nullsumme:: gamedesignblog

Immersion

2008-11-24T14:53:00.002+01:00

interesting and funny...

Photographer Robbie Cooper shows just how focused young video-game players can be.

Kids' Expressions While Playnig Video Games (video on New York Times' Video Library - via swissmiss)

God's Facebook Wall

2008-11-15T17:24:00.006+01:00

(via TBAED)

If the world could vote...

2008-10-23T14:22:00.002+02:00

...the US would have a better president soon.

www.iftheworldcouldvote.com

Blog Action Day 2008 - Poverty

2008-10-15T12:50:00.005+02:00

Check out http://www.blogactionday.org/

Today thousands of bloggers will unite to discuss a single issue - poverty. We aim to raise awareness, initiate action and to shake the web!

Kane & Lynch released in Japan

2008-09-10T13:46:00.004+02:00

It's pretty old news already - but still: Kane & Lynch has now also been released in Japan.

And also, I've been on vacation.
More on that later.
(even though that is also pretty old news by now)

In Memoriam

2008-07-07T09:47:00.003+02:00

My beloved grandma, Ernestine Friedl, passed away yesterday at 9:55pm.

I have lots of great memories of her.
Those memories will sustain and she lives on in my mind and heart.

Thank you for everything grandma!
You will be terribly missed!
Please rest in peace!

Rumor: Bruce Willis Signs On For Kane & Lynch Movie

2008-06-04T09:20:00.003+02:00

If this is true then that is totally awesome news for the film adaption of our little game.

According to Variety, Bruce Willis is slated for the Kane & Lynch movie adaptation. Bruno will play mercenary Adam "Kane" Marcus, who with batshit insane partner James Lynch is out to retrieve a stolen microchip. Willis has been rumored to play Kane since last fall — and Billy Bob Thornton is supposed to be Lynch, but that's not confirmed. Veteran stunt coordinator Simon Crane will make his directing debut and helm the picture, and scribe Kyle Ward will pen the script. The flick will be produced by the guys that brought Hitman to the silver screen. Reviews for the film will be met with apprehension from the game community.

(source: Kotaku [via Variety])

Confirmations and news about the Kane & Lynch movie are also very sparse for us being on the inside. So I also only know what's out there on the Internet.

News That Make Your Day - Part I - BG&E Sequel

2008-05-29T09:27:00.005+02:00

Ubisoft finally confirmed production of the sequel to one of my all time favorite games: Beyond Good & Evil.

It's really about time.

Here's the first teaser trailer of Beyond Good & Evil 2:

Vienna & Malmo

2008-05-16T12:30:00.005+02:00

I was in Vienna for 5 days last week and all I did was basically just hanging out with old friends in various outside locations and enjoying the sun - Museumsquartier, Altes AKH, Kunsthalle, Prater, Naschmarkt and Schoenbrunn (where, believe it or not, I’ve actually been for the first time ever). I just love this city; and even more so in spring/summer. Good times.

Wednesday and Friday this week I was attending the Nordic Game Conference in Malmø, Sweden. It is, of course, by far not as big as GDC. However, I was really positively surprised by the quality of the lectures and presentations I attended. There wasn't a single one which was entirely disappointing but my personal favorite was Ste Curran's session "Stories about Stories". The entire talk was presented in a storytelling way featuring various acts and brief interludes from various guest speakers. By far the most entertaining (not informative) conference session I ever attended.

Also, there's some really good news concerning our project. Not surprisingly, I can't talk about this in detail quite yet.

Documentaries

2008-04-29T20:01:00.002+02:00

So I love documentaries. I enjoy watching them, the uneasy and often disturbing thoughts they create and the extensive internet research they usually make me do after watching them.

Me watching documentaries is normally dependent on mood, time of the year and probably also on some other unforeseeable factors such as the amount oranges harvested in Brazil that year (or something similar).
Anyways... I was watching quite a few documentaries again recently (no idea whether that means it was a good or bad year for oranges in Brazil) and I wanted to recommend two of them:

We Feed The World

WE FEED THE WORLD is a film about food and globalisation, fishermen and farmers, long-distance lorry drivers and high-powered corporate executives, the flow of goods and cash flow–a film about scarcity amid plenty. With its unforgettable images, the film provides insight into the production of our food and answers the question what world hunger has to do with us .

A Crude Awakening - The Oil Crash

OilCrash, produced and directed by award-winning European journalists and filmmakers Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack, tells the story of how our civilization’s addiction to oil puts it on a collision course with geology. Compelling, intelligent, and highly entertaining, the film visits with the world’s top experts and comes to a startling, but logical conclusion – our industrial society, built on cheap and readily available oil, must be completely re-imagined and overhauled.

Both are very worrying and scary. I'd say they also provide a pretty neutral look at things and are no 'let's-create-panic'-material. Highly recommended.

Kane & Lynch: The Dope Bag - Trailer

2008-04-14T16:34:00.003+02:00

As promised, here's the new trailer for Kane & Lynch: The Dope Bag, the new multiplayer map pack for Kane & Lynch that will be available for free this Thursday (April 17) on Xbox Live and PSN:

Some More Kane & Lynch Controversy

2008-04-13T13:50:00.004+02:00

A "graphic" and "shocking" Kane & Lynch advertising campaign has been banned in the U.K.

The Advertising Standards Authority said it had upheld 26 complaints about both print and television ads for the game, according to MCV, and has ordered Eidos not to print or broadcast them again. In one double-page ad, a crying, gagged woman was shown with her head being held back by one of the duo, while a second poster advertisement included a quote from the Official Xbox 360 Magazine which said, "Grittier and nastier in tone than anything you've seen before, the violence here is visceral, brutal and very, very real."

(source: The Escapist)

Kane & Lynch - The Dope Bag

2008-04-13T13:15:00.002+02:00

There's some fresh content coming for Kane & Lynch on April 17. It's a map pack called "The Dope Bag" and contains 4 new multiplayer maps for the Fragile Alliance multiplayer mode. The pack will be available for download on Xbox Live and Playstation Network free of charge.

The 4 maps are: "Clean Cut" (a Russian mafia-run L.A. construction site), "Hooker's Trail" (a clash with the Yakuza in Tokyo), "Flying High" (a raid of a drug lord's mansion in Venezuela) and "Hasta La Vista" (an ambush against a military convoy in Havana). The screenshot below is taken from "Hasta La Vista" - the map in which I was somehwat involved in the early conceptual design phase. Also, a new trailer for The Dope Bag should be on the way and I'll, of course, post it here as soon as it's made available for the public.
Congrats to our DLC team! Awesome job guys!

Update Time

2008-03-26T19:36:00.002+01:00

Yeah... it's really about time.

So here goes:

GDC:
Other than a few guys of us bumping into Jeff Gerstmann (see below), GDC and San Francisco were definitely worth a trip. I attended the Game Design Workshop the first 2 days and also managed to see some really interesting lectures the days after. We also went down to our sister company Chrystal Dynamics for an afternoon to get a tour of the studio, see demos of their current projects and some knowledge sharing. Thanks for the time guys!

I also got the chance to meet some friends and I haven't seen in a while, explore the San Francisco nightlife with my coworkers and there was, of course, also a few parties wanting to be attended (let's call those "social events" - because it sounds so much better).

Good times.
(here's a few pictures - disclaimer for co-workers wanting to rip my head off: "you know you *totally* gave me permission to put those pictures online!" ;P)

Project:
About the current project there isn't much more to say other than "busy". We're rapidly approaching a really important milestone (about a month to go). But things are coming together really nicely and it all looks good. Also, I'm having a really great experience being a Lead again. Fun.

