo and Ariel (the soap powder).
While Facebook is the most popular platform for the games right now, the
company also creates advergames that can be played on company websites
or can be downloaded for mobile phones.
Companies like Komikasi work primarily with ad agencies, who
hire them to create games and other content for their clients. “We show
them the positive side of digital media,” says Komikasi’s founder and
head, Ria Lu. “It’s still not 100% accepted, but a lot of agencies are
getting into digital now and we’re dealing with more and more of them.”
There’s a very good reason for advergames: they cost much
cheaper than print or TV advertising, and it keeps people coming back to
that page—“As long as you have something people can do, they’ll be
back,” says Lu. If it’s a long campaign, the developer will keep adding
to the game or even develop new ones for the client. Another advantage
for the client is that digital platforms such as Facebook provide them
with more demographic data of their clients than more traditional forms
of advertising.
Komikasi is focusing on advergames at the moment, with some
outsourcing on the side, and in their free time the developers worked on
a labor of love—Starstruck, a free Android download that works on the
not-unreasonable premise that starlets slapping each other around is
pretty much a Pinoy spectator sport.
It usually takes three to six weeks, on average a month, to
create an advergame. “It’s a very quick process, especially when you’re
dealing with advertising agencies who want it quick,” says Lu. She adds
that the pace can get to some older programmers; but it’s also often an
advantage for Filipino developers. “Sanay tayo sa mabilisan; we can
usually get things done a lot quicker and that’s good when you’re making
advergames.”
Like many game developers, Lu keeps in contact with CSB and
other schools that offer game development programs. Even a small and
relatively new company like Komikasi is ever on the lookout for skilled
talent. Lu started out by hiring freelancers, but when she put up
Komikasi’s Pasong Tamo office in August 2010, she also hired full-time
people for the first time. She expects to hire more people in the
coming year, as more clients come to them for product
“gamification”—using games to make tasks or imparting information more
fun. Knowing how to do that for each specific product is a talent in
itself, and it begins with knowing what your objective is. “You have to
be able to catch yung kiliti ng tao, and to do that you have to know
what you’re doing,” says Lu. “Dapat clear ka kung anong gusto mong
gawin. If you’re going to make a game you should do it for the right
reasons, not just for the sake of saying you made a game.”
It takes a village
Another important factor is having the right people. “The trick
is to find a team that can work together—you need artists, programmers,
musicians, sound people, a game designer. You need to hire different
kinds of people with different skills.”
The need for different talents and skills to make one game is
one reason why coming up with a game development course was not an easy
matter, and why companies find it hard to find good people.
“When we started researching the viability of the course in 2006
and 2007, we met with people in the industry and our first question to
them was, ‘Wala ba kayong nakukuhang tao, with all people graduating
from Com Sci and IT courses?’” says Lee. “But it’s a niche course. In
the US, some courses only teach the technical side. Ours is a hybrid
program; we have technical and arts training side by side, because both
are important components of game design and development. Some students
are more inclined to the technical aspects, and others to arts and
design, but it’s important for them have an understanding of all the
aspects of game development.”
Game development is a team effort, a very important
collaboration between tech people and designers. Students have to learn
how to communicate and work together, because when they graduate,
they’ll be part of a team. The CSB and other schools work closely with
industry professionals, whose input is very much involved in building
school curriculum. Another result of this collaboration is that schools
develop strong ties within the industry, which is important for the
students.
In January, the CSB will be one of the venues of the Global Game
Jam, a meeting of industry pros, hobbyists and students. “We’re looking
forward to other schools participating in it and having more people
play and develop games,” says Lee.
Outsourcing vs original games
Right now, outsourcing constitutes the bulk of local game
developers’ work, but while it already provides a creative outlet and
source of profit, those with a passion for the industry will always want
to develop their own games from start to finish.
“Right now, the industry incentivizes BPOs [i.e., outsourcing] and not
original IPs,” says By Implication senior programmer Jim Choa. While By
Implication is getting a lot of outsourcing commissions for us from the
US and the UK, their original games—among them, Scram
and the award-winning Wildfire—are also getting them attention. “We
went into this because we desperately wanted to make our own games,”
says Levi. “We care about profit, but our first priority is making
quality games.”
Fun Guy Studio,
co-founded by Tardio, currently has several clients from abroad who
outsource work to them, but they also develop their own ideas.
One example is Sqwishland.com, a project they did for a US company, developed around their toy.
Fun Guy Studio currently employs about 40 game developers. It
recently partnered with 2XL Games, one of the biggest US game
developers, and is now looking to expand its staff to more than 100
people by the end of next year.
Doing good through games
The game development course at CSB is not just meant to teach
students how to design and create games; Lee believes that it can be
used for a higher purpose than just entertainment and profit. “Aside
from a technical education, we want this to be holistic as well,” he
says. “We want to teach them a sense of nationhood, to see what’s
outside, to design for other purposes, like education and to push
advocacies.” For this latter purpose, the industry also creates “serious
games”—advocacy-based games that teach players values. Lee sees the
potential of serious games to help NGOs and other such groups. “Normally
people use video games for entertainment. But it’s a media that can be
used to convey information,” he says. “We can actually use games to
educate and inform. We want to partner with NGOs and even the
government, using games as positive tools to help people.”
This kind of use for video games can change how many people see
the medium. “There’s a common misconception about being in a game
development course,” says Lee. “Especially among concerned parents—ang
unang isip nila ay nakakasira ito ng buhay, and they think that the kids
just play games. But they don’t, and we hope that the parents can see
that game development can be used in a positive way.”
