WSOFT: Now and into the Future: A post-mortem of Wolverine
Soft for '03/'04
A post-mortem of Wolverine Soft for '03/'04
[Alex K. -- Originally, Ed just sent this to me for comment, but, after discussing it at length, we decided to it would be worthwhile to incorporate my thoughts into it as well and offer it up to the dev/announce list as a positive step (and helpful Guide) towards making WSoft fucking rock!] (Ed B. -- Anything without Alex K. in front of it is me, and, well, I threw in the "fucking" for good measure (the rest of his comments are un-edited) I realize this email is huge, so it will also be available for perusal on the WSoft website, in the Library section.]
First, I would like to congratulate all the new officers, applaud everyone who took the time to run for a position, and thank everyone who took the time to vote for the new officers. I've talked with Alex in depth about the new crew and I'm very excited about the prospects of W.Soft next year and into the future. I already have worked with Andrew and Nate, and everything I've heard/read about the rest of you guys is very positive. I would like to get to know you all better, so when you have a chance, shoot me an email and we'll start up a dialog.
Second, without a doubt, the last two months of W.Soft have been fantastic. There were good W.Soft-dev strings, great tutorials, the White Paper meeting (though the WP has yet to be posted...), the fantastic 48hr Dev Contest with all the pre and post meetings associated with it, and a straight forward, productive election. Bravo.
That needs to be what Wolverine Soft is always like.
Below I'm going to bring up issues I see with the group and suggestions I have. I care about W.Soft as much as anyone and I want to see it excel and be a leader in Campus Game development. I may sometimes be a dissenting voice, but I want to do everything in my power to help W.Soft succeed.
--- Changing of the Guard
This very much seems to be happening, but as the new Officers take control of the organization the past Officers should continue to assist the new Officers as much as possible and make the transition of power as smooth as possible. Once a W.Soft Officer, always a W.Soft Officer so they should always try to assist the group, but that brings me to alums which will be discussed later.
[Alex K. - agreed, one of the biggest challenges for the 03/04 officers was that as soon as the elections were over, the previous officers just sort of disappeared. Since we didn't really know what to do, it took us forever to get things on track with some momentum. I'll do everything I can to prevent that from happening this time.]
--- Planning for the Fall cannot start end of August/beginning of September
Let this year be the year that W.Soft gets its preparations right. Last year, W.Soft did not have its first mass meeting till sometime in like November and it destroyed any chance of doing something productive in the Fall.
[Alex K. - Actually, the Mass Meeting was relatively early, but we didn't really have any events until late in the semester. It took a lot of effort to plan and publicize the mass-meeting, especially considering we were learning everything as we went, and we got sort of worn out afterwards and were slow to plan more events. If we had started planning much earlier (i.e. in the summer), we would have been able to publicize more, and be much more prepared for multiple events. Also, we could have gone over our calendar of events during the Mass Meeting and gotten people much more excited.]
Not only should basic Mass-Meeting, Festifall, Officer Coordination, and Flyering planning be taken care of in advance, but a complete outline of all events and meetings for the _entire year_ should be completed. Obviously this needs to be flexible, but having all this prepared in advance will assure that these events will all actually have a shot at happening, but more importantly, when people come to the W.Soft mass meeting and decided whether or not they want to join the dev list and participate in the organization they will see that shit is being planned and going on. The complete calendar should be available on the website.
[Alex K. - Agreed. The calendar should also be easily modifiable in case it needs to be changed, and contain complete info about the event-time and location. Actually, we need to start using the Campus Information Center (CIC) calendar service. Check it out at: http://uuis.umich.eduevent/contest/ It will let us upload descriptions of events that are visible to the entire student body. I believe we can also integrate it with our website to provide up-to-date info on both W.Soft events, and related events (SIGGRAPH, Entity, MGA, etc.)]
--- Website
You all know that I consider having a current website with new content paramount. What can be done to make this happen? Well, we already know that we may not have a dedicated webmaster per say, but honestly, if the website design is laid out before the beginning of the year we really won't need one. What we will need it one or a few people who are willing to make it their job constantly updating the site.
[Alex K. - Like I've said many times, Brandon can write some scripts to allow any W.Soft members to submit stuff to the site (member profiles, projects, columns, etc.) I'd prefer he do this with the new webmaster so that they can be somewhat familiar with the scripts. HOWEVER, I think the main duty of the new webmaster is to constantly be updating the site and adding content, not necessarily re-designing it and knowing all sorts of scripting languages.]
Things that could easily be added to the site
- Meeting Digest (this is a must)
- Updated information about events as they take place (a must)
- Review of events after it takes place (a must)
- [Handle]'s Forum links (weekly)
- [Handle]'s Summary of major gaming news and links (weekly)
- Post Mortems. EVERY game on the W.Soft site should have a post mortem on it. If there is not one the developer of the game should be sent an email requesting one (that includes me, but put me on the spot about it and make me feel like others are doing it)
- Alum columns, Special Guest columns. I would gladly write a column about independent game development, Testing, working your way up in the industry. I'm sure that Jay would be glad to write a column about audio, G.A.N.G., or networking. Kdeep would be happy to write one about Game Dev music, or even what it is like to move away from the game scene. There are alums in PD, and alums in software engineering who can write about their experiences. I'm sure if asked Laird would be happy to write a column about SOAR and AI. Even other developers that Nate could court to add to the W.Soft community. This is a huge untapped resource for information and generating traffic and interest (Weekly) (Monthly)
- More Whitepapers
- Every game, including all those developed in the 48hr contest should have a line on the Project page, as well as their own page.
- Every Member should have their name on the Member's Page as well as their own personal page.
- BURNT PLANET needs to be listed on the fallen off the map section, I mean come on.
- At one point was there actually a W.Soft book library, does it still exist? Books from it should be listed on the site. Something needs to be expanded on that library page or maybe it could be used as a portal to some of the above-mentioned ideas.
- Polls (daily) (weekly) (monthly)
- Links to other game dev, programming, game playing UofM sites, Spartasoft and other game dev organizations.
- Game reviews
- Forums
The list goes on and on and none of these would require all that much work from one person but , dun dun dun, the community.
