SOUTH AFRICA’S PREMIER GAME DEVELOPMENT MAGAZINE JANUARY 2007

CREATE DEVELOP EXPERIENCE

CONTENTS WHAT’S INSIDE

24
REGULARS
Ed’s Note......................................................................................... P03
News ............................................................................................... P04

SPOTLIGHT
Cairnswm Games............................................................................ P07

FEATURE
Hot Labs December 2006................................................................ P09

08
Hot Labs January 2007 ................................................................... P10
Hotlabs in Action – KZN Chapter...................................................... P11

REVIEW
Narbacular Drop.............................................................................. P12

DESIGN
Blender Tutorial Part 6 : More Advanced Modelling Techniques .... P13
Code Re-use - Myth or Reality?...................................................... P15

11
Edutainment Can Be Fun!................................................................ P16
PROJECTS
Making of Nonex 2: Part 2 Marketing............................................... P18
Roach Toaster 2: Big City................................................................ P20

TECH

Fundamentals of Computer Mathematics: Number Systems.......... P21

Coding Etiquette: Introduction......................................................... P22

HISTORY

A quick history of Game.Dev...........................................................

The History of I-Imagine Part 1: The Meeting ................................

P23
P24 17
TAIL PIECE

Fortune telling – game development in 2007.................................... P26

COMIC
Higushi’s Hideout............................................................................. P28
ED’S NOTE THE BIG CHIEF

R
ighto. Happy New Year! A bit late, perhaps, but considering that this is the first edition of the
year, I think we can be forgiven for the delay. So, did you miss us last month? Or were the
Christmas prezzies and New Year booze-ups a little too distracting for that? I know that most EDITOR
of the Dev.Mag staff took full advantage of the holidays this year – it seems that even slaves Rodain “ Nandrew ” Joubert
to the game development system enjoy breaks sometimes. Heh, who would have guessed?

DEPUTY EDITOR
Regardless, everybody was able to spring back this month to get the content in, and it seems that our Claudio “ Chippit “ de Sa
designer has had a little fun with the first mag of the year as well. Hope you like it. It’s really awesome to
see where we’ve managed to get ourselves after only a year of existence, and it’s always exciting to know SUB EDITOR
that we’ve still got a lot of growing to do. Sometimes, I still go back and look at the humble offering that Tarryn “Azimuth” van der Byl
was our first edition, and it encourages me to see what a bunch of dedicated people can achieve with a
little time and effort. DESIGNER
Brandon “ Cyberninja “ Rajkumar
Speaking of which, it seems that the Hotlabs are finally moving at full speed in Durban, what with the new
influx of ITI students this year and the fact that Game Maker has been adopted as the standard learning tool MARKETING
for the labs. There’s even plans underway to have the Hotlabs branch out into other disciplines, including Bernard “ Mushi Mushi “ Boshoff
sound engineering and graphics design – open to the public and absolutely free! Being a KZN local myself, Andre “ Fengol “ Odendaal
I’m quite excited about the developments being made, and joyfully poke a challenge at the idea that Durbs
is nothing more than the “baby brother” of the major SA cities. Joburg, Cape Town – eat yer hearts out! CARTOONIST
Paul “ Higushi “ Myburgh
You can check up on the holiday Hotlabs in this month’s feature – be sure to e-mail us with requests for labs
in your area if you like what you read, and we’ll see if we can get something going for interested parties. WRITERS
Simon “ Tr00jg “ de la Rouviere
Enjoy the mag, and ciao for now. Ricky “ Insomniac “ Abell
William “ Cairnswm” Cairns
Editor Bernard “ Mushi Mushi “ Boshoff
Rodain “ Nandrew ” Joubert Danny “ Dislekcia “ Day
Andre “ Fengol “ Odendaal
Heinrich “ Himmler “ Rall
Matt “ Flint “ Benic
Luke “ Coolhand “ Lamothe

WEBSITE DESIGNER
Robbie “ Squid “ Fraser

WEBSITE
www.devmag.org.za

EMAIL
[email protected]
DID YOU KNOW?
Before its video game days, Nintendo was
involved in a wide variety of other ventures,
including playing card manufacture, a taxi This magazine is a project of the
company, a love hotel chain, a TV network South African Game.Dev community.
and even a food company! Visit us at : www.gamedotdev.co.za

All images used in the mag are Copy-

right and belong to their respective
owners. If you try and claim other-
wise, you will face the wrath of the
Evil Twins. Have a nice day. :-)
3 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
 NEWS HEADLINES

Making a playable game

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=12013

Just how user-friendly is your game? Playability and a good user interface are impor-

tant to most self-respecting developers, but this isn’t often done with the physically

handicapped in mind. Gamasutra recently released a feature about “Universally Ac-

cessible Games” -- titles that could, ideally, be played by anyone regardless of physi-

Is Vista a boo-boo for cal handicap. Before now, this field of games hasn’t been explored too extensively

indie developers? and there is a lot of room for ideas and completed designs. More details in the article.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/

news_index.php?story=12314

Original designer of DirectX and founder

of WildTangent, Alex St. John, has ex-

pressed concerns about Vista’s new

security features and the risk they pose

for the continued development and dis-

tribution of independently developed

games. “We have found many of the

security changes planned for Vista

alarming and likely to present sweeping

New XNA video
challenges for PC gaming, especially
http://blogs.msdn.com/xna/default.aspx
for online distributed games,” he claims.

Apparently, not only does game com-

The XNA team has just announced their latest video release for XNA development. The vid-
patibility become a much graver issue,
eo, called “Getting started with the XNA Creator Club”, is an eleven-minute demonstration on
but downloadable game distribution – a
the hows and whats of the Creator Club, dealing with issues such as connecting to the Cre-
cornerstone of marketable indie titles – is
ator Club, purchasing an account and downloading homebrewed work to the console. The
also going to be severly hampered. The
video is available from the Microsoft Download Center in both standard and high resolution.
full letter is available on Gamasutra.

Java 4K Programming Contest

http://javaunlimited.net/contests/java4k.php

Think big, right? Well, that’s not going to work for this competition. The Java 4K Programming Contest, now in its fifth year,

is described as “the ultimate byte-squeezing Java challenge”. Entrants are required to create a game no larger than 4096

bytes, using all the cunning and resources at their disposal to create something memorable in something minimal. The dead-

line for this competition is March 1st, and for reference there are archived games from the past two years available on the site.

4 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
NEWS HEADLINES

On Game Design

http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/327/on_game_design_
a_history_of_video_.php

“On Game Design”, a new series from www.gamecareerguide.com,

looks to be a very promising read for those in the market. The first ar-

ticle, “A history of video game design” takes a look at the rich heritage

of game design, detailing events, products and trends that formed

the building blocks of modern techniques. The series consists of six

parts and includes discussions on the application of good and bad

ideas, technical design and interviews with actual game designers.

A games academy?

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=12292

More proof that game development is going the way of the film making industry. UK Minister for

Creative Industries and Tourism Shaun Woodward has called for the sponsorship of an academy

to support students of the video games industry, “similar in function to the successful London

Film School.” He’s expressed an interest in fostering the talent and skills of the industry, and

believes that such an academy is the best way to progress. Let’s wait and see what happens.

