This year's Game Developers Conference was graced by many high profile individuals from the gaming industry, each with their own take on the video game industry. At David Perry's Lunch With the Luminaries, Phil Harrison pointed out that making Wii Games might not automatically be a ticket to success. To find out more, head on over to the full article.

What's next-gen for you? Is it over-the-top, photorealistic graphics? An art direction that blurs the line between videogame and masterpiece? Perhaps online play? This is what five of this industry's luminaries tried to figure out at this year's Game Developer Conference. Check out what they had to say in the full article.

Peter Molyneux, one of the most established video game designer still around today, has recently revealed that they are working on a new franchise capable of revolutionizing the whole game AI.

To make his point more clear, he referred to the 2001 PC title Black & White which was considered special at its time. Know more about this after the jump!

Prominent figures of the gaming industry such as Ken Levine, Peter Molyneux, and well-known director Steven Spielberg are gearing up to make waves at the Game Developers Conference 2008 scheduled in February at Moscone Center in San Fransisco. There will be sessions discussing topics such as storytelling in Bioshock (Xbox 360, PC), three spankin' new features added to EA LA's Fable 2, and the upcoming puzzle-video game Boom Blox for the Wii.

 

Julian Eggebrecht, Factor 5 president and lead director, has been announced as the opening keynote speaker for the GC Developers Conference (GCDC) 2007 in Leipzig (also known as the Leipzig Games Convention). Details of his speech have yet to be revealed, but we can expect it to be interesting at the very least. Factor 5 is currently working on the PS3-exclusive game Lair.

Peter Molyneux, Lionhead Studios' president, will also be giving a keynote focusing on the company's classic games. The GCDC 2007 will be held from August 20 to 22 in Leipzig, Germany. Other GCDC 2007 international speakers will include:

• Jason Manley (Massive Black)
• Christopher Schmitz, (10Tacle Studios)
• Jennifer MacLean (Comcast Interactive Media)
• Dr. Michael Wimmer (The University of Vienna)
• Alexander Fernández (Streamline Studios)
• Cindy Armstrong (Webzen)
• Amir Taaki (Crystalspace)
• Jeff Strain (ArenaNet)
• Vlad Ihora (Telia Sonora)
• Barbara Lippe (Avaloop IT Solutions)
• Pamela Kato (The GamerX)
• Uwe Nikl (Level 3)
• Matt Firor (Ultra Mega Games)
• Konstantin Ewald (Osborne Clarke)

For the second time around, the Develop Conference & Expo 2007 will make a landing at the Hilton Brighton Metropole to draw in around 1,100 attendees from 22 territories. Starting July 24, the two day conference will tackle issues relevant to the game development community across seven different tracks, as stated from the official press release.

Underneath the design, production, coding, business, art, audio and world vision tracks, four "C"s will define each track's themes: Community, Connectivity, Creativity, and Control. Taking off from the 2007 Game Developers Conference's touch on online and social trends of the industry, the Develop Conference will be investigating into user-created content, inter-format networking, varied and user-created game conceptualization and the use of "new wave devices." Conference advisory board chair Owain Bennallack explained the conference's focus, saying:

We think developers are now ready to hear a lot more about how the lessons of Web 2.0 can make their games better and more successful, and the Develop conference in Brighton is the only place to do so, as well as picking up plenty more traditional hints and tips about programming, art, audio, and production.

At July 26, the Expo segment of the event will commence, with different flavors of access passes for the Conference and Expo. Develop will be offering 20% discount to early bird registrants, who log into the official web site and purchase access passes by July 1, 2007. And get this folks: Expo passes are absolutely free of charge.

Expect 40 of Europe's most innovative companies from "every sector of games development" to make an appearance, including speakers Vfx's Peter Chaing, Lionhead's Peter Molyneux, Instinct Technology's Mike Gamble, Sony CE Europe's Kate Ellwood and Blitz Studios' Steve Williams.

I was bored last night. Not able to stand the monotony, I decided to go through my game shelf just to see if there was something that I could pop into my PlayStation 2 and enjoy. I eventually picked up and dusted off my copy of Clover Studio's Viewtiful Joe 2.

I decided to play through the first stage mostly as Sylvia. While I was blasting through the stage with her pink guns of unrelenting joy and joyfulness, I suddenly got hit by a wave of nostalgia. I needed a 2D platforming high.