--- Budget / Funds
Ok, and not to offend Nate or the CW2 team, but how in the fuck did CW2 get over $500 in school funding, but W.Soft got $50?? CW2 was one game. The purpose of W.Soft is to assist the entire Umich community in making lots of game and getting educated in the game industry. I'm all for CW2 getting what it got, and I'm sure they used it well, but W.Soft should be getting much more than any one game project is getting. Another part of W.Soft's goal is to help distribute and give recognition to games that smaller groups develop. They need funding to do this. Next year a strong ass budget proposal needs to be outlined (including the calendar of events which will help immensely) and more MSA funding needs to be gotten. If that is not enough, W.Soft should try to do some fundraising, (maybe a game tournament kill two birds with one stone), approach alum for some assistance, and follow Alex's lead to get prizes and other goodies from big dev houses and publishers.
[Alex K. - The only real funding we received from UM was $50 from MSA for making flyers (and we used $52 for flyer production). The main things we applied for funding were prizes for the 48-Hour contest, promotional CD's featuring W.Soft games, and for sending some W.Soft members to the Computer Games Technology conference in Toronto. I don't think we got funding for prizes, because BPC does not provide money for capital goods (and it was questionable whether the prizes were capital goods). Also, they're more inclined to provide funding for university events, so the CGT things was also questionable. Finally, the last thing we applied for was $500 for 500 CDs with a collection of Wolverine Soft games featuring the game developing talent at UM, as promotional material. But the BPC funding form made it difficult to apply for this, it was hard to fit it into a category - it wasn't a specific event, and it wasn't really a "publication". So about MSA: We asked for like $2000 total, which was a lot, considering most groups got an average of 300-400. We thought we should apply for as much as possible and see what we could get, but we probably came off as asking for too much.
HOWEVER, the main thing was that we could have appealed our funding, and talked in person with one of the budget officials to explain to them why the funding would help UofM students and why the game industry is a legitimate industry (and bigger than the film industry), much more effectively than a sentence or two on the BPC form. Appealing would have also shown that we are dedicated and not just making stuff up. But, we had about 2 or 3 days to appeal, between once we found out how much we got and the start of spring break. Since we were still getting our act together, we missed the deadline to appeal.
Anyway, in my experience, BPC is best for applying for money to bring guest speakers or touring events to campus. They are usually very willing to provide travel and honoraria expenses for such events. It would be a very good idea to work with other university departments that can provide funding for such events. I know Prof. John Laird is really willing to work with Wolverine Soft, especially with his Distinguished Lecture Series. Maybe try Prof. Sheila Murphy, too. MSA looks much more kindly on events that are co-sponsored. Oh and since Nate is now a W.Soft officer, maybe he can help us figure out how to successfully apply for some funding.]
--- Meetings
W.Soft needs to have more frequent meetings and they should be structure in such a way that it entices people to attend them. Tutorials are great, and game brainstorming sessions are great, but the base W.Soft meeting should be different. Meetings should start with stuff about the group and upcoming events, but then should focus on something interesting about the game industry (The officer meetings are excellent, should be often, and should be open to anyone who wants to be active in the group). Speakers whenever they are available area excellent, but another way to make W.Soft meetings more approachable is to make them Game Industry Round Tables, where the group discussing an issues related to the industry (digests or White Papers can be produced from these)
Currently, I am running weekly Round Tables at Atari. At the bottom of this email I've included a list of past and future topics, as well as a digest example.
[Alex K. - I'm also a big proponent of the group programming sessions. We can easily reserve a regular weekly time in the Duderstadt Center PC Training Rooms (former Media Union), especially if we do it now, for people just to come in and work on their personal projects. I know Rich really wanted to push these events. They should be open to all W.Soft members too, not just the programmers, so we can all get together in one room at a regular time and talk about game development. They don't have to be all rigidly structured at all, just a regular time for members to get together to work on their games and game ideas. They should also be in addition to the regular W.Soft meetings (I think). Also, meetings should take place on both campuses, Central and North (i.e. those meetings that aren't the group development sessions).]
--- Events
The potential for W.Soft events is huge and I think the 48hr dev contest showed that. I'm sure this is up to debate, but I would like to see a 48hr dev contest first semester of next year and a more extensive 1-2 month contest second semester. Not only are they great for interested students, but they also produce tons of games for W.Soft to show off. I for one will happily contribute to more such events
[Alex K. - I now have a huge list of different game companies' PR people to contact for sponsorship of special events. Also, I think it would be good to have the 48-hour contest early in the fall semester, so that it doesn't take away from the EECS494 Game Showcase at the end of the semester (and take time away from those students working on their games for that class). That's why I think the longer-term contest would work better in the winter semester. There also needs to be some sort of motivation for people to work on their games regularly during the long-term contest, otherwise they will probably just do it all in 48-hours anyway.]
Tournaments are another possibility. Originally, gaming was a big focus of W.Soft and we had some small tourneys and one huge one in the Union. Now, I know that there are other groups on campus doing tourneys, but in the least W.Soft should assist in publicizing them. I would love to see some sort of top gamers list on the W.Soft side from tourneys they hold.
Speakers are always good.
Tutorials are always good.
--- Institutionalization
There's a big word for you all. Basically it is setting up shit, so people in the future don't need to re-set up shit. In this I failed some, initially I had planned to be president of the organization again my senior year, after being in Japan, and do it then, but we had open elections and I didn't get enough votes. Coming back senior year I put more energy into CW-IG and did not create the proper documentation for W.Soft. I know part of a document was created by the officers back then, but I don't know what happened to it.
Sorry for digressing, the point is as all these things are set up and being done the officers should document what they are doing and how to do it best. Figure out a good way to get guest speakers write it out. 48hr dev contest a smash? Write a doc that explains how to run one. Stuff like this is invaluable to an organization in the long run.
[Alex K. - A very good idea, my problem is that it takes me forever to write something out, but much less time to say it. So I tend to pass on my experience and advice via word-of-mouth rather than written documents. However, all these comments I writing now will help as a starting point, and I try to get out some concrete written stuff sometime in the near future.]
