Transcript DIGM 465: Overview of Gaming Prof. Paul Diefenbach TA: Patrick Kemp gam´ing Pronunciation: gām´ĭng Noun - the act of playing for stakes in the hope of.

DIGM 465:
Overview of Gaming
Prof. Paul Diefenbach
TA: Patrick Kemp
gam´ing Pronunciation: gām´ĭng
Noun - the act of playing for stakes in the hope
of winning
 Is winning important?
Gaming – entertainment containing “gameplay”.
Gameplay - One or more causally linked series
of challenges in a simulated environment.
Introduction
Design of digital games and interactive media
from concept to production.
Gaming: Art vs. Technology
– Entertainment + technology component
– Interactive media requires engineering
Syllabus Review
 Questionaire
 Gaming Overview
A Brief History of Gaming
Tic-Tac-Toe ’52 – first CRT
 Tennis-for-two ’58 – pong on o-scope
 Space War ’61 – 1st widely dist.
 Atari’s Pong ’72 – 1st popular arcade
 Wump , Adventure ’72 – 1st text adventures
 Death Race ’76 – 1st controversial
 Atari 2600 ’77 – 1st cartridge console
 Zork ’77 – 1st commercially successful text adventure
 Space Wars ’78 – 1st vector arcade
 Space Invaders ‘78 – 1st high score
 MUD ’79 – 1st multi-user adventure
 Pac-Man ’80 – most popular arcade
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William A. Higinbotham
Father of Video Games?
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Brookhaven National
Labs – 1958
William A. Higinbotham
Tennis for Two
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3 weeks to build
 Debuts Oct. 1958
Tech Model Railroad Club
SciFi Nerd Inventors?
MIT club -1961
 Discussing E.E. "Doc" Smith’s
“Lensman”
 Demo for new DEC PDP-1 ($120k)
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Tech Model Railroad Club
Spacewar!
Led by Steve Russel
 1962 OpenHouse debut
 Demo for new DEC PDP-1
 Copies spread over ARPAnet
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Ralph Baer
Console Industry Visionary
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1951 - Loral TV engineer
– “Build best tv set in world”
– Why not include interactive games?
1966 – Sanders Associates
 1968 – first patent
 No takers till 1971
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Ralph Baer
Magnavox Odyssey
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Introduced 1972: $100
B&W, no sound
– two sizes of color mylar overlays
– six plug-in game cards, a pack of
playing cards, poker chips, play
money, a scorecard (as the machine
itself can not calculate or display any
scores) and a pair of dice
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100,000 copies, $100M licensing
fees
Nolan Bushnell
Video Arcade Visionary
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1962 University of Utah
student
– Spacewar! exposure
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1965 Salt Lake City
carnival
1970 invents
“Computer Space”
– W/Ted Dabney
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Bought by Arcade-game manufacturer
Nutting Associates – makes 1500
1972 - Leaves over money dispute
and w/Dabney starts a new
company…….
Atari
Pong is Born!
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Term from Japanese game “Go”
1972 - Al Alcorn hired
– Given simple tennis game assignment
as learning exercise
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Bally passes on game
– Atari markets game itself
– test-marketed in “Andy Capps” bar for 2
weeks
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1976 Sold to Warner - $28M
1977 Introduces Atari Video
Computer System (2600)
for $250
Vector vs. Raster
Spacewar! revisited