Easter:
Easter holidays were nice (not counting that one day that from now on will be known as "The Great Apartment Cleaning Day"). I stayed in Copenhagen and had a few friends over visiting from Austria.
All in all - a perfect mix between fun and relaxation (not sure in which category the cleaning part falls here).

Summer:
Summer?
Yeah... the flight is booked! :)

Private Life:
Private live is still a bit rough. There's a really sad situation in the family right now that worries me a lot. Also, I'm missing a certain person.
But again... that's enough details concerning the private life in such a public space.

Another (Good) Year

2008-02-26T19:35:00.002+01:00

So as of today, that 2 in the first digit of my age is gone.

To put it in a more positive way (which is totally the way I wanna do it by the way): Welcome number 3! Be nice! I fully trust in you being able to do an awesome job as the leading digit!

IO Meets Jeff Gerstmann at GDC

2008-02-25T18:51:00.003+01:00

Unfortunately I didn't have the pleasure myself while being there.
But anyways, here you go - a piece of game development history:
a picture taken after a few of my co-workers bumped into Jeff at GDC.

It's aaaaaall good!

GDC - Day 0

2008-02-17T08:49:00.002+01:00

All things are packed - I'm now just deciding which books to bring on to the long flight while various electronic gadgets suck some power out of various plugs in my apartment for a full recharge.

I'm off to the airport in about 3 hours and should arrive in San Francisco tonight at 9pm local time. It's been a while since I've been to GDC and it's about 4 years since I've last been in California. Looking forward.

I'll try to post updates about the GDC and related GDC adventures up here from time to time.
For now, please cross your fingers that I don't end up sitting next to either somebody with a constantly crying kid or somebody how looks like he eats young kids for breakfast but forgot to pay for the additional seat he's using cause of that.

GDC

2008-02-03T12:13:00.000+01:00

After 7 years I'll be attending GDC again this year. So I'm gonna be in San Francisco from Feb. 18th to Feb. 23rd. Very much looking forward to that.
If anybody is there as well at that time and wants to meet up then give me a shout

Update - Back From Vacation Edition

2008-01-24T18:35:00.000+01:00

I'm back in Copenhagen and back at work for about 2 weeks now again.
Needless to say, my holidays back home in Austria were great and I managed to stick to my plan to spend as much time as possible with friends, family and on mountains (ok, I admit, sticking to that plan wasn't that hard).
So indeed - good times were had (except the last weekend... but that's a different story). But I also like being back at work again and getting my hands dirty. Exciting times there - in a positive way. Everything not work related - exciting times too - in a not so positive way (but that's a different story again).

Not that anyone would care, but just for the record (and as a reminder for myself), that's my "new year resolutions" (under quotation marks cause it doesn't actually have anything to do with the new year at all):

In no particular order:
- stop smoking
- more snowboarding (read: "exercise")
...yeah, I know... that's the classy stuff... and you can all laugh about me now...
- find an apartment I would like to buy
- buy a motorcycle
- start the helicopter or plane license course
...yeah, I know... that's the expensive stuff... and you can all laugh about me now...
- work on myself in a few areas (that's detailed enough)
- find time to play more games outside work

There you have it (and I)!
And to finish off this update, here's a holiday picture featuring all sorts of exciting things like snow, fog, a ski lift, people... and snow and fog.

Holidays, ...

2007-12-18T16:27:00.000+01:00

... family, friends, going out in the evenings and sleeping in in the mornings, snowy mountains, snowboarding and staying away from the computer as much as I possibly can.

All that is part of the plan for the next 4 weeks that I'm on holiday. I arrived back home in Austria yesterday and am very much looking forward to kick back and relax a bit. :)

Merry Christmas to you all and a Happy New Year 2008!

Kane & Lynch Text Viral

2007-12-04T10:38:00.000+01:00

More thoughts on the recent release and reviews of Kane & Lynch as well as on the gamespot reviewer controversy surrounding our game right after the break:

Kane & Lynch - Viral Video "The Special One"

2007-11-09T16:03:00.000+01:00

Here we go with part II:

Ctrl+Alt+Del Does Kane & Lynch Multiplayer Comic

2007-11-09T09:35:00.000+01:00

It's one more week until the game hits the shelves in the US and we here at IO are all getting more and more excited. The first reviews should hit the web real soon and then we'll also soon see the first comments and thoughts of people who are playing the game.

On a related note, the latest comic up on Ctrl+Alt+Del is about the online multiplayer mode (Kane & Lynch: Fragile Alliance) of our game. Pretty awesome! :)

And here's the according Ctrl+Alt+Del article.

Also, there's a new Kane & Lynch: Fragile Alliance trailer online now:

Kane & Lynch Promo Gear

2007-11-08T09:39:00.000+01:00

when swag almost causes a heart attack

:D

Kane & Lynch - Viral Video "Sissy"

2007-11-05T12:06:00.000+01:00

Still with the old release date (new release dates are Nov. 14th (US) and Nov. 23rd (Europe)) - but enjoy!

Kane & Lynch Dev Diary 3 (and new release date)

2007-11-01T11:54:00.000+01:00

So first, there is this:

British publisher Eidos Interactive has announced that its anticipated crime-action game Kane & Lynch: Dead Men has gone gold and will ship six days earlier on November 14 in North America. The M-for-Mature-rated game will ship simultaneously for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

(news on gamespot)

The earlier date isn't really any less competitive (Super Mario Galaxy, Assassin's Creed, Crysis, BlackSite: Area 51, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2008, and Need for Speed: ProStreet are coming out the same week). However, there's no week before christmas in which no big game titles hit shelves. So I think, the earlier, the better. And for us it also means a shorter wait for the first reviews and reactions from people who got their hands on the game.

And then, there's also the third episode of the Kane & Lynch dev diary:

Again I'm violating the (now written) law of never to post videos of yourself on the Internet. Sorry for that.

Kane & Lynch Madrid Press Event

2007-10-26T12:42:00.000+02:00

On Wednesday, a colleague of mine and I returned from a trip to Madrid where we held a Kane & Lynch presentation for the Spanish press and watched the press guys go hands-on with Fragile Alliance and K&L co-op.
Everything went great. We had a good time and everyone seemed to have liked what they saw (and played) quite a bit.

Even though there is this unwritten law (or so I heard) stating that you should never post videos of yourself on the Internet, here's a video from the event (including a brief interview) from gameprotv (in Spanish - obviously).

Kane & Lynch Dev Diary 2

2007-10-18T12:39:00.000+02:00

Here's the 2nd episode of the Kane & Lynch dev diary. This time the topics are art direction and character design. Enjoy!

Kane & Lynch Update And Some General Newsbits

2007-10-13T10:34:00.000+02:00

1. Kane & Lynch Co-Op
I know, a lot of people are upset about the lack of online co-op in Kane & Lynch. Trust me, there are a lot of forceful reasons why we decided not to bring co-op online but rather go for an offline/splitscreen approach.
But I can also promise you that this by no means a purely negative thing - regardless of the fact that playing with a buddy who is sitting right next to you on the couch is a lot of fun in the first place.
I was involved a lot in the design and implementation of the co-op mode of Kane & Lynch. Even more so I was happy to read the first reactions from the press who got their hands on K&L co-op recently.