--- W.Soft is not a "Programmer's" club
This is another big deal. At times over the years I have gotten the impression that the majority of members of W.Soft are programmers. Don't get me wrong, programmers are fine, but video games are not made by programmers, they are made by programmers, musicians, designers, artists, and project coordinators/ producers. Not to mention Testers, Gamers, and reviewers. When W.Soft was start there were plenty of groups that brought coders together to make programs, but that isn't what W.Soft is about. W.Soft is about the research, development, and production of VIDEO GAMES and the officers need to actively court non-programmers to actively participate in the group.
Some ideas: How bout having a game design competition. No coding involved. Just a 3-5 page game design doc competition. This would be fairly easy to run and help the group a ton. How about a game music competition? Make theme music for this character, or music for a platform Amazon level. Same goes for character design, here is the basic atmosphere of the game, we need a female protagonist. And have cool prizes for these things. On top of engaging the other parts of game development on campus it will attract non-programmers to the group and probably inspire some great games.
>>>Why doesn't W.Soft have a head of Art relations or head of Music relations? How can W.Soft focus on game development, production, publishing, without falling into the trap of focusing too much on programming and losing its entire non-eecs constituency?<<<
[Alex K. - Yeah, this is a really important point. It was hard for us this year to attract non-programmers, especially since every officer was a CS student. So we'd try things that we thought would work--like flyering in the art and music school, or even holding meetings there--but they never really worked out. So it would be good to have non-engineers involved in the W.Soft organizing team. I really like Ed's idea of having an Art School Liaison and Music School Liaison, so that the W.Soft organization can get some input on how to reach those students more effectively. Personally, I was worried that W.Soft would have no members at all, let alone non-programming members, so I'm just glad that we've got new members and some new projects up. I'd definitely like to see a broadening of our membership base, and I think Ed mentioned some good ideas.]
--- Spartasoft
I think it is about time W.Soft built up some ties with Spartasoft. I'm not suggesting a merger or anything silly like that, but certainly we should be very aware of the projects that they are working on and vice-versa. Who knows maybe they are working on a fighting game and there is a UofM student who is great at coding fighting games, or maybe they have an artist that can't find the platform game he wants to work on with Spartasoft but there are two in development with W.Soft. Both of these groups are about getting people experience and a shot in the industry.
On top of that there could be some great competitions. Like how about setting up 48hr contests on both campuses and then giving the top two games on each side another week to work on the game and then have a head to head judging.
Or same type of thing for a big gaming tournament. Only good things would come out of this. [Though of course games like CWIG are still fair game :) ]
[Alex K. - I've actually been in contact with the Spartasoft pres, and we both thought that some contests (development and game-playing) and collaboration (since they are mostly artists and we are (currently :) mostly programmers) were really good ideas. I'll write him again before the end of classes and get the contact info for their soon-to-be-president, so you can work more closely together.]
--- Alumni
If you are a W.Soft Alum, you've read this far, and you haven't submitted your alum info to Alex for the website, GET TO IT. Alum participation and growth will have a gigantic impact on W.Soft and its future as an organization. Current Officers should make it policy to try and seek out and identify all W.Soft Alums, and W.Soft Alum should make it there goal to assist W.Soft in any means possible. What does this mean? It means anything from participating in dev-list discussions, offering insight into the game industry, coming in as a guest speaker, writing a column for the website, offering funding, offering games, if jobs become available in your company contact the dev-list and passing that information along, if you are in the UofM area helping and participating in events, ANYTHING and EVERYTHING you can do to make W.Soft the best it can be. And here is the secret, even though you are no longer a member of W.Soft and already well on your way with your career, if W.Soft maintains its current success and grows, you never know how helpful it might be for you. Maybe you just got canned and some other alum posts a job opening and you knew him back in the day, or member a senior alum is starting up an independent project (with Sony funding) and he really just needs a character artist. The more Alum and Member participation that is given the more everyone benefits.
[Alex K. - That's all well and good, but an independent project backed by Sony isn't really an "independent" project, now is it, Ed? ;) ]
Also, I very much think that one of the things the officers should set up this summer is an "Honorary Alum" member section on the website and seek out any body who us currently doing something in the game industry and who went to the UofM. The idea being, if W.Soft had been there for them when they were in school they would have been members. This will greatly strength the W.Soft community and its connection with the UofM.
[Alex K. - Actually, the current Alumni section is good for both W.Soft Alumni and Honorary W.Soft members. Prof. Laird has told me that he really wants to help us seek out UM alumni game developers, so that he can decide who to bring to campus for his distinguished lecture series. This will be a great help, but that's why its so important for you to send me your member profiles, so we can look more legitimate.]
Lastly, I think it would be fantastic if we started having a W.Soft Alum/member reunion. It would be an opportunity for all of us Alum to get together back in Ann Arbor to compare notes, tell stories, game, and pass all we learned on to the current UorM members. Maybe a weekend once a year where everyone gets together games, drinks, and argues. If there is interest in this lets try to figure out what the best potential time for it is, and make it work. Fuck, we could even play a game of Mayerball or two.
--- Other
And here are some questions from my previous big email that I think are important to consider and work on over this coming summer. These are more Macro issues then Micro issues.
How can W.Soft promote itself on campus? What can be done to increase campus awareness of and participation in W.Soft?
What more can W.Soft do to support independent game development at the UofM? What can W.Soft do to support game development at local high-schools? What is W.Soft doing to promote video games as a medium?
What is the 1 year plan for W.Soft? The 3 year plan? 5 year?
--- Closing Thoughts
Each and every aspect of this email does not need to happen in the immediate future or at all, but I certainly feel bringing it all up and discussing it is very important. I hope that over the next 3 months the current officers spend as much time as they can preparing for the coming year and establishing what W.Soft can and will become in the future. The game industry is aching for organizations that help better prepare gamers to work in the industry, and that is exactly what W.Soft can do. The U of M is at the forefront of Undergraduate Game Development Education and is the perfect place for W.Soft to thrive and succeed.
I'm more than happy to discuss or elaborate on any of the above, and if you need help over the next 5 months in preparation of Fall 2004, please don't hesitate to email, IM, or call me.
