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MMORPG.COM - Your Headquarters for Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games! Middleware and a look at Icarus Studios
When Carolyn Koh attended the recent Online Game Developers Conference, she learned a little something about Icarus Studios and Middleware as a whole.
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Middleware is everywhere these days when you look at the MMOG industry, and more than that, entire MMOG platforms are available for the budding MMOG studio to build their world up, and Joe Ludwig of Flying Labs Software shared their Adventures in Middleware in a lecture at the recent OGDC.
A summary explanation of middleware may simply be, "The nuts and bolts, the glue that hold an MMOG together."
Using middleware can cut the development time of an MMOG by more than half. What does that mean to gamers? It means that game developers can concentrate on game design and production. It means that players will see faster game development. Games with a 2 to 4 year development cycle instead of the traditional 4 to 6 before the advent of middleware. It means, for example: less buggy code, less buggy services (such as billing). It could mean an entire platform on which to build an MMOG, including development tools and project management tools.
However, as Joe Ludwig shared with us, Developers need to select the middleware carefully.
"We used A LOT of middleware," he informed the attendees. "Some were free, some were cheap, some took so much work to integrate we're removing it from the game." Some of providers of the middleware they chose to use simply dropped out of sight!
His tips on evaluating middleware included:
* Get the source code - source is more useful for debugging than modifying
* Evaluate the provider too. Make sure they are going to be there for you when you need them
* Include more than just programmers in the evaluation. Include the artists, the sound designers and operations.
* Schedule enough evaluation time
* Don't believe the hype. Evaluate it based on what's there, not what is promised.
* Don't be afraid to reject middleware.
At OGDC, BigWorld with whom we've spoken a time or two was present, as was Icarus Studios. Icarus attempts to stand apart as they boast not only the platform, that is the network architecture and administration tools, but the tools suite which combine the best of the best as well as project services such as project consultation, prototype development, outsourcing and staffing.
"Icarus Studios provides the tools for building virtual worlds," said David Gardner, the Executive Vice President of Icarus Studios as I questioned him about what his Icarus did. "Too many people have confused the Studios with the upcoming MMORPG, Fallen Earth."
But... isn't Fallen Earth produced by Icarus Studios? David was quick to clarify, "We invested in Fallen Earth as we wanted an MMOG to showcase our studio, but we are by no means the developers of Fallen Earth."
A quick check proved that the Fallen Earth MMO project is its own company, Fallen Earth, LLC although Icarus Studios is the principle investor in Fallen Earth. So, while the companies are closely related, and Icarus Studios provides project services and the platform on which Fallen Earth is being developed, they are separate companies. Although the announcement for Icarus Studios was made only a short time ago, the platform has already been licensed twice and per David, a few more deals in the works.
"Icarus Studios has created the only suite of tools designed from scratch specifically as an integrated 3rd party environment for 3D online world creation," says Jim Hettinger, CEO of Icarus Studios. "We're launching our technology suite today after an 18-month stealth period during which our 65-person team completed our six-year development and QA testing efforts."
So, back to Icarus Studios. What exactly is it? "It's a next Gen platform," Brad Lineberger, CTO of Icarus Studios elaborated. Although much is built from scratch from when the company was formed in 2001, Icarus has also included various other 3rd party software packages in their tools. "We've licensed what we've deemed is the Best of Breed. We utilize the PhysX Ageia physics engine and Vivox for integrated voice communication, for example."
Icarus positions themselves as a comprehensive resource center, from complete project development, platform and tool licensing to studio services and library resources. Not only can MMOG developers license the Icarus platform, they can contract with Icarus to provide staff that is fully trained in using the platform and tools. For their client, Fallen Earth, Lee Hammok serves as the lead game designer with Fred Rugar heading up art.
Here are some of the services that Icarus Studios provides apart from the design platform and tool suite:
* Production Services including design consulting, prototype development, project outsourcing, staff augmentation and world hosting services.
* Studios Services including a motion capture studio, a sound studio, art creation and 3D interior scanning
From what I garnered from the short meeting at OGDC and subsequent follow through with a few white papers and the information on their website, Icarus Studios looks to supply comprehensive services, very much a "one stop shop."
