There is a new type of trend associated with Web 2.0 development - the “public open beta”. Google doesn’t even release products anymore - it just betas them until people stop complaining. Anyway - we’re going to take that one step further, and open our development up to you. You’re going to see a lot of stuff before the public beta: mock up, proof of concept and various alphas. Moreover, it will allow you to contribute DIRECTLY to our development process. Since you are our client, the customers which we are making this game for, let us hear your thoughts. This is your opportunity to help us make the most amazing game, ever. Anyway, I digress. Ladies and Gentlemen - the main event:

Iterative Games ‘Beta RPG’ Mock Ups - Basic Pages

Registration Screen. Placeholder will be replaced by artwork. Each squad will play on a seperate server. Note that you’ll either be automatically be assigned to a squad, or can select one from the available list.

Login Screen. Self explanatory.
Once you login, you will either be taken to the quarters of your existing character, or be directed to the Character creation screen.

Character Creation.
The first time you login, you will select your character from the basic classes. This will assign some starting skills & stats to your character.

Ready Room.
The ready room is where you will select which mission you want to deploy to. You can also chat or join in missions with other company members.

‘Beta RPG’ Mock Ups - Battle Pages

Battle Page. Once you choose to join a battle, you will be moved to the battle screen for the duration of combat. This is the default page - you can see your troops on your left, the enemy troops on the right. Story messages and action text will be displayed at the to of the screen, while chat messages with your team can be entered and read at the bottom.

Character Selection Page. When it is your turn, you may select one of your characters to perform an action. Character may only act once per turn, although certain actions may allow a unit to act multiple times in a turn.

Action Selection Page. After selection a unit, you can select an action for that character to perform. Actions are divided into categories - Weapon actions, dependent on your current weapon; Inventory actions, dependent on your inventory; and personal actions.

Target Selection Page. Some actions will require you to choose a target, such as attacking an enemy character or helping a friendly character.

Evaluation Page. After an action is completed, the results will be displayed on screen. Once you view all the results the top display section will minimize and the regular battle view will be restored.

All for now. Next Session - the fun stuff - promotions, skills, modifications and crafting!

Highway Robbery
Before I begin: I can’t give enough credit to the creative minds at 37 signals for writing “Getting Real”.

If you build shit with computers (and in some cases not) you should read this.

In the course of these sessions expect me to reference and sometimes blantantly plagarize from their wisdom.

Game 2.0 will be web based.
The future of computer gaming will come to you via the same medium that you are reading this in. It will not be a graphically immersive experience (insert shocked gasps here!). Yes, you can quote me on that, and here are the reasons why:

1. The web is the world’s biggest console platform.
Forget 10 million consoles. Forget a 6 game per console attach rate. Just about every damn computer created today has some sort of web browser. Think of those web browsers as the game engine that everyone has on their machine. You, me, George Dubya, yo momma and her momma (At this point, you can jump in and point out that there is still a good deal of variety in web browsers. This is true. But there’s still a shitload more people using IE 6 than all the consoles in the world, combined.) Here’s another great benefit of the web - just about everyone knows how to use it. Mouse & keyboard, type & click. There’s also less betting on hardware. Yes, under a rock somewhere, there are people still running text-only browsers on 386 processors using 14.4k dial up, and they will NOT be playing. But the rest of you will not need to invest in a new GPU (or the insanity that is a PPU!) to run this game. You’ll probably even be able to run it from a console web browser. How ironic is that?

2. No charge for delivery if you order now!
And we mean it. The web provides us with the best delivery mechanism we could ever realistically hope for. Going “gold” for us means moving files up to our web server. It’s great for you too - we don’t have to get you to go to the store, or even answer the front door. One morning you will wake up, and our game will be just there, waiting for you to play it. Plus, we get great advertising on here too! (Play our game. It’ll be more fun that poking your eye out with a stick. End shameless plug.).