Why go with 2D you ask? Well, it's because if there's anything that Castlevania on the DS and Viewtiful Joe by Clover proves, it is that there's still room for well-done 2D platforming games in this hyper defined, 1080p, next-gen world.

Dammit, I want to play Commander Keen again.

This isn't really news. This is a long rant-ish post, and to save you the pain of having to read through a dinosaur's gaming woes, you're only going to have to read the rest of the post after click on that "Full Article" link below. Zerglings, cyberpunk hippies with mini-guns, and space-travelling pre-teens await after the Jump!

No wonder a whole lot of shows have hailed Peter Molyneux as a gaming god. The man's a genius. Don't believe us? Check out his latest mad experiment.

During his GDC demonstration in 2005, the Lionhead Studios head demoed his brainchild: The Room. Not really a game, but more of an experiment dabbling in Hyper realistic surroundings, portals, and incredible definition. Where objects age and books have individual pages. A lot of people say that graphics are superfluous and what's important is gameplay experience and fun, well, thing is, sometimes graphics add to the fun and contributes to immersing you into the experience. As this demo shows, it's all about execution.

Synergy of interaction, design, and graphical power, something we should expect and grade the next-gen by.

Nintendo is pushing Wii Sports as one of their finer examples of the "new direction" Nintendo is taking the gaming industry with the Wii. But IGN's Matt Casamassina is not so sure. To quote him: "I'm not entirely convinced that these mini sports outings work as well as Nintendo hopes, prays and maybe even believes they do." And it was worth putting a blog post in Club IGN.

Why? For a game that's supposed to demonstrate the finer qualities of the Wiimote, the controls in Wii Sports have been weighed by Matt and found loopy. The tennis controls are not as accurate as advertised: sometimes he swings the racket left, the ball goes to the right. You don't have to "throw" the Wiimote to throw a fastball in baseball, Matt just flicks his wrist. The wrist-flicking sometimes throws an even faster fastball than the full-shoulder throw.

The only exception, claims Matt, is bowling. There the controls work just like real life. Rotate the wrist to throw a curve or a hook, unlike in baseball where you don't rotate your wrist to throw a curve (use the d-pad). Throw the Wiimote like a bowling ball (he didn't say it, but the implication is that wrist-flicking won't work).

Perhaps the IGN editor's being a wee bit harsh in judging the game. You will note that he didn't make any mention of golf or bowling. And perhaps the controls were nerfed a bit, since, well, Peter Molyneux did have a point when he said that players can't stand around all day swinging their arms around. And Wii Sports is a freebie, Matt admits, so he can't complain much.

Still, "Many of these new gameplay experiences that the Big N trumpets as loud as it can are, in practice, unproven at the very least and broken at the very worst." Matt, as of the blog post, is in Seattle, and is getting cozy with Twilight Princess. That should hopefully lift his spirits.

Lionhead's Peter Molyneux brought up a very real and relevant concern during his speech at the Leipzig GCDC: that motion-sensing controllers could leave gamers exhausted and out of breath unless developers think creatively.

A self-confessed lazy gamer, Molyneux said, "I've realised I'm an incredibly lazy person when I play games, and actually slouching back on the sofa, playing on my beer belly, is my most comfortable position. When I have to get up, it's painful. I make noises and start grunting." Hmm. It's nice to know that even a developer of Molyneux's stature still suffers the same gaming-related stresses as most of us.

With the advent of the motion-sensing controller, this is a very real issue indeed. While motion-sensing controllers are without a doubt quite a step into the future of gaming, we sincerely doubt that gamers would be pleased at having to make hacking and slashing motions for hours at a time when they're playing through an action-intensive game.

"I think motion-sensitivity is very, very useful, but I think the obvious way of doing it - unless you're dealing with a 15 to 20 minute experience at most of actually being hugely physical - is not where the opportunity lies here," Molyneux said.

But all that doesn't mean Molyneux sees no place for motion-sensing in gaming - simply that he believes that the challenge is not in going for the most obvious gameplay use of motion-sensing controllers, but in finding ways to utilize these features to bring about a better and more fun-filled gaming experience.

What about you guys? We wanna hear your thoughts on this matter, so feel free to leave a comment.