Telling a story ...

http://www.gdcradio.net/2007/01/a_practical_guide_to_the_heros.html

Most of the staff over at Dev.Mag are huge fans of GDCRadio, and we think that you should be, too. Yet anoth-

er reason for the crew’s devotion has just surfaced in the form of “A practical guide to the Hero’s Journey”, a pod-

cast by Bob Bates which explores the idea of creating a solid and convincing game story that goes beyond simply solv-

ing puzzles to continue or running around and killing everything. People interested in this topic can also look up Tim

Schafer’s “Adventures in Character Design” and Ernest Adams’ “Interactive Narratives Revisited: Ten Years of Research”

Game Addiction

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=12293

Most of us have heard from time to time about game addiction – a lot of us have probably joked

about it or even labelled ourselves as “gaming addicts”. But what is the true nature of this

beast? Has it been studied enough? Does the success of the video games market hinge on that “addictive” element? Gamasutra’s

feature on the matter tries to answer questions about this phenomenon, and questions whether or not we truly understand it yet.

5 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
Welcome to the 2007 Pascal Game Development Annual “Multiplexity” Competition! A game development and design competition for Pas-
cal developers. This is our 3rd competition and we hope that it will be bigger than the last two. This year’s theme is called “Multiplex-
ity”. We believe this reflects the idea that you must make a game with multiple genres and which will therefore cause multiple complexity.
This year Pascal Game Development have more sponsors on board, bigger prizes than ever and are hoping for many
more entrants than ever before. All entries must be developed in a Pascal based language such as Delphi, FreePas-
cal, Chrome or Midlet Pascal. All entries must have a windows version but will score extra points if they run on other platforms.

http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/competitions.php?p=details&c=3
SPOTLIGHT PASCAL GAMES DEVELOPER

The William Cairns Interview

Senior Solutions Architect
Tell us more about yourself. What do you
do for a living?

I work for one of the largest IT companies in

South Africa. My job title is Senior Solutions Ar-
chitect. Basically my job is designing new com-
puter systems and ensuring that the developers
get the work done to reach the goal I have in
mind. I unfortunately get very little opportunity
to actually write code anymore, except when
it comes to optimization at application or data-
base level. I am married with three kids – who
love my games. I’m also going to do the Com-
rades marathon this year – so with all the training
I need to do, game development will be taking a
bit of a back seat for the next six months or so.

Where did your interest in game develop-

ment start?

The first programs I can remember writing

were games. From a simple 6-room adven-
ture game to making hang-gliders fly through
caves, I have always made computer games. Mr William “ Cairnswm ” Cairns, a South African Pascal Games Developer
When I got a copy of Star Craft I knew that I
wanted to be able to write a game that was -opment Contest 2004) is probably my best items from the site, thus funding the company.
similar. Since then I have slowly improved my game and also the one I’m most proud of. I enjoy I responded to the post as their site looked a lot
skills to the point where I believe I could actu- entering contests as it gives extra incentive to more professional and active than most other
ally write my dream game, given enough time. finish the game, and also a deadline that needs people that have posted similar requests (“I’ve
to be met. It’s difficult to say “tomorrow” when designed this uber game – I just need 5 develop-
You have won esteemed places in interna- you are working toward a deadline that can’t ers to code it for free” type posts). After creating
tional competitions. Tell us more about change. Run-A-War got posted on a few “Free a demo game for them they contracted me to
that. Game” sites last year and for three months I was write Spades for their portal. I expected to take
getting over 10000 downloads per month from it. about 50hours to write the game, so a US$1000
Actually, I haven’t. :) I have entered many com- paycheck for that sounded pretty good.
petitions but only twice been in the prizes. The You recently got a development deal for
first prize I received was for Dragon Flight (A $1000. How did it all happen? Needless to say it took a lot longer than I ex-
vertical shooter) and the second was for Fanta- pected. In fact a few times I nearly pulled out
sy Land in the NAG Game Dev contest last year. A company called Online Bandit ( www.online- completely. In the end I spent nearly 200 hours
bandit.com) posted on the Pascal Game Devel- on getting the game working correctly. A lot
opment forum asking for Pascal/Delphi devel- of my frustrations were due to having to work
What is your most popular/best game? opers to write some games for their site. Their within their (undocumented) framework, us-
Tell us more about it. games work through a custom portal delivering ing their components and based on the con-
multiplayer games to their members. Mem- tract having limited access to their internals.
Run-A-War game (4th in the Pascal Game devel- bers are then also encouraged to purchase I have been asked to do another game for them.

7 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
SPOTLIGHT PASCAL GAMES DEVELOPER

I have asked for more access to their source aged 30-45 – who do you think buy the games
Quick Questions...3...2...1...Go!
as one of the conditions of me doing the new for their kids? So when the big game compa-
project. So far it looks like it will be happening. nies realize that these mothers also want to
play games and start targeting their produc- PS3, Wii or Xbox360?

What would you say is the most impor- tion power at this market, indies are going to
tant advice you have for indie developers? find it a lot more difficult to make an income. XBox360 – it’s the only console I can
make games for!
Finish your games! I have known so many peo- Anything else you would like to add?
ple that have tried to get into game development What famous figure would you most
by working on something too far beyond their I complete about 1 in 4 of the games I start de- like to game with?
skills, and when they can’t get it finished they veloping. Sometimes I lose interest, get distract-
lose interest in the game and also game devel- ed or even find that the game is a lot less than I
Wow – what a question….. Bill Gates – I’d
opment. I know developers whose skills are way expected it to be. Often a game is canned long
love to see how he’d manage with some
better than mine – and they have always wanted before I’ve written a single line of code. Game
sort of management game :)
to write games, yet have never finished one, development for me is about 75% thinking about
all because they try to do too much too soon. the game and 25% coding. I think people should
Winter or Summer?
A couple of people have told me I sound very take more time to think about the game ideas
Both! Winter – I like it cold
negative when I say things like this. I’ve been and implementation options before they start
told that I say make things BELOW your skill coding. Games that have been just coded are Summer – I like doing outdoor sports

level. I disagree with this sentiment in that you very difficult to extend while games that have
should be making games within your skill level. been carefully thought about are typically easy Pasta or Pizza?
By tackling something that you can do you’ll to extend with new ideas. One of my problems Pasta in South Africa, Pizza in Italy
still learn something each time, and the next about tutorials on the net is that they all only
game you make will be slightly more complex. deliver one thing, and they are not designed to The Simpsons or Family Guy?
By trying to do something above your skill level be extended to add new ideas to their content. Neither. But based on my complete dis-
you’ll most likely fail and then lose interest. like of Simpsons probably Family Guy :)
TR00JG
What is your goal when you create a game?

My main goal is having a complete game fin-

ished at the end of it. Even before I try to make
my games fun I try to ensure that the whole
game is there – title screens, menu screen,
game and game over screens must be present.
Another important thing to me when mak-
ing a game is to ensure that it is playable.
Some of my games (like the Boo Game)
are pretty pointless but were fun to make :)

How do you currently see the indie

industry?

I believe the indie industry is coming under

threat from the bigger game companies. The
company I wrote the card game for has told
me that something like 70% of their community
members are women with kids. The big game
companies have always targeted younger
males (14-25) yet market information shows
that the real money resides with mothers

8 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
FEATURE ITI HOT LABS DECEMBER 2006

HAPPY HOTLABBING HOLIDAYS!