Eduardo Baraf
www.umich.edu/~ebaraf
ebaraf@umich.edu
AIM: Plight
[Alex K. - Same goes for me,
Alex Kerfoot
www.umich.edu/~akerfoot
akerfoot@umich.edu
AIM: JohnDeSavage]
TOPICS AND DIGEST INFO FOR ROUNDTABLES
[Alex K. - I think its really important to include non-game-industry people (or non-game-enthusiasts) in roundtables. For example, at GDC I went to a roundtable on violence in videogames which was all industry people, and Christina and I (who have a lot of analytical and sociological thinking skills). Anyway, during the roundtable we all talked about violence and its relation to videogames and portrayal in the media, etc. etc. At the end, we all felt like we agreed on something and that we had made some sort of progress towards something. But when I thought about it afterwards, it really didn't seem that effective--basically, we just rehashed all the game industry's cliched responses about violence. One guy even contradicted himself on three different occasions, and no one even seemed to notice. Long story short, we all thought that we made some forward progress, but we really just went in circles. So for some of the social effects roundtables listed below, it would be good to promote it to sociology/communications studies/womens studies/etc. students, and professors for that matter. Likewise, get business students/faculty to attend the marketing roundtables, get Japanese Culture students/faculty to attend the cultural ones, etc. Otherwise, we're just going to be preaching to the choir.]
Possible Topics
* The role of larger publishers as the industry matures
* Benefits and pitfalls of making a license title
* Changing trends in the industry
* How is Quality Assurance growing and changing in the industry?
* Top 10 components all great games have
* What will the Nintendo DS need to do to be successful?
* Thoughts and comments about GDC
* Thoughts and ideas of this year's E3: What will be announced?
* Middleware: What is it, and how is it going to change the industry as we know it
* The role of morality in video games (Light/Dark side in KOTOR, Good/Bad Cop in True Crime/NARC)
* Is another video game crash (as in the post-2600 crash of the early 80's, not blue screen) around the corner?
* Polygons: Do they matter anymore? Is new hardware necessary?
* Photo-realism vs. Impressionism in graphics: What does the consumer want?
* Sex and stereotypes in video games
* Violence in video games: Is change necessary? How to keep the government from getting involved?
* Emotional response to video games. What kind of games make you laugh, cry, etc?
* Where did the Arcades all go? Arcade trends towards unique interfaces - DDR pads, guns and steering wheels
* Japan vs. America: Bridging the Cultural Gap
o http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/03/25/news_6092283.html
* Europe and South America: What are their roles in the Game Industry?
* Canada: How are they attracting Industry Talent and why do their games rock?
* What TV/book/film/etc. licenses would translate well into a game?
* Video games and their penetration onto Television
* Video games and their penetration onto Movies
* Communications: When will the NY Times have consistent game reviews?
Possible Tutorials
* Unreal Editor
* Maya
* 3D Studio Max
* Sonic Forge
* Photoshop
* RPG Maker
* Design Documents 101
Possible Speakers
* Producer Rep
* Designer Rep
* Marketing Rep
* Programming Rep
* Audio Rep
* Artist Rep
Game Industry Round Table: Meeting Digest 03.24.04
GIRT Introduction, Auto-Detect Difficulty, and Dead Genres
Time/Location
* 03.24.04: 12:00 -- 1:00pm, Conference Room
Topics
* Difficulty of games: Does someone have the right to complete a game they purchase, or does that cheapen the experience? What kinds of dynamic difficulty adjustment work/don't work? Try to think of the hardest game you have ever played, easiest, and the most balanced. Articles discussing this topic can be found at:
o http://costik.com/weblog/2004_01_01_blogchive.html#107539921797922680
o http://dukenukem.typepad.com/game_matters/2004/01/autoadjusting_g.html
o http://www.gamegirladvance.com/archives/2004/02/07/breaking_my_controller.html
o http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/03/25/news_6092283.html
* Genres: What kind of games have been unexplored, what genres are becoming obsolete? What is your favorite genre? What is the best Genre bending game? Articles discussing this topic can be found at:
o http://www.runawaystudios.com/gamestuff/gamegenre.php
o http://www.gamespy.com/top10/march03/genres/
Notes/Minutes
At the start of the meeting we talked a little bit about the goals of having the GIRT -- developing a forum for furthering our understanding and appreciation of games -- and the topics that we would be covering in the meeting, Difficulty of Games and Genres.
While people filtered into we started talking informally about Dead Genres and particularly about FMV games. The group shared memories of Dragon's Lair, Mad Dog McCree, Night Trap, Sewer Shark, and Sega CD.
We then moved into some discussions of Coin-Ops and the good old days of Arcade Rats. People also shared some tips and tricks for playing Arcade games for free.
Once everyone was settled we started talking about Difficulty in video games, particularly Auto-Detect Difficulty. We started with the GameGirlAdvance.com article and Jak II. Everyone agreed that the user should never be stuck in a segment of the game that is too difficult because of a crappy placed auto-save and that difficulty settings, auto or not, should not be used to make up for poor game design. We discussed games such as Max Pain, Ultima, The Simpsons Hit and Run, and Mario Kart, and how different types of ADD were used and what the results, positive or negative, were.
Next, games that allowed the user to select difficulty, such as Doom or Civilization 3 were discussed in length. The general consensus was that users are often interested in testing their skills at different difficulties and ADD just cannot work in those cases.
Towards the end of the meeting, the discussion turned away from the gameplay impact of difficulty settings and towards the story/experience impact of difficulty. How can difficulty be seen in films and literature? How is difficulty used to pace a story and pull the user into the plot? Is some of that lost with ADD or difficulty settings? Television and games also came up briefly, as did the atrocity that was the Video Game Awards on Spike TV.
Time ran out so we had to hold off on a full discussion about Dead Game genres, but overall the discussion went well and the group decided that it would be worthwhile to have more frequent GIRTs.