During co-op play, as you might expect, one player takes on the persona of Kane while the other handles Lynch. What struck us most was that even though you are playing together, you and your partner don't always stick together on the same path through the game.
[...]
It's important to note that the developers at Io Interactive are consciously toying with the pacing of Kane & Lynch during these periods when the characters are separated. As a perfect example, while Kane and the safe-cracker are busily blowing away security guards and popping vaults, Lynch hangs out upstairs tensely waiting. [...] Ordinarily, you might think that standing around waiting would be boring, but in Kane & Lynch it seemed to heighten the drama -- especially when things eventually started getting crazy... literally.
[...]
See, Lynch is nuts: certifiably so. Consequently, when our screen fractured like a smashed computer monitor, refracting the environment into a sort of kaleidoscopic haze, we knew that Lynch was having some trouble coping with the current situation. Suddenly, all of those innocuous hostages had guns, police uniforms and serious hero complexes.
[...]
Combining deliberately obtuse and tense pacing with straight-up madness, we were immediately entranced by Kane & Lynch's ability to manipulate our mood.

(gamespy preview)

2. Kane & Lynch Madrid Press Event
Next week a colleague and I will fly to Madrid, Spain, for 3 days to attend a Kane & Lynch Press Event. It's probably gonna be quite a stressful time packed with presentations and interviews. But I like that sort of stuff and, honestly, who wouldn't want to go to Madrid - especially since it's getting quite chilly already around here.

3. The Next Project
The press event will be my last official duty on Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (well, not counting the release party). I'm moving on to the next project and will be working as Lead Level Designer on a game that has been officially announced already last week:

Jane Cavanagh, CEO of Eidos parent company SCi, said SCi believes Kane & Lynch has the potential to be a franchise for adults that is respected and loved in the same way as Hitman.

"We've already got Kane & Lynch 2 in production, which just goes to show the belief we have in it as a long-term franchise", Cavanagh added.

(CVG)

More responsibility. The chance to improve things that didn't work so well the first time around. Working on the sequel of a game that I personally like. Good, exciting times!

4. New Apartment
I recently (well... about a month ago) moved into a new apartment in the center of Copenhagen. It's smaller than the previous one but the location and the apartment's charm beat everything. Loving it.

5. Holidays Booked
Yes that's right... Flights back home to Austria are booked for the middle of december. It's gonna be a longer holiday due to all the saved-up vacation time, so I'm probably not gonna stay in Austria for the entire duration. But nothing specific is panned yet. All I can say is Wooohoooo!

Kane & Lynch Dev Diary 1

2007-10-08T11:55:00.000+02:00

Here's the first episode of a dev diary series we recorded last week. Some behind-the-scenes stuff, a glimpse of our office and, of course, some additional info regarding Kane & Lynch.

PS: yes... I'm gonna make a brief appearance in one of the upcoming dev diaries as well :|

Revealed: Kane & Lynch Multiplayer Mode

2007-10-07T13:57:00.000+02:00

We kept quiet about this for a long time; simply because we all think it is a really original take on online multiplayer gaming - but also quite obvious to do if you think about it and thus just too easy to rip off.

But now it's officially out: "Fragile Alliance" - the online multiplayer mode for "Kane & Lynch: Dead Men".

Here's a snippet from a Kotaku-article describing the Fragile Alliance gamemode in a nutshell:

you're going to need to grab as much cash as you can and make it out alive. The rub is this: when all is said and done, the total loot is distributed evenly. However, the fewer players you have alive at the end, the more spoils the survivors net. You can see where this is going, right?

Of course, I already played it in the office and all I can say is that - even if it might take you 2-3 rounds to get into the whole idea of the mode - it's a hell lot of fun.

Needless to say we're all already really curious to see how all you guys like it once you get your hands on it when the game hits shelves Nov. 20th in the US and Nov. 23rd in PAL territories.

Here are links to the first articles about our multiplayer mode that have hit the web:

IGN
Kotaku

Halo Economy

2007-09-27T13:04:00.000+02:00

ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!!!!

Nov. 20th 2007 - A busy day for gamers in the US

2007-09-27T09:41:00.001+02:00

Kane & Lynch breaking and entering Nov. 20

Eidos to bring third-person action game to Xbox 360, PS3, and PC shelves on same day as Mass Effect, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.

(via gamespot)

Bring it on Mass Effect and Uncharted!

Kane & Lynch on The 1UP Show

2007-09-17T14:25:00.000+02:00

The 1UP Show recently featured our game Kane & Lynch:Dead Men and shows tons of new ingame footage.

Here we go:

PS: Here's the accompanying preview.

Kane & Lynch: The Final Hours

2007-09-03T10:50:00.000+02:00

At the time I write this, the very last bugs of the game are being fixed.
We are now really close to submit a X360 build to Microsoft.

The last few days (and nights) have been pretty crazy (and long) around here.
I'm tired and exhausted - but also happy. I still enjoy playing the game a lot (ok admitted - there's some parts of the game I just can't see anymore) and going through it as one single piece rather than just playing/checking parts feels really nice. I like what we've done here and hope that lots of people out there will do so as well.

Here's some new screenshots:

And now there's hope for a short holiday in the very near future.

Brand New Trailer

2007-08-26T15:06:00.000+02:00

Here's a brand new trailer for Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. We are in the last phase of development right now and it's all looking really good (even though some extra hours at work were needed to get there).

Enjoy the new trailer!

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men @ GC '07

2007-08-23T19:05:00.000+02:00

Two of our guys are at Leipzig to demo the latest build of our game and later it will also be on the public showfloor.

Here's some (shaky-cam quality) gameplay footage from the convention:

Live: New Kane & Lynch Website

2007-08-21T11:33:00.000+02:00

The new Kane & Lynch website is now live.

It's definitely a bit too much Flash stuff going on for my personal taste.
But check it out anyways here.

EDIT:

There's also an HTML version of the site available here (see comments).

Free Bioshock Artbook

2007-08-14T11:09:00.000+02:00

Grab it here.

Cool stuff!

Kane & Lynch at E3 2007

2007-07-22T10:02:00.000+02:00

While we are having pretty long days and weeks at the moment here at IO trying to get rid of all the bugs and polishing the game, you please enjoy this gameplay montage our game as shown at this year's Sony E3 press conference:

Also, there's new previews popping up in various places around the web:

- Kotaku's Kane and Lynch E3 '07 Impressions

- Gamespot's Kane & Lynch: Dead Men Hands-On

- CVG's Kane & Lynch: Dead Men Preview

Best Game Intros Of All Time - Part VI

2007-07-12T10:01:00.000+02:00

Best Game Intros Of All Time - Part V

2007-06-28T14:21:00.000+02:00

Best Game Intros Of All Time - Part IV

2007-06-27T10:14:00.001+02:00

This blog is rated....

2007-06-26T16:47:00.000+02:00

dammit. I was totally aiming for that "R" or "M"/"NC-17"-rating. PG rated stuff doesn't get a lot of public and press attention these days.

(via bluesnews)

Best Game Intros Of All Time - Part III

2007-06-26T12:22:00.001+02:00

Best Game Intros Of All Time - Part II

2007-06-25T10:56:00.000+02:00

Best Game Intros Of All Time - Part I

2007-06-24T15:10:00.000+02:00

I'm a big fan of well made game intros.
This one kicks off a series of what I think are some of the best game intros ever made.

