CGDC 2010 Presented a Feast of Cutting-Edge Game Development Technologies
On August 1, 2010, Cecil Kim, Chief Artist of Santa Monica Studio, Sony Entertainment North America, won great applause with his presentation at the Shanghai International Convention Center. He illustrated the development process of the grand scenes in God of War III, which had a greater impact on the audience even than the game’s fantastic visual effects. The game was launched in March 2010, and recorded a sales volume of over 1 million copies in North America during the month of launch. The launch of God of War III also drove the sales of PS3 increase by 44 percent. God of War III is one of the AVG masterpieces, which are noted for massive investment and amazing effects. Cecil Kim is an established artist. He was Effects Illustrator of various Hollywood movies including Truman Show and Men in Black, and Concept Artist and Map Illustrator of Parasite EVE and Final Fantasy IX. Besides, he was also a two-time judge for the world’s premier artistic competition Dominance War, Chief Artist of God of War III and Concept Artist of the God of War series. The grand scenes and imaginative figure paintings of God of War are all made by Cecil Kim. In his mind dwell the techniques and experience for visual designs, the entire development strategy and the source of inspirations for figure and scene creation, as well as team management and task assignment, project procedures and schedules, as well as the collaboration experiences and methods with game level designers and the engine technology and testing departments. “Cecil Kim has brought the top game visual design art to us,” an attendee said at CGDC. “The cutting-edge technologies and products showcased by CGDC are urgently demanded by the Chinese companies, and they have attracted game development technical professionals from all around the nation.” In fact, there was more to see at CGDC 2010. An all-round technology feast ranging from planning to artistic design took place from July 30 to August 1. On July 30, Hilmar Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games introduced their experience in developing EVE, and suggested that game design shall dare to be innovative and different. Hilmar Pétursson concluded that the social networking in online games could be divided into two types. Firstly, the theme-park type, e.g. World of Warcraft. The gamers are guided by the story setting to know each other. Secondly, the amusement-park type, e.g. EVE and Ultima. This type of games is weak in story setting, but they provide significant space for development. The gamers’ freedom offered by EVE is reflected in its economy, skills and market system, which aroused great interest of the audience and led to a heated discussion on the real issues in the Chinese market. After Hilmar Pétursson’s speech, Eyjolfur Gudmundsson, Chief Economist of CCP Games further explored the aspect of economy by giving an introduction to the dynamic economy management system. On the same day, “Play Balance Fundamentals and Tricks for Competitive Games”, a speech given by Tom Cadwell, Design Director of Riot Games, was also thought-evoking. Xia Taiyi, a game developer, concluded 11 highlights of the speech in his blog, which became a media focus. Besides, Casten Van Husen, CEO of Gameforge 4D Gmbh, gave a speech titled “Game Design for European Browser Gamers with Different Culture Backgrounds”. His unique point of view was quite refreshing to the audience. The focus is not limited to the “Online Game Session”, the creation story of Plants vs. Zombies at the single/platform game forum was also warmly welcomed. The game was awarded “the most popular casual game in 2009”, no wonder the speech attracted a large number of game developers. James Gwertzman, CEO of Shanghai PopCap Software Co., Ltd. revealed details in the development of this game, including the source of inspiration, game planning, figure design and scene design. He even presented the draft drawing and listed nearly 100 candidate names for the game. This speech was highly evaluated by the audience. On July 31, a speech on the consumer psychology for online games also led to an active discussion among the game developers. This kind of speech is rarely seen in general, because it involves the experience in applying revenue techniques. In addition, the speaker Wang Shiying herself, an independent game producer, together with the skills she concluded, were also impressive. On August 1, Powen Ko, CTO of LoopTek gave a speech on the game development and marketing on iPhone, iPad and Android at the Mobile Game Session. He elaborated on the technical challenges, solutions, design methods and experiences, and gained supports from his peers. During the three days, the Chinese companies also shared their latest experience and achievements in game development. For example, Jerry Mao, Vice President of Object Software, contrasted the experience-oriented online game design scheme and the numerical value-oriented scheme. Tiger Huang of Shanda Games shared his experience in maintenance of game operation, with elaboration and analysis on the motivation and threat of bot and the anti-bot technologies. CGDC was regarded by industry insiders as a good opportunity for business cooperation, technology introduction and knowledge learning. With the help of ChinaJoy, it attracted not only the giants of the industry, but also vice presidents in charge of technology, operation and human resources of various game companies. The valuable networking opportunity was a big attraction to all companies on the industry chain, and it was a perfect time for business negotiations among server providers, IDC suppliers and various hardware and software providers. According to Howell Expo, the organizer of CGDC, “ChinaJoy/CGDC/CGBC/CGOC is a comprehensive large-sized expo and conference with its unique features. CGDC has put an emphasis on the platform function to attract Chinese and international leading game companies for cutting-edge technology analysis and experience sharing. CGDC 2010 invited over 80 Chinese and international speakers to discuss topics in Design, Operation, Audio, Testing, Security, Programming, Arts and Management. A total of 5,000 high-end game professionals and management persons took part in the communication.” With doubling number of participants and the rapidly increasing number of speakers, the extension of coverage of countries and regions, CGDC is providing a platform of technology introduction for the emerging Chinese game industry, as well as a high-end, professional and effective platform of communication across companies of different fields. As the blogger Xia Taiyi said, last year he joined CGDC with an aim to worship the industry giants, while this year, CGDC was an important platform for him to learn knowledge, to enhance understanding and to advance his career. About CGDC Contacts
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