Control Conference Guide 2013 by Control Magazine

Control

CONFERENCE

CONFERENCE GUIDE 2013 CONTROL MAGAZINE #35 • CONTROL-ONLINE.NL

Mobile

Control

API

MAGAZINE

GAME DEVELOPMENT MAGAZINE & CONFERENCE

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For the love of games

Welcome! I

Publisher & Co-founder / Matthijs Dierckx matthijs@controlmagazine.net

x86 Data Center Pod

seamlesslyf all integrates metal servers, virtual dorserver thank instances, and private via our global, Europeanbare volcanoes have remained our former officeclouds neighbours, Vlambeer, hitecture, all under the same control plane (Web portal, mobile apps, and robust API). mant and the Dutch weather didn’t pull any for sponsoring some of the most interesting

talks today. And of course, we’d like to thank all of our sponsors: without you, everybody wouldFlexibility be paying twice amount they did. & the Choice

e means Open up most clouds and you might But, this Scalability merely theWe ability to day is isn’t all about you. sincerely st processing discover human beings are behind grow. It’s the flexibility to start with what This conference is initiated by Control Maga- hope that in the end you’ve learned a lot, atform (and them rather than technology. That’s the you want, grow however you need, and zine – hence the name. Our publication is tar- found fresh inspiration and met new and inve you the wrong answer—people just don’t scale adjust whenever you choose. geted at you, developers, and so is this confer- teresting people. If so, our goal has been met. omputing at Internet speed. So we automated ence. paralleled everything in our data centers. That’s why we have such a wide range you need it, Everything. Then we built an API on topYours,of computing, storage, and networking But of course didn’t this allon by top ourselves. of it.we And thendo a portal of that, options. But moreover, it’s why every So, we’d like to thank Dutch Garden for Eric Bartelson (r) &provide Matthijs (l) in real providing a level of Game automation and service we is Dierckx available a great partner sharing our Founders of without Control Magazine & Control Conferenceor control others can’tand touch. it. High-being such time minimum commitments

passion for game development. We’d like to (and many morecontracts. things named ‘Control’) m entry-level lengthy quad proc, Every aspect of our operations is d GPUautomated and integrated into a single And to top it off, it’s why we leverage our computing management system, with API access to advantages in automation to provide torage more than 1,600 command and control innovative technologies that let you pick s of I/O. Dutch Game functions. So you can deploy or reboot the right technology for Everything today while Garden is proud to present INDIto inspire the next generation. servers, configure network settings, and preserving the ability to easily move to GO Classes, a special program during Control they share is based on their actual, current reload software—all remotely and at the k for a different solution later. Like our Flex Conference aimed at students. Tips and tricks experiences with making games in an evertouch of a button. bility. Images® provisioning system that allows

A word on the INDIGO Classes on development and entrepreneurship will be

Editor-in-chief & Co-founder / Eric Bartelson eric@controlmagazine.net

nt System provides orchestration and automation

tricks in the last 24 hours, you’re surrounded by over 300 game developers: artists, coders, game designers and even some composers and Automation & Control producers. We’re honored to have you here.

Control Magazine Neude 5, 3512 AD Utrecht, The Netherlands T: +31 (0)30 - 231 99 14 M: redactie@control-online.nl www.Control-Online.nl (Dutch) www.ControlMagazine.net (English)

changing industry. If you want to be a better

formance at you to deploy cloud instances, move shared by successful Dutch game developdesigner, programmer, artist or entrepreneur, e’ll put up Our services play at a higher level. Fully their images to bare metal servers and ers. Many game start-ups, including the ones come and join these exciting sessions. elivery model integrate with third-party applications. back again, and experience real-time in our building, are founded by students or evel—all Eliminate layers of management. And cloning and image-based backup even graduates. stories meant JP Vanwith Seventer Development me withrecent no radically Their simplify yourare operations. physical servers. Director DGG

Editor / Alessandra van Otterlo Manager Operations / Arno Landsbergen Website & network management / Martijn Frazer

Cover Image

Dick Grinwis - www.grinwise.com

Conference Programming Pro Sessions: Matthijs Dierckx & Eric Bartelson Indigo Classes: Dutch Game Garden (Martijn van Best, Martine Bogaart, Romar Bucur, JP van Seventer, Viktor Wijnen, Matt Donnelley, Yolande van Toorn) Special thanks: Roger ter Heide, Kitty Calis, Rami Ismail, Alessandra van Otterlo, Jan-Bart van Beek, Dennis Zoetebier, Pakhuis de Zwijger, GDC Copyright © 2013 Control Magazine All Rights Reserved

COVER ARTIST Dick Grinwis • www.grinwise.com Dick is one of our favorite game artists in The Netherlands. So, we asked him to design the cover of this conference guide. See which characters (on the cover) you’re able to link to our speakers.

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Control

“

“It is a great start for launch, but there is still so much more to explore with PS4”

Killzone: Shadow Fall

‘The benchmark game’

Control visited Guerrilla Games’ Managing Director Hermen Hulst, just a few days prior to launch date. “It was a long stretch to the finish line.”

few days ago next gen consoles became current gen. Killzone: Shadow Fall is among the first wave of games that have to persuade consumers to pick up a PlayStation 4. It’s doing a hell of a job. It’s a few weeks before launch when we meet up with Managing Director Hermen Hulst. All appears calm at Guerrilla Games headquarters in Amsterdam but it’s the eye of the storm. The game just went gold and an extensive period of promotion is coming up, taking a dozen Shadow Fall developers across the globe for interviews and presentations.

Front and center

Guerrilla Games was the first studio in the world to demonstrate what to expect from next gen. Killzone: Shadow Fall took front and center at the PlayStation 4 reveal event in New York early this year and surprised friend and foe with the fresh new look. Hulst cracks a smile when asked about that particular moment: “It was the culmination of everything we worked so hard on for the last two years and finally we were able to share it with the world. It was really tough to get the demo ready on time in the quality that we aimed for. But all that hard work paid off in the end. The positive feedback on that live demo from both press and consumers really boosted morale in the studio. It was a long stretch to the fin-

ish line but everyone was highly motivated to make the best possible launch title.” Work on Shadow Fall started in february 2011, just after the launch of Killzone 3. It usually takes a while to get everybody ready to go for the next project. But this time, things were a bit different. The PlayStation 4 hadn’t been officially announced but work on it was well under way. Guerilla Games was heavily involved in the development of both the internal architecture of the machine and the new layout and functionality of the controller. Naturally Sony wanted a killer game for launch and Killzone was the obvious choice, given the series’ reputation of constantly pushing the very limits of the host machines.

