2. 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.

3. 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

4. A Brief History of Gaming Tic-Tac-Toe 52 – first CRT Tic-Tac-Toe 52 – first CRT Tennis-for-two 58 – pong on o-scope Tennis-for-two 58 – pong on o-scope Space War 61 – 1 st widely dist. Space War 61 – 1 st widely dist. Ataris Pong 72 – 1 st popular arcade Ataris Pong 72 – 1 st popular arcade Wump, Adventure 72 – 1 st text adventures Wump, Adventure 72 – 1 st text adventures Death Race 76 – 1 st controversial Death Race 76 – 1 st controversial Atari 2600 77 – 1 st cartridge console Atari 2600 77 – 1 st cartridge console Zork 77 – 1 st commercially successful text adventure Zork 77 – 1 st commercially successful text adventure Space Wars 78 – 1 st vector arcade Space Wars 78 – 1 st vector arcade Space Invaders 78 – 1 st high score Space Invaders 78 – 1 st high score MUD 79 – 1 st multi-user adventure MUD 79 – 1 st multi-user adventure Pac-Man 80 – most popular arcade Pac-Man 80 – most popular arcade

5. William A. Higinbotham Father of Video Games? Brookhaven National Labs – 1958

6. William A. Higinbotham Tennis for Two 3 weeks to build Debuts Oct. 1958

7. Tech Model Railroad Club SciFi Nerd Inventors? MIT club -1961 Discussing E.E. "Doc" Smith s Lensman Demo for new DEC PDP-1 ($120k)

8. Tech Model Railroad Club Spacewar! Led by Steve Russel 1962 OpenHouse debut Demo for new DEC PDP-1 Copies spread over ARPAnet

9. Ralph Baer Console Industry Visionary 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

10. Ralph Baer Magnavox Odyssey 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 100,000 copies, $100M licensing fees

11. Nolan Bushnell Video Arcade Visionary 1962 University of Utah student – Spacewar! exposure 1965 Salt Lake City carnival 1970 invents Computer Space – W/Ted Dabney Bought by Arcade-game manufacturer Nutting Associates – makes 1500 1972 - Leaves over money dispute and w/Dabney starts a new company…….

12. Atari Pong is Born! Term from Japanese game Go 1972 - Al Alcorn hired – Given simple tennis game assignment as learning exercise Bally passes on game – Atari markets game itself – test-marketed in Andy Capps bar for 2 weeks 1976 Sold to Warner - $28M 1977 Introduces Atari Video Computer System (2600) for $250

13. Vector vs. Raster Spacewar! revisited Cinematronics - 1977 – Space Wars Vector graphics – method of drawing sharp geometric shapes with straight lines – Earliest form of polygon graphics

14. Golden Age 1978 - Space Invaders – High score triggers coin shortages – Spurs home console market 1980 - Pac Man – 600k various arcade versions 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

15. Crash Console crash – 1983-84 – Atari 2600 Pac-Man, ET – Too many products, too many 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

16. A Brief History of Gaming Nintendo 85 – revived industry Nintendo 85 – revived industry Game Boy 89 – 1 st popular handheld Game Boy 89 – 1 st popular handheld Doom 93, DKC 94 – 1 st popular 3D FPS Doom 93, DKC 94 – 1 st popular 3D FPS Playstation, Nintento 64, Sega – battle of format Playstation, Nintento 64, Sega – battle of format EverQuest, Lineage – successful MMORPG EverQuest, Lineage – successful MMORPG PlayStation 2 00– 1 st DVD, dynamic 3D PlayStation 2 00– 1 st DVD, dynamic 3D Nokia N-Gage 03 – 1 st multi-function handheld Nokia N-Gage 03 – 1 st multi-function handheld 2006: Xbox 360, Playstation III, Nintendo Revolution 2006: Xbox 360, Playstation III, Nintendo Revolution 2006: Fight Night Round 3 – todays State of the Art 2006: Fight Night Round 3 – todays State of the Art

17. Traditional Gaming Display – TV, monitor Controller – Joystick, gamepad, wheel, etc. Console – PC, PS2, Gameboy, etc. Graphics – Vector, sprites, 3D Logic – Rules, storyline, levels

18. Categories Console PC Arcade Online Handheld Location-Based Entertainment Gambling Non-Entertainment

19. 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.

20. Game Categories Action – FPS – 3 rd person – Fighting – Hybrid Action/Adventure Adventure – Graphics Adventures – Fantasy Role-Playing (FRP,RPG, MMORPG) Simulation – Vehicle – Construction/Management Sports Strategy Other: Puzzles & Casual, Educational, etc.

21. Game Industry Customer Retailer Distributor Publisher Developer Subcontractor

22. 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

23. Retailer Wholesale ~50% MSRP – actual price 10-50% above wholesale Mail Order General Merchandise Software Other: online, bundling, etc.

24. Distributor Distributors are Middlemen Warehouse Sales Staff Fulfillment

25. Publisher Software Owners Funds Development Advertises Name branding Financial control Contracts developers – In house, external

26. Developers Creative team that creates game 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.

27. Business and Design Issues Technical – 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

28. Idea to Gold 1. Idea 2. Pre-production Small staff overseen by Publisher-assigned producer Fleshed out Design Doc. & Demo Project Planning 3. Production Fully Staffed 4. Testing Alpha, Beta Configuration QA Content ratings, Licensing, etc. 5. Manufacturing – going gold

29. Idea to Gold