The summer heat isn’t the only thing that’s A Hot Lab in progress. Hots Labs are held every month at IT Intellect in Musgrave.
raging over at Durban. Since the start of
the KZN Hotlab chapter last year, IT In-
tellect at Musgrave Centre has played
host to monthly sojourns into the world
of game development, spearheaded by
professionals from all over the coun-
try and open to anybody who wants to
learn more about this exciting pastime.

Over the holidays, the Durban Hotlabs have

adopted Game Maker as a primary tool of
education, with great success and some
awesome results from learners. Read on to
find out what we’ve been up to, as well as for
more details about how to join in with the fun
this year. No prior experience necessary!

T
he first Hotlab after the visit from our (aka “green stuff”) attacks on our poor Player1. went, making our rooms look like mazes with

friends Danny and Miktar went accord- Sound simple enough to the seasoned Game turrets scanning for intruders, very much like

ing to plan, with the die-hard regulars Maker veteran. However, the “execute a a scene from the first Metal Gear! And thus,

and new fanatics all in attendance. The challenge piece of code” button had many a would-be we got the AI to go from a passive search-

had been set to our newly appointed guru of programmer (myself included) baffled. Having ing state (which is the keyword here) to a

game development, Daniel Brewer (AKA Silent- only a very meek understanding of HTML and tracking state once the target had been spot-

Bob). To come up with a lesson in Game Devel- JAVA, the programming proved to be a minor ted to a skiet-skop-n-donner state once

opment, and because we had such an awesome bump in the proverbial road. However, once the target was in range of our green stuff!

experience with Danny and Miktar the previous I thought about it – and I mean really thought

month, we decided to pick up where they left off. about it – I realised that the IF statement is ac- All in all, the December Hotlab content was a
tually not that tough to get your mind around, great place to start after the trip by Danny and

Working with Game Maker – our newly acquired and the jargon and computer speak mishmash Miktar had left us with a new toy to play with and

tool of the “indie” trade – Daniel set off to de- soon became somewhat familiar to me. Soon, understand. Now, we have decided to carry the

scribe the theory of state initiators in Artificial I was able to follow what in the blazes of green torch for Game.Dev in KZN. Not only that, but

Intelligence. This was our mammoth task for proton (or whatever destructive green gunk we’ve decided to include more than just Game

the avid game developers: using a turret sys- flowed out of our turret gun) was going on... Maker for our Game Development fanatics.

tem of guard houses, our character (or red

ball, at least) had to navigate the stage with- The AI (that’s Artificial Intelligence for the lay- More details will follow on those develop-

out getting spotted by the evil turrets and de- man, ha!), basically had a FOV (field of view) ments at the end of this feature. Remember,

stroyed ... easier said than done! The turrets of 45 Degrees, which proved slightly problem- kids... stay in school and keep living your

were stationary and had a randomized clock- atic because we never set a cutoff distance (or dreams! Game Development is for everyone!

wise and anticlockwise 360 degree view, so “fog of war”, for you Warcraft fans out there).

one was able to wait behind a wall until their So, the turrets could easily spot our Player1 MUSHI MUSHI
backs were turned and then attempt to make even though (mouse_x, mouse_y, x, y) was on

a run for it. Once alerted, however, these bas- the other side of the screen. Thus, we coded a

tard turrets would unleash a flurry of proton cutoff distance of 300-odd pixels and away we

9 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
FEATURE ITI HOT LABS JANUARY 2007

THE KZN HOTLABS IN JANUARY!

I
t was a new year and an explosive start to the The second part of the Hotlab was once again their own creative additions based on what they
next annum of game development in Dur- dealt with by resident programming guru Dan- learned as well as what they could gain through
ban. Not only were all our regulars bright- iel “SilentBob” Brewer, this time with a lesson experimentation. It produced some stunning
eyed and bushy-tailed for this particular Hotlab, on AI flocking and its applications in Game results from people who had, in some cases,
but attendance this month soared with the ad- Maker. Afterwards, most people confidently never made a game before in their lives.
dition of a whole stack of new developers. Our described the seminar as being “flocking bril-
humble computer lab was filled to the point of liant” – amongst some other very bad puns. January’s Hotlab has kept with our goal of be-
bursting, with barely enough workstations avail- ing relaxed, friendly, educational and – most
able for all the eager new learners. Definitely The introduction of the “newbie training course” importantly – fun. Whether it was teasing the
good reason to expand the facilities next month!! in each Hotlab has proven to be a wise deci- recent misfortunes of “Bernard the breakneck
sion, further increasing the accessibility of the Boshoff”, or just sitting down and making small
The size of this month’s group meant that the seminars and ensuring that even the greenest talk between class sessions, that extra little
session was divided into two parts – first, an in- laymen walk away with the creation of a full, human touch just serves to remind us all that
troductory seminar for those new to Game Mak- functioning game under their belts. The fresh there’s more to the world of game development
er, which went over the basics of this incredibly crowd at the Hotlab definitely proved this point than bunches of sun-deprived social neophytes
fun and useful tool and was delivered by Insom- in their own creations – once the main tutorial sitting in front of reams of code.
niac and Skinklizzard of the Game.Dev crew. was over, learners were encouraged to make
Be sure to make your way to next month’s labs!
Chances are that no matter what your level,
you’ll learn something new – and in the unlikely
event that you don’t, you still get to have oodles
of fun amongst some like-minded game devel-
opers. Rock on, KZN, and may we continue to
have a fantastic year of game development!

NANDREW

10 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
FEATURE HOTLABS IN KZN

HOTLABS IN ACTION – KZN CHAPTER

2
007 will consist of some very interest- The goal for 2007 is to create multi-skilled
ing seminars on game development and individuals that have the potential to create
content creation. various forms of content for their games. After
each Hotlab, the attendees will be required to
These seminars will include game creation us- complete development tasks pertaining to the
ing the Game Maker framework, which will be information learnt in the previous Hotlab as
presented and organized by members of the well as reaching goals for the next Hotlab.
Game.Dev online community. For the n00bs,
we have the talented Skinklizzard and Frozen- MUSHI MUSHI
Phoenix on hand to offer some introductory
guidance to the framework and rapid game cre-
ation using Game Maker. www.gamemaker.nl
Hotlabs will run on a Monthly basis at IT
For the more experienced game designers, INTELLECT in Durban 031 277 2000 and all
we have SilentBob to demonstrate game me- participants will be contacted via e-mail.
chanics and some very interesting ways of ap-
proaching game development. We’ll be offering To be added to the mailing list, please send
support for engine coders in C++ and C# XNA an e-mail describing your area of interest to
game programming, as well as offering insight [email protected]
to various API’s including FMOD.

For budding artists, animators and graphical

content creators, we will have seminars using
Adobe Photoshop CS2, Gimp, 3D Studio MAX,
and Blender – to name but a few. These GFX
Design Labs will be conducted by Grant de
Lange of Indigo Child Studios www.indigochild-
studios.blogspot.com.

For those who wish to learn the intricacies of

Adobe Flash we have another Indigo Child Stu-
dios partner – The_Q? -- onboard to teach and
inspire those who wish to make flash-based
games in Action script.

A seminar on music and sound effects creation

will also be conducted every now and again
by the final two Indigo Child Studios partners,
namely Weazelbub and MushiMushi. These
seminars will be teaching the students about
EQ applications and VST programming, using
applications licensed through the studio such
as Steinberg Cubase, Wavelab, and Propeller-
head’s awesome Reason package.