Engines of Creation #14: What's So Great About Realism? What's So Great About Realism?
by Dave Rickey
2004-01-28
Reality is over-rated, dear
Don't let's be fooled by the hype
There's no such thing as tomorrow, you hear -
Amuse yourself, the time is ripe.
Reality Song, Evergreen Dayflies
When viewed objectively, the fact that the "realism" argument keeps coming up in these games would seem odd. Bringing realism into a discussion that includes fireballs, trolls, energy swords, blasters, and nanotechnology is, at first glance, totally out of place. Yet come up it does, over and over, and in the oddest contexts ("A *real* fireball would leave a smoke trail"). Somehow, in spite of the obvious incongruities, we cannot escape from the belief that reality is the default, and departures from it are suspect and probably false.
Games are where people go to escape reality, so why the push to make it "real"? Because games have to ride the line between keeping our minds busy with fantasy, yet keeping it believable enough to keep our interest, to be fun. When you go too real or too fantasy, the balance is lost and results in a game that has lost its spirit and isn't fun. So, often discussion about games revolves around making them fun. And then things get ugly, because everyone has very firm ideas about what is fun, and often those beliefs aren't accurate even for themselves. For some strange reason, like a zen koan about the eye that cannot see itself, players can play a game, have fun doing so, but not really know why it is fun.
One key to the path out of this confusion comes from recent developments in neuropsychology. What they are finding is the real fundamental workings of neural chemistry and firing that underlay the conscious and unconscious processes that we think of as "thinking". One is that, although our minds are very plastic, they contain pre-dispositions, sort of a genetically derived "BIOS" that sets the initial conditions that allow our minds to form. The brain wiring seems to contain certain hardwired functions, and one of these is termed "intuitive physics", a part of our brain that, although not directly coded with knowledge of how real-world physical processes works, is built to gather and integrate data on those workings and form them into a set of expectations. If there is any hard-wired function in this, it is a simple drive to identify causality: Observable effects have identifiable causes, and we cannot help but look for them. This tendency to identify causes for effects can get quite pronounced, such as the phase most children go through when they imagine profound or dire consequences from apparently innocuous actions. The roots of superstition probably lie in trying to establish causes for otherwise inexplicable observations. The desire to understand the ultimate causes of the world around us fuels both science and religion, this is a very powerful instinct we are talking about.
The other key comes from how the brain preserves neural pathways that prove successful at making predictions and suppresses those that fail. When we attempt something and succeed, we feel a rush of pleasure: endorphins, dopamine, and various hormonal and neurochemical effects encourage the neural connections that have just formed to be reinforced and optimized. When we attempt to reach a goal and fail, we feel frustration, shame, even anger, and similar processes discourage the neural patterns that led to the circumstances that created those feelings. When we have a successful pattern of goal-seeking established, and something that changes the circumstances so that the pattern is no longer effective, we feel confusion, disorientation, even fear, and a strong desire to re-establish the environment that fits our earlier, successful, pattern.
Out of this, we may be able to extract an answer to one of the most vexing questions in game design: What is fun? Fun is the process of establishing, seeking, and achieving goals, in a larger context that gives both the process and the results consistent meaning. Fun environments both surprise and reassure us. They surprise us by working on rules that are very different from those of the real world, and reassure us by having an internal consistancy and logic that is reminiscent of that we find in the real world. Realism is a constant theme, because the exemplar of the environment where these things can occur is the real one. The reason why the market for trading real cash for in-game rewards will never be stamped out is because ultimately, they act as stand-ins for the same thing: The underlying desire to achieve goals.
Broken Toys Community Relations Is Hard
IndustryWoW
For those following the Tseric saga, he was apparently let go/resigned this week.
For those not following the Tseric saga:
Tseric was a forum moderator/community person for World of Warcraft. His main job involved gathering feedback from players on the official forums. There are words for jobs like this. Note: there are also other words.