Iron Curtain in Space

“The arrival of the PlayStation 4 has allowed us to more than ever before flesh out a deeper and richer story and create a more believable and vibrant world”, says Hulst. “New lighting, reflection systems, and dynamics make this world really come alive and a place where you can become fully immersed. We have built a futuristic city with impressive architecture designed more open and with diverse landscapes that ultimately give way to more of a thinking man’s game.” “We started brainstorm sessions in small teams. Literally everyone in the studio was 5

invited to pitch ideas. After a few weeks we had a lot of great ideas”, according to Hulst. One of them grabbed the attention of the design team and opened up a wide range of possibilities. “Someone came up with the notion of an Iron Curtain in Space. It brought together a lot of the ideas, such as slower, more thoughtful gameplay, more environmental storytelling, and a new player character who got to drive the story forwards. Having lived through the Cold war era ourselves, it brought back memories of the tension, and imagery that surrounded this period. This ensured that our new conflict would be grounded in something we understood, and hopefully our audience can relate to. Killzone is a futuristic game, but we have always tried to reference our own history and make the game relatable.” “As a first party studio we have created our first next gen launch title. We have learned a lot along the way. People look to us to set a benchmark for the platform. We are proud of what we have achieved, it is a great start for launch, but there is still so much more to explore with PS4. And it doesn’t stop there for us. We are going to support the title after launch to continue to evolve and bring new experiences.”

KILLZONE: SHADOWFALL 9:30 OPENING KEYNOTE

PRO

Control

“

“Obviously, everyone in the studio was excited to get the opportunity to work on such a major IP”

HALO: made in... Amsterdam

Vanguard & 343 team up What’s it like for a relatively unknown studio to suddenly get the chance to work with a major IP? Control Magazine spoke with Vanguard Games’ Martin de Ronde about the story behind HALO: Spartan Assault.

mployees of the Amsterdam-based Vanguard Games gaze in disbelieve at the HALO logo on the big screen in the meeting room. It is late 2011. With a wide grin, Creative Director Martin de Ronde announces something that’s already obvious, but seems inconceivable. He proclaims, “We’re going to develop a HALO game.” How this world-famous franchise found its way to Amsterdam is a story that starts in Scotland. In 1983, ten year-old Frankie O’Connor walks into an Edinburgh arcade. He watches employees install a new arcade cabinet emblazoned with Moon Patrol in classic 80’s font. In the game, players drive a buggy across a lunar landscape, dodging UFO attacks and avoiding mines and enormous craters. The young Scot is so mesmerized that he never forgets Moon Patrol.

Reboot

More than thirty years later, he works for 343 Industries and manages a franchise called HALO. O’Connor’s team knows that he dreams about an isometric HALO reboot of Moon Patrol in which the original buggy is replaced by a Warthog and the entire backdrop is relocated to the universe of the Spartans. For some time, 343 Industries has considered developing an arcade-based HALO game for use on Microsoft’s new mobile platforms. When Publishing Director Dan Ayoub recalls a presentation by a couple of developers from Amsterdam, the puzzle pieces fall into place. Control

One of the Amsterdam developers is Martin de Ronde, one of a few Dutch games veterans with truly global influence. As co-founder of Guerrilla Games, De Ronde had negotiated a deal a decade earlier with rival gaming giant, Sony. Upon departing the Killzone-developer, he founded charity games publisher, One Big Game, and later became joint owner of Vanguard Games. “Obviously, everyone in the studio was excited to get the opportunity to work on such a major IP. But the team was very professional and didn’t feel intimidated. Within a week it was business as usual. There is nothing daunting about 343. We are a really good match and there is great chemistry. They give us plenty of freedom and only reject one out of every ten proposals. That builds confidence and trust”, says De Ronde

Spirit of Halo

“When we started, Windows Touch 8 devices weren’t available yet. During the initial development phase, we used regular controllers. Once we got our hands on the devices, it took us months to tweak the controls. It was hard to get it right, but we eventually did.” “Capturing the Spirit of HALO also required some adjustments. One of the core elements of its gameplay is a limited amount of ammunition, which requires frequent weapons changes.” “The large backdrops are also a typical HALO element. These are hard to incorporate into top-down views. We tried a lot of different methods. One idea was to use lakes that reflect the sprawling landscape. That didn’t cut 6

it. The final solution involved depth, or differences in elevation. Players cross bridges or walk along cliffs, and these give an impression of vertical depth.” “Some aspects were completely scrapped. Exploration is a significant part of HALO games, but we deleted long treks between combat. These simply didn’t work in this setup. Instead, focus is on the missions and combat. That suits the plot, because missions take place in a simulator on board the UNSC Infinity. Those familiar with the HALO 4 multiplayer know what I’m talking about.”

Performance

After Spartan Assault was revealed, many believed that the game ran on Unity. So did we. “Absolutely not,” says De Ronde. “It uses the latest version of our proprietary Blue Engine. We used existing tools, but needed our own engine to optimize performance on new platforms.” In that respect, Vanguard faces another challenge, with half of Windows 8 touch devices based on the ARM-chipset, while the rest have x86-architecture with i7 processors. “This was no major hurdle. Yes, we had to reconfigure the pipeline, but this didn’t create any major issues.” “During the development of our previous game Gatling Gears, an ‘8’ rating on certain aspects was enough. Now, we can’t accept anything less than ‘9’. After all, we are talking about a HALO game.”

HALO FOR TOUCH CLOSING KEYNOTE

16:00 PRO

FINDING YOUR WAY

YOUR PRO HOSTS

Here’s how you know where to go: Although we’ll place enough signs to make it easy finding your way around the venue, the little chart below is an additional help. The talks are at stages 1 to 5, which can be found on floors 1,2 and 5. Stairs or a lift will bring you there.

Every track has an expert host To introduce the sessions and get Q&A going, we asked some real experts to act as host for a specific track.

