BRIGHTON, UK--As the creator of Lemmings, Grand Theft Auto, and
Crackdown, Dave Jones is well positioned to talk about innovation and
shaping the future of the industry. Nevertheless, this is the first
time that the Dundee native has ever attended the Brighton Develop
conference, let alone spoke at it. To mark the occasion of his first
keynote at the show, Jones focused on the development of a 100 percent
online game, with his upcoming action title All Points Bulletin at the
centre.
The highlight of the talk was a 10-minute expose of APB, which
launches in early 2010. The game is designed around the concept of
"creativity, celebrity, and conflict." In terms of creativity, the game
will offer an in-depth avatar creator, which also stretches to
vehicles.
Some of the most interesting customisation in APB looks to come
from the audio side. Jones confirmed the integration of music-streaming
service Last.fm (which is owned by GameSpot's parent company CBS) for
the game, so when players link their APB accounts to the service, they
will be able to enjoy their favourite music in the game. There's also a
simple music composition tool included in the game, and Jones showed
how users will be able to compose "Another One Bites the Dust" or the
theme from Super Mario Bros. These customs sound clips can then be cued
up to in-game events, for example, playing whenever the gamer kills
someone. "You could become the Mario assassin," joked Jones.
On the technical side, Jones said that his new favourite piece
of technology was the server that APB will run from. "There will be no
lobbies in our game," said Jones. "There will be asymmetrical
matchmaking, looking at your skill level and bringing in lots of
players or just two depending on the situation. APB will also be a
truly persistent world--GTA and Crackdown were not." He then showed how
the game world is alive even when players aren't on the server, with AI
cars and people going about their business in the city.
Jones also found time to talk about his previous game,
Crackdown on the Xbox 360. "Crackdown sold 1.5 million copies, which
was just enough to break even," he said. "You have to be top 10 these
days," he claimed, talking about retail charts. He specifically
bemoaned used game sales--often a favourite complaint from speakers at
Brighton--as well as the difficulty in selling a new IP.
Jones also had plenty of advice to give from the lessons he's
learned over his 20-year career. When he set up DMA Design, which would
go on to make Lemmings and GTA, Jones was a student and received £0.75
($1.20 at today's exchange rates) per game he sold. "I plagiarised and
that's fine--it's OK to learn from the masters," he said. "Actually, a
lot of people said GTA1 was a lot like Pac Man, and it was." Jones
added he was amazed at how similar game development is now, with the
advent of the iPhone, in terms of production and royalties for
development teams.
Jones also talked about his design principles, listed in order
of importance: attention to detail; simple building blocks, compound
effects; great training; keep it contemporary; humour; innovate, forge
a genre. Attention to detail is the most important facet of design
according to Jones, but his most interesting, and potentially
controversial, advice was on keeping games contemporary. "If you want
to break down barriers, reach the biggest audience, [then] keep it
contemporary," he said. While he acknowledged their place in the
industry, he railed against sci-fi games in particular, which he feels
have too many barriers to entry.
He also talked about looking at developing for other platforms.
"We looked at Wii, and it's great for Nintendo, but I like to make
games that I play and so does our team," said Jones. "iPhone is also
interesting, but I think it's for the up-and-coming guys--a great one
for students to cut their teeth in."
Eventually, the team settled on an online game. "Online has
huge scope for innovation," he elaborated. "If you look at Gears of War
and Halo, then you see [online] is truly where players spend their
time." There are also selfish reasons, he admits. "Client piracy is not
an issue, and the economics are more favourable to developers."