1 1 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
REVIEW IN THE GAMING WORLD

NARBACULAR DROP
Developer:
Nuclear Monkey Software

Year of creation:
2005

Website:
http://www.nuclearmonkeysoftware.com

Genre:
Puzzle/Platform

V
alve’s upcoming title, Portal, has
spawned a rather extensive cult fol-
lowing among certain gamers due to
possibilities for puzzle creation. The player is Valve, Narbacular Drop’s website remains ac-
its unique gameplay and concept: To use a
challenged to use this power – and only this tive, with community support carrying the game
dynamic portal creation system in an effort to
power, the player has no other abilities - in in- way past its expected lifetime. This highlights
solve puzzles and navigate levels using basic
novative ways to progress through the game. the immense potential that the game holds.
physics with a complex twist. However, this
Though this is a game with limited appeal, it
play dynamic is not as unique as it seems.
However, it is quickly apparent that Narbacu- should at least be played once, just to see the
lar Drop is intended more as a tech demo amazing concept in action.
Introducing Narbacular Drop. Yes, that’s actually
than an actual game. There is very little
a name of a game, and a rather innovative game
content in the game, and the featured lev- For all those who were even slightly intrigued
at that. Despite its unwieldy name and shoddy
els will take even a novice player less than by the Portal trailer, this is a must have.
graphics, Narbacular Drop is indeed one of the
half an hour to complete. The focus of the The website’s download are also fea-
most unique puzzle experiences ever created.
game is more on the functionality and poten- tures a documentation section, use-
tial of its portal system than anything else. ful for budding game developers.
Being the spiritual predecessor of Portal, Nar-
Despite that, the game has earned a remarkable It includes well-written design documents that
bacular Drop is essentially the experiment that
cult following, with hundreds of community-cre- detail the creation of the game, as well as other
originally founded the dynamics now popular-
ated levels available for download. Even though development related documents. Worth a look.
ized in Portal. The premise behind Narbacular
the game has been completed for over a year,
Drop is simple: The player takes control of a
and its developers are now under the employ of CHIPPIT
princess – with a suspicious lack of jumping abil-
ity – who has been imprisoned by an evil demon.
However, her prospective prison turns out to be
an actual sentient being, capable of creating
rifts within its walls. The princess is granted the
ability to create these rifts at will, effectively link-
ing two unrelated points in space by a doorway.
Using this rather simple, yet versatile power,
the princess must navigate the dungeon and
eventually defeat her adversary and escape.

This relatively basic idea leads to near infinite

12 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
DESIGN ENTER THE 3D WORLD

Blender Tutorial Part 6 :

More Advanced Modelling Techniques
W
hile quite a lot can be achieved to create enough points.
with the subtle manipulation
of the basic shapes available Once you’ve done that, change to object mode
in Blender, more advanced techniques are and hit Alt+C, or click the Object menu and select
available to automate and simplify certain Convert Object Type, and select Mesh from the
tasks. We’ll be using some of these to mod- popup menu. Now change to top view and position
el seemingly complex objects quite easily. the 3D cursor at the left edge of the new object.
Firstly, we’ll use one of the Blender curve ob-
jects to define the cross section of our model, a Make sure you snap it to the grid so that it’s
Using and setting up the Spin mesh tool.
simple wineglass. Curve objects can be used to exactly at the same location as the left-most
create subtle curves and bends, but are also ide- vertices of your cross section. Hit Shift+S,
al for defining complex cross sections of objects. or select Snap from the Object menu, and cause the shading on the glass to be incor-
Because we only need a rough approximation, we then choose Snap Cursor to Grid to do this. rect. However, this is easy to fix. Still in Edit
won’t actually be creating curved edges though. Also make sure that the new object’s ver- mode, with all vertices selected, click the Re-
tices are also exactly on the grid units. move Doubles button in the Mesh tools window.
Remove the starting cube and, in front view, Sometimes, depending on how your cross sec-
add a Path curve using the spacebar menu. tion was created and the spin performed, the
In the editing buttons,under CurveTools, click vertex normals can occasionally be pointing
the poly button in the wrong direction, causing the shading to
to make the new appear incorrect during rendering. If this hap-
The 3D Cursor Position
curve behave pens, simply select all the vertices in Edit mode
like a basic po- and hit Ctrl+N, or, from the spacebar menu,
lygonal shape. Once you’re certain the 3D cursor is in the right select Edit, Normals, Recalculate Outside.
You’ll notice that position, change back to Edit Mode again. Under
the curve is now mesh tools in the editing buttons screen, change
simply 5 col- the Steps value to 32, and the Degr value to 360.
linear vertices. Then, with all the vertices selected, click the spin
Manipulate the button and watch your simple cross section be-
vertices to create ing spun around the 3D cursor to create a glass.
a shape like the
one on the right. Because of how the Spin function works, it often
You’ll need to results in some vertices being ‘doubled’. In oth-
extrude the end What the cross section of your er words, sometimes there might be more than
model should look like. Click the Remove Doubles button
point a few times to create enough points. one vertex occupying the same space. This can

13 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
DESIGN ENTER THE 3D WORLD

Our glass is still a little rough at the moment, And that’s all for this time. Enjoy experiment-
so we’ll use a little trick known as the subsur- ing with Blender’s more advanced features.
face modifier to smooth out the glass and make
it look more organic. Change to object mode, CHIPPIT
and under Modifiers in the Edit tab, click Add
Modifier and select Subsurf. Increase the Lev-
This final image for this article was
els value to see the influence of the modifier
rendered using the third party Yafray
in edit mode. The Render Levels value deter-
renderer. The Yafray renderer is ideal
mines how much the modifier will be active
The subsurface modifier for creating scenes where raytracing
when the model is rendered. It is not recom-
is used extensively and may result in
mended to use values higher than 5, especially Finally, using the methods learned in previous
more accurate imagery than Blender’s
not in edit mode, because this procedure is tutorials, create a glass material and set the
internal renderer can create. The file
rather slow at high levels. Bear in mind that the shading on the object to smooth. You can touch
is available for free download from the
subsurface modifier option has been moved up the lighting and create a floor object for the
following link: http://www.yafray.org/
since older versions of Blender, so, if you have glass to stand on. When you’re finished, your ren-
an older version it may be in a different place. der could look something like the image below.

The Final Render. What your glass could look like.

14 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
DESIGN THE ART OF CODING

CODE RE-USE - MYTH OR REALITY?

C
ode re-use has been a catchphrase The second example is made significantly Unless the tutorial is aimed at the novice pro-
in the computer community for a small to show the concept of designing tutori- grammer who is still learning the basics of a
long time. However, tutorials seldom als to encourage code re-use rather than de- language (such as the above Hello World ex-
or never give examples on how to re-use the signing tutorial code to work only in the specific ample), the tutorial code should be able to be
tutorial code in other programs. Tutorials typi- scenario of the tutorial. When creating a tuto- copied out of the tutorial and used in the user’s
cally give an example of how to do something rial, there is no reason that the normal program- program – this would therefore enable true code
within a very, very narrow frame of reference. ming structures of Classes, Factories, Encap- re-use.
sulation and Abstraction need to fall away.
CAIRNSWM
For example, an ASP hello world program
would look something like this:

[HelloWorld.asp]
<%
response.write “Hello World”
%>

Putting this on a server and accessing the

page will certainly show you hello world, but
how do you now put a “Hello World” message
onto your own ASP web site? This little tutorial
does not show any way of doing this, nor does it
give any indication of how to go about doing it.