PS3 - This Is Living - Meltdown Collection

2007-06-19T17:12:00.000+02:00

Uncut PS3 "Meltdown" Commercial & 3 clips each featuring a specific character.
Weird, strange and probably NSFW. But I sorta like them.
(via blackwood)

Meltdown

Cherry

Bubba

Kovac

Released: New Kane & Lynch: Dead Men Trailer

2007-06-06T17:10:00.000+02:00

Took a little bit longer than expected. But here it finally is in all its glory. I present the you the brand new Kane & Lynch: Dead Men trailer.

The first trailer was told from Kane's daughter point-of-view. This new one is told from the perspective of our second main protagonist Lynch. For those of you with a fat ass bigscreen HDTV (I'm not one of you), the trailer should also be available on XBox Live Marketplace in the next few hours.

Leave some feedback!

Danish Dynamite

2007-06-06T08:50:00.000+02:00

So first (March 2007) there was this:

Then (June 2007) there was this:

You certainly can't say that Copenhagen is a boring and sleepy little city.

A sad week for Hockey

2007-05-09T08:18:00.000+02:00

Part I:
Final standings of the relegation round of the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships 2007 in Moscow:

1. Latvia ----------- 14:8 --- 6
2. Norway ---------- 12:9 --- 5
3. Austria --------- 11:12 --- 4
4. Ukraine ---------- 7:15 --- 3

so there Austria goes off to Division I :(

Part II:
Red Wings - Sharks: 2-0
Series Status: Red Wings win, 4-2

Western Conference finals and Stanley Cup finals without the Sharks :(

Kane & Lynch Preview and Developer Interview

2007-05-03T11:17:00.000+02:00

As promised earlier, the new Kane & Lynch trailer will be released shortly.

In the meantime enjoy this gamespot interview with our game director JP and some ingame footage:

In return I demand that you also read the accompanying preview here.

Kane & Lynch heading to PS3, pre-Christmas release

2007-04-24T12:26:00.000+02:00

officially announced

"SCi Entertainment has announced plans to release two of its forthcoming titles on three platforms simultaneously - and not on a staggered basis as previously planned.

The titles in question are Kane & Lynch, from Hitman developer IO Interactive, and Pivotal Games's Crossfire. Both were due to be released on PC and Xbox 360 during SCi's 2007 financial year.

Now, however, they will go on sale alongside PS3 versions in the 2008 financial year. Kane & Lynch will be out in time for Christmas..."

Keeps you yodeling all night long...

2007-04-04T08:40:00.000+02:00

As some may know, Red Bull is an Austrian beverage (that is, the company's HQ is in Austria and its owner is Austrian). Understand it or not, but this fact sometimes makes me a bit prouder to be an Austrian (especially when people start to talk bout Kangoroos, Melbourne and/or Germany when the word "Austria" comes up).

Now there is Frank's Energy trying to steal a bit of Red Bull's market share. I don't even wanna go into any details about the man behind this. The point is that this new drink also comes from Austria.

I have no idea how it tastes or if it has any energetic effects. But I DO know that there goes my Red Bull proudness. I mean... what the ****?!?!?!

It's designed in white-blue. That doesn't remind me of Bavaria AT ALL. In NO way. And then we wonder why a lot of (American) people think Bavaria is part of Austria (or the other way round).
The description on the "about"-page is just plain hilarious.
And don't forget to meet the Energy Girls.

But whatever... important is that it keeps you yodling all night!
Cause I'm an Austrian and that's what I do EVERY day ALL day long.

Upcoming: New Kane & Lynch Trailer

2007-03-28T15:11:00.000+02:00

A brand new Kane & Lynch: Dead Men trailer is on its way and about to be made available for public viewing.

That's all for now. :D

Copenhagen Riots

2007-03-08T14:21:00.000+01:00

About a week ago, the usually so quiet Copenhagen has turned into a smaller warzone in certain areas of the city. It was kinda crazy sometimes, but things are calming down again now...

Here is what happened including some pictures taken throughout the last week:

On 1 March 2007 Ungdomshuset was cleared of its occupants by the police at about 7:00 (CET) in the morning. A 50 metre area surrounding the building was sealed off. The building was taken with assistance from a military helicopter, an airport crash tender and two boom cranes, used as a form of modern day siege towers. Special forces entered the building from the roof, the windows and the ground, while the house was covered in foam to diminish the effectiveness of possible counter attacks such as molotov cocktails.

[...]

Ungdomshuset (literally "the Youth House") was the attributed name of a building located in Copenhagen on Jagtvej 69, Nørrebro, which functioned as an underground scene venue for music and rendezvous point for varying anarchist and leftist groups from 1982 until 2007.

[...]

Demolition of Ungdomshuset began at 8:00 am on 5 March 2007. A demolition crane started its work at the back of the house with the top floor. The logos on the crane were covered and workers wore masks to conceal their identity. The union which favours Ungdomshuset, was on the ground trying to persuade the workers to stop working and reveal the company they were working for.

[...]

In protest at the eviction of the centre, demonstrations have been held across Europe. Germany has seen more than twenty actions and there have also been solidarity protests in Austria, Finland, the Netherlands, Italy, Norway and Sweden.

(source: wikipedia)

New Words For 2007

2007-02-12T09:52:00.000+01:00

Got this as an email from a friend and found it to be quite entertaining. :)

New Words for 2007

* SALAD DODGER.
An excellent phrase for an overweight person.

* SWAMP-DONKEY
A deeply unattractive person.

* TESTICULATING.
Waving your arms around and talking bollocks.

* BLAMESTORMING.
Sitting round in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a Project failed, and who was responsible.

* SEAGULL MANAGER.
A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.

* ASSMOSIS.
The process by which people seem to absorb success and advancement by sucking up to the boss rather than working hard.

* SALMON DAY.
The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die.

* CUBE FARM.
An office filled with cubicles.

* PRAIRIE DOGGING.
When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on. (This also applies to applause for a promotion because there may be cake.)

* SITCOMs.
Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids or start a "home business".

* SINBAD.
Single working girls. Single income, no boyfriend and desperate.

* AEROPLANE BLONDE.
One who has bleached/dyed her hair but still has a 'black box'.

* PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE.
The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

* ADMINISPHERE.
The rarefied organisational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the "adminisphere" are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve. This is often affiliated with the dreaded "administrivia" - needless paperwork and processes.

* GOING FOR A McSHIT.
Entering a fast food restaurant with no intention of buying food, you're just going to the bog. If challenged by a pimply staff member, your declaration to them that you'll buy their food afterwards is known as a McShit with Lies.

* 404.
Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found" meaning that the requested document could not be located.

* AUSSIE KISS.
Similar to a French Kiss, but given down under.

* OH - NO SECOND.
That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just Made a BIG mistake (e.g. you've hit 'reply all').

* GREYHOUND.
A very short skirt, only an inch from the hare.

* JOHNNY-NO-STARS.
A young man of substandard intelligence, the typical adolescent who works in a burger restaurant. The 'no-stars' comes from the badges displaying stars that staff at fast-food restaurants often wear to show their level of training.

* MILLENNIUM DOMES.
The contents of a Wonderbra, i.e. extremely impressive when viewed from the outside, but there's actually naught in there worth seeing.

* MONKEY BATH.
A bath so hot, that when lowering yourself in, you go: "Oo! Oo! Oo! Aa! Aa! Aa!".

* MYSTERY BUS.
The bus that arrives at the pub on Friday night while you're in the toilet after your 10th pint, and whisks away all the unattractive people so the pub is suddenly packed with stunners when you come back in.

* MYSTERY TAXI.
The taxi that arrives at your place on Saturday morning before you wake up, whisks away the stunner you slept with, and leaves a 10-Pinter in your bed instead.