FLOOR

STAGES & ACTIVITIES

2 3

CAREER FAIR

EXPO

Stage number (where to go?)

Some PRO SESSIONS are accessible with IC-passes

Talk to us to learn how to self-publish your games on Nintendo eShop now.

EXPO

Starting time of session.

PRO 12:00

With Unity for Wii U, you’ll be able to create games for the Wii U on Unity. It provides an easy-to-use development environment equipped with the various technologies necessary to enable expressive and fast game development. The full range of Wii U features is supported, such as the Wii U GamePad and Wii Remote controllers, allowing your games to make great use of these exclusive features. The Nintendo Web Framework is a development environment based on WebKit technologies, supporting application development on the Wii U using HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS. With the Nintendo Web Framework, development times will be reduced and Wii U applications can be easily made using common Web technologies. Combining the handy Wii U GamePad, the TV screen, and the Internet, the potential exists for the services and games you are creating to be uniquely engaging experiences for both a broad target audience or an enthusiast niche. Nintendo eShop is the digital shop directly accessible from the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS family consoles. It offers users convenient access to a broad range of high-quality products including download exclusives, dual distribution titles and classics from the past with Virtual Console. The audience of Nintendo eShop loves indies and treasures new, challenging game experiences.

4 5

Part of: PRO SESSION or INDIGO CLASSES

Nintendo introduces new tools making development and self-publishing on our consoles more accessible than ever.

BRINGING TERRARIA TO WINDOWS PHONE 8

Bringing a succesful PC-game to Windows 8 devices.

Niels Uiterwijk (Codeglue) & Paul van Wingerden (Microsoft)

In this talk on the practical implications of development for Windows Phone 8, Codeglue and Microsoft will discuss their experience with working on Terraria. They will discuss the trials and tribulations of coding for this game, with practical examples - for instance working with C++, using a shared code base for multiple mobile platforms, and native development.

The following companies and universities are showcasing their tools and projects: Nintendo Unity Technologies Microsoft Dutch Game Garden Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences NHL University Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU)

CAREER FAIR

Meet a diverse group of game companies looking for talent and interns: Vanguard Games Little Chicken MOTEK Medical Gamepoint Jora Vision KING.com

DGA DEVELOPERS SIG During lunch break at Stage 3 – more info: Eva Nieuwdorp • eva@codeglue. com

Art Track Romano Molenaar • Artking Studio Romano Molenaar is a renowned comic artist and concept artist for games. He has over 20 years of experience in the field of visualization and has worked for top comic studio’s in the US such as Marvel and Dark Horse. He is currently working for the Batman group at DC comics/Warner brothers. His Artking Studio has AAA-clients like Ubisoft. Design Track Rami Ismail • Vlambeer Business and Development guy from indie darling Vlambeer. But much more than that, Rami acts as an international spokesperson for all things and people indie. Involved in initiatives like Indie MEGABOOTH and always at hand to lend support, advice or one of his signature hugs. Code Track Ralph Egas • Abstraction Games Founder and CEO of Abstraction Games Ralph Egas started started his career at Davilex and moved on to Playlogic Game Factory. But he is as much of an entrepreneur as an engineer so he left to start his own studio. Nowadays he’s responsible for the co-production and ports of some of the most popular or loved games in the industry, like Angry Birds and Hotline Miami.

YOUR INDIGO CLASSES HOSTS Kust like the Pro Sessions, both INDIGO-tracks have their own hosts. Here they are: JP van Seventer • Dutch Game Garden Development Director at Dutch Game Garden with a long history in game development. Former Davilexartist and Vanguard studio head. He has become and expert on gaming start-ups. Niels ‘t Hooft Freelance journalist and writer Niels writes (mostly) on games for newspapers like NRC Next. Recently he published his third novel, De Verdwijners.

SCHEDULE

9:30

PRO

KILLZONE: SHADOW FALL OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE OWL: BUILDING A BRIGHT NEW FUTURE In “Out With The Old And In With The Owl: Building A Bright New Future”, Arjan Bak and Misja Baas will talk about the new direction of Killzone Shadow Fall. Their presentation provides insight into the challenges of developing a new direction for a franchise while remaining true to its roots, using the implementation of new key features like the OWL and the construction of a believable futuristic utopian city as examples.

indigo classes 10:30

10:30

COOKING YOUR OWN GAME ENGINE

GETTING NOTICED ON THE APP STORE

Bojan Endrovski • Game Oven • Co-Founder

Aaron Oostdijk • Gamistry • Lead Programmer

Game Oven’s very own master chef shares his recipe for developing a multiplatform engine from scratch.

Bojan Endrovski is a developer and co-founder at Game Oven. He’s the cook who spent the last three years developing a small multiplatform engine that powers all their games. We’ll cover multiplatform development, smart(-ish) resource management, flexible gameplay, simple physics, adaptable GUI, carefree animation, font rendering, easy localisation.

11:30

THE ART OF SCREENSHAKE

Why some games are much more fun to play than other, similar ones.

Jan Willem Nijman • Vlambeer

Jan Willem Nijman is 50% of Vlambeer. He’s currently the Chief Executive Game Designer & Director, but that title may change whenever he feels like it. He will ask you: why is it that one game plays great and another, similar game feels terrible? Using a few simple tricks, Jan Willem Nijman will turn a simple, ugly, no-fun prototype into something that plays, looks and FEELS good.

How to appeal to the right people at the right time when releasing games on Apple’s platform.

Aaron started Gamistry with a few friends in 2008. Since then they’ve successfully released several games to the mobile app markets. The studio has been on top of the worldwide mobile charts with games such as Munch Time and Gold Diggers. During the talk he’ll explore the various goals for garnering appeal on the App Store, and the different parties that you’ll have to appeal to.

11:30

COMMUNITY-FUELED KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN

The Impact of the Awesomenauts player community on the success of the Ronimo Kickstarter campaign.

Olivier Thijssen • Ronimo • Co-Founder Talking about Ronimo’s recent successful Kickstarter campaign, Olivier Thijssen will explain how important an active community has been for their hit game Awesomenauts. Thanks to this dedicated group of players, the team at Ronimo managed to fund an expansion called Awesomenauts: Starstorm, the most successful Dutch Kickstarter campaign yet.

