#GDC12 @mike_acton: Data-Oriented Design for Math

Posted on March 14, 2012

This was part of the full-day Math Tutorial on Monday. To a degree, it turned into a bit of an anti-math talk (appropriate slide inserted at the last second during the day) in the sense that most of what I was discussing (and the real philosophical point behind DOD) is that a real understanding of your data and your context is necessary for engineering a correct solution. As opposed to a totally generalized and abstracted “solution”. You do not need to solve problems you don’t have, and there is no way to know what problems you have without understanding your data. That said, I did try to specifically make the point that it’s also not necessary to over-constrain your problem to a single set of examples, but rather to just be aware of the finite nature of both the range of data you’re working with and the (hardware/software stack) context you’re working within. Some of you may also recognize a few of the later slides from my earlier “Typical C++ Bullshit” presentation although the overall presentation came from a different direction.

data_oriented_design_math_macton.pdf

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#GDC12 Drew Murray: What You Don’t Know IS Hurting You: How Aggressive User Research Improved Resistance 3

Posted on March 14, 2012

What You Don’t Know IS Hurting You: How Aggressive User Research Improved Resistance 3
Speakers: Drew Murray (Creative Director, Insomniac Games)
Track: Game Design
Format: 60-Minute Lecture

After participating in formal usability tests near the end of Resistance 2 production, Insomniac Games began a fundamental shift in how we make games. While Insomniac has always been focused on making great games – and has a long history of doing so – we’ve relied largely on our gut-feelings of what’s going to be fun, utilizing limited playtesting near the end of production to find and fix major problems. Formal usability testing on Resistance 2 showed us that there was a surprising and often painful gap between how we, the developers, played and understood the game and how typical gamers did. Based on the difficulties we saw playing having in our Resistance 2 usability tests, Insomniac as a company decided to move beyond paying lip-service to user-research and fully committed to systematically integrating it throughout the Resistance 3 development cycle, not just near the end.

What Testing Methods Worked? We used many types of user-research over the course of Resistance 3 production – external RITE usability tests, weekly company-wide playtests, informal one-on-one internal playtests, large-scale external playtests, and other methods. We’ll discuss the pros and cons of the different methods we used, the different information we were able to get from different kinds of testing, and the realities of financial and time costs of each.

Overcoming Culture Shock. There was more than a small amount of opposition on the team to the amount of user-research that we did on Resistance 3. User-research can put a tremendous burden on all members of the team, whether it’s running the tests, gathering and analyzing data, quickly iterating to respond to feedback, or just carving out an hour or two a week to actually play the game! We’ll discuss our experiences on Resistance 3, ways to get your team excited about doing user-research on your game, and how to handle common team complaints.

Did It Work? As we ship Resistance 3 (on the day this talk is being submitted!), we’ll examine whether we accomplished our goal with use-research for the game and some of the specific – and sometimes very significant – changes that we made to the game based on the findings. We’ll also talk about some of the things that didn’t work as well as we’d hoped with our testing methods for Resistance 3, and what we plan to do differently in the future.

Attendees of this session will get an insider’s view to the sometimes-bumpy road that Insomniac Games has traveled over the past three-and-a-half years as we’ve revamped our game-development process to focus on frequent and consistent user-research. Different user-research methods will be illustrated by specific examples from Resistance 3, such as videos of the RITE testing we did for core controls and aim-assist, and graphs created to track how the rating-scores assigned by playtesters for different levels and features trended over production. Attendees will also learn about common pitfalls and how to overcome them, and how to convince a team that user-research is an invaluable tool for improving your game.

Murray_Drew_WhatYouDont.pdf
Murray_Drew_WhatYouDont_Script.docx

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#GDC12 Sean Ahern: It Stinks and I Don’t Like It: Making a Better Engine Experience At Insomniac Games

Posted on March 14, 2012

Speaker: Sean Ahern (Information Architect, Insomniac Games)
Track: Production
Format: 60-Minute Lecture

Video game development has progressed significantly over the years – from punch cards and user made tools to enterprise level applications. While the technology that we use on a daily basis has changed significantly, can we really say that the experience of creating games has improved as well?

With each jump in console technology, we push the limits of both a studio’s budget, along with the amazing content that we can create utilizing the tools at our disposal. Studios are constantly on the look-out for the next best tech, middleware, or ideas to help make their next title a reality (and success). With licensed tech and often-times even proprietary software, the User Experience is frequently viewed as a second class-citizen when efficiency and deadlines are in the fore-front.