* BEER COAT.
The invisible but warm coat worn when walking home after a booze cruise at 3:00am.

* BEER COMPASS.
The invisible device that ensures your safe arrival home after booze cruise, even though you're too drunk to remember where you live, how you got here, and where you've come from.

* BREAKING THE SEAL.
Your first pee in the pub, usually after 2 hours of drinking. After breaking the seal of your bladder, repeat visits to the toilet will be required every 10 or 15 minutes for the rest of the night.

* TART FUEL.
Bottled premixed spirits, regularly consumed by young women.

* PICASSO BUM.
A woman whose knickers are too small for her, so she looks like she's got 4 buttocks.

Merry Christmas...

2006-12-22T15:15:00.000+01:00

... and Happy New Year 2007 everyone!!!

I've just finished all work-related tasks I wanted to do before Christmas and will shortly proceed up to the canteen for a xmas-beer with my co-workers.

Again... enjoy the festive season everyone and have a great start into 2007!

See ya next year!

Game Play Day, D3 Expo and Stuff

2006-12-03T11:35:00.000+01:00

So what has happened recently?
Quite a bit actually. It's a bit of a mini-crunch right now at work - trying to get a lot of stuff done before everyone takes the Christmas break. But things are progressing nicely. I'm mainly responsible for the coop part of the game these days - which is a really nice challenge with lots of bigger and smaller problems and details that need to be solved.

Already a month ago I attended a game design workshop at the Danish Academy for Digital Entertainment (DADIU). The one-day workshop, which was hosted by Nick Fortugno of GameLab fame, was basically about designing small games and game mechanics that should evoke specific feelings and emotions on side of the player - primarily using simple methods such as pen, paper, dices, etc. Really cool experience.
Check out the write-up of that Game Play Day over at one of my co-workers blog.

Also last month I attended the D3 Expo (Danish Electronic Entertainment Expo) where IO Interactive had a booth and I, together with some colleagues, showed a recent build of our game Kane & Lynch: Dead Men to gamers and press.
And we got loads of positive feedback - showing that we might just be on the right track and doing something right.

Miss Video Game?????

2006-11-15T21:50:00.000+01:00

Give me break! (via uk resistance)

Some of the stuff on the site is actually quite hilarious (no, I don't mean any of the pictures):

- Grand prize includes being "featured in an upcoming video game title" (I wonder what game that will be)
- Participation requirement #4: "Loves the beach."
- "Miss Video Game Crowned in Montreal, Canada after playing on five different systems and over 15 games. Warning: You may play RETRO games."

So I take it this is some kind of joke. Or I missed something and it's just some new freaky way to get the email addresses from as many girls as possible. Or both.

Whatever.

Amiga Longplay

2006-11-09T21:20:00.000+01:00

Go to youtube.
Type "amiga longplay" into the searchbox.
The result is this - a long list of recordings of full Amiga game run-throughs including some classics such as The Secret of Monkey Island, Shadow of the Beast, North and South and many more.

Awesome! Great memories :)
I didn't see that beginning of the original Monkey Island for AGES. "Hi! My name is Guybrush Threepwood, and I want to be a pirate!"
And check out those credits. Now that's quite a short list compared to what we have today.

Grand Theft Parody

2006-11-07T19:18:00.000+01:00

yep... I was laughing... :D

Grand Theft Mario

Out Now: Splinter Cell: Double Agent

2006-10-18T21:20:00.000+02:00

According to my (current gen) spy tools, more and more people stumble across this blog via a google image search for "double agent".
And in fact, "Splinter Cell: Double Agent" is out now in the US and will also be arriving in Europe in a few days!
YAY for that!
A big "hi!", "bonjour!", "ciao!" and "你好" to the entire team! Again, congrats everyone! It has been a real pleasure and honor to work with you all on the game!

Since I am not working at Ubi anymore, I hope I will still get my free copy of the game (Come on guys! I'm already missing the release party! ;P).

The first reviews are online. And I'm particularly excited and happy about the fact that the multiplayer part seems to be particularly well received. At least according to the reviewers.
Now hopefully, players will think the same. See you guys on xbox live in the next days!

Online reviews so far:

- Gamespot: 8.5/10 (here)

- IGN: 9.0/10 (here)

- 1UP: 8.0/10 (here)

Kane & Lynch X06 Trailer

2006-09-28T09:25:00.002+02:00

As promised in an earlier post, the brand new Kane & Lynch: Dead Men trailer is available online now.

It's a one-minute trailer, showing off our two main characters in action in 2 different levels of the game as well as explaining some of the back-story. It has been made available right after yesterday evening's Microsoft press conference at their X06 event in Barcelona.

Two of our guys will be down there in Barcelona for the rest of the week, demonstrating the game further to the press. So there should also be a few more online- and magazine previews out there soon.

But here it is, the Kane & Lynch: Dead Men X06 trailer. Enjoy!

leaked unannounced Ubisoft titles

2006-09-21T23:05:00.000+02:00

Ouch.

As initially revealed by a post on the Gaming Age forums a 2 GB .rar-file, containing concept art, logos and screenshots for announced and unannounced titles as well as a tech demo for Far Cry 2, found its way on a public Ubisoft FTP server today.

Of course, the file has been removed since. But it seems that some people managed to get a hand on the entire file and its contents, some of which is, unsurprisingly, being posted all around the Internet already.

The biggest problem, I think, is that there is licensed titles in there, for which Ubi probably signed (assumably quite strict) NDAs. So Ubi itself might be in some trouble because of this. And I'm sure, the person responsible for it unfortunately as well.
For such a professional, well structured and all-in-all really well organized company like Ubi, this really hurts. :(

For the sake of completion, the list of titles included in the archive:

- Assassins Creed
- Far Cry 2
- Far Cry PSP
- Far Cry Wii
- Lost
- Naruto 360
- Open Season
- Prince of Persia 4
- Rainbow 6: Vegas
- Rocky PSP
- Splinter Cell Conviction
- Surf's Up
- Star Wars PSP
- Shaun White Snowboarding
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles GBA

upcoming... 1st official Kane & Lynch trailer

2006-09-20T20:32:00.000+02:00

We just had an internal presentation of the 1st official "Kane & Lynch: Dead Men"-trailer.

All I can say is... awesome! :)
And it really is a good thing when a trailer is making you want to buy a game that you are actually working on...

The trailer should be available to the public within the next days.
Look forward to it!

first brief thoughts to (European) Wii launch facts

2006-09-18T19:15:00.000+02:00

December 8 2006

249 EUR

bundled with "Wii Sports"

games will retail for 49-59 Euros

15-20 titles at launch

3rd party titles include Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam, Need for Speed Carbon, Rayman Raving Rabbids and Red Steel

1st party launch titles will include Wii Play (mini-game style game bundled with a remote), The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Wario Ware: Smooth Moves (shortly after launch):

15 Virtual Console games for launch (classics from Nintendo franchises such as Mario and Zelda will be made available):

Wii & ESRB/PEGI/USK

2006-08-27T12:26:00.000+02:00

During a brief break at work I recently had a quick talk with a co-worker of mine about a topic that didn't occur to me before. He brought up the question if the control scheme for upcoming Nintendo Wii games will have any effect on their age rating with various rating boards across the globe (ESRB, PEGI, USK).

If, for instance, on any other console some knife-attack or kill move is simply performed by pressing a button on the gamepad. However, that very same move is most likely to be done by mimicing some kind of stabbing/cutting-like movement with the Wii controller on Nintendo's upcoming next-gen console.