The pros and cons of becoming a game developer
Recruitment is huge…because finding talented people can be
difficult. Game development companies, even small ones, are always on
the lookout for talented people to join their ranks, even to the point
of trawling schools for promising talent. “Some of the students already
have people from the industry offering them jobs, but of course we want
them to finish their studies first,” says Lee. And the reason why
recruitment is huge is because finding people with the skills and the
passion is still not easy. “The lack of qualified talent is one reason
why the industry is not so big yet.”
It’s still a
struggle to make it...but you can do it with talent and hard work.
There are as yet no tax incentives to work in the business, so many game
developers do other work on the side, such as teach. “It’s still a
small industry,” says Ong. “Most companies that are going to hire you
are small and may not pay that well, but there’s a lot of space, and if
you’re good you can go far and make money.”
It’s
not yet as heavily regulated as other forms of media, but you must live
by the code—the honor code. It’s easy to spot copies of a popular
game—something that’s often the case here, says Lu. When developers do
this they’re working against their own interests, because copycat games
saturate the market, plus they lay themselves open to a charge of
plagiarism. “I’m not saying that everything has to be completely
original—at least have a new take on it,” says Lu. Cheang agrees. “There
has to be a level of respect. We love ripping each other’s stuff, but
not ripping it off.”
Filipinos have an
advantage. As Lu said, Filipinos work fast, a huge advantage when it
comes to game development. “Labor is cheaper here than the competition
in the US and Europe, plus we speak English,” she adds. Talent is
abundant as well. “There are a lot of Filipino graphic artists who are
really good—we are really comfortable doing both Western-style and
Eastern-style artwork, so that’s a plus,” says Tardio.
Leveling up
The Philippines is still small fry in the big pond of game
development, but local talent and ability is beginning to get recognized
here and abroad. Lu believes that Filipino developers are using their
underdog status to their advantage—by helping each other out. “There are
a lot of game developers and a lot of games out there in the world.
Pwede kang malunod. Yung maganda sa local industry ay nagtutulungan
kami. Working together is a nice thing kasi hindi mo kalaban ang Pinoy,
but the rest of the world.” Being able to pass certain aspects of a
project to an outside specialist means you don’t have to turn projects
down. This versatility and resourcefulness can help promote the country
when it comes to game development.
“I believe the Philippines can compete in such a creative
industry with what we have, and with the help of academe, and I’m
looking forward to how we will contribute to the world of game
development, competing with the US, Korea, and the rest of the world.
The local industry is bigger than ever, and growing every year,” says
Lee. “I hope that kids realize that they can be game developers if they
want to. There is a very lively industry here in the Philippines, and I
hope more people dive into it. Maybe we can come up with a triple-A
game. I believe we can do it.”
The JRPG is an intimidating genre. For gamers accustomed to short
sessions of turtle-hopping or soldier-blasting, it can be tough to
commit to a sprawling, complex role-playing game.
It's also a gigantic genre. There are hundreds of games out there with bizarre titles like Suikoden and Ar tonelico that are as hard to tell apart as they are to pronounce.
So if you want to get into JRPGs but you've never so much as touched a Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest
before, how do you know where to start? How do you know where to spend
your time? How can you differentiate between silly tedium and fantastic adventures?
A few weeks ago on Twitter, user @gurpreet_kambo
suggested that I write a guide for inexperienced role-players, helping
you all sort through the dreck and ease into the genre one over-sized
sword at a time. So I've put together a list of charming, accessible
adventures that all make perfect entry points for JRPG newbies. They
also make great holiday gifts (and excuses to get away from your
family).
Final Fantasy VI (Wii Virtual Console, PlayStation Network, Game Boy Advance)
If you're going to jump into JRPGs, where better to start than the most famous RPG series of all time? Final Fantasy VI is both my personal favorite and the most accessible of Square Enix's ubiquitous franchise, a game that holds up today despite its 16-bit aesthetics. It's a lot of fun and not too challenging, and the perfect entry point for anyone who wants to see what all that "Final Fantasy" fuss is all about.
Afterwards, try: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X
Dragon Quest IX (Nintendo DS)
Though Square Enix's slime-filled series has a reputation for being filled with mundane level-grinding, the ninth entry is surprisingly accessible.
It's an exciting adventure filled with many hours worth of charming
towns to see and pun-laden monsters to destroy. Best of all, it's
portable; spending a solid 60 hours with a game is much easier when you
can take it on the go.
Afterwards, try: Dragon Quest VIII, Dragon Quest III
Super Mario RPG (Wii Virtual Console)
Mario might not seem like the most obvious choice for an RPG hero, but
it turns out he's pretty much awesome at just about everything he does,
including teaming up with Princess Peach and Bowser to defeat a gang of
marauding swords and axes. Stuffed with platforms, puzzles and hilarious
writing, Super Mario RPG is non-stop charm -- and a really good starting point for genre newcomers.
Afterwards, try: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Paper Mario
Tales of Vesperia (Xbox 360)
It can be grating if you're not a fan of anime styles, but the Tales series is a lot of fun thanks to its action-stuffed real-time combat system. Vesperia
is one of the best in the series despite some annoying voice actors and
an oft-incoherent story. The characters are entertaining, bantering
constantly in breakaway cut-scenes as they adventure across the game's
sizable world, and battling is more about timing and skill than grinding
up your stats. It looks good, too.
Afterwards, try: Tales of Phantasia
Radiant Historia (Nintendo DS)
One of 2011's best JRPGs and a modern take on the genre, Radiant Historia
has lots to offer newcomers. There's time travel, betrayal and a
grid-based strategic combat system that takes some thinking to master.
And there's one hell of a soundtrack.
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