Now ok, maybe that doesn’t really show what I’m getting at. After all there is this massive spike in interest in July for Starcraft that really skews the graph. The bit I’m interested in is the tail. So here’s the last 3 months instead.

I’m not really suggesting that you can compare the two games. They are two very different beasts that service two quite different markets. One’s made by a faceless team of hundreds another buy one guy (well there are 4 in the credits, more on that later). However both games come together in the audience’s attention span. I’m not sure if that’s an actual concept but it does sound legit. After all if you’re a gamer, it’s a good bet that you’ve have been exposed to both titles by now.

To me there are really interesting questions tied to the productions and finances of both of those games. I wonder if you looked at the per worker day investment of both teams and the financial return of both games. Which one would come up on top?

Next interesting point is the google search terms. My favourite bit is how “crack” and “cheat” appear twice in the Starcraft top 10 and they don’t even crack the list for Minecraft.

The video explains most of the process. And it’s a couple of months old now but I keep forgetting to add it here. So here it is.
Also there are images in the details post.

If you haven’t heard, Freeplay is going to happen in Melbourne in about a week and half. It’s turning into a pretty significant event. Not only because of the stellar lineup of people. Not just because most major game conventions in Australia are slowly dying. But for me it’s the way the talks have been put together. Grab a bunch of people and take them out of their comfort zone. Then put an audience in front of them. What could go wrong.

Why am I mentioning this? Well I’m on a panel called “101 things I learnt in Game Design School”. The idea comes from this book, which is a personal favourite of mine (buy it, it’s really good). The way it’s working is that all the Freeplay speakers (there are about 600,000 of them) offer a thing they learnt. And then we panel about them. The last bit is a little hazy but Helen assures me that it’s under control.

Before my friends get out the pitchforks, it wasn’t my idea. I’m not a game designer. And I never went to a Game Design School. But I do run one (which might be the only reason I’m on the panel) and I hang around a lot of Design people so I’ve leached a lot of ideas though the years.

As prep I sat down to see if I could write out 101 things that I actually do know. I present them below as a way of throwing myself at the mercy of the court. If I’ve learnt anything it’s because people much smarter than I already figured it out and shared it with me. This talk is for them.

Click Details to get the list.

Drawing With Strings from matt ditton on Vimeo.

HeightField Demo from matt ditton on Vimeo.

Particle System Demo from matt ditton on Vimeo.

Slitscanning Workspace Demo from matt ditton on Vimeo.

Space Invader Class from matt ditton on Vimeo.

We flaked out today and took it easy. I am totally stuffed. I’m going back tomorrow to watch the fans.

MattD

P.S. yeah I bought that camera from 2 posts ago. The pile of things to bring back home is huge. It is phat loot. It is pirate plunder from the orient.

This is Tamsen. This image was part or the TimeLight exhibition last year. Well next month it’ll be on display at the Prometheus Award. Rock up and say hello. I’ll be in the corner drinking and muttering how photos never win these things…

*update, written much later*
No I didn’t win but a photo did. How awesome is that. And I did sell the piece.

I’m in Sydney for the Aeaf and I have the distinct feeling that Computer Games are not their primary focus. In fact I feel quite out of place. Warren Ellis said it best

“Speaking at a convention where you don’t know anyone sucks arse”
(Well he said something like that)

Went to the award dinner last night and polar express won best-animated film. I overheard the guy next to me say.

“What do you know, the train of the dammed picked something up. They spoke here this morning right?”

And then I went back to bed.