Follow Ups/Extra Comments
* A forum discussion about FMV games
o http://www.gamesanimal.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=703
* An interesting post found while looking for info on playing arcade games for free
o http://www.tomheroes.com/Video%20Games%20FS/Retrotimes/retrotimes20.htm#Breaking%20the%20Law
[Alex K. -- Originally, Ed just sent this to me for comment, but, after discussing it at length, we decided to it would be worthwhile to incorporate my thoughts into it as well and offer it up to the dev/announce list as a positive step (and helpful Guide) towards making WSoft fucking rock!] (Ed B. -- Anything without Alex K. in front of it is me, and, well, I threw in the "fucking" for good measure (the rest of his comments are un-edited) I realize this email is huge, so it will also be available for perusal on the WSoft website, in the Library section.]
First, I would like to congratulate all the new officers, applaud everyone who took the time to run for a position, and thank everyone who took the time to vote for the new officers. I've talked with Alex in depth about the new crew and I'm very excited about the prospects of W.Soft next year and into the future. I already have worked with Andrew and Nate, and everything I've heard/read about the rest of you guys is very positive. I would like to get to know you all better, so when you have a chance, shoot me an email and we'll start up a dialog.
Second, without a doubt, the last two months of W.Soft have been fantastic. There were good W.Soft-dev strings, great tutorials, the White Paper meeting (though the WP has yet to be posted...), the fantastic 48hr Dev Contest with all the pre and post meetings associated with it, and a straight forward, productive election. Bravo.
That needs to be what Wolverine Soft is always like.
Below I'm going to bring up issues I see with the group and suggestions I have. I care about W.Soft as much as anyone and I want to see it excel and be a leader in Campus Game development. I may sometimes be a dissenting voice, but I want to do everything in my power to help W.Soft succeed.
--- Changing of the Guard
This very much seems to be happening, but as the new Officers take control of the organization the past Officers should continue to assist the new Officers as much as possible and make the transition of power as smooth as possible. Once a W.Soft Officer, always a W.Soft Officer so they should always try to assist the group, but that brings me to alums which will be discussed later.
[Alex K. - agreed, one of the biggest challenges for the 03/04 officers was that as soon as the elections were over, the previous officers just sort of disappeared. Since we didn't really know what to do, it took us forever to get things on track with some momentum. I'll do everything I can to prevent that from happening this time.]
--- Planning for the Fall cannot start end of August/beginning of September
Let this year be the year that W.Soft gets its preparations right. Last year, W.Soft did not have its first mass meeting till sometime in like November and it destroyed any chance of doing something productive in the Fall.
[Alex K. - Actually, the Mass Meeting was relatively early, but we didn't really have any events until late in the semester. It took a lot of effort to plan and publicize the mass-meeting, especially considering we were learning everything as we went, and we got sort of worn out afterwards and were slow to plan more events. If we had started planning much earlier (i.e. in the summer), we would have been able to publicize more, and be much more prepared for multiple events. Also, we could have gone over our calendar of events during the Mass Meeting and gotten people much more excited.]
Not only should basic Mass-Meeting, Festifall, Officer Coordination, and Flyering planning be taken care of in advance, but a complete outline of all events and meetings for the _entire year_ should be completed. Obviously this needs to be flexible, but having all this prepared in advance will assure that these events will all actually have a shot at happening, but more importantly, when people come to the W.Soft mass meeting and decided whether or not they want to join the dev list and participate in the organization they will see that shit is being planned and going on. The complete calendar should be available on the website.
[Alex K. - Agreed. The calendar should also be easily modifiable in case it needs to be changed, and contain complete info about the event-time and location. Actually, we need to start using the Campus Information Center (CIC) calendar service. Check it out at: http://uuis.umich.eduevent/contest/ It will let us upload descriptions of events that are visible to the entire student body. I believe we can also integrate it with our website to provide up-to-date info on both W.Soft events, and related events (SIGGRAPH, Entity, MGA, etc.)]
--- Website
You all know that I consider having a current website with new content paramount. What can be done to make this happen? Well, we already know that we may not have a dedicated webmaster per say, but honestly, if the website design is laid out before the beginning of the year we really won't need one. What we will need it one or a few people who are willing to make it their job constantly updating the site.
[Alex K. - Like I've said many times, Brandon can write some scripts to allow any W.Soft members to submit stuff to the site (member profiles, projects, columns, etc.) I'd prefer he do this with the new webmaster so that they can be somewhat familiar with the scripts. HOWEVER, I think the main duty of the new webmaster is to constantly be updating the site and adding content, not necessarily re-designing it and knowing all sorts of scripting languages.]
Things that could easily be added to the site
- Meeting Digest (this is a must)
- Updated information about events as they take place (a must)
- Review of events after it takes place (a must)
- [Handle]'s Forum links (weekly)
- [Handle]'s Summary of major gaming news and links (weekly)
- Post Mortems. EVERY game on the W.Soft site should have a post mortem on it. If there is not one the developer of the game should be sent an email requesting one (that includes me, but put me on the spot about it and make me feel like others are doing it)
- Alum columns, Special Guest columns. I would gladly write a column about independent game development, Testing, working your way up in the industry. I'm sure that Jay would be glad to write a column about audio, G.A.N.G., or networking. Kdeep would be happy to write one about Game Dev music, or even what it is like to move away from the game scene. There are alums in PD, and alums in software engineering who can write about their experiences. I'm sure if asked Laird would be happy to write a column about SOAR and AI. Even other developers that Nate could court to add to the W.Soft community. This is a huge untapped resource for information and generating traffic and interest (Weekly) (Monthly)
- More Whitepapers
- Every game, including all those developed in the 48hr contest should have a line on the Project page, as well as their own page.
- Every Member should have their name on the Member's Page as well as their own personal page.
- BURNT PLANET needs to be listed on the fallen off the map section, I mean come on.
- At one point was there actually a W.Soft book library, does it still exist? Books from it should be listed on the site. Something needs to be expanded on that library page or maybe it could be used as a portal to some of the above-mentioned ideas.
- Polls (daily) (weekly) (monthly)
- Links to other game dev, programming, game playing UofM sites, Spartasoft and other game dev organizations.
- Game reviews
- Forums
The list goes on and on and none of these would require all that much work from one person but , dun dun dun, the community.
