Just got back from GDC this weekend. It was a great experience, as usual. Very inspirational. I always return from GDC re-motivated in my own work. And since our game is supposed to be finished rather soon, that motivation should prove quite useful.
It is always tough picking good sessions though. Even when a particular session has a great sounding topic the information can be too general, not offering anything that helps you in your own work, or sometimes overly obvious failing to offer anything you couldn’t have figured out on your own. Rather than mentioning the ones I didn’t find useful, I’d like to call out the sessions I found the most interesting.
I went to a sponsored session entitled something along the lines of “Havok integration in Ubisoft’s next-generation games”. Sponsored sessions aren’t always the most interesting but this particular one showed off a great implementation of mixing Havok simulated ragdolls with keyframed animation as well as extensive use of 2-bone IK (arms and legs). I really have got to hand it to them, they are doing some visually impressive stuff. Object interactions where the hands and feet are perfectly aligned really give a nice sense of contact between actors and props. Same goes for ragdoll mixed in with combat animations and hit reactions. They are doing a lot that I’d like to incorporate into the next game I work on.
Another interesting session was Koji Igarashi, the current director of the Castlevania series, discussing 2D versus 3D gameplay and game production. Not a lot of people are doing 2D these days and I’ve certainly never worked on a professional 2D game so the insight into their production processes was intriguing. Of particular interest to me was how he broke down what he believed the elements of action games are and how they either work or don’t work in 2D vs. 3D. One thing we struggle with in making 3D action melee games is helping the player hit their target when they want to. It isn’t as easy to tell the distance between two objects in a 3D world especially with camera issues. 2D doesn’t have that issue and facilitates a more pure action experience.
In closing, if you’re a developer you should try to go to GDC. It’s fun (parties!), you get to meet other like minded developers (contacts!), and can learn some useful stuff in the lectures (get smarter!).
In closing, here’s a picture of me and Miyamoto-san from the conference. He was certainly an inspiration to me when I was growing up with all the amazingly entertaining games he designed. So, thanks Miyamoto-san! You rule.
To miyamoto, I say: “MING MA(RI)O!”