At Insomniac Games, we’ve decided to make the User Experience of our tools a priority. By leveraging traditional engine programming with web application technology, Insomniac Games has created their new engine from the ground up with a focus on the User Experience.

In this lecture, Sean Ahern, Information Architect for Insomniac Games, addresses how User Experience has helped lead the development of their new engine and its’ features.

Ahern_Sean_ItStinksAnd.pdf

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#GDC12 John O’Brien: Math for Gameplay and AI

Posted on March 14, 2012

From John O’Brien, Single Player Gameplay Programmer in our North Carolina Studio:

An overview of commonly used math for gameplay and AI programmers. Covers basic object intersection tests, a few real-world gameplay examples (including why local/world space transforms and planar projections are good), and ends with overviews of Bayes’ Theorem and Fuzzy Logic.

JOBrien_GameplayAI_GDC2012.pptx
JOBrien_GameplayAI_GDC2012.pdf

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Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One Patch 1.03

Posted on February 1, 2012

We are happy to annouce the release of Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One Patch 1.03. We have listened to your feedback and have made some fixes and additions. The patch should be going live in all territories as you read this or very soon after.

Fixes:

  • Fixed a few issues with the final boss fight that could cause a progression stopper.
  • Skillpoints for beating the game should now unlock properly every time. There was an issue where it wasn’t working for some online users.
  • Heroes are now only awarded A Band of Weirdos when they do the correct actions.
  • A bolt exploit has been closed.
  • Changing the critter type now displays the correct critter in the pause menu.
  • Subtitle readability was improved for the holodiary at the beginning of Power Station in Terawatt in 3D.
  • Heroes level progression is now saved more reliably.
  • A few other bug fixes.

New Features:

  • In Singleplayer games you can now skip loading movies.
  • Players no longer see games in levels that they have not reached yet.

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Happy Holidays from Insomniac!

Posted on December 14, 2011

Insomniac 2011 Holiday Card

Hey everyone,

As you may know, we usually take a long break every December.We like to take a great break to recharge, hang with our families, and get ready to hit next year and continue making great games (read: we’re all actually playing The Old Republic, Skyrim, Uncharted 3, or Skyward Sword)! As such, Insomniac will be closed until January 4th.  If it takes us a bit longer than usual to respond to your e-mails, tweets and Facebook messages, you now know why. We hope you have a fantastic holiday season. Thanks for all of your support of Resistance 3 and Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One this holiday season.

We’ll catch up with you in January. Lots of good stuff to come next year. We’re so excited to show you what’s next!

-IG

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Full Moon Show – Mastodon

Posted on December 13, 2011

The guys from Mastodon stop by the Insomniac offices to talk Brutality Pack with Ted and James in this special video episode of the Full Moon Show. Check out this exclusive interview from Insomniac, along with behind-the-scenes footage of Mastodon going hands on with Resistance 3. Brutality Pack is available on the PlayStation Store for $3.99

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Fan Game of the Week Winner – Dec 9th

Posted on December 9, 2011

Another week, another playlist. We have had some fun ones so far, but none like this week’s Fan Game of the Week. There is a full breakdown below, but the main things to keep in mind are: You will have only 5 lives and respawns are set to 1 sec! That means not only will it be fast and furious, but you will have to be more cautious. We are excited to check out the appropriately named Survivor Strike (starting this evening)!

Survivor Strike
16 player Human Only Deathmatch
2 Rounds
5 Life Limit / 10 Mins Total
1 Sec Respawns
No Abilities, Attributes, or Berserks
Carbine, Marksman, Shotgun, Mutator, and Magnum
Shrapnel Grenades and Molotovs Only
Trainyard, Prison, Seaside, Park, Creek Maps

This week’s playlist is brought to you by Ninja8827. We caught up with Ninja and got a little more insight into his life and his playlist.

Where did you come up with the idea for this playlist?
I was thinking back to Resistance: Fall of Man a custom game me and my friends used to play we would do Deathmatch with human weapons, i took that and added a Resistance 3 twist to it

What is your favorite thing about Resistance 3?
It’s hard to say between the epic story and amazing multiplayer and co-op i would have to say multiplayer because of the unique weapons, abilities and maps it makes for a very original experience something worth coming back too and it never gets boring

What is your favorite loadout?
I use a level 3 Bullseye and shrapnel grenade with strapped (I use the carbine and the H.E 44 magnum with strapped) and gunslinger, a turret for support and a heal beacon to assist myself and teammates this class is useful in almost every mode

