The Future of Video Games

1
The Future of Video Games
2
The Future of Video Games

• Looking to the future, there are several ways of
  thinking of what is likely to happen, and what
  might happen in games and game development.
  
• Changes in the way games are made.
• Changes in the technologies used in games.
• Changes in gameplay and the types of games made.
• We will spend some time taking a lookinto each
  of these potential changes

3
Development ChangesAgile Methods

• There is a growing interest in the games industry
  in agile software development.
  
• The focus is on quick iterations in the
  development cycle, and collaboration in the
  development team.
  
• New agile methods are being developed by software
  engineering researchers and practitioners, and
  the games industry is increasingly interested in
  these methods.

4
Development ChangesAgile Methods
5
Development ChangesSeparation and Reuse

• We have already seen the beginnings of this, in
  separating core content and logic of a game from
  its engine.
  
• This trend will only continue in the future
• Further separation of game engines, supporting a
  wider variety of game genres.
  
• More reusable components, character behaviours,
  game logic, and game assets.
  
• More and more game developers will move towards
  developing content on top of one of many
  fundamental game engines.

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Development ChangesSeparation and Reuse
Screen shot from Cryteks Cryengine game engine
editor.
7
Development ChangesSeparation and Reuse
Screen shots and movies from Epics Unreal 3
engine.
8
Development ChangesGames as Platforms

• In essence, many of todays games are platforms
  unto themselves.
  
• The games consist of core logic and content
  layered on top of software code.
  
• Editors and tools come with the games to support
  user-edited content as well.
  
• In essence, the game software has become an
  operating system on which new productions can
  be created professionally by other developers.
  
• This trend will only continue to increase.

9
Development ChangesGames as Platforms
Screen shot from Counter Strike. It was spawned
from Half Life,which in turn was derived from Id
Softwares Quake series of games.
10
Development ChangesOnline Distribution

• Online distribution used to only be the realm of
  shareware or freeware games.
  
• Many games today, however, provide supplemental
  content through some form of online distribution
  mechanism.
  
• Recently, a few sites have appeared to provide
  complete games online.
  
• While the selection of games is usually limited
  to only slightly older titles, there is a move
  towards more recent games.
  
• In the future, more games will be available
  through online distribution mechanisms.

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Development ChangesOnline Distribution
The GamesMania website. For different fees,
players can have either limitedor unlimited
access to the over 100 titles offered through
their service.
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Development ChangesOnline Distribution

• Interestingly enough, the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii
  all have online distribution set up for games
  now.
  
• Currently, these games tend to be relatively
  small, but this is likely to be changing in the
  near future.
  
• Valves Steam service is growing in popularity
  for online distribution of full games for the PC
  as well.

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Development ChangesOnline Distribution
Screen shot of the Steam interface showing
multiple games anddownloads available.
14
Development ChangesContinuous Development

• In the future, many popular titles will undergo
  continuous development.
  
• After an initial installment, there will be an
  uninterrupted series of improvements, extensions,
  and new content to the games.
  
• The life cycle for such a game would span a
  number of episodes, versions, add-ons,
  extensions, and user developed content.
  
• Some products would die off as popularity fades,
  but many will see a large and extended life cycle
  of many years.

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Development ChangesContinuous Development
Screen shot from Mech Assault 2. It was under
more-or-less continuousdevelopment with new
mechs, maps, and missions being
releasedperiodically using Microsofts Xbox Live
service.
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Development ChangesContinuous Development
Screen shot from Half Life 2 Episode One.
Episodic content is startingto attract more and
more attention from developers and players too.
17
Development ChangesSimultaneous Releases

• As cross platform game engines and development
  tools mature, there will be an increase in
  simultaneous releases of video games
  
• Multiple target platforms.
• Multiple languages.
• Multiple types of media (movies,
  television,books, comics, and so on).
  
• While this is done with some games today, this
  trend will increase.