So is this fact gonna affect a Wii game's age rating in any way? The issue is that such an aggressive move like stabbing someone is very much abstracted if performed only bu a button-press. With the Wii controller, that layer of abstraction is taken away. What's shown on the screen is much closer replica of the actual input movement.

Personally, I do think that game rating boards will react to that and take this into account when rating a Wii game.
The problem with it for the developer is that communication with these rating boards is usually not possible during development. You can't really ask them for any feedback and if they would consider feature xy to affect your game's rating in any way. It's really only possible to submit finished games to them for rating. And since there is also absolutely no kind of experience with the discussed move-abstraction topic on Wii yet, feature xy might just be what gives you that "AO" rating you absolutely wanted to avoid.

coke saves vice city

2006-08-16T09:24:00.000+02:00

I just had to to share this new Coca Cola spot because... well... because I like it.

Really well made.

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men

2006-08-03T15:08:00.000+02:00

The game has already been officially confirmed.

So this is the new project I am working on at IO in Copenhagen :)

Wish us luck!

In other news... my holiday will be over this Monday (which explains the silence around here as of late). I'll be back in Copenhagen on Sunday and back at work on Monday morning.

moving on

2006-06-25T00:07:00.000+02:00

My work here at Ubisoft and on Splinter Cell: Double Agent is done.

It was an amazing time in which I learned a lot - both professionally and personally -, I got to know a lot of really nice people and had a lot of fun working on a very challenging brand and project that is Splinter Cell.
I am really satisfied and happy with what we have achieved and I'm more than confident that you guys will also enjoy the game when it finally hits the shelves in September.

It was by no means an easy decision. Besides all the positive things mentioned above, Ubisoft is also for sure the coolest company I have ever worked for. However, I felt that it was time to move on again and face the next really exciting challenge that was offered to me.

This Monday already I will start my new job as Sr. Level Designer at IO Interactive (the creators of the Hitman series and Freedom Fighters) in Copenhagen, Denmark.

I am both excited and nervous.

PS:
I am already working on the promised post about some SC:DA development experiences and thoughts. So this will still be posted at some point soon. I heard there's also Internet in Denmark apparently... ;)

the duke nukem forever list

2006-06-19T11:50:00.000+02:00

Ahhh, it's time for some Duke Nukem Forever jokes again:

The Duke Nukem Forever List

The following things have happened since Duke Nukem Forever was announced...
Popular Video Game Series Releases
Final Fantasy:

* Main Series
o Final Fantasy VII
o Final Fantasy VIII
o Final Fantasy IX
o Final Fantasy X
+ Final Fantasy X-2
o Final Fantasy XI
o Final Fantasy XII

...
...
...

Fun Facts
Computers & Internet:

* In 1997, the fastest consumer internet connection was a 33.6 kbps modem. On average, consumer internet connections are 300 times faster today.
* When Duke Nukem Forever was announced, the fastest processor available to consumers was a 233Mhz Pentium. Since then the clock speed of consumer processors has increased over 16 times (32 times counting dual cores), and the fabrication process has decreased from 250nm to 65nm.
* Steve Jobs was still running NeXT when Duke Nukem Forever was announced.
* Every peer to peer file sharing program including Napster was developed.
* In April of 1997, Google, eBay, and the term "weblog" didn't exist.
* Mac OS switched to UNIX and became the most highly regarded general purpose operating system on the market among the computing press.

Disasters:

* There have been 125 hurricanes. 73 in the Atlantic, 52 in the Pacific.
* There have been over 20 death-toll producing tornado outbreaks in the United States.
* Over 50 major earthquakes have shaken the world.

Economy:

* Adjusted for inflation, the average price of gas in the United States has doubled.
* The Euro was introduced as a new European currency.

Movies that were filmed, released in theatres, and have made it to DVD:

* All three Star Wars prequels.
* The entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, with extended editions.
* Every Pixar movie aside from Toy Story.

Pop Culture:

* Britney Spears' entire musical career as a pop star has taken place during Duke Nukem Forever's development.

...
...
...

Things that have taken less time than Duke Nukem Forever's Development:
Pop Culture:

* The Beatles formed, released every single one of their albums and broke up. During this time they also toured the world several times.
* Led Zeppelin released 7 albums, 9 singles, and toured around the world, crossing international borders 27 times (not counting mainland Europe.)

Science & Technology:

* The Wright brothers designed and flew the first airplane.
* The theory of General Relativity.
* The United States' entire program to put a man on the moon, from Kennedy's challenge to the landing.

Wars:

* The American War for Independence
* The United States Civil War
* World War I
* World War II and the entire Manhattan Project.
* The United State's involvement in the Vietnam War.

game development = customer service

2006-06-07T00:44:00.000+02:00

There's a really good article over at buzzscope (via game set watch).

High Voltage Software lead designer David A. Rodriguez writes about the realities of game development and why it's (often) actually not so easy to simply blame a bad game on the developer and/or designer.

Great read!
I especially like the part where David uses an analogy to describe the issue and invites you to imagine to be an architect who he hired to design a house a for him:

I come to you with some general ideas and you fleshed them out to create a full home design that you feel might be your best work to date. I tell you it’s great and to get started. So you go out with my money and hire some people to start building my house.

But the month finally comes when I call you in and tell you I’ve been going over the plans and I’ve decided that I want no right angles in my home. It’s some Feng Shui thing that will calm my very wealthy mind. Now you have already spent time and money on getting the work started on the plans you’ve already drawn, you’ve poured a foundation that has right angles all over the place and there is no room in the schedule for you to take out all of the damn right angles. Rightfully so, you attempt to talk me out of it.

“You know Mr. Rodriguez, if there aren’t any right angles in your home you might find it difficult to hang pictures.”

“I see where you’re coming from Mr. Architect. It’s a valid point. So make sure when you take out all the right angles you invent something that allows me to hang pictures.”

“But…I….”

“And I have Better Homes and Gardens scheduled to come out and photograph this house in 2 weeks. So you need to have something showable by then.”

“Two weeks! But if you want me to take out the right angles and re-pour the foundation…there’s no way…”

“Mr. Architect, it’s very important these pictures get taken. I’m not asking you to add things, I’m removing things. I’m saving you time by taking out these walls. Let’s pull together and get this done. There is no “I” in team. But there is an “m” and an “e”. And “me” is holding all of the money. If you want to get paid, get it done.”

EA Simulates FIFA World Cup, Predicts Czech Victory

2006-06-06T09:18:00.000+02:00

EA Simulates FIFA World Cup, Predicts Czech Victory

Global publisher Electronic Arts has announced that, using its video game 2006 FIFA World Cup as simulation, it predicts that the the winner of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany will be the Czech Republic. EA was able to test all 32 teams in the competition, and thus announced that the game, using plugged-in skill values relevant to each team, reveals that the Czechs will come out on top in the real-world event, which kicks off on June 9.

in other (still unconfirmed) news...

EA Simulates Schuhplatteln World Cup, Predicts Austrian Victory!!!!
(see it in action)

...thinking bout it... what about "EA Schuhplatteln 2007" for Wii (including dance-mat support)???

link bar update

2006-05-28T13:24:00.000+02:00

While taking a break from playing GTA: San Andreas (god knows why I digged that one out again) I made a few updates to the link bar on the right.

Industry:

Added: Ctrl+Alt+Del
A long-time favorite of mine that - looking only at the comic - I like even more than PA.