3. All my friends are here.
The great thing about the web is that it’s really easy to interact with both of my friends at the same time. But, seriously, the ubiquity of the web makes it very easy to network the people you like. It shouldn’t be a struggle to play a game with your friends. That’s why cards are great - people understand how they work, and you can just deal someone in on the next hand to get started. There is no reason playing a game with your friends on a computer should be harder than playing a card game! You don’t even need to be in the same room! On another interesting note, the web also greatly simplifies collecting data. By going to the iterative games webpage, you’re already connected to the iterative servers. In essence, we already have access to a massively multiplayer engine that will allow you to connect with all your friends on the net.

4. Welcome to Agile.
Again, I’d recommending reading the 37 signals essay, because they’ll state this better than I can: Web applications are GREAT for developers. “From my keyboard to your screen in less than 60 seconds! Lets see a big game studio top that!” Web means that developers can add in features without a distributor; It means that adding new content becomes an instantaneous process; It means that critical bugs can be patched without any sort of download. When you logon to our server, you will automatically be playing the latest build of our software, regardless of whether you’ve been playing for a year or a day. Episodic content becomes a reality - no longer do you have to wait years and pay 30$ to get new content - you’ll access it as fast as we can create it.

So enough with the rhetoric already. My critics are suggesting less prose and more games. Next time - prepare for return of the glorious return of nail biting naval warfare as dreadnaughts fire thundering salvos over the raging ocean! Now in web 2.0!

On Loose Ends -

Sometimes a developer just has to know when to let go. So this is the official announcement: I’m putting UETF Chronicles for UT 2004 into deep cyro freeze. Not gone forever, but not likely to be ever brought to life. One day we may crack the glass seal to pull single vials of DNA to begin our creation of a new master series of games, but for now this book is closed. And I’m not handling any funeral arrangments right now. No final release, no big press sob stories, no public code distribution. This is more of an indefinite pause than a hard stop. Just as some of you may recognize FEBA reborn in UETF, you may yet see this phoenix rise from the current ashes.

Moving on.

Game 2.0. The term floats around like a sort of holy grail of gaming. Just a whisper of a paradigm that promises to deliver the next “level up” in computer gaming. Here’s the big secret; Nobody has a clue what Game 2.0 actually is, which means which means that anyone has the opportunity to define it. The point is - we’re going to do this. Iterative Games is going to create release a working version of a Game 2.0 product. “Iterative Games 2.0″ will be a series thoughts and ideas that will define exactly what that game will be. At the end of this, you will be able to know exactly what this game was meant to be and why it was created as such. So without further ado.

Session 1: Why we’re not making Halo 4

There exists the idea of the “Halo Killer”, the next game to succeed Halo as the king of the video game realm, reaping untold wealth and glory in the process. Many have tried, none have succeeded. Countless man-hours have been spent uselessly in this pursuit, and generally for just about nothing. For a while, this was the dream of UETF. A shooter so good it would become the next Counter-Strike, take the world by storm, spread the name of Iterative Games to every corner of the earth. So after 3 years (!) of following that dream, I present my reasons for NOT making the next Halo, and a little insight into what were are doing instead:

1. Time or Money (being that Time=Money, generally)

This one is simple. A small studio, by default, is the small stack, and a big studio can always push you until you can no longer match their bid. In anything that requires raw time or money, the small studio will lose. Your artwork will be inferior. Your graphics engine will be less impressive. Bungie can probably devote an entire artist and developer just to make the scratches on Master Chief’s left armplate. You simply cannot create as much content as a big studio can. So the answer here is not try to win this battle head on, but focus on the areas where the big studios don’t have the obvious advantage. What is left? Essentially only brilliant ideas and storytelling. Fun is NOT defined in Man-Hours. The fun contained in a deck of cards has very little to do with their production value. The same for stories; The worth of the story being told is not tied to the quality of the medium it is housed in.

2. Consoles

As much as die-hard PC fans still cling to the idea that their platform remains the un-challenged king in the high action arena, the truth remains that much of this need is better served by consoles. For a fraction of the initial investment, console gamers have access to a huge array of excellent action titles. Studios have no choice but to recognize this - it is financial suicide to not cater to this lucrative market. However, there is almost no way to enter this market without huge budgets and huge teams; You will not see the next huge action title on the Xbox released by a 3 man studio! So with a large portion of the “high action” market essentially in-accessible to the PC market, the obvious choice is NOT to create another action title! So with stated, let us consider the potential benefits of the PC platform (I admit the next statements are at best educated guesswork, more likely gross assumptions). The audience left here is used to more feature rich games, less concerned with the body count per second or raw graphic beauty. You can work in this audience to capture imagination, not just pure shock value (for the lack of a better term). People here will be more likely to read text - consider - few gamers actually pause to READ a story in a console game.