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Development ChangesSimultaneous Releases
Screen shot from Spider-Man. Games were released
on multiple platformsin sync with the launch of
the hit movie. Different ports of the game
haddifferent features though like the Kraven
levels only on the Xbox version.
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Development ChangesFourth-Party Developers

• In the past, developers tended to be
• First-party The system maker itself.
• Second-party A subsidiary of the system maker.
• Third-party A wholly independent company.
• Fourth-party developers are the end users of
  games themselves.
  
• Using developer provided tools and editors, or
  other independent software, end users provide
  additional game content.
  
• In some cases, fourth-party developers produce
  an entirely new and different game.

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Development ChangesFourth-Party Developers
Screen shot from Counter Strike. It has been the
most popularand successful fourth-party game
developed to date.
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Development ChangesFourth-Party Developers
Screen shot from Little Big Planet. This new
game is all about creativitywhere players can
create and share content with one another and
evenwork collaboratively on their creations.
Interesting stuff!
22
Game Technology ChangesAuto-Generated Content

• It is already becoming too costly and too
  difficult to create and animate polygonal models
  used in games.
  
• The sheer number of polygons requires a
  ridiculous number of people to create, edit, and
  animate.
  
• In the future, auto-generation tools will be
  needed to create models with higher polygon
  counts, and simulation will be needed to properly
  animate them.

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Game Technology ChangesAuto-Generated Content
Screen shot from Doom III. Source models in Doom
III have nearly 1,000,000polygons, which are
rendered down to 5,000 polygon models for in game
use,along with bump maps for textures. We
cannot go much higher than this!
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Game Technology ChangesMore Passes Please

• Until recently, most rendering engines used only
  two passes one for base texturing and the other
  for lighting.
  
• Additional details were added by increasing
  polygon count or by using higher resolution
  textures.
  
• Rendering engines are moving away from these
  techniques and towards more rendering passes.
  
• Bump mapping, environmental mapping, and other
  techniques are used in additional passes to
  produce more realistic graphics.
  
• In the future, even more passes per polygon will
  add further graphical enhancements.

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Game Technology ChangesMore Passes Please
Screen shot from Dead or Alive 3. Several
rendering passes are used toprovide spectacular
graphical effects through different lighting,
bumpmapping, and environmental mapping effects.
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Game Technology ChangesReal-time Level
Modification

• In most video games, the game level is static and
  immutable, no matter what you to do it, or in
  it.
  
• For example, you can blast a rocket launcher at a
  wall, and at best leave a blast mark. No hole,
  and no rubble are left behind.
  
• In the future, more games will allow real-time
  modifications to the game world itself in
  response to player actions.
  
• This adds another dimension of realism.

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Game Technology ChangesReal-time Level
Modification
Screen shot from Unreal Tournament 2003. You can
set off a miniaturenuclear warhead, and not
punch a hole in a wall or floor. All youll get
isa blackened blast mark (temporarily) where the
explosion took place.
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Game Technology ChangesReal-time Level
Modification
Screen shot from Red Faction. With its Geo-Mod
Engine, you can havearbitrary deformations to
the game levels, instead of the destruction of
onlycertain designated objects, like glass
windows.
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Game Technology ChangesMeaningful Interactions

• Most modern artificial intelligence in games is
  restricted to combat situations or some form of
  scripted behaviour.
  
• New efforts are being directed towards more
  meaningful and spontaneous interactions with non
  player characters.
  
• There is a lot left to do, however, and such
  interactions are likely still years away.

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Game Technology ChangesMeaningful Interactions
Screen shot from The Sims. The Sims brought a
whole new varietyof non player character
interactions to gaming but there still isnt a
real feeling of interacting with another human
being.
31
Game Technology ChangesLearning and Adaptation

• Many games in the past have boasted of the
  ability to learn, adapt, and react to the
  players actions and strategies.
  
• What we have seen, however, has been quite
  primitive in comparison to what is on the way.
  
• Identify patterns in player behaviour.
• Formulate new actions and strategies.
• Anticipate player activity and compensate.
• Provide a different kind of enemy each time.