CODE EXTRA: LUNCH SESSION DUTCH GAME GARDEN See next page.

JP van Seventer • Development Director

12:30

EXTRA: A MAJOR TECHNOLOGY EVOLUTION FOR PC See next page.

Jurjen Katsman • Founder Nixxes

LUNCH BREAK CAREER FAIR

EXPO

Arjan Bak • Guerrilla Games Principal game-Designer and Environment Art Director, Killzone Shadow Fall

An industry veteran at age 29, Arjan Bak worked in design and art roles for Valve and Ubisoft before joining Guerrilla in 2007. Since then he has played a pivotal role in the graphical realization of the Killzone series, rising from Senior Artist on Killzone 2 to Lead Environment Artist on Killzone 3 and Environment Art Director on Killzone Shadow Fall. In addition, Arjan was one of the Principal Game Designers responsible for Killzone Shadow Fall’s new direction during the first half of the production phase.

CODE

148mmX210mm_Control_Program_Ad_FINAL.pdf

PRO 10:30

10/31/13

4:38 PM

Misja Baas • Guerrilla Games Art Director, Killzone Shadow Fall

An alumnus of the Willem de Kooning Academy of Arts in Rotterdam, Misja Baas first entered the games industry in 2001 as an Artist for Frontier Developments. After rising to the position of Senior Artist at Elixir Studios, he joined Guerrilla in 2005 to initially work on the environments, and later on the vehicles and weapons, of Killzone 2. In 2009 Misja became the Assistant Art Director on Killzone 3, assuming responsibility for all outsourcing and internal asset development. In 2011 he took on the role of Art Director for Killzone Shadow Fall.

GAME DESIGN PRO 10:30

ART

PRO 10:30

CODE + DESIGN + STORY MAKE A GAME. INFRASTRUCTURE BEHIND IT MAKE IT LIVE AND KICKING Y

CMY

Jonathan Wisler • General Manager EMEA at SoftLayer FOR THE FULL DESCRIPTION, PLEASE SEE THE INSERT.

THE GUTS OF GAME DESIGN AND WORLD-BUILDING OF GAMES

THE ROLE OF CONCEPT ART IN GAME DEVELOPMENT

Brendon Chung • Blendo Games

James Daly • Lead Concept Artist • CD Projekt RED

Rami Ismail (Vlambeer) and Brendon Chung (Blendo Games) will have an in-depth chat about the guts of game design and world-building of their games.

Brendon Chung is designer, artist and programmer. After years of working at Pandemic Studios, he founded Blendo Games. It has since become known for creating rich worlds and characters in works such as Thirty Flights of Loving, Gravity Bone, & Atom Zombie Smasher. Its current project is the cyberpunk title Quadrilateral Cowboy.

PRO 11:30

CODING TO NASA’S STANDARDS: MAKING GAMES THE SPACE WAY An exploration of how adhering to defined coding standards can be helpful for game developers.

Adriel Wallick • Satellite Programmer gone Indie Developer

Adriel Wallick is an independent game developer most recently based out of Boston. Originally a programmer on the next generation of weather satellites, she decided to explore gaming as a developer instead of just an avid gamer. After spending time in the AAA games, she gave it up to pursue independent game development.

PRO 12:00

PRO 11:30

THERE’S A REASON NOBODY MADE A REAL COOPERATIVE RPG BEFORE Divinity: Original Sin is probably the first cooperative RPG with epic and rich singleplayer experience delivered to each player. Swen’s talk will be about challenges of making a deep and interactive world that will react to the actions of both players, never compromising the singleplayer experience and immersion. This includes context-sensitive quest system, cooperative dialogs with individual lines for each character, and, of course, a storyline that makes both players as important.

Swen Vinke • Larian Studios • Founder

Swen (41) is the founder and CEO of Larian Studios. He’s been active in the games industry since 1997 and has produced multiple critically acclaimed and commercial hit titles, including the Divinity series and the MEDEA award-winning Monkey Tales series.

Discussing the role of concept artists in game development, including methodology and production pipelines.

James has been working professionally for 20 years as illustrator, conceptual artist, and comic book artist. Games like Deus Ex, Unreal Tournament 2007 and Tabula Rasa, are among his many credits spanning nearly 17 years as a conceptual artist in games. Currently, James is the Lead Concept Artist on Cyberpunk 2077.

PRO 11:30 NATIVE 2D TOOLS IN UNITY

Andy will demonstrate the new framework and how to setup your projects to use 2D features such as box2D physics, polygon collider generation, sprite objects and spritesheet animation. He will also talk about how the new features fit into Unity’s existing asset-creation workflows, additions to the Animation window, how to use the Animator and examples of 2D-related additions to the scripting API.

Andy Touch • Unity Technologies

Having specialised in Unity at university, and then going on to teach game design and development to higher education students, he is now part of the Evangelist team at Unity Technologies. He loves to explore the technical possibilities of Unity, take part in game jams & hack days and helping other Unity Developers to get the most out of the game engine.

BRINGING TERRARIA TO WINDOWS PHONE 8

Bringing a successful PC-game to Windows 8 devices.

Niels Uiterwijk (Codeglue) & Paul van Wingerden (Microsoft)

LUNCH BREAK CAREER FAIR

EXPO

indigo classes

LUNCH SESSIONS 12:45

CODE

14:00

PRO

14:00

15:00

Maarten Wiedenhof • Abbey Games • Co-Founder

15:00

Understanding your design goals on an abstract level so you can be truly original instead of relying on known game design patterns.

Richard Boeser • Sparpweed • Co-Founder

Richard Boeser (1979) is an industrial design graduate who turned his attention to outstanding game design. He co-founded Sparpweed in 2009 and released his first game this year: two player co-op puzzler ibb & obb on PlayStation3. His talk ‘Dissecting Design Goals’ challenges you to analyse your design goals in abstract ways to better work towards a specific player experience.

After starting out in the games industry at Eidos Interactive in London, and working with various Eidos developers on their titles, Jurjen Katsman moved back to The Netherlands to found Nixxes in 1999, which since then has helped produce a variety of titles on PC as well as consoles, including Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Soul Reaver, Hitman: Absolution, and Tomb Raider. Katsman is still the driving force behind Nixxes providing technical leadership to all the companies projects.