Another example of the same ASP-based

“Hello World” program could look like this:

[HelloWorld.asp]
<%
Sub DisplayHelloWorld
response.write “Hello World”
end sub
%>

[MainPage.asp]
<%
DisplayHelloWorld()
%>

While adding a significant amount of complex-

ity, the example code clearly shows the reader
how to use the code that they have built within
other applications that require the same logic.

15 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
DESIGN EDUCATIONAL GAMES

EDUTAINMENT CAN BE FUN!

T
The edutainment genre is a very elusive A sense of progression
money-maker in the games industry, as
parents are always willing to buy some- In most games things usually start off re-
thing which promises to benefit their future little ally simple in a hold-your-hand tutorial before
world leaders. It could be the perfect way for gradually getting harder. For example, in most
you to start making money as an indie develop- regular games the player’s character starts
er, since edutainment games don’t require fan- from doing small amounts of damage with a
cy graphics and tricks, just a solid idea to teach. basic weapon and later grows into a stronger,
However, the phrase “educational games” arse-kicking hero as the player gets better at
can produce a similar groan from gam- the game. This basic progression and learning
ers as the phrase “licensed games” does curve must also be paid attention to when de-
– but it doesn’t always have to be this way. signing an edutainment game. In the first part of
There are a few gems in the edutainment genre design, you should plan how you can make the
that prove learning can be fun. One old example player get better at the topic being taught while
is a game called Gizmos & Gadgets which was keeping the gameplay part fun. In Brain Train-
released back in the nineties and had many kids ing, Dr Kawashima gives a clear explanation
“ Every good game has something
(including me) addicted to a game which involved before you start the training on how and why
addictive about it that keeps the
answering puzzles to gain parts that would this will benefit your brain. After each exercise,
player coming back for more.”
be used to build some sort of vehicle to race. your performance is scored and your results are
graphed so you can get a great-
More recently, Dr Kawashima’s “Brain Train- er sense of how you really are
ing, How Old Is Your Brain?” for the Nin- improving. This really simple but
tendo DS has been a huge success across effective approach is a perfect
the world and is actually a lot of fun to play. example of giving the user a real
But what makes games like Brain Train- sense of progression of their
ing stand out from the many stinkers in the own abilities and brain power
genre? In Brain Training, one of the exer- – and that is one of the great-
cises involves doing simple math calcula- est rewards a game can give.
tions against the clock – how can a game
that involves math sums be such a success?
What could it possibly be doing? Keep them coming back for
After having spent some time playing Brain more
Training, I’ve studied and learned a lot from it
on what makes an edutainment game fun. I’ll Every good game has some-
share here my views on what design points thing addictive about it that
in the game should be learned from and ap- keeps the player coming back
plied to every edutainment game out there. for more. Every good edutain-
ment game needs the same. If
The most important part of a success- you want your game to do well,
ful edutainment game is having a fun, solid you’re going to need a way
gameplay mechanic to teach its target topic to keep the player interested
– for example, math or reading. Once you’ve enough to keep playing and
hopped over that first hurdle and have a basic learning more. One way is to
idea of what to teach, there are three major design the game or exercises
points which must be weaved into your design. Learning through edutainment.
so that you can never master

16 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
DESIGN EDUCATIONAL GAMES

them but can always get better and improve. are teaching and what’s happening on
Just like in a racing game, the player can al- the screen rather than rewarding the
ways shave off a few split seconds against player for having super-fast reflexes.
the clock and always get that bit better.
Another good design point is to make the
Rewarding the player and giving them goals game playable in short bursts. No mat-
and new challenges for the effort they put ter how great your concept the majority of
into the game is a great way to keep them people can’t put up with learning for mara-
coming back. A good example of reward thon-long sessions. Rather try focus your
from Brain Age is any day that you do train- gameplay on five-minute sessions which the
ing a stamp will be added to your calender player can come back to every day – like in
and as you get more stamps things are un- Brain Training, with its daily training calender.
locked, such as new exercises and features.
The edutainment genre can be tough to suc-
Accessibility ceed in but with the points I’ve disscussed
above, you can make a great game. Good
An edutainment game must be easy to luck and go out and make that ever-elusive fun
use for everyone, whether young or old. edutainment game!
Keep your demographic as wide as pos-
sible in design. The interface and controls INSOMNIAC
must be simple, keep the focus on what you

17 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
PROJECTS LEARNING HOW IT’S DONE

MAKING OF NONEX 2: PART 2 MARKETING

M
arketing? Isn’t it a bit too early for -er to get the word out. Even when the word You need a finished product. Kind of obvious,
marketing? Weren’t you still busy starts to spread, the public will be very skep- isn’t it? What are you going to sell if you don’t
creating a requirements and design tical about the quality of the finished product. have a product? Well, companies sell things to
document? You haven’t even started program- us long before they exist. We were all “buying”
ming your game. To give you an example of a real live situa- into the game Half-Life 2 two years before it ac-
tion: how many independent movies have you tually came out. Fact is, they could have decided
Well, yeah – while this is all true, marketing is a watched this year in comparison to, say, the to scrap the game even after all that marketing.
very important part of any product, and must be movies released by Paramount or Universal? But if you know what exactly your product is go-
considered from the concept stages right through In the same way, no one knew who Matt Da- ing to be, you can start “selling” it to the masses.
to the day the product goes off the market. mon and Ben Affleck were before “Good Will
Hunting”, and now they are household names.
This concept is very visible in the movie industry.
The fact is, you know about most blockbuster The same thing can happen in the gam-
movies months before they are released. This ing industry. That one great idea, that one
generates some hype and gets the audience’s single game that sets you above the rest,
attention. However, there are a few key factors is what can create a brand and following.
to consider when marketing anything. Firstly
your product should be something the public This brings me to the fourth step of marketing.
would desire – for its functionality, entertainment
value and necessity. With gaming, it is clear we
are marketing entertainment. But the marketing
must be of such a nature that it must feel like
a necessity. To make anyone “need” anything,
you must make them believe that this prod-
uct is something they cannot live without, and
can’t understand how they lived without before.

Secondly, there’s the “catch phrase”, “icon”

or logo. Everyone who has an even small
history of gaming will immediately be able
to tell you what the Quake sign looks like.
I liked it so much I made my own Quake 3
sign out of stainless steel as a medal around
my neck. Unreal has a similar appeal. All of
these symbols and labels are all part of es-
tablishing a brand. This is what I am currently
busy with and will share some of that shortly.