--- Budget / Funds
Ok, and not to offend Nate or the CW2 team, but how in the fuck did CW2 get over $500 in school funding, but W.Soft got $50?? CW2 was one game. The purpose of W.Soft is to assist the entire Umich community in making lots of game and getting educated in the game industry. I'm all for CW2 getting what it got, and I'm sure they used it well, but W.Soft should be getting much more than any one game project is getting. Another part of W.Soft's goal is to help distribute and give recognition to games that smaller groups develop. They need funding to do this. Next year a strong ass budget proposal needs to be outlined (including the calendar of events which will help immensely) and more MSA funding needs to be gotten. If that is not enough, W.Soft should try to do some fundraising, (maybe a game tournament kill two birds with one stone), approach alum for some assistance, and follow Alex's lead to get prizes and other goodies from big dev houses and publishers.
[Alex K. - The only real funding we received from UM was $50 from MSA for making flyers (and we used $52 for flyer production). The main things we applied for funding were prizes for the 48-Hour contest, promotional CD's featuring W.Soft games, and for sending some W.Soft members to the Computer Games Technology conference in Toronto. I don't think we got funding for prizes, because BPC does not provide money for capital goods (and it was questionable whether the prizes were capital goods). Also, they're more inclined to provide funding for university events, so the CGT things was also questionable. Finally, the last thing we applied for was $500 for 500 CDs with a collection of Wolverine Soft games featuring the game developing talent at UM, as promotional material. But the BPC funding form made it difficult to apply for this, it was hard to fit it into a category - it wasn't a specific event, and it wasn't really a "publication". So about MSA: We asked for like $2000 total, which was a lot, considering most groups got an average of 300-400. We thought we should apply for as much as possible and see what we could get, but we probably came off as asking for too much.
HOWEVER, the main thing was that we could have appealed our funding, and talked in person with one of the budget officials to explain to them why the funding would help UofM students and why the game industry is a legitimate industry (and bigger than the film industry), much more effectively than a sentence or two on the BPC form. Appealing would have also shown that we are dedicated and not just making stuff up. But, we had about 2 or 3 days to appeal, between once we found out how much we got and the start of spring break. Since we were still getting our act together, we missed the deadline to appeal.
Anyway, in my experience, BPC is best for applying for money to bring guest speakers or touring events to campus. They are usually very willing to provide travel and honoraria expenses for such events. It would be a very good idea to work with other university departments that can provide funding for such events. I know Prof. John Laird is really willing to work with Wolverine Soft, especially with his Distinguished Lecture Series. Maybe try Prof. Sheila Murphy, too. MSA looks much more kindly on events that are co-sponsored. Oh and since Nate is now a W.Soft officer, maybe he can help us figure out how to successfully apply for some funding.]
--- Meetings
W.Soft needs to have more frequent meetings and they should be structure in such a way that it entices people to attend them. Tutorials are great, and game brainstorming sessions are great, but the base W.Soft meeting should be different. Meetings should start with stuff about the group and upcoming events, but then should focus on something interesting about the game industry (The officer meetings are excellent, should be often, and should be open to anyone who wants to be active in the group). Speakers whenever they are available area excellent, but another way to make W.Soft meetings more approachable is to make them Game Industry Round Tables, where the group discussing an issues related to the industry (digests or White Papers can be produced from these)
Currently, I am running weekly Round Tables at Atari. At the bottom of this email I've included a list of past and future topics, as well as a digest example.
[Alex K. - I'm also a big proponent of the group programming sessions. We can easily reserve a regular weekly time in the Duderstadt Center PC Training Rooms (former Media Union), especially if we do it now, for people just to come in and work on their personal projects. I know Rich really wanted to push these events. They should be open to all W.Soft members too, not just the programmers, so we can all get together in one room at a regular time and talk about game development. They don't have to be all rigidly structured at all, just a regular time for members to get together to work on their games and game ideas. They should also be in addition to the regular W.Soft meetings (I think). Also, meetings should take place on both campuses, Central and North (i.e. those meetings that aren't the group development sessions).]
--- Events
The potential for W.Soft events is huge and I think the 48hr dev contest showed that. I'm sure this is up to debate, but I would like to see a 48hr dev contest first semester of next year and a more extensive 1-2 month contest second semester. Not only are they great for interested students, but they also produce tons of games for W.Soft to show off. I for one will happily contribute to more such events
[Alex K. - I now have a huge list of different game companies' PR people to contact for sponsorship of special events. Also, I think it would be good to have the 48-hour contest early in the fall semester, so that it doesn't take away from the EECS494 Game Showcase at the end of the semester (and take time away from those students working on their games for that class). That's why I think the longer-term contest would work better in the winter semester. There also needs to be some sort of motivation for people to work on their games regularly during the long-term contest, otherwise they will probably just do it all in 48-hours anyway.]
Tournaments are another possibility. Originally, gaming was a big focus of W.Soft and we had some small tourneys and one huge one in the Union. Now, I know that there are other groups on campus doing tourneys, but in the least W.Soft should assist in publicizing them. I would love to see some sort of top gamers list on the W.Soft side from tourneys they hold.
Speakers are always good.
Tutorials are always good.
--- Institutionalization
There's a big word for you all. Basically it is setting up shit, so people in the future don't need to re-set up shit. In this I failed some, initially I had planned to be president of the organization again my senior year, after being in Japan, and do it then, but we had open elections and I didn't get enough votes. Coming back senior year I put more energy into CW-IG and did not create the proper documentation for W.Soft. I know part of a document was created by the officers back then, but I don't know what happened to it.
Sorry for digressing, the point is as all these things are set up and being done the officers should document what they are doing and how to do it best. Figure out a good way to get guest speakers write it out. 48hr dev contest a smash? Write a doc that explains how to run one. Stuff like this is invaluable to an organization in the long run.
[Alex K. - A very good idea, my problem is that it takes me forever to write something out, but much less time to say it. So I tend to pass on my experience and advice via word-of-mouth rather than written documents. However, all these comments I writing now will help as a starting point, and I try to get out some concrete written stuff sometime in the near future.]