Late on Sunday, Tseric gave what I like to call the Roy Batty Speech. This is a speech that everyone connected to a community on the internet gives at some point if they either (a) lose perspective about their life causing rampaging self-pity, (b) undergo a significant amount of stress causing rampaging self-pity, or (c) get so drunk they have an attack of rampaging self-pity but unfortunately not so drunk as to be unable to type into a web browser. (I have given several variations of this over time.) The Roy Batty Speech is something wildly dramatic, overwrought and self-indulgent. Note that Roy Batty had an excuse for being wildly dramatic and overwrought: He was a robot, he was Rutger Hauer, and he was dying. Unless you are a dying robot named Rutger Hauer, you don’t have enough reason to give the Roy Batty Speech. Tseric’s version of the Roy Batty Speech is preserved forever, because this is the Internet.
Posting impassionately, they say you don’t care.
Posting nothing, they say you ignore.
Posting with passion, you incite trolls.
Posting fluff, you say nonsense.
Post with what facts you have, they whittle down with rationale.
There is no win.
There is only slow degredation.
Take note. It is the first and only time you’ll see someone in my position make that position.
You can be me when I’m gone.
It went on for a while. Apparently posting on the forums has nothing to do with being teargassed in anti-globalization protests, just in case, you know, you were unsure. Also, you don’t understand what it’s like dealing with forums. Also, trolls suck.
The dirty not-quite-a-secret is that everyone even tenuously connected to the oversight of online games, or other internet communities, have said much these same words in various combinations. The difference is that we didn’t actually, you know, tell the customers these words. We didn’t give The Roy Batty Speech while we were on the clock. Because while blowing off steam is important, and necessary, it’s also something you by necessity do behind closed doors. Otherwise it’s not just venting steam, it’s merely venting. And that has its own connotation, and it’s an unpleasant one.
And that’s why Tseric is “pursuing other opportunities elsewhere”. Because part of having the fancy coloration in your name when you post is understanding that, no, you can’t just dive into the muck and root around with everyone else. You lost that privilege when you got the fancy colored name. You have to be different. You have to set the standard. And yes, that means you take a lot of unjustified punches. It comes with the territory of, as the Penny Arcade comic put it, eating bees. Sometimes the bees sting, and what are you going to do? Dude, you took a job eating bees. It will happen. And you’ll bitch about it to your friends off the clock constantly - but not on the clock. Not to the customers paying your way. It’s not how communities are run.
Anyway, it’s not really that important in the scheme of things. Well, it’s important to Tseric, since he’s LFG, but for the rest of us, it’s just another inappropriate context for the Roy Batty Speech. And it’ll happen again. People being human and all.
Gamasutra - Designing Usable and Accessible Games with Interaction Design Patterns Designing Usable and Accessible Games with Interaction Design Patterns
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What separates games from other forms of entertainment is that they provide interaction, however providing interaction it in the wrong way e.g. different from how the player would expect it or how the player requires it, means that people get frustrated playing your game --or worse-- cannot play your game at all.
More and more people are interested in playing games who do not fit the profile of the “20 year old male” that the game industry predominately seems to target. Playing a first person shooter on a console requires you to master two analog thumbsticks, four buttons and a number of triggers and or combinations of these. Not everyone is capable of doing this easily, such as the elderly, while those who have never played games before, such as people with disabilities, all face an increasingly complicated game interaction that withholds or restricts them from playing games in the first place.
Games are different from traditional software systems in the sense that most software systems are designed with the purpose to either completely automate a user’s task (such as ATM software) making the user obsolete, or to support a user in performing a task, such as a word processor helping someone write a letter. Games are different in that respect as they are solely developed for entertainment or educational purposes.
Interaction design affects two game qualities:
* Usability: if a player cannot figure out how to play the game, if the player has to wait, if it is difficult to learn to play the game or if game objects are awkward to use.
* Accessibility: if a player cannot understand what is said in cut scenes or cannot hear the footsteps of someone sneaking up behind him or her, because the player suffers from an auditory disability or if the game does not support the use of specific input devices such as one handed controllers or sip and puff joysticks that allow severely physical disabled players to play the game.
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more information in the original article
Ken Russell's Weblog : Weblog NASA World Wind Java at JavaOne
Quick Information Links
Today, May 10, at JavaOne 2007, NASA released the early access SDK of their revolutionary World Wind planetary visualization system for the Java platform.