Thirdly, you need to let the world know of your

product/brand and its entertainment value.
This is very easy for well-established studios
like ID or Blizzard. They already have a great
following of fans, and well-established web-
sites. News of Diablo 3 would spread almost
instantly across the globe. For a new com-
pany or studio, it is unfortunately much hard-

18 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
PROJECTS LEARNING HOW IT’S DONE

I am going to stop there for now with the and effort to even make the game. Thus, with
“steps” to marketing, and just put this all all this in mind I have added a new document
into context regarding Nonex 2. I asked my- to my list before I can start making my game.
self some questions about my game. What
will make my game a must-have product? The documents mentioned last time were
the “Design Document” and the “Require-
Why would people want to play this game ments Document”. Now I add the “Market-
so badly that they will buy it off the internet? ing portfolio” to that list. All of these docu-
ments will become available soon online for
your reading “pleasure” ... as soon as Telkom
How will people identify my product among decides to finally install my new ADSL line.
the thousands of others out there? How will
that “logo” identify the product with my stu- As a final note: Considering the new markets
dio? How is the public going to know what my available (i.e. XBOX Live arcade) I still have
game is about, and if it is something that will one major decision to make that may indeed
appeal to them? Will the public “buy” into my make or break Nonex 2’s future. Should I stick
gaming concept months before it is released? with Game Maker, or switch to XNA? This will
be the topic of my next article, as I weigh up
There’re a lot of questions, but they all need the positives and negatives. See you all then.
answers. The fact is, if I can’t answer these
questions now, then I shouldn’t waste my time HIMMLER

19 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
PROJECTS LEARNING HOW IT’S DONE

ROACH TOASTER 2: PICKING OUT THE BUGS

A
fter the totally unexpected success of and meta-gaming. enhancement, which is an addition to RT2
Roach Toaster 1, it led me to weigh which will ... well, enhance the battles in RT2!
up my options for a Roach Toaster 2. Multi-level gameplay refers to there being lit- What is my goal for Roach Toaster 2?
So, after my beauty sleep, I decided, “What the erally two (or more) areas of gameplay. In Roach Toaster 1 simply did not have the produc-
heck, why not?” Roach Toaster 2, there is the “micro” level of tion value needed to show the world what it was
gameplay, which consists of the levels them- about. With Roach Toaster 2, I intend to make
Roach Toaster 1 placed you in the command selves (like in RT1). Then there is the “mac- a fully-fledged, polished, quality game with the
of an elite team of soldiers trained to destroy ro” level of gameplay, where players have to originality of gameplay from Roach Toaster 1.
the neighbourhood’s roaches. With each lev- strategically move their teams across “Big
el, you were simply tasked to destroy all the City” to defeat the root of the Roach Infesta- Next month, I’ll tell you more about the graphics
roaches. The gameplay was turn-based, where tion once and for all (or at least we hope so)! direction I chose and other intended features! If
at the beginning of each turn you could place your hunger is increasing for more RT2, or you
as many units as you want within the range of Meta-gaming is a difficult concept to explain. want to take a look at the original Roach Toaster,
your squad’s “base”. This wasn’t without pen- One could say that it’s when players continue go to my site, http://www.shotbeakgames.za.net..
alty, since placing more units a turn ate up your playing the game in hope of “getting more” even
budget. Thus, you had to defeat the roaches though it’s not directly tied to the main goal of TROOJG
successfully, but within this given budget. Then that game. Good examples are MMORPGs and
there was the aded complexity of the roaches Diablo 2. How many times have you kept on kill-
breeding each turn. Finally, there were several ing that boss just to complete your armor set?
unique units to choose from, each with their
own strengths and weaknesses. Players had to RT1 had loads of cheesy humour, so of course
use all the skills at their disposal to first control I had to let it make a return. Two “valiant” sol-
the situation and then exterminate the roaches. diers narrate the game – Captain Hetfield and
Private Reticer. But they aren’t just for show,
In developing RT2, I first had to assess RT1. either – they help in the teams, when at the
What made it great? What aspects made it beginning of each level, they can be placed
so addictive? One of the key “fun” factors to help the squad. Each of them can hold one
in RT1 was, in fact, accidental. Originally, I
did not intend the feature to be implemented.

What was it?

It was the “what if” factor… If the player lost a level,

which most of the times was a pretty close loss,
it induced the thought of “What if I placed that
unit slightly left?” Players kept coming back for
more, thinking, “What if I had done it differently?”

So, armed with my new-found designing skills,

I started design on Roach Toaster 2 imme-
diately. What more would I want from “Roach
Toaster”?

After having read countless Gamasutra articles

(www.gamasutra.com), I arrived at two key con-
cepts I wanted to try out: multi-level gameplay

20 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
TECH ELECTRONIC PLAYGROUND

FUNDAMENTALS OF COMPUTER MATHEMATICS: NUMBER SYSTEMS

Introduction the base value of ‘0’, and then incrementing merely ‘D’.
3
the next column by ‘1’ which in turn forms the
The mathematics used in the world of comput- value ‘10’. While this may look like the number 4. The lowest level of computer logic is designed
ers and computer programming can be quite ten from the decimal system, it also represents to run along the lines of the binary math system,
different to the ones used in everyday life by the number two in the binary system. with everything either in the on (‘1’) or off (‘0’)
most people. In a lot of cases, these differences state
can provide a barrier to new programmers com- If you are still confused, just think of it in terms
ing to grips with the more intermediate and of how the value ten comes about being formed 5. (0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-A-B-C-D-E-F)
advanced areas of computer programming. in the decimal system. You first start with ‘9’,
This series of articles, starting with Number which is the largest single digit available for Octal
Systems, will attempt to cover a few of the fun- decimal numerical values. Now, in order to
damentals of computer mathematics that all reach ten, you need to overflow the single digit Often thought of as hexadecimal’s ugly sister,
computer programmers should be aware of. column by resetting it to ‘0’, and then increment- the Base-8 number system known as octal is
ing the next column by one. This is a standard another alternative number system that is used
Decimal principal for representing numerical values in in some circles of computer programming. How-
all number systems, and if you can understand ever, most of the popularity that it once had has
In normal everyday mathematics, people use why it works, it will make working with different been overtaken by the hip and sexy hexadeci-
what is known as the Base-10 or decimal num- number systems simultaneously second na- mal system. This is mainly due to the fact that
6
ber system. The meaning of this is that there ture. octal’s 8 unique digits can only store numeri-
are 10 unique digits1which are used to rep- cal values that are half of the size of the ones
resent all of the numbers in this system. This that hexadecimal can store. So while octal does
2. (0-1)
number system is also what is used most of the conform to the power of 2 standard that makes
3. Even though ‘9’ isn’t written as ‘09’, it is always
time for mathematical and numerical opera- hexadecimal so useful with computer architec-
assumed that any ‘invisible’ number columns are
tions when writing computer programs. Howev- ture, it can be messier to work with because of
actually filled with the ‘0’ digit
er, there are other number systems that can be the larger number of digits that are necessary to
also used while programming, some of which store the same value.
are more useful than the standard decimal Hexadecimal
system, depending on the context of their use. 6 . (0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7)
While the binary number system may be
1. (0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9)
the most well known alternative one when it Conclusion
Binary comes to computers, it isn’t the one most often
used by programmers. Next to the decimal While the mathematics necessary for computer
The first of these alternate number systems is system, Base-16 or hexadecimal has become programming can often differ from those that
called Base-2 or binary, and it is also probably the number system favoured by computer most people use in their normal day-to-day lives,
the most well known number system when it programmers due to a few reasons. Firstly, it they do in fact have much in common with the
comes to computers. Following the same rule is a power of 2 value, which in turn produces elementary level mathematics that everybody
as the Base-10 system, Base-2 uses only 2 numerical values that are very easy to store as has learned from a young age. This point is ex-
4
unique digits2 in order to represent numbers. well as read due to the binary nature of com- emplified greatly in the above number system
This can seem a very strange way of storing puter design. Secondly, it allows for relatively descriptions, as they are shown to be nothing
numbers, but it is in fact just as intuitive as the large values to be represented by a relatively more than slightly modified versions of the stan-
decimal system once you realise that it follows small number of digits. Following the rules laid dard 10-digit decimal system, who follow the
the exact same principals. In other words, the down for the previous number systems, the same rules and are used for the same purpose.
smallest number is ‘0’, which is then followed hexadecimal number system uses 16 unique
5
by ‘1’. However, instead of representing two digits to represent its values, meaning that COOLHAND
as ‘2’, you need to overflow the single digit while a value such as thirteen would be visu-
column as there are no more unique digits to alised as ‘13’ in the decimal system, it would
use. This is done by resetting the column to be represented in the hexadecimal system as