When you are not gaming, what are you doing?
I am a full time college student undecided about my major but thinking about doing something in gaming, if I’m not working at my part time job as cart guy at target or hanging with friends I am gaming, reading the lastest news about gaming. gaming runs deep in my blood and its always something Ive loved since i was very young

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Fan Game of the Week Winner – Dec 2nd

Posted on December 2, 2011

It is that time again. You voted for it, so we are going to give it to you. Starting this evening the Game of the Week will look like this:

16 player Team Deathmatch
2 Rounds
HIGH DAMAGE!
First team to 15000 Pts or 10 Mins
3 Sec Respawns
No Abilities, Attributes, or Berserks
Deadeye and Magnum Only
Shrapnel Grenades and Molotovs Only
Main Street, Broadway, Park, and Creek Maps

Who can we thank for this high damage slugfest? None other than IG forum member A Juicy Pickle! (or PSN Olive_Juice). He will be featured as our Fan Designer of the Week on our Facebook page. We briefly chatted with him and asked him more about his playlist and Resistance 3.

Where did you come up with the idea for this playlist?
I used to play a lot of Ratchet and Clank online and my favorite type of game mode was snipers only. The reason I got into Resistance was because of Ratchet, so I thought I would try a little throwback game.

What is your favorite thing about Resistance 3?
I love the franticness of the multiplayer. It is so much fun to play and I never get bored of it. I thought that the single player was the best of series as well. I loved having unlimited ammo in the campaign so that I could beat the game using my favorite weapon (magnum) relentlessly.

What is your favorite loadout?
I love using the magnum for online and for the campaign. When I play multiplayer, I have the sniper as my secondary so I can go for long-range kills and short range with the magnum. I am not sure what I love about it, but I have the most fun when I am using it. It isn’t my most common loadout but its my favorite one.

When you are not gaming, what are you doing?
I am currently working on getting my graduate degree in Architecture which takes up most of my time. I also snowboard quite a bit when I am not flooded with school work.

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Fan Game of the Week Winner – Nov 18th

Posted on November 18, 2011

Thank you to all those who participated in our first ever Fan Game of the Week competition. For those who missed out or didn’t get their playlist voted up, fear not. Playlist submissions are now open again and you will be allowed to submit them between now and Wednesday, November 30th. Due to the Thanksgiving holiday this playlist will be up for two weeks. Now on to the winner.

Congratulations to Jeremy Ricci aka tha_con and his playlist. He will be featured as our Fan Designer of the Week on our Facebook page. His playlist will be available via Matchmaking starting tonight, simply select “Game of the Week” from the lobby.

16 player Team Deathmatch
1 Round
8 Sec Respawn
No Tactical Abilities
Mutator and Cryrogun Only
Shrapnel Grenades and Molotovs Only

We briefly chatted with tha_con about the playlist and Resistance 3.

Where did you come up with the idea for this playlist?
When I heard we’d have the opportunity to create a custom playlist, the first thing that crossed my mind was how under-appreciated the Mutator and Cryogun are! Two fantastic weapons that have a real chance to be the star of the show? Who doesn’t want to freeze and enemy, then blast them with Mutator rounds while they’re immobilized? Crazy people, that’s who (and probably Cragmites). I have to admit, John Carpenter’s “The Thing” has an influence here too. Fire, ice, slime, and guts? What could POSSIBLY be better?

What is your favorite thing about Resistance 3?
Easily the Support Abilities. I think these are the real defining factor of Resistance 3′s multiplayer, adding a nice layer of team work in a genre that is usually all about the “1 Man Army.” The different beacons you can use really change the dynamic of the Multiplayer matches. On the Single Player side, the coolest thing to me were the small touches. The campaign is oozing with atmosphere and attention to detail. I don’t think there is a game on the market this year that has as much atmosphere as Resistance 3.

What is your favorite loadout?
My favorite loadout would definitely be “The Stink Eye.” Mutator, molotov, and Assassin. It works wonderfully to sneak up on people! Drop your Radar Beacon, hunt down some enemies, and let your Scan Jammer mess with their head. They’ll almost certainly start to panic, then you give them the Stink Eye (charged Mutator shot, then a molotov to finish them off)! Some of the greatest multiplayer fun I’ve had all year!

When you are not gaming, what are you doing?
Studying! I’m a student of Software Engineering at Kansas State University (GO CATS!). When I’m not buried in books, hammering out programming projects, or slaying in Resistance, I’m usually at the gym keeping up with my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I’m also training for next year’s Warrior Dash and my very first Tough Mudder to help support the Wounded Warrior Project!

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