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Game Technology ChangesLearning and Adaptation
Screen shot from Sin. Like many games over the
years, it claims tohave reactive artificial
intelligence that responds to player actions.
Futuretechnology will push the boundaries much,
much further.
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Game Technology ChangesGroup Tactics

• In the future, artificial intelligence in a game
  will use group tactics against human players.
  
• For example, they will attempt to outflank, lure,
  or ambush players in a variety of ways.
  
• This will be difficult to coordinate, but will
  provide more challenge and more realistic game
  play.

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Game Technology ChangesGroup Tactics
Screen shot from SOCOM US Navy Seals. A good
attempt to providegroup tactics in a game. In
most cases, however, group behaviour isdictated
by the player or a variety of simple rules.
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Game Technology Changes Group Tactics
Movie from Far Cry, built on the Crytek Engine.
It is starting show some ofwhat we are looking
for in AI better interactions, group tactics,
and so on.
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Game Technology ChangesPositional Sound

• As the technology becomes more widely available,
  there will be an even bigger push for
  environmental and surround sound in video games.
  
• This will allow positional sound and cues within
  a game world for an enhanced gaming experience.
  
• This, however, will require more believable sound
  propagation models, and improved game development
  tools.

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Game Technology ChangesPositional Sound
Screen shot from Panzer Dragoon Orta. One of
many recent gamesto support surround sound for
positional audio effects.
38
Game Technology ChangesNetworked Games

• There is already a growing trend in networked
  multiplayer video games.
  
• With both personal computers and all the latest
  consoles having support for high speed access to
  the Internet, this will only increase.
  
• In the future, titles without any network play
  support will be much rarer and harder to find.
  
• Some experts claim that the end of the single
  player game is at hand.
  
• This is likely an exaggeration, but there is a
  definite shift amongst players and developers.

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Game Technology ChangesNetworked Games
Screen shot from Halo 2. This highly anticipated
title had many new features, the most anticipated
of which was network play usingMicrosofts Xbox
Live service.
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Game Technology ChangesBrain-Computer Interfaces

• Imagine you could control a video game directly
  with your mind instead of the indirect approaches
  currently taken.
  
• Players interact with a game through controllers
  using their hands, feet, or other part of their
  body.
  
• Feedback is given using video, audio, or tactile
  methods through various devices.
  
• Direct brain interfacing would potentially open
  up new kinds of games, and allow games to be
  played by people previously unable to play due to
  some form of disability.

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Game Technology ChangesBrain-Computer Interfaces
To the left is a screen shot of Mind Balance, a
game developed as part of brain-computer
interface research conducted at University
College Dublin. The player wears a special brai
n cap that non-invasively measures signals at
the back ofthe head. The goal of the game is to
balance the character Mawg, as hetraverses a
tight rope. This is done by focusing attention
on glowing and flickering orbs on the screen
that trigger visual processing in the brain.
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Game Technology ChangesBrain-Computer Interfaces
Feedback in the Mind Balance game.
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Game Technology ChangesBrain-Computer Interfaces
Emotivs Project Epoch. This headset will allow
you to control games on your PC or console in the
near future. Theyve actually done demosof it,
and are aiming for a product launch some time in
2008!
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New Types of GamesUnconstrained Gaming

• Most games constrain the way the player can play
  them and overcome obstacles.
  
• Restricting the types and numbers of game world
  objects, leaving a sparse or repetitive world.
  
• Restricting the interactions possible with the
  different game world objects.
  
• Future breeds of games will have more varied
  interactions possible with a wider variety of
  game objects.
  
• This allows users to find and implement their own
  solutions to game obstacles and puzzles.

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New Types of GamesUnconstrained Gaming
Screen shot from Splinter Cell. This game allows
significant interactionswith objects in the game
world, but there are still some things that
youcannot do that would otherwise make sense.
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New Types of GamesUnconstrained Gaming
Screen shot from Cellfactor. This game is being
driven by PhysX by AGEIA,a new hardware-based
physics acceleration platform. Yes, thisis
gameplay footage! Sweet!
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New Types of GamesPervasive Gaming

• A new wave of games is on the horizon that span
  platforms and utilize mobile and wireless
  technologies to reach people wherever they are,
  whenever they want.
• Computers, traditional consoles, cell phones,
  hand-helds like the PSP and DS, and so on.
  