3. New Ideas

This a follow up to the point stated in point one and two. Recently, I watched a video of the upcoming Starcraft 2, and although excited, was severly disappointed by the lack of any serious new ideas in Blizzard’s creation. It struck me shortly thereafter that Blizzard had very little choice in the matter - there is simply too much riding on Starcraft 2 for them to risk changing the formula. I can imagine that the changes I yearned for would cause the entire Korean peninsula rise up in rebellion, storm Irvine and burn the heretics at the stake. Great games become victims of their own greatness - producers are simply too scared of losing all their existing customers to start radically changing the formula. It is here that the small companies, with nothing to lose and everything to gain, will always hold the advantage. As any small force attacking an army should know, the key here is to be AGILE (hows that for foreshadowing?).

Anyway. That’s it for the first session; Stay tuned for more terrible mixed metaphors, lame puns and horribly forshadowing! (hopefully we also can stick in some interesting game ideas).

P.S. - Don’t tell the Koreans about my idea to make Starcraft2 into the first RTS RPG MMO (although, dammit blizzard, that would have been SO FUCKING COOL).

Ramblings:

UETF is dead. Long live UETF!

Content is a bitch. Who has enough time to make maps??

Take all the people in the world. Take from that those that own Unreal Tournament 2004. Take those who are interested in mods. Take those who give are interested in UETF enough to actually register and download the mod. Suddenly, it feels like the beginning of 28 days later.

Web games can be fun and addictive. Plus, all you need is a halfway decent PC with a browser to run them. Thats more like the zombie horde.

Wasn’t there some web game for UT once? I think it was fun…

2d is still art.

Game 2.0 will not need 3d accelerated graphics.

Dungeons and Dragons does not need 2 gigs of Ram or a DX 10 vid card to play. Rolling dice constitutes high action sequences. It is addictively fun.

I can’t play Gears of War at my office, during lunch.

It doesn’t work well when I’m riding the train, either.

Darwinia.

A lot of my favorite moments from World of Warcraft was watching a progress bar fill up while I crafted some mystical item.

Crafting does not require a 3d engine.

People still love comic books. I mean, they never even got past sprites.

Agile Development doesn’t need a big team.

Use Cases > Feature Sets > Mockups > Products

Welcome to 2007! I’d say that it promises to be a big year for Iterative Games, but that’s cliche and completely unsatisfying. So let’s be detailed. 2007 marks the year that Iterative Games grows up from being a little modding team to a full fledged development studio.

Let me state: Our goal for 2007 is to release a standalone commercial title. I’m not releasing any details yet, but this is the goal for the upcoming year.

I’m also resolving that UETF Chronicles, as it stands, will not be our top priority for 2007. There will most be another release of UETF Chronicles for UT2004, but it will be primarily to stress test for the standalone title.

I just want to write here that I really believe that this team is ready to go big; I’ve worked probably 10 years for this moment, and for the first time in my life I believe that my team really has what it takes to make it. I would tell everyone to keep a very close eye on this blog in 2007, because big things are going to happen.

Well - it’s been an exciting hiatus. I’ve driven thousands of miles, spent almost half a day in airports, been in 4 different cities , beaten Gears of War twice, and have managed to in general just ignore Iterative Games like the redheaded stepchild in the basement. In the elapsed time period, I finished my 24th orbit of the sun, which marks the 24th year that I have NOT been the lead developer of a profitable game studio. But - enough with the crap. Time to get down to business.

I’d like to publicly announce the next step in the development of the yet un-released “UETF Chronicles: Full Company” - the 500 slot closed Beta. Our current internal beta has a total of 10 accounts, leaving 490 slots to fill by the end of the year. It’s not going to be easy; there is a lot of work that still needs to happen, but it’s a critical step to supporting a real public release. Plus, it gives anyone who is reading this post an exclusive chance to get their name in early to reserve a slot.

