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GDC 2007 Highlights

The original focus of the Game Developers Conference centered on folks in the game industry meeting to discuss their medium and make connections. In the past few years, however, it has been targeted by gamers as a hotbed of news and details on upcoming projects. Here are the highlights from this year's GDC.

Man's best friend goes next-gen.

Molyneux's Dog
Any word on Fable 2 is eagerly gobbled up by fans in general, but lead designer Peter Molyneux himself spoke out at GDC 2007, giving us our first official news at last.

• Your Pooch: The addition of a dog may seem a strange announcement to treat as a landmark, but giving the player an unfailing, ever-loving companion adds oodles of personal immersion to the game. What's more, your canine companion is no simple pet, it can scout locations, alert you to danger, learn to perform tricks, and even fight alongside you.
• HUD: Few games are more aptly geared to having the heads up display stripped from the screen than fantasy role-playing games. With no health or mana meters, compass, or mini-map, Fable 2 presents you with nothing but the experience, letting you live in the moment.
• The World: Fable 2 isn't just expanding the world of the previous game, it is shattering the boundaries. The game isn't just big, it's massive, weighing in at 100 times the size of the original Fable. 100 times!
• Guns: This may not exactly be new news, but a fantasy RPG with guns is just cool. Tearing through Balverines with bullets is an experience we can all look forward to, and one that I eagerly await.

The Growing Arcade
The announcement to expand Xbox Live® Arcade games to a maximum capacity of 150 MB is an interesting one. It seems natural given the new 512MB Xbox 360 Memory Unit, but with three times as much space to work with, the scope of these "arcade" games could reach to full-length adventures, and even smaller RPGs with solid production value to boot. Equally tantalizing is that a glut of classic games previously too large to release are now suddenly viable on Xbox Live Arcade.

Kim's Tidbits
In an interview with IGN, Shane Kim, head honcho of all things Xbox®, confirmed a few important details.

• Mass Effect™ is officially in the last stages of development, so those worried about a catastrophic delay can stop their fretting.
• The Viva Piñata™ world will be generating new content for some time to come. Whether this means episodic expansions, a full-fledged sequel, or something else entirely, however, is still unclear.
• When referring to games in 2008, Kim specifically noted, "even though Halo® 3 will be out … ", fairly well cementing this as the year of Halo 3.

An ominous skyline.

Dream-Build-Play
The XNA Game Studio Express toolset has been in the hands of promising game developers for some time now, but with the launch of the Dream-Build-Play contest, Microsoft is issuing a challenge to aspiring developers: Build a kick-ass game and you could win a $10,000 cash prize, and more importantly, an opportunity to see your game available on Xbox Live Arcade.

To demonstrate the power of XNA, four teams built games from scratch at GDC 2007 in only four days at Microsoft's XNA Lobby Bar on the showroom floor. Check out details here for the event and here for information on the Dream-Build-Play contest.

Forza Auctions
Though details were released prior to GDC, Microsoft unveiled an online auction system for Forza Motorsport™ 2 at the conference. This is the first major opportunity to share unique user-created content across Xbox Live, and more importantly, it will lay a foundation for other games to build on. Every major new feature needs that one big game to kick start it, opening a landslide of opportunities for gamers.

Wonder what I'd get at auction?

In reference to Forza Motorsport 2 specifically, the auction system offers some great new features:

• Artistically inclined gamers less likely to spend many hours behind the wheel will find a virtually unlimited canvas to paint on, as well as substantial in-game cash rewards for selling their masterpieces to their fellow gamers.
• Gamers unfamiliar with cars and auto-racing can purchase the ultimate driving machines built by hardcore racing enthusiasts to get started.
• The developer will be able to auction off rare cars from time to time as a reward for tenacious fans.
• A dynamic economy, giving gamers an opportunity to take advantage of market trends, turning a profit on cars they no longer need.

For anyone who's spent time on ebay or any other auction site, it is not hard to see how searching out steals and deals can be an addictive venture in and of itself.

The dog days of January and February are behind us, and while the early months aren't the desert of gaming they used to be, it's nice to see that spring and summer are just around the bend, waiting to deliver some of the year's most anticipated games.

Article by Ryan Treit