--- W.Soft is not a "Programmer's" club
This is another big deal. At times over the years I have gotten the impression that the majority of members of W.Soft are programmers. Don't get me wrong, programmers are fine, but video games are not made by programmers, they are made by programmers, musicians, designers, artists, and project coordinators/ producers. Not to mention Testers, Gamers, and reviewers. When W.Soft was start there were plenty of groups that brought coders together to make programs, but that isn't what W.Soft is about. W.Soft is about the research, development, and production of VIDEO GAMES and the officers need to actively court non-programmers to actively participate in the group.
Some ideas: How bout having a game design competition. No coding involved. Just a 3-5 page game design doc competition. This would be fairly easy to run and help the group a ton. How about a game music competition? Make theme music for this character, or music for a platform Amazon level. Same goes for character design, here is the basic atmosphere of the game, we need a female protagonist. And have cool prizes for these things. On top of engaging the other parts of game development on campus it will attract non-programmers to the group and probably inspire some great games.
>>>Why doesn't W.Soft have a head of Art relations or head of Music relations? How can W.Soft focus on game development, production, publishing, without falling into the trap of focusing too much on programming and losing its entire non-eecs constituency?<<<
[Alex K. - Yeah, this is a really important point. It was hard for us this year to attract non-programmers, especially since every officer was a CS student. So we'd try things that we thought would work--like flyering in the art and music school, or even holding meetings there--but they never really worked out. So it would be good to have non-engineers involved in the W.Soft organizing team. I really like Ed's idea of having an Art School Liaison and Music School Liaison, so that the W.Soft organization can get some input on how to reach those students more effectively. Personally, I was worried that W.Soft would have no members at all, let alone non-programming members, so I'm just glad that we've got new members and some new projects up. I'd definitely like to see a broadening of our membership base, and I think Ed mentioned some good ideas.]
--- Spartasoft
I think it is about time W.Soft built up some ties with Spartasoft. I'm not suggesting a merger or anything silly like that, but certainly we should be very aware of the projects that they are working on and vice-versa. Who knows maybe they are working on a fighting game and there is a UofM student who is great at coding fighting games, or maybe they have an artist that can't find the platform game he wants to work on with Spartasoft but there are two in development with W.Soft. Both of these groups are about getting people experience and a shot in the industry.
On top of that there could be some great competitions. Like how about setting up 48hr contests on both campuses and then giving the top two games on each side another week to work on the game and then have a head to head judging.
Or same type of thing for a big gaming tournament. Only good things would come out of this. [Though of course games like CWIG are still fair game :) ]
[Alex K. - I've actually been in contact with the Spartasoft pres, and we both thought that some contests (development and game-playing) and collaboration (since they are mostly artists and we are (currently :) mostly programmers) were really good ideas. I'll write him again before the end of classes and get the contact info for their soon-to-be-president, so you can work more closely together.]
--- Alumni
If you are a W.Soft Alum, you've read this far, and you haven't submitted your alum info to Alex for the website, GET TO IT. Alum participation and growth will have a gigantic impact on W.Soft and its future as an organization. Current Officers should make it policy to try and seek out and identify all W.Soft Alums, and W.Soft Alum should make it there goal to assist W.Soft in any means possible. What does this mean? It means anything from participating in dev-list discussions, offering insight into the game industry, coming in as a guest speaker, writing a column for the website, offering funding, offering games, if jobs become available in your company contact the dev-list and passing that information along, if you are in the UofM area helping and participating in events, ANYTHING and EVERYTHING you can do to make W.Soft the best it can be. And here is the secret, even though you are no longer a member of W.Soft and already well on your way with your career, if W.Soft maintains its current success and grows, you never know how helpful it might be for you. Maybe you just got canned and some other alum posts a job opening and you knew him back in the day, or member a senior alum is starting up an independent project (with Sony funding) and he really just needs a character artist. The more Alum and Member participation that is given the more everyone benefits.
[Alex K. - That's all well and good, but an independent project backed by Sony isn't really an "independent" project, now is it, Ed? ;) ]
Also, I very much think that one of the things the officers should set up this summer is an "Honorary Alum" member section on the website and seek out any body who us currently doing something in the game industry and who went to the UofM. The idea being, if W.Soft had been there for them when they were in school they would have been members. This will greatly strength the W.Soft community and its connection with the UofM.
[Alex K. - Actually, the current Alumni section is good for both W.Soft Alumni and Honorary W.Soft members. Prof. Laird has told me that he really wants to help us seek out UM alumni game developers, so that he can decide who to bring to campus for his distinguished lecture series. This will be a great help, but that's why its so important for you to send me your member profiles, so we can look more legitimate.]
Lastly, I think it would be fantastic if we started having a W.Soft Alum/member reunion. It would be an opportunity for all of us Alum to get together back in Ann Arbor to compare notes, tell stories, game, and pass all we learned on to the current UorM members. Maybe a weekend once a year where everyone gets together games, drinks, and argues. If there is interest in this lets try to figure out what the best potential time for it is, and make it work. Fuck, we could even play a game of Mayerball or two.
--- Other
And here are some questions from my previous big email that I think are important to consider and work on over this coming summer. These are more Macro issues then Micro issues.
How can W.Soft promote itself on campus? What can be done to increase campus awareness of and participation in W.Soft?
What more can W.Soft do to support independent game development at the UofM? What can W.Soft do to support game development at local high-schools? What is W.Soft doing to promote video games as a medium?
What is the 1 year plan for W.Soft? The 3 year plan? 5 year?
--- Closing Thoughts
Each and every aspect of this email does not need to happen in the immediate future or at all, but I certainly feel bringing it all up and discussing it is very important. I hope that over the next 3 months the current officers spend as much time as they can preparing for the coming year and establishing what W.Soft can and will become in the future. The game industry is aching for organizations that help better prepare gamers to work in the industry, and that is exactly what W.Soft can do. The U of M is at the forefront of Undergraduate Game Development Education and is the perfect place for W.Soft to thrive and succeed.
I'm more than happy to discuss or elaborate on any of the above, and if you need help over the next 5 months in preparation of Fall 2004, please don't hesitate to email, IM, or call me.