Removed: gamedev.net
A very valuable resource in my early days when I was still following this game programmer route. I got a lot of technical knowledge from their articles and tutorials (the now defunct flipcode was another one).
These days, however, I barely visit the site any longer.

Blogs:

Added: Click Nothing
New blog by Clint Hockings, a fellow Ubi guy from Ubi Montreal.

Added: Phil Steinmeyer
Phil Steinmeyer's blog on casual games.

Removed: Straight Forward Play
Dead link.

SCDA: E3 trailer

2006-05-19T10:19:00.000+02:00

The latest Splinter Cell: Double Agent trailer from last week's E3 is now available online here (larger version).

It's a nice mix of cutscenes, prerendered compositions and in-game footage.
While I like the general concept of the first half of the trailer, I am not a big fan of how it's composed and edited. The second half of the footage featuring mostly in-game scenes is quite impressive though and manages to communicate a few key scenes and elements of the game very well, I think (mouth watering isn't it? ;) ).

Rockstar Vienna closes doors

2006-05-11T18:56:00.000+02:00

I am still quite shocked!
(more)
(and more)

This is seriously very, very bad. Damn!
There are a lot of good and close friends of mine there! I feel with them!

The very best of luck guys!!!!!!

If you know of any opportunities for them (extremely talented and professional as well as simply nice people from all disciplines - art, code, design, sound, QA, production) then please drop me a line!
I will gladly get you in touch with them!

E3: GTA4 on X360

2006-05-09T22:03:00.000+02:00

Now this will have some serious impact.

I don't even wanna know about all the politics (and money transfers) in the last few months that it needed to make this happen.

Also (but less shocking): Halo 3 (with a first trailer only availble via Xbox Live Marketplace)

EDIT:
R* just issued a press release stating that GTA4 will be released simultaneously on X360 AND PS3. Now this is all not *that* shocking anymore as it initially seemed to be.
But losing the exclusivity (at least for the launch period of the game) is still a major (negative) fact for Sony.

Nintendo Wii

2006-04-27T21:00:00.000+02:00

Huh?

I mean, I see their point. Easy to remember, transports a message (even though that message is deeply hidden inside that name), works across all languages and is short.

But I'm honestly not sure whether Nintendo's decision to give the name "Wii" to what has formerly been known as "Revolution" is a very wise decision.
I think what counts most is that it just cries for being made fun of. I see a big potential for a lot of stupid (word)jokes. And this will not be useful for both the image of the console and the image of the Big N.

"I'm gonna go get myself a Wii(iiiiiii)!" It's true I will get myself one but it just doesn't sound right. Somehow reminds me of those "Knights of Ni" from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". Plus, there's also this kindergarten slang term "wee wee" describing...well...a penis. Hahaha... *so* funny. Right? :| No.

Sooner or later the comedy will wear off, I hope.
But still, I doubt that was a very smart decision by Nintendo.
I might be completely wrong, though.
Hopefully I am.

place your bids...

2006-04-19T20:41:00.000+02:00

...on a Video Game Development Team on ebay.

Have you ever wanted to be in control of your own development studio? Do you think you have the next big game idea? Have you ever wanted to be the lead designer of your own video game project? One lucky winner will get that chance.

You are bidding on:

One Award-Winning Video Game Development Team

and by the way: "Will post to Worldwide"

consol.at interview follow-up

2006-04-13T21:22:00.000+02:00

Just for the record...
My girlfriend saw the interview that the gaming magazine "consol.at" did with me a while back for the first time today.

Here's a transcript of what she had to say about it (original quotes):

She: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA..."
Me: :|
She: "That picture of you is really a bit infavorable."
Me: "I know. :("
She: "They managed to make you look 20kg heavier than you really are."
Me: :|
She: "But... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
Me: "What?"
She: "HAHAHA... There's also a second picture!!! I didn't see that before."
Me: :|
She: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA... etc."

And sometime later after all the laughter has faded she said she loves me.

PS: I got contacted again by consol.at a few days ago and was asked to answer some questions about videogames for an upcoming special featuring answers to those questions from various game developers. This time there's no pictures involved ;).

5 year old frog

2006-04-01T15:52:00.000+02:00

Another non SC4 post (I will post some impressions about the last weeks of development [that I'm allowed to write] soon).

My former company, Sproing, and the guys I worked with on Jacked, celebrated the 5 year anniversary of the company this weekend.

I was invited to the party (thanks again guys!), but unfortunately couldn't make it to Vienna this weekend.
So via the way of this blog post: Congrats guys!!! See you at the 10 year anniversary party (and hopefully sometime sooner)!

don't shoot the puppy

2006-03-27T23:36:00.000+02:00

Had quite some fun with this one today.
Thought I'd share.

Don't Shoot The Puppy

Some quite interesting psychological tricks in there.

GDC and japanese hardware slaes

2006-03-24T13:33:00.000+01:00

GDC 2006... well, I would so love to be there.
But I'm not.
So it's all about finishing off this game now. First submission isn't too far off.

In other news... Japanese hardware sales for the week March 13th 2006 - March 19th 2006 (source: Media Create):

#1 DS Lite: 104,452 (Annual: 262,590)
#2 PS2: 66,670 (Annual: 519,295)
#3 DS: 32,105 (Annual: 581,533)
#4 PSP: 31,848 (Annual: 484,473)
#5 GBA SP: 4,290 (Annual: 76,817)
#6 GB Micro: 3,087 (Annual: 48,024)
#7 GC: 1,318 (Annual: 38,935)
#8 Xbox 360: 1,039 (Annual: 28,749)
#9 GBA: 131 (Annual: 1,991)
#10 Xbox: 108 (Annual: 1,096)

all I say is... wow!

consol.at

2006-03-17T20:03:00.000+01:00

Three weeks ago I was interviewed by a journalist from leading Austrian game magazine consol.at.
I've never done anything like this before and it is was an interesting and fun experience. Interview topics included Splinter Cell: Double Agent in general and my work on it in particular. Also, various questions about the daily work of a (lead) level designer and the ominous question about how to get in the games industry.

The interview is now published in their latest issue.
Personally, I have not read the final version of the interview (yet), so I cannot comment on any bs I might have said (yet).

But a few words to the German speaking readers of the magazine:
Solltet ihr weitere Fragen oder Feedback zum Interview haben, dann bitte einfach hier einen Kommentar hinterlassen. Hoffe, ihr findet das Interview interessant und evtl. auch aufschlussreich.

MK3 fatalities

2006-03-15T21:12:00.000+01:00

Mortal Kombat 3 - Supreme Demonstration [via Kotaku]

Including the (somewhat questionable) Babalities and Animalities.

I don't remember there being so many different of them. Old school!

28

2006-02-27T13:27:00.000+01:00

So as of yesterday I'm 28.

The party back home in Vienna at the Down Under was a blast.
Beer, music, a cake, fun and most importantly lots of good friends. Thanks guys for coming! Good times!

world press photo

2006-02-15T18:22:00.000+01:00

Impressive and thought provoking: Winners Gallery 2006 - World Press Photo of the Year

Jacked on the shelves (finally)

2006-02-11T00:14:00.000+01:00

I'm about half an hour late with this post.

But I'm happy to announce (very, very, etc. happy in fact) that as of today, February 10th 2006, you can finally find

Jacked
(the game I was working on in 2004 and half of 2005) on the shelves of your retailer of choice (so far only in PAL territories).