How a group of former students turned their first game into a runaway hit.

Maarten Wiedenhof is co-founder of Abbey Games. Last summer, this young studio scored a huge hit with hardcore god-game Reus. Since most of their developers were still students at the time, that may be considered quite a success. Maarten shares insights into issues like motivation, workflow and team composition.

15:00

The entire pipeline for working with the owners of famous intellectual property.

Jeroen de Cloe • Sticky Game Agency • CEO Jeroen de Cloe is co-founder and CEO of Sticky Game Agency. This studio specialises in turning world-renowned intellectual property like Man of Steel, Sherlock Holmes and Pacific Rim into successful online games. With incredibly short lead times and the strict need for secrecy involved, the studio has been specifically adjusted to these dynamics and requirements.

Extra 15 minutes session by Dutch Game Garden’s Development Director JP van Seventer START YOUR COMPANY TODAY!

In this short presentation JP van Seventer (development director Dutch Game Garden) will give you essential tips on what you can do today to get started with your own game studio and how Dutch Game Garden can help.

CLOSING KEYNOTE 16:00

PRO

TURNING INTERNATIONAL IP INTO SUCCESFUL GAMES

12:30

Collin van Ginkel • Two Tribes • Co-Founder

DISSECTING DESIGN GOALS

Jurjen Katsman Founder Nixxes Tomb Raider, Deus Ex (PC)

14:00

REUS: GIGANTIC SUCCESS

Collin van Ginkel (1978) is a veteran designer and co-founder of Two Tribes, famous for the Toki Tori franchise. His talk during the INDIGO Classes is all about the choices he made as a starting developer and what he would do different if he started anew today.

EXTRA CODE SESSION: A MAJOR TECHNOLOGY EVOLUTION FOR PC

TWELVE YEARS OF HINDSIGHT

What would the co-founder of Two Tribes do different if he started over today?

Note: Lunch will also be available at this stage

Two of the main specialties at Nixxes are PC Game Development as well as Console Game Optimization. In this presentation we will cover how we approach PC Game Development at Nixxes and what we feel are critical components to success in this area. Most importantly we will focus on the new AMD Mantle API, and how we feel it is a major technology evolution for PC, by providing a new level of performance and a bridge between console style optimization and PC games development.

DESIGNING HALO FOR TOUCH HALO is one of the biggest game franchises in the world. HALOdeveloper 343 Industries teamed up with Vanguard Games to produce the first ever touch-based release in the series. Mike Ellis (343) and Martin de Ronde (Vanguard) will share the stage and talk the audience through the design process.

CODE PRO 14:00

GAME DESIGN

OPTIMISATION TIPS & TRICKS FOR BUILDING MOBILE GAMES IN UNITY Building games for mobile can be a pain, when large draw call counts and low frame rates are consistently occurring. Andy will talk about various tips & tricks you can use and implement into the development of your mobile games, to help them run smoothly on all different types of devices. He will demonstrate various Unity features that can help with optimisation and show common scripting practices that you should avoid!

Andy Touch • Unity Technologies

part of the Evangelist team at Unity Technologies.

PRO 15:00

PURELY PEER-TO-PEER: THE MULTIPLAYER IMPLEMENTATION OF AWESOMENAUTS

For the gameplay synchronisation of Awesomenauts, Ronimo uses a purely peer-to-peer architecture. This talk will discuss the big benefits and strong downsides of this unconventional method.

Joost van Dongen • Ronimo Games • Lead Programmer & Co-founder

Ronimo is known for the online multiplayer craziness of the 2D MOBA game Awesomenauts (PS3/360/Steam) and the colourful side-scrolling strategy of Swords & Soldiers (Wii/PS3/Steam). In his spare time, Van Dongen made the abstract racer Proun and the live performance game Cello Fortress. He was also a member of the student team that made the original version of De Blob in 2006.

PRO 14:00

ART

EARNEST GAMES: WHY PERSONAL

EXPERIENCE IS CHANGING GAME DESIGN

A growing conversation about personal games stands to challenge traditional conventional game design philosophies. But what exactly is this new paradigm, and how is it helping change how we think of design?

Mattie Brice • Alternate Ending • Game Designer & Critic

Mattie is a play and games critic, designer, and activist. She previously wrote at well known publications about diversity issues and new design. She is also known for designing experimental games.

PRO 15:00

DIFFERENT CULTURES, DIFFERENT VIDEO GAMES

Cultures are rich sources for game ideas. In this talk Mahdi will explain how he designs new game mechanics inspired by the culture of his hometown.

Mahdi Bahrami

Mahdi is an Independent game programmer and designer from Iran. He came to the Netherlands to study one year ago, made a handful of games and has won some awards. His game Farsh was IGF Student Finalist (‘13) and was named one of the top puzzle games of the year. He also got an honorable mention for Excellence in Design in IGF 2011.

PRO 15:30

JUICE IT OR LOSE IT

Martin and Petri will demonstrate the neat little tricks you can apply to any game to make it more satisfying to play. To do this they will be cranking a boring old game up to eleven, live on stage. There will be particles, children cheering, and you get the source code too!

PRO 14:00

CHARACTER DESIGN IN ZBRUSH

How to use ZBrush for fleshing out a character/creature design and turning it to a prototype mesh for your game. I’ll be showing as much as possible, the tools and techniques that could help speedup your character model workflow.

Rudy Massar • Character Artist, Digital Sculptor Rudy is a freelance CG-artist specialized in 3D-character modeling and digital sculpting for games, film/cinematic and collectible figures. Before his freelance career he worked eight years at the award winning game developer Guerrilla Games. Prior to that he was teaching 3D-modelling and animation at the Willem De Kooning Academy.

PRO 15:00

BUNGIE’S APPROACH TO CONCEPT ART FOR AAA DEVELOPMENT Jesse will talk about Bungie’s approach to effective use of concept art. Its concept team is involved in all stages of the development process - from the earliest conception all the way until the final polish pass. A breakdown of the concept art done for Bungie’s E3 2013 presentation, showcasing Destiny gameplay to the world for the first time, will illustrate what the concepting process at Bungie looks like.