Cinematronics - 1977
– “Space Wars”
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Vector graphics
– method of drawing
sharp geometric
shapes with
straight lines
– Earliest form of
polygon graphics
Golden Age
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1978 - Space Invaders
– High score triggers coin shortages
– Spurs home console market
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1980 - Pac Man
– 600k various arcade versions
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Battlezone – first 3D game
Donkey Kong – “Mario” branding
1982- arcade videogame industry
makes 3x $ of the movie biz
– double number of videogame
arcades than there were in
1980.
1982 – consoles $1B
 1983 – consoles $3.2B
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Crash
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Console crash – 1983-84
– Atari 2600 Pac-Man, ET
– Too many products, too many
–
–
–
–
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companies
Failed company games discounted
Commodore 64 – 22M sold
Surviving companies can’t compete
leading to high inventories.
Atari loses $356M in 1983
Arcade gaming down some
40%
– estimated that up to 1/2 arcades
close this year.
– Saved by laserdisk? “Dragon’s Lair”
by Don Bluth
A Brief History of Gaming
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Nintendo ’85 – revived industry
Game Boy ‘89 – 1st popular handheld
Doom ’93, DKC ’94 – 1st popular 3D FPS
Playstation, Nintento 64, Sega – battle of format
EverQuest, Lineage – successful MMORPG
PlayStation 2 ‘00– 1st DVD, dynamic 3D
Nokia N-Gage ‘03 – 1st multi-function handheld
2006: Xbox 360, Playstation III, Nintendo Revolution
2006: Fight Night Round 3 – today’s State of the Art
Traditional Gaming
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Display
– TV, monitor
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Controller
– Joystick, gamepad, wheel, etc.
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Console
– PC, PS2, Gameboy, etc.
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Graphics
– Vector, sprites, 3D
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Logic
– Rules, storyline, levels
Categories
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Console
PC
Arcade
Online
Handheld
Location-Based Entertainment
Gambling
Non-Entertainment
Non-entertainment

Education
 Business – teaching fiscal, economic
and trading skills.
 Military uses simulation-based games
 Health/medical sector
– doctors who spent at least three hours a
week playing video games made about 37
percent fewer mistakes in laparoscopic
surgery and performed the task 27 percent
faster .

Marketing:
– GM & wild tangent in Computer Graphics
magazine.
Game Categories
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Action
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–
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FPS
3rd person
Fighting
Hybrid Action/Adventure
Adventure
– Graphics Adventures
– Fantasy Role-Playing (FRP,RPG, MMORPG)
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Simulation
– Vehicle
– Construction/Management
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Sports
Strategy
Other: Puzzles & Casual, Educational, etc.
Game Industry
Customer
Retailer
Distributor
Publisher
Developer
Subcontractor
Customer
Pays $20-70 for 20-40hrs
entertainment ($1-$2/hr)
 Under 18: 34% PC, 45% console

– 90% adult purchased
Average 2004: 28 y.o., (27 female)
 Now 30 y.o., (28 female)
 43% female
 Casual vs. Hardcore

Retailer

Wholesale ~50% MSRP
– actual price 10-50% above wholesale
Mail Order
 General Merchandise
 Software
 Other: online, bundling, etc.

Distributor
Distributors are Middlemen
300
Warehouse
 Sales Staff
 Fulfillment

250
200
150
shipped
100
50
0
1997
2000
2003
Publisher
Software Owners
300
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Funds Development
Advertises
Name branding
Financial control
Contracts developers
– In house, external
250
200
150
$ Sales
100
50
0
1997
2000
2003
Developers
Creative team that creates game
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Most companies < 200 people
Lives contract to contract
10-50 people per title
Receives advance and royalty
Programmers, writers, artists, modelers,
animators, musicians, sound engineers,
researchers, etc.
Business and Design Issues
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Technical
–
–
–
–
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Non-intrusive user interfaces
Information overload
Standards
Resources: location dependent DB
Public acceptance
– Privacy concerns/legal
– Social behavior

Business Model
– Oligopoly vs. open source
– Minimize costs : Repositories
– Non-gaming games
Idea to Gold
1.
2.
Idea
Pre-production
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3.
Production
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4.
Fully Staffed
Testing
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5.
Small staff overseen by Publisher-assigned producer
Fleshed out Design Doc. & Demo
Project Planning
Alpha, Beta
Configuration
QA
Content ratings, Licensing, etc.
Manufacturing – “going gold”
Idea to Gold