Sign in to follow this  
Jake

GDC 2012: With Blasts

Recommended Posts

GDCast

The Idle Thumbs Conf Grenade 2012: With Blasts

Picture a podcast which is itself made up of a series of smaller podcasts. Now, stop picturing, and start listening to our GDC wrap-up episode, featuring a series of quick interviews with Christina Norman (Riot Games), Tom Francis (PC Gamer/Suspicious Developments), Derek Yu (independent), and Bennett Foddy (independent), as well as our closing thoughts on GDC 2012. Support our Kickstarter campaign: http://idlethumbs.net/kickstarter

Things Discussed: Bastion, PoleRiders, Johann Sebastian Joust, GIRP, MegaGIRP, Gunpoint, Spelunky, Games, Development, Atmosphere

Download through iTunes

Even the RSS is updated!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think I disagree with the point about atmosphere in games not coming from music or art fidelity, but I'm not sure exactly what Remo meant. Graphics with high resolution tons of detail and music with a ton of cues and an orchestra or whatever, sure those don't matter in the end if that means "fidelity' but I think of more of having a cohesive art direction and consistent music style to be super important. To me that's "high fidelity," but I actually hate when anyone says fidelity referring to graphics, since it is so vague and not really technical, so eh.

I also didn't hear the talk.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I think I disagree with the point about atmosphere in games not coming from music or art fidelity, but I'm not sure exactly what Remo meant. Graphics with high resolution tons of detail and music with a ton of cues and an orchestra or whatever, sure those don't matter in the end if that means "fidelity' but I think of more of having a cohesive art direction and consistent music style to be super important. To me that's "high fidelity," but I actually hate when anyone says fidelity referring to graphics, since it is so vague and not really technical, so eh.

I also didn't hear the talk.

I think you and Chris are saying the same thing. Chris was using "high fidelity" to mean "high res, crisp, expensively produced." That phrase came into popularity with high fidelity sound systems, which usually meant "you can hear a lot more than you would on a lower fidelity system." Your use of "high fidelity" to mean "cohesive and consistent" is confusing. But, you guys are both talking about everything being in service of the same tone being a good, key thing, so I think you're all on basically the same page.

Edited by Jake

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Whoa, I left it downloading on iTunes in the background, then suddenly heard "check check" from a voice that sounded somewhat like Nick Breckon. Went back to iTunes, checked that it didn't begin with anything like that, but it probably came from the Double Fine ustream that I also had open.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm only a few minutes into listening, but that little fact Chris drops regarding Microsoft's Windows 95 certification blows my mind (IGN.com). Like what the hell.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I'm only a few minutes into listening, but that little fact Chris drops regarding Microsoft's Windows 95 certification blows my mind (IGN.com). Like what the hell.

I think I found the appropriate passage in the Windows 95/Windows NT certification doc:

Required:

All products that use DirectX must fail gracefully on Windows NT 3.51, but function properly on Windows NT 4.0 and later versions.

(section 7.4)

source: http://www.empowermentzone.com/winlogo.txt

Windows NT 3.51 didn't ship with DirectX, so the rationale behind having it gracefully fail seems clear enough -- but I'd imagine that if a game shipped with non-DirectX fallbacks as well (since those existed in the early days of Windows gaming) it would make significantly less sense to obey the letter of the law.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hang on a second, "gracefully" is an actual term within the defined specification? I thought that was Remo just jazzing up the fact as he was presenting it.

If I had to guess, a 'graceful' fail just means the program itself is like, boop, error. Rather than making your computer shit a brick and bluescreen, right?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Hang on a second, "gracefully" is an actual term within the defined specification? I thought that was Remo just jazzing up the fact as he was presenting it.

If I had to guess, a 'graceful' fail just means the program itself is like, boop, error. Rather than making your computer shit a brick and bluescreen, right?

yeah. presumably it means "your installer says 'yo, you can't install this shit on Windows NT 3.51'" as opposed to "the app crashes at some random time."

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Great interviews.

I feel like I went to all the wrong stuff at GDC this year. It looks so easy when examining the schedule beforehand, but when you're shambling around the Moscone center, it's a different story.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
yeah. presumably it means "your installer says 'yo, you can't install this shit on Windows NT 3.51'" as opposed to "the app crashes at some random time."

I think apps crashing at random times sounds exciting, almost like some kind of meta-game were you win if you remember to quick save constantly.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wow, all four of your interview subjects did a good job, and they seemed to like the opportunity to not talk about their own games.

Is this the first time we've heard a female voice on the cast? Apart from Subject Zero/Jack?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I totally have Rules of Play by Eric Zimmerman and Katie Salen. So weird to listen to this cast.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hopefully you get to interview the creator of Proteus again sometime. I like what's in the game so far.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Every time Johann Sebastian Joust gets mentioned I think of Joust. So my first reaction to "12-player Joust" was actual Joust with 12 players. And presumably more screen real estate. I want to play that so bad...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

While hearing sirens in the background and talking about Gunpoint's subtle personal experiences was classic thumbs, the addiction talk at the end was really the type of interesting discussion that I've missed the most from Idle Thumbs.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this