Jesse van Dijk • Bungie Lead Concept Artist • Destiny

Jesse van Dijk (1977) specializes in world design for the entertainment industry. In 2003, Van Dijk graduated at the TU Delft with a Master’s degree in Industrial Design Engineering. After his studies he worked for several smaller game development studios prior to joining Bungie, he worket at Guerrilla Games. One of the artworks he created for Killzone 3, entitled Stahl Arms, was selected as a winning entry in the 2011 Into the Pixel competition.

Petri Purho • Kloonigames Martin Jonasson • Grapefrukt

Petri Purho is best known for making Crayon Physics Deluxe. Also he is least known for writing good bios. Martin Jonasson’s most famous game is rymdkapsel.

Martin de Ronde Vanguard Games Creative Director

Mike Ellis 343 Industries Design Director

Martin de Ronde is Creative Director at Vanguard Games. He has an extensive past in the game industry, most notably for co-founding Killzone-makers Guerrilla Games. De Ronde is also the founder of charity game publisher OneBigGame.

Mike Ellis is Design Director at 343 Industries, the developers of the HALO-franchise. Before joining 343, Ellis was Lead Designer and Design Director at Insomniac.

DRINKS

CORRECTION

LATEST INFO

DUTCH GAME AWARDS

CODE TRACK PRO 10:30

CODE + DESIGN + STORY MAKE A GAME. INFRASTRUCTURE BEHIND IT MAKE IT LIVE AND KICKING SoftLayer isn’t a gaming studio, and they don’t have any blockbuster games of their own, but they support some of the most creative and successful gaming companies in the world. They know from experience that games in browser and mobile

CAREER FAIR

PICK UP YOUR

FLOOR 2, NEAR STAGE 2

WRISTBAND

Full company list:

If you are an attendee of the Control Industry Dinner featuring the Dutch Game Awards later this evening, please look for the Dutch Game Awards-desk near the expo to pick up your wristband. It will save you some time prior to the awards show.

Vanguard Games Little Chicken MOTEK Medical Gamepoint Jora Vision KING.com

era require an always on, high performance and quick-responding experience. Jonathan Wisler will discuss how to assess hosting for your dev, testing and production environment, how automation, rapid scalability and sophisticated API are game

EXPO FLOOR 2, NEAR STAGE 2

changers, and how to prepare yourself for launch, updates and success.

Full company list:

Jonathan Wisler • General Manager EMEA at SoftLayer

Nintendo Unity Technologies Microsoft Dutch Game Garden Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences NHL University Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU)

Jonathan Wisler is a technology veteran who has been driving innovation, profitability and international expansion in technology companies for close to 15 years. Prior to SoftLayer he was a principal at Magnify Consulting where helped technology startups with international expansion and develop scalable operations. Prior, he spent 8 years at Kodak Gallery growing the business unit from an idea to an international market leader. At Kodak he was responsible hosting and developing a global web to print infrastructure on a limited capital budget. He graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz with a major in economics.

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HKU University of the Arts Utrecht

The next generation (3) The HKU University of the Arts Utrecht is presenting itself to the industry at the Control Conference Expo.

HKU University of the Arts Utrecht HKU University of the Arts Utrecht is the largest educational institution for arts, culture and media in the Netherlands, and one of the largest in Europe. HKU offers BA and MA education and research trajectories in game

“Gamescom 2013’s Spooky Surprise Hit” — Gamespot.com

Nominated fot two Dutch Game Awards!

Raised over €30,000 on Indiegogo!

design, game art, game development and interaction design. HKU is renowned for producing many digital and interactive media pioneers and its applied research in

The Flock

Set on a dark and grim future, players will start out as the Flock and need to go in search of the light artifact. When one of the Flock grabs the coveted light artifact, that player transforms into the Carrier who becomes hunted by his former allies. As the Carrier, you have a chance of winning the game. However the artifact is heavy and makes the Carrier less agile. Hunting Flock might be lurking around the corner to kill the Carrier and steal the light artifact for themselves, in their turn to become the Carrier. Players will switch roles from hunter and being hunted. Flock are bigger, faster and can reach entire different areas in the level than the Carrier. But the Carrier is not helpless. It can use the light artifact to shine upon moving Flock which will be burned to death instantly as a result. Flock that stand still however, are invulnerable to the light. www.vogelsap.com INSERT CONFERENCE GUIDE

Westerado

Westerado ain’t just a game, it’s a game about gettin’ revenge on those that do ya wrong, helpin’ those in need, and gettin’ jackasses to pay you some heed by pullin’ your gun out in conversation. It’s a game about explorin’ the west, chasin’ buffalo, shootin’ bandits, and protectin’ carriages. It’s a game about the Wild West, in fact it may even be a game about movies about the Wild West. What sets Westerado apart though, is that it’s got all kinds of different stories to play through, and it’s up to YOU to decide which ones you’re gonna follow. Are you gonna run with the bandits, robbing and shooting your way through every situation? Side with the Indians and get them back their rightful land? Or maybe you just wanna spend all your money on the girls at the Haberdashery? Well, whichever movie you wanna make, that’s up to you, have fun cowboy! www.ostrichbanditos.com

Karmaflow

Karmaflow is the world’s first Rock Opera Videogame. An epic interactive realm where music meets storytelling like never before.

the areas of creativity, applied game design, entrepreneurship and social innovation has had a strong impact in the cultural and creative industries and beyond. HKU doesn’t just deliver young pro-

Meet and become the Karmakeeper, restorer of balance. Seek and find the protectors of the parallel worlds, called the Guardians. Listen to their stories and decide whether they are friend or foe…You decide the way the rock opera progresses! The music of Karmaflow is a blend of orchestral, metal and ethnical instruments. The Metropole Orchestra and several singers from bands such as Epica, Cradle of Filth, Sonata Arctica will perform on the score for Karmaflow. karmaflowgame.com

fessionals in the domains mentioned above. It takes great care to combine multiple domains with a strong human-centered focus. HKU’s vision is that this will enable the artists and designers of the 21st century to function across the borders of different artistic, scientific and societal domains.

HKU University of the Arts Utrecht • Contact: Ina van der Brug, coordinator education and research projects ina.vanderbrug@kmt.hku.nl

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“Suddenly 4 of them froze for about 90 seconds. Argh!”

