Studio gameON

Feature from Yug - Wednesday, 14 January 2009 @ 1:08am

So if you didn't know, GAME ON has been running up here in Brisbane for a few months now, and one of the latest extra curricular projects to be associated with the exhibition is Studio gameOn, a challenge project headed up by the usual IGDA suspects to gather together future game developer talent to create a fully functional game in 6 weeks.

Initially I thought that seemed pretty slack considering the 48 hour gaming challenge from last year, but I soon learned this project was slightly more ambitious.

The idea is to create a small studio environment - which means that within the group there are designers, artists, programmers and production. Schedules are made, leads meetings are had, and in general it's a great way to give the staff of students the opportunity to see how their skills work under pressure. Currently there are about 15 students working on the project full time (3 part time) for the next 6 weeks.

They're also opening things up to the public quite a bit, offering an ideas box booth on-site at the State Library, hosting numerous open days where anyone can visit the studio to contribute designs and ideas, as well as constant communication through their website and forums.

In case you can't find the studio, let me point out the MASSIVE WINDOW LOGO for you

So with that background out of the way, I decided to visit the studio at their QUT Kelvin Grove campus location after their first week of operation, where they were about to pitch their game concepts to the appointed 'Industry Board'. Consisting of John Pasfield (Pandemic Studios), Adrian Cook (Wildfire Studios), and Duncan Curtis and Marko Grgic (3 Blokes Studios)

So I grabbed my camera, dragged along Yahtzee and my girlfriend Lauren, and arrived fashionably late just in time to get the last 5 minutes of one of the game pitches. Yay AustralianGamer journalism!

Industry Board - From left to right: Adrian Cook, Marko Grgic, Duncan Curtis and John Passfield

The two games being suggested were: GOLEM - a turn based rpg type game where you create golems that absorb powers in order so solve puzzles and progress through the game; and B-grade movie - a side scrolling 2d stunt based game where you progress through different 'movie sets' earning points and status depending on how well you did.

Concept work for both GOLEM and B-grade movie

Although the artwork for GOLEM was indeed impressive, the B-grade movie design was infinitely more fleshed out and much more appropriate for such a short design timeline. Not to mention it's a cool concept - personally I lament that the game Stuntman Ignition didn't get more kudos among gamers.

I spoke to Rory Cartwirght - who whether he likes it or not I'm going to refer to as the producer of the project - about the B-grade movie game and it's final format. He described the concept as something like a cross between Prince of Persia and Mirrors Edge in regards to how the character will move through the level, and depending how many stunts you successfully pull off will depend on if the 'movie' you're working on gets a 'cult' or 'blockbuster' status at the end of it. He's predicting about 3 different movies with a variety of scenes in each one, but it's still early days at this point. If it's anything like most real game studios, they'll say 3 and end up with 1 :)

B-grade movie level concept

The game is being created in flash and will be available to play at the Queensland State Library when completed, as well as online. You can follow all the progress of the studio online, or the more voyeuristic can watch them live via the real time web cam.

I'll go back to check things out in a few weeks to see how things are progressing, so stay tuned!