21 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
TECH ELECTRONIC PLAYGROUND

CODING ETIQUETTE: INTRODUCTION

T
here are many different schools of For game programmers, making use of proper In the coming issues of Dev.Mag, we will be
thought when it comes to what pro- etiquette while writing code is just as impor- discussing various aspects of coding etiquette
gramming, or “writing code” should tant as writing efficient code. This is mainly that all programmers working in game devel-
be about. The most common one is that pro- due to the large team sizes and scope that opment should be aware of. Keep in mind that
gramming is merely a means to a end. In other are a part of game development today. When at the end of the day, there is no real right or
words, it is only the final result that is of any working with many other people on a single wrong way in how you go about your program-
importance, and whatever steps that are taken project, it doesn’t help to have the most ef- ming. The coding etiquette sections that we
along the way are inconsequential so long as ficiently written code possible if the other will bring before you will merely be guidelines
the program does what it was designed to do. people on your team need to work with what and suggestions of practices in order to im-
you have done but are unable to do so, due to prove how you write your code, and for you to
Programming in this style is usually the quick- such things as a lack of sufficient commenting choose a style that suits how you already work.
est way to achieve one’s goals. However, or incoherent variable naming on your part.
more often than not, this method leads to very COOLHAND
messy and in most cases completely unman-
ageable code. At times though, this is actually
a completely acceptable result, such as cases
when work is being done on small-scale proj-
ects by single programmers that will have no
need of maintenance or upgrading in the future.

There is another school, however, which teach-

es that not only are the means important, but that
they are just as important if not more so than the
end result. The thought behind this method of
programming is that most projects are not small
ones, created by lone programmers, and that
they will have a lifespan that will include mainte-
nance, upgrades, and even full scale overhauls
at some point in the future. Coincidentally, this
description is best used when talking about the
programming involved in game development.

In fact, game programs tend to follow this lifes-

pan more religiously than the average corporate
applications that are taught in the average Com-
puter Science program at the average Univer-
sity. In a lot of cases, this lack of understanding
with regards to the intricacy, scope, and com-
plexity that is involved in game development can
cause Universities to overlook the importance
of not merely teaching proper coding etiquette,
but the need to stress just how important its use
is in the real computer programming world. Un-
fortunately, this need is an imperative one for
programmers interested in game development.

22 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
HISTORY WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

A QUICK HISTORY OF GAME.DEV

I
t was one overcast morning in January
2005. The NAG forums were still in their first
incarnation when the powers that be (which
in those times was basically Miktar) created a
new section in the forums… <<Game.Dev>>

For me, being an avid NAG poster and wan-

nabe game maker, this was a god-sent call to
greatness. The first competition was upon us.
All it stated was to create a game…

With the few entrants that entered the first com-

petition (aka “Comp 01”), things looked bleak,
but with the support of Danny “Dislekcia” Day,
the ultimate driving force behind the Game.Dev
community, and his preaching of “make games,
not engines” motto, more curious NAG posters After the 6th competition – which ended our first
were soon snatched up. year as a community – the notion of a game de-
velopment magazine graced Game.Dev. It was
“Comp 02” arrived with the goal of creating ambitious, with many doomsayers saying that
a game with only circles and squares, which an online mag never lasted beyond the third edi-
was another example of Dislekcia’s motto – to tion. But we had the power – the skill to defeat Soon, the news struck. To celebrate our tenth
not create engines with awesome graphics, but that first boss – and thus Dev.Mag was born in competition, an enormous cash prize of R10
rather a finished game with good gameplay. early 2006 alongside the seventh competition. 000 was up for grabs. This was the turning
point, the beginning of a new era for Game.Dev!
Things slowly began to grow into a very promis- 2006 itself was almost a blur at the beginning. Lots of new faces tried their hand at making a
ing endeavour. People were beginning to join Many people joined and tried their hand at management game, while previous Game.Dev
NAG not because of the forums themselves, game development. Some fell to the wayside, member rejoined to take part in this legendary
but because of the Game.Dev section alone! discovering that it simply wasn’t for them, while competition.
the community slowly paved its way with those
Right before “Comp 03”, which prompted us who joined and subsequently stayed, partici- Besides the quality of the games, which were
to do a remake, the NAG forum shed its old pating in another two competitions while keep- taken to a new high, rAge saw the Game.Dev
skin for a new one. This did not deter us in ing the spirit of Game.Dev alive and strong. stand pulling an unexpected amount of visitors.
the least, as our community was still growing. Lots of people, beginners and experts alike
“Comp 04” was a great moment of progress for came to listen to our talks.
the Game.Dev group. Lots of people joined to
participate in the competition, which Now at the beginning of 2007, things look bet-
prompted us to make a game with sim- ter than ever! Currently, Game.Dev is sitting
ple rules that led to complex gameplay. with its own website, has members and Hotlabs
“Comp 05” started in late 2005 soon after spread throughout the country, runs its own
the forums shifted to a new home again.o publication and has lots of newly fostered game
Soon, there was lots of excited talk about developers to show for it – all of this stemming
rAge 2006 floating about the forum. Lots from a small competition post in a gaming forum
Many heralded our section of the forum as of things were scheduled for rAge, but two years before ...
the only sane place to post, away from trolls. no-one expected what was to come. TR00JG

23 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
HISTORY WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

THE HISTORY OF I-IMAGINE

I
first heard the name “I-Imagine” while sit-
ting in a Mexican restaurant in Redmond,
Washington, about 2 kilometers from Nin-
tendo of America’s headquarters. I was at a
booth table next to a window. You know, the
kind with padded benches that you would al-
ways rather sit at? There were rabbits outside.
Lots of rabbits. So many rabbits, actually, that
I quickly resigned myself to the fact that no
matter what I ordered from the menu, it would
contain in some shape, way, or form ... rabbit.