Awesomenauts unfrozen

The lamest bug

Ronimo’s co-founder and Tech Lead Joost van Dongen on a very strange bug he encountered while working on Awesomenauts.

very game has bugs. It’s a fact of life. Sometimes they’re big and fat and hard to miss, but sometimes they’re nasty little buggers that hide inside lines and lines of code and nibble away at your game (and sanity). Joost van Dongen, Tech Lead at Ronimo Games, had his fair share of bugs, but this was by far ‘the lamest’ he ever encountered while working on Awesomenauts. “In the last half year we encountered a really rare bug in the PS3 build of Awesomenauts about once a month. The game would freeze for anywhere between 10 to 100 seconds, and then continue normally as if nothing had happened. We always have a PC connected to collect logs from the game. However, the log printed nothing interesting and showed simply the framerate, which is printed once per second: 13:48:13 60 fps 13:48:14 60 fps 13:49:21 1 fps 13:49:22 60 fps From this we concluded that the issue must be in some part of the code that does not log anything. That leaves 99% and with a codebase of at least 150,000 lines, it’s almost impossible to find.

Freeze

Since this issue was so rare and we hadn’t encountered it in months, we had closed the book on it. We thought it was an anomaly that we couldn’t find or fix and that had somehow disappeared. Control

Until we were testing our latest build. We were playing on seven PlayStation 3 devkits, when suddenly 4 of them froze for about 90 seconds. Argh! We thought this really difficult bug had magically disappeared, but now it was back, with a vengeance! Again, no relevant logging. Yet something really interesting nevertheless: the PlayStations were in different online matches, so they weren’t even communicating with each other! So how could they all freeze at the exact same time? We concluded that the only thing they had in common, was that they all talk to the same Sony matchmaking servers, so we started investigating all our code related to that. Still, we couldn’t find anything.

Experiments

So we added a lot more logging, and did some really advanced stuff to get more info on the stack during the freeze (which is difficult to get from an executable that has been stripped of all debugging info), and started playing again. I let the PlayStations perform automatic testing all night, but the bug didn’t occur. Then we played the game for five more hours with the entire team and BAM!, it finally happened again on two consoles! This time, we had more info and it turned out that the game froze in different spots on both consoles, and both did not contain any calls to Sony’s matchmaking servers. In fact, it was in between two logging calls, in a spot where nothing relevant was happening. So we concluded there were only two possible causes: either other threads were hogging the entire CPU (due to 12

how the scheduling system on the Playstation 3 works, high priority threads can do this permanently), or the logging itself was broken. So we started experimenting with that, and then we finally found the cause of this ‘bug’: when the PC that is tracking logs goes into sleep mode, the connected consoles freeze a little while later. Once the PC is active again, the consoles continue as well a little later. The PC that was tracking the logs automatically went into sleep mode after not touching it for 30 minutes. This only happened during extensive play-testing, because people normally use that PC. So it wasn’t even a bug in our code! ARGH!

Chaos

This may all seem really obvious in hindsight, but in general when we have a bug/freeze/ crash it is in our own code, not in one of the tools we use. With such a big codebase, it is easy to not even think about something else. Also, in the chaos of 14 people playing the game on 7 consoles, it is easy to overlook one specific PC going into Sleep mode right before the consoles freeze... To be honest I still don’t know why not all consoles connected to that PC froze. But I intend to leave it at that...” Awesomenauts is out for PSN, XBLA and Steam. PlayStation 4 version is in development. Ronimo Games just concluded a highly successful Kickstarter campaign for additional Awesomenauts content. PURELY PEER-TO-PEER: THE MULTIPLAYER IMPLEMENTATION 16:00 OF AWESOMENAUTS

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Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences

The next generation (1)

The Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA) is presenting itself to the industry at the Control Conference Expo.

Project Entertainment Game

Project Entertainment Game is an intensive project, during which second year Game Development students are challenged to make a shippable entertainment game. The project’s duration is 6 months and makes use of SCRUM. All students are asked to pitch their game idea. Product owners select the concepts that will be developed, testing them on creativity, feasibility and a plausible business model. The creators of the selected concepts form the core of new teams. Students then apply for a position in a team of their choice. During the development stage of these games, professionals from the game industry will provide feedback on their work so far. Project Entertainment Game is challenging and fun for students in many ways: it is the first time students get in touch with the game industry, it is the first time they are developing a game on a bigger scale, it is the first time they use SCRUM, it is the first time they have to think about business models, it is the first time they are challenged to program in a self-chosen language, like XNA, Unity or Android development.

Project Stella Incognita

World Design

In the final stage of their studies, Game Technology students participate in the development of a large group assignment. Project Stella Incognita mimics the working environment of a large game studio, by building the engine for a space simulation game.

Students who have opted for the Game Design profile take part in the World Design course. This is a combined theoretical / applied 3D technical course. The end product is a 3D playable gameworld that clearly shows the application of fundamental game world design theories. This application should clearly inform the player of the setting, the expected gameplay, and other player interactions that are on offer.

Using SCRUM and C++, they design and implement extensions of the existing Irrlicht3D game engine.

Game Technology Game Technology is for students who want to take their first step towards a career as a games programmer, or for students who want to apply the opportunities offered by game technology in the development of new applications. You will learn about the most important elements of computer games. You will have mastered the most important techniques needed to build a game and you will be able

Showcasing these extensions include: • improved shader techniques • artificial intelligence support • custom physics or player statistics • Network communication to support MMO

We discuss existing gameworlds and how they empower the player by giving cues about the physical space, pathfinding, and environmental aspects on one level. On another level they analyze the use of evocative narrative elements, the cultural and ethical context that help to create an immersive world wherein the gameplay is assisted by the overall design.

Students will develop a number of games that demonstrate the new engine capabilities. Besides gaining experience with agile development and programming in C++, this project features different facets of game technology and professional implementation standards.

In Maya students create an architectural environment, and make design decisions concerning color, texture and detail. These elements are imported as assets into the Unity environment, adding lighting, interaction through scripting and additional interface elements. Rigorous play testing and iterations are the final stage in the design and production process. Results are varied environments filled with for example creepy dungeons, futuristic space stations and fantasy dream worlds, all with matching gameplay and level design.

