So I'm currently in Cologne, Germany for the Games Developers Conference, Euro edition. GDC is rapidly becoming my favourite gaming-related event and this year I thought it'd be worth checking out the European version after the US-based one has proven to be so consistently incredibly awesome.

One thing I realised today though as I was sitting through another interesting presentation was that it's probably something most gamers don't care about - it doesn't have the flash of E3 or the massive output of game information and media that follows a big trade event like that.

The reason you should actually pay attention to what is happening at GDC is because a lot of games developers attend these events, and a lot of them are hearing about successful practices and techniques - both in terms of software development and running a games company - which they'll no doubt be considering for their own titles.

As a result, when guys like Crytek's Cevat Yerli get up and tell a room full of developers that they need to be focusing on things like AI, physics, special effects and art style - and not graphics - to make their games distinguishable for the next few years, it seems likely that they'll listen.

So if you're really interested in knowing where games are likely to be heading and what technologies are going to be driving them - stay tuned.

staying tooned!
also please ask why the devs who don't make standalone dedicated server packages are such jerks (like the crytek guys who force us to upload full games to servers)

In germany? I'd watch my back if i was a dev there.
http://www.gamezine.co.uk/news/formats/xbox360/all-violent-video-games-be-banned-in-germany-$1301757.htm

I should really elaborate a bit.

If someone from a game dev company like Crytek can tell a room full of devs what's important in making a game distinguishable and of course memorable in years to come, why wouldn't their company also stress the importance of a healthy online following, and lead by example and release quality server software.(which the don't)

Do they not realise that word of mouth from players and healthy sized communities generate more sales(anecdotaly), and that a lack of, or just really s***ty and generally unsupportable server software is as good as throwing half of the money out of their wallets.

yeh i kinda agree with freewheelin here... who are crytek to be saying what's good & what isn't in games... thier games mostly blow! :P crysis was like a big graphics test engine that no hardware could cope with, farcry & farcry2 looked awesome but had pretty lame gameplay. as far as ai, game physics, special effect & art styles go... most other big game companies are miles ahead of crytek! it's really ONLY graphics in which they excel.

i find it kinda amusing crytek's the 1 that said we need better ai etc etc when their ai blows goats.. u fire a shot at a guy in crysis with the rifle and all he does is run around in circles

+1 to nobody is listening to Crytek

farcry 2 had really silly ai, some of the ideas of what they were trying to do were cool but it basically didnt work. Are bliz doin anything there? now thats a dev company you could listen to :)

Thanks Trog, keep us informed. Sounds good.

farcry 2 had really silly ai, some of the ideas of what they were trying to do were cool but it basically didnt work.

FarCry 2 wasn't made by Crytek, if that's what you're talking about.

farcry 2 had really silly ai, some of the ideas of what they were trying to do were cool but it basically didnt work. Are bliz doin anything there? now thats a dev company you could listen to :)

Blizzard Australia told us no, but the Blizzard booth in the business area tells me a different story, sad face

Blizzard Australia told us no, but the Blizzard booth in the business area tells me a different story, sad face

Well on the same note blizzcon is like a week away or whatever so i'm pretty sure that whatever lies they tell us will be forgiven after they release more details and start putting on impromptu SC2 competitions.

Probably should start a new thread about what we expect from blizzcon 09 though rather then hijack..