This is an historic moment. Now leading-edge, high-performance, 3D geospatial visualization is available to developers on all platforms. You can embed it in your Java applications as a component. You can extend it, changing the visual appearance of the globe in any way you can imagine. This technology is deployable inside of a web browser as an applet, or as an application launched with a single mouse click, using the foundations of the Java platform and the OpenGL 3D graphics API. No manual software installation is required (aside from the Java Runtime Environment, which is pre-installed on 9 out of 10 PCs shipped today, and on all Macintosh computers).
Tom Gaskins, the technical lead of World Wind Java, and the team of Dave Collins, Lado Garakanidze, Randy Kim, and alumni Eric Dalgliesh and Chris Maxwell, led by Project Manager Patrick Hogan, have built an elegant, extensible, and embeddable architecture which will resonate throughout the software development community and the world. I extend my heartfelt thanks to them for their perseverence and hard work.
Sun's involvement with NASA World Wind Java dates back to September 2005, when Hans Muller, CTO of Sun's Desktop division, initiated a dialogue between NASA's World Wind development team and Sun. At the time, World Wind was exclusively a .NET application, written in C# and Direct3D, and ran only on Microsoft's Windows platform. Chris Campbell and I met with the World Wind development team at NASA Ames to discuss the feasibility of a Java platform port of World Wind. It turned out that NASA had already been discussing this internally and Tom Gaskins had written an article on EarthFlicks, a stripped-down version of World Wind written in Java using OpenGL via JOGL for its 3D graphics. Chris and I discussed the current state of Java 2D and 3D graphics, and we collectively discussed areas where NASA would need help in bringing World Wind to Java.
The extraordinary nature of NASA's work was immediately apparent, and I initiated discussions throughout Sun to try to help accelerate the development of a Java version of their system by providing funding enabling NASA to hire an additional contractor. My vice-president, Laurie Tolson, agreed to fund half of a collaborative research project, the other half funded by Sun's External Research Office led by Emil Sarpa. Foothill / De Anza College, which has an internship program at NASA Ames, helped facilitate the collaboration, which officially began in April 2006.
In the meantime, NASA had already begun work on a Java version of World Wind. Tom Gaskins had been providing feedback on JOGL for months, and he, Chris Campbell and I had had steady dialog during this time. His need for an easy code path to bring textures in to OpenGL prodded Chris to finish the initial version of JOGL's TextureIO utility classes. Afterward I assumed responsibility for these classes and extended them with compressed texture support which is required for World Wind to use texture memory effectively. Tom and the NASA team improved the quality of JOGL for the entire development community by uncovering several bugs in these utilities along the way which we fixed.
The entire NASA development team made extraordinary strides in a remarkably short period of time, getting quickly to the point where the globe was on the screen and continuing to refine the algorithms used and extend the system's functionality. Areas of development and discussion included the general strategy for producing the geometry and imagery for the planet's surface; support for rendering place names; support for rendering lines and polygons on the planet's surface; the algorithms used to position the camera (or the "view"); integration of new data sets; inclusion of features such as political boundaries and meridian and parallel lines; and selection of features on the surface of the planet. Patrick Hogan retargeted the team's efforts and made World Wind Java the primary focus for ongoing development.
NASA's work on World Wind Java informed bug fixes to JOGL's support for DRI rendering on X11 platforms, among other areas. Based on NASA's experience using JOGL to render text for place names, as well as extensive discussions with Phil Race from the Java 2D team, I added a TextRenderer to JOGL which provides easy, high-quality, and platform-independent text support for OpenGL applications. JOGL's TextRenderer soon after replaced the custom text rendering system built earlier in World Wind Java for rendering place names.
At OOPSLA 2006 I saw an exhibit of a virtual equipment panel out of an airplane (an F-16, in fact). Looking closer I saw the standard Java coffee cup logo in the corner of the window. The sales representative from the company (The DiSTI Corporation) indicated that this was a piece of code produced by their tool, GL Studio, and that they were showing a new Java code generator for their tool which produced Java code using JOGL. I introduced myself as the JOGL technical lead and was soon in touch with Darren Humphrey, the CTO of DiSTI. I put NASA and DiSTI in touch, as DiSTI's F-16 cockpit was a natural fit for flying over NASA World Wind Java's terrain. This resulted in the mind-blowing F-16 flight simulator demo shown at JavaOne 2007, linked below, in which you can fly over the entire world.