The game Little Flame (picture) was made in XNA. Students made their own 3D game engine and developed a fully playable game on Xbox 360.

to develop one game on at least one of the platforms. Game Design You will learn about the various aspects that are necessary when designing games, including content, design, rules and interaction. You will familiarize yourself with the design process and you will develop games on the basis of the relevant rules, and using playable prototypes.

Game Development Contact Dop Terlingen MA Mngr Ext. Relations Game Development A’dam University of Applied Sciences Building Kroonjuweel • Room E2.18 Duivendrechtsekade 36-38 1096 AH Amsterdam, The Netherlands T. +31 (0)20 595 4622 M. d.terlingen@HVA.nl W. www.hva.nl Contact Internships Drs. Mieke Bierbooms

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“Creativity has its roots in perspective and experience”

Getting the most out of a conference Why Vlambeer’s co-founder Rami Ismail is asking you... to ask!

here are an almost infinite number of catchy things to respond to the question ‘what would you tell an aspiring independent developer?’ There are only a few that I tend to use. One is my request for aspiring developers to ‘make games’ and the other is the imperative to ‘gain perspective’. The idea that getting better at any creative craft is by engaging with it, should not be an unfamiliar one to you. After all - as has often been iterated, making games is about designing for interaction – it’s about the output from the game and the input from the player creating something that wasn’t there before. Games don’t take place in the designed artefact that is the game, they take place in the nebulous mind-space between the artefact and whoever is engaging with it. The only way to get better at creating an interesting dialogue between game and player is by creating more of such spaces. Perspective is both easier and harder to achieve. In a way, it is impossible to not gain new perspectives, but the methods by which one does so, are often misunderstood. If you decide to go on a holiday to a new country, you gain additional perspective, but not necessarily more so than by learning a new way to tie your shoes. Creativity has its roots in perspective and experience. Creators need to have the frame of reference that allows Control

them to make effective and practical choices, and the tumultuous and seemingly purposeless background of various information that allows them to make more lateral, creative choices. Beyond having that information, they need the experience of having selected and identified pieces of that information to construct something new, novel and interesting. The more often they’ve gone through such a process, the more capable they become at selecting things from that pool of ‘everything’ that is in their mind. At Vlambeer, we hope that today’s program will offer you some new perspective. In the main track, there’s an abundance of interesting speakers. Whether it is Mattie Brice’s strong perspective on the morality of creation and the crafting of games around feelings and complex social issues; Brendon Chung’s unique design methodology and his insistence on creating games within a single universe; or Adriel Wallick’s insights regarding her history as a programmer, which includes independent games, Rockband Blitz and weather satellites adhering to NASA’s extremely strict coding standards. In the INDIGO track, you can listen to talks by the very best the Dutch industry has to offer. Maarten Wiedenhof discusses how they think Abbey Games’ debut game Reus became such a surprise runaway hit while Collin van Ginkel talks about how Two Tribes would’ve 14

been different if it was founded today instead of twelve years ago. Richard Boeser, whom I personally consider to be amongst the best game designers in the country gives a talk about abstract game design and my own fellow Vlambeer, Jan Willem Nijman, gives a talk about how he establishes that typical Vlambeer ‘game feel’. In this day and age, there are many ways to get additional perspective. You can read blogs or academic papers, listen to podcasts or watch talks given by the best of our industry. At an event like this, you get the chance to something way more valuable. Rather than listening to what people have to say, you can engage with them, ask them questions and discuss your thoughts with them. It’s always good to listen to good talks, but it can be way more valuable to ask the right questions. So instead of requesting you to make games, as I usually would, I want to ask you to do something different today. Today, I want to ask you to get as much perspective as possible. Visit as many talks as you can, talk to as many people as you can and of course: have fun. Rami Ismail RAMI ISMAIL IS HOST OF THE DESIGN TRACK JAN WILLEM NIJMAN: THE ART OF SCREENSHAKE

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NHL University

The next generation (2) The NHL University in Leeuwarden is presenting itself to the industry at the Control Conference Expo.

NHL - Gamedesign The NHL University’s minor game design, which belongs to the faculty for CMD, has garnered significant results. Although it is a small minor with on average about 50 students, it has managed to become a breeding place for talents. Besides delivering students to studios like Crytek, Guerrilla and Vanguard it has also become a launchpad for

BitBreakers

BitBreakers is a cyberpunk multiplayer-versus game that pits players against each other and against the game’s levels.

Convoy

Convoy is a tactical squad-based top-down roguelike developed by Convoy Games, a three man indie start-up. Two of the company’s employees have developed Convoy as their graduation assignment within the CMD bachelor.

new companies like Critical Bit and Convoy Games. The study focuses on both seriousand entertainment games. With a small team of dedicated lecturers

The game takes place in the distance future where internet as we know it has been replaced by a virtual reality environment called the NITE network, only open to the wealthy elite. The players assume the role of different hackers, otherwise known as BitBreakers. Every BitBreaker has his or her own special skillset, and personal reasons to illegaly access the NITE network. And everyone of them will do their utmost best to complete their objectives.

Convoy is a game about travelling and insecurity. The player starts on a desolate road, in a futuristic post-apocalyptic desert with a convoy made up of trucks and a small group of vehicles tasked with providing defensive support. It is the player’s objective to get the convoy and its cargo to a distant location. To get there the player must travel the desert which is teeming with highwaymen, fellow travellers and bandits lurking behind the sand dunes. The player only stands a chance on success if he or she anticipates the unexpected. With challenging tactical combat, permadeath, random events and simplistic art Convoy is a tribute to classic roguelikes. Convoy Games hopes to gain recognition with their game Convoy, and prove that you don’t need a multimillion budget to develop a successful game.

and a great roster of frequent guest lecturers (Ernest W. Adams. Thomas Schmall and more) the emphasis lies on a combination of hands-on experience and inspiration. This has led to the projects presented on this page.

Contact Gerdien Dijkstra Knowledge Center Multimedia Communication & Multimedia Design www.nhl.nl/kenniscentrummultimedia

Convoy is slated for release on PC in early 2014. NHL University

The game’s demo has been developed in about five months time with a team consisting of six members and an external sound designer. Some of these students will continue to work together in the future within a company structure.

PO BOX 1080 8900 CB Leeuwarden M. Gerdien.Dijkstra@nhl.nl T. +31 (0)58 251 20 29 W. www.hva.nl

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