So if you want to reserve your slot NOW, here is what you need to do:

You’ll need a copy of UT 2004, patched to the latest version with Bonus Pack 1. I will post links to where you can get all these things (you’ll have to buy UT2k4).

Send an e-mail to keewon@iterativegames.com. Make sure you include “UETF Chronicles: Full Company Closed Beta” in the subject

Include the username and password you would like to use for your account.

You may request to be placed on the same server as another tester. Servers will have a 20 person cap. We will try to fufill server requests but can’t promise you’ll be placed with all the testers you request.

Send the e-mail and wait for your confirmation. The confirmation e-mail will include all the information you need to get started. As stated above, expect this to happen toward the end of December - there’s a lot of work to be done yet!

Anyway - let’s get those requests coming. The sooner my inbox gets swamped, the better! Keep in mind we will fill the servers on a first come, first serve basis.

At 12 AM last night we officially completed our mod entry to the 2007 IGF competition. The past week has been one of the flat-out busiest of my life…8 hours of work on top of unknown multitudes of mod hours, averaging about 3.5 hours of sleep. Has it been worth it? Totally. I’m very pleased with the latest build of UETF Chronicles, and I hope our IGF juges will be as well.

But enough of the fluff; My educated guess would be you’re not on this page to pay homage to my rhetoric. In my omnipresent wisdom, I would guess your though patterns are more akin to:

“What have you been working on, and vastly more important, when can I play it??”

You won’t like my answer. I promise not to say, When it’s done. That being said, we’re trying to give you a product you will enjoy playing, instead of having you burning effigies of me when our software crashes and destroys your UT install (totally hypothetical situation).

So, in my role as your develoment demagogue, here is the free bread I share with the masses to keep you blissfully ignorant of our actual development situation. Ladies & Gents, I proudly present - the Official description for the 2007 IGF entry for UETF Chronicles:

Please provide a thorough description of the mod, including genre, overview of mod play, background storyline, etc.

The UETF Chronicles is our attempt to introduce a unique new type of game-play, combining fast co-operative FPS game-play with MMO RPG elements. Our goal is to create a universe where a small group of players can have fun playing together in a co-operative environment. Much like an intramural sports league, we want to create an environment where every player, regardless of skill or time invested, has a chance to have a great time with the rest of the team.

We hope you enjoy your experience in the UETF universe and hope to see you on our servers soon.

See? You totally forgot what I was talking about at the beginning of this excerpt.

Well, we’re into the 3 week crunch, and we are grinding hard. I’d love to tell you that all I need to do now is send out the beta invites…but it might be a little longer. Just a tad. Anyway, even though I haven’t had time to scare up new media, but I will send you the 50 word teaser description for our IGF entry:

The United Earth Tactical Force Chronicles tells the story of an elite cybernetic unit created to defend Earth against nightmare legions of mechanical enemies. Players will be able to control and develop these heroes in co-operative battles against computer AI in a series of campaigns stored in a persistent universe.

Pretty standard…except that little italicized part at the end. Yeah, I know it’s not much, but it’ll give you a little to chew on until we can pass out some real media.

Random fun - so although I’ve worked with the Unreal Engine for a while, it’s still hard to develop an exact feel for how big an “unreal unit” actually is. Case in point: I was working on making a powerful “heavy explosive charge” weapon last night. I set the size of the explosion to 1000 units, set it to inflict 500 points of damage, then tossed the charge into the middle of a crowd of robots. The results were unspectacular…I managed to not kill any of the enemies. Determined to remedy the problem, I set the explosion size to 2000 units and 800 points of damage (Keep in mind that doubling the number actually cubically increases the kill volume). I tossed the charge down and ran away to what I felt was a good safe distance and waited for the fireworks. The resulting explosion vaporized the entire attacking bot squad, then proceeded to kill me, blow off my leg and send my mutilated body flying a good 200 feet backward. Thank god I don’t actually make explosives for a living.