• The game content is tuned appropriately to the
  capabilities of the device in question.
  
• These types of games are closer than you may
  think!

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New Types of GamesPervasive Gaming
Concept art for VibeForce. VibeForce was a
MMORPG prototype for theButterfly Grid. It was
going to use the Butterfly Grid to support a
single massive game world, but unfortunately was
never released.
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New Types of GamesInteractivity as Gameplay

• New methods of interaction in the latest
  consoles and in recent games are enabling new
  types of gameplay.
  
• Interestingly enough, despite their novelty (or
  perhaps because of their novelty) these new
  systems and games are proving to be incredibly
  popular.
• What we have seen so far is very impressive, but
  it only scratches the surface of what is possible.

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New Types of GamesInteractivity as Gameplay
The Nintendo DS. When Nintendo announced they
were producing ahand-held system with two
screens, one of them being a touch screen,people
thought they were nuts. In the end, however,
Nintendo has hadincredible success with the DS.
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New Types of GamesInteractivity as Gameplay
Nintendos Wii. When it was first announced as
the Revolution, peopleagain thought Nintendo was
nuts and that their new system was an actof
desperation. In the end, Nintendo had another
hit on their hands,and stores still cannot keep
them in stock.
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New Types of GamesInteractivity as Gameplay
The Guitar Hero II controller for the Xbox 360.
Guitar Hero and its sequel have proven to be quit
e popular, even amongst people thathave no
guitar playing experience whatsoever.
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New Types of GamesVirtual or Augmented Reality

• Virtual or augmented reality games bring a new
  level of immersion to gaming.
  
• Virtual reality
• The user is immersed in a completely synthetic
  world, where all senses are fed from the game
  world.
  
• Augmented reality
• Some portion of the real world is still available
  to the senses, with aspects of the game world
  layered over top.

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New Types of GamesVirtual or Augmented Reality
Some products, such as this visor, currently
allow stereoscopic renderingof 3D games
(typically Direct3D or OpenGL) in a way that
makes them seem almost holographic to the wearer.
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New Types of GamesVirtual or Augmented Reality
Concept of Augmented Reality Quake (ARQuake) from
the University of South Australia. Starting at
left, they model the real world in a game world
map,minus textures and fine details. Game
creatures and objects are then insertedinto the
map for playability. The game is then rendered
into specialaugmented reality goggles. Finally,
at right, all walls, doors, and othergame world
constructs are made transparent so the real world
shows through.Position is tracked using digital
compasses, GPS tracking, and so on.
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New Types of GamesVirtual or Augmented Reality
Photo of a player of ARQuake. A lot of extra
gear must be worn, but, as thevideo shows, you
get an interesting game experience.
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New Types of GamesVirtual or Augmented Reality
View of Human Pacman, an augmented reality game
developed atthe Mixed Reality Lab of the
National University of Singapore. Players usea
variety of gear to help navigate through the game
world.
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New Types of GamesVirtual or Augmented Reality
Real world view (left) and game world view
(right) of playersplaying Human Pacman. I dont
know about wandering about streets with real
traffic while immersed in an augmented reality!
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New Types of GamesVirtual or Augmented Reality
Images of a Human Pacmanplayer in all of the
requiredgear. As geeky as this looks,I
wouldnt pass up a chanceto play it!
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New Types of GamesVirtual or Augmented Reality
Images from Kick Ass Kung-fu. It allows for a
motion captured individual (shown lower left, wit
h targeting scan upper left) to be transposed
into a (shown at right). Weapons and charged
energy attacks are supported too!
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A Final Word

• People expect too much in one year and not
  enough in ten years.
  
• - Neil Armstrong