GDC is about the art and technology of making games. Over the course of five days, it offers literally hundreds of different sessions ranging from full-day tutorials to lectures, roundtables, panels and more. For three days, there's an exhibition where the aforementioned hardware and software vendors promote their wares, but since the focus is not on selling individual games, the noise level is low and the atmosphere fairly informal. Accordingly, there isn't a huge amount to report about specific titles. On the other hand, the affair does provide an exceptional opportunity to renew acquaintances with many people, to meet others for the first time and to catch up on sundry subjects including the current status of various projects. This GDC 2002 Report looks at this year's incarnation, focusing on the CRPG and online world presence.
Arx Fatalis. Two Arkane Studios team members made the long trip from France, and I was able to chat briefly with Lead Designer Raphael Colantonio. He reported that the team is busy fixing bugs and polishing, and said the game is on track for release this summer. He also stated that he was generally pleased with reaction to the demo that was released recently, and that he hopes to see some more publicity for the game as it approaches release.
Atriarch. Lead Game Designer Serafina Pechan represented the World Fusion team, and despite some setbacks in 2001, she seemed back to her usual very enthusiastic self. She reported having a number of appointments to show the game to publishers in her hotel, and was also kind enough to give me a look on the final evening. Since the flow of information has been slow for some time, I didn't know what to expect, but the demo was certainly impressive. The highlight was probably the system by which players will be able to create buildings. It uses pieces - Serafina compared them to Lego - that can be stacked in innumerable configurations. The possible scale is quite staggering; she showed one player-built structure that was huge, several stories high if not more. Judging from the handful of areas I saw, the planet of Atriana will be both visually distinctive and varied. The alien character races are pretty cool to see in action, as are the world's varied and highly imaginative creatures. Since the project is currently self-funded, its target launch date remains uncertain. Let's hope the publishers who saw the game were as impressed as I was.
BioWare. Again this year, Joint CEOs Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk were visible participants in the Conference, with three and two sessions on their respective presentation schedules. A few other team members were also in attendance, but seemingly fewer than in past years, probably because many people are busy working on Neverwinter Nights. With respect to that title, I was fortunate enough to sit in on an impromptu demo of the editor that Ray and Greg gave to Rob Fermier (Thief, System Shock 2, now with Ensemble) during a lunch break - the kind of thing that sometimes happens at GDC if you're in the right place at the right time. Since they had it on a laptop, the screen was a bit small, but it was certainly large enough to see that the game has acquired a great deal of polish since I last saw it 10 months ago at E3, at which time it was already very well received. A couple of days earlier, they both mentioned that they had been testing the DM client, and their enthusiasm for it was readily apparent, so it would appear that the entire project is coming together. While the official target for release is still summer, Ray mentioned June as a possibility. As for Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic, Greg reported that it's moving forward pretty well, but my guess is that we won't see much more information until E3.
City of Heroes. Developer Cryptic Studios is located in San Jose, so I had the chance to congratulate CEO Cameron Petty and other team members on the announcement a short time earlier that their superhero-themed online world will be published by NCsoft. Publicity plans are still in discussion, so about all I can report at this time is that everyone I met seemed tremendously enthusiastic about the game. While it's conjecture on my part, I suspect we'll see a big publicity push starting at E3.
Dungeon Siege. Only a couple of the Gas Powered Games team attended this year, probably because of the game's development schedule; as you may recall, it actually went gold during GDC. However, one of them was the project's leader Chris Taylor, with whom I was able to chat a couple of times. Interestingly, he volunteered that he was eager to get back to work this week to start on the sequel. This was a distinct change from a month ago when he had said, albeit jokingly, that he was going to take a month off to relax. As for the game, it was running on several machines in a room hosted by gmax, with both single- and multiplayer available. At one point, I was in that room for almost an hour talking with Chris and other developers. During that time, every seat was occupied, and I didn't see even one person get up and leave. Later on, another game maker told me he had waited a half hour without getting a chance to play. I didn't get any hands-on time either, but it was very clear that those who did reacted very positively.
EVE: The Second Genesis. Three representatives of Icelandic developer CCP made the long journey from Reykjavik to California, Art Director and founder Reynir Hardarson, CEO Sigurdur Arnljotsson and QA Manager Skulina Kjartansdottir. Reynir first introduced me to EVE two years ago at GDC, since which time the space-based title has come a long way. One published report emanating from the show says the game will be published by Simon and Schuster Interactive. However, no source was named and I got the impression CCP was meeting publishers during the show, so I'm still treating this as a rumor. Unfortunately, we were unable to coordinate our respective schedules to allow me to see their demo, but I suspect we'll be seeing and hearing more about this game before too much longer.
Horizons. CEO James Jones and Producer Steve Snow came in for the Conference from Artifact Entertainment. The company has been in a quiet period about Horizons for the past while. They still weren't saying very much except that they are pleased with its progress. However, I did gather that they had a number of meetings scheduled. Presumably, these were with publishers for North America and Europe. My assumption is that we won't see much if any information released before E3.
ION Storm. Studio Director Warren Spector was among the busiest individuals at the show with at least half a dozen sessions on his schedule. Among these were some for the International Games Developers Association where he is one of the leaders in the area of educational programs. Harvey Smith and Randy Smith, the Project Directors of Deus Ex 2 and Thief 3, both participated in a couple of sessions as did Doug Church, the studio's recently appointed Technical Director. I also met Designer Ricardo Bare and Composer Alex Brandon. Little in the way of solid information was forthcoming about either project, but both teams definitely feel they can improve on the preceding ones, which would make both fine games indeed.
Lost Continents. At least three members of the team were in attendance, Producer John Blakely, Lead Designer Keith Baker and one other whose name I neglected to write down (bad scribe!). We had quite a lengthy and interesting conversation about various aspects of their pulp adventure-themed online world as well as community and community development. The discussion reinforced my interest in learning more about the game, and although it's still a long way from release, I wouldn't be surprised if the team opens up the information tap at least a little more in the relatively near future. If so, I'll definitely be interested to see what's revealed.
Priest. While this online world hasn't received much media attention so far, it offers a rather interesting concept, horror-western. Based on a popular Korean serial comic, it is in development by JCEntertainment with a target date of Q3 to enter beta. In North America, it will be offered by that company's US arm, World NetGames. I met briefly with the principals of both companies, and we can probably expect to see more information about the game in the coming months.
Shadowbane. While I didn't see any of the Wolfpack Studios team, I did run into Chris "Vosx" Mancil, the Community Manager for the game at publisher Ubi Soft and a former Associate Editor at our Shadowbane Vault. The game is still in a limited beta, so he wasn't free to say a whole lot about it. However, he did talk a bit about the community, reporting that it is growing nicely while remaining pretty positive and supportive.
Star Wars Galaxies. Creative Director Raph Koster and Executive Producer Rich Vogel are fixtures at GDC, and they both had busy schedules again this year, with multiple presentations. We did have a few quick occasions to talk, but as with a number of other games, we'll probably have to wait until E3 for any substantial amount of information. Rich did say that the team is still aiming for a fall launch date.
The above is a very incomplete list of all the people I talked to over the course of five days. If it seems like there wasn't a great deal of solid information to be had about any of the games named, that's generally a pretty fair assessment. However, it must be remembered that the point of GDC is the art of making games, not the promotion and selling of specific titles. In the former regard, this year was a terrific learning experience for me. Even though I have no aspirations to become a developer, I believe my ability to write about games is improved each year I attend. For the latter, we have less than a couple of months to wait until the annual hype-fest that is E3 in mid-May.