WORLDVIEW | ALPHA
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CRYENGINE 3 RELEASED German studio Crytek’s has released the latest version of its engine to developers. CryENGINE 3 is available for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. The engine’s legacy is in FPSes – best showcased with the acclaimed 2007 title Crysis – but the Frankfurt-headquartered company has expanded CryENGINE 3’s remit to MMOs as well. Many developers will be most interested in the new CryENGINE 3 Sandbox level editor, an unfussy professional tool where the preview pane displays exactly what is seen in a playthrough. The engine also comes with Live Create, a tool that allows developers to edit games on all available platofrms through a single dev PC. Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli hailed the engine as “the best development solution available today and tomorrow.” Said Yerli: “With its scalable graphics and computation it is next-gen ready and with new features like CryENGINE 3 Live Create the best choice for game developers and companies developing serious games applications alike. “It is the only game engine solution that enables real-time development and can ensure teams are able to maximise their own creativity, save budget and create greater gaming experiences." www.crytek.com
The move makes good on a two-year-old promise by Bay to start making games. At the time, Bay said: “I make world-class images. Why not put those images into a game?” According to Variety, the deal to open the production firm means Digital Domain has promised to create 500 graphics and computer arts jobs in the state of Florida paid an average of $65,000 each within four years. Digital Domain already has its HQ in Los Angeles and a recently-opened studio in Vancouver. It employs around 330. www.digitaldomain.com POLAND
CD PROJEKT PLANS TO GO PUBLIC Polish developer CD Projekt is the subject of a bizarre takeover offer by struggling IT company Optimus. The developer of games including The Witcher has confirmed to Develop that Optimus has made an offer for the developer. The deal would effectively turn the developer into a publicly-listed company give it wider opportunities for investment. “This means money for development of [the] whole company,” a spokesperson told us. “This is very good news for us.” www.cdprojekt.com UNITED KINGDOM
CODIES’ MUSICAL CHAIRS There were a few changes of senior staff at Codemasters last month. DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET
Firstly, DIRT and GRID producer Gavin Raeburn – a 20-year games development veteran – has left the UK games firm to pursue personal projects. At Codemasters he was instrumental in spearheading a reenvisioning of the Colin McRae and Race Driver racing game franchises. Meanwhile, Birmingham studio head Trevor Williams has left the firm, also to pursue new opportunities. He leaves exactly one year after his studio Swordfish was bought by Codemasters from Activision. Williams is to be suceeded by Alex McLean, the co-founder of Pivotal. McLean became technical director at Codemasters earlier in the year following a stint working at Engine Room Games. www.codemasters.com UNITED KINGDOM
CASH INJECTION FOR ZATTIKKA Casual game outfit Zattikka has won a ringing vote of confidence from two prominent entrepreneurs who helped established some of biggest names on the net. Atomico Ventures is founded by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis; two net veterans who established the likes of Skype, Joost, Joltid and Kazaa. The firm has now provided Zattikka with its first major investment deal. Last month Zattikka announced the acquisition of Gimme5games and that firm’s founder Matt Spall to its exec team. www.zattikka.com
Giving a DAM:
Metrics This month, Ben Board looks at how you can incorporate metrics into a Live title...
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED, ISSUE 100 – an event so monumental Modern Warfare 2 considered waiting until Easter. ‘Milestone’ can be a curse word, but congratulations, Develop, on reaching yours – it’s a privilege to be a part of it. When Develop first hit the stands in December 2000, words like ‘franchise’ and even ‘sequel’ drew sneers from many shop-floor game developers, who figured that the only IP that mattered was original IP – not that they’d use marketing-ese like ‘IP’, of course. Hey, I was guilty too. But I think we’re getting over ourselves. The fact is, many (even most) triple-A titles these days are either iterations of, or planned to become, franchises: commercial ventures planned and executed by a group of deliciously varied talents including marketing, brand, finance, as well as game teams – which, a hundred print deadlines later, many devs would give their granny to be a part of. So maybe your own title is designed to sire a sequel. In that case, you can influence its quality right now with metrics. Metrics let you learn how your game is really played: each time the player finishes a level, makes a headshot, hits the wrong button, fails for the tenth time, or whatever else you’re interested in, you record it on Xbox Live, and then postlaunch those stats will teach you fascinating lessons. Achievements are the coarsest method, XLSP the most powerful, with hidden leaderboards a useful middle ground. You don’t have to wait for a sequel to benefit from the metrics you’ve captured. Create a balance file on your Per-Title Storage (TMS) or XLSP server, point your game code at it, and edit it in response to your findings. You needn’t wait even that long: with a metrics-enabled build your QA and focus testers can be generating balance data for your designers right now. Ben Board is a European developer account manager at Microsoft. He welcomes registered developers to contact him at eudam@microsoft.com. NOVEMBER 2009 | 11