Joy. YAY!

lead designer: jack thomson

2006-02-09T21:04:00.000+01:00

Based on good ol' Jack's ingenious masterpiece videogame proposal there is now I'm O.K.: A Murder Simulator.

A group of guys got together to create a game based on Jack's first original design (and there's definitely franchise potential there).
I gotta admit, the design is a bit rough around the edges and not quite fleshed out. But that's Jack's fault and probably just because he's still a bit green behind the ears when it comes to game design. But what those guys from Thomsonsoft/Leaky Pig Productions made out of the concept is actually quite fun.
The gameplay isn't too deep and sophisticated - which, again, can most likely be accounted to the original concept - but all in all the game is definitely good for a laugh (and two).

Seriously, and all sarcasm aside, the game will make you laugh (and is actually implemented quite well). So I guess the main purpose has been achieved.

I'm sorry Jack, but just in case those guys decide to sell the game (which I would consider to be the last missing criteria apart from the very vage term "manufacture") , let me remind you of that promise you made and cite your own words:

"I'll write a check for $10,000 to the favorite charity of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc's chairman, Paul Eibeler - a man Bernard Goldberg ranks as #43 in his book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America - if any video game company will create, manufacture, distribute, and sell a video game in 2006 like the following:

Osaki Kim is the father of a high school boy beaten to death with a baseball bat by a 14-year-old gamer. The killer obsessively played a violent video game in which one of the favored ways of killing is with a bat.
Bla.

Bla.

Bla."

new double agent trailer

2006-01-29T20:35:00.000+01:00

"Supporting" the recent official announcement of the delay of our game there is now a new trailer available to whet your appetite.

splinter cell: double agent delayed

2006-01-26T20:50:00.000+01:00

Well... it came as a small surprise also for us. We don't really know those news for *that* long already (but now that there's the official announcement I can post it).

In addition, the rescheduling to September 2006 of the launch of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Double AgentTM is meant to release the title on all platforms simultaneously, including the Microsoft Xbox® 360 that should have a much larger installed base by that time. This will also enable to maintain the highest quality for which Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell® is recognized. This rescheduling will ensure the best return from the coming release as well as from future sequels of this brand over time.

All this changes the planning and priorities quite a bit for the upcoming weeks and months. But we already have a very, very good idea how we will use the additional time. We now we have a bit more time to tweak those levels to absolute top quality. And even though it's actually quite a bit disappointing for the entire team, I see it as a chance and definitely as something good for the game and its final quality.

Here's the full press release: Ubisoft Entertainment reports third quarter revenue and updates 2005-2006 fiscal year outlook

one idea a week

2006-01-19T10:40:00.000+01:00

Patrick Curry, lead designer on Wideload's Stubbs the Zombie, has recently started a very interesting private project.

His New Year's resolution for 2006: Come up with one game idea per week and document them in a central place (here).

The Rules:

1. Only new ideas. This will force me to keep the creative juices flowing, which is the primary goal. But it will also prevent me from posting a game concept belonging to a long-lost friend, co-worker, or company.
2. No work-related ideas. I will steer clear of all game concepts that are directly related to any professional game projects that I have previously worked on or am currently working on. Of course I can’t predict which projects I might work on in the future…
3. Only good ideas. This will be the hardest rule to follow. But I’m really going to work hard to filter the ideas down to the gems, and then go into as much detail as possible about why I believe it’s a good idea, and would make for fun gameplay.

Cool stuff!
I'm looking forward to see (and comment to) what he comes up with.

30fps

2006-01-13T17:39:00.000+01:00

Currently trying to squeeze the last bit out of the PS2 (and our engine) in terms of framerate.
We're making quite heavy portalization modifications right now and also experiment with some portal-setups of the stranger kind that theoretically wouldn't make so much sense (and some of them even give us a *small* additional portion of a frame.

But it's getting better... We're winning about 1/10th of a frame a day. So I'm not quite giving up yet. The PS2 levels are really stunning visually and I would hate having to cut down on the visual quality of the PS2 version we're having right now.

Geeez. What a geeky post.
But thought I share :)

xmas break

2005-12-22T09:54:00.000+01:00

Before I fly back home to Austria for the christmas holidays I wanted to spread some christmas spirit and just wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2006!!!

ubisoft xmas

2005-12-16T22:56:00.000+01:00

So we had our ubi christmas party yesterday evening. Great meal, free drinks, fun. Good times. But I still got headache :(
Curse you mojito!
Here's a few pictures from the party.

In the meantime our game - along with its official title - has been officially announced as well:
Splinter Cell: Double Agent.

Street Fighter VS. Mortal Kombat

2005-12-13T21:30:00.000+01:00

Very nice piece of sprite choreography: Street Fighter VS. Mortal Kombat

cleaning up

2005-12-06T10:17:00.000+01:00

So after moving to this new location here on blogspot I thought I use the occasion and clean up my link lists a little bit. I'm currently sitting at the airport - on my way back to Vienna for the upcoming bank holidays - so I thought that's a good occasion to use the occasion.

A few things I noticed in the process:

- I would have had every reason to remove the link to Jurie's blog but in the end decided to give him a second chance and leave the link up (for now).

- Whatever happened to gamespy and IGN since their merger about 2 years ago, but I barely visit those sites these days.
I don't know - they're just not doing it for me anymore. Any of the (half-decent) editorial content on gamespy seems to be gone and IGN is (and honestly always tended towards being) completely out of the question.
So I left the gamespy link for nostalgia's sake and you, IGN, you're out!

- Comparing their new logo with the old one, gamasutra apparently gave up its ties with the Illuminati (or simply decided to keep it less obvious)

man vs. wall

2005-12-05T21:04:00.000+01:00

And here we go with another ad.
This time it's for the newly released Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones.

Likely to be pulled sometime soon as well. Please kids, don't try this at home (otherwise there'll be some ridiculous lawsuits taking place again).

Man Vs. Wall (Get Training)

banned xbox360 commercial

2005-12-04T21:20:00.001+01:00

This xbox360 ad was rated not suitable for air by MS attourneys and thus pulled.
It's quite a clever ad, though, I think. And, of course, it made its way to the web:

StandOff

nullsumme:: game__design__blog

Immersion

God's Facebook Wall

If the world could vote...

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Rumor: Bruce Willis Signs On For Kane & Lynch Movie

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Vienna & Malmo

Documentaries

Kane & Lynch: The Dope Bag - Trailer

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Update - Back From Vacation Edition

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Kane & Lynch Madrid Press Event

Kane & Lynch Dev Diary 2

Kane & Lynch Update And Some General Newsbits

Kane & Lynch Dev Diary 1

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Live: New Kane & Lynch Website

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Best Game Intros Of All Time - Part V

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This blog is rated....

Best Game Intros Of All Time - Part III

Best Game Intros Of All Time - Part II

Best Game Intros Of All Time - Part I

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Kane & Lynch Preview and Developer Interview

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Keeps you yodeling all night long...

Upcoming: New Kane & Lynch Trailer

Copenhagen Riots

New Words For 2007

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Game Play Day, D3 Expo and Stuff

Miss Video Game?????

Amiga Longplay

Grand Theft Parody

Out Now: Splinter Cell: Double Agent

Kane & Lynch X06 Trailer

leaked unannounced Ubisoft titles

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Wii & ESRB/PEGI/USK

coke saves vice city

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men

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the duke nukem forever list

game development = customer service

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link bar update

SCDA: E3 trailer

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E3: GTA4 on X360

Nintendo Wii

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