Games kids want

Posted in Games, Halo, Mario Galaxy, PS3, Smash Brothers, Spore, Wii, XBox360, by mskaggs on September 21st, 2007

I just finished up 3 days of talking to a random sample of kids (8 to 14 yrs old) from the Los Angeles area about how math is used in developing video games.

One of the cool parts about doing this sort of work is that I get to find out from the kids which machines they have and they games they are most anticipating.

What I found:

1. Seems like an even split between kids claiming to have Xbox360 machines vs Wii machines at home. It was extremely rare to find someone claiming to have a PS3 at home.

2. Most the boys had all heard of Halo and knew that Halo 3 was coming out soon, with the older boys showing the most excitement about it.

3. As a group, the boys also were very much waiting for Smash Brothers Brawl as well. The younger aged boys in the group there held as much interest in Smash Bros as the older ones did for Halo. They also seemed to have more certainty that they would actually be allowed to play Smash Brothers Brawl (as opposed to the uncertainty that their parents would allow them to play Halo).

4. There was confusion about which platforms are needed for which games. The confusion was painfully clear with one student saying he would buy a Wii just to play Halo3. Anyone else see an opportunity here?

5. The girls that attended the event were barely interested in Halo 3 at all, but had a fair amount of interest in Mario Galaxy. None of them had ever heard of Spore.

6. One of the adults helping organize the event mentioned having a PS3 at home that would likely soon be turned into a media server because it wasn’t being used for gaming. Another mentioned that they might buy the PS3 and use it as a “Blue Ray player that just happens to also play games”.

Draw conclusions as you will, but there’s nothing like interacting with hundreds of kids to find out what is on their mind about gaming.

Mario Galaxy

Posted in Games, Mario Galaxy, Wii, by mskaggs on September 17th, 2007

I spent a good part of last week preparing for a presentation to kids about how we use math and science when developing video games.

Part of that prep time was spent looking at screen shots for Mario Galaxy and that process re-ignited my passion for that game.

GameSpy had some recent hands-on time and has good things to say: GameSpy Hands-on with Mario Galaxy

This game is set to ship in November 2007.

Spore and more Spore

Posted in Games, Spore, by mskaggs on September 11th, 2007

I’m a huge fan of Spore and had the good fortune of seeing one of the earliest prototypes of it while visiting Maxis during the development of C&C:Generals. Yep, Spore has been in development for a long time, but I give huge kudo’s to Will Wright for keeping his vision alive and developing the product in the right way (i.e. keeping the team small until it was ready to grow).

Like most fans of the game, I’m keen to see anything new that the team releases and have been secretly plotting the growth of my own “Spore Society”.

For those of you just catching up, Gamespy put up an article with the latest at the end of August. Inside of the article is a set of videos, with the latest being a great trailer released on Sept 5, 2007 showing the breadth of game play.

Check it out here: GameSpy Spore Article

It’s great to see how the game looks and plays. Fingers crossed that soon we’ll get to learn more about sharing our races/societies/planets with other players. Wouldn’t it be great if that could be done in real time….?

Casual games, not just for casual players?

Posted in Casual Games, Games, by mskaggs on September 2nd, 2007

Beyond the interest from players, could it be that casual games offer something game developers have been looking for as well?

When I talk about it with other developers, I get a range of reactions…from waxing nostalgic about “bygone days of creating games that are simple fun” to a “disdain for anything that doesn’t push the latest platform to it’s limits”.

More and more though, it seems that both developers and publishers are starting to acknowledge the reality of casual game market, not just as a solution for the never ending quest to increase revenues, but as an unserved market with a rapidly growing interest from both producers and consumers.

Of course some developers just want to create games that are fun to make as well as play…

EA’s current thinking on casual games, courtesy of “GameIndustry.biz”: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=28124.

To the “man in the arena”

Posted in "Man in the arena", Courage, by mskaggs on September 2nd, 2007

“It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly…who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt, 1910

If you’d like to read the speech in it’s entirety, here’s a link: www.theodore-roosevelt.com/trsorbonnespeech.html.