In recent months the NASA team has focused on refinements of the view and terrain algorithms, as well as satisfying requirements set by other sponsors of the project such as geometric highlighting of features on the planet's surface. The software has become increasingly ready for consumption by a larger audience.
NASA World Wind Java and The DiSTI Corporation's F-16 flight simulator demonstration were shown in Bob Brewin's technical keynote this past Tuesday to a wonderful audience reception. You can watch a replay of the webcast of the keynote. Part of the segment on NASA World Wind Java even made it to CNET News.com. Tom Gaskins presented an excellent technical session today (TS-3489, 3-D Earth Visualization with NASA World Wind) which was extraordinarily well received and which discussed in greater depth World Wind Java's architecture and how it can be utilized, extended, and embedded as a component.
This is just the beginning of a remarkable journey. Sun and NASA eagerly await what the Java developer and user communities will do with these capabilities. The world is at your fingertips.
For More Information
* NASA World Wind Main Page
* NASA World Wind Java
* The DiSTI Corporation
* DiSTI's F-16 Flight Simulator (click to launch via Java Web Start)
How To Keep Hostile Jerks From Taking Over Your Online Community -- Social Networks How To Keep Hostile Jerks From Taking Over Your Online Community
Angry people looking for fights will inevitably try to poison successful Internet communities. Columnist Cory Doctorow looks at ways to remove the poison without killing the discussion too.
By Cory Doctorow
InformationWeek
May 14, 2007 11:28 PM
The Internet Tough Guy is a feature in all Internet social forums. These are people who poison discussions with anger, hatred, and threats. Some are malicious. Some are crazy. Some are just afflicted with a rotten sense of humor. Whatever their motives, they're a scourge. It takes precious little trolling to sour a message-board. A "troll" -- someone who comes onto an online community looking to pick fights -- has two victory conditions: Either everyone ends up talking about him, or no one talks at all. And where two or more trolls gather, they'll egg each other on, seeing who can anger and disrupt the regular message-board posters the most.
It can be distressing. If you're part of a nice little community of hamster-fanciers, Trekkers, or Volkswagen enthusiasts, it's easy to slip into a kind of camaraderie, a social setting in which everyone talks about life, aspirations, family problems, personal triumphs. In some ways, it doesn't matter what brought you together -- the fact that you're together is what matters.
Then, almost without warning, your community goes toxic. Someone in your group undergoes a radical personality shift and begins picking fights, or someone new comes to the party with an agenda. Or, worst of all: Your little clubhouse achieves some small measure of fame and is overrun by newcomers who don't know that Liza is a little bit touchy on the subject of hamster balls, or that old Fred gets into a froth anytime someone asks about retrofitting a bud vase into a vintage Beetle, or that everyone here actually kind of knows Wil Wheaton from reading his blog and he's a total mensch, so jokes about shoving Wesley out the airlock are frowned upon.
Sometimes, you rebound. More often, you tumble. Things get worse. The crowds get bigger, the fights get hotter. Pathologically angry (but often funny) people show up and challenge each other to new levels of vitriol.
In extreme cases, you end up with the kind of notorious mess that Kathy Sierra found herself in, in which trolls directed such bilious, threatening noise towards a harmless advocate for "passionate users" in web-applications that she withdrew from speaking at O'Reilly's Emerging Tech conference.
You can deal with trolls in many ways. Many trolls are perfectly nice in real life -- sometimes, just calling them on the phone and confronting them with the human being at the other end of their attacks is enough to sober them up. But it doesn't always work: I remember one time I challenged someone who'd been sending me hate mail to call me up and say the words aloud: the phone rang a moment later and the first words out of my troll's mouth were, "You f*cking hypocrite!" The conversation declined from there.
Trolls can infect a small group, but they really shine in big forums.