It was during the fall of 1998 ... September I

think. I was having lunch with Dan Wagner, a
former classmate and project partner of mine at
DigiPen. Not the “DigiPen Institute of Technol-
ogy” that exists today in Redmond (also about
2 kilometers from the plague of rabbits), but the
“original” DigiPen Computer Graphics School
that was run up in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Dan and I had both graduated in May of that day as I was going to be closer to Portland...
year and had gone our separate ways, only to although I suspect it had more to do with him
meet up again quite close to where it all began. not wanting to deal with the immigration offi-
Dan actually left DigiPen after the 3rd semes- cials on either side of the Canada / US border...
ter had ended in order to take up an internship
at a company in Las Vegas. Afterwards, he Once we had sat down and finished all of the
went on to do some contract work for a com- rabbit-related commentary that we could think
pany out of Portland, Oregon, which is where of, Dan got to the point. He was looking to move
he was coming from when this meeting was back to his home country of South Africa and
arranged. I happened to be down at the then he was interested in starting up a game devel-
relatively new DIT campus helping out for the opment studio there. He had already started to
day with some technical stuff if I remember cor- gauge some interest from potential investors
rectly. My normal day-job was as a teaching as- there, and was now looking to convince some
sistant for the final graduating class at DCGS of the people with whom he had partnered with
back up in Vancouver, but every once in a while at DigiPen, as well as some he had met while
I took the 3 hour bus ride down to Redmond in working in Las Vegas, to join him in this venture.
order to help out whenever they needed me.
Needless to say, I was quite surprised at the
I didn’t really know why I was meeting him end reason for this meeting. However, I had
there, as I stared out the window wonder- even greater feelings of excitement coursing
ing which ball of white fluff was most likely through my brain at Dan’s revelation. Here was
to end up on my plate with guacamole and this great opportunity for me to not only be a
sour cream. Dan had arranged with me a few part of starting up a game development com-
weeks earlier to meet him for lunch on that pany where we could hopefully work on our own

24 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
HISTORY WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

ideas and call our own shots, but to also have

the chance to move to somewhere as exotic as
South Africa in order to do so. Immediately, I
was very interested in the whole idea although
I also had quite a few reservations about mov-
ing to a place that would, without a doubt, be
quite different from anything that I was used to.

Fortunately, Dan wasn’t looking to get a solid

answer from me at this time, as there was
still a lot of leg work for him to do. There were
other former colleagues whom he had yet to
approach, not to mention that he still had to
finalise suitable investment within South Af-
rica that would enable this venture to take off.
It was a bit of a catch-22 situation for him, but
the thought of those rough seas didn’t seem
to do anything to diminish the gleam in his
eyes when he talked about wanting to be the
first person to establish a successful game
development company in his native country.

At the end of lunch (which I am glad to say ac-

tually did not appear to contain any rabbit-like
components or byproducts) I was quite excited.
I told Dan that I was very interested in what he
was doing, and that he should keep in touch
with me when he had managed to get along
further and had more concrete facts to tell me.
Afterwards, I headed back to DIT to finish my
work for the day, then boarded the bus back
to Vancouver, all the while thinking about this
cool opportunity that potentially lay before me.

I still wasn’t sure what I would say if some day

Dan got in touch with me and told me that he
was ready to start up I-Imagine. I was happy
with my job at the moment and I knew that in
May, once the last graduating class left DCGS,
I would be welcome to join the newly formed
division of NOA called Nintendo Technology &
Development, as they had very close ties to Di-
giPen. However, I told myself that I would worry
about crossing that bridge if and when I got to
it. Just the fact that I had two such terrific oppor-
tunities for my future before I had even turned
21 was more than I could have hoped for.

To be continued...
COOLHAND

25 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
TAILPIECE LOOKING TOWARDS THE FUTURE

Fortune telling – game development in 2007

R
ight, so it’s still the tender days of a (though the former seems more likely), but when Africa is rather small compared to its already
fresh new year. For some, it’s the stuff happens, it’s bound to be big either way. firm entrenchment in many other countries.
beginning times of school or uni- Internationally, we’re looking at some pretty With other game crafting frameworks such as
versity – and some working people out there hefty issues that people are going to be occu- Torque also vying for attention, the average
might also have had the benefit of an extend- pied with for most of the year. The Game Mak- game developer isn’t really going to be short
ed holiday before putting their noses to the er community, for a start, is anxiously await- of tools (and powerful ones, at that) to prac-
grindstone again. For others, it might mean ing the arrival of GM7 (if it’s not here already tice their art with. Heck, that’s not even men-
other, bigger things, or even nothing at all. by the time you read this). It’s quite a serious tioning Microsoft’s beloved XNA, which some
Whatever your personal scenario, it’s almost piece of software by now – with 7 major incarna- people still don’t believe exists based on the
certain that the year 2007 is going to be an inter- tions, a widespread following and even its own it’s-far-too-good-to-be-true principle.This de-
esting one for game developers. By “interest- book released last year, it’s not surprising to velopment tool is pretty much in full swing by
ing”, one doesn’t necessarily mean good or bad realise that the tool’s recent foothold in South now and game devvers all over are ripping into

26 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
TAILPIECE LOOKING TOWARDS THE FUTURE

it like a pack of hungry wolves in a sheep pen. download records doubling in December and African game developer shouldn’t look forward
The awesome flexibility and the exclusive hold the arrival of new game developers to the to the potential that 2007 holds. As mentioned
that the tool has on the 360 platform are partly Game.Dev forums accelerating at an exciting already, it should be an interesting year ...
to blame for such rabid behaviour. And it seems rate.There’s no reason why the average South
like it can only get better as the year progresses. NANDREW
Considering the above, looking for something
to make you a game in 2007 will probably just
entail a peek around the proverbial corner. If
something’s not lying at your feet already.
Of course, there could be a nasty little hiccough
regarding a particular platform. Sure, the con-
sole market has been blown wide open by the
presence of XNA, but some worry about what
the advent of Vista will do to the faithful old
PC indie development. In essence, it seems
likely that safety is going to be favoured over
flexibility – bad news for the less formal game
developers and marketers who have to get
their product accepted by a system that is,
quite frankly, designed to accept as little un-
auth third-party produce as possible. Security
for the end user is a noble goal, but is it ulti-
mately going to cost the big bad dev machine?

Well, regardless of the new OS’s impact, it

shouldn’t affect the legroom that game develop-
ment is going to enjoy in South Africa this year.
The Game.Dev organisation is by now entering
its third year of existence, backed by some very
solid successes and some equally solid indus-
try partners, and has some awesome plans for
2007. Hotlabs have already been established
in both Johannesburg and Durban (with hopes
being held out for Cape Town as well) and the
organisation had an undoubtedly strong pres-
ence at last year’s national rAge event. For
2007, speculation turns to holding workshops
based at schools and universities, as well
as establishing a game development pres-
ence at broader-focus events such as Scifest.
The ranks of game developers are also swell-
ing as ITI opens its doors to a whole batch of
eager new dev students this year. The for-
malisation of the industry in South Africa is
quickly rising to international standards – al-
beit on a smaller scale – and soon, perhaps,
I-Imagine won’t be alone in the arena of offi-
cial South African game development compa-
nies. Dev.Mag itself is recording a fantastic
swell of readers in recent months, with official

27 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
COMIC HIGUSHI’S HIDEOUT

28 DEV.MAG ISSUE 10
STOP THE PRESS !
Just before this edition of Dev.Mag got published, the Game.Dev forum was practically flooded with awesome news.

First off, Blender-oriented website, www.blendernation.com, picked up our mag the other day and gave it a front-page news article,
literally boosting our readership by thousands. Thanks guys, we’re glad that our tutorials have been appreciated on such a large
scale!

Secondly, the Game.Dev organisation has had some very promising meetings with a few high-ups which we’re all *very* excited
about. If all goes well, there could even be some TV appearances involved, so watch this space for more info!

Thirdly ... well, let’s just say that we’ve got even more aces up our sleeves, and what we have to say will probably have explosive
results for game development in this country. Expect to find full coverage of some of the best stuff to ever hit SA game development
when Issue 11 gets released next month!

http://www.blendernation.com/2007/02/16/blender-user-wins-subdivisionmodelingcom-challenge/