Eduardo Baraf
www.umich.edu/~ebaraf
ebaraf@umich.edu
AIM: Plight
[Alex K. - Same goes for me,
Alex Kerfoot
www.umich.edu/~akerfoot
akerfoot@umich.edu
AIM: JohnDeSavage]
TOPICS AND DIGEST INFO FOR ROUNDTABLES
[Alex K. - I think its really important to include non-game-industry people (or non-game-enthusiasts) in roundtables. For example, at GDC I went to a roundtable on violence in videogames which was all industry people, and Christina and I (who have a lot of analytical and sociological thinking skills). Anyway, during the roundtable we all talked about violence and its relation to videogames and portrayal in the media, etc. etc. At the end, we all felt like we agreed on something and that we had made some sort of progress towards something. But when I thought about it afterwards, it really didn't seem that effective--basically, we just rehashed all the game industry's cliched responses about violence. One guy even contradicted himself on three different occasions, and no one even seemed to notice. Long story short, we all thought that we made some forward progress, but we really just went in circles. So for some of the social effects roundtables listed below, it would be good to promote it to sociology/communications studies/womens studies/etc. students, and professors for that matter. Likewise, get business students/faculty to attend the marketing roundtables, get Japanese Culture students/faculty to attend the cultural ones, etc. Otherwise, we're just going to be preaching to the choir.]
Possible Topics
* The role of larger publishers as the industry matures
* Benefits and pitfalls of making a license title
* Changing trends in the industry
* How is Quality Assurance growing and changing in the industry?
* Top 10 components all great games have
* What will the Nintendo DS need to do to be successful?
* Thoughts and comments about GDC
* Thoughts and ideas of this year's E3: What will be announced?
* Middleware: What is it, and how is it going to change the industry as we know it
* The role of morality in video games (Light/Dark side in KOTOR, Good/Bad Cop in True Crime/NARC)
* Is another video game crash (as in the post-2600 crash of the early 80's, not blue screen) around the corner?
* Polygons: Do they matter anymore? Is new hardware necessary?
* Photo-realism vs. Impressionism in graphics: What does the consumer want?
* Sex and stereotypes in video games
* Violence in video games: Is change necessary? How to keep the government from getting involved?
* Emotional response to video games. What kind of games make you laugh, cry, etc?
* Where did the Arcades all go? Arcade trends towards unique interfaces - DDR pads, guns and steering wheels
* Japan vs. America: Bridging the Cultural Gap
o http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/03/25/news_6092283.html
* Europe and South America: What are their roles in the Game Industry?
* Canada: How are they attracting Industry Talent and why do their games rock?
* What TV/book/film/etc. licenses would translate well into a game?
* Video games and their penetration onto Television
* Video games and their penetration onto Movies
* Communications: When will the NY Times have consistent game reviews?
Possible Tutorials
* Unreal Editor
* Maya
* 3D Studio Max
* Sonic Forge
* Photoshop
* RPG Maker
* Design Documents 101
Possible Speakers
* Producer Rep
* Designer Rep
* Marketing Rep
* Programming Rep
* Audio Rep
* Artist Rep
Game Industry Round Table: Meeting Digest 03.24.04
GIRT Introduction, Auto-Detect Difficulty, and Dead Genres
Time/Location
* 03.24.04: 12:00 -- 1:00pm, Conference Room
Topics
* Difficulty of games: Does someone have the right to complete a game they purchase, or does that cheapen the experience? What kinds of dynamic difficulty adjustment work/don't work? Try to think of the hardest game you have ever played, easiest, and the most balanced. Articles discussing this topic can be found at:
o http://costik.com/weblog/2004_01_01_blogchive.html#107539921797922680
o http://dukenukem.typepad.com/game_matters/2004/01/autoadjusting_g.html
o http://www.gamegirladvance.com/archives/2004/02/07/breaking_my_controller.html
o http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/03/25/news_6092283.html
* Genres: What kind of games have been unexplored, what genres are becoming obsolete? What is your favorite genre? What is the best Genre bending game? Articles discussing this topic can be found at:
o http://www.runawaystudios.com/gamestuff/gamegenre.php
o http://www.gamespy.com/top10/march03/genres/
Notes/Minutes
At the start of the meeting we talked a little bit about the goals of having the GIRT -- developing a forum for furthering our understanding and appreciation of games -- and the topics that we would be covering in the meeting, Difficulty of Games and Genres.
While people filtered into we started talking informally about Dead Genres and particularly about FMV games. The group shared memories of Dragon's Lair, Mad Dog McCree, Night Trap, Sewer Shark, and Sega CD.
We then moved into some discussions of Coin-Ops and the good old days of Arcade Rats. People also shared some tips and tricks for playing Arcade games for free.
Once everyone was settled we started talking about Difficulty in video games, particularly Auto-Detect Difficulty. We started with the GameGirlAdvance.com article and Jak II. Everyone agreed that the user should never be stuck in a segment of the game that is too difficult because of a crappy placed auto-save and that difficulty settings, auto or not, should not be used to make up for poor game design. We discussed games such as Max Pain, Ultima, The Simpsons Hit and Run, and Mario Kart, and how different types of ADD were used and what the results, positive or negative, were.
Next, games that allowed the user to select difficulty, such as Doom or Civilization 3 were discussed in length. The general consensus was that users are often interested in testing their skills at different difficulties and ADD just cannot work in those cases.
Towards the end of the meeting, the discussion turned away from the gameplay impact of difficulty settings and towards the story/experience impact of difficulty. How can difficulty be seen in films and literature? How is difficulty used to pace a story and pull the user into the plot? Is some of that lost with ADD or difficulty settings? Television and games also came up briefly, as did the atrocity that was the Video Game Awards on Spike TV.
Time ran out so we had to hold off on a full discussion about Dead Game genres, but overall the discussion went well and the group decided that it would be worthwhile to have more frequent GIRTs.
Follow Ups/Extra Comments
* A forum discussion about FMV games
o http://www.gamesanimal.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=703
* An interesting post found while looking for info on playing arcade games for free
o http://www.tomheroes.com/Video%20Games%20FS/Retrotimes/retrotimes20.htm#Breaking%20the%20Law
Note: views and opinions expressed in this article are the author's and are not necessarily those of Wolverine Soft.