Article 19 - The Computer Game Developer's Conference, 1998
An article I wrote for ASCII DOS/V magazine
As you know, my job is to bring games to the WebTV Plus. This gives me the perfect excuse to learn all about video game programming! Not only do I get to play games for "market research", but I also get to attend game conferences. This May, I went to the two most important video game conferences in America: The Computer Game Developer’s Conference (CGDC) and the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). The two conferences were held on opposite coasts of America, and they focused on opposite parts of the game business. CGDC is a developer’s conference. It’s for people who create games. E3 is a seller’s conference. It’s for people who publish and distribute games. Between the two conferences, I got a good idea of where games are headed over the next year.
This month I’ll talk about the CGDC. Next month, I’ll cover E3.
(Look at all the neat toys they gave out)
The Computer Game Developer’s Conference was held in Long Beach, California. That’s in Southern California, near Los Angeles. About 7000 people attended. They weren’t all game developers, though. There were also reporters, marketers, students, and game company recruiters. I estimate that about 50% of the attendees were from America, 30% Europe, and 20% Asia (mostly Japan, of course!). The conference lasted 5 days. The first two days concentrated on business issues (like marketing and distribution). The last 3 days had parallel tracks on game design, graphics programming, audio programming, and graphic arts. If a developer wanted even more information, they could come a day early (to attend a special course about the 3Dfx VooDoo II 3D graphics card), and stay an extra day (to attend a special course about the Microsoft DirectX 6.0 game library.)
For me, the best thing about the conference was talking to people in the hallways. It was very easy to strike up conversations with other attendees. Everybody had a game that they were working on, and everybody was eager to talk about it. With so much money involved in games, you’d think that people would be close-lipped. But that’s not the case. I think there are several reasons for this: First, respected programmers like John Carmack of id Software, have made a point of publicly explaining their game algorithms. Second, game technology is developing rapidly. So even if you explain how to write last year’s hit game, it won’t help your competitors write this year’s hit game. Finally, most game developers really enjoy their jobs, and can’t help discussing their work with their peers.
What were people talking about? In both the hallways and the classes, I’d say that three topics were discussed more than any other: 3D graphics, multi-player network games, and Deer Hunter.
3D Graphics was the number one topic at the show. It requires a lot of knowledge and effort to create a 3D game. Especially for programmers, because it takes much more mathematics knowledge to create a 3D game than it does to create a 2D game. A 2D game only requires simple algebra. A 3D game requires vectors, trigonometry, and even calculus! (Calculus is used for simulating physics in car racing games.) But programmers aren’t the only ones who have to learn new skills: Artists have to learn architecture (to build the 3D environments), cinematography (to direct the 3D camera), and anatomy (to make the 3D figures look natural and move correctly). Game designers have to learn how to take advantage of the additional directions of movement that are now available to the player.
There aren’t many books or courses available to teach this kind of information. That’s what made CGDC so valuable. At CGDC, 3D hardware vendors 3dfx, NEC, and Intel gave courses on how to program their cards. (Intel even handed out free cards based on their i740 graphics controller at their talk!) Programmers from id and Shiny Entertainment gave talks on their latest algorithms. 3D modeling companies Kinetix and Softimage gave two-day tutorials on how to design realistic 3D characters. And there were many spirited hallway discussions about the best way to achieve particular 3D effects.
Last year’s CGDC was the scene of the famous 3D Graphics API wars. APIs are the building blocks that programmers use to create programs. There are two competing 3D graphics APIs: OpenGL, from Silicon Graphics, and Direct3D from Microsoft. Some developers preferred OpenGL, because it was easy to use. Others preferred Direct3D because it was supported by more brands of hardware accelerators. This year, both APIs got better: OpenGL became widely supported, and Direct3D became easier to use. OpenGL got more support, due to the popularity of Quake II, which requires OpenGL for hardware acceleration. Direct3D got easier to use when Microsoft added the DrawPrimitive function to version 5.0. The result was surprising: no more arguments! Now that both APIs are good enough, developers have stopped arguing about which one to use. (Both APIs are still very popular. Microsoft and SGI are even working together to create a new high-end graphics API called Fahrenheit.)
The second big topic for CGDC was Network Games, that allow multiple people to play together, using a computer network (like the Internet). Adding network play tends to boost a game’s sales by 15%. Some developers hope to make money by charging monthly subscription fees. However, other on-line game companies have chosen to provide their games for free. This is especially true for "coffee break" games, like Sony’s "Wheel of Fortune", that are designed to appeal to casual gamers. This second set of on-line game companies hope to make money by selling advertising.
Expect to see more ads in all kinds of games, especially sports simulations. After all, you see plenty of ads when watching a real-world sporting event, such as a car race. Why not also in a simulation of a car race?
The third topic was Deer Hunter. To the surprise of most game developers, Deer Hunter was the most popular computer game in America last year. (I myself had not heard of Deer Hunter before I went to CGDC.) Deer Hunter, as you might guess, lets you experience the thrill of a deer hunt. You track the deer through a forest. You study the terrain, and pick a place to hide. Then you wait patiently for the deer to appear. When it does, you aim and shoot. If you’re lucky, you kill the deer. If not, you have to try again.
Deer Hunter’s graphics are very simple – not even true 3D. But it was wildly successful. Here’s how it came to be made: Wal-Mart is America’s biggest rural department store chain. A buyer at Wal-Mart noticed that Wal-Mart sells more ammunition than software. Ammunition is used in hunting. The buyer reasoned that a game about hunting would be popular with Wal-Mart’s customers. He convinced a game publisher to write a game about hunting. He priced it at the relatively low price of $20, put it in his stores, and the rest is history. Needless to say, the success of Deer Hunter has spawned imitators. There are now games about duck hunting, big game hunting, fishing and so on.
It takes about 18 months to create a game. Developers will be applying the lessons they learned at this year’s CGDC to the games that they write over the next year and a half. Who knows? Perhaps later this year we will see several 3D networked hunting games!
But, seriously, I think that Deer Hunter is part of a larger trend. Developers are designing games to appeal to specific groups of people. For example, the company Purple Moon is targeting 11-to-14-year-old girls. Their games emphasize social skills, like making friends at a new school. I think it’s refreshing to see companies develop new kinds of games. After all, how many Quake-like 3D-dungeon games do we really need?
Next month, I’ll talk about E3, where developers and publishers showed off their new games. I hope you’ll join me then!