...
more information in the original article
MMORPG.COM General : Cryptic Studios Releases Animation Tools Digg this article
Posted May 10, 2007 by Keith Cross
4 comments in our forums
Cryptic Studios, best known for their work on superhero genre of MMOs like City of Heroes / Villains, has announced that the Cryptic Animation Rig (Cryptic AR) is now available free for download.
Cryptic Studios, Inc., an independent developer of massively multiplayer online games, announced today its proprietary Cryptic Animation Rig (Cryptic AR) is now available free for download under the GNU General Public License.
"Our goal is to foster a community of animators by providing them the power to generate animations without having to worry about supporting a toolset. Since we were already developing the rig for our core technology team, we decided to release it to the public under the GNU GPL," said Shayne Herrera, Art Development Director for Cryptic Studios. "We feel that the development and gaming communities will benefit greatly from a professional tool like the Cryptic AR."
Cryptic AR allows animators of all experience levels to familiarize themselves with the same tools used in a professional development environment. Unlike other free animation rigs, Cryptic AR is not an approximation of production tools, but the very tools currently being used to produce next-gen game visuals at Cryptic Studios.
"We decided to add the ability to switch and create character skins called 'IDs,' or 'identities,'" said Sean Burgoon, animator and creator of the Cryptic AR. "Cryptic AR version 1.0 ships with three IDs and we plan to release more on a regular basis. We are encouraging user-submitted IDs through the animation community we are creating on our web site."
The Cryptic AR web site will also have forums to serve as the community home for aspiring AR animators. The forums will act as a place to inspire continued creativity in users and support animation needs.
Game Producer Resource: » Sales Stats: Gish - $121,000 Sales Sales Stats: Gish - $121,000 Sales
May 9th, 2007 :: Permalink :: Trackback
Posted in Sales Statistics
Now we have some great information regarding the Gish sales. I asked Josiah Pisciotta from Chronic Logic if he would wish to publish sales stats here, and I’ve also asked some additional questions regarding conversion rate, promotional efforts, retail deals and others. Check out the expanded version of sales stats for Gish.
Title: Gish (Buy - Download)
Developer: Chronic Logic
Released: May 2004
Development time: About 6 months with three developers.
Promotion time: (after release) Josiah: “It took quite a bit of effort for all the promotion, but I am not sure how much because it was an ongoing process that continues to this day. I would say at least 6 months worth of one person working full time.”
Tar ball character:
This is how Josiah commented when I asked how they came up with the idea about a tar ball as the main character:
One of the designers, Edmund came up with the idea for Gish as a ball of tar, I am not sure exactly what inspired him to do so and he no longer works here so I can’t ask him.
Platforms: Windows, OSX and Linux
Development Expenses:
Sounds and music: $3500
Of the $3500 only $500 was paid up front and the rest was a percent of royalties after Gish was released and selling.
Marketing Expenses:
Independent Games Festival (IGF) entry fees: $200.00
Rough estimate of Affiliate and other fees: $2000.00
Total Expenses: $5700.00
The time of the developers and the cost of office space, computers, etc. is not taken into account here.
Downloads & conversion rate: less than 1% (rough guess)
Josiah’s comments:
I don’t have the stats on the demo downloads because they demo gets hosted in a lot of different places online and they are impossible to track, that also makes it impossible to track the conversion rate, but I suspect it is not very good, less then 1% but that is just a guess.
Sales from chroniclogic.com per year:
2004: 2587
2005: 1335
2006: 449
2007: 140 (through April)
Misc others sales: 10
Total Sales: 4521
Price: $19.95 USD
SWREG (Credit card orders): $79543.98
PayPal: $1436.86
Manual orders (checks, cash, money orders): $195.48
Approximate net sales from chroniclogic.com: $81176.32
Total income from other sites: $6212.04
(Garage Games, Reflexive Arcade, Linspire, Totalgaming.net and Manifesto games)
IGF Prize winnings: $16000.00
Total Retail publishing: $17539.71
(Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Russian, Singapore and Malaysia)
Retail deal comments:
As for the retail publishing, they contacted us except for the Germany, Switzerland and Austrian company. We had already worked with them (Halycon Media) with our Bridge Building game and we were happy with their work publishing it so we went to them with Gish as well.
Approximate total income: $121,000 USD
